Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? »

Singer, songwriter, and entertainer Christine Lavin has released 20 solo albums and eight compilations. She has garnered eight ASCAP Awards and was the founder of the performing folk collective Four Bitchin Babes. Her songs are performed by artists including Sutton Foster and have been featured in Off Broadway and touring productions. She created and currently hosts Slipped Discs on XM/Sirius Radio s The Village.

Her biography, like her life, is a work of art. So says singer/songwriter Janis Ian about Christine Lavin and her book Cold Pizza for Breakfast: A Mem-wha?? In this book, and now audiobook, Lavin recounts her circuitous, often hilarious route to becoming one of contemporary folk music s most respected and beloved songwriters and performers. From Lincoln Center and other New York hot spots to theaters, music halls, and coffeehouses across North America and beyond, life on the road has defined Lavin s life and music. If she lacked a master plan, she had the heart and chutzpah to keep moving and noting carefully what she saw of human nature along the way. It paid off. Her laser-sharp wit and perceptive irony produced a body of song, and now a book, that captures her life and touches our own (foibles included).

Christine s 14-hour audiobook also includes a foreword written and read by actor and singer-songwriter Jeff Daniels; two brand-new verses of the classic song It Was a Very Good Year, sung by its author, Ervin Drake; and a cappella bookmarks performed by The Accidentals.

As Christine reads her lively tales, she occasionally picks up her guitar and sings to illustrate a point. Join her on this memorable and fun-filled journey and learn some of the most beloved talents in music, stage and screen. As Dirty Linen magazine puts it: Christine Lavin is a storyteller par excellence. She can take the most trivial encounter and spin it into gold, exposing the heart of the matter with humor and grace.

Foreword vii

Preface viii

1 I'm Trying to Blind You All Equally 1

2 Law & Order Gives a Shout-Out to Pete Seeger 8

3 Piglet Meets Joe Namath 17

4 The Catholic Church Introduces Me to My First Illegal Beer, and TV Introduces Me to the Smothers Brothers 25

5 And the Award Goes to…This Year There Is No Winner 37

6 Damaged Goods 43

7 I Wonder Whose Underwear She's Wearing Now 51

8 So You Want to Be a Pirate 60

9 Are You a Real Girl? 68

10 Fate Finds a Way 86

11 $250 for a Set of Guitar Strings 106

12 Nobody's Fat in Aspen 120

1 What Was I Thinking? 128

14 Stupidly Crappy Mind-Numbing Music Business Disappointments 149

15 An Angel Sent by God 167

16 Crystal the Psychic Follcsinger 174

17 Speakeasy/Fast Folk 181

18 Oh… C—Eh? N—Eh? D—Eh? 192

19 In Search of Dame Edna 212

20 The Birth of the Four Bitchin' Babesp 225

21 Yeah, I'm Always the First One You Think of If She's Busy 249

22 That Part Is True. The Rest I Made Up 256

23 Dame Edna Arrives 274

24 Fallout 286

25 If I Didn't Have to Play Guitar Right Now, I'd Be Knitting, Too 298

26 Ervin Drake 308

27 Jim Caruso's Cast Party at Birdland 322

28 Gettin' Used to Leavin' 353

Thank You! I Apologize! 366

Appendix 1 Christine Lavin Complete Discography 368

Appendix 2 1,000 Terrific Recordings I Have Played on the Radio 377

Appendix 3 Steve Wozniak: Guest DJ on a Segway 389

Index 391