My Former Band Cataloged in The Chicago Music Scene Book

My Vaudeville-meets-rock band Huge Hart gets a little ink in November with the release of The Chicago Music Scene by Dean Milano. They're doing book signings, concerts and stuff back in the Old Country pegged to the book's Nov. 7 release date.

Another of my bands, The ODD, was invited to be part of the You Weren't There documentary covering Chicago's punk scene, except I'm a moron and never got around to sending the filmmakers archival video of the band.

To honor the film's completion, there's going to be a reunion concert November 24 at Chicago's Portage Theater with musicians I used to play clubs with who called themselves Tutu and the Pirates. Lead singer's stage name: Lil' Richie Speck.

John Mayer, Sherlock Holmes + North Carolina

I did my first video interviews recently. With normal interviews, I blather at length and go off on tangents. Verboten for video interviews. I learned: Don't interrupt the Talent and don't ask questions that can be answered with a "yes" or a "no." Instead, nod your head a lot. The videos, about robots and John Mayer got posted on Wired.com in September.

I also delivered my first college "lecture," which was tons of fun, at Otis College of Art and Design.

I finished the first go-round on a 16-song musical I'm calling "Fairfax."

And I got on a plane for the first time since 1999 and flew cross country to North Carolina for my mom's birthday.

My lovely sisters were there and I got to bang out a few tunes on the piano at the gi-normous solar-heated house on a hill owned by go-getter couple Candy and Shawn. My mom's friend, a brilliant mathemetician from Argentina named Norberto Kerzman, put me up for a couple of nights. Happy to report he makes a POWERFUL cup of coffee.

Meanwhile, Wired Magazine called me to do a piece on Sherlock Holmes with a fast turn-around so I spent the flight to and fro using one of those tiny little overhead lights as I pored over Arthur Conan Doyle's The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1.

I made it through September intact. I don't know if "echinacea" is a bogus placebo or not, but I took a bottle East and survived all that stale airline air, so that's my ambiguous health tip for the day.

10 Giant Trucks Equal One TV Commercial

This oughta be one Helluva TV commercial - - walking the Wonder Dog in Studio City this morning, I came across a massive production-in-progress on one of the shady Leave It To Beaver streets west of Tujunga known as Colfax Meadows.

I counted at least 10 big white trucks parked curbside, production assistants racing around with clipboards and walkie talkies, camera operators. So I asked the off-duty cops doubling as security guards what they were shooting?

Chicken. Perdue's Chicken commercial for TV.

30 seconds on television. I'm keeping an eye out. This should be some damn good looking chickens.

Comic-Con, Amtrak and Rag Dolls

Finally made it down to San Diego for Comic-Con last Friday. I caught the Amtrak in Burbank, lost my wifi connection, but stared out the window and got my wits about me to some extent. My favorite stop: San Juan Capistrano. It looks like something out of a tropical fairy tale.

In San Diego I hopped on the back of a pedicab pedaled by a Serbian refugee with huge calves who took me from the train station to the Convention Center.

Inside, I listened to Robert Downey Jr. and other actors talk about their movies. On the trolley ride back to the station, I saw "Wonder Woman" crowding into the sweaty, crowded car.

Next time: hotel!

Ex-Bandmate Mark Messing Rocks the Marching Band

I'm happy to see ex bandmate Mark Messing doing innovative music in Chicago. Mark used to play saxophone in my group the Magnificent Seven, and he in fact was pretty magnificent. Wiry, lanky and leftist, wailing Mark took my songs into manic, soulful terrain every time he cranked out a solo.

He now leads his own orchestra Mucca Pazza, which plays thumping, delirious rock, oom-pah and avant garde tunes. It's a marching band with crazy costumes, cheerleaders, tubas, accordians, electric guitars and more.

Here's a radio show which features Mark talks smartly about the concept along with bits from the Mucca repertoire.

Like I used to say from the stage: ladies and gentlemen: Mr. Mark Messing! Now blazing trails in the Old Country.

My New CD How To Be a Millionaire: Done

I finished my ten-song CD How To Be a Millionaire a few days ago. Listened to it through the big ol' car speakers on my drive over to watch Wolverine.

I guess you could call it Americana with a Twist. Me, strumming the acoustic guitar, my upright piano, a batch of harmonicas and the mighty Casio keyboard of ancient vintage.

Tunes were recorded on Garagegand, an awesome program that happily was loaded on to this MacBook I bought.

Subjects include hard times (Hollow of the Hill) broken hearts (Make It Up to You), hobos (Better Beat than Dead) bankruptcy (How To Be a Millionaire) and soul mate seeking (Gold Mine).

You can listen to some of the songs over at MySpace,

Sign me up for Fairey's 21st Century WPA

I talked to Obama poster man Shepard Fairey about a year ago and came away impressed with his clear thinking, unpretentious manner and fondness for street art stickers.

Reminded me of my Chicago heyday, when I'd tape flyers for my band gigs on Lincoln Avenue lamp posts.

Anyway, Fairey is now on a tear about some kind of WPA style artists initatiative for the Obama administration.

Sign me up!