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Postcard From Los Angeles

Hey Soul Mates,
I know, I know. It's been a few days since last I wrote. What's been going on? Well, last night I was at the Clippers' trouncing of the Milwaukee Bucks. A friend invited us to a swank luxury suite at Staples. That was nice to see the home town win in fine fashion. Just wish the Clips would go back to wearing sky blue and burnt orange. Of course, they'll never replace my Cavs in my heart. Oddly enough, I ran into one of our venue bookers and was told that we'll have a date in mid-December opening for a nationally known music act. Details will follow.

Tonight, should be cool. We are going to the
Django Reinhardt festival at the Disney Concert Hall. I've only been in the hall once, when I spent a day downtown. It's a pretty fantastic building. I'm looking forward to the performance. I was really introduced the music of the gypsy guitarist Reinhardt in the Woody Allen film Sweet And Lowdown (my favorite movie of 2000). Then, when I was in France for a jazz festival later that year, there were several tribute acts who played his music. Seems like a lifetime ago. Django's "hot jazz" music is uplifting and soothing simultaneously. It's become a favorite of mine on down-time. The "role" of the late Mr. Reinhardt will be played by reknowned Djangophile, guitarist Dorado Schmitt.

I've been reminiscing a lot this week. A year ago was the trip to Italy. On this day, I was in Florence and got to see Michelangelo's David. David had just turned 500. Nothing on Earth like it. I've said this before, but if you wanted to show a non-earthling one work of art to explain humanity, the David would be it. Although I have a soft spot for Bernini's David, now. The journal I kept has come in handy. Rereading it brings back things I had forgotten about the vacation. My advice to any one is to keep a journal, diary, whatever. My grandmother is a great journalist and that's where I got the idea. Even if you only write down what you ate that day or what the weather was like, you'll be glad you did. My journals get pretty detailed and I can remember forcing myself to stay awake or fighting a bumpy bus ride through Tuscany to get extra thoughts from pen to paper.

In Rush Hour Soul news, I'd like to thank everyone again for participating so vocally in our 3 week stay on Next Big Hit. We are looking forward to the next big move for our career. I have mentioned in passing to some of our fans that we will be heading East in 2006. It's true! We'll be bringing the act to select cities along the East coast in the early months of the year.

At our last show we had a very major development and our trajectory may have accelerated. We'll see after our next showcase at the Gig. I hope you plan on being there. We will have new postcard flyers this week for the event. Want to see what they look like? I made
them myself. So I've been busy. Bryan and I have also been practicing quite a bit. The new bass has really gotten a workout the last few days. And we're starting to cultivate some new songs. We'll probably debut them in January. New songs, new year. Makes sense to me.

Thanks, too, to our fans who have suggested color schemes for upcoming shows. That's very helpful to know what you like to see us wearing. For the next show we will be bringing back the blues. Anyone who wants to dress in shades of blue for the show on Dec. 1 is welcome.

All right everyone, I'll be back very soon. Plus I'm almost up to my 200 blog entry. I'll have to come up with something good for you.
Love, Power, Peace.

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