Merry Christmas. I woke up and found that the ground was all covered in white. Santa was here and brought me some cool gifts. Including a kick ass new pair of skis that are just beggin to be used on the fresh new powder. I can smell hot chocolate with bacon and eggs. Oh man this a great morning. The only thing that would make it better would be a phone call from U2 asking me to open up their next world tour.

What, wait, whoa, you mean I’m really gonna open for U2?!??!?!?!!?!?!?!!?!!?!?

Ah, that’s right it’s April Fool’s. But seriously, there is some good news happenning. I got wind that Taylor Guitar’s next issue of Wood & Steel (due out this month, April) will contain a review of Practical Insanity. As well, they will be hosting the video of Falling In on their website. This is quite exciting as I simply love their instruments. If you don’t own one, you really don’t know what you’re missing. Make sure you get out and get one. NOW.

Other little things that are happening include… Falling In is headed to The Fuse, it’s also going into rotation in retail locations around the country roughly in late May. Keep an eye out for it and if you see it, let me know. Also, I’ve started writing music with someone from a famous band, but I gotta keep hush hush for the time being. Needless to say, we’re coming up with some cool material that will be making the rounds soon. Also wearing the producer hat for another project based on a solo instrumental guitar record (no, not mine).

Additionally, I have already started meeting with a kick ass photographer by the name of Paul Gregory. I’m excited as now we’re working on my image, to bring it in-line with the music. That’s been one of my biggest weaknesses, not looking like the music I create. Well, in the next few weeks there will be a bit of transformation and that will all change. Then at the end of April when we’ve got it all together, the band and I will be shooting the next video for the song Closer To Ourselves. Byron Turk will be trying some interesting things for this shoot and the band and I will have to keep up.

Do you know someone really famous? I’m contemplating a 2 part video as the final videos for Practical Insanity. For Searching For You and Tabloid Affair. Obviously these songs are about finding, meeting, and dating someone famous, like big movie star famous. Thus if you’re friends with someone like say, Kiera Knightley, Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, Natallie Portman, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton, Jennifer Aniston, Uma Thurman, Selma Hayek, Jessica Biel, Ali Larter, Julia Roberts, Scarlett Johansson, maybe even Angelina Jolie, then I would be forever indebted to you if you could help me befriend one of them for the videos.

Are you an avid listener of Frosty, Heidi and Frank? Based out of Los Angeles they are LA’s number one rated noon show. They do a segment on fridays known as Should I Stay or Should I Go? Well, a while back I was on and did very well and even got high marks and praise from the triplets themselves. You’ll actually see some of the quotes pop up on the left side of the screen there under “things you say”. Well a few weeks ago on the show Frank had mentioned that they didn’t have a theme song. I figured what the hell, I’ll write one. I whipped this up in a few hours and sent a copy to the show and never heard from them. So at this point, I’m just going to call it the un-official Frosty Heidi and Frank theme song. Here’s the links: Full Version, Short Version.

Maybe if enough of the fans of the show decide that they like and ‘complain’ to them, they might take notice. Who knows. For now I’ll leave it up to you, the fans of Frosty, Heidi and Frank to decide if its a good theme song for them. Send me a comment about it when you’ve heard it.

Working on finishing up the video podcasts from the last trip out. Will likely post part 3 and part 4 today then part 5 tomorrow and that will close it out. I’ve also posted a ton of pictures in the Atlanta gallery.

Working on making a nice edited video of the APCA showcase as the video turned out great and I had a second camera filming. That’s got some great shots of the band and the sound is pretty darn good too. Also massaging several of the schools that saw us to work on more shows.

One more part of the trip back that I hadn’t mentioned yet. We had an accident involving the bus. That’s right, I’ve now officially been in my first accident. Fortunately everyone is ok, there were no deaths and no serious injuries. The bus is in the shop getting worked on as we speak. I’m glad it wasn’t like a Metallica moment.

As you can see the website has undergone a bit of an update. Let me know what you think about it.

JP and I are driving the bus back from Atlanta. Josh and Henrik had to fly back early due to getting a gig playing for our troups over in Iraq. Josh hates flying with a passion so hopefully he’ll survive the trip.

We got a chance to stop by the Clear Channel radio headquarters yesterday. I had recently befriended Clayton Allen who runs a station out of the building and he invited me out for a tour of the facility since he likes the music from Practical Insanity so much. We had a great time and met a whole lot of people.

The really amazing thing was getting a chance to sit and chat with the programming director who listened to the CD and checked out every song. Even picked “Searching For You” as a single. I also got a chance to cut a couple of radio spots with their DJ Hank from The Outlaw. He was really cool too. I’ll do a much more in depth report on that later.

As for this morning, I woke up and made some breakfast. While I was chowing down I actually saw a Road-Runner bird go cruising by. I had never seen one before and where we’re at at this rest stop in the middle of nowhere Texas there were tons of them cruising around. I got some video and pictures of it. In the next few days I’ll get the rest of the video podcasts up as well as a nice version of the showcase posted as well. 🙂

We’re out here on the road beginning day four of the current leg and day one of the APCA Conference. The trip so far has been nothing short of an adventure. Here’s a brief rundown:

Over on the left you’ll see a new category under Motion Pictures called Video PodCasts. So far you’ll see Day One and Day Two, Day Three is coming later today. These are little video snippets of our trip as it has been going. PodCast ready but in a video format. Download and enjoy on your video iPod or Computer.

The video for “Falling In” is getting a lot of attention. Still working on talking to several distributors. Things are looking good for it to blow up big time, which is fantastic. As for the conference at APCA in Georgia, we’ve decided to drop “Hey Ya” and “Since U Been Gone”. Instead we’ve picked up “Harder To Breath” by Maroon 5 and resorted to adding one of my songs.

Stay tuned for more good news to come soon.

Ring, ring, ring…

It’s the phone waking me up from a very long night that went well into the morning. I was awoken by a call from Brian A. Whitney who runs the Just Plain Folks organization. He’s working on the latest issue of his JPF Notes newsletter. I’ll be featured in the next issue for the video of Falling In with a little story about my dad, Kim Whitesides, who did the artwork in the video. So, it’s kinda cool that I’ll be getting a little boost to over 40,000 readers and members.

I got the new thermostats into “Claire the Big Orange Crush”. So all should be good to go with making use of the veggie oil system. It wasn’t fast or fun, but it’s done. Woo Hoo.

I’m also in talks with a few distribution companies about getting the CD “Practical Insanity” into the retail locations where the video will be getting rotation. Its an exciting time and I hope to have news in a short time that I’m finally going to be breaking out nationally.

The band and I will be in Atlanta Georgia from March 1st through the 5th for the APCA convention. For the performance I’ve chosen to add “Since u been gone” by Kelly Clarkson and “Hey Ya” by Outkast to the setlist. Should prove to be a very fun performance for the crowd. I’ll be getting it taped as well, so we’ll have a new live video coming soon to the website with the new version of the band.

Have a great holiday!

The week of love has come and gone… Did you have a great Valentines day? I ended up drinking with my buddies and playing an old video game called Galaga and ended playing on one game for over two hours and getting to stage 200 and just quitting as I got bored. Where did I do this? The infamous Barney’s Beanery in Hollywood. My buddy Mikey is a regular there so I’ve been going a bit just to hang out.

Falling In, the video is really getting some rave reviews and starting to make its way into some good places for me. Its been approved for the instore video screens at places like Blockbuster, FYE, Hastings, Tower, Fred Meyer and more. Very exciting indeed. I expect it will be happening in April at the earliest and May at the latest. Once I find out about the distribution I’ll be sending the video out to the Fuse and MTV2.

“Claire’s” Floor is all done now and it looks great. I’ll be putting the new thermostats in over the weekend and then it’s ready to rock and roll. We’ll be doing a couple of cover songs in Atlanta, I’ve chosen “Since You’ve Been Gone” and “Hey Ya” as the two we’ll use to help wow the audience at APCA in Atlanta. Plus I’m still on pins and needles waiting to find out about the Best Band of the Year. Keep your fingers crossed.

The exciting news for this month is the new music video for the song Falling In. It’s right there on the left side of the screen under Motion Pictures. You’ll need Quicktime 7, if you don’t have it go get it. Don’t worry it’s free. So far the feedback on the video has been nothing short of spectacular. So enjoy. I plan on getting it onto iTunes Music Store so that you can purchase it as well, and have your very own high quality copy. I’ll also be shipping it off to The Fuse this week. I also be send it to MTV/2, and VH1 as soon as I get their information.

A new additional name for the bus has been added thanks to my sister. It’s now: “Claire – the Big Orange Crush”. I guess she’s got something that I need to make it all official and stuff. But there it is. I’m more than half down with the new flooring and it looks amazing. Almost ready for our next trip out.

There’s a new bass player in the mix. His name is JP. I’ve been meaning to get pictures of everyone up on the site. I will do it one our next trip out.

What’s up this week? NAMM.

I will be cruising around the NAMM event on Thursday and Friday. There is the outside possibility that I’ll go on Saturday but I’m not sure. I’ve been told that I’ll be able to do a little presentation about using Logic Pro for Apple in conjunction with Taylor Guitars. If you happen to be at NAMM maybe you’ll catch it.

I’m also awaiting word on whether I’ll be attending the Sundance Film Festival. I’ve been asked to help Bird York do some performances at Sundance. She wrote the theme song to the movie Crash from last year. I’m excited to do it, so keep your fingers crossed that it goes through. Bird is also an accomplished actor and you’ve probably seen her in several films and on TV.

Did you see Love Monkey, the new TV show on CBS? If not, I’ve heard it’s good. But there’s another reason to spend some time watching it. My Practical Insanity poster may actually be hanging on the wall of the office of the set they film. I don’t own a TV so I’ll have to rely on friends and fans to let me know if they see it hanging there. But that’s pretty cool eh?

In the meantime, I start the process of re-flooring “Claire” the bus today. That will be the last of the cosmetic things for the bus for a while. Otherwise, I’ll be digging into the engine thermostats and making sure they’re working before the next tour leg.

Happy New Year 2006!

Just a quick recap on 2005 as I head into 2006. Obviously some good things happened this year.

• First and foremost the band and I played some great gigs
• Practical Insanity was released and is already selling
• Practical Insanity was released on iTunes and is selling well
• Streaming of older material on services like Rhapsody and Yahoomusic
• I purchased a tour bus, recently named “Claire”
• The second video for Practical Insanity was shot – Falling In
• T-Shirts for Practical Insanity were printed and are already selling
• Practical Insanity Posters becoming a big hit at shows and conferences
• Nominated for Best Band of the Year going into 2006 (I find out in March of 2006)

Obviously the music seems to be grabbing hold of people. I saw a rough near final edit of the Falling In video yesterday and I’m excited to see the final version in the next day or two – Byron Turk has done a phenomenal job with it. It will be getting shipped off to The Fuse in early January so keep the fingers crossed that it gets a really great response.

In all 2005 was a very good year. I’m really looking forward to 2006 and working my ass off with the band to blow up on the national scene.