Confessions of the Starving Artist - 3/20/08

"It got to where
we went around
calling each other freaks..."

Freakin' Friday.

What do you say about a duo named the Freakin' Ricans. Freakin' awesome. Yeah. Jorge Caraballo and Nick Morales covered more ground than the Erie Lackawanna. Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Allman Brothers, Rice-Webber, Rice-John, Beatles, Bowie - and Elliott Glick. Who the hell is Elliott Glick? On Friday, March 14, they did "Sweet Melissa," "Young Americans," "Across the Universe." For me, of course, there were highlights to the evening. These guys took my song, "I've Been Told," and played it to the room. Life is good! THeir take on it was wonderful. So they finished their act and, of course, they got an encore. These guys do "Gethsemane" from Jesus Christ Superstar. I was Jesus in this play in an amateur production years ago, and it took me weeks in before I would even do it at rehearsals. Jorge nailed it cold. I wondered why they saved a show stopper like this for the encore. What if they didn't get one? I now understand. How could they follow this? It had to be last. I can't wait to see them again - on Friday, May 23. Hope you're there!

Saturday night, March 15, was supposed to be another awesome performer. Nicola was all set to play this weekend. We all looked forward to it, especially Uncle Bill. Saturday morning I get a call from her saying she has pneumonia and a 102 degree fever. She sounded terrible. She was about to cry because she has never cancelled a show in all these years. She is a professional. I wished her a speedy recovery and I hope she's better by the time of this post. We love you, Nik. (And she'll be back at Starving Artist on Saturday, May 3, to help us celebrate our 11th anniversary on City Island, New York, and for a CD release party for her!) So what do we do when an act cancels? We get trivial. All the tables at the Artist have Trivial Pursuit cards on them, as well as pickup sticks, dominoes, playing cards, etc. We have on our bookshelves, chess, checkers, Scrabble, and more. Inter-table Trivial Pursuit soon turned into a large group of teams. Among the players were SAC&G regulars Bob and Mary Lou Lachman, Frank and Cheryl Koller, Babette Martin, Myla Martin, Elliot Sarlo and Jane - Hannah's friend Jordan's grandmother. Other tables and myself and Uncle Bill put our two cents in. (Question for question the Babette-Myla team were tops in answers!) Corned beef and cabbage was on the menu. It turned into one of those memorable evenings at the Artist. It's one of the great things about the Starving Artist that anything can happen and nothing has to at all. You can even just have a coffee and read (or buy) one of our many used books - and that's good too.

Sunday, March 16, was our St. Patrick's Day celebration. We had more corned beef and cabbage (I've had my fill now) and played Irish music on the stereo. We even had a pot o'gold - although it was green. From the pot o'gold you could pick beads (green), shamrock face stickers (green) and shot glasses (green). We had the green thing covered. The afternoon went smoothly and in the evening we had family dinner and went home fairly early for a change. The end of another great work cycle. Life is good!

Watch our calendar on our website for the return of the Freakin' Ricans (May 23) and Nicola (May 3). "Click on Glick" at Neil Young's Living With War Web Site (#113 - Baby This One's For You; #116 - Bitter Tears). If you have a MySpace, by all means friend me. And remember to come in, and live right! Happy Spring!

Elliott Glick