Ok, what’s the deal with all this DEATH? I mean I know it’s all part of "life" but it just seems like just recently handfuls of people are passing away.

Just after Christmas, my Cuz (another Bob Gentry) who lives up north lost his mother… a few days after I heard that, Shelly Winters died….and just today I heard that Wilson Pickett passed away.

I had the opportunity a little over a year ago to meet Shelly Winters…she actually called me a few times. How is it that Shelly Winters called me? Well, I had just finished performing on Sally Kirkland’s TV talk show and Sally and Shelly were very close[Shelly was like a surrogate mother to Sally]. Sally invited me to come visit Shelly but at the time I was juggling things that had me self-absorbed [I was in NY auditioning for the musical RENT at the time I think and getting ready for a show in Vegas at the Palms Hotel]. Before I knew it, I missed the opportunity… I regret it. There’s much more to the story but that’s the short version.

Wilson Pickett is someone I never had the chance to meet but I’ve always been a huge fan of his music and voice.

"Wilson Pickett, the soul pioneer best known for the fiery hits "Mustang Sally" and "In The Midnight Hour," died of a heart attack Thursday, according to his management company. He was 64"

64 seems MIGHTY young…specially the older I get, the younger it seems.

One of my favorite movies is The Commitments. A great story about an Irish Soul band and in the end they were all hoping Pickett would show up at one of their concerts to "jam" What a great movie this is. If you’re a Pickett fan, check it out.

It just seems like in the last year, we’ve lost some good people…not that we don’t lose good people every year…perhaps it’s just that I’m noticing it much more lately. Okay…now everyone just stop with this dying stuff okay? Let me just say that I’m very sorry for everyone’s loss.

Off subject, I returned from Vegas last night about 2am. It was pretty cold there, but slot machines do give off a little heat. I didn’t gamble too much though. Mainly, I went to just get out of town for a day. I visited with my friend Ruchelle and looked at some real estate there. It’s really amazing what you can get for the money in Las Vegas compared to homes in Southern California.

Here, a 2 bedroom condo STARTS at around a half a million (and I’m not talking 90210 either)…and the cost of living is just crazy. For that, you can buy a huge house with LAND in Vegas.

I’m just toying with the idea of getting a place in LV right now but when I think about having lived in CA for about the last 8 years and basically throwing away about $1000.00 a month in rentals(for very small studio apts), I get a sick feeling in my stomach knowing that about 100K has been wasted and all I have to show for it is this lousy T-shirt.

Owning property has never been some huge dream of mine…it would just be nice is all. With all that being said…it still feels good to be back home