No Forbidden Music

Hi Folks,

We at ChollyHoss Productions typically keep the emails to a minimum, and the tone very light. But today we ask that you take a minute to think seriously.

If you have been under a rock you might not know that the Zappa Family Trust has been getting litigious in extremus lately, sicking their grey attorneys on folks that had the unmitigated audacity to express their appreciation of the late Frank Vincent Zappa. They may have played some Zappa music in a club, at a festival, put together a website in their spare time, or even made a festival possible. For these crimes they have been threatened with financial penalties and even incarceration. We at CHP recognize that there are real issues over the use of someone's image or work, but we also know a little about fair use and satire. We also know the difference between damaging someone's reputation or image, and honoring it.

We ask that you maybe google up on the available information, as to be self-informed, and then check out this online petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/ZFT/

Also, if you you know someone who might be like-minded, send them a copy.

What we at CHP really fear is having cultural gatekeepers preventing free expression. We learned a lot about that from Frank's words and music. He was self-published and that stands out and his most under-rated accomplishment. What that means for a performer is that the performance and reproduction rights are not covered under blanket ASCAP/BMI agreements and financing. The copyright holder has to set up their own system to recover fees (we aren't lawyers, but this is how we understand U.S. copyright rules). What we believe it does not mean is that the rights holders can make the performance of the music *forbidden*, except as it pleases them. i.e. The Who might not like your cover version of Sea and Sand, but they can't stop you from performing it, or even recording it. They can't set a financial bar that is prohibitive. They have to play ball. The Zappas are Americans, and in many of our eyes Frank Zappa was THE GREATEST AMERICAN - EVER*. To be told by fellow Americans that our rights are abridged because of an individuals lack of a sense of humor is what Zappa worked to prevent, not to enforce. Frank Zappa's music should not be restrained. It should not be left to a single individual to determine who gets to hear it, and when, and how, and for what fee.

So think about this a bit, and we hope that the new year brings some kind of understanding between the parties involved.

Sincerely,
Pete Brunelli and Stephen Chillemi

*Short list: Zappa exposed fake hippie culture and government infiltration in his earliest recorded works; wrote anti-drug anthems; anti-censorship anthems; anti-sheeple anthems; exposed destructors of freedom like Bush and Cheney, et al, when they were mere functionaries; exposed the anti-constitutional infiltration of government by the religious right; gave testimony to the US Congress over free speech rights... and in the meanwhile composed some of the most advanced and beautiful music of the 20th or any other century (that last one is our opinion). If that isn't being a great American, then we don't know what is.

Don Preston Video

I shot this video of Don Preston's Akashic Ensemble performing at Zappanale 18. Andre Cholmondeley and Cheri Jiosne are the other two heads of the Akashic.

More on this soon.. it is also me testing some YouTube embedding code! I'll edit this asap.

Some Zo Zo Zo Ztuff

I'll be stoking this with sone Zappanale 18-related links.


Pete's Zappanale 18 Photo Galleries


Pete's Youtube Vids, with Z18 Exclusives!!


United Mutations' Special Zappanale 18 Coverage


Bazbo's Z18 Retrospective


The Idiot's Z18 Rundown

Zappanale 18 - Wrap-up

I could get all sappy with tales of the long night of comraderie, the tales, the critiques, the singing, dancing, playing.... But I'll leave it at this: We sure did have a hell of a weekend.

Having all day Monday to recover meant that I could be in the last group to leave the campsite, then stay to see everyone off at the house on Monday morning, then be there to help and witness the last of the campsite being dismantled, have a last coffee at the festival grounds with Jelle and Daan and Dennis, then supervise Jelle getting his caravan jump-started, and then linger around Bad Doberan for the rest of the day. By all accounts I should have dropped from exhaustion... but... I had a nice lunch, rode the Molli, walked around town, generally tried to work out some of the Pilsner without passing out in the street in the process. Later that evening I ran into Zappateers at the cafe, and we had a nice chat about the festival. Finaly, back to the hotel for some pseudo-sleep, up at 0500, off to the train at 0600, and on my way back to Berlin Tegel.

Wow... Another 20 hours later and I would be home. Trains worked great, Delta proved again to be a shitty excuse for an airline, and after a week of mass transit and short car rides it was a bit of a letdown to have 3 hours of NYC traffic to contend with to get back to the house. I had the traffic-gods working for me I guess because it wasn't as bad as all that. Once home I could assess my laryngitis (lost my voice on day 2 of Z18), unlearn my pattern-based expectation that everyone would have a cool refreshing Pilsner for me (everywhere!), and the fulfill a need to listen to some really different music to wash the "song in my head" of Zappa's Montana out of there. I think that over half the bands played it! Yikes!

More soon, I hope. But enjoy the pics and text that I have assembled so far.

Zappanale 18 - Day 3

OK, so it all sounds very hyped, doesn't it. An international confabulation of Zappa hardcores meet in a sunny field outside of sleepy little Bad Doberan, ride the Molli (steam train), party hard, rock harder, sleep little, drink much, and generally get blissed out on music and companionship. Sounds like a fantasy? Well, it's real.

Back to the the action! Last year DOOT! had the honor of playing the first slot on Sunday. 1100 AM and it follows up the big party night. Everyone is hung over, or having breakfast, or whatever... so this year I made a point of being there to see Polytoxicomane Philharmonie, the Sunday opener.

They were trippy but rock solid, and I was stoked to be there for their set. Again, even the "non-Zappa" bands were on a roll this year.

Next: The Great Googly Moogly, from the furthest northern reaches of Sweden!

These guys were very sharp, very tight, and the first band where I can say that the sound system let them down. Jenny, their outstanding bassist, was playing things all over the fingerboard and doubling a lot of hard melodies and leads. All I could hear in front was *whomp whomp whomp*.

I wanted to head back by the mixer to hear better but i was having too much fun up front. These guys were all highly skilled, and showed great technical stuff while not sounding dry.

I got a little rest during Jazzprojekt Hundehagen. They just keep getting better, but I had to seek shade and cold beer while they played. Sunday turned out to be the hottest day of the weekend. I had rushed off to the festival early and was feeling pretty nasty after sleeping in my plastic bunk.

To me, the harmonia Ensemble was the highlight of the festival. I can't tell you how many people described being affected so emotionally by their set. Some were blissed, some were crying, some were hugging. They delivered on the promise of Frank's music and influence being channeled through world-class musicians. I can't explain exactly what it was, but I'll try. Melodies and harmonies and arrangements that spoke to the Zappa listener, without beating them over the head with it. It was like floating in a mineral spring of pure Zappa essence.

Headliner: Chad Wackerman.

His bass player was Doug Lunn, and his guitarist was Mike Miller. I think very highly of all three of them. They played a nice tight set, and there were a few sections that got really hot.

They were good, maybe even excellent, but I am a big believer in playing to an audience, not over it. One short version of Peaches would have sent the place off the edge. Personally, I think that a tiny bit o FZ would have been a nice way to be more "of" the festival. But he's Chad, I'm not. I love these guys any way they choose to lay it down. Nuff Said.

Sometime DOOT!ster Andre Cholmondeley ran the Encore/Jam and it sounded hellacious. I was able to hang at the back of the stage for the second half of it and it was a great time as usual. With that done.. the last party begins. Hotcha!

Zappanale 18 - Day 2

OK, so the first thing was sleep... I had to do some math in my head, while sleep deprived and such, but I think that I was up for about 40 hours straight before finally getting some sleep. Peter Vanlaarhoven, the genius behind United Mutations, and the benefactor behind my press pass, was heading into Bad Doberan to see Jim Cohen's "Depth Music" lecture. I had seen his "Call Any Vegetable" lecture, and I like his approach. It can get a little convoluted, but it is interesting to see some historical perspective on Zappa's imagery and lyrics. He also did a short interview with Dr. Dot which answered a lot of questions about how she became associated with Frank Zappa.

Back at the festival things were getting rolling early. The campground and the festival were more crowded on Friday than it had been at any time during Z17. Sure enough, Saturday turned out a big crowd. I heard Chen Unst from afar, and it sounded like a longer version of what they did on Thursday night. Then came Team Zappa... and they got the place rockin' in a hurry. JeyJey, the lead singer, has a huge set of pipes and really delivered... like a burly Ray White!

They were super tight and I don't think that they expected the kind of big reaction that they got. Their set was populated with a lot of the power-rock numbers, and they did a great job with them.

Next up, Octafish. I don't know what they have been doing since the last time I heard them, but they should do more of it. They were *jaw droppingly* good. Their version of G-Spot Tornado, at a more relaxed tempo than the original, really let the melody stand out. There was a lot of amazement backstage during their set. I'd say that it was the Zappa Connoisseur's set. If you know your FZ, this was the one not to miss... so far!

After the Ben Watson quiz segment came my hometown crew: Kimono Draggin. They have been on a european mini-tour, and are really tight. First off, KD isn't going to go toe-to-toe on precision and subtlety with anyone. They are three hard rocking motherfuckers from Naugatuck...

While the crowd was unsure of when to applaud, the did applaud. part of it is that there is some stop/start in the songs, also the crowd doesn't know thei songs, and Joe Nolan doesn't "sell" song endings. The set was very hot, however.

And that only got hotter when Papa DOOT!, Stephen Chillemi, joined them for a freaked out version of Beefheart's "Electricty". Stephen went APE on it... and you can see it captured on YouTube if you don't believe me. Once he started blowing on the soprano sax the place went wild. Way to carry the DOOT! flag, brother! Congrats to KD as well, for making a homeboy proud of powerhouse rock.

Sex without nails Bro's has played Zappanale before and they were tight and clean and Napi was up there for a lot of it. i won't drag it out. I was backstage hangin' with the Kimono's so I missed a lot of it. I hope i get to hear a tape of them so I can see what I missed.

I heard the Space Debris set from the campground, and that Hammond organ sounded SWEEEEEEET! One thing about Zappanale... the sound is really great as you get away from the stage. in fact, standing by the fence near the bike-rest stop on the trail is one of the best sounding places at the festival. So it isn't like I heard burbly garbage. It was excellent sound (windy conditions will mess this up, but it wasn't windy this weekend). What I was doing in the campground was sitting in on harmonica with members of the Foolz and Ossi Duri. That was a hoot, and I have some audio of it somewhere. I think that the whole thing is recorded somewhere (Angelo?)

Another great day of Zappanale came to a close with the walk back to the house, and a feeling that maybe sleep and food are over rated. More to come!

Pete

Zappanale 18 - Day 1

Friday an often be a tough day at Zappanale. The big crowd doesn't usually hit until Saturday, and sometimes the bands are a bit sleepy from the travel. This year proved that what I just said is BUNK. Don Preston opened the show with his Akashic Ensemble. It was Don's idea to play early, and his set is not a "rock" set. I'm a big fan of Don's and I thought it was a great set.

Some folks wanted rock. Well, they got it with the heavy-on-the-testosterone stylings of the UK's Monty and the Butchers. Huge amount of energy with these guys. DOOT! gladly gives it up for a band showing that Frank's music can be just as well served by a party band as a string quintet.

Then up came the aforementioned Christophe Godin, pushing the rock energy higher. His skills are in another realm, really. Next up was a band that I had on my "must see" list from the day I saw the lineup: i Virtuose dal Pianeta Talento. This band from Italy was extremely tight, and to my surprise it featured composer/harmonica-whiz Angelo Adamo.

Napoleon Murphy Brock sat in with them, giving their set a boost and their singer a rest, The audience reaction was great and reinforced my feeling that their set was excellent. The pattern was becoming clear that this was shaping up to be an amazing weekend of music.

Project/Object followed. In my humble opinion: The Ike no-show, combined with following the ultra-tight Godin/Moreglbl and Pianeta sets, and the huge amount of pride that P/O has in their work, all combined to set the stage for what I think is the best P/O set I have ever heard. Don Preston sitting in on keys was an amazing experience, no less so because Eric Svalgard was having keyboard issues so Don covered a LOT of ground.

The core rhythm section of Eric Slick, Dave Johnsen, Eric Svalgard and Andre Cholmondeley have been together for a few years now and it showed. Napoleon Murphy Brock fronted more songs that he had planned on, which really helped take the burden off of Andre... who was the only guitarist on stage, by the way. As if that weren't enough, Dr. Dot (1988 FZ tour masseuse and all around eye-popper) guested on Wet T-Shirt Night as Mary.. from the bus. When she got the pitcher of water across that white, ugly, man-kinda T-shirt.. well the place went OFF.

Googly Moogly!

It is at this point that some of the Zappanale euphoria starts to set in. I'm referring to that dangerous mixture of jet lag, sausage, beer, and adrenaline, topped off with the endorphin rush of live music overload. It can make one giddy beyond belief. Those club-kids downing extasy are just lazy. Do the hard work and get ecstatic the old fashioned way.

I was floating between backstage and the campground during Trigon's set. But again, they sounded fantastic. The reports are that I fell asleep, but not after a late night photo-review session and some delicious Dutch Graanjenever back at the house.

Zappanale 18 - it rocked our balls clean off

OK, We stole that from the Kimono Draggin' T-Shirt...

It was an amazing testament to the ability of Frank's music to inspire a very wide range of musicians. Stephen and MaryJayne went over to "the continent" early and were able to attend the Frank Zappa Strase dedication ceremony in Berlin, Germany. That was reported to have been an amazing event, and they confirmed as much. The weather was a little damp, but the spirits were warm enough to compensate. Appearances by Napoleon Murphy Brock, Dr. Dot, and Sheik Yerbouti were the highlights.

Zappanale took place on the folowing weekend and kicked off with the usual Kamp Theatre pre-party

We were treated to a pair of live performances. Chen Unst performed a stream-of-consciousness Beefheart set, with a lot of interesting backing tracks. Then we got some amazing heavy guitar action from Christophe Godin of Moerglbl. I can't pronounce that band name, but Christophe brings a musicality to "shred guitar" that I have not heard before. I found it to be very inspirational.

It was at the pre-party that the word started circulating: "Ike Missed His Flight"... and that started a chain reaction of sorts.

Steve Chillemi does "The Ike"

Project/Object had some heavy duty contingency planning to do, a lot of fans were upset, a lot of other's were, ummm... unsurprised, maybe. Either way, it was a great evening of food, beer, music, beer, friends, beer, and some beer on the side. That pretty much sums up the whole festival! We'll have blog posts for each day, and somehow we will have a nice collection of photos for you as well.

DOOT!

You always knew we were idiots....

but we now have incontrovertible proof, in the form of our contribution to Andrew "Disco Boy" Greenaway's 20 Extrordinary Renditions compilation. It will be very interesting to hear the variety in the finished product. I expect that it will be WIDE.

DOOT! set some basic parameters regarding length and approach, and we really took a different road for this one. Nuff Sed for the moment. When we can hook you up with the finished product you will see a nice shiny link here, or on Andrew's site.

DOOT!

New Old News

The Artwalk thing went well, and that band played another set at the Ken Safety Open Mike Show, over at CJ Sparrow in Cheshire, CT. The CJ show also featured trumpeter Tim Kane (who sat in at the Artwalk gig too), and Trombone Larry (Ken Safety Fabulous Houseband House Trombonist). We had a lot of fun doing that one too, and the goal is to work a few actual gigs in the upcoming months. The organ-trio/soul band is decidedly NOT DOOT!, so we needed a name and billed ourselves as the "Soul Cryptographers"... yes, we know that it is hard to spell. Expect something more concise in the near future.

In between that there was a New Haven Improviser's Collective gig in New Haven, CT (June 16, 2007), with pete on bass and Nate on keys. The lineup was very lean/mean: Bob Gorry on guitar, Johnny O on bass, John Venter on bari Sax, Paul on soprano sax, and the drummer who's name I always forget! I'll edit this asap. Yep, you read right... 2 basses, and it went swimmingly. We'll have some audio of it available soon.

As for DOOT!, we are working hard on our cover of Zappa's "Idiot Bastard Son" for the Andrew Greenaway compilation project. We'll have links and clips very soon.

DOOT! is also working on a new project for late 2007. That is in the development phase, but expect collaborations with some of the faces and names that you have come to know and love.

More Soon!

i asked for the news, not the weather....

OK, so here is the news:

The lineup for the Westville Artwalk gig is:

Nate Teier, keys
Mike Paolucci, skins
Pete Brunelli, bass
Kenny Mack, reeds

The time is 1pm at the Kehler Lidell Gallery, 873 Whalley Ave, New Haven. That's right... the DOOT! Super Soul Spectacular has exactly one hour to achieve world domination. Wish us luck.

Westville, uh huh. Westville is the little villagey section of town up near Edgewood Park and Blake Street. Come on down and do the ArtWalk, woncha?

Website Wonderland

Please check out the updates to the DOOT! website, where we have put in a fair amount of work adding photos, sounds, and fresh updates. The sounds part is the best. You can dig the new audio blog, or keep up to date with it as a xml2.0 feed, or have it delivered straight to your iPod/whtevermajig as a podcast.

You may have figured it out, but DOOT! isn't exactly gripped with a desire for consistency. We really do love to play the field, digging in to whatever music is tickling our musical funnybone at any given time. If you like one type of thing that we do, just pretend that it is the famous New England weather... you will get something you like sooner rather than later.

Also, feel free to drop us an email and let us know what you dug.

winter is ending, sorta....

Yep, winter refuses to go away in any significant way, but DOOT! is proceeding unabated. We had a nice gig at Brass City Records on March 31, and aside from a few technical glitches, it was a classic BCR event. Again, I can't mention the gig without thanking Walt. Thanks Walt!

Expect to hear some audio from this show in the near future. We ran a live multitrack recording setup and used that as the driver for the PA/monitors. Aside from the mountain of gear that we needed to bring in there to get it done it went off with only a few small problems. We split the bill with greylyng, and they were very badass. They have a recording of the show as well, so bug them for it! It was a blast having two similar trios play back to back sets, and how we didn't sound like two similar trios. DOOT! has that feeling like the wheels either might be coming off, or came off and we didn't notice. greylyng packs a lot of power, make no mistake, but they have a more studied sound... and that is not a knock. If they make any of the tracks available on their site i will post a notice here.

More soon... DOOT! has some blogging to catch up on, so check in when you can.

Next show: Westville Artwalk, May 12, 2007

WOOT!

Akashic Ensemble

We had the honor of opening for Don Preston's Akashic Ensemble (Don Preston, Andre Cholmondeley, Cheri Jiosne) at the Space in Hamden, CT. Andre joined us for our set, maybe excorcising the demons of Z17? The board tape sounds like ass, but I'm going to wash it through the audiocrypto box and see if I can make it listenable.

Don's set was outstanding, opening with a solo piano version of Uncle Meat and closing with a solo piano version of Pound for a Brown (on the bus). In between it was electronic waves of sound. These guys always inspire me. This show was no different.

You can see some pic that I took of the show By Clicking HERE

more Belew

DOOT! (Pete and Stephen) took a ride out to Piermont, NY to catch Adrian's power trio at the Turning Point. Eric and Julie Slick are jelling nicely and we got to hear Adrian with his full assortment of gear. At Zappanale his gear never made it (his guitars did), but we were treated to a thrilling performance with Adrian knocking out his set through a Marshall Half Stack. That was an outdoor festival. The Turning Point is a 75 seater in a little village on the Hudson. In short, an amazing place to see a player like Adrian Belew.

This show was a real thrill, and I'll be sgaring some pics very soon.

crushed...

I heard ths morning that Ken Latchney, engineer (Kengineer) for Adrian Belew among others, passed away on Thursday, July 27. The news comes from Digital Global Mobile http://www.dgmlive.com/

DOOT! extends their sincerest condolences to Ken's family and friends, and a prayer for Ken, a truly special person.

We will have more later but I would like to say that Andre and I got a chance to hang out with Ken at Zappanale 17, just over a week ago, and he impressed me as a curious, vigorous, and kind soul.

We're Back...

OK, so there was little to be had for free internet,and at 8 Euro per hour for T-mobile I wasn't burning up the WIFI. Reineier and Cucurullo Brillo Brullo, with special thanks to Derk, showed us some amazing hospitality. We watched the World Cup final with some great beer and asian take out. I still think that the red card on Zidane was too much, and I was rooting for the Azzurri! Then we made the pilgrimage to Amsterdam, saw the sights, the smells, the funk, and got scorched by some brutal heat and sun. We ended up staying an extra day in Delft just to get to see the good stuff and enjoy the nice weather. A fantastic Indionesion dinner was had, and we topped it off with some great Belgian ale at the Comodour.

Zappanale was next on the itinerary, and we got into Bad Doberan late Thursday night to close the Kamp Theatre with the hardcore Zappa freaks. Met with Baz, Evelyn and Heidi, along with the usual crew of madmen. This year the beer supplier was Lubzer Pils, which was nice enough... but by Sunday it was oozing out of my pores. We were looking for anything to wash that stuff out of our system. Luckily there is some great Schwarzbier local to Bad Doberan.

We will have a blow by blow with photos in the Photo section, but the highloghts were: Corrie van Binsbergen, who had at least as crappy a slot as we did and still KILLED. Egon Kracht and the Troupe, Soft Machine, Zappatistas, Pikantik, the Paul Green School, FZLE... OK there waasn't a weak act in the bunch. We came awfully close to seeing every band (Stephen went back to town for a nap but I toughed it out and saw the full Sunday program. Adrian Belew melted my face. When his gear was not arriving for his set he plugged that Parker Fly into a Marshall half-stack and blew my mind. Eric and Julie Slick are the sibling rhythm section of the future. HOLY SHIT! They are really good.

Our set was the opener to Sunday's lineup and we basically woke up a lot of campers and had a really good set to boot. Expect to see some audio from it soon. Andre was off the hook and I think that his needs and the Steve/Pete axis of loose timing managed to meet halfway and really gel for the bulk of the set. The combined grunt of heavy sounds during pink/black napkins was the thing that stuck in my head after the set was over. Baz lent his rubber chicken to help us round out the act. It became the "majestic and superior cackiling hen" during "third stone from the sun".

More asap,
Pete

we are them...

Marathon 48-hour travel day concludes with a gig at the beautiful Flora Theatre in Delft. Cucurullo Brillo Brullo was fantastic. Actually, the kind of fantastic that made me think "holy crap, we have to follow THAT??!!" But we did, and DOOT! was well received on their first gig in "Yurrip". Thanks to everyone who supported us in getting this thing rolling, and to the great folks who showed up at the Flora. It was a Saturday with perfect weather, which would mean a total washout for a gig at home. But here it is not so bad.

DOOT! will have more bloggin and hopefully sone good pics to share. Until then...

countdown...

"Yurrip"! The mini-tour and all around holiday extravaganza is coming up in a hurry. Aside from the usual madness that go hand-in-hand with this kind of thing, we have figured out that "W" is going to be in the neighborhood during Zappanale. Sure, travel halfway around the globe maybe hoping for a break from the constant barrage of disinformation and.... I hope Angela Merkel is smart enough to realize that the "coalition of the willing" is W-speak for "willing to put their fingerprints on the gun and provide some cover against war crimes".

All that aside, we are planning to play some DOOT music, watch some futbol, catch up with the Zappa crazies, make some new friends, catch up with some old friends, and consume a lot of beer and sausage!

Keep an eye on the website because we have a new CD, assembled specially for Zappanale. All the tracks were recorded live over the past year, and all of the great folks who were brave/gullible enough to join us on stage are represented.

Also, DOOT! T-shirts are now available in XL and XXL, with other sized expected to be available this fall. Look for pics on the soon-to-be-added MERCH page.

Peace!

We have a gig coming up next week at the New Haven Library (April 12th, 7-9pm). It will be in the "Program Room", which is where the Jazz Haven project was holding their monthly gigs. Over the last three months DOOT! has been casing the joint. We saw Chicago-based free jazz sax guy Ken Vandermark, then jazz cellist Daniel Levin, then Joe Morris' "OtherTet". Jazz Haven kicks butt! The shows were the 2nd Wednesday of the month. So DOOT! is stepping in and keeping that spot warm for a bit. If this month's show goes well we may be bringing another show in next month, and seeing how that looks for the future. No guarantees, but that is the plan.

Hello from Nate, the latest Doot!dooD (the latest and greatest? Well, definitely the latest and Natest...). Saturday's gig was a lot of firsts for me - it was my first performance with Doot!, my first 100% improv performance, and my first time playing with Andre.

And let me tell you, it was absolutely terrifying.

No, just kidding. It was a blast! The jams were intense but free-flowing - as I look back on it now I remember it as feeling like I was part of a river. There were tons of great musical ideas being tossed around, too - Andre and I had a fun syncopated guitar/tambourine conversation during an especially intense part. I'm very thrilled to be playing with musicians who can give and take like that!

Our April 12th gig is a trio, with Pete, Steve and me, so I'm just as eager as everyone else to see what shape things take.

a little more sumthin' sumthin'

If you saw a DOOT! show, heard the clips, or have other comments or questions, drop us an email at info@chollyhoss.com and DOOT! will do their best to answer back, but don't be shocked if your post ends up on the blog.

blog blog blog blog

I just love the sound of the word "blog". It rhymes with "smog"! and almost with "dog", and almost with "trog". In fact, if you are from far enough up in New England, then it does rhyme with "dog". Maybe it will get to the point where we get an unhealthy internet-air-quality alert due to excessive "blog levels". DOOT!, for one, welcomes our new blogging overlords.

Testing... 1... 2....

This is a test to see if the DOOT! blog is working.