Today: Snowbound

Winter Storm Jonas deposited twenty-six inches of snow in my town (your results may vary) this weekend. Like many of you, I was hunkered down at home for the duration, only venturing out Sunday morning to shovel. 

On this abbreviated edition of Aerial View (clocking in around thirty minutes) you'll hunker down with me in the "Lion's Den" (my basement), where I tried to swap out the tuning machines on my Gibson SG...

...while watching The Godfather Epic on HBO. It didn't work out as planned because of Roger the Cat.

When we rescued Roger (that wasn't his name at the time) in 2007 he was the second orange tabby we considered. The first had backed itself into the corner of its cage and the note on the cage explained why: under "Demeanor" it read "Shy". The next orange tabby's note said "Outgoing" and no sooner did I open the cage then he got out, climbing up my pant leg and shirt until he was seated on my shoulder loudly crying in my ear. When she returned, Janet (who'd gone to an ATM for cash - the cat was a gift for me) remarked "It looks like you've been chosen..."

As much as I love little Roger he tends to think of the basement as his domain because that's where he ended up when we brought him home. He had worms and we were told to quarantine him from our other cat, Violet:

Now, when I head down to the "Lion's Den" Roger is either leading the way or right behind me. He then proceeds to cry at me until I lay down on the couch. He sees me as massive pillow, apparently.

As it turns out, I didn't have the conversion bushings to do the tuning machine job anyway, so before long I abandoned the whole idea and watched Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece (or half of it, anyway) with Roger laying on top of me.

Hear it all AND some hot snow shoveling action on this special SNOWBOUND edition of Aerial View.

Last Week: Ziggy Played Guitar

I designed the sound for my friend Richard Eagan's one man show about his time as a Coney Island Barker, Alive On The Inside, and I'll be working the cues at the City Lore Gallery on East 1st Street in NYC, 7 pm. Richard is also a great banjo player, my Co-MC for the Coney Island Mermaid Parade and one of the founders of the Coney Island Hysterical Society, considered one of the pivotal groups in the "Coney Island Renaissance".

I sit down with the guy who brought me to WFMU, Kaz, to conduct a Q & A all about his new career retrospective, the Fantagraphics book Kaz: From Hoboken To Hollywood. Join us at the Word Bookstore in Jersey City. This discussion will become an Aerial View show, so come on out!