Nifty Noodles/ El Campanil Theater
Antioch, CA 9/22/07
Actually I think we were in a suburb of a bedroom community... Somersville maybe? a downtown ghost town on Saturday afternoon...The NehoSoul band arrived with our new favorite driver of the band van.. Dan Seidel who volunteered for the abuse he took at the bands hands. He drove us from Santa Cruz to Antioch... a two hour jaunt. The hotel was not ready for us to check in at 2:30 p.m. so we went to the show early!

El Campanil Theater is a renovated relic of the olden days when music and live theater was the main attraction. The place was gorgeous! and the sound was fantastic. I decided to move into the dressing rooms and not return to the hotel after sound check. there was just a smooth vibe in the place. The show started at five pm. to accommodate several bands.. including "On Bended Knee", Heather Powers, the Hargis Pennington band... Hargis was also the promoter, now with a perfect record of one and ooh! in concert success stories.

NehoSoul came on at seven fifteen and it was a love fest from the get go!. even the unexpected turns musically turned into really cool diversions that sounded like planned arrangements! 8)... the band was on their game.. maybe the best I've ever heard em. Coulda been that we all saw the video of the night before.. it always makes you a little hyper sensitive to see what you actually did on camera! 8)....

I can't remember a time on stage where I was this focused and satisfied with where I was. The audience was easy to talk to for some reason and the conversation between songs was as natural as talking to an old friend. I had invited several street people in for the show as we had a few empty seats...there were plenty of em hangin around behind the Theater.... also met a shop owner who came out at my invitation.. she saw my name on the marquee outside and had just recently heard a song of mine that she loved... "I Love You with my Life"! 8).... "well thanks ma'am...I wrote that maybe twenty years ago"... I smiled as I stopped on the sidewalk. "I've been waiting for you to walk by" she said...."at least hopin you might" . wow what are the chances of this meeting I thought so I introduced her to the whole band and gave her a tour of back stage.

Being here was as laid back and easy as any showplace I've ever been. Rich Davis came out with his wife Veronica, and Angela Gillaspie from Oregon, who sang with us a month ago.. flew in on their own desire to sing with us at this gig just out of a passion to do what they love. I was grateful for the vocal help. I tend to over sing when I don't hear the hook of the songs backed up vocally. So I rested easy on stage.

Heather Powers sang a duet with me from a song on her record.. "Little Bit of Heaven" is the song and "Undone" is the project title... it was released on my label, Red Road... and here was the first time after some five attempts to get it right that I actually got all the words in the right places!

Something is lost in the telling of what happened at this event... there was a sense of peace and purpose that transcended anything I've known in my career!!!!.... and I'm not getting at it with all these details. My faith was clearer to me and my belief felt stronger than ever and my love for people generally... those I know and those I met here out back seemed to give a drive to everything.. there was a great sense of purpose and satisfaction in doing this gig. Maybe it was knowing there were people who've never heard my songs or maybe that have followed me for my lifetime of music... or maybe it was the sound of the theater and the atmosphere here... but I was floating out of the place... not for my ego's sake... but for the knowledge of doing what I was born to do and seeing it presented in the best light ever!

To think this was a date we nearly cancelled because of poor ticket sales early... Hargis stayed at it because of his own belief and passion in something he loves.. and it showed in every person on stage this night. Guess you really had to be there.. but this was a real highlight in the Nehosoul history...

o.k. so there's that BRyan D

Nifty Noodles/ NehoSoul Weekend
Santa Cruz, CA 9/21/07 Celebrate Recovery Santa Cruz Bible Church....
There are very few Celebrate Recovery programs that have been around as long as this one.. and Jim Taylor in Santa Cruz is a rare gem of a facilitator of recovery in an area over run with addiction. Recovery programs are run by the recovering!... and the ranks are just filled with anxiety ridden, attention deficit, obsessive compulsive, bi polar types... THATS why I do so well in this invironment!.. I BELONG HERE! 8)

Nehosoul band converged upon possibly the most bohemian town in America this weekend.. Santa Cruz... defiant, non conformist, anti establishment. And Meth addiction is rampant here.. aaah the cost of freedom and individuality! 8).... Santa Cruz Bible Church believed enough in recovery to start Celebrate Recovery eleven years ago and they are celebrating that anniversary with me and the band.

we were given all the keyboards we needed by Otis Coen.. a big YES fan and musician himself... musicians are everywhere in this town. We were given a fifty minute time slot as we needed to be finished before the ubiquotous 12 step meetings begin in earnest. That said I felt alittle pushed to make the point. never felt completely focused this first night of the Band weekend. but the stage looked great and the band was together again and I was in a relaxed wonderful mood tryin to relate to those in early recovery who are not there and maybe never have been... I felt a tiny bit shallow in my happiness and contentment.

Band sounded good as we just came out one at a time and started playin... caught folks off guard many hadn't found a seat yet. sounded a little empty without back ground vocals I noticed... and I was distracted trying to find something deep and profound to say between songs... never did btw. 8)...

I know that's not the point but it's part of my defects of character.. to appear to have something together and on the ball...we had several "adjustments" on song arrangements this night.. and the "line of sight" on stage seemed to keep Ricky and Phil from seeing each other to end a couple of songs on time. vamps were too long as I had nothing to preach on over them.

It was a great turnout for a recovery program focused concert. and it was well recieved. Jim is already talkin about how we'll go about coming back!...

O.k. so there's that! bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Visitation Rights
Glenwood Springs, Colorado 9/17/07
I spent the last long weekend introducing Casandra to her future relatives. She met my oldest son Brandon for the first time on Thursday. She was suspect that I had some reason for avoiding that introduction since it hasn’t happened in the last three years. “No… I’ve only seen him three times in the last year” I told her…and I complained about how busy the two of them are and I don’t like to arrange the schedules of other people!... but with a single call I found Brandon ready and willing to come up from San Diego for dinner at a local Tai food joint close to my new digs. He hadn’t seen my new place either.. “I could visit you here” he said…of the “front office” suggesting that my last little apartment was not “inhabitable”! 8)… “it was beginning to look like a fire hazard” he said of my “west coast office”.

Following this meeting and my concert in Vista California for a Celebrate Recovery program on Friday (which I got to ride Jezebel to) I rented a car and we drove to Grand Junction, Colorado to “meet the parents”.. my mom and dad were out from North Carolina and it was an opportunity to see them at reasonable expense. Still took a 14 hour drive out to spend 11 hours with em and another 12 hour drive home. On the way out we stopped to see Cassie’s mom who is fighting cancer so the visit was pretty short, given her stamina.

After a few hours with my folks, Cassie was satisfied that I come from “good stock” 8)… “yer dad seems really happy” she said and “I love the way they are with each other”… “that’s because all the kids are out of the house” I told her! 8) Glenwood Springs is a gem of a town in Colorado and my aunt Anita has a fantastic little fortress in the mountains there that takes in a grand view. We drove around in the scenery and in the evening made our own ice cream and played dominoes…by eight p.m. my folks are finished with the day though. And it was a good time to head out. It was pouring rain as we left to go back.. we missed a mudslide by about an hour, that closed the highway… there were some five cars involved in a related accident. Didn’t hear about that until we were hours down the road. The drive home was wonderful though through Utah in the early morning light.

I had a few spiritual insights on the trip.. I watched the compass on this rental car.. along with the on board computer read outs… even as we were on the road home… directly southwest of here… I would notice how often we would be driving North and north west and then south… and I thought how much like my spiritual experience it was… at any given moment my heading might look completely wrong! But I’m trusting the road signs for the future and my intention is my home destination… God has a lot of time to speak to you when you are on a road trip.. miles of endless highway to stare at.

Cassie was adorable even in sweats… on one stop I caught her loading a rock into the trunk… “it’s a memory of our trip” she said… “we’ll plant it in our yard”!

She’s sentimental! I counted motorcycles the whole way back… some 70 bikes on the road… man I was missin Jezebel and dreaming of making this trip again on a motorcycle… couldn’t convince my fiancée of the sentimental value of a motorcycle road trip … “it’s only 1800 miles” I whined “and look at this countryside…. you could smell the trees and the” …”NO” she said emphatically… and I suddenly felt married!...

Actually I rather enjoyed arguing with her! That’s a good sign I guess if you don’t mind a disagreement now and then… I read to her from Anthony DeMello’s book while she drove the flat country of Utah…”this guy wasn’t married… didn’t have a regular job .. and didn’t ever have kids” she stated after some of his wonderful insights…. O.k. maybe he was a little more “detached” than most of us care to be.. but clearly he had some great thoughts…on being Christ like rather than “imitating” Christ: “you can teach a monkey to blow a saxophone but that doesn’t make him a musician”! … see now I can relate to that!

By the end of Monday we were both thinking of the immediate work ahead this week.. calls to make and stuff to do... even this afternoon we were getting calls from people who needed our attention.. o.k. she was getting work calls and I was getting updates from my friends in my fantasy football league… yes.. I have a fantasy football team.. the “Soul Vikings” of course… and I am 2-0 btw.. ranked second in the league behind my little brother unfortunately and I’m hearing about that!

It was good to be home but in hindsight… I think of how many times I’ve not taken the road to see people in my life because of all the work to do and how much it will cost in money and time… but trips like these are what life is really made of. Memories are best in the face of sacrifices made to obtain them. It was good to see my parents again and they seemed well adjusted to their retirement years. Caught dad singing to himself in the car between naps.. and there is a serenity about them both that I hope to have when I’m at that crossroad. “take care of my oldest son” my dad told me before leaving. “I plan to help him” Cassie replied… and we hugged them… and I will remember well this trip. …. we “planted” that rock in the front planter by a palm tree… a reminder of our connections in distant places.

O.K. so there’s That… Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ What?
Front Office, Riverside…9/13/07
O.k. never let it be said that I read only stuff I understand or agree with….after all the work I’ve put in on embracing my “Neediness”… I come across a new point of view for me.. from a book called Awareness…the perils and opportunities of Reality”…by Anthony De Mello…

He makes some comments that I shall quote here; “how can you love people when you need people?”…”you can only use them. If I need you to make me happy, I’ve got to use you, I’ve got to manipulate you.”… “I can only love people when I have emptied my life of people.”..De Mello was a Jesuit Priest who died back in 1987… but he has inspired some thought on my part in 07… right in front of my determination to take on married life once more.

Maybe I don’t need other people in my life to be happy and content… but I can see enormous benefits to sharing my life with others… of course there’s always a rub somewhere in that. I’m learning the fine art of “negotiating” and “compromising”.. even now as I plan a wedding! “wedding ceremonies aren’t for men” my best friend told me two days ago. Where was I the first time I got married? I don’t remember all these details!...I thought we’d just grab a preacher and run down to the beach at sunset… oooh I don’t think so… 8)… in really listening to my future wife… there needs to be some arrangements!... gotta have a photographer… of course why didn’t I thing of that… (I suggested a preacher/ photographer) 8)…one guy!.... then … well we want at least some acoustic music to enhance the experience.. o.k. music is good… I know some musicians I think 8)…. “there are a few people that will kill me if I don’t invite them” my baby says… “uuuhhh…how many would that be?” .. (well the list is still growing).

“I really want the sand on the beach to be warm” she laments about planning an October event..”now this might be the most expensive part of the wedding 8).. heating the sand that we’ll stand barefoot in!... other option ..wait till June of next year. But wait we haven’t paid for the rest of her ring or even looked for mine… well there’s some money we don’t have right now.. “and of course we’ll need a hotel the day of the ceremony cause “I’m not driving down to the beach in traffic before the ceremony”…that should be spelled “Sara…mo money!”..... “and what are we planning to wear”? she asks… “I guess shorts and Hawaiian shirts aren’t the ticket! ? 8)….”o.k. we need to think about that too” I say…”I have to do my hair and my nails” too she adds…now I’m just lookin really stupid cause I never looked at what this would all cost…. Mo Money Mo Money Mo money…”we might have to rent some chairs!” ..”why it’s gonna be a short service I think…. Sun goes down pretty quick”…I tell her… cutting the comment short with the look on her face.

I’m tryin to attach what I’m reading now to the events in my life.. maybe I don’t’ need a wife… but… I really want this woman!... and so I embrace the things she “needs” to be satisfied. I know that I would be o.k. if she changed her mind.. but I love the opportunity of loving her. And that love doesn’t come with any manipulation.. but she is like watching a really good suspense movie… the story and the drama just unfold in every direction. I’m enthralled… she does nothing the way I would do it if I were her!

‘Spirituality is Awareness… Awareness… awareness…De Mello says in that same chapter…”no body does wrong in awareness”…interesting thought… might be right on paper… truly we act in a direction without seeing the whole picture all the time… you can always say of your mistakes… “I wasn’t aware of something”…Anthony D is suggesting that wrongly.. we look for an attachment to make us happy… and we start the ball rolling to sin…and love is lost… because now we are trying to hold on to something and protect it…”attachment destroys your capacity to love” .. “love is sensitivity”.. Love is consciousness”… he says in the previous chapter.

I’ve finished his book and it left me blank.. stupid feeling almost.. have I gotten it completely wrong all this time? I will start this book again because I think his thought process is refreshing… probably will quote from him again as I seek to understand how to Love without being controlling or abusing… I’m still interested in how to avoid over emotional reactions to the behavior of other people too… and now about getting married… patience is a virtue I’m told… still no formal date for that cermomoney….but it appears that October is out because we’re too close to plan it… clearly I’m not in charge here! 8)

O.K. so there’s that! Bryan Duh…

Nifty Noodles/ Return of Ozzie
Front Office, Riverside, CA 9/11/07
I raised the American flag here at the “front office” as it shall be called in the future noodles… the same flag given to me by the Marine Corps, flown over Al Asad Air Base in Iraq back in April…(out of appreciation for Radio Rehab efforts) I had no flag pole to speak of.. so I zip tied it to a Taylor Made Seven Wood! Makes a nice flag pole when yer not golfing….kinda suggests the carrying of a big stick! 8). Seems no one in the neighborhood has remembered formally the tragic events of 9/11 this year… doesn’t take long to move on when the pain is not your own perhaps.

I participated in a “Patriot Run” this past weekend as a volunteer with the Black Sheep. Spoke to one sheep member who was a survivor in Viet Nam.. wounded at Hamburger Hill and chopper’d out a day before the rest of his unit was lost in that battle. He had the honor for the first time in twenty years to be a guest on a huey helicopter on Sunday.. same kind that took him off the battlefield twenty some years ago. “I’m hoping this brings some closure to my pain” he said

I have no military background whatsoever. Not sure I have the discipline for it either but it would seem to me after much reading and movies on the subjects of war and conflict… that it brings one to the forefront of their own courage and character in a way that nothing else does… and recovering from the nightmare and memories of loss and insanity is a lifetime effort.

Well I know about loss at least… and some mild forms of insanity.. and recovery for me seems a lifetime long. I’ve missed the September reading of Oswald Chambers almost every year for the last eight it seems.. I can tell because there’s really good stuff here that I have not underlined ever… from Sept. 2nd “My Utmost For His Highest”…:

“if we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain, but what he pours through us that counts”… “we cannot measure our life by success, but only by what God pours through us.. and we cannot measure that at all” !

Ozzie has been speaking here for weeks about “anti self realization” as the focal point of Jesus’ teaching. I’m not sure it wouldn’t be a miracle in my life to not think of myself first… but here is a fragment of that… in that I hung a flag in memory of the tragedy others have experienced…my volunteering for the bike run had personal gain attached.. there was some great moments of fellowship with friends in my biker community.. but in this moment at the front office there is no one watching me here… and I feel compelled to do something because I feel God pouring something through me.

It’s more spiritual than patriotic for me…. I’m seeking to understand the seeming waste of human life in conflicts because someone isn’t getting their way in the world. Someone is wanting everyone to agree with their “Self”… it’s Self determination at it’s worst I suppose. It’s really the religion of “Me and Mine”… nothing more!. Call it Holy if you want but it’s anti Christ. Why remember 9/11? Why remember Pearl Harbor? Except to remember the falleness of mankind and the pain we inflict upon each other… but then maybe.. to know that some have given their lives… God has poured through them my opportunity to live perhaps… and consider what “holiness” means!... it’s an antique word really and a concept lost on me at this point…it certainly cannot mean “perfection”… all I know is that lately that word.. “Holiness” keeps comin up!....

O.k. so there’s That! Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Dino
Nashville 9/5/07
Took a red eye to Nashville for a few hours with the band and the Dino show yesterday.. what a commute! Ten hours round trip 8 hours in Nashdog area at the TBN studios… band sounded great.. did “Still Dancin” and “Love you with my life”. Nehosoul Band also played with Darryl Mansfield.. great blues stuff. Talked to Phil Keaggy briefly before leaving too.

These were tapings for future shows with Dino…? Can’t spell his last name “Kart sin knock us” he was very friendly and complimentary to us all. Says his daughters grew up listenin to my songs. The Interview was quick and a bit of a blur to me… I was quite mellow after the long flight. Don’t remember what I said but Dino’s wife and CO host kept saying “we want to have you back” so… guess it went well.

I was home by ten p.m. passed a twenty car pile up on the 60 freeway around eleven! I was on the way home grateful I didn’t get here any earlier. The heat seems to have broken in California… woke up to a fog! Literally and figuratively!.

Don’t know when the show will air.. but appearantly Dino is having good response from the music and interviews he’s doin on TBN.. encouraging news… and early visibility for the NehoSoul band’s new project.. the name “Surprise” for the new project has been officially scraped for “Still Dancin”… more of a statement about survival and redemption I think…I wasn’t introducing the big dance steps for this taping though! 8).. just a little movement 8)… don’t wanna stir up trouble on TBN again! 8)

O.k. so there’s that Bryan D

Nifty Noodles/ Busy Livin'
9/4/07…Riverside, CA
The weather is as wacky as the people in California this week… hundred plus temps all week long with no relief at night…and humid! Like the south!... Sunday brought a four point earth quake though so I know it’s California.. and rain showers show up under a blazing sun with spotty clouds. So add to that flash flood warnings and freak lightening storms. Heat has a way of taking the will power and enthusiasm right out of you.. I’ve tried to stay busy though. Even in doors I’m careful to watch how often that air conditioner kicks on.. I’ve seen the August bills from the last resident here.

My entertainment this week?, I bought one of those fly catching sticky sticks! Placed it at the back door of my new place.. and watched the accumulation of flies. This glue is amazing.. one brief second of curiosity and the fly is not gonna leave! It’s Hotel California! Within a hour …must have been a hundred flies all gathered at what looks like a cool hang 8)…they’re all buzzin and wigglin around… like a bar at nine on a Saturday night!

I’m completely moved in to this palatial estate now… not sure what to call it… lately it’s just “the BiG House”! the kitchen is larger than my entire apartment was. I’ve regressed back to the days when I spent half my time looking for my keys, or tools or cell phone.. there are way too many places to set things down and I get to tour the house six times a day lookin for the things I’m missing.

I’ve been sort of “cocooning” the last couple weeks. Just getting the feel of a new neighborhood. Finding more convenient eateries and banks, paint and hardware stores.. I’ve reentered the domestic world with all the maintenance. At least till I get settled in to a routine.. It’s been too hot to take Jezebel out any hour of the day lately.

I managed to get out of my lease agreement two months early to take advantage of this house offer as it was on the verge of foreclosure. It’s all preparation to become a married man for the second time. I’m mentally already back to “husband” mode in a lot of ways. This all feels rather familiar… constant cleaning and picking up and maintenance… and it’s only been two weeks I think.

This weekend we had an early house warming for a few of our friends.. to show em the potential.. and the cool built in BBQ on the patio out back. But this week I’m off to Nashville to tape a show with Dino.. the NehoSoul Band has a chance to find a little visibility… it’ll be the shortest trip in my career.. leaving red eye tonight and getting back same day at ten p.m. . I’m trying to get back to go with Cassie to see her mother who is fighting cancer. And sometime this month I want my folks to meet Cassie… they will be in Colorado all month. But Cassie has been working ten hour days and moving car loads of stuff over to the house at a rate of about one per day.

Her lease isn’t up for two months. Still officially no date is set but plans will be simple and uncluttered for a ceremony.. kinda wanted time together afterward too.. somewhere in the Caribbean we’ve thought but hey.. it’s hurricane weather down there now… of course the rates are a lot cheaper but maybe it turns into a Fly Bar! 8)

With all this upheaval I gotta say I haven’t really been able to work on the record. Played two band dates in Aug. as well as every weekend out and around the country. I’ve Still two songs to go… and artwork and packaging as well. But the truth is …I’m busy living! No time to pontificate about how I should live either… I kinda miss that.. but looking around at the busy schedules in my neighborhood, I don’t see how anybody ever finds time to see a bigger picture. I’ve been livin on Grace.. checkin in with God as I can but the last month has been mostly about me!...8).. “Dear God help people see that it is all about me”…I laughed this weekend with Cassie…”God doesn’t answer my prayers!” I whined….

O.k. so there’s That…Bryan D

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