Good Day Google+ - The British Are Coming!

Hi everyone, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and welcome to Good Day Google+. I always tell you every time, it's always a good day on Google+ when you get to spend it with your friends. I have a wonderful group today and the British are coming, the British are coming!

Woo-hoo!

Talk about— usually when I'm on with the Brit Pack, I'm on one of theirs. This is one of mine and Maggie and I are representing the US from coast to coast. West Coast to East Coast, from Florida, Coronado Island, both places virtual paradises.

I have my own Brit.

Let's see what Maggie's got.

I have my own little Brit. My neighbors next door, they went to London or somewhere, they came back and they brought me this. It's better than a shirt.

You only showed it from the backside. I was afraid to ask you what it was, actually.

Oh, you know what it is, Jeff? Okay, so they know me because, you know, food and blah blah blah. It's to wash your dishes.

Oh wow!

Yeah, cool, huh?

That is pretty cool. So you have multicultural dishwashing going on then. Mexican being cleaned by the British.

Yes.

Very proper.

You can come and clean my dishes any day. Any day.

Anyway, we are missing one of our group today, and Kath will be joining us as soon as her computer finishes updating. You know, it always seems— I know it happens for me usually too when I'm getting ready for a show. Luckily mine updated this morning, or I might be going through the same headaches, but it's the price we pay for running those marvelous PCs and not Apple products. So what are you going to do? Anyway, I want to go through my introductions here, and then we're going to do some shoutouts. But right next to me I have Peter Lund from Kracking Media. How you doing, Peter?

I'm good, Chef. Thank you very much. Really nice to be here, and it was a long journey across the Atlantic today, but we made it. Thank you.

You know, this is just— isn't this incredible? Every time I think about how we can just jump on and talk live like we're in the next room.

Yeah, it is amazing, and yeah, it's just like we're just, like you say, just pretty much next door to each other. It's incredible.

It is, it's wonderful. And this somehow doesn't boggle my mind as much still as fax machines do. I still don't understand how they work, you know, sending the stuff across a phone line. But this I can get totally because it's like pictures on cable and stuff. Join us today. And then next to Peter, I have Maggie Unzueta from Coronado Island in beautiful California.

Yeah, yes, Coronado, San Diego is fabulous most of the time except for today. Well, hold on, this whole week, this summer, let's go there. It's just been awful. And I'm having way too much fun with this little guy. Like a million jokes are going through my mind. But we'll keep it PG just because we're on vidIQ Plus.

I got you, Meg. I got you. And especially since we have a youngster here with us too, Dan. We don't want to— Dan, how you doing today? So happy you could join us.

Yeah, thanks for inviting me on, Shep. This is the first show I've actually been on in the panel of someone else's show, so all the other shows I've done are my own music shows. But thanks for inviting me on, looking forward to playing some of my songs for you.

Oh, well, you know, I love it, and I'm happy to have you here. And I always think about, you know, when I would see variety shows, the acts didn't just always come on and play. They'd sit and they'd talk for a while too, so That's kind of like what I want to get here because you're a real person and people need to know you as a real person and connect with you. A lot of times you get these really stronger bonds because of that, once they get to know you more as a person too. We're going to expand their universe a little bit with you here today and hope you make a lot of new friends on Google+ and get some new followers. Your mom and dad are there. I saw your mom Sue was back and she'll be joining us I guess for some of your songs.

Yeah, she'll be featured.

There she is, wave, wave. And your dad Phil, and he's doing the sound. Say hi, Phil.

Hi.

There he is. He is a man. I gotta get him to play. Does he still play? I know he plays with you guys together.

I didn't get to talk with him today though, unfortunately.

Because I'd love to have him some one time doing— I could see him doing some '80s glam rock stuff for us.

It's a deal.

It's a deal? OK. You got it.

I've heard he does David Bowie impressions, Sasha.

Does he really?

And Sue Aston does Kate Bush impressions as well.

Oh, I would love that. I would love to see him do Bowie, though. Ziggy plays guitar.

That's right. And Phil plays it left hand as well. So there you go.

Oh my god. Definitely, definitely. I know I was almost ready to get my guitar out for the open mic night, but I don't know if my carpal tunnel will let me play long enough to do anything. And then to subject you to my voice would just be cruel and unusual punishment. But you never know. Never say never. Well, we're gonna wait for Kath to join us, and in the meantime, Dan, would you like to open up with some of your beautiful music for us? Do a couple songs.

I will do.

Thank you.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been going back into the recording studio. I've been recording a couple of singles which will be out hopefully in the next few weeks. This first song is Lemonade Sea, which my mum features on the recording along with a jazz band, so I'm going to do an acoustic version of that one for you now. And then the second song I'll play will be For You, My Friend, which I play frequently on my live shows, and it's from my debut EP Way Home. So hope you enjoy it. I'm going to switch my microphone settings around.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

All good. All good.

I was just flicking through a hazy box of cards, glancing through the negatives, listening to jazz cats in the rain. Coffee stains on the table, coffee stains on my heart. The bittersweet romance of chasing pictures as they wane. Those summer afternoons, slow roasting on the South Shore coal and throwing stones into a lemonade sea. On the rocks beside the pool, laying lazy next to you. Wondering where we'll end. I closed my eyes and jumped into those warm waters we became so used to. Sometimes the breeze takes me back to those days. Your hair waving freely back at the horses from the ocean. Open fires burning embers, open hearts burning fires. The innocent romancing of young lovers in the sun. Star peppered evening sky. Back in the rain.

Thank you very much.

Wow!

Wow!

What a beautiful song.

Thank you very much. Yeah, it's one of my new ones. Really pleased with how it's turned out in the studio with all the other musicians because my debut EP was just me by myself, my guitar and harmonica and stuff. To kind of get in some session musicians and to bounce ideas off other musicians has been a really great experience. And obviously getting Mum in to do a violin on that song has really kind of given it another, I don't know, another side, I suppose.

Now what other musicians do you have in? What other instruments? Do you have like a full string section or?

Mum's done some kind of violin layers, so there's kind of like a string section sound on the song. Piano, percussion, and bass as well. Kind of got like a jazz band, jazz trio is actually coming to do on these two songs. So they've— they're amazing musicians and they've really just brought the songs to life.

That's incredible. And we have a lot of great comments for you. Uh, Rain Dowell is in, so relaxing, and breathe. Um, Coach G Moore, and he loves having Sue added on. Candy is saying, "Sue, love the blue dress, fits with your violin beautifully. What an awesome harmony." Oh, man. Roxanne Davenport, she loves the guitar. That is a beautiful guitar.

Thank you. Yeah, it's made by Ibanez.

Is it really?

Yeah, it is. It's from the Exotic Woods series. You don't see them actually very often. I had to buy it online, but it's amazing. They're all kind of made from an individual wood. And it's just an amazing finish. It is quite thin as well. It's kind of got like an electric guitar neck, um, which is really good for me because I sometimes struggle with bar chords. My hands are quite small. But, um, yeah, so it's perfect, perfect instrument for me.

Ibanez has come a long way. I remember in the day back, I mean, I had a Les Paul and, uh, Ibanez had theirs and their, their version was great but it was so heavy. Yeah, I would, I would hand mine to people and they're like, oh my God, yours is so light compared to that. But Ibanez has really, really come into their own. I guess it's been a while now, they've been producing some amazing instruments.

Dan, I can't even do a bar chord, so I wouldn't even know what one would be. It won't pass me, I tell you.

Well, you can do a chord or two in the bar though, can't you?

Yeah, yeah, that's okay. I can do that. Dan, where does the inspiration for your songwriting come? I mean, for example, that song, where did you get the inspiration for that?

The title Lemonade Sea is kind of a description of like the sun kind of glistening off the sea, kind of gets that sparkly effect. That's where Lemonade Sea comes from, and it's kind of, it's quite a reflective song, and I just kind of bring my kind of own personal experiences through the songs as well and my surroundings. But generally I find that when I get inspiration for a song, I normally get it within the first kind of minute of sitting down at the guitar, kind of starts off like a musical spark, maybe an idea, a chord progression or something, and then I'll work around that, maybe add some lyrics and kind of be quite flexible with it. Some people are really stuck in the way they write songs. Maybe they write the lyrics first, then do the music, or do the music first and the lyrics. But for me, it's kind of a combination of both.

That's fantastic. I would say you've got a lot of coastline to be inspired with where you live.

Yeah, the landscape around here is definitely very inspirational.

Yeah, fantastic.

Can I ask you, since, you know, I don't really know too, too much about you, but I do love your songs and I just wanted to say that I am a fan.

Thank you.

I'm excited to be talking to you. Thank you. So how did you start? Can you tell me a little bit more? How did you pick up the guitar?

I started off initially learning classically, learning classical guitar in school, and from there I kind of started playing in rock bands. I was inspired by my dad and his '80s metal bands, so I kind of played in a lot of rock bands, just being a guitarist, not singing or anything like that. And it was kind of hard working with other musicians, kind of got let down. Other people are not always as into it as you are in bands, and I kind of just thought to go it alone. I thought I wanted to try singing, writing my own songs, and thankfully it kind of just it kind of worked out all right. I was very, very, very nervous when I did my first gig singing. I'm not— it's quite shy, very shy, but after the first couple of gigs, I kind of really warmed into it. So yeah, it's kind of gone through a few different styles, classically to heavy metal and then to kind of folk singer-songwriter.

So very cool, very cool.

It's very, very chill, Dan, very chill. It's sort of put your feet up and relax and wait for the weekend type music. Fantastic.

Absolutely.

And, uh, Cath joined us. Let's say hi to Cath real quick. How you doing?

I'm a lot better now I'm here. Can you just ignore the fact that I've messed up really badly with a schoolboy error of not updating my computer early enough? I should have done it 2 hours before this. I'm so sorry.

Things happen. It's life and it's how you handle it, and as long as you handle it well, you know, it goes on.

Well, what I did manage to do was have my absolutely rubbish laptop that wouldn't allow me to be on video playing Dan while the other one was still updating. So I actually watched all of that. I thought it was absolutely fantastic, Dan. Absolutely love your music. Thank you, Kath. So talented.

Okay, now I've been practicing, so before we get on with it, just keep a stiff upper lip there, Kath. And you didn't miss much but a little chinwag. So while you were off with the fairies— but now Bob's your uncle. Dan, would you play us another song?

I will do. This is for you, my friend.

Alright. To save me from it all. These were long and the nights were cold. If I had one wish, I'd be by your side till I'm old. For you, my friend, I'd cross any river. River. Be by your side on the shoreline. I hope that you will find the answer. Keep your head above the waterline. And now you're falling out of my reach, and you refuse my hand and give in to the darkness beneath. Why won't you listen to the people around you. Tell me, what else is a friend supposed to do? For you, my friend, I'd cross any river, be by your side on the shoreline. I trust in you to find the answer, keep your head above the waterline. For you, my friend, I'd cross any river. I hope you'll find the answer. You, my friend, I cross any river. Be by your side on the shoreline. I hope that you will find the answer. Keep your head above the waterline. Be you, my friend. Be you, my friend. Be you, my friend.

Thank you.

Great job.

Thanks everyone. I hope you enjoyed that.

Uh, awesome.

A lot of good comments again. Coach Moore, "Love the blending." Mia Voss is here, "Oh, this sounds amazing." Candy, "Hear and feel the music flowing. What a great voice." David Henry Pipe, "I like this. Another one that I haven't heard before." Barbara Farina, "Great voice." And Sheila, "You leave me flummoxed.

Hmm." That's a good one. Thank you for your comments, everyone. That means a lot. Thank you.

Oh, no, really beautiful, beautiful music. I see a bright future here for you, my friend. Gotta love it. So when is your album coming out then?

Well, the two singles, the first single, Lemonade Sea, which I played, I'm going to announce when that's going to be released, hopefully within the next week. And I'm also thinking about maybe doing a Google+ release party or something. I know some people have done that recently. Some of the musicians have done something like that. So I'm going to put like a little music video together and then release that. So that will be great. And then looking forward, I'd like to do like another EP or an album once I've released these two singles. So just see how it goes, I think.

How far is the studio from you that you have to go, that you go into to record?

It's the VIP Lounge in Penzance. It's about a 10-minute drive from here. It's really convenient. I recorded my debut EP there. Iepila, and Mum recorded her last album there, Between Worlds. Yeah, he's a fantastic producer there, Mason.

Excellent, excellent. And you have a good supply of local musicians too, professionals?

There are loads of musicians around here, mainly kind of singer-songwriters like myself, actually. I was really fortunate to find the jazz band that have been on these two tracks. I knew the piano player from college, he's been a really good friend of mine. I saw his jazz band performing, great musicians, so I thought I'd get them on. And I actually played a gig with them last year and they prepared a jazz instrumental version of one of my songs, which I didn't know they were going to do, which is really unusual, kind of hearing like a jazzy instrumental version for my song "Still Life." I thought these guys have got to be on my recordings and we just worked really well together.

Great, sounds good. So happy to have you here. Well, we're gonna talk for a bit, and then if you don't mind, we'll bring you back towards the end of the show to do another song for us.

Absolutely, yeah, thank you.

That's good. So feel free to join in to our chinwag here as we talk. And I'm gonna say hi to Kath. Kath, so let's talk a little to you.

Well, hello. I've got to tell you, I've got a great big hot air balloon floating right towards the house, and it's getting Really quite close. It was just floating around in the distance. I'm enjoying Dan's music and I'm thinking, oh, doesn't that look lovely, just floating about. And it's kind of turned around and it's huge. We're quite well known for the Balloon Fiesta in Bristol, where I live, which is if you kind of go to London, turn left and head towards Wales, and then stop just before you hit Wales. That's where I'm based at the moment. And so when we have have a lovely summer evening, sunny evening, we have hot air balloons floating regularly, but we do have a big fiesta in August. So I'm just— they've got their— oh my, I've never seen it, it's a close-up, it's kind of just above my eyeline. I see it.

It doesn't say Goodyear on it, does it?

Let's see if I can turn this round and show you, because it's just quite incredible. It's— oh, it looks like it.

Oh, look at that.

Oh my goodness.

Wow. It looks like it's far away on that picture, but it really isn't. I think it might actually be coming down in the field in front of the house.

I tell you, some people do anything to get on a Hangout, won't they?

Yeah.

Oh, good luck, Dennis Littley.

There's going to be a rope coming down in a minute. There's a guy coming crawling down and coming to say hello.

That's amazing. I've really never seen it so close. That's crazy. Sorry, there you go.

Not a problem, not a problem. We like to add a little color to all of our shows, and that's definitely some color.

Yes, I might have to run and evacuate if it keeps coming. Anyway, thank you very much for having me on your show. This is wonderful. It's a real pleasure to have the Brit Pack.

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, I go back and forth sometimes, and I think about the one people that we are really truly tied to by more than just, you know, being across the pond and you settling and coming from England. England has always stood by us, except for that time in 1812 when you tried to burn down the White House, but other than that, you've kind of always been there for us.

Other than that little thing.

A minor aberration. Minor, minor.

But, uh, now it's, uh, you know, I know we can always depend on England, and I think England knows they can always depend on us to stand strong together. And sometimes that's the only sanity in this world, is the two of our leaders saying, "No, enough of that!" You know, and hopefully they can make some sense out of all the madness going on in the world now too. But anyway, we're back, and, uh, Kath, Thank you for fighting through your Windows updates and all that nonsense. And got to love it. I was in the middle of trying to get on a Hangout one time, and the computer did that to me. And I was outside and had everything set up. It was when I was grilling. And it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work. It wouldn't work.

Ah.

Just makes you want to—

Well, they do say to prepare a lot in advance, don't they? And because of the timing of this show, I had to come home and do it because I our office closes just as this show ends. And usually it's fine, but they update— yeah, 13 updates. Oops. Never mind.

You never know when they're going to update. That's the problem.

Yeah.

They should warn you a little.

But anyway. I think the clue was in the number, Cath. 13. You've had it.

Yeah, I got stuck on 5 for like 25 minutes.

I know, you think the updates will be quick and they're not. And I want to shout out Mia again. "Watch, a singing Telegram guy is going to drop from balloon," Kath Dawson.

It's just gone out of the view of my window. I don't know where it's gone.

David Henry Pipe saying, "Talk about free worldwide advertising for a balloon company." Yeah, wow. Frisco Balloons, if you're out there, let's talk money.

Yeah, go and send them an invoice, Kath, quick.

So let's get to Maggie, and Maggie's got— let's talk about some wine, Maggie.

Yes, let's talk about wine. How do I follow you guys though? Because Dad— okay, sorry, I'm just still in love over there with, you know, just Dan and his music. I popped out this bottle of wine, it's even chilled, you see it, how cold it is? Just so I could chill out and drink my wine, listen to my music. It's really cold. But yeah, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. It is really hot though here in San Diego. I'm just wiping off my wine here so I can show you the label. It is from San Pasquale Winery in San Diego. Believe it or not, we have wine in California. This isn't Napa. This isn't It's not one of the big wine regions. So I was lucky enough to find this here in San Diego, of all places. It's like, wine in San Diego, who knew? But anyway, so this wine, it's called Summer Vine. And it's a passion fruit wine with habanero.

Oof.

I know, right? So cluck cluck a little bit, and it's like, ah, it's spicy. But for me, being Mexican, I'm surrounded by British and you have the lonely Mexican and half-Mexican here. But anyways, so it's sweet. It's a little sweet, and then you get a little— and what I loved about this wine was that I mean, it just kind of took me back to some of the way that I grew up eating, you know, some of the desserts that we eat. Let me tell you something. So Mexicans, we have this weird way we see desserts. Like, they're not like what you envision desserts to be. It's a little bit different. Like, I grew up with mango con chile, mango with chili, and yeah, it was just a little bit different. Not so much the cakes and the pies. It was just, it was a little bit not the thick stuff. Anyway, so this kind of reminded me of the sweet and the spicy because you get that sweet first and then you get that spicy after. So I wanted to bring you a little bit about spicy, hot San Diego. But we're sweet too here.

Kind of everything. Would that be good for sangria?

What's that?

Would that be a good wine for sangria?

I would do sangria with that, especially for someone like me who I like my spicy sweet. Yeah, this would be good. Ooh, what I would pair this with? I would do some chocolate, some milk chocolate. So think red, think red, so think chocolate. But if you ever have too much spice, you want to get like just a big glass of milk and just, you know, it will help tame it down. So like milk, okay, for spicy, and chocolate for the red. So milk chocolate goes fabulous with this.

Sounds good.

Yeah.

I guess that would go good with any kind of grilled lightly, too, nothing real hearty, but maybe like some grilled shrimp, some light grilled chicken.

There you go. Grilled shrimp sounds great. Oh yeah, but you know, something not— that has to go with the flavors of it. I wouldn't do like a grilled shrimp Asian. I would go probably more grilled shrimp spicy Tex-Mex kind of thing.

But—

Something to complement the flavors.

Yeah, something to complement the flavors. There you go.

There you go.

Yeah, and then afterwards we wash our cups with our little handy dandy— I'm having way too much fun with this guy, I'm telling you. I just took him out of the package. I was washing dishes this morning and I was like, oh, the British are coming? Oh, I have something for the show. Me and my props. You guys know me and my props, so. And I found a place for him to stand. Look. He's standing all by himself.

You have a new little friend now.

I have a little friend. Just don't give him any of the wine to drink, otherwise he'll fall over.

I know, right? He's standing on my water cup. So he's standing on water. All right.

There you go.

Here's a comment from Nicole. Waldron says, I just arrived home 5 minutes before the Hangout from the liquor store, and I got a bottle of Oliver Winery Peach Bean Blossom Hard Cider and Peach Mead, local here in Indiana. Enjoying a glass of honey wine now, Maggie.

That's awesome. You know, there are some real— and I want to talk about this eventually on the show, but there's a— I mean, there are very— it's strange because different— we have wineries like in Georgia, in Rhode Island, just different places. Wherever you can grow a grape, you can make wine. That's just moral of the story. Or just have wine shipped to you, and of course you just make it from wherever you have it. But you can make it anywhere. It doesn't have to be Bordeaux.

I found some wineries in Florida locally, so that's been interesting.

Is it good? Do you like it?

It was. We ended up making sangria out of it because it was just a little sweet. Stuff that we got. It was a San Sebastian Winery and a Lakeview Ridge. I can't remember, they're both the same company with two different types of wines that they produce, but they were good for local wines.

Yeah, well, you know, this is a husband and wife team, and she's the winemaker. I thought that was so cool. Like, usually you hear about— you think of a winemaker, you think of a guy, you know, but his wife was the one who was making this stuff. So I like it, I think it's cool. Maybe there's a future in there for me.

Absolutely.

What do you think?

Especially in drinking wine.

Sorry, just forget me, I start thinking random stuff when I see little toys.

Gotcha. So Steph and Mike, a question for you about wine and food. Is there a technique is there a way that you know what's the best wine to complement certain food? Is there a sort of a plan, a key to doing that?

Oh, Peter, I have so much to say about this.

How long have we got?

How long do I— exactly, I was going to say, how long do we have? Pairing wine and food is easy. It's so easy. I wish people would just understand that if you like it, Drink it. You can't go wrong with drinking something you like. If you like a $2 buck chuck, $2 wine, if that's what you like, go for it. You know, just drink wine. Moral of the story, drink wine. But yeah, I mean, and it doesn't really matter. At that point, it really doesn't matter. If you're looking to impress someone and If they see that you really enjoy this wine, trust me, they're going to be happy. At least that's how I see it. If someone's trying to impress me and they buy this fancy schmancy bottle of wine, they don't really know what it's about, it's like, ah, well, okay, thank you, but you too, you know, goes both ways. Not that I do, but it does.

So often you see cooking programs or, you know, where they talk about wine, they always say that Oh, this particular wine is the perfect complement to this particular meal. And you sort of think, oh, there must be a formula. But literally just pair whatever you like, really.

Yeah, I mean, there is a formula. I've written about it. I've put graphs together. Because yes, there is a formula. The safest, obviously you've heard this, you know, red goes with red meat, white goes with white meat. Not all the time. The safest, okay, safest is to go champagne. Really, champagne. When in doubt, champagne. Champagne can be costly, Prosecco. But not always, I can't say that. Not always, because there are some things that don't complement champagne. But anyways, the point I'm trying to make is stick with that rule of thumb. You know, red goes with red, white goes with white, just stick with that. But if you know, unless you really know wine, if you really know wine, then that's when pairing You can, you know, move it around into different, you know, dishes and stuff.

But, yeah.

Some of the different varietals, some of the different types of grapes will lend themselves more to a type of meat or cooking process sometimes. Like some will handle more robust or hearty meats better than others will.

Well, like Cabernet, when I think of a Cabernet, oh, I love Cabernet. Not right now because it's too hot for a room temperature red. But yeah, definitely Cabernet. I think of red meat. I think of something hearty, a pot roast. I think of, you know, just something deep and red. When I think of, you know, Sauvignon Blanc, like I just wrote, I just posted something on Sauvignon Blanc, or even a Chardonnay, it's like that is more fishy, that is more a chicken, it's more white. But then you have the middle of the road kind of stuff like This could go both ways. Zinfandels, rosés, those guys are middle of the road. And you have to kind of know where to go. But there are tons of— together for my website. So you guys can see what I'm talking about. But really, it's not as difficult. For me, again, you can't go wrong with drinking what you like. You found a wine you like, just drink it, buy it, enjoy it, love it.

That's the same philosophy I have for cooking. If you like to eat something, use those ingredients to cook with. Don't let anybody tell you what you should be eating and what you should have. If you want to make pasta and you like asparagus over it, well, put asparagus on it. It's about you and your taste, what you like to eat, not about what I tell you is proper and what's right and what makes a good meal. For years, they told us you never put grated cheese on seafood dishes, seafood pasta dishes. It was like, you know, well, really, I like grated cheese on my seafood pasta dishes. That's insane.

Well, and you know, like with me, people will— I used to go and review restaurants, I still do occasionally. That's just my taste. It's me. It's not necessarily you, it's not necessarily the person, you know, next to me. I have my own palate. Everybody has their own palate. I like spicy wines. There's gonna be someone out there, and I'm sure someone probably out there is watching right now, doesn't like spicy stuff. This might not be the wine for you, but they have other wines at San Pascual. You know, there's other stuff you might enjoy. I know, oh, in fact, I was with a girl at Seaport Village. Oh, San Pascual Winery is in Seaport Village, which is very San Diego. And if you guys ever make it to classy San Diego, you have to go to Seaport Village. SeaWorld Village is like very quintessential San Diego. It's just so, oh, it's beautiful. You have the San Diego Yacht Club and a view of Coronado. You have a view of Coronado. You have, oh, there's a carousel in the center. Oh, it's beautiful. It's just, oh, they have a hat shop, the Village Hat Shop. That's really cool. I really do enjoy it. Anyway, so the marketing girl from SeaWorld Village was with me or one of them at least, she was with me and she was all about whites right now and she's like, "Yeah, I really like whites." Hey, that's your thing, if that's what you like to do, that's what you drink, you know? But anyways, alright, enough, enough about whites.

Alright, so let's move on then to Peter. Peter, why don't you talk to us a little bit about what you do and what's going on in your life?

Yeah, well, I run, or jointly own, a digital marketing agency in Bournemouth. Now, Bournemouth, if you think about a map of the UK as a bit like a triangle, well, Bournemouth's right down the bottom in the middle. We're actually on the coast, a bit like Dan is in Penzance, but he's down in the left-hand foot bit. But yeah, we're sort of midway along the bottom of the south coast of England. It's a beautiful place to live. It's 7 miles of golden sandy beach. It's been quite a good summer, and it's a really nice place to live. Maggie, you're going on there about San Diego. I could say the same for Bournemouth. It's a great place to live. It's just getting to the end of the tourist season now, so when we get to October, probably it's going to get a lot quieter, but still enjoying it. But in terms of work and business, we're Kraken Media. We're a digital marketing agency. Video, photography, web, all things digital. And for the last 9 months on Google+, I've just had such a fantastic time getting to know people and getting to know Cath and doing some stuff with her as well with the Great British Hangout. And it's just been fantastic. Getting to the engagement on Google+ has just been fantastic and brilliant. It's just nothing like I've expected. Experienced in social media before, and yes, it's absolutely brilliant.

Well, Martin's done a great job of bringing us all together too.

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, I think we're very hopeful in the UK that we're going to get, you know, people start getting the Plus. I mean, I think the numbers in the US are something about 29%, whereas in the UK it's about 3%. So we've got a long way, a lot of catching up to do, but we're doing our best to actually shout out about Google+ and tell people, but it does take a while to actually— for people to understand and get what we're so excited about.

Yeah, I don't let that bother me as much anymore because I know that some of them are never gonna understand it no matter how hard we try. And I kind of gotten over trying to convert everyone and move on to someone that I think will really get it. It's like, fine, be happy where you are. And then next. And I think probably the same philosophy in England for a while because those people might come back later once they see some of their friends enjoying it. That's the whole key. You want to see somebody that you know enjoying it or using it right. There's bashers all the time. There's a Facebook group I belong to and they were overjoyed that authorship was going away because they thought that might mean the end of Google+. They were hoping that'll go next. Dennis Littley was like, yeah, dream on. They just put a manual out after 3 years. I don't think they're going anywhere. It took them 3 years to write the manual.

Yeah. And I think the thing is, I think it almost seems standard practice you have to go into Google+ once and leave before you can come back and understand it. It seems that's my experience. I know that's Kath's experience. It seems so many people I talk to almost have to visit a second time before you actually start to realize what it's about. So, but it's great. And the other thing I wanted to say is, I was gonna— Cass talking about her balloon outside. Well, today, outside my house, we've been having a fox wandering around the garden. I don't know what foxes are called in America, but if I show the camera, I don't know if you can— let me see if I can actually get this focused. Can you see that? That's been wandering around our garden today.

We call them foxes in the US too.

Yeah, I mean, they're increasingly common in the towns in the UK. You see them wandering around the streets at night, but to see one basically camped out in my garden all day today and, you know, walk right up to the window, very unusual. But yeah, they seem to be almost fearless.

Makes you want to feed him a little bit. Befriend the poor little fox. Maybe he's just there to make another friend.

Well, I think it's almost you're told not to encourage them, because I think they like the rubbish bins. I think we had a bin sometime, and it was dragged halfway along the street, this rubbish bin, because I think the foxes smelt it and then found a way into it.

Yeah. Does it taste like— does fox taste like chicken?

In a point, yeah.

And what wine would you pair that with? I'm sure there are people who eat fox, right? I mean, I've never had it, so—

I have never heard of anyone preparing fox. I mean, the British had their foxhounds, but did they eat them, or did they just chase them? Chased them?

I think it was just one big game, really, on the horses. I think the hounds tore them to pieces and that was about it. But yeah, I don't think they ever got eaten.

Fox too.

Fox, yeah, well, I'm sure. In New Jersey, we actually, before I moved, we actually had quite a few fox in the neighborhood. And even you'd see the little babies around. Here we don't see fox, but what we we do see, thank goodness not in my neighborhood, but we do see on TV all the time are big black bears. They're coming into neighborhoods and talk about the garbage can, they're looking for food. So Florida, that's not what I expected.

We once had here, so this is the San Diego Bay, we once had a shark that came in, made a wrong turn, and it's like, oops, there's a shark, don't go near the water. It's like, ah!

We have sharks, we have alligators. Like, you don't go in any, any freshwater because alligators are everywhere. So, you know, it's not like you see, oh, there's a lake, let's go swimming. Well, not unless you know for sure that there's, you know, the gators aren't in there.

Have you had alligator? I've had alligator. It's really good.

I had some just recently and it was better than chicken. It was done so well, it was really interesting.

Yeah, well, there you go, Chardonnay.

Well, actually, I was thinking a little vodka for the Gator, actually. Yeah, get the wine, go right to the hard stuff.

It's white.

So Dan, are you old enough to drink?

I am, I'm 21.

Are you really? We were thinking you were like— I was thinking more like 16. You look so youthful. I guess it's because I look so old, probably. But yeah, so you are old enough to employ me. Yeah, I am.

I'm not quite that young.

So that means that your mom must have had you when she was like 10 or 12, right? She's not speaking. I know.

I've never seen alligator on the menu over here, though. I don't think we can get it.

No gator?

No. I'd love to try it though.

It was actually, uh, I had gator two ways. I had one was like a stew and the other was like a nugget almost, but they were very good. The other thing we have, gator jerky. They're always selling that on the side of the road.

Ooh, I would love to try that. Gator tamales? You know someone has.

You probably could. Gator tamales might not be too bad. I was thinking there for a minute. But well, as I like to say in Florida now is, "Gator done." Gator done. Gator done. So you guys probably don't know that, the Brit pack, because that's a comedian we have here. It's always, "Gator done." Part of the— never mind.

That was lost in translation, Jeff.

Bob's your uncle. I got it, we're good.

So Peter, was that you that sent me the video for all the British lingo?

Yeah, that was it, the Anglophobia video with how the British talk.

Oh, that was funny. So I mean, I tried to work in quite a few of those, but I, you know, I used to say Bob's your uncle because I don't know where I learned that, but my wife refuses to believe that that's a real saying, and I had to Google it for her one time to show her that "Bob's your uncle" really is, you know, I didn't make it up.

Yeah, there's some funny expressions, I'm sure there's loads more that she didn't put in that, but the "off with the fairies" is a strange expression, but I didn't realize it was— I think the thing is the expression, you tend to think, you know, people the world over will use them in some shape or form, or at least America, but when you think, what do you mean, off with the fairies? But then When it comes to food, you often use— you call food different things, don't you? And for example, we call cakes— we call them buns. But you might call them something different.

I like buns.

But are your buns the same as our buns? That's the trouble.

I think Maggie's off with the fairies on that one. Her mind's on other types of buns. More like buns of steel.

Squeeze them.

We call buns in the US, we call buns as a tushy, a rear end. So that's the difference over here. Go ahead, Maggie.

Sorry, I was going to ask our British friends here, what is like, what do you think is something that is like a weird, fun saying that we don't have here in the United States that you guys do?

Uh, Cath, can you help out with this?

Sorry, that broke up a bit for me. Say that again, please?

Oh, I was asking what's a different or maybe fun saying that you guys have that we don't have over here?

Oh. There's a lot of sayings that tend to come from where you, you know, districts or cloak wheel in terms of the areas of the UK. So in Yorkshire, which is sort of halfway up the UK, there's an expression which is "on Oakley Moor bar tat," which means—

that's quite formal—

it's a place in Yorkshire, "without hat." On Oakley Moor bar tat. Of course, there's a lot of cockney rhyming slang. Have you heard of that? Apples and stairs, pears and— Apples and Pears Stairs and lots of other ones.

Ruby Berry? Kerry.

Kerry. Right.

That's really cool. I mean, I love— because I've studied different languages, and I'm a native Spanish speaker. Oh, here's a question for you guys. Do I have an accent for you guys?

American.

No, you sound American.

You're very American.

Thank you. Thank you. My American passport thanks you.

So what about us?

But I'm actually a native Spanish speaker.

Do we sound typically British or not typically British? Because I live in Dorset, which tends to have a little bit of Dorset accent, like this.

Yes, yes you do, but I will say one thing. I can't I can't tell. I can tell the difference between you guys.

We just lost Maggie there.

No, I'm here, I'm here. I'm here. Can you guys hear me?

Yep.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

OK. See, Kath, you're not the only one having problems.

I thought it was me.

It's Google+. They don't like us today. No, but I can tell Dan has a little bit of a different accent for me. Am I wrong?

I think it's probably more pronounced if you're not in the UK. So we wouldn't tend to hear them so readily. But probably because you're in the US, you tend to hear more readily. But yeah, I think there's the sort of the BBC British that talks very poshly. Bit like "what ho" and that sort of thing. But there's so many accents in the UK, so many different dialects and accents in the UK, so it's very, very variable. And, you know, I mean, you can go as far as Scotland, you can, you know, some of the Glaswegian Scottish people, you wouldn't even understand what they're talking about. And very, you know, Northern Irish as well, some understand what they're talking about. We wouldn't. So, yeah, accents tend to be very broad. The only comparison I can see with the States is where you get the South, a bit like, oh, Stan Bush and Wade Harmon, that sort of accent. That seems very pronounced.

We've got a big mix of accents.

Yeah. I've heard a lot worse than that, too, a lot heavier Southern accent. Theirs is kind of mild. Actually.

Right.

The Northeast has definitely— oh my goodness. And I can tell the difference between like from Maine to like Boston and just going down. I spent a lot of time in Connecticut. But here, I think we have an accent here in Southern California. Yeah, we have the like— like we do. We do have a really like accent over here. I don't know if you could hear it. Yeah, I think it's everywhere. I think every country is going to have that.

Can you notice an accent when I sing? Is that any different to you?

No, just now that I was hearing you talk.

Oh, right.

Yeah, Becky.

It's funny that people don't seem to really have accents as much when they sing.

It is strange. I don't understand what's going on there, but it is strange.

We had a country singer, Mel Tillis, and he had a very heavy stutter, but when he sang, he was fine.

Yeah, that's amazing.

I think, especially being a Spanish speaker, a native Spanish speaker— don't get me wrong, I was born here, but Spanish is my first language. Anyways, I, uh, it really does come out more when I start drinking. I don't know if it's stronger, do you think your accents are stronger when that happens? You're induced?

Just a little slurred.

Oh, that's everyone.

Get more relaxed, Maggie, that's all. Well, we're getting towards the end of the show and I was wondering if Dan, before we go say our last goodbyes, if you'd like to do another number for us?

Yeah, absolutely. Mummy, would you like to join me on this one? This is a song I play quite a lot. It's the title track from my debut EP. It's called Way Home. I'm going to get my harmonica out for this one as well. So I hope you enjoy it. Thank you.

my heart alone. Then I'll pack my bags, racing down that highway to you, my baby. It won't be long, you see, I'm on my way, my way back to you. kept away for a rainy day. The tide is rising and the sun sets your fears burning, but those winds keep rolling and the sea waves Your veil will lift, your eyes will awaken to another day. Nothing can come between me now and where I want to be. Take one last look before I'm gone and I'm Running free. See, sometimes it takes a heavy load, a broken heart with nowhere to go, to break this mold that you've been living in. Now I'm on my way, my way back, my way back to you.

Thank you very much.

Beautiful. Beautiful. And David Henry Pipe says, "Oh, I do recognize this one. You're going to produce a few tears in the audience with that, Dan." So that was beautiful. Thank you so much, Dan. You did a great job today. I really loved hearing your music.

I really enjoyed it.

Thank you.

And as always, your family is just— does a terrific job, your mom and your dad. And you have a brother as well too, don't you?

Yeah, Lee.

He plays classical guitar. He's a really good player. And he has features in a lot of Aston Family shows, he has performed on the Plus before. So yeah, hopefully he'll be out again when we get another Aston Family show together.

Love to get him in. Phil, we're losing Dan's voice on that a little.

Can you hear me?

I can barely hear you.

I think you have to fade it down or something there.

There we go. That's better. OK. OK. And what does Lee play?

He plays— He does electric guitar as well, but classical guitar is really his main forte. So yeah, as I was saying, he's been on the Aston Family Show. And he's performed at other places on Google+ as well, hasn't he? What else? Yeah, the School of Rock stuff that happens on Google+. He's been playing on there.

I'd love to hear him play. We'll have to talk to him to come on too.

Yeah, definitely.

I love music. It's just a wonderful thing.

I think it's amazing that so much talent is locked up in one family. Fantastic. And Sebastian can cook buns as well. How about that?

We've been talking about her rock buns, but we won't do that with you. That would just be wrong. So Dan, when are you going to be appearing next, or what do you have coming up for us, or where can we look for you and find out? Where people can find your music?

Well, my website is danaston.com. All the latest news is up there. And you can find me on Facebook as well, Dan Aston Music. I'm playing a festival next weekend, Looe Music Festival in Cornwall, which is the second biggest festival in Cornwall. So I'm really looking forward to that. And then after that, I'm going to be arranging a solo Google+ show and probably a release show for my first single that's going to be coming out, Lemonade Sea. Stay tuned for that.

And will we be able to get that single anywhere once it's out?

Once it's out, it'll be on everywhere— iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Bandcamp. My debut EP, Way Home, is out everywhere as well on iTunes. Just go to my website for links for that, or just search Dan Aston in iTunes.

Very good. Well, thank you again. And time it, let me know when your show is so I can make sure to show up for it and watch and push it a little for you. And Kath, we got you here today, and thank you so much. And now let everybody know what you have coming up or where we can find you or—

Okay, I— well, my company is Strategy Digital, so you can find me either at Strategy Digital, the page, or Kath Dawson on Google+. Not so much on Twitter, I have to say, although with the Academy stuff, I can't wait for the Academy Level 3 to start because I really enjoyed that, and I found that that kind of pushed me out into some other social networks, LinkedIn and Twitter, and made loads of connections there. So yeah, really looking forward to the Academy. I've been working on an ebook. Oh boy, is that an experience. Really good fun. And so I'm hoping to get that out next week. And that's about the benefits of Google+, which I know you guys are already on board with. But this is really to help other people, our prospects and our clients, to understand the value in Google+. So I also got really carried away with the Hangout section. So there's all the different kinds of Hangouts. And you're in there as well, as is the Aston family. So last thing is we're going to be at eCommerce Expo in London. So if anybody's at that show and wants to come along and say hi, it would be great to see them there. Final shoutout is for the Great British Hangout, of course, which hopefully will have a show coming up very soon. And we'll be putting out an announcement on that, so everybody's welcome to come along and join in.

Very good. Okay, and Maggie, what do you have going on? Anything new coming up? You're muted.

Sorry.

You know, just look at my blog, just check out my blog, mommaggieskitchen.com. I lied. Playing with my Twee dolls.

We'll have to get you some dolls from other countries.

Wait, what's that now?

We'll have to get you some dolls from other countries now.

Yes! And we can just have an ongoing, you know, India, China.

I love it.

Let's do it.

Get some Russian dolls. That'll keep you going.

Oh, let's not go there. That's when I start reviewing vodka. Oh boy, yeah.

Okay, so we'll look for you on your website and your posts on Google+ as well.

Yes, thank you.

And Peter, where can we find you and anything new you have coming up?

Well, you can find my website, it's www.crackingmedia.com. I'm on Google+ as Peter Lunn and also Cracking Media is the page. Well, like Cass said, we've got a Great British Hangout being planned. And this weekend I'm off to support my local football team, which is called AFC Bournemouth. We're in the Championship, in the second tier, essentially, of the soccer or the football league. So that's going to be good. So yeah, it's something I do with my son. We have season ticket holders, so we go to all the home games. There's a home game tomorrow, so looking forward to that.

Cracking media.

Cracking media, like cracking an egg.

I love it.

Oh, that's great. So thank you all for being on today. We had a great time. And all of you that stopped by to watch, thank you so much. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your time and get out there and do something fun while the weather's still holding. And we'll see you all real soon. So have a good day on Google+, my friends.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

Cheerio.