A quick study of my favorite late-night talk show host, funnyman Jay Leno whose tenure at the Tonight Show comes to an end soon.

Jay’s monologue has consistently provided me with laugh-out loud moments which provided – more often than not – the first laugh of the day. His detractors often cite his persistent O.J. Simpson and Bill Clinton jokes as irrelevant, but his writers are top-notch and I presume will follow him to the new show. The “Jaywalking” bit still astounds me.

I would often take a break from a late night of artwork at 11:35pm EST, to return after the monologue and even contemplated putting a TV in the art studio strictly to switch on the Tonight Show.

I realized in his seventeen year tenure that I a) got sober b) got married and c) became a parent of two.

I don’t really consider caricature my strength, but his face is a natural for exaggeration. One of my favorite cartoonists, Tom Richmond, did his take on Jay which is naturally “spot on” especially the gesture. Check it out here.

Great job, Jay. Can’t wait to catch the new show and get to bed earlier.

My son was celebrating his first birthday in 1999, and at the party I met the spouse of my wife’s friend – a guitar player. This led to talk of music, dusting off the bass guitar, playing together in our living rooms once or twice, and an offer to join his cover band that was stalled for lack of someone to “hold down the bottom end”.

At that point, I gave myself a personal timeline of ten years. If I wasn’t working steadily as a gigging cover-band musician, then it wasn’t going to happen – and I could immerse myself completely in art; my core competency.

What first started as an excuse to get out of the house every so often, became a tiresome clash of egos, musical differences, and a cavalcade of lazy musicians and control freaks.

It was not all “gloom and doom”; there were some well-paying and unforgettable crowds along the way. The best run I had was with Westchester NY-based cover band “The Spin” which trawled the Irish pubs in Yonkers and played some jumping private parties. Once you’ve had a pub-full of girls on G.N.O. dancing to the booming pulse coming from your hands, it’s hard to walk away. But even that become burdensome when I realized I was playing very few songs that I liked.

There’s a quote from Trey Gunn that I often forwarded to other musicians: “Don’t play music you don’t like, it will poison your love affair with music.” Or words to that effect.

I have been dusting off what I refer to as my “humble” home studio and realize I have been blessed with the ability to acquire some very good gear – if not an abundance of musical talent. Thanks to home recording and MIDI, any computer literate musician can be a one man band.

So if something doesn’t come up in about five days, I’m giving up playing with other people. However, there is one keyboardist I’m corresponding with in nearby Nanuet who is starting up a band, so it couldn’t hurt to just check him out…

A comic book store employee.

I have not had the pleasure of any kind of indoctrination into the comic book culture beyond Comic Con NY a few months ago, but I never imagined the level of apathy and disrespect.

I’m trying to get caught up quickly since I have embarked on my first graphic novel, and recently learned of a day-long annual event in the industry called Free Comic Book Day held May 2.

After the requisite Saturday morning chauffeuring, my son and I head into the local “participating” comic book store in Nanuet called Toywiz – a toy store with a modest comic book section.

Once inside, I try to catch the eye of an obvious employee to be sure the store is participating in Free Comic Book Day. The youth didn’t seem to know, but finally was able to utter some grunt that sounded like “yeah”.

After what seemed like twenty minutes of selecting amongst the typical superhero fare (not my interest) we each find something we are willing to take for free. When I get to the cashier to ask if he wants to swipe them for inventory purposes he suddenly can speak: “Oh those aren’t free, the free ones are on that table.” Points to little card table with scant offerings.

“Really? Don’t you think it might have been helpful to point me to that table when I asked you initially about whether you were participating?”

“Unh. I thought it was pretty obvious”.

“No, it isn’t obvious that that tiny card table and the scant offerings on them are the only free options. I’ll buy these, though”. My choice was based on outstanding art by a new favorite, Terry Moore whose ink line work is inspiring.

This is not my intended audience, and the thought that the success of my book in someway will involve this kind of slacker-y salesmanship is alarming. Traditional channels are clearly not the way to go.