I got to go to the Musicares event last night.  Ive been to this event many times in the past and always loved it.   Musicares is party of the Grammy organization and it’s a charity that helps music people in need.  It’s always a great event, with a cool goodie bag, but last night topped them all.   They honored Sir Paul McCartney and it was awesome.

The event is held in downtown LA at the Convention Center.  Certainly not the most glamorous place to hold a black tie event but ultimately it doesn’t matter.  Before dinner there’s always a cocktail hour / silent auction with just tons of stuff.  Jewelry, travel packages, instruments signed by artists, original art, etc.   It’s pretty impressive.   This year one of the best parts of the cocktail hour was the hors d’oeuvre!  Since it was a Paul McCartney event, and he is a vegetarian, all the food was vegetarian!   It was so liberating to me to not have to ask what kind of meat is in the pupu platter.  I tried everything and it was all good.   I was an omnivorgitarian!   He he!

So next up was a mad push into the main room where dinner would be served.   For all of the times I’ve been to Musicares, this was definitely the biggest one.  I think they had a couple thousand people there.   Our table was not that great, but it didn’t matter.

I wanted to see if I could find my friend Paul, so a co-worker and I walked up the aisle to the front of the room to see if we could spot his table.   I passed by Giuliana and Bill Rancic, Allison Krause, Lindsay Lohan’s mom (Dina Lohan), Smokey Robinson, Barry Gordy…then there he was…Sir Paul McCartney.  Like right in front of me!  We stood around for a few minutes then floated back to our seats.

The night started off with Cirque du Soleil performers from The Beatles LOVE.  There were performers everywhere in the room – with really cool costumes – dancing, jumping, bungee cordings from the ceiling.  It was wild.   Then Sir Paul took the stage!   He was in great voice and sang “Magical Mystery Tour” and “Junior’s Farm”.  Incredible.

Then Foo Fighters came on and did an awesome, rocking version of “Jet”.  Alicia Keys came out and played piano and flatly sang to “Blackbird”.  Not my favorite but still cool.  There was a small rotating stage in the center of the room, close to my table and Alison Krause and Union Station came out and sang “No More Lonely Nights” while spinning.

The pace of the show was a bit uneven as there were long pauses between some acts.   Eddie Izzard was the host and he came out on a few occasions and spewed a McCartney bio where all of the events in his life took place in 1962 and included a Wings rivalry with Fidel Castro’s  band, Beaks.  Pretty funny stuff even though it was completely over the top.

The night just kept coming fast and furious with stars like:
Tony Bennett on “Here, There and Everywhere”
Katy Perry on the center stage in a gorgeous pink frock and blingd out mic stand singing a beautiful acoustic version of “Hey Jude”
Nora Jones – “Oh Darling”
Neil Young and Crazy Horse with a big sloppy rocking version of  “I Saw Her Standing There”(incredible)
Coldplay on the center stage doing an acoustic “We Can Work It Out”
James Taylor and Diana Krall
Duane Eddy
Sergio Mendes

Insane!!

The night ended with McCartney doing two songs from his new album then back on the old stuff.   It was truly a fantastic night.   I am so lucky.

The trip started out on a bad note when while standing in line for security at LAX, I realized I forgot my winter coat!   This is not a good thing as Europe in January is not like So Cal in January.   I figured I’d just purchase a coat, any coat, at Heathrow during my 3 hour layover.   Heathrow airport is kind of like a shopping mall where airplanes park.   An expensive shopping mall.

On the way to Heathrow my second issue came up.   My favorite watch broke!   I have a WeWood maple watch and I absolutely love it.  It’s made of 100% wood and the company plants trees for every watch they sell.  I just broke one of the wooden links.   It could be fixed but I couldn’t fix it myself on the airplane so I added a watch to the things to get at Heathrow!

Arrive Heathrow – tired.   It’s like 2 in the afternoon London time but the middle of the night in Los Angeles.   Bleary eyed.   Harrod’s has a shop in Heathrow.   There’s 3 coats that will fit me.   A big puffy black coat with faux fur trim.  It’s nice and warm but my butt looks huge in it – it’s kind of creepy.   Second coat is a 60′s mod black and white number that is sweet but not really “me”.  Third coat is a Ralph Lauren navy blue cotton trench coat.  It fits and looks good on me but expensive.   Fuck it.  Sold.   I bought a coat.  Had to go to London to get an American designer coat but that’s the breaks.

Got a nice white Guess watch and was on my way to eat at Wagamama.   Love this place and you must go eat there when you’re in London.  They’re all over the place (and I think there are some in Boston now).

Anyhoo, Cannes was the same as usual except it poured rain the entire time.   There was one moment of sun which I just happened to catch but otherwise it was cold and very rainy.   There was also snow on my last day.   Ugh.  Glad I had my trench coat!

I could not wait to get to London.   I just love London and they have great food.  It’s a vegetarian friendly place that’s easy to navigate and shop!

The Soho Hotel was awesome as ever.  I went to a football match and froze my ass off (Fulham vs West Ham).  Also got to visit Abbey Road Studios.   That was definitely the highlight of the trip.  Walking the halls where the Beatles and so many others have been was awesome.   Good trip overall but really glad to be home.

Cannes

Soho Hotel London

Michael Jackson Statue at Fulham

EMI Roof

Abbey Road!

Of course I had to make the plain old Kindle version first.   Once that was tackled I started working on the videos.

My first one was for my granola recipe called Tiger Chow.    I set up the camera above my head on a tripod extender and pointed it down.  I didn’t realize until after I finished editing that I did not need to do the entire thing in one take – which I had done….

I kept making videos until I had nine.   After the first nine I tackled the challenge of adding the videos to my existing book.    Thanks to Ms. Liz Castro over at Pigs Gourds and Wikis for putting such great learning tools out there.   She really knows what she’s talking about and I couldn’t have done any of my books without her ebooks.

After all was done it really wasn’t hard to put the videos in the book.   I wish I could do a video for every single recipe but I just cant.  I have a full time career job and other fun projects to do.

Maybe the next book.   I the meantime please enjoy the enhanced version of Sweet Things in the iTunes store now!

Here’s one of my favorite things to eat:

All of this is a lot but then there are the PEOPLE.   NAMM show is filled with stars, wanna beees, has beens and never wills.   It’s great people watching.  There are the stars with the endorsements who have to come for their appearances or mini performances.   People line up around the block (or booths) to get a moment with their favorite guitar god hawking the newest verson of their flying V acoustic.

It’s fun to watch the people and fun to actually play with the instruments and software and thingys.   I love the booths and the crazy noise level.    For about 2 hours.   Then I’m done and out.

Anyhoo, Elaine and Chris got pregnant pretty quickly.   She was really beautiful pregnant too!   Their baby was due on Dec 25th but decided to come on the 4th of January!  Way late!  They decided to find out the gender of their baby when she was born – so cool.     A couple of days ago I got to meet little Eliana. Ted days old!   She is gorgeous and a good baby.   I wish I could have take a  million photos of her.   She a cute little chublet and I’m so happy for Elaine and Chris!  

So every time I would go by the storefront I’d peek in and see the progress.  The place was gutted.  Then they started in on building the wall to the kitchen, then the ovens, then the tile, etc, etc.  The place really looks great.  Along one wall are church pews and and old church-y wall.  The ceiling is really high (it’s located in the old Ralphs Grocery Building) and they’ve added a tin ceiling.   A nice fresh airy atmosphere.

You stand in line and order at the counter.  There are guys behind the glass that are making the pizza.  You tell them what you want and what to put on top.   I got a Pizza Marinara.  No cheese.   It was incredible.  I think I like it better than Pizzeria Mozza, Motorino, Co. , Keste and Una Pizza Napoletana.  Yes, it was that good.

I was lucky enough to go on the pre-opening day and went back the very next day for another Pizza Marinara.    I had leftovers tonight.   So three days in a row I had 800 Degrees pizza.  Day one Gordon Ramsay walked in with his family and day two Brad Wollack from Chelsea Lately came in.   Oooh, stars!

Oh, and the final kicker is my pizza was only $5!   Incredible.  Really incredible.

It was a full house at the Long Beach Playhouse.   The place was beautiful, personal and simple.   Loved the theater in the round aspect too.

The contestants were incredible – although two people didn’t show up (which is weird).   One of the judges was the iconic actor/songwriter Paul Williams who told a tale of his antics with legendary Johnny Carson writer, Pat McCormick. Another judge, the hilarious David Letterman announcer Alan Kalter, told a Raquel Welch story that was hilarious.

My only issue is that I wish there were more stories!   Mariana Williams was the host – she’s a great storyteller herself – and Hitoshi Hosoda Hosoda was the winner!

Mariana Williams With a Full House

Paul Williams

Alan Kalter

Hitoshi is the Winner!

I spent the first afternoon/evening watching Miss Meagan make chocolate covered pretzels for the Christmas eve party.   Girl’s got some talent!   It’s fun to see her in the kitchen.  I see a lot of potential there.  Lord knows her mom (my sister) is incredible in the kitchen.   Apple doesnt fall far from the tree…

The next day I took the Metro into DC to see Karin.   She moved out there a few months ago and now lives in a very cool part of town a block or so from the Nationals Stadium.  

We had a nice time catching up while she showed me all her favorite places.   Over to Barracks Row to have lunch at Ted’s Bulletin.  Aesome.

We moved on to freeze our asses of and see all of the stalls filled with meat (ugh) at the Eastern Market.  Then I bought an Obama snowglobe at Union Station (fun).   Later on we had rezzies at a truly wonderful restaurant called Founding Farmers.    Founding Farmers is a LEED green restaurant with farm to table food and drink.   I absolutely loved it.  The menu was pretty meat heavy, which is pretty normal anywhere east of West Hollywood.  But, how awesome that there is a VEGAN menu!  Alas I was not super hungry (bad idea) so I had a Farmers Salad with side of green beans and mashed potatoes.   OMG so goooooood!!!!

We finished out DC tour that night in the H Street Corridor at Smith Commons.  A 3 story bar/restaurant with a huge picture window on the 2nd floor.  So cool.

The next day was the big Christmas Eve party at the Gordon’s.  They’ve been having this party for over 20 years now.  We do a crazy gift exchange and also play “Left Right Center” with dollar bills.  It was pretty roudy this year and super fun.  

Plus it’s so nice to see everyone every year.  All the kids are now adults and in a few years we’ll have their babies at the party.   Unbelievable!

2012 will be good.

Today we had our department lunch down at the beach at Back on The Beach in Santa Monica.   I think this is the 3rd year.   Fun.  Plus we do a white elephant and everyone brings a gift.   The budget was $8.61 so I got 4 bottles of $1.99 wine.  Hey, that’s a pretty good gift!   I got a Snuggie.   I think it was left over from last year.  Maybe I’ll save it for next year.  He he.

Afterwards some of us went on a walk on the beach and did some JUMP shots.  So fun!

Such a nice relief after so many months of really hard work.  I am so happy to have the next week and a half off.  I need it.