ANBERLIN

10/16/08 You may remember that about a month ago I told you I'd interviewed a band called Electric Touch and saw them in concert here in L.A., and then the next day, my daughter, Aly, saw their show and said hello to the band up in San Francisco. Well this week, just about the opposite happened…ONLY BETTER!!! Last night, I had a conversation with lead singer Stephen Christian from a great band called Anberlin and saw their concert here in L.A., but the night before, Aly interviewed Stephen and saw the band's show in San Francisco! As my friend Bree pointed out to me, "Jim, I'm sure you are the ONLY person in the world that could tell this story!" So true! How blessed am I? How blessed are my girls? So, let me back up and tell you how all of this came about.

While I was exchanging emails with the band's record label in New York, trying to set up my conversation with Stephen here in L.A., I asked the publicist if she could add Aly's name to the band's guest list for the show. I should tell you that I've had several conversations with Stephen now, and Aly's been with me for at least two of them. And, Angie used to be the band's publicist before they singed a big-time record contract and moved further into the big leagues. More on Angie in a minute. So, when I told Anberlin's new publicist that Aly was a freshman Radio/TV major at SFSU and was getting involved with the campus radio station, she asked me if Aly would be interested in doing a brief "interview" with Stephen. After several email exchanges between me, Aly, me, Anberlin's publicist, Anberlin's publicist and Aly, Aly was set to do her VERY FIRST one-on-one "interview" (conversation with Stephen Christian of Anberlin!!!!)

You can only imagine Aly's excitement to have the opportunity to spend about 10 minutes on the phone speaking with the lead singer of the band she and her roommate, Cassie, were going to see in concert later that same day!! I'm soooooo proud of Aly for doing a great job preparing great questions to ask Stephen, and for having the guts to do it in the first place!! GREAT job, ALY…here's to many more in your future radio career!
So, quickly, fast forward to last night and MY turn to speak with Stephen. As I mentioned earlier, Angie used to be Anberlin's publicist and she and Stephen know each other well, so I asked Angie to join me for the interview and concert. I was scheduled to do the interview at 5:30p, just after soundcheck, so Angie could not get out of work in time, but she would meet me at my place later for the show. Well, I'm a big believer in things happening for a reason, so get this: the Avalon, where Anberlin played last night, is only 2 train stops from my house. So, when I got there for my 5:30p conversation, the tour manager said Stephen was nowhere to be found. He was gone…couldn't find him. It turned out that he'd gone home (he just moved to L.A.) with his brand new bride (he just got married) for dinner. The tour manager apologized a thousand times and asked if I could come back at 7p to speak with Stephen. I told him it was absolutely no problem because I lived so close, plus, I thought to myself, "This is perfect, now Angie will be able to join me for my chat and she'd be able to hello to Stephen. PERFECT!!!

Sure enough, Angie and I returned at 7p, Stephen met us both outside the band's tour bus, again, apologized to me A MILLION times for not being there earlier, and the three of us jumped on the bus and sat in the back "bedroom" to have our conversation. PERFECT!!! We had another great conversation about the band's new album, New Surrender, Angie and Stephen got a chance to catch up and we were ready to leave the tour bus and go inside The Avalon to see the show…….but, not until Stephen was nice enough to tell Angie to go to the band's merchandise table inside the venue and tell the guy there that he, Stephen, said to give Angie a rare vinyl (yes, VINYL) copy of New Surrender! Stephen is just that kind of guy, he's super nice and very, very talented! Anberlin rocked, as usual (4th time I've seen them) and everything worked out…PERFECT! Life is good!

Peace!

10/7/08 If last night I saw a GREAT film, tonight I saw a TERRIBLE film: Role Models. What a piece of crap this thing is. Why do people make these worthless films? Not only is it bad and not funny, it's borderline offensive. It perpetuates lots and lots of ugly stereotypes that I'd love to think someday we'll get past. And that's all I gotta say about that! ☹

Peace!

10/6/08 I saw a GREAT film tonight: The Boy In the Striped Pajamas. And I invited my new friend, Bree Walker, to join me. She and I met for a quick drink before shooting up the block to see this great piece of work. I'm so glad I had someone to share this movie with. The movie studio PR people often email or call me after I see a film to ask my opinion or offer a quote they can use in their promotional pieces. In this case, I had a very simple, succinct thing to tell them: "This film is equally as difficult to watch as it is important to see." This is another one of those movies that I'm sure won't make a dime at the box office but I HIGHLY recommend you search it out and see it. And Bree, thanks for the company!! ☺

Peace!

CARLOS!

10/4/08 What can I say…last night, I saw Carlos Santana in concert!! Normally, that would be ALL I would need to say about that because as many of you know, he is MY MAN!!! He is one of the most amazing human beings walking the Earth! Needless to say, he is one of the most incredible musicians on the planet! Normally, that would be ALL I would need to say. But tonight was special…extra special! I've seen Santana in concert close to 70 times in my life, and a few of those times, I was able to take my then very young daughters with me. In fact, if memory serves me well, BOTH of my girls' first rock concerts were most likely Santana in concert. So last night, I saw Santana with my now-24-year old daughter Angie, and, as it turned out, my sister Connie and Angie's mom, Irma. The extra special part of last night was that, for the first time, I was able to enjoy Santana in concert with Angie as an adult, where she could REALLY appreciate Santana's amazing musicianship, his incredible stage show and ALL the great songs she's grown up with, literally since she was born!!

We were lucky enough to get four tickets because I'd been given two from the folks at the Nokia Theatre and Angie got two as well, since the Nokia is a client of her PR firm, MSO. We were also lucky enough to get passes to the VIP lounge

and, as luck would have it, I happened to walk into Michael Jensen, Carlos' longtime publicist and my longtime friend, as we walked into the VIP lounge before the show
began. He was nice enough to bring all four of us "After Show" passes so we could hang out in the lounge after the show. Well, I'm sure I don't have to tell you how amazing the show was, so, again, I'll just share my review, but let's just say it was another magical night with family and the music of one of the most impressive – and important – man in my life: Carlos Santana!! Not a bad way to spend a Friday night…not bad, at all!!!!! ☺
Peace!

ST. JOSEPH CATHOLIC SCHOOL REUNION

9/29/08 Yesterday's St. Joseph's School (Holy Jose, I affectionately call it) reunion was a BLAST! I spent the night at my old friend Tony Zam's house – the VERY house he and I ran around in when we were grade school kids! The very house where we played spin-the-bottle, where we listened to record albums, where we played baseball, football, soccer in his front yard and on his driveway. What a cool trip back in time.
Many, many thanks to Mark Dunn, Roni Treckman and Jackie Gilman for all their hard work making yesterday's reunion happen. What a cool trip it was to see John Lydon, John Rodriguez, Jim Ryan, Terri Weller, Alex Costa, Sue Moore, Robert Meyung, Michelle Juif, John West, etc, etc, etc after more than 35 years!!!!! Hey, at my age, these types of memories are priceless. I've sent Cindy a handful of VERY OLD and brand new photos of my Holy Jose friends so you guys can see how well we've all aged! Click here for more reunion pictures!
Well, this Friday night I get to spend the evening with two of my favorite people on the planet: my beautiful daughter, Angie, and Carlos Santana!! We're going to see Santana at the Nokia Theatre in downtown. What can I say: a night of Santana music in the company of my daughter….life is good!!!! ☺

Peace!

9/27/08 I had NO plans to write anything today but felt compelled to do so for two reasons: 1) Last night's party for GTM was even better than I'd expected it would be. All of us shared lots and lots of tears – both of joy and sadness – and we all shared lots and lots of laughs. Many, many thanks to our hosts Rona Elliott and Michael Jensen for giving all of us GTM fans and friends an opportunity to share our love for a man who, for five years, was my human "firewall" at Rockline before any of had even heard the term "firewall." 2) I met a very cool, very lovely woman last night: Bree Walker. People in L.A., New York and San Diego may know her as a former television anchorwoman and reporter. But what you might not know – and I did NOT know – was that Bree started out as a rock and roll DJ. She's a "rock chick" as well as a very intelligent and passionate social activist. It was definitely my very unexpected pleasure to meet her last night. You just never know!!

Tomorrow I'm joining to another very cool event, only this one has absolutely nothing to do with music, movies or anything work-related…at all! Tomorrow, I'll be attending a reunion of the St. Joseph's School Class of 1972!! Yep, I'm going to see friends of mine from grade school and junior high (I went to a Catholic school from 1-8th grade!) that I've not seen in OVER 35 YEARS!! How cool is that?!

Peace!

BODY OF LIES

9/26/08 Last night I saw a screening of Body of Lies, a wild ride drama set in the Middle East and starring Leo Di Caprio and Russell Crowe as CIA agents. Overall, I'd have to say it was…OK. Some of the stuff was simply unbelievable, and I mean that literally. Leo's character is the guy on the ground, here, there and everywhere in the Middle East. He's supposedly the VERY best in his field. Yet he allows himself to get involved with a beautiful local girl, putting his life and hers in jeopardy. Some of the action/chase scenes were well, unbelievable as well. It could have been a much cooler thriller but instead it turned out to be just a body of tries: it tried to be cool, it tried to be suspenseful, it tried to be edgy, it tried to be thrilling and it fell short in every way.

And earlier today at the press junket for the movie, many of us felt that Russell and Leo knew the movie was not as good as it could have been because both did not seem as enthusiastic about answering questions about the movie as they could have been. Both were cool, and Russell, despite his reputation as being a real pain in the ass – at least today – was pretty cool, often using humor to perhaps deflect tough questions about the holes in Body of Lies. Leo, on the other hand, was pretty quiet, not so outgoing, until he was asked about his own private political and social work. He was very happy to talk about his support of Sen. Barack Obama (and I was VERY happy to listen) and his many other social endeavors. So, the truth about Body of Lies: it's just OK!

Later tonight, I'm going to a very bittersweet affair: one of my radio mentors, George Taylor-Morris has throat cancer and has been given less than a year to live. Despite the dire diagnosis, George is NOT the type of guy that's going to sit around and feel sorry for himself. Instead, he's asked that a groups of his closest friends and associates join him for a party – that's right, a PARTY – to celebrate his life, and not worry about his impending death. That is one of the many reasons why I admire GTM so much. And for the record, when I'm gone, do the same – THROW A PARTY – I'll even provide the soundtrack!!

Peace!