Too much on my plate?  Me??  Never!  On top of trying to maintain a regular blogging regimen, setting up my Live Spaces page, learning multiple new songs every night, etc. etc. etc., I have been asked to be a guest blogger at www.winespectator.com, which went live last night.  See, to me, being in Wine Spectator is like being in Rolling Stone for winemakers - a completely incongruous dream come true!  For the sake of the children, please, come and share my dream over at www.winespectator.com.

These days people need their music fast. Rather than waiting a whole day to download the show from our website, you can now take part in our latest high-tech experiment (no, this doesn't include lysergic acid or agent orange), by purchasing that evening's show AT THE SHOW. Just go to the merch booth and ask to buy the USB version of tonight's show, they'll sell you a wristband, and at the end of the evening, you can come back to the table and pick up a fresh baked USB stick with that evening's performance magically embedded in it. And we have t-shirts, too.

To be perfectly honest, I sure prefer these videos where we don't have to pretend to be actors, or stand on a soundstage with makeup and catering for three days and $400,000.  Instead, I can stay home and cook my own food while someone clever, creative and talented comes up with something cool on their own.   I'm sure we'll make an appearance in a video sooner or later, but frankly, I'm having WAY more fun with these new ones, and it's not out of sheer laziness, either (although that might be a factor!).  Ever since the Wilted Rose video, I've been enjoying other artists' take on our music, and we ended up doing a similar thing with Easy, although I read the comments people posted about the song/video - sheesh! harsh!  I think it's quite good - it reminds me of the animation we used for the beginning of the stunt tour. 
Anyway, I wanted you to know that the 1st of two videos for Wind It Up is now online.  This is the one the winner of our contest got to make a cameo in (he's the naked guy), and we're really happy with it.  Hope you like it.  The 2nd video, the one with all of you or your friends air guitaring, is being edited right now, but I can tell you that the first cut I saw made me tear up (longtime readers can tell you, though, that in my old age, I tend to tear up at everything.  At this past weekend's Randy Newman concert, I started crying about 5 times, and got down to full-on sobs in Marie and In Germany Before The War, but more on that in a later post).  Nice work, everyone.
The jury's still out on whether or not we'll actually show up in our next video, but I can tell you that we're VERY excited about the concept - hopefully it turns out as well as it appears in our heads...

Hello everyone.  During the upcoming BLAM tour, we, BNL (well, at least me - let's see if the others step up to the plate) will be blogging away here on Windows Live Spaces (these posts will also appear on our regular blog site, www.bnlblog.com, so if you're reading it from there, um, hello!), as will our behind-the-scenes heroes, Rob "Tiny" Menegoni, and Craig "Fin" Finley, our drum tech and tour manager respectively. The tour starts in just over a week, and today we started rehearsing in earnest by doing what we do best, sitting around and snacking.  We also worked out the harmonies for "Sound Of Your Voice", and sketched out a set list template for the tour.  We like to construct a set list that has a structured flow, but still lots of room for what we call "swappables", songs that change from night to night.  Fans who are coming to multiple shows, or who plan on buying them online will be glad to know that there will be many, many swappables every night, and the fans who are coming to only one show (shame on you) will be glad to know that we'll still be playing the hits.  Of Air Supply.