A.R.T.S. Class, Summer Session!

Back to the A.R.T.S. Class! I started this class with Adrianne Escobar and Andy Erickson at Liberty Station, but they've been on summer vacation and it's time to get back to work now!

These kids are catching on fast, until I realized that they didn't know the difference between "classical" and "blues" guitar songs. I'm not kidding. One kid thought that the difference was you played one with a pick.

Mario is demonstrating "classical" technique.

"Do you play blues on a blue guitar?"
"No. There aren't any blue guitars."
"What about THAT ONE?"

Yes, that's a blue guitar at the top left.
I learned something today. The kid's right. You CAN play blues on a blue guitar.

One of their paintings, "Bird Of Paradise".

See you next time!

Gig at the Big Easy

Well, we were asked to come in for an audition at the Big Easy restaurant in the Hillcrest section of San Diego. They're a New Orleans-style place that I can tell you right now has GREAT BEIGNETS. They are GREAT BIG BEIGNETS, actually, and they are good.

They're looking for some jazz/blues guitarists, maybe for weekend nights, so we loaded up the Cube and headed over.

Here we are. What song are we on? Hey, Curly Max, uh, I forget what song we're playing!

We've been practicing "Blue Monk" by Thelonious Monk. This is usually a piano song but Curly Max says we can play it on guitar and he's always right about these things..

Smell the beignets? And watch how the guy with the ice tea magically disappears! Where did he go????



Hopefully, Frankie the owner didn't think we were crummy. We'll talk to him this week about maybe playing there more regularly. It would be nice to make a little professional money and tips for Fresh Start.

We Visit Fresh Start for the First Time!

Here we are at Fresh Start Surgical Gifts!

We made it! These people are so wonderful we couldn't believe we were actually standing right there giving them a big guitar-shaped check for $450. They've helped so many kids (more than 5000!!!) we felt super lucky to be standing in their front office. We still owe them $550 if we can make it by the end of summer, so we'll be back!

Thanks to Amanda Thompson and Celene Nigro, and the whole staff there for meeting with us and especially Mimi Askew for inviting us to play at their Party-Gras Cocktail Night in August! We even handed out some of our handmade 78rpm guitar picks!

The whole trip was lots of fun, especially the ice cream afterwards. Don't YOU want to join us now?

Who doesn't like a little break from a stuffy summer office meeting?



Thank you Fresh Start, keep up the great work!

Mission Valley Rotary Charter Night

Thanks to President Matthew Guillory, Ryan Norr and especially David Andrews (who can shred a Gretsch with the best) for inviting us to entertain at the Charter Night of the new Mission Valley Sunset Rotary Club. David gave us a way over-the-top donation check to Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, so he's our new best friend!

And by the way, WELCOME ROTARIANS!

Max & Valentine:

Varsity WHO??? Hey, they sound great!

Time to practice first:



Love these little Rotary flags.

See what I mean? Let's go to LA JOLLA!!!

Or Ranch Santa Fe!

La Mesa! Let's go there NOW! It looks like Tomorrowland!

No, Oceanside looks better! I can't decide!

Thanks again, and see you for our next adventure!