I spent the past weekend in St. Louis for Bob Baker’s Indie Buzz Bootcamp and, since I was in town, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to have a meal cooked by Christina Machamer, my favorite chef from Season 3 of Hell’s Kitchen on Fox.

(Gotta admit, my producer Mandi and I are huge fans of Hell’s Kitchen.  We don’t watch a lot of reality TV, but this one has us hooked in by the eggs.  How timely too — since she just became a finalist with just two shows left.  She’s our pick to win it all.  But I digress…)

I took my buddy Charlie Cheney (from Indie Band Manager fame), and we drove down to one of St. Louis’ finest restaurants, Revival, where Chef Christina chefs.  I gotta tell ya — this place was classy.  It’s set in an old brick building that used to be a speakeasy back in the days of prohibition.  The days when St. Louis was a main watering hole along the Mississippi River, and gas cost $0.03 per gallon.  There is an amazing back patio that’s landscaped and uplit to set the mood just right.  You’d think you were in the jungle (so long as you can ignore the sound of the train 20 yards behind said jungle.)

Christina came out and introduced herself and told us about the food, fully detailing the ins and outs of her menu and highlighting her signature scallops and the house special hushpuppies.  (Yes, they serve hushpuppies in a fine dining restaurant.  And they’re awesome.)

Anyhoo, I normally don’t like scallops, but the way she described them sounded too good to pass up.  Glad I took a chance because they were SO amazing.  I mean, I’m not a food critic or anything, but those scallops made me want to start.  I’m telling you, the girl has talent.  Gordon Ramsey would be proud.

Christina was a delight to talk to.  She came back out after the shift and had a glass of wine with us.  We talked it up for an hour or more about life, music, cooking, travel, sudden fame, and Gordon Ramsey’s new restaurant in L.A.

I was struck by how friendly and down-to-earth she was, even while she’s on top of the [Fox Reality TV] world.  My new friend Christina — an amazing chef and a very cool girl.  She’ll go far.

Just got this on my Facebook page from a Marine named Anthony stationed in Iraq and had to share it.

I get caught up in my own little world sometimes, and it’s incredibly refreshing to hear that somewhere on the other side of the planet, all this work I’ve been doing on my music, and in the studio, on the business and on the website really matters to someone, even in the midst of chaos and terrorism.

“Hey came across your website and think you’re awesome. I’m going to be doing the same thing actually… But I’m taking a bit of a different path from you. I’m studying heavy into the business side of things and I realize now why you didn’t really care on 365 day whether you got signed…

I’m currently in Iraq, and I’m setting up a lot of contacts and resources for when I get back. I saw your story and I was like, “That is what I want to do with my life!” I’m coming into it as a business man first and a musician second because music is my passion and i would like to do just that, but in order for my goals to succeed I’m going to have to learn the independent business of things…

Anyway thanks for the inspiration man. I will keep you updated.
– A. Frank
PS. Iraq and my marines say hi… LOL”

Thanks for the letter, Anthony. And thank you for your service, from one veteran to another. Shout out to you and your boys in Iraq. Be careful out there, man.

Dear Santa,
I’ve been a good boy all year…

Forgive me, father, it has been a long time since my last post…

A few months back, Mandi and I were in the studio, editing tracks for my upcoming EP CD (which I had hoped would be finished, pressed, and mailed out to you by now). Turns out there’s a lot more work to do than I ever realized.

Just did one of my first interviews with a world-renowned podcaster by the name of Jammin Dave Jackson.

Dave hosts a show called the Musician’s Cooler that regularly gives away tons of great info in the form of audio podcasts you download right to your iPod.

(Perfect for those long roadtrips between gigs.)

I got into podcasts a few months back when I discovered I had 30+ Gb of free space left on my Video iPod, and didn’t know how to fill it. That and I’m just always hungry for good content.

They say you are the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with, so for the past few weeks, I’ve been soaking up as much knowledge from Jammin Dave as I could, listening to all the archived podcast episodes. I highly recommend you check it out.

So here’s my interview with Dave. He called me up and grilled me for a half hour on everything I’ve learned in my 365 days. Just push play!

Or you can download the whole show