And now the photo I promised way back then.....

I know you can't see her, but there's actually a 12-year old girl in this picture!!! :) (by the way...that's David CASSIDY..in case you didn't know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) And that's ME, standing next to DAVID CASSIDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Hey..it's Judy and Emma with MICKEY DOLENZ!!

To All the Kids Who Have Helped Me Through the Years

Today I am thinking about the kids who have helped me make music and have fun through the years. Many of them are all grown up now, and some have even graduation from college! From the original KidPop Kids on my first recording....Jessie D, Christina K, Jocelyn D, Molly G and all the others....to my first Crew of dancers...Lindsay, Abby, Jessie, Josselyn, Jared and all the rest....I'll always remember all of you and what fun we had together!
I hope you are all doing well and have happy memories of the part of your youth that we spent together.
And be sure to play my music when you've got little bambinos of your own!! I'll still be kickin' till I'm 97 (that's the plan, anyhow!)
Love, Judy

Mickey Dolenz

Well, 2008 must be my year to meet the idols of my youth! Yesterday Emma came home from school and we trekked down to the Eastern States Expo (A.K.A. "The Big E") to see Mickey Dolenz. After his concert in the afternoon he vowed to sign every autograph and meet every fan until there was no one left, and that's just what he did! We were delighted to meet him and get our photo taken with him, and he was a real gentleman. My heart didn't pound quite as much as when I met David Cassidy, but it was great nonetheless.
Now, when, oh when, will I get my chance with John Travolta??????
Next weekend is the Kids 4 Kids Carnival and I hear through the grapevine that some of my favorite stars are going to be there! I'll give you the full report!

It Was A Good Summer

Well, I guess there's no denying it. Summer is unofficially over. There was a little bit of a nip in the New Hampshire air today, and I saw quite a few reddish-orangeish (as my girls would say) leaves out there. "sigh"
But it was a GOOD summer. First of all, I got to spend a lot of time with Louisa doing shows and having fun. She just started high school, so it's really more important to me than ever before to stay close to her. She's a good kid, and funny. I'm lucky. She introduced me to a lot of new music, and to what has become my favorite song of the summer: A song called "Lake Ponchartrain" by the band LUDO. I LOVE IT and have played it over and over again! You can hear it here on their MySpace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=3021298. WARNING: I always assume that young children are not reading my blog, and I write for the parents. You should know that this song has the H-E-double toothpicks word in it and one of their MYSPACE friends has a sort of naughty picture. But your kids can't get on MySpace unless you let them anyway. Just don't say I didn't warn ya!
Moving on.... didn't spend as much time with Emma because she was away doing an internship most of the summer, but what time we did have was GOOD. We laughed a lot. We had our annual Bar Harbor weekend and enjoyed lobster and a fun play at the Acadia Repertory Theatre. We made the most of the rain and went to see "Mama Mia" together, which I wouldn't have seen without her and which I thoroughly enjoyed. But I spent a lot of the summer missing her.
Then there were all the great places I got to play and all the great kids and families I met. I especially enjoyed my shows at the Milford Drive-In. That was a total blast! If you've never taken your kids to a Drive-In, plan to do it next summer. The Drive-Ins that are left are a dying breed and a relic from a very cool time. We're lucky to have some left.
Oh, and I can't forget...this was the summer I got to meet DAVID CASSIDY!! I only went to see one other concert this summer, though, and that was TALLY HALL in NYC. They're terrific, too. I love their music!
I went fishing for the first time in my life this summer when my father-in-law took the girls and me out on his little motor boat in Freeport, Maine. We didn't catch any fish, but what a lovely day. It was good for all of our hearts to have that time together. And besides, I'll never forget Louisa's reaction to the worms!
I read a really good book that took me all summer to read, called "A Voyage Long and Strange" by Tony Horwitz, which is a sort of travelogue/history book about the actual MANY discoveries of America. It was fascinating, but because it was non-fiction I didn't have that drive to keep picking it up to see what would happen, so it took me all summer to read it.
At the end of summer we had our annual trip to Santa's Village, which is more precious every year because my daughters are both teenagers now but they (and their friends) still love going there. Maybe they do it now mostly to humor me, but I don't care! It's always a good time. Now, if I could just get them to go to Storyland.....
We only went to Hampton Beach once, and we only went to Bear Brook State Park once, so that sort of bums me out. But it was such a rainy summer and I worked a lot, so there weren't that many beach opportunities.
Speaking of the beach, though, I did get to play at the Hampton Beach Children's Festival and the best thing about that was I got to reconnect with my old pal Dan Grady, marionettist extraordinaire. In addition to being a true craftsman and artist, Dan is wondefully imaginative and talented, and a REALLY nice guy. If you'd like to find out more about him, check out www.puppetmandan.com.
Well, if you've read this far, I hope I didn't bore you! I'm just feeling a little nostalgic tonight. Must be that nip in the air.....

The Hillsborough County Fair

Here's a big shout out to all the great kids and families who came to my shows at the Hillsborough County Fair this weekend! It was lots of fun!
Boo hoo, though...I didn't get a chance to get a doughboy! Maybe you call them fried dough?
I love 'em!!!
On another note, I'm working on a song for my new CD and it actually involves some research! I wrote to the guys who operate the Roadside America website and they actually wrote back within 24 hours. I was very impressed! If you are interested in the unusual, bizarre and downright weird things there are to see out there, please check out their website before you take your next trip. You can find them at www.roadsideamerica.com.

Let me know what cool things you see out there on the road!
Judy