Hello folks,

So…. it has been an interesting few days. I was meant to go the the NAMM show on Friday with my new publicist ( just started working with her) but got stuck behind a huge traffic accident and couldn’t make it. Saturday morning I had to go to the Independent Spirit Awards nominee brunch as I am an alumni. I had the honor of winning Best Actress years ago. It was a pretty chill event,easy mellow press lineup. It was held at the BOA steakhouse on Sunset. It was a lovely treat to wake up on a gorgeous Saturday morning and go have an incredible brunch.They generously supplied a huge buffet of wonderful brunch foods,eggs benedict, steak,salmon, mimosas and what have you. I saw only a few people I knew there but It was a pleasant enough scene. It was really nice to be invited and thought of, being that I won that award years and years ago:) I then took off for the drive to the NAMM show.There was horrible traffic but I was still excited. We got there and it was MASSIVE. An enormous Convention Centre. We went and got our badges but sadly ,they had run completely out of maps.!!!!! drat!!! Imagine three floors of hundreds and hundreds of booths and no map”.O.K”. I thought to myself, “This is going to be interesting”.!!

I must admit my senses went on overload. I was going to try to take pics but it was SO INSANE, just to move through that crowd was hard. There were hundreds and hundreds of people acting like extremely confused spawning salmon all going in different directions and running into each other. Everyone seemed to be in as much of a daze from it all as I was. There were dozens of musicians at booths playing loudly everywhere you went, however none of them were playing together so imagine a mish mash of a ton of different musical styles all going at once…clashing…… loudly. Chaos. There was every different kind of long haired musician all in their fifties covered in tats. Road Dogs with their Road Dog wives. Rock and Roll survivors.Hah! Lots of young guys in tight jeans wearing their Keef Richards bandanas (spelling on purpose) and young cos-play girls with contact lenses and pony tails.Everywhere you looked there were long long lines of folks waiting in line to get their shwag bags from various companies.

I went upstairs to try to find Taylor Guitars who had invited me. That took me an hour. I finally found it but there were back to back showcase gigs going on, and the room was packed so I couldn’t get in to meet the rep. I wondered to myself how anyone could get any kind of business done in such a cacophony. The guitars they had on display were just amazing. Gorgeous woods, insane craftsmanship and they excel at inlay designs for sure. I did however get the main rep’s card , so I can contact him in the future.

I headed over to Fender who had one of the, if not THE biggest display showcase set of rooms. It was nuts. I have been playing vintage Fenders from the sixties era for years now. The displays were huge and there were so many people in there that you couldn’t actually really get close enough to look at the guitars they had on display. They had set up these velvet ropes around each section and I guess people were supposed to file past to have a look but there were so many people there that that was impossible. I tried to find an A&R rep but being that I don’t know what any of them look like; it was impossible. You see, everyone has these badges hanging around their necks and there are hundreds of people all mashed in together. Some how, one is supposed to be able to go through this sea of humanity reading each badge as they go and hope to find a rep , somewhat like winning a lottery. When I would stop and try to ask anyone who seemed like they might be a employee no one knew where anyone was. The guitars were displayed very well, Like a rainbow of every possible custom color you could think of, just beautiful. I couldn’t get near any of them but they looked great from afar. It was all very flashy and loud and was set up more as display than as a display that you could actually touch and play if you wanted to. I saw an 8 year old boy in the Eddie Van Halen booth playing faster than light , no music emanated just exercises but we all have to learn somehow right!:) Cool to see a kid in there, and that his dad got him in close enough to be able to try some guitars out.

Finally, I emerged out the other side and saw an information desk for Fender. I walked up to the smiling lady working the desk who was very nice and asked for A&R. She gave me the names of several A&R people but said they were all milling around and that she didn’t know where any of them were exactly. No one seemed to know what I was doing there. The reaction was like “Hmmm I wonder what this actress is doing at The NAMM show>?” I know that hardly anyone knows that I am doing music. It was strange though, because even if they didn’t know what I was doing there It seemed odd that they didn’t ask, or offer to help in any way or try to find out why i was there?. Maybe they were all just as fatigued and spun as I was.!? I think also that most people just do not associate women to electric guitar. I do love Fenders though so It was a bit weird. I wished I had gotten to talk to someone about the guitars a bit more…..

So… On I went in my voyage of discovery of the madness which is NAMM. I wandered outside onto the balcony to get some air and have a smoke. It was overwhelming to be surrounded by that many people inside. Alot of people recognized me and wanted their picture with me, They were all very sweet.

After taking a five minute break outside,I suddenly started to listen to what was being said over the microphone on the ground level below me. There was a man speaking in Korean with an interpreter. They were protesting sweatshop conditions of some of the manufacturers export items. It seems that economic greed has also reached the corporate mentality of music instrument manufacturers. It seems a shame that instruments can no longer just be hand built in their country of origin like they always used to be. I keep finding out about more and more companies that are jobbing out to China and Korea and have sweatshops over there while at the same time promoting their children’s benefit charities and eco-friendly considerations. I have seen several of these companies whose products I have been unknowingly buying. My bad for not doing my homework. There were also a number of bands playing outside as well, mainly boogie woogie type of rock and some latin Santana like music which was cool.

I went back inside and blindly tried to find some more of the companies I was interested in.There were SO MANY different rooms, and booths and sounds and carts and thousands of people, it really is quite extraordinary. I finally found Gibson. Hazzah! They asked me to pose in front of their rooms and were very polite. Gibson’s approach was very different . Instead of doing the bigger flashier type of display they had little stools beneath all of the guitars so you could come and try them out and sit down. I played a little mandolin which I was quite enthusiastic about. They had the guitars set up so they could be easily reached. The room was much smaller and they let people in slowly. The guitars were artfully displayed and everyone was very cheery and helpful. I was particularly interested In the New Marc Bolan guitar. It was so good to see that someone was honoring him for the music god that he was. He was a great guitarist, really had an individual style all his own. It is basically like a black beauty with no paint! Unfinished on the top, So looks like natural wood. They even did the aging on it so It would be just like his. I am not into fake old, I am into real old, But I can see how exciting this guitar would be for a huge Bolan fan. I have always wanted a Jimmy Page black beauty ever since they came out with them. Basically it’s like having every guitar you could need In one guitar. There is a switch on the top that allows for any pickup configuration you could want. The guitars are gorgeous not too heavy and they sound like heaven, not to mention they are just insane to look at.

You’ll have to forgive me for going all gear head on you! hihihihihi. Anyways they cost a small fortune so…. one can dream…….

After Gibson we headed back downstairs and went and Found Orange amps. They had a great huge display. A wall of Oranges… YES!!!!! They had a new Orange head and small cab where the tolex was done all Union Jack!! HAH! Awesome and I got to see my first Black covered Oranges. (For all of you who don;t now what Orange Amps are, They are the seminal Loud clear amps capable of a range of tones but perhaps best known for their signature irreplaceable growling distortion and have been used by everyone who is anyone ever since they started in the sixties. I got to meet the original founder of the company Cliff Cooper and the man who designs all of the amps named Adrian Emsley. They are both such cool people, Really nice and jovial and extremely knowledgeable. As a display they had built a MASSIVE orange amp about the size of ME!! hahaha! That was in the front. I posed in front of it and took goofy pictures. I also ran into a couple of friends while we were there at Orange. Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age and Nine Inch Nails. It was cool to hear from Troy that Queens are going to be back out on tour really soon.:) I also ran into my friend D.J. Shock, I met him through David J. when he took me to see Jonnette Napolitano. I have always loved her voice. She is one of a kind! Blows these new girls who try to be “Rock and Roll” out of the water. She plays Bass and just messes you up with her vocals. There is a particular song she sang that is how and why I love her voice so much.It is off of Concrete Blonde’s album “Free”.It is the last song on the Album. If you own it then you know what I am talking about:)

Probably my best Orange story and one which will help you understand just HOW LOUD they can be; is this one. I was in rehearsal a couple of years ago and we had (I think), four Orange cabinets and heads. I was playing lead, then there was a rhythym player switching between two different Oranges and a Bass player on the Bass Orange amp. I lay down on the floor on my back while we were playing and the vibrations coming off of these amps actually moved me across the floor like an army of invisible ants!!! My drink travelled along with me and I laughed myself silly! Needless to say my ears rang for 2 days afterwards.!!

Orange gave me 2 T-shirts (yay!) and we hugged each other and said our goodbyes (Yes,that’s how cool they are) and off I went to try to go speak to the folks at Taylor again. There was yet another gig going on in the Taylor room so we went back downstairs to try to find Seymour Duncan. The man basically invented The Humbucker pick-up. In the world of electric guitar he is a living legend.! I really wanted to meet him while we were there. As we went to go back inside though I got kind of mobbed by a bunch of people who wanted pictures with me, all very polite and sweet of course. After that I needed some air and went outside. I was overwhelmed. The Anaheim Convention centre is truly enormous. There were literally thousands of people in there. I decided not to go back in. It was about 5:30 by this time and we had been fighting the crowds for many hours and I needed to eat. There were so many more things I wanted to see but I just couldn’t do it any more. Hopefully next year I WILL get to meet Mr. Duncan, Actually FIND the Marshall booth, The Roland booth, The Collings booth, and all the others I had wanted to see. There was so much more there than we got the chance to see ,and it was a crazy experience. Did i mention I saw a girl there with a 2 foot mohawk dressed as a dinosaur>and several guys dressed up as Slash of GnR Yes, This and many other things can be found at the one and only NAMM show. So, go if you get the chance and make sure you find a map!!!! (lol)

xxoo

F