Monday, March 12, 2012

Lazarus Come Out

Here is a new performance of Lazarus Come Out, recorded March 11, 2012 with the sanctuary choir at Christ Church, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Mark Janas, conductor.

Friday, March 09, 2012

Jim Brochu and Harvey Evans Thrill Broadway.

Jim flew in from his gig in Toronto to appear with Broadway legend, Harvey Evans -- a man I've never heard anyone say a single bad word about -- in a one-night benefit called "Broadway Backwards" for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

In the show, men sing women's songs and women sing men's songs.

In their little spot, Jim and Harvey sang a song called "It's Never Too Late To Fall In Love." Jim ad libbed a crack about the "Smash" TV series which exploded like a neutron bomb. And then, the two of them, did an adorable song and dance, with encore! and stole the whole show.


PICS: THE OUT NYC

The other night, Jake and I scoped out The Out NYC, a gay and straight-friendly "urban resort." We didn't take pics that night, so I slipped over last night and just took some random shots. I love the phrase "straight-friendly." 

Those masks are chairs. 


This might be the widest hallway entrance for a small hotel in New York City.
The two guys were friendly, but it was too late to get a real tour of the rooms.




The XL nightclub is AMAZING, BTW. It's huge. And the stage is huge. The night we were there, a big Broadway artist was performing with a full band. The room enormous, but with nice cozy corners, a big floor with tables that can be cleared to make a dance floor. Its close proximity to the Broadway area tells me that this is going to be a very popular hang-out for show folk, especially if rich daddy types start to fly in.

With this on one block and the gorgeous wide-open Yotel 4th floor plaza on the next, Hell's Kitchen just keeps getting hotter (and no, they may NOT rename it MiMA).

THE LAST SESSION CD now at iTunes, Spotify and other streaming.

THE LAST SESSION may have been the first musical on the Net with its own website, but we've embarrassingly been a bit behind the times with getting the cast album online. No real explanation except that I wasn't exactly sure how to do it until Tunecore came along recently. For 50 bucks, they'll not only distribute to iTunes, but to every major streaming service and cybermart that's out there.

So, this week, I pawed through my dusty CD collection and found the original cast album -- and now it's available worldwide.

Fire up the Spotify or hit the iTunes store. It's all available to you now. Enjoy!

Here's the iTunes link.

Saturday, March 03, 2012

New Glasses.


I have to confess I'm not much of a fashion icon.

I know. You don't believe me, but it's true. For me glasses have always been simply utilitarian. If I can see through them, then they're fine. I rarely give much thought to frames. So, when it came time to get new ones, I thought, "What kind would I get if I really wanted something attractive? How do I even know what to choose? I did not get the gay fashion gene."

The prescription was starting to feel old and the wire frames weren't holding the lens very well. It was time for a change.

My eye doc gave me the name of a place he felt could handle the special needs of my eye care. One eye is wonky, so I need a prism. And I need the line for the bifocal set a little high. Sometimes I have to wear my eye patch.

When I got to the store, which was down in the lower east Village, the guys -- who all seemed really cool -- made suggestions. I tried them on, but the fact is that I couldn't see them. Without my glasses, it's too fuzzy to see anything.

So, trusting them, I got these.

Then, I went over to my primary physician's office and reported all my good blood sugar news.

So, am I a glamour boy?

Thursday, March 01, 2012

The Bonus Round Sessions CD will go online.

Made back in 2000, BRS consists of a live performance of most of the songs from The Last Session, plus a few demos and some early versions of songs that made their way into both The Big Voice: God or Merman? and New World Waking. The CD, a benefit project for Youth Guardian Services, has mostly been only available as a physical disc.

However, with the preponderance of people getting their music through streaming, I finally registered the album with Tunecore, which will then distribute it to both paid download and streaming services: iTunes Mexico, VerveLife, Rhapsody, Zune, MediaNet, Amazon MP3, Spotify, Google Music, iTunes U.S., iTunes Latin America (incl. Brazil), iTunes Australia/N.Z., iTunes Canada, Nokia, eMusic, iTunes UK/European Union, iTunes Japan.

I always found it very frustrating that I could find just about every artist in the world except me. And, for a guy who was an original Net pioneer, that's embarrassing!

It says it will take a few weeks for everything to be in place.

I'm particularly interested in the streaming services, such as Spotify, because a still mostly unknown artist like myself can become available immediately to people who might be reading about me for the first time.

And, given the fact that The Last Session is about to be revived, -- possibly in TWO internationally known theater cities (announcements soon) -- I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that people will come looking for the source!

I wish I had a full recording studio at my beck and call, so that I can make more albums. But I don't. Friends are suggesting I might enough support to do a Kickstarter campaign, but I don't know. Asking for money is so icky.

So, in the intervening years, I've mostly written for the stage or concert hall, hoping that, some day, I can revive, or at least revisit, myself as a solo performer. Singing last month in Olympia, Washington, lit a fire for me because I felt so at home with this folk audience. It was a similar feeling to singing at Kulak's Woodshed in Los Angeles.

As much as I enjoy dressing up and singing in a cabaret or theater, I feel so much more at home in a relaxed environment, where everyone's laid back, maybe having some tea, and wearing a few hippie patches on their jeans.

Maybe I'm just a simple folk singer, after all. Who knows? I'm too young to start labeling myself.