E.O.S.

More and more, it seems that people are looking for solutions on the internet that will allow them to do more of what they want or need to do, from one place, rather than from multiple.  

It's perfectly logical, really.

As our lives are becoming more complicated, and there are more things for us all to have to divert our attention to, it only makes sense that we would try and find efficiency, simplicity, and maybe even a more fun way of doing things.

Hmmm.

Efficiency...

Simplicity...

Fun...

Well, as it turns out, there's a little something that I've been working on that will bring efficiency, simplicity and fun to doing something that previously required visiting multiple sites and doing a bunch of Google searches.

It's something I'm excited about.

It's something that will change how certain things are done.

It's something some really smart folks and I developed that has the initials "E", "O", "S".

What is "EOS"?

Hold that thought!

Whaling Museum

Whales are such incredible creatures!  Aside from the enormous size of some species, the fact that they live in an environment so different than ours as humans, and that one species (the Sperm Whale) is thought to be capable of diving nearly 2 miles down into the ocean depths, had led me towards the path of Marine Biology in college.  However, I switched my major during the second semester of my sophomore year. 

Lately, I find that the interest I had in whales earlier in my life has been returning.  Though it's too late for me to study Marine Biology and then specialize in Cetology, I would like to still take some small part in the public education of these amazing animals.

In a town called Cold Spring Harbor, on Long Island, that's about an hour away from where I live, there is a whaling museum that has been there forever.  I remember my mother taking me there as a young boy, because she was trying to foster the early interest I had in whales.  I was made an honorary tour guide that day by the staff, because I was reciting as many facts as the adult guides themselves.

In any case, I have decided that in Summer of 2013, I would like to volunteer some time at the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum and see if I can't help bring some interesting information to adult visitors, and the excitement of discovery to some kids.

Hopefully, my schedule will definitely allow for me to volunteer.  And, if everything works out, maybe I'll see you down there for a visit!

5 Survival Tips for Disasters

In the wake of Super Storm Sandy, which swept through the east coast of the United States, I wanted to share 5 survival tips. They are simple, common sense points that I hope may help people stay safe and make it through any future disasters.  The 5 survival tips are mentioned in the video above.

Maintaining Weight Loss...1 Year Later

Up until October of 2010 I looked like the image on the left.  I weighed in at 285 lbs during the period that I was at my heaviest.  I then began a gradual modification of my diet, eventually added some exercise, and by October of 2011 I looked like the image on the right, which is me at 205 lbs.

The thing is, the image on the right isn't from 2011, it is from 2012.  In other words, I have beat the odds!

It's widely known that people who lose a great deal of weight often put it, or much more, back on.  I have managed to maintain my weight loss and the secret is encompassed within the first paragraph of this post.  Notice I used the words "gradual modification" and "eventually added".

The simple fact of the matter is, losing weight and keeping it off does indeed require a change in lifestyle.  And, lifestyles can't be changed abruptly and be expected to not revert back to what was previously established.  Changes that are made slowly and over time are far more likely to stay.

With that said, if you are looking to lose weight and maintain that loss, I offer you the blog post I wrote that details what I did to lose my weight.  And, heed my words..."gradually" and "eventually"!

The Challenge of Facing a Career Change

More people than ever are changing their careers.  Though the primary reason may be because of the state of the world economy in the past few years, other reasons could be simply feeling unhappy with one's current career and desiring a change of scenery, or it could even be health related.

In my case, it is the latter that has changed the game for me.

As a musician, my hands mean everything towards what I do and how I earn a living.  But now, I'm faced with having developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in both my left and my right hands.

I think for some people, changing their career can be a very difficult challenge.  For me this has not been the situation.  I first began having problems with my hands (it was my left hand first) back in 2008.  With those initial problems I encountered, something snapped instantly in my mind.  I realized that my days as a performer may be numbered, and so I set forth with trying to make peace with this realization.

I was a bit depressed at first.  After all, in my 39 years on this planet, I have been playing instruments since I was about 3 years old, playing the saxophone since I was 8 or 9 years old, performing live music in public since I was 16, and making a living as a full time musician since I was 24.

Sometime around 2009 I realized that, though music has been virtually all I've known my entire life, I have many interests outside of music.  Furthermore, I also realized that there were far more angles to music than just the performance end of it.

With all of that said, I have decided that, if my performance career must end, a pursuit in web design and application programming will be the next interest I follow, but with a concentration on...well...the music industry.  As has been said by many successful entrepreneurs, "to make money in business, stick with what you know."

I am currently working on a joint project, of my conception, with my oldest brother, my father, and a family friend with a very strong background in both business and engineering.  Much has been accomplished, but there is still much left to do.  My hope is that we may have this project up and running by the time my hands and my tired body scream out "I've had enough", with regards to performing live music.  Publicly, I have hinted at a retirement date of sometime around late Fall of 2013.

In sum, I would say that a career change doesn't have to be a course filled with dread.  It may be an opportunity for you to look upon yourself and say, "this is me 2.0!"

My Theory About How To Achieve a Successful Career in Music

So, here's the big question...is it possible to make a living as a musician?


Without hesitation, my answer is a flat out yes. I have been a full time musician now since 1998 and I have managed to make a middle class living with it. But, this has not come without a price.


First of all, there is the fact that I have next to no social life at all. The reason? I spend so much time either researching opportunities for performances, or actually performing that, when I finally do have some rare free time, all I want to do is either sleep or spend a little time with my family.

Secondly, there are the rigors that my body must constantly go through. There are many late nights and, with a young daughter to raise, very early mornings. This means that I the average amount of nightly sleep I'm able to get is far below what most people experience (I average about 4 hours to 5 hours of sleep a night). I have little down time because I must constantly be doing things to keep the ball rolling. Not to mention, some of the harsh environmental conditions I have been submitted to...ie, doing high energy outdoor shows in blazing 100 degree weather, with little time to hydrate or even eat because of the lack of time available to set up. The list goes on and on.

Before I go any further, I would like to make PERFECTLY CLEAR that I am NOT complaining. I am simply trying to enlighten those who do not understand what it takes to do this for a living. I lovingly call these folks "civilians".


Now, I would like to get to the point of this blog post, which is to share my thoughts as to what I feel it now takes to have a successful career in music, especially in this new millennium and digital age that we are in. I feel that there are several ingredients or "conditions" that must exist. They are as follows:

1. 
   
   
   
   You must start young - This is true for ANY musical genre. And, it is gravely important in regards to achieving a highly proficient level on your instrument of choice. This is because if you want to be purely a performer, you are going to spend so much time looking for opportunities that you will find time for practicing rapidly being eaten away.
   




2. 
   
   
   
   You must be able to put a team of people around you - In other words, you will need to think in terms of being a small business and find a way to acquire someone to eventually take care of the researching of venues and performance opportunities, someone to handle certain aspects of your marketing, someone to do the actual phone calls to get you booked, etc.
   
   I know a ton of musicians who read this will probably roll their eyes, but they CANNOT deny the simple fact that, as long as you must do EVERYTHING yourself, there will always be a ceiling as to how much money you can ever earn. It's simple math...the more time you must use up trying to handle the "back office" end of things, the less time is left for the actual performance end of things. The less you perform, the less money you can earn through performing or selling merchandise during that performance.
   
   By the way, how do you compensate this team of people I'm suggesting you have? Well, that is somewhere where one must use the creativity that we are born with as artists, because that money isn't going to be there in the beginning.
   




3. 
   
   
   
   You must become well established and reach a certain level of success by your late 20's - This is another thing that I think a lot of musicians are going to roll their eyes at me about, but I will hold fast in my opinion. The reason I state this is because, as one gets older, and certainly by their mid to late 20's, one will have more financial responsibilities. That's just a fact of life. There is no one out there that can tell me that their level of expenditures has not changed and gotten to be more expensive between the ages of 16 and 26.
   
   So, when I say you must reach a certain level of success, I mean that you must reach a point in your career where you can pay ALL of your bills and still have something left over after you have done so. If you can't do that, then it is time to look at doing something else with your life before you reach your 30's and start to have to worry about even more complicated things like a significant other, or kids, or a house....you get the point.
   




4. 
   
   
   
   You must master time management - I think this one is obvious! Even if you can find other people to take care of some of the other things that you must do, as I mentioned in #2, there are still so many things left to do that you will still have to take care of yourself.
   




5. 
   
   
   
   You must master technology - If you are a musician (or any type of artist) and you don't have a BETTER than average command/knowledge of the internet, computers, social networking, etc. you might as well pack it all in now.
   




6. 
   
   
   
   You must have some sort of game plan - I don't care how many different ways you can say this, but it is simply a fact that if you don't know where you want your destination to be, you can't possibly find a route there!
   




7. 
   
   
   
   You must have a drive that is so strong that it borderlines on fanaticism - This is such an important ingredient! Music and the arts in general are so challenging to make a living at and be successful that I feel that you actually need to be a little bit "crazy" to do it. There are so many factors that are constantly working against you, and you will face so much rejection, and so many people telling you that this or that can't be done (most notably, even some of your closest relatives), that you honestly must have the absolute strongest of convictions to stay the course.
   

So, certainly I think most of the musicians who read this will think I'm full of it or don't know what I'm talking about. But, as I was careful to mention at the top of all of this, this is MY theory or opinion.


Of course, any of this could be completely offset if one were to get super lucky, be discovered or signed to some sort of big record deal. However, these are simply not likely scenarios. The overwhelming majority of musicians and artists out there are "D.I.Y." (Do It Yourself).


So why am I writing all of this?


I'm not doing this to vent my frustrations...I'm not frustrated! I'm doing this because (A) I think "civilians" need to have a better understanding of those of us out there who are serious about what we are doing as artists and that we are not all flakes, as is commonly perceived, and (B) if a young person should happen to stumble upon this blog, and actually take the time to read all of this, I want them to know the honest truth about what being a musician really means...especially if you want to actually make a living at it.


This is not for everybody and it most certainly is not a game. And even if it were a game, this would be chess, not checkers!

by Shenole Latimer

New Life for "Shenole Latimer.Com"!

Since October of 2010, I've been saying that I was working on an updated version of my website and that it would be launched "soon".

Well, 8 months later I'm finally on the threshold of the relaunch of www.shenolelatimer.com . To find out more, check out the video for some details and I'll see you at the relaunch!

By Shenole Latimer

Announcing My New Video Blog!

Back in April, 2010, while I was on tour up and down the east coast, my cell phone received a software update that enabled it to record video and upload it onto YouTube or Facebook. I suddenly found myself with a way to chronicle my experiences as a musician, and as a regular guy with a wife and a daughter, so that I could share some behind the scenes stuff with my fans.

I began recording short video blogs, or vlogs as they are often referred to, and posting them onto my YouTube channel. Though my friends at YouTube, and the fans on my email mailing list, knew about the video posts fairly quickly, I didn't realize until just a few days ago that I have never made an official announcement that I now have a video blog...so now I am.

Ladies and gentlemen, fans and friends, I now have a video blog!!!! You can visit my video blog by clicking the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/ricimusic#g/c/A09CC7C3DEF974CC




by Shenole Latimer

Look...DON'T TOUCH (The Musician's Universal Plea)

A couple of weeks ago, I had an experience that has put me on a personal crusade to educate people about musicians and their equipment.

Now first of all, if you are a fan of mine, I hope that you will not take offense to this statement, but people simply don't have a single clue as to how expensive our equipment is and why nobody, other than the musician who owns it, should ever bother trying to touch ANY OF IT! So, with that said, here's what happened a couple of weeks ago.

I was in the auditorium of a library and was setting my gear up because I had one of my educational presentations that I do. It was still at least 30 minutes before the program was suppose to start, and I was pretty much finished setting up, when two ladies walked in. We then struck up a conversation. Eventually, the conversation went more towards just one of the ladies, while the other walked away. Something told me to look in the direction of the woman who had walked away. And, it's a good thing that I did! I was horrified to see the second woman proceed to grab my alto saxophone by the neck in order to pick it up off of the sax stand that I had it placed on. I immediately started yelling, "no, no, no!"

I arrived just in time to grab my sax from her before she could fully lift it up. By the time I reached my sax, I was actually fuming mad because I had just spent $500 getting extensive and much needed work done on it. At the same time, I was trying to stay polite and in control of my overall reaction. The lady then told me that she only wanted to look at it and that she knew what she was doing because her father had been a musician. Her comment almost made me loose it because, if she had indeed grown up around a PROFESSIONAL musician, surely one of the first things she should have learned was DON'T TOUCH. Besides, he may have dabbled with music, but was he a FULL-TIME, PROFESSIONAL musician like me? As I always say, "just because you can screw in a light bulb, it doesn't make you an electrician. "

More to the point of things, it was MY equipment that she was handling and I simply DO NOT LIKE people touching my stuff without my permission.

Still trying to keep my composure, I went on to explain that my sax was not a cheap beginner's model and that I depended on it for my livelihood. I then politely clued her in that she didn't actually know as much as she thought she did, because she was about to pick the sax up in the worse manner that you could possibly pick a saxophone up by. The neck is a separate piece from the body of the sax and can be very easily separated, even after applying the screw for the clamp that holds it in place. In other words, she would have picked the sax up by the neck, the body of the sax would have detached and fallen on the ground, and I would have been looking at anywhere between $500 - $1,500 worth of damage. Experience has taught me that, once an instrument falls to the ground, it NEVER plays quite the same ever again, no matter how much money you dump into getting it repaired.

The end result is that I managed to get her to understand the situation.

As for the public at large, people simply have no idea the worth of musician's instruments. Between the 5 saxophones that I own ( 2 altos, 2 sopranos, and a rare C melody sax), I'm looking at around $23,000. And that's just my saxophones! If you add up all of the equipment that I own for the purposes of making my living in music, the grand total is just under $41,000. Believe it or not, that isn't even on the more expensive end of things regarding what some professional musicians have spent on their gear. Todd Coolman, the esteemed bassist who was my first jazz instructor at Stony Brook University and is currently the head of the SUNY (State University of New York) at Purchase Jazz Program once confided in me that his prized bass, which is the one he uses on important gigs and recording sessions, is worth about $85,000. He uses a different bass that is worth (I think I remember him saying) about $12,000 for most of his other gigs.

Anyway, the point of all of this isn't to just give you a tally of how much we spend on our instruments and gear. The simple fact is that you should NEVER handle a musician's gear, period. It isn't even your stuff to handle in the first place! Look...DON'T TOUCH!

written by Shenole Latimer

Fan Feedback Paving the Way!

Those close to me know that I'm always tinkering with stuff and trying to come up with new things to do. Lately, I've been trying to come up with some new things for all of the wonderful people who take the time to read my blog rantings, come to my performances, and purchase my music...you know...I'm talking about you fan folks out there!

As usual, I have been paying close attention to the feedback I get from my email newsletters, comments made to me in person, so on and so forth. And let me tell you, there have been some really good ideas thrown at me. In fact, I liked them so much that I'm actually going to incorporate ALL of them!

Here are just three of the suggestions and things you can expect to see implemented within the first few weeks of 2010:

• Create a Tool Bar - I'm currently testing out my very own tool bar that my fans can download and attach to their web browser. The "Shenole Latimer Tool Bar" will have feeds for my news updates, performance calendar/alerts, google powered search engine, and some other goodies. The information is brought to the tool bar in real time. So, as soon as I post a performance or a news item, you will receive the information on the tool bar, without cluttering up your email inbox.
  



• Provide RSS Feeds - Both the tool bar and RSS feed ideas were ones suggested to me as an alternative option for fans who may want to keep up with what I'm doing, but not be on my email list because they already receive so much email from other sources. Or, because they don't always have time to visit my website, blog, facebook, myspace, etc.
  
  An RSS feed, for those who don't know, is just a way to subscribe to and receive content that you like to read, without needing to spend the time visiting those particular websites that they come from. Instead, the RSS feed (stands for Real Simple Syndication) sends you any new postings.
  



• Interactive Map on My Website - This is a fun one! Someone had commented to me that they thought it would be cool if I had a map showing where all of my appearances are so that fans can get a sense of all the different places I travel to.
  
  So, I have set about marking off all of my 2010 performances and appearances on a dedicated google map that will be posting on the events page of my website in the beginning of January, 2010. The map will be interactive in that you can zoom in and out on any location, click on a marker to find out a little bit about that particular appearance, and even get directions directly to any location that you select.
  
  I think I will have it on satellite view so that you can have fun seeing what each location actually looks like.

In addition to implementing these ideas and suggestions, I would also like to perform a number of tweaks on my website. Mostly, these tweaks have to do with the inconsistency with how my website appears on different web browsers. In other words, people who use AOL see it differently than the people who use Internet Explorer older than 7.0, who in turn see it differently than the people who use Firefox, and so on.

Things are simply not as easy when it comes to website design as they were even just 2 or 3 years ago. With the introduction of all the new web browser releases designed to take advantage of the potential of Web 2.0, it's becoming much more difficult (or at least I'm finding it that way) to come up with "universally accepted" website designs.

Well, time to bring this blog post to a close. Thanks for all of your feedback and suggestions. Keep them coming!

Important Changes for My Email List

As of December, 2009, because of the wonderful feedback I consistantly get from the incredible fans that I have on my email list, I will be changing the way I send out my email blasts. There will be 2 types of emails that fans will receive from me in the future:

• My monthly "Email Blast" that will stay in a newsletter format that lets fans know what is new with me in general.


• An email called "Shenole Appearing Near You" that will go out to fans who live within a 2 mile radius from the zip code of where I'll be performing or making an appearance (10 mile radius for special events such as big concerts).
  

However, in order for this new system to work, I need to ask a favor of fans who are either on the email list now, or plan to sign up in the future. It's important for everyone to supply me with their zip code and their first name, along with their email address. You can very easily do that by visiting the following link:

http://shenole.fanbridge.com/



I'm hoping that I'm not causing an inconvenience to my fans. The good news is that, by fans doing this little 10 - 20 second chore, I'll be able to better serve everyone and save my valuable fans from getting performance notifications for any of my appearances that will not be in their immediate area.

Time for New Wheels?

When I was younger, I HATED big cars. I thought they were clunky, awkward, and just plain ugly. When SUVs came onto the market, I didn't like them too much either. But, at least they seemed more "logical" to me.

These days, I find myself actually wanting either a big car, SUV, or...gasp...a van! The simple fact of the matter is that my wife and I need the room. Even though we only have one kid, it just amazes me how much stuff we end up bringing with us on an outing. Then there's what I do for a living and the equipment I have to haul around.

It's funny, because I'm a saxophonist. In theory, all I should ever really need to bring to a gig is my sax, sax stand, a mic, and a mic stand. And, it's even arguable if I need to bring the mic and mic stand. But, the problem is that I'm also a band leader and that changes the game all together!

So anyway, there is a third factor that figures into my wanting to get a bigger vehicle for the family and for my gigging purposes. I just can't move and fit into small cars the way I used to. My knees have been giving me problems since around my late twenties. And, now it's getting more and more difficult for me to have to get down into a small car and stuff my 6'3" frame into cars that are really designed for people up to 6'. Trust me, those 3 extra inches REALLY make a difference!

I guess when Renee and I can finally hack our way through this financial jungle-like entanglement that we're in, our first order of business will be to get a hold of some wheels that will fit our needs better. It will be nice to actually be able to see out of my back window when I have to bring extra gear to a gig. Not to mention, it sure will be a good thing when we won't have to worry about what to sacrifice bringing during a family outing. But, the nicest thing for me will be the ability to drive for more than 20 minutes without my knees feeling like someone is hitting them with a hammer!

Online Communities

I've been keeping pretty busy lately and haven't been able to get away to leave a post in a spell. My initial, unspoken goal of putting up a blog post at least 3 or 4 times a week has evaporated! The fact of the matter is that there are just so many lines of communication that I have open, it's getting tough to keep track of all of them.

As of this moment, in addition to trying to keep this blog up to date, I'm also trying to keep my website current, I have a monthly email blast to construct on an ongoing basis, and I'm on all of the "big 3" social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. Not to mention I have a Youtube account that is painfully neglected. Most of my attempts to stay on top of all of these different sights are thwarted by my normal, day to day activities of being a dad, trying to keep our house from falling on top of us (or just plain trying keep the house at all!), so on and so on.

One thing I have to say about all these social networking sites is that they have been great in getting me in contact with friends and relatives who I have not seen in a very long time. In fact, an old childhood friend of mine recently contacted me who I don't believe I've seen since perhaps 2nd or 3rd grade! I also get to talk to a few of my close friends that I don't get to see in person very much because of my performance schedule, or our respective family lives.

My venturing into the social networking scene was somewhat calculated. I first joined Myspace a couple of years ago as a marketing experiment. I learned a few things from that experience, but mostly that it is an over saturated media to try and get your voice heard as a musician. It seems that everybody and their grandmother is trying to promote their band on Myspace, making the whole experience a little overbearing.

Facebook was my next move. Oddly enough, I didn't join because I wanted to market myself. My first objective was to find a lost family member that I had evidence showing that he may be a Facebook member. My second objective, and less important to me at the time, was to try and find a booking agent that I had been told about.

The result was that the person who I thought was a long lost family member wasn't who I thought he was (the search continues), and the booking agent turned out to not actually be a member of Facebook. However, the booking agent's name was very similar to the name of an old friend and former girlfriend of mine and caused her name to come up in the search results. It lead me to the discovery of someone I had not seen in something like 15 years or so. In fact, my wife and I just recently had dinner with her and her husband. We all had a great time and she and my wife really hit it off!

So anyway, I guess online communities are cool and all because you can keep in touch with people that you may not be able to keep in touch with through other more "traditional" means, but it sure is a handful juggling your attention between them!

Swing Back Home

What a trip/tour! The gigs I had down here with the Gail Storm Band was nothing short of killin'! Without fail, we brought down the house in every venue we have played at, and every last owner wants us back...and soon!

The past year with Gail has shown me that if anything, we have all the ingredients of being a very successful group because we apparently have that "something" that touches people. That is a rare thing for a band to have, and I don't think it's entirely the music in our case. I believe that "something" is the chemistry between us and how much fun we have playing together. It's something that everybody comments on.

So anyway, this will be a very short blog because we (my wife Renee and I) are only minutes away from needing to check out of this hotel before we get charged extra. We had a lot of fun down here. The south certainly swings! But now it's time to swing back home and hit the groove of our normal day to day situation. But one thing I know is that we'll be back!

On The Road

I have forgotten how tiring it can be doing gigs on the road. The past few days I have been on the road with the Gail Storm Blues Band down in the south. My wife Renee was able to join me and we have turned it into a working vacation of sorts.

Right this moment I'm in our hotel room in Hendersonville, North Carolina getting ready for the gig the band has in Asheville. This area is gorgeous, as it's in the Blue Ridge Mountains! Unfortunately, with scheduling the way it is, Renee and I haven't had any time at all to check out what's around.

We had an interesting gig last night at the Brown Street Club in Greenville, South Carolina. We definitely turned the place out! The owner had never hired a band from New York before and judging by how much he, his staff, and venue patrons were raving about us, there's no doubt that he'll be having us back when we swing down here again in about 6 months or so.

Gail hired a local drummer name Kris Hyatt to play with us because her regular drummer Bernice couldn't make it down here. Kris was great and definitely represented Greenville well...he handled all of Gail's weird cues like he had been playing with her for a few years!

The only negative thing is that I don't think it was cool that the Brown Street Club didn't take care of dinner for us. I felt that was rude considering that every other place in or out of the state of New York that we have ever played at gives us a meal, and also because: A) they had people driving Ferraris coming into the place and B) the place was packed!

Tonight we will be at Tessa's Jazz and Blues Club in Asheville, North Carolina. After how well we performed last night, I'm really looking forward to tonight's performance. Which reminds me, I have to get going so that I can get ready for this gig!

Lets Hear it for Claritin D12!

Yes, it's finally April! Yes, Spring is here! Yes, warm weather at last! Yes, thank goodness I can finally be joined with my allergies...not!

As a wind instrument player, it sure is frustrating to have to deal with allergies. It messes up absolutely everything: tone, breathing, projection, you name it!

When I was very young, I can remember my allergies were real bad and I learned to just sort of suffer through it. As I got older, a few things happened to help build my lungs up and make my allergies more tolerable. First, I started playing the sax. Then, when I was in 8th grade, I was recruited onto the track team.

My allergies didn't make those things easy at first, but I soon grew strong enough to be able to adapt and still perform well under even those debilitating conditions. Even now, my allergies can get so bad sometimes that I get winded just walking from my front door to my mailbox, which is a distance of only about 40 feet. However, there is one thing that is different for me now than it was when I was a kid...Claritin D12!

It's a wonder drug for me because now, not only can I play my instrument even when there is a lot of pollen out there, I can do other stuff I enjoy like (believe it or not) yard work, or just going to the park with my wife and my daughter. Jeez, did that just sound like a commercial or what! You hear that you folks at Claritin? I want my endorsement contract so that I can afford to go on tour! Yeah, lets hear it for Claritin D12!

Anyway, I just felt like writing all of that because, when I woke up this morning and I couldn't breathe, I immediately went for my Claritin and then felt inspired to write this little blog. Weird, I know, but isn't the point of the whole blog thing to let people in on your thoughts?

My New Page

I've been working double and even triple time trying to get my new website completed. I've been working on it since around November of last year and it's still not done!

Actually, it's not even that the new design is all that complicated. I'm still trying to keep the design relatively simple and free of too much Flash media because I know that there is still a large number of my fans who have computers that are "older" and might not be able to handle some of the new things that you can do with websites. It's just that time has not been an ally of mine...particularly since becoming a father. Not to mention the amount of work I must put in on a daily basis to keep my performance schedule busy enough to pay the bills.

However, I may finally be able to launch the new website within a week. I wanted to have it done before my March 7th performance at Long Island Winterfest, but I think a more realistic target would be a launch by sometime early next week.

I've got the "Fan" section of my website about 95% complete, with only a few loose ends to tie up. There are some nice features that I think will cause visitors to want to come back for more, but I still have to start the design work for the sections that will be dedicated to presenters/booking agents, members of the press, and students. One cool feature I'm going to have in the "Student" section will be a link to my practice log, which is a part of my blog, so that students or curious musicians can see what it is that I find myself needing to practice and how I organize my practice time.

It's been a lot of hard work, but I think I will have a website that I can be proud of when it's all said and done.

Fun Over the Airwaves

I'm just returning from a radio interview I had for WLIU 88.3 FM out of Southampton, NY. It's the first radio interview I've done since this past August and it was sure fun! No doubt because of the liveliness of the hostess, Bonnie Grice, and the quick wit of the other guest...a good friend of mine and a true patron of jazz, Steve Bard.

I haven't spoken to either of them in nearly 2 years, but you would never know that from listening to the interview, which lasted for about 20 minutes and featured a couple of tracks from my CD Front and Center.

It was great to have a chance to crack a couple of jokes and talk about jazz with a couple of first class people who really care about the music.

The interview was scheduled by the organizers of an event I'm performing in called Long Island Winterfest. It's a great event because the people that come are true jazz fans and it helps out both us artists and the vineyards that the event is held in.

Anyway, the interview went very well and the 3 of us shared great chemistry. It certainly helped to put a better light on my day since I am now going on 36 hours with no sleep! I just could not sleep last night and I barely got 2 hours the night before...I'm exhausted! In fact, I think I'll be hitting the sack now and saving my practice time for when I'm a little more coherent.

All This Technomalogical Stuff!

By no means am I a techno-phobe, but man I can't believe how involved this whole blog thing can be. And, for Christ's sake, I'm just getting started with this stuff.

Blogs have been around for like 10 years and all, but I guess I was always afraid to start one because:

1. with all the time it takes to manage my website, facebook, and myspace pages I didn't see how I would have time to do a blog
2. I thought blogs would go out of style by the time I could even really get started with mine
3. I should be practicing my saxophone instead of adding one more thing to my plate of things to maintain
4. I didn't think I could think of anything new to post on a regular basis (life events have since changed my mind!)

Well here I am on the bandwagon...a bit late I suppose, but I'm on! Oh and by the way, welcome to my first post for my new blog "ON THE INSIDE"!