Friday, January 7
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Friday, January 70
Being part of the entertainment and/or service industry pretty much guarantees that you’ll never celebrate a New Year’s Eve with the rest of the world. I’m usually performing and leading the midnight countdown on stage or at someone’s private party….rarely with those who I would choose to be with to bring in the new year.
To combat this, last year a small group of friends gathered at my house a few days after New Year’s eve to celebrate a new holiday that I invented….New Calendar’s Day.
New Calendar’s Day is a day typically two days after New Year’s, on January 3rd (although the date can vary up to a week after New Year’s Eve). Participants are encouraged to buy a calendar (they always go on sale after the 1st of the year). Then we bring together the calendars from the previous year and burn them (using a candle purchased from the Yankee Candle Company). Then new calendars are exchanged as presents and thus the cycle continues.
So if you’re not able to have your own New Year’s Eve celebration…remember you can always celebrate New Calendar’s Day!
This is a song I wrote a couple of years ago for a novel/film project I’ve been working on for close to 10 years. It’s the story of a boy named Kris who grows up to become the man we all know as Santa. The book has just recently been published…Check out Santa Is Real for more info.
Merry Christmas!
The Snowflake Song
Counting snowflakes, counting dreams, count the days til Christmas eve,
Count the snowflakes, count the stars, count them if you’re near or far,
Falling Snowflakes, tumble down, Lift your head and spin around,
Falling Snowflakes, Count them all, a Christmas wish as snowflakes fall.
Crystal snowflakes, crystal night, keep my brothers, warm and tight,
Watch my sisters, safe and dear, til I return next Christmas year,
Falling snowflakes from above, each unique and filled with love,
Keep them safe until I call, my Christmas wish as snowflakes fall.
Making angels in the snow, playful children, watch them grow,
Read their letters, wrap the toys, each made with love for girls and boys,
Little angels, all around, close your eyes and settle down,
Snowflake angels, find them all, my christmas wish as snowflakes fall.
Falling snowflakes from above, each unique and filled with love,
Keep them safe until I call, my Christmas wish as snowflakes fall.
Drew is Back with Diggz to talk about the Ahhz reunion, DJ Baby Anne, DJ Magic Mike, and Baby Grands Dueling Pianos. Plus a call from the Sexy Savannah.
Here’s the Ustream version: (scroll down for the higher-quality MP3 Audio version)
MP3 Audio Only (higher quality audio than UStream):
I’d THOUGHT I’d pretty much heard everything John Lennon had recorded, music or otherwise. But in 1969, a 14 year old Toronto student interviewed John Lennon (I assume at one of his bed-in press conferences for peace). I recently came across this interview, which has been enhanced by some fantastic animation. His message from almost 30 years ago still rings true today.
Willow Bl00 & Diggz
Willow Bl00 gave me the skinny on a fascinating 2-part piece on written by Kevin Lovelace on Grinding.be called Brands, Prosthetic Identities and The Batman. She pointed out the second part, Open Source Superheroes, Idoru and the Batman which talks about Makerspaces and Geeks Without Bounds, two things I care very much about. Here’s an excerpt:
“In a world where prosthetic identities are commonplace, we can all be rockstars – and superheroes are rockstars that help people. Being something bigger than ourselves isn’t a superhuman feat in a world where Twitter lets you crowdsource solutions in seconds behind an @-handle that may be more recognizable than your birth name.
Geek culture helps birth Maker culture. Suddenly “makerspaces” are viable community resources. Highly-networked organizations like Burners without Borders, Geeks Without Bounds and various Worldchanging spin-offs can leverage that networking to react quickly to problems and use local resources to help solve problems when infrastructure, for whatever reason fails.”
Read more: Open Source Superheroes, Idoru, and the Batman or start with Part 1, Brands, Prosthetic Identities and The Batman (both worth the read)
When I was in my 20′s, all of my friends and I would regularly visit Howl at the Moon on Church Street in Orlando. It was something we did religiously (appropriate for Church Street, no?)…start our night of partying at Howl at the Moon. I was hooked…I loved the show, I loved the whole idea of dueling pianos….that the players took requests and did funny bits and got the whole room singing at the same time. It is true interactive entertainment. Modern-day vaudeville.
But I also remember thinking to myself, no matter how hard I practiced, I could never do what those guys did on stage.
Now, (ironically) many years later, I do. Mind you….I’m certainly not the best dueling piano player…I’m still learning. I trained at Howl at the Moon (which subsequently moved away from Downtown Orlando to International Drive). For almost 3 years I’ve been doing the gig part-time and had the opportunity to sit across the pianos from some AMAZING duelers: Ken Jamison, Joe Genuardi, Brian Wilk, Scott McGilvery.
When I heard that there were plans to open a new dueling piano bar on Church Street…right across the street from where Howl used to be, it was like an opportunity for me to come full circle. And for reasons that certainly expand beyond purely my skills as an entertainer, the folks at Baby Grands Dueling Pianos have embraced Johnny Diggz as part of their family. It’s a great team of players led by Orin Sands (formerly of Howl at the Moon and Crazy Pianos), Rob Volpe, PJ Gartrell and Libby Brcka…all of whom I’ve played with before.
The club is in the old Olive Garden Space (above Amura Sushi…across from 55 West) in the Church Street Marketplace. Find the elevator on the south side of Church Street (under the walkway) and go up to the second floor and walk straight into the bar.
During the first couple weeks we’ve been open, I’ve been quietly taking some pictures and video. I pasted a few together really quickly so here you go…I hope you enjoy….
I have to admit, this really looks cool. The Trek Geek inside of me just went a little apeshit. Haynes…the publishing company best known for printing manuals on how to disassemble (and reassemble) your 1972 Triumph Bonneville (I just ordered that one), has put together an owner’s manual for the USS Enterprise.
And it looks pretty damn cool.
Haynes publishes owner’s manual for Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise | Mail Online.
