Ruby's Dlog

I am getting ready for tomorrow night’s performance by Allan Harris and Somi at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center. I’m usually in the dressing room or watching from the wings…so if you want to say hello you’ll need a back-stage pass. But after the show I’ll be making the rounds and I hope to say hello to my fans out there! You know who you are!!! FYI: The music of Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan will be the focus of tomorrow night’s show and from what I’ve heard at rehearsals, its going to be very romantic! If you have not listened to the Allan Harris Band, you are really missing something. I give them two woofs of approval WOOF WOOF!!! Pascal LeBoeuf, Jake Goldbas and Leon Boykins are like family so I guess I’m a little biased, but they can really play!! And hearing Allan sing is even better than a belly rub (and thats saying a lot!)

The summer is almost officially over and I have to say its been one of the best summers of my life. First of all I just turned 3 years old which means I’m drinking age in human years! Trouble is, I don’t really like to drink, I’d much rather munch on carrots, my favorite food.

But seriously, this summer Allan, Pat and I traveled to some amazing places and heard some fantastic music. I thought I’d share some of my favorite photos from a summer of travel, fun & music. Hope you are having a great Labor Day Weekend stay tuned for some fall updates from the Big Apple!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The snow in NYC has been brutal for a small dawg like me. I can’t even walk outside without getting completely buried. Plus my paws are not equipped to handle ice and snow like this…so I’m really happy that we are off to the Super Bowl in Dallas. I am looking forward to these paws touching ground that is not COVERED in snow!!!

A few weeks ago, Allan & Pat, produced a 2 day jazz showcase in NYC … 12 hours per day…no breaks! They had some of the greatest jazz musicians on the planet live. One of my favs was the son of “go ahead, make my day” Clint Eastwood…his name is KYLE EASTWOOD. He plays the bass and his music was really groovin’. Since I had never seen him live before I was pleasantly surprised by his command of the bass, both acoustic and electric. I look forward to hearing him again on the East Coast and to getting a little special attention from him cause he’s really cute. I asked him to pose for a photo with me after his performance and we got along very nicely (as you can see).

Hit me back if you like this photo…more from Dallas next week!

Hey all you dawgs and dog lovers out there … I am happy to report back home from NYC where all the happenin’ dawgs live. We spent the New Year right here at home this year while the boss…Allan Harris flew to Istanbul. I was happy not to be on that flight because he was stuck in the JFK airport for 36 hours and I was home on my pillow gnawing on my favorite bone watching the snow fall outside. Yeah, I was lucky but I sure felt bad for Allan who had to sleep sitting up while we lounged around by the fire! After we got off our crazy Christmas Tour which took us from the East Coast to the West Coast, and featured yours truly making a guest appearance dressed in a pretty cool XMAS dress…the first time I made my entrance everyone gasped, like they never saw a dog on stage before. But I won them over when I rolled over on my back and let the band pet my belly. We celebrated our first Christmas in our new digs…a pretty cool place with a scary spiral staircase that I still have not gone down by myself (embarrassing I know). Signing off for now…I look forward to hearing from you!!!

This summer was such a blast. I learned how to swim (as you can see from the photo). Got pretty good at the doggie paddle! But now summer is over and it’s Autumn in NY. The cooler weather has me feeling pretty frisky so most days Allan or Pat take me down to the Hudson River to run and socialize with other dogs from the ‘hood. But the nightlife in NY is still the best reason to live here and lately I’ve seen some amazing shows …from Nicki Parrott @Metropolitan Room with one of my favorite pianists, John DiMartino, to @Ne-Yo for Children’s Miracle Network at the Hard Rock Cafe, to the beautiful Rene Marie singing at the Jazz Standard, I’ve been really enjoying myself. Oh yeah, and I finally started a facebook page…where you can see a lot of my photos. Tonight Allan and Pat are attending the Metropolitan Opera’s debut of Das Rheingold and I can’t convince them to take me with them, but that’s alright, ’cause there’s lots of things I can chew up while they’re gone to keep me occupied!

One of my biggest thrills this summer was meeting Chick Corea. He is such a great artist, and humanitarian (he’s pretty crazy about dogs too!) After breakfast one morning he took some time out to be photographed with me on top of a piano (pretty cool, huh?) I was a little worried about scratching it up with my paws (I needed a manicure truth be told). But, I saw all three of his performances while we were in Ischia. The last night he played with Roy Haynes (drums) and Miroslav Vitous (bass) and the power went out in the middle of the 2nd song. They just kept on playing, in fact Roy Haynes took a beautiful drum solo that was made more spectacular because of the darkness. The audience loved it … and the power did eventually come back on. Chick seemed pretty calm in the face of it all. That’s why audiences love him the world over. Summer’s over now, I really enjoyed swimming in the Mediterannean (check out the photos on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5042447&id=617353019&ref=fbx_album)

We’ve been here in Ischia (Italy) for the past six days and it has been really a great trip! Yesterday was my birthday, I’m 2 years old now, which means I’m actually 14 in human years. The folks here had a birthday party for me last night, and it sure was fun. Got lots of dog biscuits and a birthday cake too. The Allan Harris Band sang me Happy Birthday during their show which made all the other dogs envious, I could tell…especially this dog named Du Du…(isn’t that a Sting song???)

Any way, reporting on music: Our first night in town I was happy to be invited to see Roy Hargrove and his quintet. Man they really were swinging that night, Roy plays a mean trumpet. The restaurant was this cool location about 10 miles from where we’re staying so we took a taxi. I love riding in the car with my head hanging out the window. When we arrived we were ushered downstairs and into this huge restaurant built underground with one whole wall of mirrors. We stayed for the first show (even though Allan and Pat were really jet lagged). Our drummer, Jerome Jennings, sat in and boy did he kick butt. The audience went wild and then we left to get a good night’s sleep. It’s been a fantastic trip … music, food, people. Oh yeah and I’ve really got my swimming stroke down now. This is my second year of practice!