Current mood:	creative
Current music:	Steely Dan, "Black Friday"
Entry tags:	beautiful women who don't want me, i'm a better writer than you are, i'm unreasonably obsessed with music

Gonna Strike All the Big Red Words From My Little Black Book
On Sunday evening, my friend Farrah and I hit B.B. King's for dinner and some live music. We're both fans of the jazzy, too-intelligent-for-their-own-good, classic rock band Steely Dan, so when I learned that tribute band Stealin' Dan was playing in town, I immediately asked Farrah to join me.

I'd actually learned of Stealin' Dan four and a half years ago, when I went to an open call to audition to be the matinee keyboardist for the Billy Joel Broadway dance musical "Movin' Out." I met some very interesting people there, including Stealin' Dan's musical director, keyboardist, and slightly-lower-tenor vocalist Mark Bonder. He invited me to catch a show whenever I was able. Unfortunately, they mostly play on Long Island, and not all that often, so it took the entire four and a half years before I actually saw them.

Farrah and I also had another purpose for getting together. A couple of years ago, we had come up with what we thought was a pretty good idea for a weekly television series. But we'd never bothered to write a pilot or even a thumbnail sketch treatment. Now, she's been working with some people in television, so we thought we might as well pick up where we left off. We were just getting started on ordering our stiff drinks and jotting down notes when someone came over to our table.

"Hi, I'm Carrie," she said. "My friend and I are sitting over there and we have a proposal for you." Uh oh, I thought, looking at Farrah. Were they going to offer us a million dollars to swap partners for sex or something? And if so, could we take it in small bills? No, it just turns out that B.B. King's won't let you have a cushy booth with every seat more or less facing the stage unless you have at least four people, so we all pretended to be friends, while Farrah and I tipped out the waiter who'd already taken our order, and we all took a booth. Carrie and Bob were from Iowa, and very much enjoying their visit to New York City, other than the fact that our new waitress seemed completely incapable of grasping the (admittedly complex and heady) concept of a "Dewars and water."

Anyway, Farrah and I got to work, and over the course of the evening I think we did a good job of fleshing out the concept, drawing characters, and even putting forth a few "why not?" casting ideas. Hopefully we'll get around to a pilot script soon, though November promises to be a very busy month for both of us.

In the meantime, Stealin' Dan performed a massive, two-hour set full of magnificent Steely Dan music. Now, you can denigrate the tribute band for needing thirteen musicians to do the work that Steely Dan gets away with from only, oh, eleven or so - but I thought it worked great, and Mark and his slightly-higher-tenor vocalist counterpart did a fabulous job with the singing.

The Set List:

• Bodhisattva
  
• Deacon Blues
  
• My Old School
  
• Time Out of Mind
  
• Josie
  
• Rikki Don't Lose That Number
  
• Dr. Wu
  
• Aja
  
• Haitian Divorce
  
• Green Flower Street (solo Donald Fagen)
  
• I Got the News
  
• Dirty Work
  
• Kid Charlemagne
  
• FM
  
• Parker's Band
  
• Hey, Nineteen
  
• Peg
  
• Black Friday
  
• Don't Take Me Alive (encore)

I was a little surprised they didn't do "Reelin' in the Years," and I would have loved to hear "Do It Again," but they commented a few times during the set that it was rare for them to do this many "hits" in the first place. I grabbed Mark after the show and reintroduced myself, and he confirmed that they're pretty sick of the top few requested songs, so we were lucky to get the "hits" that we did. But he obviously has a great time no matter what they play, which is nice. It's really a tight unit, and if you get the chance to see them, I recommend it.

I'll let you know when Farrah and I have struck it rich with our single-camera drama about a thirteen-piece touring Steely Dan tribute band.