and a happy new year!!!

So wowza, it has been some crazy last couple of weeks....
For the record, NYC was awesome, I met a cousin I didn't even know I had , saw one of my best friends from college (I practically lived on their couch) .... here is some video from that night:


The next night was pretty awesome, I went to a place called Proteus Gowanus for the release of a new book "The Space Between" by John Law and was treated to some amazing presentations of pictures and stories of John's experiences with climbing bridges. I made a little video of that but it is too long to put on you tube and honestly I have been too swamped with gigs and holiday bruhaha that I haven't had a chance to post it in 3 parts yet, but here is a great photo of me with John Law and the publisher Julia Solis:
Aren't they just adorable? You have no idea just how much mischief lies behind those beautiful eyes...... but if you buy the book you may get some idea. After NYC and Brooklyn the Amoeba and I headed for home, thankfully the young bucks that comprise my band, namely Tony DePaolis on bass and Mike Murray on organ decided they actually wanted to drive so Amoeba and I just cuddled and tried not to fart.....
After we made it home I had a whole slew of gigs , and international holiday sing a long called "We are all children of Abraham, Merry ChristmaChannaKwanzaa!!" at the New Hazlett put on by cityLive! wherein we sang songs from all over the world.
We sang songs from Turkey and Germany and Spain and Mexico, some Latin, some Hebrew , some French... one day I have a dream of me going on a musical peace tour across the world where I will sing songs with and from every culture I meet. Until then Pittsburgh will just have to put up with my husband and I in Santa and Elf costumes singing ChristmaChannaKwanzaa songs wherever they haven't yet banned us. At my show at the Backstage Bar we were invaded by 150 drunken Santas, led by 2 distressingly large men in bunny suits, they even had their own songbooks..... you have to have respect for those what travel with their own songbooks......apparently the dancers at Blush (their stop previous to coming to hear me sing) really enjoyed wearing the bunny heads while twirling around the poles, I am sorry I missed that....
and I never did get a figgy pudding.... all these years I keep asking and asking and do you think I would ever get one? Well, that's not true, once (just once) my friend Allie brought over a figgy pudding, it's kind of like a welsh fruity version of kimchee, you chop it up, bury it and mmm mmmm good!! But then she moved to Ireland, and now she can only send me small jpeg representations of figgy pudding on facebook and it's just not the same..... of course, if that is all I have to complain about than I consider myself very blessed person indeed.....

That said, I am very excited to invite you all to check out the Phat Man Dee Experience!! What happens when you get Phat Man Dee singing in a room with Mike Murray on organ, Chris Parker on drums and hopefully some guitar, Extreme Painter Kevin "the Nerve" Wenner, and artists from the Living Brush in North Carolina, Scott Fray with your favorite model Foxy Moxy? Well, I am not sure either, but you should be there just in case.....New to the Phat Man Dee Experience this year will be special guest Buddy Nutt!! Called "Pittsburgh's Tiny Tim" by the Rolling Stone, Mr Nutt will be gracing our souls with his crystal singing cups and his singing golden saw. Like I said, I can't predict exactly what will happen, but whatever it is, it'll be in a couple languages, it'll be hot, it'll make you feel better about the world we share and if nothing else you'll have some awesome music to listen to while your eyes drink in the beauty of the paint and canvas....

Sets at 6:45 pm, 9 pm & 10 pm. Tickets are available in the form of $8 buttons which you may purchase at any Giant Eagle and will gain you entrance into all of the First Night activities. (Some venues require vouchers, not mine, but refer to their website for details.)

Non alcohol event, family friendly, all ages!!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Shows at 6:45, 9 and 10 pm.
First Night Pittsburgh, 905 Liberty Ave, Pittsburgh, PA
Contact the Box Office for info:
412-456-6666
or visit:
http://firstnightpgh.com/

I hope to see you out, if you can't make it, come on out January 8 at
Pegasus! I will be singing there with three mini sets starting at
10:30 pm. I'll be bringing a birthday cake for my friend Suz Pisano,
she's turning even more lovely than ever before, so mark the calendar
and come down and buy her a drink!

Happy New Year everybody, I really hope we can be the change we need to see in the world over the coming months, love , light and keep the faith!

Lastly for now, I have been quite enamored with facebook of late, if you are on it
and wish to find me, my music page is:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Phat-Man-Dee/19202236991

Hope to see you in the ether!

Singing @ Backstage Bar 2mrw & then on Sunday for Olivia Kissel Benefit @ Lava Lounge!!

Hey kids!! Come on out tomorrow if you are in the area , I will be singing at the Backstage Bar , 655 Penn Ave, Pgh 15222
With Colter Harper & Tony DePaolis, 5-7:30 PM, no cover, great cocktails, light menu & Phat Man Dee. Lots of original new compositions & some favorite classics. A Tisket A Tasket and War Pigs mixed in with some Hoagy Carmichael....get a stiff one and enjoy the music. (I meant a drink, you perv....)
http://www.clocabaret.com

And then on Sunday:
Our Dear Dear Friend Olivia Kissel is one of those beautiful yet unfortunate Americans who are uninsured with escalating Medical Debt. We are hoping to help her out, won't you help us help her by attending this Benefit show? All Proceeds go directly to Olivia.

If you can't come to the show here are two ways to donate online
http://www.zafiradance.co/livbenefit.html

or via paypal:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=1742680

Lava Lounge Sunday Dec 14th
7-10pm $5
Performers:
Phat Mandee
UkuLizzy
Andrew the Impaled
Lady J
Zafira
and more!

I have been adoring this woman, and singing for her , for over a decade. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever had the opportunity with whom to work. She should be considered a national treasure, that she doesn't have health care is proof positive that we live in a country in desperate need of help. Until the help comes, we must help ourselves. Please come out to support this event or donate via the pay pal link.

And for your viewing pleasure, we had a great show in NYC last monday, thanks to everyone for coming out!!!! I saw people I hadn't seen in years, like Emma Velez Lopez and John Law and even a new cousin, Harrison Kivowitz?!??!? Here is some video from that night with Mike Murray and Tony DePaolis:

Reminder , PMD in NYC tonight, tell your friends!!

Hey kids, I know I mentioned my gig in NYC in my last post, but I

would so appreciate it if you reminded any NYC friends that I am
singing tonight at the Gershwin Hotel. I am pretty excited about it, I
am playing with Mike Murray (piano) and Tony DePaolis (bass). It is
$10, 8 pm , all ages, BYOB and located at 7 E 27th St, btwn 5th and
Madison.

This is the official release:
Some have called her the Peggy Lee of punk, some have called her an
intergalactic juggernaut of vehement and disruptive love, you may call
her Phat Man Dee, cosmic jazz chantuese. Join us on Monday December 8,
2008, 8 pm at the Gershwin Hotel's grand ballroom when Neke Carson
shall present Phat Man Dee as accompanied by Mike Murray, piano and
Tony DePaolis, bass. Special guest Tommy Amoeba. To hear samples of
her work, links to video and bio info visit www.phatmandee.com.
The Gershwin Hotel
7 E 27th St, btwn 5th and Madison, NYC
http://www.gershwinhotel.com
8 pm, $10, BYOB, senior citizen discount, wheelchair accessible

Later this week on Dec 11 @ 6:30 pm , I am at the New Hazlett Theater

in North Side, Pittsburgh, leading a multi lingual holiday singalong!
With me will be Colter Harper, Tony DePaolis, Jacob Yoffee and Nick
Ragheb. It's FREE!!

And then on Sat Dec 13 from 5-7:30 I am hitting at Backstage Bar on
Penn Ave and 6th St, across from the Benedum, with Colter Harper and
Tony DePaolis. Also FREE!!!

How much money does PAT need already????

Ok, I don't drive, not for any real reason than I am just a lazy, good for nothing ride mooch. I like being driven around, and since 1975 I have been able to get away with it. My life is like "Driving Miss Mandee" for my poor friends and family. That said, I do intend to get my license any minute now. I even made it to Penn DOT to take the permit test last week , only to be told that it was 3:48 pm, and they stopped taking people at 3:45 , because the office closed at 5 and apparently some people need over an hour to finish a 20 question multiple choice touchscreen test....

So I took the bus home. Actually, I took a trolley to the S Hills Junction and then a bus to my home, it was raining and I didn't want to walk the extra 2 blocks in the rain in my neighborhood. What did I say, lazy, good for nothing....I make no pretense here. In the news paper I read that the drink tax has collected some rediculous amount of money so far, ostensibly to be spent on public transit, you think the economy is in piss poor shape now? Imagine what happens if no one can get to work.... So according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette "The $45 million -- including nearly $20 million more than the authority needs -- that was collected this year by the 10 percent drink tax is still sitting, untapped, in the bank, he said. The county hasn't paid a cent to the authority since May 2007, he said."

If that is the case why in hell does it take me over an hour to get from downtown on public transit to my home less than 5 miles away in Allentown?? I would walk if I had an aptitude for rainy mountain climbing in violent neighborhoods. I used to joke as a kid that the time it took for me to get from my home in then Greenfield to work in Southside took more time than driving to Meadeville, PA, 90 miles up 79 N to go to college at Allegheny. And if we are taxing alcohol sales to help public transit (something I don't really have a problem with in theory) can we get the busses to run all night? Bars close at 2 am and drunk driving kills. But if you have no choice, or can't afford a $50 cab ride , if you can even get a cab when the bars close to begin with... I had a friend once who insisted Pittsburgh was more like a small 3rd world nation state, since dependable public transport is part and parcel of a developed country and we obviously couldn't get the job done here. (We had been waiting for a cab for over 2 hours at that point, since then I have put together my own list of good small cab companies and jitney go to guys.)

So I guess I am thrilled that we have so much damn money to put towards public transport, do you think we could spend it sometime in the near future? In NYC $2 gets you any where within the 5 boroughs no matter how many trains you have to take to get there. In San Francisco you can get a bus fare for $1.25 and you get 2 transfers with it automatically, here base fare starts at $2 and it's $2.50 for a transfer , only within the immediate city, and you never ever end up anywhere half so interesting. It is time for some change. It is time for environmentally supportable light rail to be restored to our region , and we need some buses running all night and we need buses running more often. It should not take me 2 damn hours to get from Allentown to Highland Park and it should not take me an hour or more to get home from downtown, I live across the river and up the hill. Spend some money Dan! If PAT can't get it together maybe someone needs to remind them that they are a public service not a private company.