Ride Sally Ride

Ride Sally Ride,
originally uploaded by carenb.

Yes, that's me live on stage at the Cutting Room. J-Mo arranged all the music for May's birthday party, and wonderful job he did. Hank played back up guitar with his classic Fender Jag. J-Mo had Kate Taylor (James' sister & a wonderful artist on her own), LaLa Brooks of the Crystals (she was a star in the 60s and can still shake her thang!), Mary Beth sang, and then J-Mo himself got up & sang Ride Sally Ride. He had called me a few days before the party & asked if I could sing back up. Jeez, I'm such a spotlight hog.

JackoLantern

JackoLantern,
originally uploaded by carenb.

Boo!

Hank's Latest Book is in the News!

billy_joel,
originally uploaded by carenb.

Did you know I'm married to a famous author? Hank has written 7 non-fiction books (see www.bordowitz.com {Yes, I designed Hank's site}), the latest of which is Billy Joel: The Life & Times Of An Angry Young Man. He's got a great agent, Jim, who works hard for him, getting him superb book deals (there's another one in the works, this is going to be VERY BIG, but my lips are sealed until the ink is dry on the contract.) Hank also has a super lawyer to read all his contracts & make sure everything agreed on is there. But I really love Hank's new publicist, George. (Don't ask what...or who...his old publicist was doing, but she wasn't promoting Hank's books) George has scored a coup by getting the Billy Joel book into the New York Post Page Six What next George?

Well, I got to tell you the bad part. A month ago, as it was just before sales figures were going to be accounted for, Hank called the editor to ask how books were doing. He checked and saw that there were only 75 copies in the warehouse. Hank asked him if he thought that, maybe, it was time to reprint. He agreed.

Hank called him the morning after the Page Six article ran. There are 37 copies in the warehouse. The reprint STILL hasn't been approved. Talk about a momentum killer. I mean they may have killed the sales on this book for all intents and purposes.

On Amazon.com the book went from #139,000 to #2634 in standing (not sales, just ranking) in one day! Hello! We need those books now, folks!

Disaster may be averted in the nick of time. The publisher is reprinting & George is slowing down the juggernaut.

Stay tuned.

NJIT Day

NJITday_10,
originally uploaded by carenb.

Michael, my eldest son, is a freshman at New Jersey Institute of Technology, a very prestigious engineering college in Newark, NJ, about 40 minutes from home, but he lives on campus. He's studying mechanical engineering, then plans on law school, followed by a career as a patent attorney.
Michael (far right in blue cloak) with his team, the Hell Raiders, braved the rain & participated in games at the annual NJIT Highlander Games. They did caber toss, tricycle race, dizzy race, first prize in Suduko at the Mind Games, finishing the puzzle in an amazing 5 minutes.

New CSS

I uploaded the October Specials which is a vast improvement over last month's (although I kept the nice rollover links). i.e. It's not so damn long that you wear out your track ball scrolling down to see the whole thing, the prices have a nifty acid green (CCFF00) highlight, the table (complete with 4 psudo classes: td, p, a and a:hover) has a nice red border (table=8pt red left & top; table cells=8pt red right & bottom; collapse:collapse to avoid nasty gaps).

Jean's Birthday Party

DSCN0905,
originally uploaded by carenb.

Hank & I went to Jean's Birthday party last night. It was the first time I ever met Jean & her fiance, Sam, even though they've been friends with Hank forever. Jean accused him of making me up.

Now, I won't tell you how old she is, but she is a decade, a month and a day younger than me. (Is that a grey hair popping out?)

It was Arturo's in the village. Very funky cool spot: there's a bathtub in the bathroom, lousy paint-by-numbers paintings on the walls for sale for ridiculously high prices, church pews for benches. But yummy pizza.