I have become mildly atrocious at updating, but I have a good excuse - while many longtime readers (who have probably died of liver failure) are aware of my musical leanings and inspirations, probably the average surfer is unaware that my first love is and always will be songwriting. (She's like a Call Girl - let's me call her my love but never returns the favor) -

About once a month now since April, I've made a one or two day trip down into a Minneapolis studio to put the touches on an album - I'm making my third and last trip at the end of June and hope to have it done by Sept.

One song in particular called (what else) Las Vegas Blvd. summed up my experiences pretty well as they went thru the Vegas Poker scene - fortunately I had yet to damage my memory with so much booze I can't remember the good times, but it's hilarious to me how many pictures I took with my disposable camera of stuff that um, can be seen anytime, like the exterior of New York, New York - LOL

hardly any online poker - a live trip once a month out to Canterbury (where I won some money that was to be studio money and gave it all back) and a trip to Montana.

I did read an interesting comment in a Chess Grandmaster's blog about the number of chess grandmasters who are moving to poker, and reading in a recent chess book (a history of a NYC public school's chess team) how their past time outside chess is any and all types of poker.

It's interesting to see the crossover, to say the least, esp. given that although they require similar skills, the actual application of them and the games themselves are as different as night and day, IMHO. In one game, perfect play is rewarded with draw after draw, and in the other one, perfect play is no indicator of success. In one, luck and deception play major roles, and in the other, all the armies are out and exposed from the get-go and only intentions are secret.

In any case, I'm still sorta waiting for the poker boom to finish off - but maybe I can finally catch a blogger's tourney this winter -

pax
RB