On Wednesday I am heading out to Los Angeles to play a few gigs with Gia Mora.  She is an amazing talent.  We will be doing her cabaret show.

We go back a few years.  She was my Cleopatra in New York for my musical: The Last Days of Cleopatra.  ( the story of Liz and Dick on the set of Cleopatra in Rome)

She now lives in LA and I can’t wait to play with her again.  One of our gigs is at the M Bar in Hollywood.  I used to live in Hollywood. I haven’t been to the M Bar, but the address sounds pretty hip.

Just south of Hollywood on Vine. 

Before I go though, I have promised to speak at CAREER DAY at North Chevy Chase Elementary School.  They want me to talk about being a professional composer.  I have been wracking my brain trying to think of something , anything attractive about what I do for a living. I will be speaking to 4th and 5th graders. They are all more technically savvy than I am – so thrilling them with a DVD is not on the table.  They can probably all get sounds out of garage band better than I can. I doubt they will be interested in my mad skilz at jazz piano.  Yikes. I have one little Quicktime video section to show them and then I will have to fill the next 20 minutes with…. what?  I get along with kids and I love to talk.  So how bad can it be?  I will let you know.

Mostly I thought this was a perfect slice of my life: One minute doing a very glamorous thing and the next applying the same skills to the most quotidian of tasks.  I am always surprised though, at which of the events turns out to be more meaningful.  ( I am wondering right now..which is glam and which one is the quotidian task? )