Confessions of the Starving Artist - 5/22/08

I often see things as circles. Sometimes even time itself moves foward in a circular motion. Seven or eight years ago, a young lad came into my shop and asked for guitar lessons. He never played before and had no guitar of his own. He borrowed one and after a few lessons, his parents called to ask if it was worth it to buy a guitar for him. I said he's a natural, and he has hungry desire to learn music. He became one of my best students and stayed for several years. During that time another young guy came in and said, "Do you teach Evan? I want to take lessons too." It seems Evan was playing guitar in the park and had several girls around him. And James saw that and wanted lessons too! I was also that boy, but a long time ago. So now they'r college students and Evan Berent and James McGowan came to take the stage at the Starving Artist on Friday, May 16. They played two eclectic sets to an appreciative audience. They are diamonds, however rough, and they are powerful players. What they lacked in stagecraft - they sang for the first time that night - they made up for in the command of their instruments. Musically they are monsters and they are intuitive in their connection to each other both musically and as friends. They were joined on stage by a friend from college and by fellow City Islander and friend John Valessio. For the final song, they called me up - I'm so proud - to sing and play, "Tombstone Blues." These are my boys.

Here's another circle for you. Once I was playing at a place in Manhattan and on the bill with me was a young pretty gal named Lauren West. What struck me was the maturity of her songs both in content and in structure. Her delivery and stage presence added a "wow" factor to her act. Well, I signed her up to play the Artist Saturday night, May 17, and she took the stage and wowed us all. Here was the same endearing, real life personality playing real life songs. And she tells you quite freely the origins of each song. This girl should front her own kick-ass band. You'll see her again.

You know by now how I like to spend my Sunday afternoons listening to live music. You can sleep through breakfast, get up late, come to SAC&G, eat a big meal and sip a beverage listening to live music. Especially jazz. On City Island we have our own Jazz Quartet. I know this because they are called the City Island Jazz Quartet. Really they are like the house band, the home team. And they are good. Just the right combination of hot and cool. Roger Scala plays sax. Gene Zilempe plays Fender bass. Sal Moluzzo plays drums, and yes, it's Lou Volpe on guitar. Lou drove allnight from a gig in D.C. He showered and ran to the Artist, plugged in and played two hours or more - all with no sleep. They were great, hitting all the right grooves. They were joined this Sunday by guest artist Freddie "Flip" Lando and City Island's Skippy on vocals, and jazz drummer CJ Everett, a friend of Lou's. That's how I like to spend Sunday afternoon. Yeah.

This week I received an e-mail from a mathematician. This e-mail addressed the price of gasoline. Not buying gas one day a week will not do anything. You'll surely get gas the day before or the day after and it won't bother the gas companies one iota. But if we boycott Exxon Mobil and no one buys gas from them, they will feel it. You can buy as much gas as you always do, just not from Exxon Mobil. Eventually they will have to reduce the price to entice you back. The other companies will have to lower theirs to compete. We can start a price war and eventually bring the price back down to $1.75 per gallon. Remember that? When I started driving gas was 45 cents a gallon. Tell at least 10 people and e-mail everyone on your list. Pass it on to your friends and co-workers and MySpace friends. We can do this. We have the power; we just need to get ourselves together. Some of you remember the lettuce boycott. It worked. Tell everyone you know to not buy Exxon Mobil gass. It will take time and solidarity, but it will work. Buy any gas you want, just not Exxon or Mobil. By the way their profit for the quarter was $11 billion. Five years ago, that was their profit for the year!

That's it for this week's Starving blogster. Click the links. "Click on Glick" at Neil Young's Living With War Web Site and "click on Glick" (#88 - Bitter Tears; #92 - Baby This One's For You) as of Monday, May 19. You can now buy my music on Amazon, Napster, iTunes, CD Baby, Verizon V Cast and about 20 other sites. If you have a MySpace, friend me. Don't buy Exxon or Mobil gas. Be good to each other, and come in, and live right!

Elliott Glick