A nice little montage put together by @SocialVirgil at SuperHappyDevHouse 42 at the Tech Museum in San Jose over the weekend.  Enjoy:

To learn more about Tropo Voice and SMS API, sign up for free at Tropo.com

Marya Murphy was kind enough to hold my iPhone and record this.  As far as I know…the sole recording of this performance.   The video is crappy, The audience was gracious.  It starts off with me explaining how I ended up coming to the first 140 Character Conference.  Jeff Pulver rocks.

This is a peek at what happened this weekend at the First Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

YouTube – Gnomedex Tinkerstorm.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to present Geeks Without Borders at Gnomedex in Seattle.

More about:

Geeks Without Borders
The Karaoke King
Tropo
Tweet3PO

It all started in gym class, the basis of so many things in life: Dodgeball.  All the kids line up while two team captains build their teams by selecting the fastest, most agile athletes.  For the kids who get picked first, it’s great.  For those still in line at the end…it’s an exercise in humility…especially for the fat kids, for they always get picked last.

My one saving grace was that I wasn’t fat kid.  But I was skinny as a beanpole.  A light breeze would send me flying down the street.  I never got PICKED LAST…but I was well aware that I was usually still standing in line towards the end of the picking…RIGHT BEFORE THE FAT KIDS.

But I knew strategy. I may not have been the best bladder-ball thrower, or catcher or dodger. But I knew EXACTLY WHO WAS.  Anytime there was a time out, our team captain would inevitably pull me aside and ask, “what should we do?”

I’d survey the opposite team, determine which of their surviving players posed the most danger, point at him and say, “Take out THAT guy.”

Today I’m serving my third time as a Juror in Orange County for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court.  As I sit here in the waiting room, I’m reminded of the previous two times I’ve sat in this same waiting area.  The same blind guy is still serving coffee.  Now they have WIFI (yay…I can blog!).

In 2003 I was summoned and served, showing up 8am. Around 4pm they herded 20 of us into a court room. The Judge arrived and he gave us an overview regarding a case about a grandmother who was pressing charges against her granddaughter for stealing her car.

I don’t know about you, but IF YOUR OWN GRANDMOM is pressing charges against you, you’ve got some SERIOUS PROBLEMS.  I was all ready to serve my duty (and really ready to send this grandma’s car-stealing girl to jail), but I never got the chance.

The lawyers started asking questions of the potential Jury Pool. “Do you have Grandchildren?” “Have you ever had a family dispute?” “Have you ever BORROWED A CAR?”

They posed these questions to 19 people.

I wasn’t one of them.

The lawyers skipped over me, time and time again.  They were going from person to person, asking the same 3 or 4 questions over and over…and each time they came to me, they just skipped to the next person.  It was literally like I wasn’t there.

Maybe they sensed I wanted to be a juror too much. Maybe I was too young, too old, too white…not white enough…too male, too smart looking…whatever it was, they summarily dismissed me without so much as a peep and sent me packing.

As I congregated in the elevator with my fellow dismiss-ees I mumbled, “She was probably guilty”.

An uncomfortable laugh followed.

In 2006, again I was summoned, and again I showed up to perform my civic duty.  That time I never even made it up to the courtroom.  They just dismissed me from the waiting area after I sat around for 5 hours.

Now it’s 2010.  In the time it’s taken me to write this post, they’ve called three groups of people up to court rooms…well over half of the potential pool of jurors that arrived at the courthouse with me this morning.  It’s been two hours, and I’m starting to get the sinking feeling I used to get in gym class….

I never get picked.

The dueling piano community in Central Florida is all abuzz with the announcement of a new dueling piano bar opening on Church Street in Orlando.   Slated to open later this summer, Baby Grands Dueling Piano Bar is taking over the 6,700-square-feet space that was formerly the Olive Garden…mere steps away from where Howl at the Moon used to be.

Howl at the Moon on Church Street was wildly successful, drawing a steady flow of downtown regulars in the waning years of Church Street Station’s glory days.   I know, because I was one of those regulars, and it was my first exposure to dueling pianos as a concept (my mom suggested that I audition, something I actually did many years later).

Baby Grands is opening in a city not without its share of competitors.  Howl at the Moon operates over 10 locations around the country, and its International Drive venue has been one of the company’s flagship stores for at least six years.  Pat O’Briens in CityWalk and Jellyrolls at Disney Boardwalk also do nightly dueling piano shows.  I’ve also heard there are a few bars in the Lake Mary area that have been experimenting with the format on weekends.

To its advantage, the entire 55 West area of Church Street has slowly been making a comeback in recent months.  The area already boasts 377 of the most centrally located apartments downtown, Amura Sushi, Panchero’s Mexican Grill and Gino’s Pizza & Brew.  Now, in addition to Baby Grands, they’ve announced plans for a new bar called Blend in the old Sharper Image space and Mad Cow Theater is moving into the old Hooter’s space.  And apparently Baby Grands will be be serving food…something that most other dueling piano bars (including Howl at the Moon) do not do.

The question on everyone’s mind is:  who is behind this new venture? The Orlando Business Journal reports that the principals own restaurants, bars and other franchises in Florida, New York and Virginia.

More importantly:  Who’s going to be playing there?   There are a limited number of experienced “A” duelers in town (I’ve met or played with most of them) and without exception, all of them have steady gigs at one of the already-established venues.  Will the new bar be able to attract talent from the other clubs?  We shall see.

One thing is for certain…lips are sealed tight.  If anyone is jumping ship, they’re keeping mum about it.  But I peeked in the space, and build-out has commenced.  Banners are flying in the windows and this week’s “Best of Orlando” issue of the Orlando Weekly featured a 1/4 page color ad for the new club.  Baby is on her way.

Baby Grands Dueling Pianos
54 West Church Street Orlando, FL 32801
(407) 849-1911

Update:  10/31/2010 Dueling Pianos Return to Orlando Church Street Station

Piano bar on tap at 55 West – Orlando Business Journal

Baby Grands Dueling Pianos in Downtown Orlando « Pulse of Central Florida.

So it’s been a couple years since Los Diggaz split up, although Johnny Diggz (that’s me) has been continuing to play solo gigs at the Red Fox Lounge in Winter Park, (filling in for Mark and Lorna) and playing for Howl at the Moon, sadly the core Los Diggaz fans have had no home.

Recently I was talking to a friend about how it seems everyone and their brother is promoting some sort of “reunion” show….and she asked me about Los Diggaz and whether or not Carlos (the LOS of Los Diggaz) and I would ever perform on the same stage again.

Truth be told, I have always wanted to continue the IDEA that we started with Los Diggaz…just without the “Los” part of the equation.

After the break up of Los Diggaz in 2008, I temporarily changed the name on our MySpace page (remember when we all used MySpace?) to Lounge Diggaz.  Since then the name has continued to grow on me.  And with the new name, I decided that instead of a power duo, we needed to become power trio.

(Yes, ladies…there are now three of us.)

I’ll be introducing the new band members soon…as well as hopefully a date for our debut live show.

Yes I know I totally stole that logo from Richard Cheese.  But he totally stole it from Las Vegas….so….

It’s actually just temporary until we get the real new one (hopefully designed by the same genius behind the original Los Diggaz logo…Doug Berger at R3M13D Orlando Graphic Design)

For now you can follow us on Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/loungediggaz
Or LIKE us on Facebook:  Lounge Diggaz on Facebook
I’ve also started a blog here: Lounge Diggaz

For the curious, if you want to read about the end days of Los Diggaz…you can check out our no-longer-updated Los Diggaz MySpace Page

Back in March, Johnny Diggz played the opening weekend at a new club in Miami Beach called Kill Your Idol (or KYI).  A buddy of mine name Chris Graham had somehow climbed the Miami Beach marketing ladder from handing out flyers back in the 90′s to booking talent and becoming  one of those “new-fangled go-to guys club owners and concert promoters call on when they’re in need of some swingin’ expertise.“

Rumor has it we’ve got a Yacht Rock party coming up later this month.  I’ll keep you posted.  Until then, you can read about Chris on NBC Miami:  NiteTalk: Chris Graham Wants You to “Kill Your Idols” | NBC Miami.

Yesterday I dropped off a prescription at my neighborhood Walgreens drive-through. I had never ordered this particular prescription so I had to ask the pharmacy tech to clarify a few things for me, which he did.

At the end of our conversation the pharmacy guy said, “you got it, Boss!”

As we drove away, my friend Stacey (who was in the car with me) and I proceeded to have a whole conversation about people throwing out undeserved nicknames like “boss” and how there’s usually something undeniably condescending about their use, regardless of intent.

When I went back the next day to pick up my order, the same kid was there and he called me “boss” again, so I aimed at him with my finger pistol and said, “Right back atcha, Chief.”

(That’ll show him!)

Except then he responded with, “Oh, thanks…I’m 1/4 Cherokee.”

What could I do?

So I killed him dead.

Now I’m on the lam. But it was sooo worth it.

Don’t call me Boss.