"Happy Thanksgiving!"

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

"I am thankful (very thankful) for you being here and reading this. I wish you and your family a 'wonderful, beautiful' meal with loved ones around."

Personally I will do the same and eat pumpkin pie before and after our meal. I ate a pumpkin pie last week as well... to prepare!?!?

"To eat the next one this week!" lol.

I like to put a slice of pumpkin pie in the freezer! Then later I can hold it and eat it like a "PieSicle!" Ohhhhh it's GooOooOooOOoD!

Enjoy,

Don

(I think this guy in the bottom right corner feels he knows us - he keeps staring).

"Don't Touch That Dial"

So I'm getting a HD camera to start a show featuring stories, sessions and tours I take. It will be a lot of fun. Kind of like reading this - except we'll watch, we'll laugh, we'll be entertained!

Suggestions are welcome while I'm brainstorming for things I'd like to show and play.

Hey while on tour I'll duck tape the camera to my head, I don't jump around to much or do flips on stage...(okay not at all) so it would be a pretty steady cam. Lol.

I've got stories to tell old and new. It'll be fun.

Heres something new from old. I just 'youtubed' Cliff Morrisson". He is said to be the son of Jim Morrison (looks and sounds like his dad). I played on his first "Lizard Sun Band" CD. Interesting young man at that time livin' out his father's reputation of "wild drug" behavior. A loose cannon to say the least at that time. He went to prison within a year of releasing that album. I thought he went away for life BUT no, he's out with "The Lizard Sun" band II.

I watched the video on YouTube and it's nice to see him more relaxed and focused.

Currently I'm working on 4 sessions out of my home studio. I then send my tracks over to the 'main' remote studios via internet (anywhere in the world) and the tune or project gets completed there. I finished two sessions that exported to Canada last week. Very nice songs and session. I played NS/Stick and Bowed guitar. I look forward to 'showing' that in our "Tv show" when the camera gets set up. Ohhhh We're gonna have FUN! Kind of our own musical "Soupy Sales Show" I hope.

One particular session I'm trying to finish today is for a young Rap artist "Mike P". He has a clever tune/rap about his life as a "Hells Angel Biker", of which he is. If I get the 'camera' set up in time before these sessions end for him, he'll be on one of the first "Tv" shows we can watch. Maybe we can a shot of him "Roaring" into the studio! That would be fun, 'noisy' but fun.

I had a picture of "Mike P" in full "Hells Angels" jacket and such but I can't find it. So we'll save it for our Tv show.

Okay lets get this 'posting' out so I don't have to feel so guilty that the last one was "Halloween", yikes time flies.

Hey once I get the "Tv show" running I can say things like "Don't Touch That Dial" and "As seen on TV" and

"We now return you to your regularly scheduled - life"

Excellent!

Don

"Happy HALLOWEEN!"

‘The Guild’ Halloween Special"

is now available on MSN, Xbox and Zune Marketplace.

In a few weeks if you wait, it will show up on www.watchtheguild.com for your dining a viewing pleasure. That show just keep on going, it's a good one.

So this Halloween was much like last years, my neighborhood is very quiet and not to many kids come around but the ones that do come out decked out in inventive and cute outfits. It's nice to, to see the kids so polite. I seem so generous as I give out fist fulls of candy. It's "1 part generosity and 2 parts "Oh my we don't want that much candy laying around the house!".

I like the Reeses peanut butter cups and Milky Way bars! I put fist fulls in the 'freezer' (I'm the only one that likes frozen candy!!! (ALLLLL MINE!). My motto as a kid, 'Like what others hate and you'll always have plenty of it layin' around!"

I remember as a kid watchin' "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" with Don Knots. Loved it, so lets throw in a picture here. It seems fitting. Eat lots of candy so your sick of it for another year... or at least until 'dare I say it' "Valentines Day" NOW THAT's a Scary Day!! On false move and....

"Click!!"... you stepped on an emotional land mine...... BOOM.... banned to life on the couch.

That 'look' on "Don Knots" face is the same one I get after the "CLICK"!!

My Couch is pretty comfy,

Apparently I haven't learned "so I've adapted" LOL.

Well you all have a most "HAPPY HALLOWEEN"

Don

"One Good Gig Away From...."

Hi "All".

Well C'mon lets tell stories. I've had a big one for awhile. You know the kind, so "Nice" you want to see how it turns out before you "talk to much about it"... You say your prayers just the right way, hope just the right way and like when you were a little kid promise to be a good boy for at least a couple months in hopes it turns out great... Well! Yep that kind of story.

I get a call to co-write a theme for a network television talk show. Sure I'm excited but first you have to write it, then you have to record it (no demo - real deal finished product) - I call them "air time ready". THEN: after all the WORK is done they still have to like it before it actually gets used and you get paid for it.

You think about who it's for and the instrumentation.
We decide medium sized horn section like 3 saxes 3 brass, Hammond organ, guitars, drums and of course NS/Stick. "What the heck" because we can and it sounds great! You should of heard the two handed tapping part I had flying that the was going to get buried beneath the sea of horns and hammond. No matter - in the session hearing that was going to be the case I laid down the 'unburiable' NS/Bass' line that the arrangement could ride on top of. Still 'deluxe' just not as visually cool as 'two hands flyin' like 'windmills in a storm! (Good visual huh!?!?).

Heck I went all out, hiring the horn section, booking the bigger studio, writing out charts, . Yes charts! my old "paper with black dot' friends that I rarely see in the studio anymore. I rarely write out horn charts... okay I've never written them out so I called my brother back east to check my transpositions and ranges. I didn't want to embarrass myself with a silly chart in front of my peers so I prepared and still sheepishly handed them out apologetically. No need, they told me to keep quite, "They'd take it from here" and go back into the control room and relax. So I did and ate a donut.

On a side note: (Yes, I brought donuts, it being a session I booked, I felt 'compelled')

The Horns where blasting away beautifully, topped with wonderful Trumpet and Sax ad-libs throughout. Swirling hammond organ and crunchy guitars. Solid drums and a most solid NS/Stick bass tone to shore it all up and hold it together. I was pleased. In a deluxe studio, we recorded a super talk show theme. Everyone loved it! Even the seasoned pro's! (which can be a very tough crowd indeed).

The "George Lopez Talk Show" airs in about three weeks and I co- wrote this theme with Lance Matthew... AND George Lopez and business partner LOVED it... However the Executive producer wants to use "Low Rider" by War just like they use in George's sitcom show. So for the past month we have been waiting an talking. Folks... I don't think we got it, I think they will go with "Low Rider".

Tough break as they say. So close. I always tell my wife, "We're one good gig away from...", fixing the fence, putting a solar heater up on the roof for the pool, (The list then unfurls and drops to the floor, then rolls 10 more feet... as my wife adds her list of items!

So I'll put another pole up against my leaning fence, tell my wife "you'll love it -The water is brisk and invigorating - " and we'll knock the next ball we swing at 'outta the park!'

"Hey, I'm one good gig away from having a story with a better ending!!!!"
Don

George Lopez show airs November 9th.

"Moments in Time"