Interstellar Overdriver (The Fire This Time)

Gary, Chris Cornell, and producer Steve Lillywhite while Gary was working on Chris' new solo album in LA

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That was the week, that was, time-shifting wildly now under daylight's savings, dunno where to begin except at the beginning jetted west out of the ice age descending over Manhattan last sunday and suddenly everything opened up under bloody red sun of fantastic LA's shimmering dreamscape, to find myself there once again in an eternal ricorso this time in the excellent company of my friend Chris Cornell...Chris is one of the most gifted and totally gracious souls I've ever encountered and bonded with in this busyness of music, and he's blessed with one of THE best voices in rock (actually, why not just say it, guy's a damn good soul singer)...and with the great Steve Lillywhite at the production helm how the heck could I not have played my heart out for these gentlemen, on the occasion of Chris' new solo album for A&M/Interscope...

NRG Studios in Burbank is where Chris' album was 'aborning and hey they threw me right into the epicenter of the whirlwind (as in, stone cold--I'd never heard these tracks before)--and I rode with it, and then some, audio-slaving over a hot amplifier for 3 days, vibes were so warm there & music so fresh and piping hot inspired some of my best playing ever, no lie :-)...studio was just about the sweetest most comfortable recording facility you could imagine/ask for, drove up there to Burbank monday monday, bright and early, quite near where some 24 years ago at Amigo Studios down the road apiece I had made tracks with Beefheart and the boys for the "Ice Cream for Crow" album, so the landscape was subtly familiar (specially that fearsome excavation on Magnolia Boulevard)...

three days passed so quickly with such intense bursts of playing/recording/creative catching of wave, was up to my ears in music pretty much 24/7 with time out for but a few hours sleep each night. Which left me very very happy, and pleasantly exhausted (I dig working hard on things I love)-- had one evening off only, which I spent with my old pal "Mr. LA Law", Harry Hamlin, who treated me to dinner at Katsuya (Howie Klein's favorite sushi joint on Ventura Blvd.--btw, Harry's coming east soon with his wife Lisa Rinna to take up as the 2 new principal leads in the musical "Chicago" which is still running strong here on Broadway)...

3 amazing days playing on all 12 of Chris' tracks and the music is still whirling around my head, want to say thank you thank you thank you also to studio crew guys Todd Parker and Dave Colvin whose engineering skills really helped make the sessions go smoothly...there was one tense moment only really, when Chris arrived at the studio on Tuesday quite shaken and stirred (okay, couldn't resist that one as Chris is singing the theme song in the upcoming new Bond film "Casino Royale"), having just avoided a near fatal collision with an obdurate truck that morning-- but mirabile dictu, the guy's okay (though his chopper was apparently totalled)...the rest of the days I recall like a dream...

Kismet time again... at the airport as I was walking to my gate, I heard a strangely familiar voice sing out "Gaaaaaaaaary!"--and lo and behold it was my old pal and former Yale partner in exhibition du filmes cinefantastique actor magnifi-cat Bill Moseley, who was there to catch another flight east with the dude who played Buffy the Vampire Slayer's malefic nemesis on that show (name escapes me now, sorry), both of 'em way out and on the way to work the crowds at the Chiller Theater Horror Convention held annually right about now (ie Halloween) in the Jersey Meadowlands (Chiller's really a great horror/sci-fi confab--met the fabulous Barbara Steele there in '94 holding court with her amanuensis Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog magazine--hi Tim--but that's another story)--this chance meeting with Bill at the airport was a real surprise as I had actually spoken to him on the phone shortly after I arrived in LA, where he now lives, but didnt think we would be able to hook up ...somehow, it got arranged!...

Recovered, sort of, back in NYC on Thursday, and then, after a fiery rehearsal with Gods and Monsters on Friday headed up to the partially renovated, impressive and imposing Bohemian National Home on East 73rd Street (I am of Bohemian ancestry on my father's side) for a party celebrating Czech National Day, where I hung with my good friend Ambassador Martin Palous and his lovely wife Pavla, and was totally honored to meet and speak with the former Czech president/brilliant playwright and essayist Vaclav Havel, who is now resident in Manhattan for the next several months as a guest professor at Columbia University...this party was a glittering assemblage of foreign diplomats and dignitaries and Czech Cultural Office folks, with excellent champagne and sumptuous buffet, the guests eventually repaired to inspect the upstairs main gallery/theater space with balcony and original proscenium arch dating to the late 19th century, which looks amazing by candlelight... the entire building should be fully functional by next year as a great new NYC cultural oasis...

Gary and the new Czech ambassador to the UN, Martin Palous, backstage at the Museum of Jewish Heritage before Gary performed "The Golem", 9/13/06

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the next day I was invited to play guitar fanfares at 1pm for many of the same Czech party people on the lake in Central Park off east 72nd Street where they were christening a replica sailboat named the Masaryk, after the father of Czech Independence, I brought my National steel guitar with me and played my solo arrangements of Dvorak's "Largo" from the "New World Symphony", and Smetena's "The Moldau" from "Ma Vlast" (arrangements that were originally commissioned by Martin Palous several years ago for a concert I gave at the Czech Embassy in DC on this same Czech National Day)...suddenly the heavens opened up and I managed to get my steel guitar back in its leather carrying case pretty quick and we took refuge in the interior of the boathouse until the rainy season subsided and the sun shone forth again and we were sailing, sailing ....

Eventually managed to get back downtown relatively dry and unscathed, thankfully, and then it was bam out to Brooklyn to play this hot new club in Williamsburg called Brooklyn Sugar (on the site of the old Domino Sugar complex) with Gods and Monsters--the joint looks fabulous, massive warehouse multi-tiered space, lovely carpeted stage, good lights and sound, they have mounted what is essentially an update on the old UFO Club in London (and the 60's UK Arts Lab scene in general) albeit on a much grander scale, and the joint was a' rocking all night with avant-fashion show, aerial ballet, various performance art tableaux intermingled with djs, raga mandolin/tabla duets, etc. etc., it was really all too much (and apparently all too much for the NYFD, who threatened to shut the joint down repeatedly all night for--what? They turned people away, I had to sneak Caroline and other friends in through a side door, really hope they resolve these issues soon as this club is too good to suppress vis a vis what look suspiciously like a good old-fashioned shake-down by the powers that be/nighted)... thanks to Charlie Blass and Colin for hooking the gig UP...after a smoking set from Greg Tate and Jared Nickerson's cool ensemble Burnt Sugar I improvised solo guitar soundtracks to a montage of clips I had assembled from some of my favorite horror and science fiction films straight from my vault, including Peter Jackson's b&w recreated spider pit sequence from the original "King Kong", my pal Ray Harryhausen's fabulous Dance of Kali sequence from "The Golden Voyage of Sinbad", an eerie window onto Herk Harvey's "Carnival of Souls" starring the preternatural Candace Hilligoss--a Yale Art and Architecture School grad!- (incidentally, when Moseley and I showed this film there as part of our Things That Go Bump In the Night horror film series in '72 Candace sent us autographed stills from the flick, one of which is reprinted in the booklet for my "Level the Playing Field" album)--I also included a teaser, a snippet, a soupcon from one of Roy Stuart's "Glimpse" erotica vids--just some of the jeux d'artifice on display...but first up, I had them project a 5 minute clip from Polanski's "Rosemary's Baby" (Mia Farrow's impregnation sequence) while I played the haunting theme/lullaby from the film by the great Kyrzystof Komeda, in the company of the beautiful Polish actress and singer Anna Podolak...

Gods and Monsters took the stage around 1am after an exhilirating set by Marshall Allen leading the Sun Ra Arkestra, totally resplendent in their coats of many colours...

we set-up, we tuned, we hit, and we had lift-off...ascension...and then-- "on the dodgy subject of are there, or are there not, flying saucers--or-- UFO's", Ernie Billy and Jason and I were joined by the legendary Paul Carusoe of Radio Station EXP on harp during "Let's Go Swimming" ...what a fine night...didn't get home till 3am (actually 4, but the clock ran backwards at 2)...and wotta week...capped off this very Sunday afternoon by running into another old friend/collaborator, legendary singer/songwriter/Dylan&Patti pal Bob Neuwirth on 5th Ave, who was on the ave there with the lovely Paula Batson, who used to do PR at Columbia, Paula took us both to Pink Berry's on 32nd, a wonderful new Korean frozen yogurt and fruit franchise=Kismet again...

oops, monday monday now, too much burning of the midnight lamp here, Caroline's calling and now must bank the fires for the nonce (put your camel to bed...)


xxLove

Gary