Our day at the zoo went a little something like this:

12:00am: (NYC) Consume copious amounts of tequila at Johnny's Bar in the West Village. The occasion is an ongoing celebration of Ed Romanoff's birthday from the day before.
1:30am: We move the party over to the Spotted Pig.
2:30am: We take the party back to Ed's place. Champagne and guitars come out. We drink, play, and sing.
4:00am: We pack our things and leave for the airport.
6:25am: Fly to Cleveland, OH.
8:00am: We arrive in Cleveland and are now joined by the Weatherman. (He had gone home to VA for a couple of days)
8:50am: Fly to Toledo, OH.
9:40am: We arrive in Toledo. Exhausted. We are excited to get some rest but the hotel and its employees conspire against us and will not allow us to sleep. Construction, drilling, hammering, and attitude filled the air of the Riverfront (formerly Crowne Plaza) Hotel.
1:00pm: Frustrated, tired, and hungry, our new friends at the hotel suggest there is fantastic Italian food around the corner. We go. It's not Italian, it's actually "Greek". Lovely people at this joint but the food, well let's just say there are lovely people there.
2:00pm: I return to the hotel in yet another attempt to get some sleep before sound check. The rest of the gang is on a mission to find something sweet. Tricked by McDonald's signs that lead to a boardroom meeting, they fail to find dessert; I also fail to get any sleep due to the symphony of construction sounds accompanying the hotel room.
6:00pm: Soundcheck.
7:00pm: Show is canceled due to thunderstorms.
8:00pm: Dinner at a "Mexican" restaurant, the place gets valid.
9:00pm: With brown paper bags for umbrellas, we make out way over to another restaurant for martini's and dessert.
10:00pm: Wedding crashers Leshay, Weatherman, and myself pose as BMW hubcap designers in town for a convention.
12:00am the next day: Our charade works well but we deny the prize and decide to get some rest.

Until next time,
Kenny Bloggins

Quote of the day:
"Linens can not be stored in Los Angeles, we must buy them direct."
-Jon Leshay

We're back in Beantown like a fly drawn to and eventually stuck in molasses. For tonight's gig the Brown Tidal Wave entourage came out in full force. We were joined by our friends Raina, Heather, Bernie, David, Amy, Lori, Gene, Jon, Ed, and the one and only, world famous, Daniel "Lamuel, Van Buren, Plaidypus, I'm charging my phone, Weatherman" Clarke. NY, Stoughton, and Richmond represent! It's not late December 1963 but to quote The Four Seasons, "Oh what a night". Did I mention that we're opening for Stevie Nicks? How cool is that!? And she made us feel more welcome than wmd's in Iraq. Stevie and her supporting cast and crew were extremely gracious and helpful in making the night go just right.

Tonight's set list:
All Good Things
Moonshadow
Extraordinary
Wild Hope
Help Me
Can't You Just Adore Her?
Gardenia
Candy

Tilly cranked out an MVP worthy performance and I even noticed a bit more emotion in her voice. Perhaps it was due to the return of our very own Weatherman, or maybe it was how stunning she knew she looked in that red dress. Hearing the keyboard parts that helped bring these songs to life was such a treat. You kick ass Daniel! A flurry of memories came flooding back with each song: sports bars, pizza joints, a booze cruise, South Padre Island, marmosas. Memories I wouldn't trade for the world, but maybe the new 3G iPhone before its release date. Then Stevie took the stage. Wow. Patented twirls and the side to side flip of her dress. Waddy Wachtel and soooooo many great songs. Wow squared. Undeniable. Nothing beats checking out an amazing concert surrounded by friends. Thank you Boston, especially for your participation during Candy. You never seem to let us down. Don't worry I'm not a Laker fan.

Shout outs:
Raina, Heather, Bernie, David: Thanks for making the trip and taking the gear back to the city. You rock!
Amy: It's ok to be an uber-fan, we all loved to see you so excited.
Lori: Too cute!!
Gene: Trust me, cuervo is not tequila. Kinda like a hot dog is to beef.
Ed: The Romanoffs take Toledo!
Jon: Ed's waverly-in, priceless.
Weatherman: Don't shave!
Tilly: Certified, the real deal.

Please don't feed the lions,
Kenny Bloggins

Quote of the day:
"Miss Mandy Moore and Miss Stevie Nicks thank you for coming tonight…"
-Stevie Nicks

Oops we did it again. And by it, I mean played a truly self-indulgent show in our backyard at the Hotel Café while a bunch of our fans and friends watched. I like to watch too, and I'm not talking about rubber necking it on the 101 past an accident. It was a partial BTW reunion including Tilly, Funky Brewster, John O'Reilly?, Loren-go Lamas, and myself. QB and TW are still messin' around with KD. Zoinks it was fun!! Yup, I just used zoinks. Late last night while channel surfing I stopped at one of the Scooby Doo movies for a minute. I never said I wasn't a rubber neck when it comes to a live action version of a childhood cartoon. I couldn't resist seeing Daphne and Velma beyond the one dimension of animation, but something about that is just wrong. So there are many artificial highs made available for public consumption but I challenge you to find anything on this planet that can match the feeling that we have when we're making music together. Ok I can think of maybe one thing that feels pretty good, maybe if we combined the two. Get your mind out of the gutter! I wonder what would happen if I could have the best toro sashimi the sea could offer while playing "Gardenia", I would implode! We played a new song tonight that actually made its debut in Palm Springs late last year. It's a little ditty called "I Don't Know Baby". Man it's cool. First time playing it sans DJ Reggie. We look forward to recording it so everyone can hear. Which reminds me, I need to go bug Tilly about finishing up some new tunes so we can make another record and get back out on the road. Wasn't it John Lennon who said that life is what happens while you're busy on myspace?

Jazz helmet,
Kenny Bloggins

P.S. Big hugs to our devoted fans, friends, and family who came out to support us tonight. I owe you one Nicole!! Or maybe two? Can't remember.

Forgive me for the tardiness but I’ve been busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest. I will now time travel in this piece and write to you as if I’m on a plane bound from Manila to San Francisco. Here goes. I’m back in the homeland. How hot is it you ask? It’s v-haht. We had a short but jam packed stay here in Manila, filled with police escorts, 24 hour massages, gi-normous Mandy Moore billboards, my mom, Loren’s birthday, a lounge singer with whom we did a rendition of "Candy" and "Only Hope" at the hotel bar, a beautiful baby grand piano in Tilly’s tiny room, and last but not least, we met face to face with the one and only world famous V.J. Haht. It was a press conference frenzy upon our arrival at the hotel. Then us lounge lizards called it a night since we had to rest up for the big game. And by big game I mean big time folk pop rock trio acoustic gig for thousands of peeps at Eastwood City. The set list:

Slummin’ in Paradise
All Good Things
Looking Forward to Looking Back
Moonshadow
Ladies’ Choice
Wild Hope
Extraordinary
Help Me
Few Days Down
Adore Her / I Wanna Be With You
Umbrella
Gardenia
Candy
Only Hope

It was better than a Pelican West reunion; Tilly sang all the hits and then some. We brought back "I Wanna Be With You" and "Only Hope" just for you Manila. Hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did. Thanks to everyone involved in helping put this show on, especially Erik Estrada and the guy from Incubus who’s phone I was using. It’s been a fun couple of weeks for the BTW exploring Australia and the Philippines. Just when I thought I knew Tilly, we learned something new about each other: sparkling water rules and we both like to eat bugs whenever we’re in Noosa up the Sunshine Coast. Thank you Jon Leshay, Loren Gold, and the tour’s MVP, Mandy Moore.

Vajoni,
Kenny Bloggins

A Farewell to Oz

It's our last show in Australia and it's been a glorious week and half or so. We've seen a lot, learned a lot, ate a lot, drank a lot, laughed a lot, played a lot, sang a lot, Camelot, and although we didn't sleep a lot, we love it down here and want to come back with the entire Brown Tidal Wave sooner rather than later. At the Brisbane Entertainment Centre we folk pop rocked the Brisbanians back to 1972. They're pants spontaneously bell bottomed and I was somehow wearing a head band a la John McEnroe at the end of the set. Free love is all I have to say. Are you with me Dolores? Post show we had a lonely dinner with Ruthie and crashed Kelly's end of tour party. As usual, I ended up wandering the streets of Bris-Vegas into the wee hours of the morning but I can't remember much beyond that.

Many many special thanks to Kelly Clarkson, Kelly's band and crew, Sean Kingston, Tony Luby, Martin Rutter, Kevin Elson, EMI Australia, Andrew McManus, Ben Lee, Nick Johns, New Rules For Boats, Dash and Will, WASO, Loren Gold, Jon Leshay, Ed Romanoff, Mandy Moore, Indiana's, Cottesloe, Chef at that great restaurant in the Hilton in Adelaide, Rod Laver, Boost Juice, Bob Log III, Jade, Sam Burling, the nice lady who warned us about that Italian joint in New Castle, spatchcock, Spatchcock the driver, bone groper, James Renald, Vajunice, and all the Australian fans who came out to support us.

Vanilla,
Kenny Bloggins

P.S. Just want to thank Tilly one more time for bringing the BTW down under and singing your butt off every night, and sometimes early mornings. And when it comes to taking care of band members, you're as good as it gets, stepping way above and beyond the call of duty with amazing breakfasts, lunches, dinners, drinks, and helping me schlep my gear…you rock, we love you.

P.P.S. Some fun quotes from the tour:

"What you wanna do is take a left, take another left, then take another left and I'll see you right back here." Anonymous man in parking lot, Perth

"Mandy's bringing Kelly to the party." Anonymous, Perth

"I'm my own boss" Tilly, Sydney

"This is not your lucky day." Ben Lee, Sydney

"Straight for the vajugular" Loren Gold, Brisbane

"You are so hot right now." Josey, Sydney

"But what about soon?" MC Hammered, Sydney

"We are beginning our descent." Leshay, Sydney

"Do you sleep in you kitchen?" MC Hammered, Perth

We're not here to become doctors or engineers, we're not here to see the beached ship, but instead we've come to restaurant hop. We flew Flintstones Air today from Sydney. If you're not familiar with this airline, there are treadmills on board these human powered prop planes and each passenger must maintain a speed of 10k per hour in order for us to reach our destination. My apologies to the other passenger flying with us. The turbulence was my fault, my ankle is still a little tweaked and my running speed let up a couple of times. To my faithful blog reader: there's something that I've been dying to tell you but I'm not sure how. There's been a running joke among us the past few days that has been instigating painful, side splitting laughter. And it just won't stop! All I can tell you is that it's very reminiscent of Seinfeld's "Dolores" episode. Sorry for being so cryptic, but then again you read my blog so tough Tim Tams. For now, just imagine the mere mention of the name Dolores hurling you into an uncontrollable burst of laughter. The best medicine never gets old. It can cure jetlag, long days, homesickness, and even hangovers. Today we find ourselves in New Castle rejoining Kelly Clarkson and Sean Kingston. Here's tonight's set list, you'd think we were drunk on vegemite!

All Good Things
Extraordinary
Moonshadow
Wild Hope
Can't You Just Adore Her
Gardenia
Candy

This one felt good right out of the gates. First time for Moonshadow but we couldn't tell. Tilly's strummin' on Adore Her seems like old hat. Gardenia was chord-geous (stole that word from John Mayer) in such a big room, and the response to Candy…who knew!? Thank you New Castle for singing along with us, I saw you! For post show activities we became professional restaurant hoppers and wedding crashers.

Eunice,
Kelly Bloggins

So we hire a driver for the day to take us around town until we have to soundcheck. Ed and I are first in the lobby and driver immediately asks Ed if he works out. The driver, whom I will now refer to as Spatchcock, then proceeds to tell Ed that he needs a new pair of shoes if Ed plans on going to a certain place in Bondi. What!? While on the way to Oxford St. in Paddington, Spatchock spontaneously pulls over at an S&M joint, quite peculiar but things are starting to add up. And I don't think this stop was spontaneous. Oh and I forgot to mention that Spatchcock decided to bring a "friend" along with us, who later vanishes into thin air, or probably just went back to King's Cross. At this point we're just ready to be dropped off anywhere so we jump out of the car in Double Bay for a bite to eat. To our surprise, we're a block away from the hotel Ben Lee is staying so we hook up for a stroll. After a suspicious John Lennon art exhibit, we hail the Blue Nosed Spatchcock for an uncomfortable drive back into the city center for some shopping, then it's off to the venue. For the pre-game we enjoy some Thai food with Ben and Nick, who both go for the fish eyes yet again. We're all a little sentimental as it's our last show with them for a while. Thanks for driving Ben, you did a wonderful job at night in the rain. Tonight's show began with a duo from Melbourne called Dash and Will, too cute! Check out Josey's shoes below. Look 'em up folks as I'm sure they'll be making cool music for many years to come. For our set tonight we brought out the big guns, Gardenia and Candy, what a great way to call it a night. Then Ben, as usual, captivated and crushed the crowd at the Factory Theatre. He's sooooo good. Everything about his show is so wonderful and Australia loves them some Ben Lee. Next up, bar hopping in Kings Cross. At one place, I have a slight out of body experience as I glance around the room: an inconspicuous couple in a dark corner, a engaging group of young athletes celebrating a win, some working girls taking a little break, Paul Hogan alone at the bar talking to his bourbon, and the American musos drinking Don Julio while absorbing it all in. Thank you Sydney, Stephen Zagami, Nick Johns, and Ben Lee. We will miss you all dearly. Hands in, on 3, 1-2-3 OH MAN!!

Storm the castle,
Kenny Bloggins

Oh it's early and we've got a morning TV show performance. Luckily for Loren and myself, we can chill out afterwards and siesta before tonight's show but Tilly's gotta power through a day of interviews and a photo shoot…boo. A purely selfish boo because we'd rather whisk her away with us today, or any day for that matter. While Tilly's melting camera lenses and stopping clocks for kilometers around, Loren and I meet up with Ed, Mel, and Russell for meat pies down at Harry's, the "Pink's" of Sydney. Woolloomooloo = Melrose, well not really, I just wanted to type that many o's in one word. As beautiful as the pier is, I am saddened that the W Hotel is no longer there, my second favourite (sympathetic regional spelling) W Hotel in world, a close second to the W Mexico City. After a meal that would make much more sense at 3am, the gents and I take a lovely stroll around the harbour, through the garden, underneath the bats, back to the hotel, and off to the show. So check this out: during our performance tonight, Ben played on the other side of the city in New Town. After his show, he jumps into a car, sits in traffic, arrives at the Sydney Entertainment Center to an entrance he can't get in. As we're finishing up our rendition of "Umbrella", he finally gets backstage, grabs a microphone, and runs up on stage to join us for "Birds and Bees" right on cue. Whew! Fun stuff, perfectly timed, beautifully executed, and all meant to be. We love Ben and his music and treasure each night we get to spend time with him and make music together. Next up, a 3 hour dinner, a 3 hour dinner. Laptop = Doorstop. Make some noise for Sean Kingston and posse!!

Pollack,
Kenny Bloggins

Fancy luncheon, salty spatch cock, ambitious hats, a fashion show, and models I'd like to take out for pasta and cheeseburgers. The setting for our afternoon gig in Melbourne. This one blew by pretty quick as we had to catch a flight to Sydney. Let's move on to baggage claim at the Sydney airport. Completely by chance, while on the phone with him trying to find out where in Australia he was at that moment, I felt a hand on my shoulder and it happened to be the world famous inaudible spoon man Ed Romanoff!! If you don't already know, Ed is an honorary member and close friend to BTW, and just about one of the coolest guys you'll ever meet. The next few days will be gloves off, unadulterated, Nemo finding good times. Straight from the airport, Tilly put on her cons and fulfilled her role as an indie rocker's wet dream and went to sing a couple songs with Ben Lee for Take 40. Then it was yet another Rockpool dinner, but this time fish, then drinks at the Argyle. Had to call it an early night though, another long day is lurking. One more thing, if you like Tim Tams, then you will LOVE the latest episode of "Lost".

Poiter,
Kenny Bloggins

The Melbourne identity, home of Bog Log III. Today our tour manager Leshay set up a bonjour network for gigolos and named it "call boy". Loren and I have no use for it but I hear it works quite well. For lunch we had a taste of home, via Japan, at Nobu….yummy. After a day of interviews and a radio station performance, we boost juiced it up over to the Rod Laver Arena for a big time folk pop show. Guess who we stumbled upon wandering Batman Ave with a suitcase? The boy wonder himself, Ben Lee! Ben joined us on stage for "Birds and Bees" and it was pretty damn cool. I got chills when Ben walked on stage to such a warm Melbournian reception. What an absolute pleasure to share the stage with two amazing artists, I love my job. Ever curious about what happens in our dressing room after the show? Tonight it was a compelling discussion on which is more offensive: the P word or the C word. I prefer the best of both worlds, punt. The evening brought a late and quiet dinner with Ben and friends which led to casino war and bad tequila.

A day at the races,
Kenny Bloggins

P.S. I managed to sneak in a round of speed dating, this girl gave me wood: