Jeff Lofton Jazz Happy Hour at Ruth’s Chris

We heard the best jazz Thursday night at Ruth's Chris in Austin. Jeff Lofton, which included that night, Chris Jones on bass and Butch Miles, drums. Other than the fab music, the best part was it was happy hour, not 11 pm! Jeff sounds a lot like Miles Davis, but different in a very nice sort of way. He plays that brand of jazz that makes you want to close your eyes and drift, soulful, relaxing and stirring, very, very cool! Check him out this Sunday at Jazz Brunch at Waterloo Ice House 38th St. 11am - 1pm, then 3-6 pm at T. C.'s Lounge 1413 Webberville Rd, the "coolest bar you've never been to...",  and each Thursday at Ruth's Chris.  Click here to hear some of Jeff's sa-weet music.

It was also wonderful that Butch Miles happened to be playing with Jeff that night. Butch is married to my friend Linda Benjamin, and is quite famous, having played with such luminaries as Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dave Brubeck, Mel Torme, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Itzak Pearlman and others. Click here to hear Butch swing it.

Seeing old friend Bill Andrews, owner of Ruth's Chris (they served me one hell of $5 martini, and their steaks are unsurpassed), and Turk Pipkin, writer, film maker, actor and creator of The Nobility Project, also made the evening extra special. Not to mention that everyone hung out at our table between sets.

I particularly loved meeting and visiting with Jeff Lofton's wife and Publicist, Dean Lofton (photo to left - a Very Smart Gal!) I think I need to hire her to be my publicists! Click here to check out her website.

Take a listen to Jeff. Go see him live. Buy his album "Jazz To The People." Sometimes we just have to be reminded of why Austin is sooooo special!!

One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times – Chapter 41

#41 – “When you run out of something, put the empty box or bottle in your car to remind yourself to buy that item the next time you’re at the store.” 
(Photo is of me and my beautiful daughter, just being silly)

When I see the TV shows about hoarders, I have flashbacks on this one of one hundred things my mom taught me a million times. Mom wasn’t technically a hoarder; she was more like a slob. (Sorry mom). Granted, she though nothing should be thrown away, but it wasn’t so out of control that I couldn’t tidy up the place before friends came over. Yep, I did. I cleaned house before my friends came over because I was embarrassed for them to see how disorderly mom kept it. You know what though, some of the coolest women I’ve ever know didn’t/don't give a hoot about cleaning house, so I don’t consider that a fault, just a characteristic.

So back to the empty boxes and bottles in our car. Honestly, having an empty gallon bottle of Clorox bleach, and Nilla Wafers and Arm & Hammer baking soda boxes rolling around in your front seat floorboard just felt so wrong to me. I can’t tell you how many times I cleaned my mom’s car out so I could take my friends “riding around,” which is pretty much all we did once we learned to drive. Click on Read More below...

My Latisse - Not So Clinical Trial - Week Three Results

Week #3 - Well my Latisse lash-growing experiment seems to be going well. I am most excited that the lashes on my right eye seem to be catching up with the lashes on my left eye. I have a theory about that, which may sound a little wacky to you, but I think it has merit.

Week #2 - I think it’s a right brain/left brain thing. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this “theory” clinically referred to as Lateralization of brain function, in a nutshell (non-clinical, basically worthless opinion), the right side controls creativity, and the left logic.

Here’s a gross rationalization for you. If you’re an anal, Republican, control freak, the left side of your brain is probably dominant. If you’re a hippy-dippy, new age, bohemian painter, you’re right brained. I also think that’s why some people have very symmetrical faces (supposedly the most beautiful people in the world), and some appear to be two-different people depending upon which side of their face you’re looking at.

Anywho, I think my way too logical control freakiness left brain has been stunting the growth of my eyelashes. However, this past week I took a couple of days off from work and relaxed and gave my right brain a little play-time, and my anal left brain a rest, I think that made the lashes on my right eye grow faster.

My Latisse - Not So Clinical Trial - Week Two Results

WEEK ONE - Baseline - Pitiful

WEEK TWO – OMG! I think this stuff works!

OK. I need a little perspective and a third-party opinion here. Are my lashes really longer, thicker and darker, or is it just my need to believe that the $114 I spent on a bottle of stuff half the size of a wine cork isn’t just vanity run amuck?

I’m starting to feel a little like Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

I’ll mention again that I spent a good 30 minutes “re-touching” this updated results photo (something I seem to do a lot lately), but I didn’t touch the lashes, just the depressing sea of wrinkles, pores the size of salad plates, and brows in tragic need of maintenance.

So what do you think? Is it working or not?

The Time of My Life By Patrick Swayze And Lisa Niemi

Patrick Swayze never blew my skirt up the way Brad Pitt used to (note the past-tense here), but I always thought he was good-looking and a good actor. So, when I saw that he had a posthumous autobiography out, I paused before deciding to read it, and I’m glad I did. Not glad that I paused, but rather, glad that I read it. It being, The Time of My Life, by Swayze and his wife of 34 years, Lisa Niemi.  How do you do a posthumous autobiography? You write it then die of pancreatic cancer two weeks before it’s published.

There were several things in this book that compelled me to slog through the predictable “we went here, we did that,” theme of life-stories. Click on Read More Below...

One Hundred Things My Mother Taught Me A Million Times – Chapter 40

#40 - "Moderation in all things.”
(This really, really old photo is of my great grandmother Vina Belle McLaughlin, and great uncle, Alva McLaughlin, taken around 1900 in Spring Creek, TX)

When I was a kid and mom would say this one of one hundred things she taught me a million times, I thought she meant don’t do things, which in my “exploring the world of wonder” mentality just seemed wrong, and to conflict with the adventuresome mother I knew. But by the time I got old enough to experience the downside of “lack of moderation,” I realized what she was really saying was “It’s not what you do that gets you into trouble. It is how much.” Even arsenic in the right proportion can save a life. Click on Read More Below...