Home for the holidays

As much fun as Christmas was in Bangalore last year, I've decided to head home this year for the holidays. It’s about time I get an opportunity to relax, and enjoy the 3 B's.

Beef
Beer
Bowl Games

Tomorrow morning, at 6:45 AM I will get BACK on British Airlines Flight 118 to London (for the second time in a week) and then another 8.5 hours to Chicago, where I will be meeting my parents for a dinner at Ruth's Chris...man, a steak in simmering butter accompanied by a glass of good red wine sounds nothing short of a dream come true.

On Wednesday (20th), I head back to Chicago to meet with a few of my best friends from college who I haven't seen in almost a year. This is sure to be a tame evening.

On Thursday (21st), I head to the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field to see the Packers take on the Vikings with my dad and uncle, two men who clearly understand the necessity to stay warm in low temperatures through the imbibing of alcohol. Hey, it may sound like a throw-away game, but both of these teams at 6 - 8 are technically still in the race for the playoffs. I'll get to tailgate with my longtime roommate Jim, just like old times. However, this will be quite a longtime of old times. He wants to begin tailgating 4 hours before the game. Of course, we're spending the night.

Friday (22nd), nothing planned but a day of healing. Then again it's Friday. This is a GTD (game time decision).

That's really all I got right now, but it's a damn good start to what will be an awesome few weeks. Seeing as there will be a healthy amount of partying, I've gone ahead and purchased myself an insurance policy for the time I'm home. This is obviously a good decision for many reasons, but I figure with my planned schedule of activities that includes a hotel room in Chicago on New Years, getting 18 days of $50,000 coverage for 1200 rupees ($25ish) is a bargain I can't afford to pass up.

Lots of 14 hour days

Again, it's been a while, but I haven't had as much time to much of anything besides play rock 'n roll and get ready to move to London. I know, rough life, eh?

So the last month has been exhilarating, and exhausting. My days have gone something like this:

5:30 AM - Alarm goes off
6:00 AM - Bruce picks me up for Thermal and a Quarter (TAAQ) rehearsal
6:30 till 9:00 AM - TAAQ rehearsal
10:00 AM - Arrive at work
Between 8:00 - 9:00 PM - Head home
10:00 PM - Get home from work, crash

This has been the schedule for many of my days over the last few weeks.

I usually don't work as much as I have been, but out of the three members of my team, including myself, two of them were out of office for about three weeks. So I was doing my job, as well as doing large parts of their jobs, while rehearsing and traveling on weekends to gigs.

This last weekend I was in Delhi, where we had 2 gigs. The first was for an AIDS benefit put together by the EU and the Thomson Foundation. Eight bands in India wrote original songs for a compilation album, and the top three bands played live for the awards ceremony. So I left on a Wednesday evening, played on Thursday night and then Friday night we had a proper gig with the same two bands we played with for the benefit. (go to the website do download the tune, Keep the Promise) The three bands, Soulmate, Skinny Alley (who I played with about 10 months ago) and TAAQ played at Lodi Gardens in New Delhi. What an amazing gig! The lead guitar players of the three bands are literally the GODS of guitar around these parts. Here are some pics, really only of TAAQ, because that's all I could get my hands on.

The band, minus Rajeev behind the skins. (Bruce, me, Tony, Rzhude)

Tony and I. I love Tony.

It was pretty cold, about 45 degrees F. That's our keyboard player, Chandy, on the left side.

This is Rajeev, my boy. I may be the youngest in the band, but this guy acts more like a 21 year old than anyone. Damn good drummer, as well. Can you believe he started playing the drums when he started playing with TAAQ 10 years ago?!
Intense.

Rzhude (pronounced Rudy). A frickin hilarious guy. We have a lot of fun on road.
I look like someone out of Huey Lewis and the News.

The next night, Saturday, we had the TAAQ 10th Anniversary party. This included a press conference, sponsorship by Wrangler who fitted us in our apparel for the night, and sponsorship by Seagram's who sponsored the booze. We played for about 90 minutes, and then partied with the friends and family we invited. I have yet to get any pictures of that but I'll post them when they come along.

Seeing as I've been having so much fun, I'll be postponing my transfer to London till the middle of February. If I keep having this much fun, we'll see if I ever leave.

I have 4 gigs this weekend, and then I leave for London on Monday for about 5 days. When I get back, I'll head to Chennai for a recording session, and then I leave on Tuesday morning for the US. I will need the R&R!