Some of the new cameras are amazing. They have so many great features. I thought of a Wallet Camera, because you always have your wallet with you, right? So when you want to take a picture, instead of wishing you had your camera, you can just pull out your wallet. The biggest obstacle is when you ask a stranger to take a picture of you with your wallet camera. Seeing all that money and credit cards... they might run off with it. But if you have a phone with a camera, you can snap a picture of them and send it to the police. Wait. I forgot. Phones have cameras. I might have to rethink this whole wallet camera thing.

My business partner doesn't have a great memory. His autobiography will be titled "Limited Recall." My autobiography will be "He Was Lost, So I Followed Him." What's yours?

This is how I write a song. Usually, I think of an idea that leads to a title. For example, today I wanted to write a song about men watching football. Why? Because that's what men do. We watch football. In country music, you can't just write a song about men who like to watch football. That would only interest men who like football. I want women who love men who watch football to also like this song, so I thought, "I need a love/relationship angle."

So I thought about this relationship in which this man is watching football, but his girlfriend thinks he spends to much time with football, and not enough with her. The guy gets frustrated because he's trying to watch football, which inspired the lyrics, "I've got no time for games. I'm trying to watch football."

This led me to my title: "No Time for Games."

Now that I have a concept and a title, I think to myself, "This could be a song with a sense of humor."

I usually write serious love songs. Sometimes, I like to think of a mood or a situation and write to that. Once, I decided to write a really sad love song, so I was motivated to come up with thew saddest lyrics I could. I thought of how (in some relationships) one of the individuals feels like the other person has left the relationship. They're still married, but you can tell, their heart isn't in it, and (in this case) the woman asks, "Where are you now?" That became the title.

After the title, "Where Are You Now?" I wanted to write the saddest lyrics I could to open the song, and I came up with:

You kiss our little girl goodnight.
Turn on late night TV.
I go to bed pretending,
You're still in love with me.

(I'll attach it, so you can hear the final demo version. Music by the very talented Jerry Careaga; a writer I work with in Nashville. Faith Hill had it on hold for more than a year, but it did't make the album.)

Now, back to the new song. Now that I have the concept and a title, I have to think about how to open the song. (I'm thinking about that now.) I'm thinking it needs to be the voice of the man, so it has to come from his perspective. It also needs to be somewhat upbeat, because this is, after all, a funny song. This is when I try out some potential opening lines.

"No Time for Games" (I'm Watchin' Football)
Fuldon Music 2009
(I think we'll start out slow and kick it up at the chorus.)
The good book says Sunday is a day of rest, (Note: good to make biblical references in country music.)
Church in the morning,
And brunch with your friends.
But don't ask me to go shopping,
Or for a walk in the park
No dinner reservations,
Or long, heartfelt talks.
I'm willing to miss a kick-off or two,
But Sunday's for football,
And football ain't you.

You can say you're gonna leave me
Prance naked before the TV
But no one comes 'tween me and my high def
Oh, can you believe that stupid ref

I got no time for games,
I'm watchin' football.
I got no times for games,
I'm watchin' football

So... that's a start on a new song. Chauvinistic? Yeah. Meaningless in the grand scheme of things? Absolutely. Will I finish it? I don't know. Depends if my favorite writing partners Steve Fulton and Bill Coffey think it's worthwhile.

Steve Fulton and Hollis Welsh came over for brunch yesterday. Steve and I talked about some songs we wanted to write together. It took me back to the first country song I ever wrote, "I Was Down On You Till You Went Down On Me." A classic that was never recorded.
 
I started writing country music after someone said, "You should write country music."
 
Interestingly, I started writing ads because someone said, "You should write ads."
 
I have to go now, because my wife just said, "You should come in the house, and help me do taxes."
 
I would love to have me as a friend. I would do anything I wanted me to.

This is an email I sent out to a few selected friends for a cocktail party to celebrate my wife's birthday.

 Friends,

 I thought I'd invite some of our friends for cocktails on Friday (9/18) after work. Kind of a bon voyage/b'day thing (we're off to Germany next week). I don't know how old she is, but she looks marvelous for whatever age that is.

 If you're interested, join me at Angell's at 5:00. I'm going to try and get some patio space. I'll bring Valerie around 5:15. She doesn't know anything about it, and wouldn't show up if she knew, so keep this to yourself.

 No gifts, just a little casual get-together. (I may not even buy you a drink). You don't have to hide and say surprise, because that would probably piss her off, and later on she'll yell at me.

 If you think of anyone I need to invite, let me know... I don't have the e-mails of some of her friends, because they don't want me to contact them anymore.

 I realize that some of you are more my friends than hers, but I don't like a lot of her friends.

 All the best,

 Tom Donahoe

This is Valerie. Isn't she beautiful?

A short film I wrote and co-produced. Vincent Spano directed. Kevin Dillon was suppose to play Bobby, but had to bow out two days before production. Kevin recommended Billy Devlin. A difficult script to master in 24-hours, but Billy did it. You can choose either of these links to see it.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYbs0DSciFY
www.imdb.com/title/tt1433028/

What's in 'Nilla Wafers that gives them that special, subtle, yummy taste? I would like to meet Mr. or Mrs. Nilla and thank them. I don't know about you, but I taste vanilla. I may be wrong.
My friend, Dan, also likes Nilla Wafers. He likes to put half a wafer in his mouth and breath on it for a while to soften it up. I haven't tried this. I do know that some people like to put them in a bowl and pour milk over them. I think these people are from Ohio. My wife is from Ohio, and it sounds like something they'd do.

 I sometimes wish I had the recipe for Nilla Wafers, but it would probably not be the same. It would probably be a cookie. 'Nilla Cookies doesn't have the same panache as Nilla Wafers.

 My Dad recently injured himself, and I took care of him. He wasn't eating, so I bought some low-fat Nilla Wafers. He ate them without me having to coax him. I asked him if he knew what gave Nilla Wafers their special taste. He asked me, "What happened to Oprah?" I think the muscle relaxer and pain pill had kicked in.

 I think I'm going to become a facebook fan of Nilla Wafers.

I've been married twice. 15-years to my current wife. The most important thing I've learned? Don't go right for the boobs. If you want to initiate sex, dance with her in the kitchen, and kiss her long and passionately as if her lips are the only things that matter. This usually works, but if she doesn't respond, don't say, "My first wife used to like this."

I have two boys. Harry and Charlie. Harry is a giant Shih Tzu. Charlie is a Shorkie (Shih Tzu-Yorkie mix). They are a constant source of joy for Valerie and I. We adopted Harry at a auction. He was supposed to be no more than 15 pounds when full-grown. He's about double that.
 
People always say, "That's a big Shih Tzu." It always makes me laugh, because I'm still relatively immature and can't help responding to scatological humor.
 
Charlie is more Terrier than Shih Tzu. He's the bane of Harry's existence. Even after a year, Harry still looks at us in a way that I interpret as, "What is he doing here?" (I may be anthropomorphizing; which by the way is one of my most difficult words to say out loud. That– and the word "Sorry.")
 
Charlie might have some Tasmanian Devil in him. He was a rescue dog, but thus far I haven't seen him save anyone.

Jon and Susu, our good friends from Medford, Oregon have decided to join us on a cruise to Greece next September.  There aren't many couples we would enjoy traveling with, but they are dear friends whose company we enjoy.  We invited them after our good friends Dan and Teri decided they wanted a new Landrover instead of a cruise with us.  Jon asked if they needed to do anything in preparation for the trip.  I told him to stay away from Landrover dealerships.