An evening at home.

Thursday evening and i was tired.

I decided to stay home cook a delicious meal,have some wine,
listen to some music,play guitar,sing,watch a movie.

For dinner i trusted the delicious recipe found in
Mark Bittman`s
"How to Cook Everything"page 279 called "Sauteed Flatfish or
Other White Fillets",in my case i use Tilapia.

For wine i had a delicious Italian Pinot Grigio .

For music i listened to George Benson
and to Lee Ritenour and after dinner
Kathleen and I watched two Movies.
"Pride and Prejudice" and "Must Love Dogs".

The first one is adapted from the classic Jane Austen`s Novel
with the same title and very skilfully turned to an amazing movie.

Jennifer Ehle gives a masterful performance as Elizabeth
and so does Colin Firth as Darcey.
Donald Sutherland is great in his "Papa" role.

The next movie "Must Love Dogs" is a romantic comedy adapted
from a popular novel by Claire Cook,
where the acting talents of Diane Lane
John Cusack
Christopher Plummer and the three adorable puppy dogs make it fun to watch.

Mexicali Blues Cafe.

It`s been on my wish list for one year but on Tuesday
and after being invited by the hostess Nikki Armstrong
i took the NJ Transit 167 Q bus to
Teaneck ,New Jersey.

Living in Manhattan and especially in
Times Square like i do,
one can not afford a car, nor one needs one,
being in the center of all public transportations
that run 24/7.

After a 30 minutes ride i was dropped off in front of the
Mexicali Blues Cafe at 8:30 pm.

Nikki and my pal bass player extraordinaire Ivan Bodley
were outside enjoying a very pleasant night and they sure were happy to see me
stepping off that bus.

We all went inside and the house band started playing with Nikki
singing two tunes before she invited to the stage this fabulous band from
Dallas, Texas who were there poromoting an upcoming show,
The Nawlins Gumbo Kings .

These guys were great with such an energy,playing from mambo
to zydecko to jazz with such an ease and such a vibrant rhythm
it was a pure joy to see them and hear them live and for FREE.

After them i was invited up the stage and although they were
a tuff act to follow we did a good job and people loved it.

I left at 11:40 pm in order to catch my 11:45 bus that came right on time
and brought me back to Port Authority bus terminal
a ten minutes walk from my house.

Guitar Player TV.

It`s truly amazing the quantity and quality of knowledge offered
to young aspiring guitarists of today.

Guitar Player magazine has been doing a very good job
since the day it launched in the early 70`s and has always kept up
with every new technological development in order to satisfy it`s
knowledge hungry readers.

And now they launched the Guitar Player TV.

Get educated,get entertained,just log on to www.guitarplayer.com
and click on guitar player TV. it says on their July issue which i got
on my mailbox last week.(I am a subscriber so i get it before it hits the stands).

And so i did and i found myeself spenting the next three hours mesmerized
by the length of information and knowledge they put up there.

I first visited mr.Zakk Wylde at his studio and got to be there
with the man showing me how to play riffs, that i had already red and played
from the magazine`s last issue,but it is a compeletely intimate and amazing
experience to see Him playing these licks, while checking out the stomboxes
he is using and how and when he incorporates them for
to achieve his signature sound. WOW!

I`ve got some very good advise from mr.335 Larry Carlton
from a footage that i beleive it was shut in November 2005 at the
Music Player live convention at the
Crowne Plaza hotel here in N.Y.C.

I was there representing Brian Moore Guitars
and i did see his live performance (part of which is also up there) but i missed his private lesson session.

I really enjoyed the Blues Alchemy with mr.David Hamburger
and after spenting almost three very inspiring and fun hours discovering
all the goodies guitar player TV is offering for free,i haven`t still covered
a very great deal of lessons and knowledge by this incredible new tool!

Anyone for BBQ?

My friend and amazing guitar player Jason Green invited me to this place located at 646 west 131 st. in Harlem called DINOSAUR BBQ,where he and his trio "Labor Of Love" was performing for the first time.

It supposed to be one of the best BBQ restaurants in the city and the one that
features great Blues Bands so i gladly accepted his invite.

Due to construction the 125st. and 137st. stations on the no.1 line going
uptown were closed,resulting in me getting off at 145st.

No problem, since it was a chilly but bright night and it gave me the
opportunity to walk down Broadway checking out the street life on a Saturday
night which was interesting and fun since i seldom find myself in this part of the city.

When i got there at around 11:00 pm the place was crowded and i had to
follow the music for to find the band.

First one i saw was Mark Greenberg on the drums,which was a nice surprise
since i haven`t see him or played with him for a while.
Yanko Valdes was on the upright bass doing a marvelous job as always
and of course Jason on the guitar and vocals.

I was very warm welcomed by all three and as i was standing there
i noticed Nikki Armstrong who was sitting on the other side of the stage
at the corner of a big table crowded with people.
She invited me over to sit next to her and i happily accepted.
I had missed her show the night before at Lucilles
and i was happily surprised to see her there.

We had the chance to properly introduce ourselves and then she joined
the band singing two tunes promoting her upcoming show there next Saturday.

By the time she finished i was invited to the stage and since i hadn`t brought
my axe with me Jason handed me his Strat and left me up there to do my thing.

Rainy Days.

It has been a rainy week.
Because of that i mostly spent my days and evenings at home,
doing the usual staff.
Teaching,Playing,Writing,Cooking,Reading,Watching videos.

I like cooking.
It relaxes me and it feeds me well.
I get most of my groceries at Westerly Natural Market
the 8th Avenue one and i follow mr.Mark Bittman`s Instructions on How to Cook Everything.

His recipes are easy to follow and the results are always good.
The new ones i`ve tried this week were:
Chicken in Lemon Sauce on page 394, and
Spaghetti alla Carbonara on page 141,
but i substituted the bacon with thinly sliced zucchini.

Both recipes were delicious.

I am almost in the middle of this amazingly written book by
Orhan Pamuk titled "Snow".

Reading it makes you realize the problems Turkey is facing
in her struggle to join the European Union .

Last night i watched a very good movie titled 8 Mile.

Now i am not into Hip Hop music and i am certainly not a rapper but i discovered Eminem and his performance in this movie is superb.

He is a great Rapper and a good actor , playing himself
in this autobiographical story, growing up on 8 Mile road in Detroit.

Arthur`s Tavern.

Monday night was a rainy night.
I was ready to attend three different shows starting at 9:00 pm and finishing
at 3:00 am. but i decided to wait for the rain to slow down before
hitting the streets of Manhattan .
By 10:00 pm the rain stopped and i walked over to 42nd St.
Times Square subway station,
to catch the 1 or 9 train to Christopher St./Sheridan Sq.
Right at the heart of Greenwich Village
where the legendary Arthur`s Tavern is.

I was invited by Jay Sweeney who plays there every Monday night
late show from 11:00 pm. to 3:00 am.

When i got there i immediately felt welcome by the very friendly
atmosphere of this place and by the "Hi Bro"greeting by a black
musician dude who was hanging out .

The place was packed with music lovers and after making myself at home,
sitting on a bar stool right there in the front with a trumpet
almost touching my nose ordering a Guinness and relaxing ,
i understood why.

The Grove Street Stompers Dixieland Jazz Band have been playing there every
Monday early show, from 8:00 pm to 11:00 pm for the last 35 years.
These guys are great.
I loved the way they play and i sat there hypnotized by the music
and the solos each member of the band was taking with such grace.


This place has been a regular hung out for Mr."BIRD"
Charlie Parker and so many other legendary jazz musicians
who`s photos hunging on the walls and you can feel the good vibes.

By the time i ordered a second round,Mr.Jay Scripps Sweeney
and his band took the stage bringing in a whole different music experience.
They do a lot of Rythm&Blues and they are grooving.
People are dancing,the music is great and after i was announced by Jay
as the Greek Guitar God,i was invited to join the band.

The Guitar Player hand me over his Strat
showed me the volume and gain knobs on his Carvin
and there i was playing "Route 66" with these amazing musicians.

Another great night out and a wonderful experience In N.Y.C.

Smoke Free.

In 2003 New York State became a smoke free state.

That`s when i decided to come and live here.

Being a working musician in Athens Greece is like being sentenced
to a life in a smoke chamber.

The pocedure is the same.

You shower, you shave you put on your clean washed clothes for to go to work ,
which in my case was a Blues&Jazz club in the heart of Athens,
or any other Rock club in this ancient city,
and when you come home some hours later you smell
like you have been exposed to a hazardous experiment where
a hundred or more people are smoking (cigarettes)
non stop for as long as they are sitting on their lazy arses,
watching you perform, never engaging in anything else except
smoking and drinking.
Marlboro is the No.1 cigarette of choice
An American Produce the Greeks Love.
Everything else American They hate.
Johnnie Walker walked three thousand miles
for to make Greece his first choice home town.
By the time you come back home your hair and skin smells like a nicotine disposal,
your clothes need to be put directly in the washing machine
and your lungs are filled with cancerous toxins for days.

And the next night is the same.

The torture never stops as Frank Zappa used to sing.

But Greeks are unfamiliar to Frank`s genious.

Give them Bouzouki,Marlboros and Johnnie Walker and they are ready
to kill each other on the road to freedom.

Because, oh Yes they Drive under the influence!

There`s no Law stopping the Greeks .

They invented Democracy and reinvented the word to fit their needs.

I reached a point when i was having an alcoholic drink in the club
i was playing and i was getting so sick i had to go to the emergency room.

Only when i was diagnosed with Pneumonia and did all these tests
i found out that what was leading me to the hospital was called
NICOTINE POISING.

I had never heard of such thing but that was the case.

My desicion to leave this smoking country behind was my only
choice in order to save my lungs,my sanity and my music career.

Picky,picky,picky.

Last night i was recording a very fast passage of notes carefully
and painfully chosen.

I `ve tried a couple of times with questionable results before realizing
that i had to use a much harder pick than the one i was currently using,
one that won`t bend when picking hard and fast.

I opened my "Pick Box" as i call it, where at least fifty different picks
are safely reside,and took out my trustworthy
Jim Dunlop Delrin 500 standard, no.410, lavender 1.5 mm one.

The smooth surface of this pick and it`s unresistable attack gave wings
to my right hand and i finally nailed the passage of fury notes down.

Since the pick is a guitarist`s right hand extention and a natural equalizer
i have been using different ones,with a variery of shapes and material, over
the years to achieve the tones i hear in my head.

For a long time i`ve been a huge fan of these small and cute Jim Dunlop
nylon Jazz i,ii and iii no.47R
with three tips that provide a variery of tones.
These picks suits your picking hand perfectly especially if you use an angular
picking motion with your hand in a shape of a fist.

I remember when i first started playing guitar in the 70`s Athens,
the only picks available then were the thin, medium and hard ones
by Fender.

Later on i switched to the Ernie Balls which were quite similar to the Fenders
but with a little more meat to the grip and they came in different colors
which was cool.

My long time good Athenian friend and very good guitar and bass player
Leo Georgoulis,who now lives in Toronto,makes these very fine picks
from coconut shell, in different shapes that he sent to me to try out and
which i find very good sounding.
Maybe some day he will mass produce them too.

For the last year however i am relying on Jim Dunlop`s
Ultex standard no.421 which are very good sounding,
extremely light weight and with a wide dynamic range.

Astor Place.

Last Saturday i wanted to have a haircut so i took to R train to 8 St.

I was going to meet my lovely hairdresser Irma who is working at
Astor Place Hairstylists,
at Astor Place.

By the time i got there around 12:30 pm she was busy with
customers so she told me to come back in an hour.

The weather was georgious and i couldn`t think of a better place
to be walking around than St.Mark`s Place
in East Village.

I am always so fascinated by the buildings on St.Mark`s.
The ones with the red brick walls and the emergency stairway
painted black outside.

First time i`ve been there the image of these buildings brought back a memory
of this cover art work i was so familiar with.
Later on i found out that my memory didn`t fail me and that one of these
buildings on St.Marks St. # 23 was The Bulding on the Cover of the
"Physical Graffity" double album By Led Zeppelin.

Almost right oposite from that building is this little music store
that sells used cd`s for around $5,99 each.

I couldn`t help but going in there and after a ten minutes of search
i came out with three cds.
An amazing Live recording by Sonny Landreth titled "Grant Street"
(this one is from 2005 so it was a little more expensive $7,99),
a Lee Ritenour album released in 1989 titled "Color Rit"
that includes one of my all time favorite ballads titled "Malibu",
and a Larry Carlton recording from 1993 titled "Renegade Gentleman".

Irma did an excellent job on my hair and she introduced me to a
Vavoom forming gel product
that it really made a difference resulting to a very curly,glossy and smooth look.

K-Pax

Monday night Kathleen and I were invited for dinner to our friends
Celine`s and Joe`s loft at Flushing Av.in Brooklyn.

They were so excited to having us there because they were complaining that
they are too far out of reach for their friends from
Manhattan to visit.

We took the V train from Manhattan to 23st-Ely Av, first stop
in Queens and then
transfered to the G train towards Flushing Av in Brooklyn.
After a total ride of Forty minutes we were at their place which is
at the outskirts of Williamsburg.

We were happy to be there and to see their beloved cat "Gato"
whom we`ve been taking care for six months, while they were
on the move from Harlem
searching for a new and bigger place to live.

It was around 9:30 when we ordered a car service to take us back to Manhattan.

A few blocks away we entered a nighborhood largely inhabited by
Hasidic Jews and that was an experience
i`ve never encountered before in my life.
It was a trip to another place and time.
Only if you see it you can beleive it.
I`ll have to walk this area sometime for to get the whole experience.

Back home i played my Gibson 335 for a while
and then we watched a very good movie that completely stole my attention
for the next couple of hours.
K-Pax with
Kevin Spacey and
Jeff Bridges in two amazing performances.
I want reveal any details.
You got to check it out yourself.
I loved it.

Never a dull moment.

Every first friday of the month the Black Cofee
Blues Band is appearing at the Waterfront Ale House in Brooklyn.

Last Friday May 5th i went there for my weekly dose of blues.
and to see my friends in the band.

Dimitri Archip greeted me as i walked into the door and so did Galea and
Arthur Neilson making me feel right at home.

I ordered a light blonde from Maria who is always keen on serving me
small house brands beers that are the Real Thing.

I immediately spotted some familiar faces and i started talking to this guy
who is a big fan of my music and who always practice his Greek with me,
in an attempt to remember every word he knows.

I sat right there in front of the band and really got into Arthur`s amazing
vocabulary of Blues licks.

There are always lots of musicians coming by and one of them
Dave Gross sat in with the band
playing Arthur`s Gibson Flying V
while his girlfiend sang a very nice slow blues in E flat.

When i came back home at 2:00 am on Saturday morning,
Times Square from 42nd to 46th str.
was in full motion, with so many people working in puting up a big stage
and tents for the big 6:30 am concert for cancer benefit and for the big rally
of bicyclists scheduled to start right after that at 8:00 am.

And that was bad for me and Kathleen since we`ve only got three hours
of sleep,being awake at 6:30 by the voice of Melissa Etheridge.

But what can you do?
Living in Times Square is a life without a dull moment..

Roadhouse.

Last night i decided to go and listen to some live music at the Roadhouse.
It was a beautiful mild night with light showers as i walked towards
the 42nd st. Times Square subway station.

I didn`t have to wait long for the 1,2,3 or 9 trains that would take me to my
downtown "Chambers st." destination which is one stop before the
World Trade Center.

Whenever i am down there i can`t stop but thinking and seeing the images
presented on my T.V screen in Athens-Greece of that horrible 9/11 day.

I just can`t help it, but i always have the urge to walk over to the site
and say a prayer for the victims.

The music was in full blast by the time i got there.
Dave Mann and his band was on stage and my friend Gordon
was doing the sound.

I met with the owner Jerry, who had offered me a gig there in April
that i unfortunately could not take then and we made some plans
for a future appearance there in July.

I really liked the band and i ended up playing two songs with them,
borrowing Dave`s guitar which was custom made by another friend of mine,
Jimmy Coppolo.

On my way back home i passed by
Hard Rock Cafe
and i had to stop and read a handwritten note by
John Lennon
which they had posted on the window of 43nd and Broadway.

It was a responce to a Beatles fan named Ruth
who had aparently asked him about the siblings of each member of the group.

I was so touched by his personal responce and the brilliance and humor
of his genious that shines through, even with the few words written on this
piece of paper.

Living in Times Square. Part One.

There are not so many people living in
Times Square
and from those few who do i know of noone who lives closer than we do.

We live in the heart of the heart of the city.

I live as close as one can to the Music District and the Guitar Street.

I walk to Mannys to check out the new guitars,
to get my free weekly news papers such as the Village Voice
the New York Post to get my low priced new strings
D`Addario or to do a test drive on the
Brian Moore Guitars that they have there connected
to a brand new Mac.

SamAsh is on the other side of 48th st.

Rudys is at the same side of 48th
towards 7th ave.

For to go and get my freshly baked loaf of bread from
Amys at 9th ave,
i have to go through the Square and the millions of tourists
that passing through everyday.
If you live here you have to plan your exit carefully for to avoid them
as much as possible.

Have you heard about the Naked Cowboy?
He is there alright.
I must say i admire him for standing there naked playing his cowboy song
even when the temperature is close to 50`s F.

He gets a lot of attention though let me tell you that
and has become a part of my everyday life.
If he is not there i miss him.
By the end of last summer (2005) a naked girl made an apearance
on the other side of the isle,which was a very welcoming surprise,
but she didn`t last too long.

Beautiful Sunday.

Yesterday i took a walk by the river. Hudson river that is.

It was a georgious day and so many people were out
riding their bicycles on the path,waiting in line for
a ride with the cruising boats up and down the river,
or just simply walking, enjoying the sunshine,
blue sky and good weather.

I passed the Cruiser Norwegian Star
the aircraft carrier Intrepid
and walked south till 34th st. admiring the panoramic views of New Jersey.

On my way home i passed by the world famous H&H Bagels store
at the corner of 46th and 12 ave.and got me five delicious bagels
with different flavours.

I spent the rest of the day working on a new song for my upcoming album,
cooking a Moors and Christians (black beans and rice,Spanish-style) dinner
from one of my favourite cook books called "How to Cook Everything"
by Mark Bittman
fiddling around with one of my all time favourite stomp boxes the mighty
Dunlop Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face
and ending this beautiful georgious day watching
"The most romantic film of the year"2002 that is ,
titled Possession.

Gwyneth Paltrow was as adorable as always
and Mr.Aaron Eckhart
Left an everlasting good impression.

True love is a durable fire in the mind ever burning.