SOCIAL CLUB LIVE VIDEO/PARIS PHOTOS… EN BOUILLABAISSE

18. Photo by Vivian Corado

PARIS WAS A BLAST.  We were there for just under a week.  I got to do so much cool sh*t and see so many wonderful things, see friends, play a concert at the beautiful Social Club, do a performance on the radio… It was the best.  Truly a wonderful time and I’m so thankful for the opportunity.  I’ll be back!  Below are some videos from the gig at Social Club…

AND HERE ARE SOME PHOTOS… around Montmartre, at the Louvre, at Social Club, at the Eiffel Tower… A little bit of everything, all photos as usual taken by my beautiful fiancee, Vivian Corado…

Arrival (Sur Le Metro).  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Patisserie.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Montmartre.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

L’Hotel.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Avec L’André.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Social Club.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Social Club 2.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Melee.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Head.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Food.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Shoulders.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Melee Part Deux.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

La Nuit.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

PARIS LAST STAND

Photo by Vivian Corado

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Photo above is from Paris Social Club on Friday night.  Show was fantastic.  A beautiful crowd, a beautiful club, a beautiful night… I can think of no better way to make my live debut in Europe.  Thanks so much.

Tonight I make my last stand, an appearance on the Laura Leishman Project on Le Mouv radio.  I’ll be performing a 3 song acoustic set.  I’ve never done an acoustic set so it should be a lot of fun.  Tune in if you can!  If not I’ll try to figure out how to get it up here later.  No guarantees though. ;)

NOW OUT INTO THE STREETS.

XX

LIVE VIDEO/PHOTOS FROM CHARLOTTE, NC

So last week I went on a little mini-tour with Dances, hitting up Charlotte, Miami & Philadelphia.  The Future Gospel Road Show.  The parties were a blast.  Thanks to all who came out.  It’s been wonderful getting back out there in front of people.  Here are a couple of live videos from Charlotte:

Is That Your Girl?

Fire It Up

And here are a few still photos from the same show.  All shot by my lovely fiancee Vivian, of course.

Dances With White Girl.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Bartface.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Crazy Eyes.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Singin.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Preachin.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Shoutin.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Yeah.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Hopefully I’ll be coming to your town soon!  Keep an eye out!

M

P.S. My “Home Video” for “Is That Your Girl?” has been seen by over 1200 people, in the last week, are you one of them?  If not, watch it here, the audio quality is a little nicer than the other live stuff… and keep an eye out for Home Video #2 next week!

Is That Your Girl? (Home Video #1)

SNOWDAZE…

NYC is all shut up to incoming traffic, so we’re spending a couple of extra days chillin’ at mom’s in Providence.  Most exciting thing we did was go to the mall and see Tron at a REAL Imax 3D Theater (not one of the cheap NYC imitations).  I had read mostly complaints, either thin plot, or they changed it too much or the soundtrack wasn’t good enough, but I think that’s all garbage.  I was THOROUGHLY entertained, it was like being a little kid again.  I think they nailed the aesthetics, and it was nice to see Jeff Bridges in his The Dude/Phil Jackson character again.  And the soundtrack was incredible too, not sure if people were expecting a rave, but they really nailed that Tangerine Dream feel that they were going for.  I really got that little kid feeling watching it… Well worth the money, glad I got to see it in the theater, wish the 3D had been as good as Avatar (where you really felt like you were gonna fall over the cliffs), but still… 4 stars.

Oh yeah, 2nd most exciting thing is I got some new boots.  What you think?

BIRTHDAY PHOTOS…

After a lot of posts related to the making and release of ‘O Holy Night’ (which is of course, still available in the STORE , here is something a bit more personal…

Some of y’all may know it was my birthday about a week or so ago.  We had a really nice day in and around New York City.  As always, Vivian took photos. 

Outside the Guggenheim.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Me and Picasso.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

We started off our day at the Guggenheim, seeing the Chaos and Classicism exhibit.  It was really wonderful.  The exhibit is up until sometime in early January, I suggest you make your way there if you can.  Best thing in the exhibit were the drawings by Otto Dix, which look like this:

“Skingraft” by Otto Dix (1924).

After the museum we crossed the street to look at the reservoir.  Along the way, lining the west side of the street there was some mysterious deposits of snow.  Mind you it hadn’t snowed AT ALL yet this winter… Any ideas?  I threw snowballs at the wall to celebrate and then we did some shutterbuggin’ in front of the reservoir:

Mystery Snow.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Reservoir.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Poser.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

After people watching for a while we were making our way back to the subway to head home and make dinner, but we decided to stop and pop our head into a church… There was a youth choir rehearsing and it was peaceful and beautiful (even the guys in the choir were singin’ in that castrati range) so we just relaxed and listened for a while.  Unfortunately I didn’t have the wherewithal to take decent audio, but here’s a picture of the choir rehearsing…

Choir.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

After we made a nice dinner and finished watching Scarface we headed back into the city to go see D.L. Hughely at Caroline’s.  We took the subway there and on the way we snapped a couple funny ones with Bobby Deniro:

Death Eyes.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

More Bobby.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Neither of us were necessarily the biggest D.L. fans but we had been to Caroline’s a few months before to see Paul Mooney and it was so much fun that I wanted to go back for my birthday.  Mr. Hughely was actually hilarious… His timing, his voices, his topics… We also saw a really good comedian by the name of Steve Wilson who was opening the show.  Here’s a video of him (not from my birthday though):

After the show it was super late and we had to walk through Times Square to get to the train station.  It had started raining and the lights looked really great reflecting on the wet pavement so Viv snapped a few more shots, which you can see below.  All in all, a great birthday!

Bart-face in Times Square.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Stylin’.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Times Square.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

American Carriage.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Forgive me Father, it’s Been 3 months since I last posted…

It’s been a while.

What can I say?  Summer vibes took over.  What’ve I been doing?  Playing soccer.  Taking lots of walks around the neighborhood.  Family stuff.  Catching up with old friends.  Playing music for people and getting my live show together.  But now it’s WELL into the Fall and I haven’t written anything up here…  No excuses.  Mon apologie.

By far the most important and interesting thing that has happened is that me and Viv got engaged on her birthday.  I proposed in a sunflower patch at an apple orchard in upstate New York on a rainy afternoon just as the rain stopped and the clouds broke open, all with Suicide “Cheree” playing in the background (in our heads, anyway).  it was a beautiful moment I will remember for the rest of my life.

What else?  Well, I was heading down to DC/Maryland quite a bit helping my mother out as she was getting ready to sell her house.  Nothing too exciting, mostly carting old furniture off to goodwill and that sort of thing, but me and Viv did manage to sneak out a bit and see a few things.  A couple weeks ago the movers came and took everything out, so the house in Silver Spring is officially done.  I’m happy for her to be rid of it (it was too big a house for one woman living by herself) but of course I will miss it.  

That said, I will still be headed down to the DC area often enough to visit my father, so it ain’t really goodbye to the city.  I just won’t be able to stay in the house I grew up in.

Anyway, here are a few nice pictures Viv took on this past trip DC. 

Photo by Vivian Corado

Photo by Vivian Corado

Photo by Vivian Corado

Photo by Vivian Corado

Photo by Vivian Corado

Photo by Vivian Corado

She has also started her own photo blog, which is great, and can be found here:

http://vivijean.wordpress.com/

Professionally speaking, as mentioned above, I’m still putting things together as far as releases/shows go, but will certainly put any music or news up here when it is ready!

Speak soon!


M

Coney Island Babies Pt. 2 (& Beyond…)

It’s been a while.  I been busy doing a lot of little things to get my 1st release together.  More on that later.  For now, I’m gonna put up a long overdue post about 4th of July Weekend.

It being beautiful weather and seeming like a patriotic type of thing to do, we went down to Coney Island on Saturday the 3rd.  Last time we went to Coney Island of course it was rainy as hell and the middle of the day in the middle of the week so no one was there.  This time, things were a little different.  Kids everywhere.  Adults everywhere.  Everything was open and shit was bumpin’.  There was even a dude there who’s job it was to rinse sand off peoples’ feet when they came in from the beach!  We went to watch people ‘Shoot The Freak’ but, in the words of one woman standing there “that guy ain’t a freak.  He look more like a ri-tard” (pronounced like the musical term).  From there we went on the Wonder Wheel…

Cyclone.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Wonder Wheel.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Wonder Wheel Again.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

We weren’t even in the moving cars so I know it sounds lame but the Wonder Wheel is actually kind of scary.  When you’re at the top it kinda feels like you’re gonna just roll off the axis and run across Coney Island.  At least to me.  I ain’t great with heights.  Neither is Viv.  After that I got my fortune told by Grandma (I meant to save it but regrettably I lost it) and we took some photo booth pictures.

Grandma.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Coney Island.  Photo by Photobooth.

We headed over for Luna Park shortly thereafter.  It was pretty good in there.  We walked in and there was a dance competition and they were playing Riverside and Pon Di Floor and shit and there were all these little kids buggin’ out to it.  Strange world.  That seems like awesome gig, being a DJ for children.  The rides look pretty dope too.  We didn’t really have time for anything though cuz we had to walk over and see the Cyclones play the (Staten Island) Yankees.  The game was… Well, not as fun as we thought it might be.  It turns out that baseball, when you don’t care about either of the teams and don’t know who any of the players are can be pretty boring.  The best moment was when the mascots all did The Cha Cha Slide.  There were due to be fireworks after the game but we cut out in the middle of the 8th in order to beat traffic and make it back to Greenpoint in time to get some pizza at Paulie Gee’s (I’m telling you, it’s THE TRUTH).  All in all a very nice day!

Child Rave.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Some kind of Twirly Ride.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

El Dorado.  Photo by Vivian Corado

Bump Your Ass Off.  Photo By Vivian Corado.

Tickets.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Tickets.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Ballpark.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Me Muggin’.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Cha Cha Slide.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Parachute Drop.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Brooklyn.  Photo by Vivian Corado

Brooklyn again.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

The next day we woke up (relatively) early and split for Bear Mountain, NY.  Traffic wasn’t great but it’s never too bad being stuck on the Palisades Parkway.  All the parks we passed had signs up saying that they were closed cuz they were too full.  Lots of upset travellers.  Thankfully, we were staying at the Bear Mountain Inn, so we got “in” (get it???).  For y’all who don’t know, Bear Mountain is about 45 minutes north of the city on the eastern edge of Harriman State Park, right by West Point.  We got in and checked in.  The rooms were nice enough, but there was a huge family reunion going on right outside our window so we had to switch rooms.  We were staying in the Stone Cottages, which hold like 6 rooms and are linked by a common area.  When we got to the new room it was a lot more chilled out, but freezing!  Turns out that the thermostat is just set for 60 degrees and it’s impossible to control the individual rooms.  No matter, it was a beautiful day the park was jammed with all sorts of families grilling and chilling so we went outside to do the same.

An outside view of the cabin.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Grilling.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Chilling.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

After eating, we took a walk around the lake to see all the sights and smell all the smells.  Like I said it was packed, but it was beautiful.  We found a rock on the other side of the lake to watch the evening pass and relaxed.  Beautiful.  Once night fell we drove to the nearby town where they were doing fireworks.  Like I said it was near West Point so lots of military families.  Also a Louis Armstrong impersonator (which was weird, especially cuz he was playing the sax).  But fireworks are fireworks, fun is fun and it was great.  Afterward we went home and crashed, woke up the next day and drove home.  Not a huge getaway, but still nice to get out of the city, get some fresh air, see some normal folk, all that.  A good 4th.  First time it really felt like summer.

Hessian Lake at Bear Mountain.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Beautiful? Photo by Vivian Corado.

Fireworks.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

More Fireworks.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

More soon. XXX

CONEY ISLAND BABIES…

Coney Island Boardwalk.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Last week we took a little trip down to Coney Island.  It was a grey day, and as we got closer it started raining.  We got out and walked around anyway.  It’s very pretty walking around Coney Island when half of everything is closed and it’s all grey out.  Random old people, virtually empty rides, that weird corn with the butter or cheese or whatever, what is that?

Wonder Wheel.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Me at the Cyclone.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

Shoot Em Win!  Photo by Vivian Corado.

After walking around for a minute, we made our way to a New York classic, Tottono’s Pizza.  Normally there’s huge lines for this place but because it was such a shitty day out no one was there so we just walked right in and sat down.  We were happy to be in there and served so quickly, but unfortunately, I don’t think either of us were really blown away with what they served.  We got a Margherita.  The crust was very good, but the cheese was too salty and there wasn’t enough sauce.  The guy next to us got one with peppers and onions and that one looked a little better, maybe we should’ve gone that way.  Still, I’m very glad for the experience.  But I wouldn’t make the trip down there JUST for the pizza.

Tottono’s.  Photo by Vivian Corado.

All in all, Coney Island, was a lot of fun.  All gloomy and poetic and beautiful.  We’ll be back again later this summer, no doubt.