It's a brand New Year: 2012 and already things with big changes have started with a bang! Our first surprise came from the Westfield Fashion Square mall and the little free community room that we used for absolute ages dating back at least four years for rehearsals and parties in countless numbers. This great "free little room" with a kitchen and restrooms stopped being FREE as of January 1st. That nice little room now costs $150 a day to rent. Unbelievable. It was designed and built to be of service to the community and I can only guess the Westfield Fashion Square Mall folks have no more community service spirit. Everything is about the buck: the almighty dollar. This is the same room that just had mold cleaned out of its bathrooms at our multitude of requests. Oh well, I guess I won't be using their room any more, but I also will NOT be shopping at that mall anymore. It's too expensive anyway. I should know. I ran a retail store there upstairs next to Macy's. The second big shock came when we were told that our beloved sound engineer, Mr. Robert Roth is no longer an associate of Smooth Sound Studios in Van Nuys. We've been recording there since 1999 and I just can't imagine that Robert is not a part of this any more. He tells that he has his own place now and so John and I are quite eager to discover what the new venture will be at a new address, I'm told. Well, one thing for sure is we won't won't miss the parking congestion the dear studio had. We also wait for the results of the winner to be announced for the ASCAP-DREAMWORKS Musical workshop. It changed sponsorship this year from DISNEY and the results were supposed to be announced on Friday, January 6th, but there's not a word heard YET. The year began badly when the power supply went out the second time on New Years Day at 8:19 am. I was without a computer for an entire week. What a bummer! Let us hope that the rest of the year fares better than it began. Beautiful summer like day here the first of January is encouraging. We can finally turn the heater off for a while. And it's a quiet morning here for once on Fulton Avenue-- not the usual endless stream of cars. trucks and sirens. Have a great day this 10th day of January 2012.