Is the Swizz the Swizz when he's not on Camera?

It's an interesting question that came up when I was on my way to the gig last Friday night when I realized that I'd forgotten the trusty waterproof camera that usually accompanies me on any adventure where the Swizz may appear. I was decked out in discoball pants, a yellow polo shirt, and a tie with sailboats on it. The girl in the Starbucks I always stop at before every gig was all smiles when she said "I really like the pants."

"Thanks." I said. "So do I."

So, as the first wave of caffeine started to course through my veins I had a decision to make: Do I turn around to go get the camera and risk being late for the gig , or do I just keep going. The truth is, if just being late for the gig was the only variable, I would have. But I didn't. Because right there and then, in my old car that sounds like it may throw a rod, or have a wheel come flying off if I take a turn to fast, I stroked my 70's style mustache/hair fangs and realized the purity that comes from not being on camera. It's a litmus test really. How good are you when nobody's looking? And by "good" I don't mean how "good" would my drumming be or how "good" of a rock star I could be, but rather, how good/pure/honest/unselfish am I when nobody's looking?

And that's when it hit me. The Swizz doesn't need to be on camera to be the Swizz. The Swizz just is.

And of course people were looking. The Starbucks girl was only the first of many girls/women to say "Nice Pants". No guys said "nice pants" and I guess that's a good thing? The stage light exploded into thousands of little laser beams as it interacted with the pants. The Swizz stood on the drum throne and screamed "She Sells Sanctuaraaaaaaaaaaaaay" from that Cult tune from the early 90's and the sweat tricked down from under the wig. Weather the camera was rolling or not had absolutely nothing to do with it. The Swizz is free and odd and fun and hopefully thought provoking, and in spite of the fact that it takes a small dose of premeditation to get duded up in a wig, he never really knows what's going to happen. Sometimes a camera catches it. Sometimes not. And both are good. There's a wonderful permanence when a spontaneous act is caught on film, but how can that compare to magic of the moment? Is it really possible to capture the moment while you're living it?

MARS Music Train arrives at Precinct Bar on Friday the 13th

That's right folks. After about a calendar year in the Studio, the MARS music train is bringing the live show out from behind the glass wall of the control room. There will be thrills. There will be chills. And as Bill Cosby used to say before every episode of Fat Albert, "Hey, Hey, Hey......There'll be music and fun and you might just learn something before we're done........Na....Na....Na.....Gonna have a good time........."

Who: MARS
What: Awesomeness
Where: Precinct Bar, Union Sq. Somerville, MA
When: Friday the 13th (awesomeness begins @ 9PM)
Why: Because Awesomeness is awesome only when awesome people congregate
www.myspace.com/marsrockband

Oh Yea, A Shakespearean Disco Donkey Show is Fun

Who knew what to expect at "The Donkey Show" that was literally playing across the street from a staid, stuffy, ivy covered institution of higher education? Was there really going to be some sort of human/animal husbandry on display? And how would William "Disco Diva" Shakespeare play into all of this? Who cares? The mission was fun, and just the idea that we had tickets to a Shakespearean Disco Donkey Show was enough to revive our fun receptors that had gone painfully dormant lately.

The fun factor kicked in even before we slipped under the velvet rope and into a Studio 54 revival taking place inside. Genvieve in her high heels and ultra-glam wig dispensed hugs with reckless abandon, a rollerskating Puck welcomed us into the fairytale world of the Disco Midsummer's Night Dream they had created right there in Harvard Square, Guido the bouncer who was working the velvet rope was impressed with Swizzle's posse of hot, polyester-clad babes, and the feeling that we'd found an oasis of frivolous fun after many months spent in the desert of the mundane was a salve for the soul. We'd found our people.

The goal of this video was to capture all the awesomeness of the Donkey Show. It may fall a bit short, but even a taste of Disco reverie is better than none at all. And when it was all over, The Swizzles, Francois, Genevieve and a mystery guest kept the groove going at a bar/restaurant down the street. The paradox of sitting and having some yuppie-type appetizers in a pseudo/swanky bar in Harvard Square clad in wigs and sunglasses was liberating. And the mission of Swizzle became even more apparent. Yes, the goofiness that gets posted here may appear to be drivel, but I think it serves a much higher purpose. Swizzle-land is not about me. It's about the Swizzles and Genvieve's and Francois's in all of us. We not only revived the smiles within ourselves, we brought out smiles in others. Perfect strangers--smiling, saying hi, and maybe even seeing the possibility of freedom that they are looking for in themselves in our goofy wig clad posse? More than ever, I have a firm belief that we all have an alter ego or egos within. And we're all better off when the rock star, or the hipster, or the french fashionista within comes out and plays among the people. What's the name of your alter ego? There's no better place to unleash it than the Donkey Show. And we'll be going back. Who's coming with us?

Oh Yea, it's fun having fun

Okay now. Who's coming with us? I forgot that I once learned the art of fun having, and part of fun having is having partners to share in the luminescent joy, and the goofy, goofiness of having fun for fun's sake . So.......... we're shaking the shackles of the mundane for the soothing caress of the blue, blue water. Who's in? We leave on November 29th and return on Dec 5th? Do join us. All you'll need is a high tolerance for being surrounded....plunged.......baptized, I say, in awesomeness. The destination? A secret island where the water feels like fine linen and the mood is ebullient.

Doesn't Anyone Have Any Fun Anymore?

The blog troll will probably chime in with "Give me a break Billy "Mr Entitlement" Swizzle, don't you know life isn't about having fun?" But I don't care. I want to know if anybody is having any fun out there. It seems with all of our economic troubles, people who are working, have to work harder than ever, and people who aren't, are freaking out because they aren't. Yea, I know life isn't only about having fun, but isn't it a little bit about having fun? Doesn't a little fun take the sting out of real life just a bit? I'm starting to think that having fun is going out of style. Maybe I've been watching too many gloom and doom documentaries about the great depression and the great recession and as a result, my perspective has been skewed towards puritanical punishment and restraint. "No, it's not okay to have fun. Don't you know times are tough?" Is anyone else looking forward to celebrating the end of 2009 thinking, "Good riddance 2009"



Well you know what? If having a little fun (including making fun of myself) is wrong, I don't want to be right. Things may be a little more scary and unsettled than they used to be, but that's no excuse to forgo fun. I may be giving myself a pep talk here, but it's time to get back and start doing all those frivolous things that shine the light of joy and laughter into the dark cave of uncertainty and credit card payments. Who's with me? Bowling on a weeknight. Sign me up. Catching up with a friend I haven't seen in a while. Let's make it happen. Staying out late and living like a Rock Star? Bring it. Drinking coffee and conducting the Wii Olympics? Let the games begin.



How about celebrating the fact that the days are getting longer and we're descending into the darkness of the New England fall with a cocktail/dance party where all the women wear bikini tops/push up bras and all the men go shirtless. We'll stoke up the fire in the fireplace and dance to Michael Jackson until the wee hours--or at least 11:00 before people have to go home to relieve their babysitters. Come on people. Who's with me?