Greetings and Salutations! Happy New Year!....Happy New Life!...it has been awhile since I last blogged ya'.

...and to say the least, a lot has changed. Over the next few weeks I will. be sharing with you some of the very cool changes in my life and upcoming EVENTS. However, lets get some dates out there now for those of you looking to catch a performance;

JAN. 27th @ Orinda Library 7:00 pm

MAR. 6th @ JLHS Center for Performing Arts @ 2:00 pm

MAY 1 @ Missouri History Museum, St. Louis Mo

As many of you know I have spent most of my life performing, teaching, adjudicating and directing pageantry groups. Drum & Bugle Corps, Bands, Winter Color Guards.....wrote a play or two about it (see "May Day Parade")..this madness has been going on since I was 12 years old!

Been around the block a couple of times, you might say. So, it is really thrilling and energizing that I can still experience the activity in new ways ...surprising ways. A prime example is the Santa Clara Vanguard Winter Guard.



For the last couple of years, I have had the honor and joy of working with this amazing group of young women and men. In 2009, that experience concluded with the winning of a World Championship.


However, it was this past season, that has had a profound impact on me. It is never very easy repeating a world championship...ask the Boston Red Sox, Dallas Cowboys....it takes a serendipitous gathering of talent,timing and effort.

This past winter while preparing to go into the 2010 season...The Vanguard had a rough start...limited membership...lots of new...young performers. The weight of a championship title on their backs. High expectations...lofty traditions to maintain.

The result did not end up with a world championship medal. The result did end up with affirmation once again that "it is the journey that matters".....these young folks and their amazing staff created an experience...a production...a work of art, that embodied all of the beforementioned ingredience ...the serendipitous trio
....talent...timing....and alot of EFFORT!

1st - Onyx (Dayton, Ohio).......97.85
2nd - Santa Clara Vanguard....97.50
3rd - Pride of Cinncinatti.........97.35

I have been blessed over the years to be a part of several gold medal winning teams,but, I have never been more proud of a group as I was of the Silver medalist Vanguard Winter Guard!


Congratulation to all of the almost 300 organizations that participated in this past Winter Guard International World Championship....and a large thank you to the wonderful souls that make up the Santa Clara Vanguard...thanks for letting me be a part of your journey.




For more information on the Santa Clara Vanguard and it's many programs for young performers, go to http://www.scv.org/

No one appreciates a good appropriation like me. Everything old is new again.

A good case in point is "Kick-Ass".

"Hit-Girl"..... my fave !

Quentin Terrantino has been "sampled" more than any contemporary director I can think of...and usually not successfully. However, director Mathew Vaughn does a great job of creating an intellectually stimulating ass kicking superhero movie...think Kill Bill meets Peter Parker meets the Powder Puff Girls.


Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) does an OK job as your anxiety ridden teen just trying to do some good, but, it is Chloe Moretz as Hit-Girl that not only plays the most obvious homage to Quentin and "Kill Bill" (GoGo Yubari, Lusy Liu's sidekick) but, creates a truly unique super heroine to add to the canon of movie superfolks. Not too mention... Nicolas Cage is in the movie!
.....good stuff.Check it out!

Who Is Tyrone "Shortleg" Johnson?...and why do we care?

I first met "Shortleg" when I was having a rum and seven at a undisclosed blues bar in East St. Louis. He was trying to wait out some fellow card players who were hanging out in the parking lot hoping to "catch up" with him for some gambling debts. He was pretty wasted, and mumbled on and on about his mother, Gert, and the hair salon she ran that was a front for a numbers racket...he claimed to be a blues singer...but could only remember the words to "Oh, Do You Know The Muffin Man?".

Though I was very impressed with the many variations of "Muffin Man" he entertained all of the patrons in the bar with that night, I did not think I would see or hear of him again. Looking at the guys waiting for him in the parking lot also convinced me that Tyrone, may not be long for this world. Well,....I was wrong...it seems that Tyrone "Shortleg" Johnson is still around and oddly enough will be a part of a webcast coming from Expressions College on Sunday, January 10th at 3:30 pm. Now from what I heard, he will not be singing about the guy from Drury Lane...but may be persuaded to kick out "The Hootchie Cootchie Man" during the broadcast....we can only hope.

Tyrone will be appearing with the best Rock, R&B, Blues, Country and Bugle Band in the East Bay "The Intones"....and as "ShortLeg" says...."I'll be there if the creek don't rise and the warrants don't catch up with me..." Well, lets hope he makes it.

When: Sunday, January 10th @ 3:30 pm

Where: Live Web broadcast @ http://mediasource.expression.edu/liveCast.htm

Laughing Your Way Into The New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

'09 is coming to an end...it seems to have gone by quickly...was that 365? Felt productive, but, quick. Did lots of performing, started a new full length piece, recieved another grant from the wonderful Marsh Theater...got thru another year with the District...spent another amazing year with the beautiful Susan and made alot of music. That sounds like a good year....and here is a really great way to end the year for us all. My very good friend Bruce Pachtman is producing...not one, but, two very funny events for New Year's Eve. Not a bad choice between them....

LAUGHTER AGAINST THE MACHINE
W. Kamau Bell, Nato Green and Hari Kondabolu are bringing in the new year at the Phoenix Theater in San Francisco....

click here to find out more info;

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/88709

3 FOR ALL & TRUE FICTION MAGAZINE
Internationally known Improv Troupes join forces at the Cowel Theater, Fort Mason

click here to find out more info;

https://www.fortmason.org/tm/tm.cgi?tmEvent/tmEventDefault.html?
P_SEQ=693

Richard James

HAPPY HOLIDAYS !!!! to all my family and friends

A while back I wrote and recorded a holiday story that I shared with a small circle of family and friends. It was a "one-take" recording at my good friend and collaborator Mark Kenward's downstairs studio....the story is called "Richard James: A Holiday Story"

Well, now through the magic of technology....I am able to share this piece with even more family and friends. How cool is that?

...I wish you all things wonderful for the holiday and the new year!

Click here to listen!

So, a few months back, I was going around asking folks if they had seen "The Hurt Locker". Most people looked at me with that furrowed brow "Huh?"...kinda stare. No one I knew had seen it and I know some real cinemahounds...and because of that I started to wonder... had I seen it?

I mean it was all under suspect circumstances, no witnesses, I had taken my self to the movies no girlfriend or buddy...just me in my favorite little movie theater, CINEARTS, in Pleasant Hill. I can remember coming out of the theater a little disoriented...wanting to talk to someone about it and having no where to go with my thoughts.

So, I believe I tucked it away....forgot about it...or I had never seen it...not sure.

Then I read that "The Hurt Locker" has won several awards lately including the Los Angeles Film Critics and New York Film Critics Circle awards for "Best Film".

...and like an old acid trip...the film comes back to me, as clear as if I just saw it this past weekend. This movie is intense...visceral...it was something that I felt as much as watched.

It is about the soldiers in an Army bomb squad unit in Iraq...the movie is well written by a guy named Mark Boal and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, both of whom were also nominated for awards. not that I need the LA or New York critics to validate my opinions....remember I am the guy who told you to see "Bubba Ho-Tep" (the best Elvis/Zombie/Kennedy conspiracy movie ever made)