9.10.2010
• High Adventure "Acoustic Prog Pop" Released
2.6.2010
• "Noodle Soup" CD Release Party
9.1.2008
Labor Day • The Return of Noodle
News
Hey there Noodles.
Glen here once again with an update on all things Cake,
and all things Sue & Glen Nelson. It's been a while
since the last official update, so instead of a summer
kickoff, let's try an end-of-summer wrap-up. To fill you
in completely, I have to start with last summer, where
Spaghetti Cake played a run of great shows including an
unforgettable concert on the Guilford town green, which
resulted in our first ever official live bootleg, "Learn
To Swim". We made only 150 copies, and distributed
it off of our MySpace and official site for free, while
supplies lasted. I'm glad to say that we shipped copies
from coast to coast, and even a few overseas. Many thanks
to our own Christopher Eddy for all the hard work on that
project. Summer 2007 also saw the release of a brand-new
studio EP, "What
About Pluto", which was released on September
4th, 2007 as an iTunes only digital exclusive. It contained
2 studio tracks from the band, recorded at Monster Lab
Studios in New Britain, CT and mixed by our old friend
Earl Cohen. Also included was the now classic but unreleased
"Farm Boy", as well as a new Spaghetti Cake
original, "Miles & Miles Of Smiles", which
was commissioned to be included on a national dental health
CD, and recorded by Mike Shirra of Share-A-Voice Productions.
If you haven't downloaded your copy yet, get over to iTunes
right away!
Once school started
back up, I spent most of my waning free time promoting
the "What About Pluto" EP, (and created MySpace
Music site #4, for my old high school band Via
Satellite) and Sue became ever more prosperous and
successful with her real estate company The Oliver Nelson
Group, with her partner Ed Oliver. In the last few years,
for anyone who doesn't already know, Sue has really managed
to transform herself into a mini-mogul in the real estate
world, particularly in the field of investment in large
apartment complexes. mostly in the South. While that job
does keep her very busy, it also makes her very happy.
And like anything that Sue puts her time and talent into,
she is very hardworking and very good at what she does.
At the time that Aidan was born, we also got a nanny to
help Sue out around the house, Judith Evans, and she has
been living with us for a year and a half, and has managed
to fit in very well, and we really enjoy having her around.
At Polk School, around
April 2008 we released our 7th consecutive music CD, "Polk
School Party", a collection of the greatest dance
hits of all time. We sold an amazing 250 copies (sold
out!) and raised $1,000 to go towards the purchase of
30 new baritone ukuleles for our school. It was once again
produced by our dear friend Mike Shirra of Share-A-Voice
Productions, and featured some amazing solos from my 3rd,
4th, and 5th grade students, including a career-topping
elementary school vocal performance from one of our favorite
young stars, Teairra Maunel, who has performed with Spaghetti
Cake on many occasions. It also featured a brand-new Todd
& Glen composition called "The Ballad Of Indiana".
Todd "E-Bones" & I wrote this song not only
as a follow-up to "Farm Boy", but also in honor
of the impending release of the fourth Indiana Jones movie
in May 2008. Like "Farm Boy" before it, this
song had its world-premiere debut on the "Indy-Cast"
with Ed Dolista, and was also played on the "MacCast",
as well as coverage on iBerkshire.com and even on NPR!
Todd & I felt that this song more than any other we've
written, really harkened back to the days of our childhood,
when we were in each other's first band called "High
Adventure". So, we made up a new website High
Adventure Music, where listeners can download a high-quality
version of the track for free, as well as my fifth (and
final) MySpace Music site for High
Adventure . So sign up and be a friend today, there
will be more new music from us soon! In other Polk School
news, in addition to our usual concerts, 5th grade podcasts,
and school-wide talent show, the final feather in the
cap for the students & I was when Ed Dolista of the
"Indy-Cast" played our 4th grade chorus performing
"The Ballad Of Indiana" on the show!
This summer, I had
the thrill of playing on the mainstage at Max Creek's
Camp Creek music festival with my longtime bandmates in
Flipper Dave, which included Brett, myself, Steve, and
Mike, and was one of most unforgettable Flipper shows
in our band's history. The crowd was huge! It was such
a blast. Flipper Dave continues to be a jam rock powerhouse
everywhere that we play, and the gigs are always a very
special experience for both us and our loyal fans. Spaghetti
Cake also had the great honor of hitting the mainstage
at both Strange-Creek and Wormtown music festivals in
2008. Spaghetti Cake also played numerous other indoor
and outdoor concert venues, many of which featured a familiar
face on drums, "Flipper" Steve Battistoni. So,
we managed to keep very busy, and it looks like we're
movin' on up!
I also continue to
remain active with my other part-time job, which is as
pianist and organist for Immaculate Heart of Mary Church
right here in Harwinton, CT. That has really been a lot
of fun for me on so many levels, not just working with
the other great musicians, but also with the kids chorus
as well. This Fall I am entering the RCIA class, where
I will be taught the Christian faith and ultimately be
baptized and take first communion on Holy Saturday next
March, right before Easter Sunday. I am looking forward
to taking that exciting new journey!
In other musical
news, I spent my summer this year working with an amazingly
talented singer/songwriter and musician named Mike
Greca. We spent the summer rehearsing and working
up the arrangements for his songs and then we went into
the studio and recorded the whole thing LIVE in front
of an audience! It was recorded at our own Mike Tierney's
brand-new recording studio Audio Media Solutions (formerly
The Gallery - which now proudly houses my GOFF Professional
Hammond B3) and in doing so I got to work with some amazing
local artists, and incredibly talented people. It was
a lot of work, and an unusual way to record an album,
but it turned out to be an unforgettable experience, and
one that I will never forget. Mike Greca is a superb local
artist, and I can't wait for the album to come out this
Fall!
The kids are doing
great! Fox will turn 5 this October, and is going to his
first day of Kindergarten tomorrow! Vayle is currently
3 1/2, and will be going to her second year of preschool,
also starting tomorrow. Aidan is a year and a half, and
is just about the cutest little thing I have ever seen.
Bodhi is 9, and doing great. She still chases after the
tennis ball like she is a puppy. See below for a few new
pictures. We were also able to get away this summer, not
just to the usual Maine retreat, but Sue & I also
spent a week with the family in Newport, RI. This summer
was not only the summer of Indy IV, (which I saw 4 times)
but also of course, Star Wars: The Clone Wars. I was able
to take the whole family to our very first Star Wars movie
on the big screen. (Fox & I went back to see it again
the next day!) Personally, I loved both of those movies.
I take them for what they are, entertainment, and leave
it at that. And what fun they were! For those who read
my blog posts on MySpace, 2007 was the year the battle
of the vinyl LP record vs. the iPod raged, and now this
summer, Sue got me the iPhone for my birthday, and boy
oh boy, do I love that as well. It is perhaps one of the
greatest inventions of all time. (That and the GPS!)
Sue & I also
got to take in some great concerts in 2008, way too many
to remember, but the ones that stand out in recent memory
would be Jackson Browne solo acoustic at The Oakdale,
Brian Wilson at The Warner Theatre, Rush and Jethro Tull
at The Mohegan Sun, Neil Diamond at the Civic Center,
and coming up this Fall, Zappa Plays Zappa! Also, I continued
to listen to so much great music in 2008, stay tuned for
all of the highlights in this year's Nelly Awards in a
future blog post. The album of the summer? The soundtrack
to "Star Wars: Clone Wars".
Well, that's just
the tip of the iceberg, but I think I touched on most
the of the vital need-to-know highlights of our past year+.
As you can see, we have not slowed down at all, and despite
a growing family, we manage to keep writing and playing,
and releasing albums! Sorry it took so long to sit down
and write you all an update, but things have been a little
crazy. So today is Labor Day 2008, and the kids return
for me at school tomorrow as well. What will the next
year hold for The Nelsons? Stay tuned to this website
and find out. All of our love, Glen & Sue
The
Nelson Family • Vayle, Fox, Mom & Aidan
June
2008 • The kids at our Maine Cottage
December
2007 • Fox, Vayle & Aidan
6.30.2007
Calling all noodles!
Glen again, with
your June 2007 Noodle News Update! I've been blogging
on MySpace all year long, if you're a regular reader of
this blog. (all 3 of you) That said, could you do me a
HUGE favor if you're reading this blog right now? Would
you please, please subscribe to the MySpace blog? I'd
really love to know who's reading. (thx!) Anyway, in addition,
for all of you original Cake site "Noodle News"
readers (I know you're out there!) thank you as always
for reading, and P.S. no hyperlinks this year to all the
fun stuff - it's all there for the taking on either the
original Spaghetti Cake website HERE, the official Mr.
Nelson Polk School website HERE, or the one and only Spaghetti
Cake MySpace Music page HERE. Many thanks.
So the BIG news:
Aidan Edward Nelson, our son and third child, was born
on March 20th, 2007, just three days after St. Paddy's
Day. He is so cute and looks so much like me and Foxy.
The night before Aidan was born, we asked Fox what he
wanted the baby to be (it was going to be a surprise)
and he said, (being into Star Wars), "a trooper!"
Well, Fox, you got exactly what you wished for. A gorgeous
little clone.
In other huge band
news, "Ready For Summer" was released on DVD
and is readlily available for purchase everywhere. We
in the band are very proud of the film, a beautiful recreation
of a magical summer's eve in Watertown, CT on June 21st,
2006. We very recently returned from our year-after-to-the-day
June 20th, 2007 repeat performance at Veteran's Park,
and it was a sheer joy and rewarding triumph.
New songs were many,
including the teen-angst fueled epic anthem penned by
Eddy and Nelson titled "Bad Influence". On the
flip side, Glen inked an epic anthem with his children's
chorus in church. (Glen serves on the music ministry at
the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in hometown Harwinton,
CT.) "Happy Birthday, Jesus" was premiered to
a standing-room only crowd at the 5:00 mass on Christmas
Eve. Todd & Glen's ever-growing pop hit (and tribute
to Star Wars) "Farm Boy" continued to gain in
popularity, as it was played on the official Star Wars
Podcast "The Force-Cast" TWICE, and also became
available for the very first time as a Cingular©
Ringtone! We'd surely thank you if you bought it for your
mobile!
And of course, the
past year included the release of the SIXTH consecutive
Polk School music CD, "Polk School LIVE", a
collection of 20 new original compositions by Glen and
his regular classroom music students. The album was written
over the entire school year, yet performed (and recorded)
in a single afternoon on April 12th, 2007. It sold 160
copies and helped raise over $400 for the Polk School
music program. Also this year my fifth graders recorded
their end-of-the-year live podcasts, which are available
on the Polk School site as a free download. Also available
on all sites are my latest two Spaghetti Cake podcasts,
with me singing all of the new material written over the
past year. Feel free to download, listen and enjoy.
Musically, this year
I was inspired by MANY artists, yet the genre that seemed
to hynotize me the most was North American Celtic Rock.
As any of my close friends know, I spent an inordinate
amount of time listening to the Virginian band "Carbon
Leaf", and even took in a show here and there. A
superb band, all the way. If I could snap my fingers and
make one band famous (other than ours) it would be these
guys. Similarly, I was very inspired musically this year
by a band called "Great Big Sea", from Newfoundland,
Nova Scotia. They really know how to tear it up in a more
traditional, yet modern Celtic pop sytle. Other bands
or artists that got to me would be (in no particular order)
Train, Brandi Carlile, The Weepies, Mary Chapin Carpenter,
Colin Hay, Michael Penn, and The Town Pants. I dug several
great newly-discovered MySpace bands like Tripsitter,
Candypants, Anchorhead, Big Organ Trio, The Miles Of Smiles
Show from North Ireland, One Ring Zero, and Pear. The
other big story of course, was the creation of not one,
but THREE way-cool MySpace Music pages.
And as I write this,
we are yet again on the verge of our annual trip up to
Blue Hill, ME, where we recorded our first 2 albums, and
even wrote our hit "Farm Boy". It is a magical
place to relax, and renew, and contemplate the next step
in life's journey.
Peace (and love),
Glen
BORN
3.20.2007 
Welcome Aidan Edward Nelson!
Click
here for photos
6.24.2006
Happy Summer, everyone!
School is out, change is in the air, and it appears that
it is time once again for a Noodle News update. This update
finds Sue, Fox, Vayle & myself on the cusp of a very
important move in our lives. We are going to live in Nashville,
TN for the entire summer! Why Nashville? Well, as many
of you know, it has been a dream of ours since even before
we started Spaghetti Cake to live, work, and write songs
in the most exciting musical city on the face of the Earth.
What makes this move at this point in our lives intriguing
is that over the past year and a half, while Sue has rasied
the babies, she also got her Realtor's Liscence, and has
already made enough deals to purchase an apartment building
in downtown Nashville. We will live rent-free for the
summer (or anytime we want to go down there and visit.)
That's pretty exciting, huh? Don't worry, however, we
are planning on coming back in late August. Hey, we have
Spaghetti Cake shows to play - we have no choice! Speaking
of Spaghetti Cake, we have had a great year since the
last update. Todd-e-Bones and I have written a new song,
"West
Hill Road" and I produced our first
official podcast.
We just finished filming our very first live DVD this
past week at Veteran's Memorial Park in Watertown, CT.
Thanks to Reflection
Productions for doing such an amazing
job shooting the movie. The DVD will be released in Fall
2006. We will spend the summer editing the project and
making it look incredible, stay tuned. In September 2005
we welcomed lifelong friend Christopher
Eddy into the band as our full-time
percussionist. It has been a pleasure to have his talent
and musical spirit (not to mention vocal ability) added
to the mix. In addition, this past year we officially
welcomed sound and light technician Mike Ladeau of Outhouse
Sound to Team Spaghetti Cake.
We played some amazing school gigs with the band this
year, including the River Street School in Windsor, CT,
the Early Childhood Center in Plainfield, CT, and the
Girl Scouts of Connecticut's Annual Gala Ball at the CT
Grand Hotel in Waterbury, CT. I also taught another run
of hugely successful afterschool songwriting workshops
in Roxbury, CT. Click here to listen to the results of
the March 2006 K-2 group, "Let
Life Move You". Spaghetti
Cake also played numerous other outdoor shows and festivals,
and we have a number of exciting shows to look forward
to, including Moe.Down
7 in September with the
legendary jam rock band Moe! In other band-related news,
our original bass player from both CDs Jo
& Lisa Horsley
got married in September on a beautiful wedding weekend
in Cape Cod, I started playing organ and piano regularly
at the Immaculate
Heart of Mary Church
here in Harwinton, CT after the New Year, and Sue &
I got to see Sir Paul McCartney perform at MSG in NYC
in the 15th row (center), what a dream come true! Happy
64th, Paul! I got a chance to talk to both Al
Jardine
and Brian
Wilson
from The Beach Boys (click to listen) and Christopher,
TEBs, and I also got together to record our musical tribute
to the boys of summer with "Our
Prayer".
In Polk School news, we completed work on our 5th full-length
CD of songs that the classes themselves voted on and performed,
titled "Polk
School Rocks". This
project raised $1,450 for Hurricane Katrina relief that
we donated to the Salvation Army. Another huge accomplishment
at school this year was the realization of a series of
5th
Grade Podcasts. Check
'em out - they were all done live with my students right
in our music classroom! It was a great way to end the
school year. I was also honored at school this year for
my commitment to excellence in education, which was very
special. My other band Flipper
Dave
continued to perform this past year, I sat in with numerous
other bands on keyboards, including The Reverend Tor Band,
Shakedown, Duke & The Esoterics, The Bantam Phantoms,
The Mark Paradis Band, even my old high-school band Via
Satellite got back together for a couple of fun-filled
jam sessions, and I did my first ever solo gig at this
year's Strange-Creek Festival! In family news, Bodhi turned
7 this year, Foxy is 2 and a half, and Vayle turned 1.
She is a beautiful little girl, who is always improving.
This summer I will turn 35, and we are on our way to Nashville,
TN. Our dreams are coming true! Wish us luck and we'll
see you all in Westport, CT on August 23rd.
6.21.2005
It is the eve once
again of summer vacation, and therefore time again for
a Noodle News update. A lot has happened in a year in
the life of Spaghetti Cake, and here's a quick
recap; The exciting news is that as of this writing we
are NOT heading up to Blue Hill, Maine, beacuse we just
brought home our beautiful new baby daughter Vayle
Ottavia Nelson, who is just
over 7 weeks old. Vayle was born on April 30th, 2005,
on a Saturday morning at 2:31 am. (Incidentally, Fox
is 20 months old today and doing wonderfully!) Vayle was
hospitalized at Uconn Health Center for 6 weeks, and gave
us a pretty good scare, but the miracle baby is home now,
and in great health. Thank you to everyone who prayed
for Vayle with us, we appreciate everything you've done.
So if last year was a year for starting things, it seemed
this past year was a year for finishing things. I finished
my sixth-year degree in educational administration on
time in December 2004 and graduated from Sacred Heart
University. (No word yet on on when I'll be a principal
- but I'm looking around for fun anyway!) We finished
our major re-construction project on the 2nd floor of
our house, which is now a joy to actually live in! Todd-E-Bones
(who officially joined the band this past year) and I,
as promised, did go up to Blue Hill last June and wrote
the first of many new songs to come, called "Farm
Boy". We recorded it at
his house in August and finally got to perform it live
with the band in April. See if you can figure out what
the lyrics in the song are about! As you can see from
the album cover photo below, in the Fall I finished an
18-track CD with my students at Polk School called Buckingham
Street (a takeoff on The Beatles
"Abbey Road" album cover.) The kids and
I wrote and performed all original words and music for
the disc, and it was truly a cornerstone in my career
as a music teacher. In the Spring, we also did an outdoor
concert that celebrated the music of Brian Wilson &
The Beach Boys, and it was truly a blast (see above photo).
Check out his wonderful new CD entitled "SMiLE",
I loved it! Through it all, the band continued to rock
our usual line-up of outdoor shows and festivals, as well
as a number of public school performances such as Booth
Hill Elementary School in Shelton, CT, and an encore engagement
at Washington Primary School. Thanks as always to the
continued assistance of the Conneciticut Commission on
the Arts, whose grants help to fund our touring fees.
Check out our concerts
page for all of the upcoming shows this summer, including
a return to the Wormtown
Festival in Heath, Massachusetts
this September. I also ran an afterschool songwriting
workshop in Washington Depot with some very talented young
songwriters, who performed their song live onstage with
the band! To hear what we ended up with, check out their
original composition entitled "The
Combination". I will be
returning to write and compose again with the ASAP
program this summer. In other news, we regretfully had
to close the official Spaghetti Cake online store,
but our two CDs, Jam
Food and Sunflower
are now being distributed by an online company called
CD Baby, which also handles the Flipper Dave
CD, Something
Simple as well. Our other merchandise
such as stickers and t-shirts will still be available
for sale at all of our live shows. This past year we also
welcomed back an old friend on drums, Mike Tierney (Yes,
we have two drummers named Mike), and we welcomed vocalist
and dear friend Pamela Rivera to the band (whose voice
you might recognize on "Bedtime
Story"). My adult rock
band Flipper Dave celebrated its 10-Year Anniversary
Show at KC Dubliner,
and yes, Star Wars Episode III was finally released,
and it's great. By the way, Bodhi turned six this
year and she still loves the ball as much as ever. So
will we ever get up to Toddy Pond this summer? I definitely
think so. I know we've earned a little R&R. This summer
we may actually have a chance to get some. We'll see.
As usual, we look forward to playing for our fans at our
live shows, and writing more exciting new material for
the band to play and record. Stay tuned, noodles! See
you this summer.
BORN
4.30.2005 
Welcome Vayle Ottavia Nelson!
Click
here for photos
6.20.2004
Another year has gone
by (or is it two?) and again tomorrow I head up to beautiful
Blue Hill, Maine with my family, so the time has come
once again for an update. In June 2003, Spaghetti Cake
become members of the Connecticut Commission on the
Arts, which is a wonderful opportunity to receive
state grant money to help fund our performances in schools,
park & recs, and any other non-profit shows that the
band plays. We have had a great working relationship with
the organization so far, and hope that we continue working
together for many years to come. Sue & I left our
beloved residence in Morris, CT where the first two Spaghetti
Cake CDs were written, bought a house of our own in Harwinton,
CT and moved in September of 2003. We welcomed the arrival
of our darling son, Fox
Alan Nelson on October 21, 2003.
(see link) Fox arrived and the months flew by. He is,
as of this writing, 8 months old already and he is beautiful!
There was no shortage of performances, of course, we performed
at public school assemblies from Milford, CT to Washington
Depot, CT, and had a rocking good time! Sue & I did
a great afterschool songwriting workshop for the ASAP
program in Roxbury, CT (see below), which we will be returning
to in the Fall for an extended stay and an even more in-depth
program. This summer we will be returning to some of our
favorite places, as well as adding a few new shows, including
for the very first time, Camp
Creek 2004, a very cool music
festival in upstate NY, with Rob Fried's band of 32 years,
Max Creek. In June 2003, Sue finished her Master's
Degree in Arts & Learning from Sacred Heart University,
and now I myself am more than halfway through with my
own graduate program of study at SHU as well. I have been
studying for my sixth-year degree, which when I finish
in December, will allow me to be a principal or a superintendent
in the state of CT! Cool, huh? Can you noodles imagine
Glen from Spaghetti Cake being your principal? No plans
for that just yet, as I am still a music teacher and I
love it 100%. We have also been improving our new house,
big time, and have spent what little free time we have
on the weekends rebuilding the 2nd floor of our house
with Sue's Dad, which hopefully should be completed in
a few weeks, and will be so amazing! I also became a band
teacher at school this year for the first time, so I have
had a lot of fun with my new Polk School band doing the
parades and the concerts. Speaking of Polk School, we
finished our 3rd school CD this year, a 24 track collection
of great songs entitled Polk
School's Greatest Hits, which
I produced, played, and wrote all the parts for. Recently,
I have reconnected with an old childhood friend Todd
Howard ("Todd-e-Bones" from "Last
Forever") who I was in my first band with when
I was 12 years old called High Adventure. He will
be coming with us up to Maine tomorrow to help me co-write
some brand new songs together, which may or may not yeild
some new Cake tunes, but after 20 years, we may actually
write our first CD of new music together. At any rate,
you'll all be very glad to know that in January 2005,
when a lot of the current craziness has slowed down, Sue
& I plan to start up a brand new writing cycle for
Spaghetti Cake, with an eye for a Summer recording session
and a late Fall 2005 release of our 3rd Spaghetti Cake
album! A long time to wait, maybe, but we'll do it,
you'll see! Hopefully by next year's noodle news update,
I will have some very exciting news about this to share
with you!
1.21.2004
An afterschool songwriting workshop in Roxbury, CT.
From the front page of The New Milford Spectrum.
2.14.2003
Valentine's Day again? Another year already? Seems like
time for a Spaghetti Cake update. Our wedding was beautiful!
Three days of friends, family, fun and most of all, music!
Jo Horsley (bass: 'Jam Food','Sunflower') sang at our
wedding, Colin Wilson from Glen's high school band Via
Satellite sang, we had bagpipes at the ceremony, Adam
Larrabee (guitar: 'Jam Food','Sunflower') and his band
Bath Union Hope played Friday night for our rehearsal
dinner, and then on Saturday The Reverend Tor Band played,
and just about everybody sat in and jammed and it was
awesome! We did not go to Alaska as we had hoped, but
instead we went to both Nashville, TN and The Mayan Riviera
in Mexico! Mexico was sunny, relaxing and maybe the first
time in a long time that we actually did nothing at all.
On the other hand, Nashvile was such an amazing town,
it was hard not to 'work' just a little bit. After all,
it's Music City U.S.A. Suz & I adored Nashville and
dream often about packing up and moving there to be professional
songwriters. I guess we'll see! In the meantime, we had
a huge break right here at home. On New Year's Eve 2002,
we discovered that Spaghetti Cake had been accepted into
the Connecticut Commission For The Arts, which is an extremely
well-known master teacher and artist roster in CT and
will reap many exciting gigs for the band, not to mention
a huge honor to be selected. The nomination puts in the
likes of such artists as David Darling & The Paul
Winter Consort. We continue to play with our friends Dennis,
Rob, Mike & Joe from Dr. Juice and have had a run
of great gigs recently in hometown Morris, Litchfield
& Greenwich, CT! We love playing with those guys and
look forward to every single note we play. Look for a
lot more gigs in the months to come. In the meantime,
we love all our noodles young and old and can't wait to
see you guys again soon.
8.3.2002
Susan Birk & Glen Nelson's
6.18.2002
Hello everyone, Glen & Sue here letting you know all
things new & interesting in the world of noodles.
Today is the usual day that I write to you before we head
up to Blue Hill, ME to record our next album and this
year is no exception! Indeed, Sue & I will embark
for the cabin on Toddy Pond in the morning but alas, not
to record album #3 but merely to relax and enjoy the first
few weeks of our summer vacation. This school year was
great for both of us but very very busy and we are looking
forward to our time off. Sue will be finishing her Masters
Degree while I will be putting the finishing touches on
the brand-new Flipper
Dave CD, 'Something
Simple'. Our wedding day is Saturday, August 3rd 2002.
The wedding will be at 2pm at St. Anthony's Church in
Litchfield, CT and the reception will be at La Cupola
Ristorante in Bantam, CT. All of our friends, family &
loved ones will be there. For our honeymoon we will take
a romantic cruise to Alaska, and our next news update
to you will be sometime after that. 'Jam Food' continues
to sell very well and 'Sunflower' is finding its way around
the country as well. Sue & I have a few very interesting
gigs coming up this summer (thankfully not too many,)
most notably a hometown gig on the green in Morris, CT
on August 22nd right after we return from our honeymoon!
Check out our concert
dates page
for all the info. We continue to write new material all
the time and are always working on bringing the music
we love to a wider audience. Thank you for your continued
love & support!
2.14.2002
Hello noodles! Happy Valentine's Day and because we
love you, we thought you might like an update on what's
been happening. Our 'Sunflower' CD release party was a
major success, with as many kids this time as grown-ups!
Our musical friends Dr. Juice, Monroe Mafia, and Flipper
Dave were on hand to kick off the event, and we even ate
spaghetti cake for dinner! It was so much fun. It's hard
to believe the CD has been out for over 2 months already.
Sue and I have been applying for more awards this year
for 'Sunflower', so keep your fingers crossed! I was on
our local radio station WZBG 97.3 talking about the album,
as well as the 21-track CD I made with my students at
Polk Elementary School. Sue went on a cool trip to Seattle,
WA to learn more about computers, I've been recording
a brand new studio CD with my adult-rock band Flipper
Dave, and through the midst of it all we've been trying
very hard to plan our upcoming wedding! In a few days
we will perform at the CT Park & Recreation showcase
concert, and hopefully we will be in your area of CT this
summer! After so much great feedback from our fans in
the past 2 years, we can't wait to be able to play the
songs for you live! So stay tuned to this website and
the concert
dates link
for where we'll be and when!
11.4.2001
It was one year ago today that 'Jam Food' was released
at O'Hagan's
Restaurant
in Burlington CT and we are extremely pleased to announce
that 'Sunflower' will enjoy its own release party once
again at O'Hagan's
on Friday December 7. It has been a long time since an
update and much has happened. Sue and I are very proud
to announce that our debut CD 'Jam Food' (now in its second
printing!) was been honored the award of 'Best New Artist
For Older Children' by the 2001 Children's
Music Web Awards.
We were thrilled to recieve the award and can not wait
to unveil our new collection of songs to the world. Thanks
to our family at I&B
Technologies,
both CDs are now ready to be ordered right here online
at our secure server. Sue and I spent roughly from May
through October working on the new CD 'Sunflower' and
we could not be any happier with the results. Sue and
I once again completed the art together while Sue finished
the graphic design and layout. I was very happy to work
once again with our old friend Mike Tierney at Sponge
Forest Studio who did a marvelous job mastering the CD.
Our old friend Earl Cohen did an incredible job mixing
the record and we owe many thanks as well to Johnny BigRig
and Owen 'Rico' Muir at Digital Dream for recording the
music both here at home as well as in Maine. Sue and I
have also been performing live in concert on a more frequent
basis, which we hope to greatly increase in the coming
months. Check out our new concerts
link as often as you can! We will be building up a regular
lineup of musicians to perform with us and we are setting
our sights on a full live band as soon as possible. We
hope to see you at a show soon! Finally, we have recieved
so much wonderful feedback from our friends and fans in
the past year or so and we really want to say a big thank
you to all of you who allow us to do what we want to do
and follow our dream. Much love! • Please join
us on Friday December 7th at O'Hagan's
Restaurant
in Burlington CT for a very special night of music!
6.18.2001
Calling all noodles - The brand new CD
is written! Sue and I (who just recently got engaged)
are on the eve of embarking upon another amazing journey
into the heart of Spaghetti Cake. Tomrrow we pack the
entire show from CT straight up North seven hours to Blue
Hill, Maine. This year we are pleased to announce we will
once again be united with Jo Horsley on bass, Mike Tierney
on drums, Adam Larrabee on guitar, and Johnny Platinum
himself behind the console. Add to that this year, a technical
crew to assist (our old friend Billy and our brand new
friend Owen!) plus in-studio catering service coutesey
of Adam's Dad! (Who conveniently happens to live five
miles from the cabin! Whooda Thunkit?) We may even be
treated to a surprise visit from our old friend Joe Hargraves!
(see below) Want to know more about the album? There will
be at least 11 new songs, perhaps a bonus track, and the
working title for the CD (that means at this moment) is
'Sunflower'. A worthy title for this brand new collection
of songs. I'd love to tell you all of the new titles,
but we'll have to leave SOMETHING out for a surprise.
Await our next report after we return from Maine in two
weeks!
4.26.2001
Yes, the new album is currently being
penned and is talked about often on the telephone by Adam,
Jo, Mike, Sue & myself. Lots of great things are happening
these days. We're on WZBG 97.3 in Litchfield, you guys
have got to call in for us and request your favorite Spaghetti
Cake song, especially in the mornings between 4AM and
11AM. The phone number is (860) 567-3697. That's (860)
567-3697. Phone em up - Sue & I would love it!!! They're
playing our tunes. The NY Times article will be out soon,
we just don't know when yet, stay tuned. "Trampoline"
will be featured in a movie coming out this summer called
"The Energy Specialist". Glen and Bodhi were featured
on Cable Channel 5 on a local news broadcast last Friday
April 20th. (4:20) The music video for "Man In The Moon"
is currently in the editing room and Joe & Glen are
scratching their heads with a pencil and a razor blade
contemplating the next move. (Probably another location
shoot--anybody in???) Johhny BigRig and Glen just finished
a complete album recording for a local singer/songwriter
nemaed John
Gahl from Litchfield
CT. Mike Schuster from Buddha
Funk Special(bass) and
Scotty Allshouse(drums) from Max
Creek were the session
cats on the project and it swung like a bandit. Glen &
Sue are working hard with school work and looking forward
to the summer. And Glen's rock band Flipper
Dave will be playing
at The Wetlands in New York City next Wednesday night,
May 2nd.
VALENTINE'S
DAY 2.14.2001
Hello Noodles everywhere! Wow, have
Sue & I been busy and having fun lately. Our adult
rock band Flipper
Dave continues to work as busily as ever as Sue &
I diligently write the songs for the second CD (the first
brand new song is already finished! Called 'Give Me The
Sun' it's great, you're going to love it!) and continue
to work on the television commercial as well as the upcoming
music video 'Man In The Moon'. Two talented local actresses
Britney Johnson from Watertown and Jenna Temple from Washington
have been cast to star alongside Sue. We begin filming
in a few weeks and we're very excited about it. Watch
for more on the video soon! Meantime Sue & I have
been in the newspaper and on the radio and working very
hard to tell as many people as we can about Spaghetti
Cake. Thank you for being here!
NEW
YEAR'S DAY 1.1.2001
As we begin the new year there are
many new things to be excited about. We have officially
welcomed Joe Hargraves into the Noodle family as the director
of our upcoming "Man In The Moon" music video! Joe is
an accomplished videographer and we have already begun
storyboarding this excitng MTV style video, as well as
a television commercial for 'Jam Food'! As the schedule
looks now, we will be seeing the finished version of the
music video as early as April. In addition, Suz has begun
writing the lyrics to our follow-up album, which we hope
to have completed demos for in March. All the members
of Spaghetti Cake are looking forward to heading back
up to Toddy Pond in June to make musical magic all over
again! We'll keep you posted as the new record progresses.
Finally, watch for the "Making The Band" TV show featuring
the boys of 'O-Town'.
Our own Johnny BigRig recorded the band's upcoming smash
single. Way to go, Johnny!
12.10.00
Happy Holidays from Spaghetti Cake!
Tomorrow will be the premiere performance of the music
from "Jam Food" at Shepaug High School in Washington Depot
CT. Featuring the choral arrangements of Christopher Shea
and members of Buddha Funk Special. Admission is free,
showtime is at 7PM. This performance is being recorded
by John Roper's Digital Dream and will be available soon
to download on this
site!
In other news, "Jam Food" is selling well and is available
at several area locations as well as right here on our
website. We hope you are enjoying the music and as always,
sign up on the Noodle Bowl e-mailing list!
11.7.00
Our CD release party at O'Hagan's
Restaurant
was a huge success! Thank you to all of our friends &
family who celebrated with us, especially our good friends
in Buddha Funk Special, Liberty Bus & The Joe DeVeau
Band. "Jam Food" is available right here and right now
on our secure server for only $15. Order now!
10.7.00
'Jam Food' is officially in the can.
Our CD release party is scheduled for Saturday November
4th at O'Hagan's
Restaurant
in Burlington CT. Complete details on front page of website.
Throw your email addy into the noodle bowl right away
so we can send you a formal invitation!
FALL 9.22.00
Just a quick news update for our bowl
of noodles out there... the CD is finished being mixed.
John & Earl worked tirelessly around the clock before
Labor Day to finish the original 10 mixes recorded in
Blue Hill. An additional track has been in the works as
well, recorded this summer at Sponge Forest Studios. And
another funny thing happened on the way to the CD release
party - School opened! Whoa! Oh well, back to work at
a new school for me and back to the books for Suz too.
But fear not! We're recovered and ready to send "Jam Food
" out to be printed. So in a few weeks we'll be sending
out the invitations. Hope you'll join us and join in on
the party - We're just getting started!
8.8.00
Just a quick news update for anyone
anxiously anticipating the release of "Jam Food". The
good news is we have welcomed Earl "Mutt" Cohen into our
little family, a mixer and producer from NYC whose resume
of fantastic artists that he has worked with is longer
than Johnny's wig. So what was originally meant to be
5 days of mixing looks like it will be 5 weeks instead.
Hey, no big deal when you're after perfection. Also the
mighty Rob Fried from Max Creek finished his percussion
parts some time ago and they sound great. Sue and I could
not be happier about the way the mixes have been turning
out. (As of this writing, we are about halfway through
the album) The few people who have snuck a peak have little
to say after hearing the music, so we take that as a good
sign. When will you hear it? Sue and I have set an album
release party date for Sat. September 23rd at our home
in Morris CT, and we should have the CDs printed and available
a week or so prior to that. So hang in tight, 'cause it's
coming! We love ya. Sign up on our guest list and we'll
notify you when the album comes out!
6.29.00
We have safely and happily returned
from Maine on schedule with a finished album in hand and
it sounds amazing. We spent a week on Toddy Pond in Blue
Hill surrounded by great energy, incredible music and
way too much delicious food thanks to our resident gourmet
cook Sue and even Adam's Dad! Sue and I want to thank
everyone who initially gave us so much support on the
project, all those who had a hand in getting the entire
show up to Maine for a week, and of course the talented
musicians who brought it to life. We now switch our creative
hats to the graphic design and artistic layout of the
CD itself as Johnny BigRig delves into the final overdubs
with Rob Fried and the mixing process. If the fates continue
to smile, we should have the finished version of the CD
prepared and ready for you to spin by the beginning of
August.
6.15.00
Here's what's cookin'. Months ago Sue
and I, who are both schoolteachers, wrote a bunch of lyrics
and music and decided to try to record it with some friends
of ours. "The Yam Demos" were born and thus was our project
'Spaghetti Cake'. Quickly I assembled a band, namely musicians
I have admired for much of my life but have never had
the chance to record with. So now months later we're off
to Maine for the last 2 weeks of June and we'll be in
beautiful Blue Hill, just north of Bar Harbor making music
by the lakeside. We'll have it mixed and ready to go by
the end of July and hopefully available everywhere soon.
Our music will move not only its intended audience (mature
children) but their parents as well and fans of great
improvisational music (aka 'jamming') everywhere.
