Thursday, August 2, 2007
Lyric of the day: "Talkin' to you, girl, is like long division." -Old 97's
Monday, July 23, 2007
To check out full size Pics of all of our fun on tour CLICK HERE!
Ok, so I've had my coffee and I'm ready to do some updating. I have not been able to get to a computer since Friday...so let me back up a bit. After the cool Rancho gig we got up on Friday and headed to CN Tower, the tallest man-made structure IN THE WORLD. I think the teenager working the elevator said it was 140 stories high. HOOO-LEE! In my opinion it was pretty scary. When we got up to the top (the observation deck and the "Sky-Pod") we took turns standing on the glass floor...that was sick. At one point I looked over to see Marc, serenely sitting down, legs crossed, on the glass floor, just staring below him. It was hard to get the full affect because it was a crowded touristy spot, but I think he really got a sense of floating for a second or two. What I found most interesting was that it was the adults, not the kids, who had the most fear about standing on the glass floor. Many of the kids were just unafraid, JUMPING on the glass, which terrified us! It was wild. We came down from CN Tower and went promptly to the Rogers Centre, formerly known as Sky-Dome (right next door to the tower), to check out The Blue Jays-Mariners game. It was a pretty cool stadium and we had a fun time even though the Jays lost. On Saturday we packed up and headed to Barrie, Ontario, about an hour north of Toronto, for our final gig at the KOA Barrie. There were a couple of highlights from this gig - first of all JATF was joined on keys by our Torontonian friend, Kris King for a few tunes that included "Superstition" and "Born Under a Bad Sign." We even got to play "Practical Others" for the first time all week since we had a keyboard and stand handy. The guys got a couple of really great jams in. The other highlight was the lovely bunch of young ladies we met who became the newest, youngest, members of the Jules and the Family fan club. Taryn, Chelsea, Gavin and Cassie, the youngest of 4 generations of their family who were all on hand Saturday night, cheered, clapped, danced, and screamed for us for an hour! We even got to meet Great-Granny Shirley before ending that night's set with "Brown Eyed Girl." They were truly a special bunch. I even had a real rock star moment when, after the gig, I went to the ladies' room to wash up for the night. I opened the door and found 4 little girls, brushing their teeth, getting ready for bed. As soon as they saw me they ran over, tooth-brushes in hand and faces full of paste, and we had a big group hug! It was so funny and cute. They even stopped by our site in the morning to wish us a safe trip back to New York. Our week in upstate New York and Ontario was filled with experiences similar to this one. EVERYONE we met was so awesome, supportive, creative, and appreciative of what we were trying to do. We have made many friends who we'll be keeping in touch with and hopefully going to visit again soon. You can check out some of them on the PICS page, which we'll be updating pretty consistently this week. Johnny, JL and Marc are sending more of their pics over this week, so check back often!
Friday, July 20, 2007
PICS ARE UPDATED!!! GO CHECK 'EM OUT!
Good afternoon! Our final show in Toronto was last night at El Rancho Relaxo...at midnight! Anyone who knows us is probably thinking, "Wow. You guys actually stayed up past midnight?!" You know we ain't the spring chickens we used to be! But yes, we made it, and played a great set of old and new originals and some classic covers we love. We even busted out "Ain't No Sunshine" and "No Good For Me," two tunes we haven't played in years. We also met some cool musicians, Rayna and Ryan, a funky sound guy named Spoc, and got to hang with Kris, Darrin and Amy - the new official JATF Toronto street team! LOVE IT! After the gig we sat for a bit at the bar chatting with the bartender, Illinois native Greg who's got a band of his own called The Motherload.
Today we are off to CN Tower and the Rogers Centre (Sky Dome) to cheer on our new favorite American League Team, The Toronto Blue Jays!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Hope all is well! Just want to give you a little update on how we spent yesterday. First, we decided to go into downtown Toronto and catch the ferry out to Toronto Island...To me, it was kind of like if Central Park in NYC was its own island, with about 800 year-round residents. Quite beautiful! We walked around taking many pictures and enjoying the rustic boardwalk that overlooked Lake Ontario, and even stumbled onto this new-age-rope-climbing-structure-playground-thingy and climbed all over that for a while (pics to follow shortly). We stopped for a mid-afternoon drink at a restaurant called The Rectory, and then grabbed the ferry back to downtown. Approaching from the island, visually, Toronto actually reminds me a lot of Manhattan's financial district and the Water Street/Seaport area. After driving around a bit at the suggestion of our waiter, Jay, from The Rectory, we settled for a pub on King Street W called N'Awlins. This little joint was hoppin' with a rockin' jazz group called The Jim Heineman Trio. Jim, Stacey and Marc are a fantastic bunch of musicians who play N'Awlins every Wednesday night and if you are in the neighborhood I highly recommend checking them out. One of the night's highlights was when the trio invited our very own Marc Osborn up for a jam on piano (again, pics are on their way!). Of course, Marc was awesome and made us all proud. We chatted for a while longer and then headed home for the evening.
Today we are just hangin' around. Marc and Johnny are off to see Transformers while the rest of us hang back and catch up on some reading and what not. Tonight we'll be at the Rancho Relaxo for our last Toronto gig :(
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Hello there! Sitting around on our second day off of this whirlwind tour of Toronto, trying to motivate to get up and do some sight-seeing in downtown Toronto... Johnny and Marc are snoozing, catching up on some much needed rest, while Scully, JL and I go thru our PICS from yesterday's excursion to Niagara Falls. The Falls are absolutely breathtaking! We did the "Journey Behind the Falls" walking tour - people actually get to go down into tunnels blasted thru the rock behind Niagara Falls about a hundred years ago to see The Falls from the inside. Did you know that there have actually been a few people who went over The Falls in barrels or boats and actually survived!? One widow in the early 1900's went over in a barrel WITH HER FREAKIN' CAT!!! That is just nuts. We got home last night after stopping at "The Beer Store" where we picked up some good ol' Canadian Moosehead. We had a blast playing around on Scully's Mac taking ridiculous photos of ourselves in the "photo booth"....will post some soon. We laughed for hours.
Ok, more to do this afternoon, and then tomorrow is Rancho Relaxo at 9pm and on to Barrie on Saturday. Hope to see some of you there!!!
Love Jules
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Good morning! Actually, good afternoon - it's 1PM. Here we are in sunny Toronto on our 4th day of the tour. We played great gigs the last 3 nights and have had a wonderful time getting to know some awesome musicians and artists. I think the highlight thus far has been sharing the last 2 gigs with the fantastic Toronto based band The Strip. Darrin, Kevin, Matt and Chris are four talented singers, songwriters and instrumentalists. Their harmonies are out of this world, not to mention their hospitality has been second to none! We can't wait 'til they come to NYC! On sunday night at The Gladstone Darrin joined us on saxophone for Undivided, and last night Johnny Madden and I couldn't help but jump up to play tambo and sing harmonies on You Can't Always Get What You Want and The Weight. Both nights were really quite special. Today we are off to Niagara Falls for some sightseeing and a nice restful day...as soon as I sign off and get in the shower!
Have a great day! Oh yeah: we have taken loads of pictures thus far but have forgotten to pack the cable that connects the camera to the laptop....if we pick one up we'll update the pics tonight or first thing in the morning.
Monday, July 16, 2007
JULES AND THE FAMILY HAS LANDED IN TORONTO! Hope this message finds you doing well and enjoying the summer. Just want to write a little update and how the tour has been going. We left Westchester Saturday morning and spent the afternoon driving north to Franklin, NY (outside Oneonta), where we stopped to set up camp at the Unadilla KOA Kampground! That night we played to a fantastic crowd of campers, kids and adults alike. We met some great people like Kathy and Mike, Kelley and Brian, Mary Jo and Roger, just to name a few. The highlight of the night was when members of the audience joined us for a few sing-a-longs! As per usual at JATF shows, two guest stars blew everyone away: Alex on the drums and Amanda on acoustic guitar! These two talented teenage campers led the entire tent in singing "Sweet Home Alabama". It was really something special! We wrapped up the night by stuffing all 5 of us in a beautiful, brand new, one room cabin.
I'm gonna run and have some breakfast with the guys (courtesy of Sculls!) but I'm not done updating so give me an hour and I'll be right back!
Jules