A tribute to my father, MICHAEL H. NEUMARK 4/28/06

today, april 28th, 2006 is a weird day for me. it was the last day, one year ago, that my father was alive. it's strange for me to think that i haven't seen my dad in a year. a whole year! that's the longest it's ever been and it's only going to get longer. i remember i kept doing that with each month that past after he died. "wow, it's been a month since i've seen him...then 2 months...then 3 etc, etc, etc." i've learned a lot this year starting with the fact that grieving is not linear - meaning, yes, it does get progressively "easier" with time but it is more like riding space mountain at disneyland than driving through the plains of the southwest. you could be riding along smoothly and then wham! you drop 60 feet in .5 seconds. jarring, unexpected, scary and often painful. as far as my emotions go, something i used to keep so bottled inside of me, under my "control", i have learned to expect the unexpected.

I re-read my journal last night from an entry a year ago. i talked to my brother on the phone this morning and he said he'd been having all of these random flashbacks this whole week. not about the "end" but rather silly and uneventful memories of day-to-day life with my dad...a favorite burger joint he would take us to....his "Sam and Ann" stories (stories he would make up about the adventures that a brother and sister had together)....stuff like that. it made me smile to recall those things when jack (my bro) brought them up. i guess that's what they mean when they say you keep a person alive in your memories of them.

as i approach this evening (his time of death was a little after midnight EST on the 28th...technically the 29th) i am a little bit hung up on what i will be feeling between the hours of 9pm-10pm PST....that will be the hour, one year ago today, that we all (my mom and my brother and I) sat around in my parents bedroom waiting for hospice to come and pronounce him dead. his body lay peacefully in the bed while we all sat on the floor in a haze of relief and shock and sadness, our minds trying so hard to wrap themselves around what all of this meant. it was the middle of the night and apparently there were alot of folks releasing themselves and passing on, so it took hospice and the funeral home a couple of hours to get there. around 5am, all of the procedural things had been done and my father's body was en route to the funeral home. we all sat there, exhausted and wide awake, staring blankly at one another when jack made a suggestion. "Let's go drive past our past two houses and then go get breakfast at Bob Evans (a local diner). it seemed like the perfect idea and it's just what we did. i just may have to go eat breakfast at a greasy diner tomorrow morning...anyone care to join? ;)

it's funny how in some ways it seems like yesterday and in others - a lifetime ago. Dad, this day is for you - a day to celebrate who you were and the memory of you that lives on.

Home from the road....4/25/2006

It's tuesday night and I am settling back into my life in Los Angeles. No more days of sleeping in, going to the gym and then playing and writing with the band all day before a show at night. Nope, now it's 5am gym, shower, off to the day job and back home again where I try to muster up enough energy to pay my bills, do my laundry, and maybe play a few tunes. Oh gawd, i sound boring and predictable. And, did I really just say the word, "muster"?

So - the rest of the tour. Saturday night was the Southgate House - it was probably the strongest performance we have ever had as a band. After playing the same set for 3 nights in a row we were so comfortable with our parts and ourselves and each other. The songs were really tight and the crowd was really good. There was a mutually contagious energy flowing all night. There we are to your left, I think it was taken during "Lady". I think people are digging the song! I handed out a couple hundred of the free singles on tour and I seem to be getting some great feedback. I can't wait to do the whole album.

Ann Driscoll - like I said, she joined us again on Saturday. I can't say enough about this kid. She's driven, talented, incredibly gracious and an absolute joy to share the stage with! In addition to doing her own set during the evening, she joined us to sing back up on a couple of my tunes ("Uncharted Water" and "Fairytale")I formally asked her to join us on stage again when we return with the full band in August. Here we are to your right during "Fairytale": Luis Oliart, Ann Driscoll, ME, and Alan Malunao Jr.

After the show, my mom took me and the guys out to Skyline (Cincinnati's world famous chili) - the perfect end to a perfect night. We rolled into casa Neumark around 3:30 am and unfortunately, yours truly was driving Alan to the airport at 5. "I'll just take a little nap...." 2 1/2 hours later (I swear my alarm didn't go off) I wake up an hour before Alan's flight. Alan (whose alarm also "mysteriously" didn't go off) and I jumped in the car and raced off to the Dayton airport at 6am (it's an hour away) to catch Alan's 7am flight. Well, you do the math....it didn't happen. Poor Alan spent the next 24 hours tying to get on a new flight. Check his blog for that....

so many stories and good times from this trip. I was saying to my manager, "I want to do this all the time!!! Make that happen!!!" I do believe it will. Things are definitely moving in the right direction. Stay tuned....

Up next: FULLERTON SHOW at THE TROPICS with my friends, MAMA HAGGLIN - Saturday, April 29th!!!!

Neuz from the 'Nati - mid-tour - 4/22/06

It's saturday afternoon and I am getting ready for my show at the Southgate House tonight. Actually, I'm pissing away my afternoon on the computer. Luis and Alan walked down the street to get coffee and my mom is outside on the patio with the dogs. It's a gorgeous spring day here in the 'Nati. The tour has been great so far. Thursday night started off a bit slow at Jack Quinn's with the rain and it was a "school night" - ha, thursdays in Cincy aren't like Thurs. in LA. But....the crowd that was there was very enthusiastic and made up in quality what they lacked in quantity.ABOVE (L TO R): LUIS OLIART, JULIE NEUMARK, ALAN MALUNAO JR.

Luis shared the bill with me and man does he know just how to work a crowd. And, how to set up a PA. Funny thing about playing in these smalltown venues....there is no sound guy and usually you have to supply your own PA...we have lucked out (along with promising our first born) and have been provided with PA systems. However, there is still no sound man. I tell ya, thank GOD for Luis. He's been on the road a lot and has served as sound engineer extraordinaire at our shows. I don't know what I would do without him. Oh wait, I know - I would play acoustically in the street. Woo. Good times.

Last night kicked some serious ass! We drove down to Lexington (Univ. of KY) and played at an Irish bar just off campus that was a mix of locals and college kids. For you LA folks - think Fullerton. (If you've read my post about playing with Mama Hagglin at The Tropics you'll know that means that I LOVED it!!) We had about 75 peeps in there, dancing, drinking buying cds...it was great. Especially exciting was a new fan called Red. Red was very enthusiastic and was very upset to see that we didn't have a tip jar out. So, she took it upon herself to fix this. She pulled up a chair in front of the stage and threw some $1's on it, "Here's yer tip chair!" I was honored. I'd never had a tip chair before. We played 'til 1:30 am. It was nuts. Luis was nuts. He played his orignals and some covers in between all of our sets. I guess that's why he slept in until 2pm today.

So tonight before the show I am going to see a performance of a girl in college who is covering my tune, "Sexy" with a band at her university. How trippy is that going to be? To see someone cover a song I wrote? Wow. I feel famous. Almost.

Then we're off to the Southgate house. Tonight we'll be joined again by Ann Driscoll. Ann is a senoir at the high school that I graduated from (umm, a scary long time ago...ugh, I feel old). I've been sort of "mentoring" her and helping her to navigate her way through the music business. She has enough raw talent in her little pinky to be a crazy big success. Luis will be sharing the bill again as well. Should be a solid night - I am looking forward to it.

Shite - it's 4:25 - I gotta jump in the shower. Before I go though - I've been procrastinating. I really sat down NOT to give an itinerary of what I've been doing but rather to write a little bit about a man I want to pay tribute to today: my father, Michael Neumark. One year ago today was the last real interaction we ever had. It was a really difficult and painful and surreal time last April before he passed but there were also some wonderful moments. One of them was a year ago tonight. It was after dinner and I decided to put on a little solo acoustic concert for him and my family in the living room. At this point in time, he was extremely weak and it was really difficult for him to even smile. But every song I played, I got one from him. God, it meant so much to me that I was may be bringing him the slightest joy in his pain. The final song I played was a new one at the time...one that I had played the start of for him a few months before and he had really liked. Now, I had finished the song and as I played it I saw his eyes light up across the room in his brown leather chair and I smiled big inside. When I finished, I got the best gift I could have gotten: he clapped. He clapped! That must have taken all the strength he had and it meant the world to me. I gave him a big hug and a kiss and I said, "I love you Daddy." The next morning he had fallen into a coma and passed on a week later. Though I have many wonderful memories of my father, that one gave me the best closure I could have ever asked for. I will be thinking of him tonight as I play - and if I listen closely, I will hear him clap for me. :)

Italia! 3/19/2006

Ah, Italy! 10 days away from cell phones, email, the day job and the LA music scene. 10 days of pasta, gelato, vino, and very old things. And, pasta. And, more pasta. Did I mention pasta?
This photo to the left is me, my brother's fiance Daisy, and my brother Jack overlooking St. Mark's Square in Venice. That's we we started the trip. Venice is so charming - it's a completely pedestrain city (except for the canals). The first night I went to bed with the windows open and fell asleep to an opera singer who had set up her "busking" in the courtyard of a church next to our hotel. It was lovely - I thought at least. Apparently she kept Jack and Daisy awake all night. The photo to your left is my mom, me, and Daisy overlooking the Grand Canal in Venice. Florence was our next stop. I don't have any pictures because I got the flu when I was there. It's all kind of a blur...except for Michelangelo's The David. Wow. I don't even know how to explain that. Go to Florence. Oh the other memorable experience in Florence occured at about 2 am in our sweet little hotel. Jack and Daisy were in one room and my mother and I were in another down the hall. At 2 in the morning, our phone rings. My mother answers. "Hello? What? Uh-huh....uh-huh....alright, come down here." My mother turns to me. "Scoot over, they are coming to sleep with us - apparently they heard what sounded like someone breaking a window in the courtyard and are afraid someone is breaking in." I was half asleep and half annoyed but must admit, if I was in their position I would do the same. So I scooted over in our (thankfully) King-size bed. Moments later, Jack and Daisy arrived and climbed into bed with us. We all layed there for about 30 seconds before busting up laughing. "We are NOT all in one bed right now....this is NOT happening!" I mean, I'd heard traveling with people brings you closer, but this was ridiculous. Needless to say, no one got a lot of sleep that night. Our final destination was of course, Rome. Or Roma, as the Italian's say. It perplexed me that we as Americans change the names of their cities to suit the english language. Like, Venice is really Venezia and Florence is Firenze. I mean, we change the entire spelling of the word. What's wrong with calling them by their actual names? I mean, I sure we would all still slaughter the pronunciation, by why translate a city name? I shared my distress with our group but no one else seemed to get it or care. Ha, oh well....so, Rome.
Very very old. Unbelievably old. Seriously...this is what I took away from it. It is an amazingly modern city with incredible history. The photo to the right is Jack, me, and my mom and the Trevi Fountain. Supposedly if you make a wish and throw a coin in you are guarunteed to be back someday. I made 3 wishes with 3 coins. I guess I'll be back 3 times. Rome was great - Vatican City, The Forum, the Colliseum, the wine! I bought 2 really great bottles (actually drank one with my friend last night) Mmmmm...so good. So 10 days out of the country taught me a few things...1) to appreciate the conveniences of American life - 2) to appreciate the simplicity of European life - and 3) i can probably never have pasta in the USA again. I have become a true pasta snob. ;)

MAMA HAGGLIN show - 2/26/2006

Last nite reminded me why I am a musician. At 6:30 pm, my band and a few "roadies" (alright, they were friends - i love you guys!) piled into two cars and made our way down the constipated 405 to Fullerton. Destination: The Tropics - a good old fashioned dive bar - the kind LA can only dream about. After consuming an inordinate amount of fried grease at Bob's Burgers (which incidentally also serves tacos, pizza, omlettes, and the ever popular "fried mix"...don't ask) we headed over to the venue where we were greated by Caveman. Caveman, our bouncer/soundman/follow spot operator(read: waves a large maglite at the stage) for the nite, was clad in a bright yellow t-shirt with CAVEMAN written on it (so as not to confuse him with any other cavemen we may know), a full gray beard, and a black bandanna on his head.
I looked around; the place (not much bigger than a large one bedroom apartment) was packed. Packed with all eyes on me, wondering who i was. I admit, I am not really used to playing outside of my comfort zone - all of my LA shows are packed with my friends - people who know and love me and my music. These people were a bunch of strangers. We started off the set with Bobbi and as we were playing i looked around and noticed something amazing: these people were listening to me. They were paying attention. They were tapping their feet, bobbing their heads - a whole room full of strangers and they were digging our stuff! When we finished - man, what a response! Some guys shouted, "hey who are you?! do you have cds?" I couldn't believe it. In LA, it's like pulling teeth to see cds - but here, just an hour south of the city, people were asking for it! And, after just one song! These people were here to HEAR music - to be entertained, to FEEL something...not to "network", not to be "seen" and all that other LA bullshit. Bullshit that I have gotten so used to that I forgot that THIS is why I started playing in the first place. THIS is what I love - sharing my creation and experience with others; feeling and moving others to feel through my music. We wrapped up the set with my usual closer, "Me and Bobby McGee" - the place fucking erupted - Caveman threw money at us - what a rush! The poppy, garage-ish band, The Ashes played next to a still boisterous crowd followed by the headliners, and, my new buddies, Mama Hagglin. I probably overuse the word "rock" - but believe me, I have never meant it more when I say, these guys ROCKED. Jeff, Mitch, and Sandy brought the house down. They are all so fucking talented I can't stand it. At one point during their set, the PA went out so there were no vocal mics. Did that stop them? No. In fact, it's the best thing that could've happened. They broke into a rockin' jam of "Gloria" - Jeff (guitar) jumped onto the pool table, Mitch (bass) ventured out into the crowd singing one line of each verse to a different person and then got the crowd to sing the chorus ("Gloria, G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria!"), and Sandy (drums) did THE most kick ass drum solo ever. PA? They don't need no stinkin' PA. When the PA did finally return, they did this blues song and asked me to come up and join them. What a fucking trip. I improv-ed all of this background wailing to Jeff's lead vocal. It was all in all, pretty kick ass. I talked with the guys from Mama afterwards and we are definitely going to hook up and do more shows together this spring, before they take off for the tour with BETH HART. I can't wait. And, Caveman might even give us a residency on their Monday night "biker night." Stay tuned. ;) Last nite I learned to remember and never forget what it is I love about making music.

Snowy Apple - 2/13/2006

When life gives you apples, sometimes you just have to make applesauce...or something like that. I am now in day 2 of being stranded in Manhattan, post Bitter End gig on Saturday night. I do believe I picked the one weekend to play in NYC that there was a blizzard. The gig was great! Despite the snowy night, we had a great crowd and sold every last one of the cds! We will no doubt be returning to this great city soon...in warmer times. My guitarist, Alan, and I were scheduled to leave at 8am sunday (after the Sat. gig) but our flight was cancelled and rescheduled for this evening. I was frustrated at first, but as 5 of us sat in my brother's 1 bedroom manhattan apt. yesterday afternoon I thought to myself, "You know, this is nice. I can't do anything besides sit here and hang out with people I love and don't make nearly enough time for usually." Sad that mother nature has to be the deciding factor in something like this. I suppose it's a good reminder to make time for friends and family on your own, before uncontrollable forces of nature do it for you. Alright, enough blabbing on...i've got a plane to catch.....sunny and 75, here I come!!

Stood Up - 2/4/2006

ok, i got stood up this morning. Well, I guess technically I got cancelled on. Of course the stander-upper/canceler probably doesn't see it that way. See, I'm obsessed and infatuated with this completely unavailable individual. So, naturally, I see it that way. My cell phone rings this morning, "Hi. I can't make it today - I'm sick." Bullshit. You're hungover. Nobody mysteriously gets sick on Saturday morning without the help of excess alcohol consumption the night before. Ok, maybe I am being a bit harsh but, come on - if you were really "sick" you could have called me yesterday to cancel. You were just out with some other chic, having fun and getting drunk while little old me was getting a good night's sleep because I've been counting the days 'til I get to see you! I told you. I'm obsessed. There is nothing sane or logical about this. And I am not proud. This is nothing new. I always fall for these "unavailables". Thank God, though, speaking as a songwriter - where do you think most of my songs come from? Although it is leading towards some nice strides in my career I am still left at (gulp) 30, never having had a real relationship. Well, by 8:45 - still clad in my boxers and wife beater - i had my guitar in hand with a verse, a pre-chorus, and the melody to a chorus written. Ah, torture yeilding creativity once again. This one's called "Tease." Hah. I am feeling much better.

Home from the 'Nati - 1/24/2006

Morning all. I'm sitting here, back at my day job (not DOING my day job, 'cause I'm writing this journal entry....gee, I hope my boss doesn't read this). The 'Nati tour was great. Both nights (Jack Quinn's and the Southgate House) were packed and they want us to come back in April! It was so great to see so many familiar faces as well as new ones! Thank you all for your support! (And your tequila shots, Fred & Co., though my hangover does not thank you) In the meantime, I am going into the studio with Luis Oliart (my faithful bass player/utility guy) to record a single we just wrote with Producer John Carta. It's a really sexy song called "Lady," all about the devious ways women use their power of sex. It was all Luis's idea, because I of course am sweet, untainted, and innocent and no nothing of any of that....riiiiiiiight. Other than that, I am write-write-writing away and have a bunch of new songs for you all to hear at my upcoming NYC and LA shows! Stay tuned...

Happy Neu Year!!! 1/1/2006

I hope everyone is as excited about 2006 as I am. Even years are always better than odd I think. I had the best new years eve EVER last night...i went to see BETH HART play in Fullerton and i was lucky enough to get to meet her and get a pic with her...(see www.myspace.com/julieneumark) In addition to being an absolutely AMAZING live performer (for those of you who are not familiar with her, go get her DVD....NOW. I mean it, go right now to her website www.bethhart.com and order "Live at the Paradiso"...NOW, dammit!"). I was truly blown away. And you may think that someone this freaking talented might be aloof and unapproachable, ya? Quite the contrary - I found Beth to be one of the most approachable, down-to-earth, and humble people I've ever met. (And she said my jacket was cool). ;) She is incredibly gracious and is really doing this because she loves to play her music for people. What a refreshing way to start off the new year in an industry so often jaded with negativity.