The Week in Rock, Sci-Fi, Musical

Intense week: Sunday, Jody Durham, ex-roadie from The ODD, came by during a visit to L.A. He now runs tech stuff for Chicago's Oriental Theater - Dream Girls in February! - - but used to schlep speakers and lights for my band. Favorite memory: me, in losing battle to a dead-of-winter cold, too hoarse to sing for a club gig in Iowa City. So I moved my mouth to a whole set's worth of songs while Jody, unseen offstage, did the actual singing. Fooled 'em!

Then I saw Book of Eli and reviewed it for Wired.com.

Found out midweek that my childhood buddy Dale Shewalter died. A true wild child, Dale grew up to create the Arizona Trail.

Thursday, singer Vikki Gurdas laid down soulful vocal tracks for my Fairfax: A Musical duet One Plus One.

And Friday I walked a couple of blocks to the Aroma Cafe in Studio City to interview 22-year old actress Alessandra Torresani. She's the star of a new sci-fi series, Caprica, and is a real ball of fire. The enthusiasm of youth - - whew!

I don't know why but I get a kick out of this google translator tool.

From my new musical Fairfax, I typed in the lyrics for the song Keeper of the Flame (you can hear it over at the Fairfax site: hughhart.com/fairfax)
Here's how the lines came out after getting translated into Italian, then to German, and back to English:

View from the window
Roller blind
Keeping debris
See what you locate
There is a bird cake
You want to use your name
Do you have to dig into the situation
A little 'more
The guardians of the flame

Open floodgate
Tear off the ground
Reveal damage
Lift the hinges off the door
They feel a lot cheaper
They want to know who to blame
They would practice a bit better
For the guardians of the flame

Bathe my bitter heart
Break me in two
Shine your iight shaken
Show me
Apologies
I will correct
To help you

They want to be beside her
They want to stay in the game
You should burn a bit more brighter
For the guardians of the flame
About the level of fruit
She's shivering in the rain
Take a little of my fire
Oh yeah
Keeper of the flame