Grateful and humbled to hear the news today that “This Is Where We’ll Build the Labyrinth” has been named an Official Selection for the 2023 Bloomsday Film Festival and will receive its world premiere screening in Dublin, Ireland between June 12 – 16.
Thank you to the Bloomsday Film Festival and thank you to everyone who played a part in making this short film.
We’re hanging out for a long weekend in Bastia, the second biggest city in Corsica. Our hotel, A Casa Reale, is on the second floor of a building dating back to 1700. Napoleon once stayed here. Flaubert once dined here. Yes, that’s how we roll.
The hotel is beautifully renovated, though every piece of furniture, except maybe the coffee machine and the toaster, are relics of bygone eras. The piano in the common room looks like something Mozart might have played (if he ever came to Corsica). Everything about this place oozes history, except for the plumbing, thankfully.
A Casa Reale is in the old town, thirty minutes from the airport. Our taxi driver gestured toward the horizon at one point to tell us we could see Elba on a clearer day. He also apologized for the traffic and for driving us through an ugly industrial area. “We’ll arrive somewhere nice soon,” he assured RL in French.
When learning where we’re from, he erupted with a massive “Sannnnn Frannnnnciscooooo,” sounding like something a soccer play-by-play commentator might howl when his team scores a World-Cup-winning goal.
Upon arriving at Flaubert’s hotel (that’s what I’m calling it now), we uncorked the complimentary bottle of Corsican wine and gazed out at the view of the port from our room. For dinner, we found our way to a restaurant called Grazie Mille. I’m no foodie, but the pistachio-encrusted sea bass with limoncello-soaked orange slices was fricking amazing.
Praise be to Neptune that we were inside the restaurant when a prodigious hailstorm began to pelt the cobblestones where Flaubert and Napoleon once walked. Grazie mille, indeed.
It’s morning now. The rain is gone, and I’m sitting on the terrace at A Casa Reale, watching a ferry depart for Sardinia. A church bell signals the hour, power tools chip away at the concrete at a nearby renovation, children laugh and play on the narrow street below, and the wind whips off the Tyrrhenian Sea, causing the clothes hanging from a line on a building across the way to flutter and dance.
Our first stop today will be the tourist office to figure out a plan for the next three days, though I’m happy to sit here and watch the clothes dry in the sun.
March 25, 2023 – It was a wonderful night at The Lost Church in San Francisco when Jules Leyhe and I played together live for the first time. Thanks to The Lost Church … and to Jules … and to the amazing people who came from near and far. As one audience member said, it was “a beautiful performance.” I’m a bit biased, but I agree 100%.
SET 1: Come on Over, Hello Thelonious, Eyes Wide Shut, Alcatraz, Rock n Roll Oasis, Celluloid Dream, Notorious, Chernobyl’s Been on My Mind, Don’t Forget to Pack Your Hand Grenade, Every Morning (by Keb Mo), E Is for Elephant
SET 2: Remembrance (Jules Instrumental), Nobody But You, I Heard the News, You Never Know, Sea of Tranquility, A Blackbird Flies, Speak Your Mind, Tell It like It Is
Huge thanks to Richard Osborn for taking tons of amazing photographs. Here are just a few.
I’m very excited to announce an upcoming show with the fantastic Jules Leyhe on March 25, 2023 at The Lost Church in San Francisco (new North Beach location). Come on down and check it out!
RL and I visited Joshua Tree last year. Always an inspirational place. And in the spirit of that inspiration, I wrote a few songs … including this one.
Huge thanks to Jules Leyhe for hanging out with me in the Rock-n-Roll Oasis. If you haven’t checked out this talented guitarist (and all-around super-nice dude), now’s the time … and the time is now.
Check out the video of our performance here.
Fun fact: I get power from my Patti Smith “Horses” scarf.
Thanks to the San Francisco Arthouse Short film festival for naming “Then Came the Firestorm” as their Best Covid Film for January 2023.
It seems like it was so long ago when I ventured into the empty city streets with my iPhone to film scenes from another world. But wait… it wasn’t another world. It was our world, wracked by the pandemic that lingers still.
I was happy to sneak in a last day in the studio in 2022. So long to you, and hello to 2023.
Thanks to Jules Leyhe (guitar), Marty Izenson (sax), and Danielle Goldsmith (audio engineer) for helping to make it a fun and productive day at Tiny Telephone Recording studio.
The hours flew by so fast (at least I thought so).
(Photos: RL)
Only 371 shopping days until next Christmas. Dinner isn’t served. But Breakfast and Lunch are always available. Get ‘em while they’re hot at your favorite online bookseller. Bite-sized literary morsels for the brain are good for the holidays or anydays.
Super fun to see my short animated film “Don’t Forget to Pack Your Hand Grenade” on the big screen at the 4 Star Theatre… thanks to Another Hole in the Head Film Festival for the fun event and Q&A session.
After seeing so many movie theaters shut down over the years, it’s wonderful to see the 4 Star back in business.
If you missed it on the big screen… Another Hole in the Head Film Festival 2022 plays online until Dec 18. You can watch “Don’t Forget to Pack Your Hand Grenade” as part of the Strictly Local 3 group of films.
After being closed for more than two years, the 4 Star Theater in San Francisco is back with new owners. That’s cool AF.
And to make things even cooler, my “Don’t Forget to Pack Your Hand Grenade” music video is featured in the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival during the theater’s re-opening weekend (in the 3PM slot on Dec 11).
Come and get some popcorn!
Boom. Boom. Boom.
