2 Dance rooms w/ DJ's Detonator (Quarantine), Eric Dead, Tony X, Job Leatherette, Adam XVI, and Reanimator spinning Minimal-Elektronik-Synth-Wave-Goth-Deathrock-Industrial etc...

18+!!!

All data seems to indicate that this planet is going to be uninhabitable by 2012. Jack van Impe says it's a good thing. Jesus is going to take charge.

    I, for one, don't plan on hanging around. I honestly heard that the Bush administration set aside billions of dollars for some project in Antarctica. I can't remember where I heard it or any specifics but my theory is that global warming will soon cause a major disaster. Sea levels will rise causing hordes of displaced, massive, occasionally cannibal Samoan and Maori populations to invade the continent-dwellers' homes- eating the skinny first and saving the chubby for last. The rich and powerful will retreat to the newly tropical Antarctica Maximum Security New Eden Colony like monks in the Dark Ages whilst those of us who've survived work the sand mines of the wastelands, occasionally fending off bands of marauders.

Halt! You have violated New Eden's borders.                                  "Give us the sand and we may let you live!"

Amoeba Music & Phil Blankenship present

Saturday Dec. 1

25th Anniversary Screening!

Slumber Party Massacre

New Beverly Cinema
7165 W Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(323) 938-4038
Midnight, $7

Tell your friends!

Posted at the request of Hiland. Skip ahead to the halfway point where Hiland says it gets "really good".

 

Lightning Video LA9909

Most of this week I have been listening to the new EP Ask Forgiveness by Bonnie Prince Billy, just repeating it over and over.  It features 7 covers and one new original.


The best tracks are the Danzig cover "Am I Demon", and the Phil Ochs cover "My Life".  Yeah, there's an R. Kelly cover on there too, of "The World's Greatest", and it's funny and semi ironic and all, but I like other stuff on the cd much better. 

Bonnie Prince Billy is always both covering and writing songs about identity and struggling with that whole thing! Previous tracks "Little Boy Blue" and "Wolf Among Wolves" both are about those kind of issues.  Anyway, the Danzig track is slow and pretty and asks "Am I Demon?/I need to know".  We all get the somewhat resigned answer by the end of the song. I love when BPB ends the phrases by singing waaay up high.  It's lovely.  It's fun to hear a song about demons that's all folky and acoustic and not screamed! 

I'm a fan of Phil Ochs (See the name of my blog!), and it's great to hear someone like BPB covering him since he was such a talent and so brilliant and cutting.  His lyrics are better than about 90% of everyone else's, give or take a few percentage points, of course.  Anyway, "My Life" is a beautiful choice, and I guess it's yet another song about identity, about what life means and changes and paranoia and growing up.  I guess it covers a lot of ground!  It's really a poem:

Lately I've been digging in the crates, listening to a lot of hip-hop from the years 1990 - 1993 - a time when there was a lot of good stuff coming out. It was part of hip-hop's 'golden era' after all - of which some of the releases sound as good today as they did  then, while others sound even better in retrospect.

Case in point is the amazing 1991 self-titled debut from Organized Konfusion on Hollywood Basic. Wow! It is so good!  Which is why it is held dear to so many hip-hop heads today. It is truly a classic.  And people recognized that at the time - critics at least, although the public didn't make it a commercial hit by any means.  Although as the years progress the album gains more and more accolades.

Organized Konfusion was the talented duo of Pharoahe Monch and Prince Po who also produced this classic debut. When they started out Monch was the beatboxer Po the main rapper but with the undeniable superior lyrical talents he possessed he soon moved to center stage mic to shine - as evident throughout this amazing collection. My personal favorite tracks are Open Your Eyes Fudge Pudge, Walk Into The Sun, Releasing Hypnotical Gases, Audience Pleasers, Prisoners of War, Organized Konfusion, and the single Who Stole the Last Piece of Chicken (see video above).

And listening back to the album all the way through several times in a row was so rewarding and enjoyable for several reasons. One is that unlike some other great hip hop groups from that era (Tribe, Gang Starr, etc) Organized Konfusion havent been played to death. Another enjoyable factor of this album is that it just focuses on the talents of the two members. Its not weighed down with a million guests and crew members coming up - like so many albums tend to be.  In fact the only guest here is O.C. (DITC) who makes a cameo on the single "Fudge Pudge."

Perhaps the holiday season has already taken something of a toll on my psyche, (though I do little shopping and I’m more or less done), I’m feeling a tad bit overwhelmed these last few days. I think it’s mostly due to the fact that my trusted computer is in the shop for some repairs, as is my guitar amp … and I think every electronic gadget I own. And on top of that, someone hacked into my own Myspace account. And today a plumber is suppose to show up and take care of a few problems we have here at the old homestead, but how often do plumbers actually show up on the day scheduled, and on time? I should perhaps lighten the mood, quit the blather - or just step boldly forth and augment the blather, and mention that I’m really fond of old school fear inducing literature on subjects like culture shock and modern paranoia, media paranoia, ("the medium is the message") … (my personal favorite faux-cultural-analytical phrase: “media derived fantasies”), conspiratorial governments, and discourses on the mechanization of middle class culture on their efforts to mute class … basically anything on the spooky-spooky future. I’ll just quote some Alvin Toffler here and put up a pretty picture of a galactic spiral. I’ll feel better. Hey, I do feel better!

"Man has a limited biological capacity for change. When this capacity is overwhelmed, the capacity is in future shock."

In short the definition of future shock is a personal sensitivity to "too much change in too short a period of time". I think Toffler is speaking to me directly, and that’s not a good sign!

I recently came across one of Toffler’s old books in a thrift store, The Third Wave. I glanced through it, and it’s not as richly paranoid as I would like it to be- I need more suspicion. If I was on my own computer, I could just click over to some eerie bookmarked pages, and just settle in with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea. There is a crumb of comfort there, don’t know why, but on some of these sites I find just enough soothing reassurance that whatever the hell is going on, seems to keep right on going on. It’s a disquieting assurance, yes, but it’s consistent, besides you know in this day and age you grab whatever peace you can find, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now ... here's looking at you kid.  

This Thanksgiving I went to Las Vegas to visit my parents. They are now retired and living with the vast number of seniors who have ventured to the desert for the cheap housing, warmer weather and of course, the gambling. There is nothing Vegas likes more than getting those social security checks deposited straight into a slot machine. Coincidently my annual visit has fallen on the Thanksgiving holiday. In fact, I don’t like the holiday. First off, to me, celebrating Thanksgiving is to celebrate the genocide of all the indigenous people of the Americas and much like Columbus Day, it is one of my most loathed holidays. Still, what are you going to tell your parents when they invite you to their home for Thanksgiving dinner? “No Mom, no Dad, I refuse to celebrate with you because this holiday celebrates the rape, murder and the stealing of the land of indigenous people like you and me?” However, my ideals are often compromised by the love of my parents. They will win every time.



I remember when they were looking to buy the house they live in now a couple of years back. I drove with my mother to Vegas to check out the house. I remember walking into the place and thinking how “faaabulous” the house was. The owners weren’t there, but because of the numerous naked Greco-Roman statues, posters of Broadway musicals and the abundance of I Love Lucy show memorabilia, I had concluded that the house belonged to an older gay couple. Then there was the backyard. Rome suddenly turned into Martin Denny’s Quiet Village, complete with faux Polynesian totem poles, tropical plants and Tiki torches. My mother, on the other hand, was clueless.



After a quick look through the house, I asked my mother,

“ Are the owners of the house an older gay couple?”
She looked at me like I was crazy.
“No” she replied. “I met the husband the first time I came to see the house. He said he had a partner.”
I looked at her like, “And…”
She continued. “Yeah, and he had a cute dog too.”
“What kind of dog was it” I had to ask.
“A white poodle”

I saw this documentary with Chaz. It's a documentary wherein director Oded Lotan explores the topic of male circumcision. Whereas female circumcision is an almost universally vilified procedure, one in five males in the world is circumcised the film tells us. The reasons given are usually the same:  To maintain the status quo, hygiene, aesthetics, health, tradition, to fit in, religion/kicks.


It's told in sort  of a contrived fairy tale structure with narration and whimsical cartoons which I found a bit annoying but I could imagine the more whimsically-inclined enjoying. Lotan attempts to track down both his Mohel and his estranged foreskin. In the process he engages his uncircumcised boyfriend, his mother, an adult Russian immigrant who undergoes the surgery to feel more whole, a seven year old Muslim kid with little idea what "becoming a man" entails and a group of Jews vehemently opposed to this strangely anachronistic and (more strangely) run-of-the-mill ritual.

 
Lotan presents compelling arguments. As a gay Jew, he still doesn't fit in even without his foreskin so why is it that his not-especially religious mother thought that penile similarity would ensure his acceptance in a society that probably never knows what his penis looks like unless speedos are popular in Israel. Why not get him a nose job or gender reassignment? Maybe remove some moles and birthmarks too.

5 POPULAR WAYS TO BYPASS TOUCH TONE PHONE MENUS:

1) Press 0 at each prompt, ignoring messages.
2) Say "operator" at each prompt, ignoring messages.
3) Don't press or say anything
4) Say "agent" at each prompt
5) Say fuck, shit, or bitch




 
Foolishly I assumed making a few calls, as I did earlier today, to AT&T, B.O.A., and  EBMUD wouldn't take but a few minutes or be too difficult a task - especially since I am  "a valued customer" with each company. But that privelage today or anyday never seems to shorten the time wasted on the phone trying to bypass  some automated voice options just to get to talk to a human at a company that already has my business.

People tend to forget that getting directly through to an actual person when you pick up the phone used to be a given in customer service. But not in these high-tech but low-overhead, outsourcing times when, most companies would rather you do everything automated online and not put them through the expense of hiring actual humans. Hence when you try to call up to talk to a person it is rarely a simple task. Usually it is like entering a voice system obstacle course - one that's gonna take time and bit of wit and a lot of patience.

The pre-programmed voice (often a woman's) on automated phone systems will do all it can to waste your time before (if ever) it lets you talk to that elusive human voice on the phone.  It will suggest you press certain buttons. It will assault you with an arsenal of  (seemingly) pertinent questions. And, guaranteed,  it will always remind you about the company's website. Did you know you could save 5% on your monthly bill just by registering online? In other words. Get off the goddam phone - But the ever professional sounding automated voice will never use those exact words. since it  "really values your business."

Brad and I went to see I'm Not There this weekend and we loved it.  He covered the Todd Haynes territory in this blog he posted earlier this week, but I thought I should chime in a little since I'm a big Dylan fan.

The movie is very stream of consciousness, kinda like most Dylan songs.  If you have not seen it yet, please don't go to the theater expecting something easily followed, with a traditional narrative storyline, cause it's not like that at all.  In fact, that was one of the reasons I really liked the film-- it was different and unafraid to be so.  Throughout the film I wondered what others in the theater were making of the movie, and I wondered esp what those who may not be big fans of Dylan were thinking.  It seems like it would be pretty hard to follow if you didn't know much about him.  Dylan has always avoided being concretely characterized or pinned down by anyone or anything, and it was so cool to see someone as fantastic as Todd Haynes working within that fact and making it into something creative instead of trying to create a typical biopic.

There are 6 different actors each portraying a different aspect or period of Dylan's life.  Cate Blanchett has been getting all the press for this film it seems, and she deserves it-- she's brilliant!  All the details in the movie were just perfection-- it's obvious that Todd Haynes did a heck of a lot of homework to make this film happen.  I have to admit sometimes I thought it was weird to recreate scenes from his life or to take things that have happened and refashion them when this really is about a real person, but overall I was willing to suspend my belief and just go with the film as another piece of art.

What I find surprising about this year is that there have been tons of great releases out throughout the year. I have not liked this many albums in one year in a very long time. Yet there seems to be nothing coming out this holiday season. There are still tons and tons of great albums out there. Thousands of great albums from years past. But just not much new out right now. So I have been trying to use this time wisely. I have been going back in time lately and discovering old albums from decades past. But I have also been spending this extra time catching up on all the great albums that came out this year. I am obsessed with that new Sally Shapiro album "Disco Romance" right now. It is the funnest album out this year since Lily Allen. Sort of like a more modern version of Stacey Q. Like a mix of all the great and fun things about 80's electro and freestyle. But still sort of relevant and exciting. I also am a bit obsessed with Pelle Carlberg. His latest album "In A Nutshell" came out about six  months ago but I just found the time to give it a proper listen. And now I can't stop. It really is brilliant. Both Sally Shapiro and Pelle Carlberg are from Sweden. I guess it is just a coincidence. But maybe not. Two of my other favorite albums of the year also come from Sweden. "Night Falls Over Kortedala" by Jens Lekman and "West Coast" by Studio both come from the land of Sweden. Jose Gonzalez is also from Sweden and I am also in love with his album this year "In Our Nature." The Shout Out Louds are from Sweden as well. What is going on this year. Sweden is taking over my life. The Knife and Love Is All are also from Sweden and they both had two of my favorite albums from last year. And I always had a special place in my heart for ABBA. But I never really thought much about Sweden until this year when I started realizing all my favorite albums were from Sweden. So don't get too depressed if you don't think there are any good albums out this month. There are plenty of albums for you to catch up on. You can just spend a couple months getting to know all the great music coming out of Sweden alone. There are also two brilliant albums out recently on Italians Do It Better. Both "Night Drive" by the Chromatics and "Beatbox" by Glass Candy are absolutely fantastic. You will not be able to stop listening to them once you stop.

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter ...
                                                                                                                 Francis Thompson

A misfit Catholic from a time and a place where just being Catholic made you a misfit, Francis Thompson lived a down and out life in London's late 1800's.   An opium addict, failed doctor and failed priest who found his savior in many forms, down many an odd avenue, his story is simply fascinating.  He died Nov 13th 1907 from TB, his later years spent nursing himself after  the disappearance of his muse and savior, a prostitute who had been housing and supporting him.

 

Continue reading

What is it about that song, Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond that people like so much?  Because people really do like that song.  I've seen many the person (despite  whatever their core musical preference might be) just let loose and howl along with those well worn lyrics: "Where it began, I can't begin to know when...touching me, touching you." 

You'll hear em sing along with Sweet Caroline at parties and in bars. You'll even join in. I just heard it the other day at a Thanksgiving party in the Mission with everyone cheerily chanting along.  And you always hear "Sweet Caroline" in sports stadiums - mainly the Boston Red Sox fans at Fenway stadium games (see/hear clip below).  It's also played at New York Rangers' hockey games, as well as numerous other games/teams.

The song has been a part of popular music and culture since it was first released as a single in September    1969 when it went to #4 on the Top 40 charts and sold a million copies. Since then it has continued to sell (most people get it on one of the Neil Diamond hits packages) and of course Neil has continued to perform it. 

Earlier this year Diamond performed the song for Caroline Kennedy at her 50th birthday celebration. She was the inspiration for the song, he said in an interview this year.

 Sweet Caroline has also been featured in many movies including in the 2001 film "Saving Silverman" with Jack Black, Amanda Peet, and Steve Zahn. The film, about fanatical Neil fans, features a cameo from Diamond himself

Continue reading

Another round of price tags for all ov you...Now, my wife has told me stories of buying jelly shoes @ Zody's in the early 80's and our good friend Rubin who heads Amoeba Hollywood classical dept once managed the Wherehouse on El Cajon Blvd (the original one @ Choctaw) ...the same one a young Chadwick would frequent during Rubin's stint there in the late 70's & early 80's...I lived half a block away and I can still remember the Donna Summer "Cats Without Claws" window display (I was 9, do the math), but I doubt that Rubin actually had much to do with the Disco-pop window displays. In fact within 5 blocks I also had a killer Tower (oh god, my first Madonna and Prince records...I also bought the X rated Girls on film VHS there too) and San Diego's legendary, original "Off the Record" (At which I later got my start in this Record business) ... I guess I was kinda born into the business...also within those 5 blocks were the discount movie theater I snuck into to see Purple Rain, my favorite Arcade of all time (where I mastered Space Ace & Atlantis), a huge Chuck E Cheese, Bob's Big Boy, 3 used music gear stores, the Drive-in that I saw Outland at (when I was 6, again do the math) and two other great used LP stores that, along with a Music Plus, popped up in the late 80's...

FYI- everything listed above is now gone....

Although, I think that they do have a golds gym & a rite aid in the area now...

OK, anyone with stories about these fine establishments or any of the others I've pictured here, please let us hear it.  Where and what was Quonset Hut???

Genesis Home Video GV 31

Genesis Home Video GV 19

You think people get crazy around here the day after Thanksgiving; check out this shopping frenzy in the UK last January. A cargo ship, the MSC Napoli, ran aground about a mile from the town of Branscombe, dumping more then 200 containers into the ocean. And what a bonanza on the beach, (if you didn’t mind the accompanying chemical and oil spill), some barrels were filled with perfume and wine, while others contained battery acid!  Some of the larger cargo containers held BMW cars, motorcycles, auto parts, tractors, bags of dog food, weird bric-a-brac and bales of wool. Police tried to close the beach to prevent crowds from ransacking the containers and seeking to claim ‘salvage rights’, but by the time the local scavengers were finished, about £1million worth of ‘treasure’ was carted away to make a little seaside village an even more idyllic place to live, and shop. That is if you don’t mind the battery acid killing off the local sea life …

                           

    The beach on the secluded rural, former hippie, Marin County oceanside town of Bolinas, CA (about an hour north of SF)  is the perhaps the last place where you would expect to greeted by a huge bright display of graffiti. But you are. Lots of it and other public art too. The type of art and graffiti on the walls nearby and along the beach at Bolinas (popular with surfers) varies in both style and quality. Most seems passionately painted, and obviously inspired by the unqiue picturesque setting that the art is created in. Mostly done on the walls it's occasionally - like above - on fallen  or washed up tree trunks.   There's a lot big graf pieces and also lots of small illustrations and tags and images. and paintings. There's even a wall of painted poetry and stoner and surfer doodles. But mainly it's large graffiiti style pieces on the wall along the beach thrown up - not at night but in the daytime and without apparent fear from authorities - unlike in the city where graf artists risk been arrested (as felons) at any moment.

 Below is a group of graf artists working openly with all their spray cans out by one the beach's walls on a Sunday afternoon earlier this year when most of the pics in this AMOEBLOG (part two) were taken. 
According to some artists the lifespan of pieces along the windswept ocean beach (with salt air) is much shorter than usual and hence many pieces are frequently painted over.  What I think makes the art along the beach at Bolinas so cool is the most unique setting that it is so fortunate to occupy - a relaxed open space on a great beach with lush green hills towering behind - ideal for creating art of any kind!

CBS / Fox Video 6127-30

Vestron Video 5188

Vestron Video VA5117

Although I recently posted about seeing Morrissey shopping in our own store, music-wise I have to admit I am completely late to the Morrissey game.  It's a bit scary to admit this amongst the musically literate crowd I hang within, but what the hell. 

It seems like I am just a little too young to have caught on to The Smiths, his earlier band, or to have heard any more of him than the single "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get" on the radio in 1994.  In high school, when kids a few years older than me were clinging to their Morrissey CDs with dour faces, I was still bopping to The Beatles.  I guess I wasn't ready for it yet.  Fast forward to just a couple of years ago, and Morrissey suddenly had a new surge in popularity among the hipster crowd. At that point, I had well heard of The Moz, as he is known in certain circles, but this new over- the- top hipster cred popularity he had gained turned me off and I still never got around to listening to his music.

Finally, this last week I have picked up a Morrissey CD-- Your Arsenal (1992)-- and listened.  One very strong sign of a great CD is when it's still very new to you but you can't get the songs out of your head and they seem to be following you around constantly -- when you lay your head on the pillow at night, when you are out grocery shopping, or waiting on the train.  This happened to me with Your Arsenal almost immediately.  One other thing that is exciting about Morrissey is how funny his music is!  I love that about him! What took me so long to embrace his music? One of the songs on Your Arsenal that is a favorite is entitled "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful".  Another fave is "You're the One For Me, Fatty".  His sense of humor is so dry I'm never quite sure if he's serious or not, but the fact that he's British cues me in to the fact that he's probably just being silly -- I believe we call that "tongue in cheek".  And how refreshing is that? -- silly, sad songs of yearning and intelligence.  I do see why all those dour high school kids saw Morrissey as the second coming.  I know everyone else figured this out over a decade ago, maybe even longer, but I am just a little bit slow here!  It's all kind of new to me.  Still, I am glad I have waited until it felt right to me to listen.  I think I'm going to end up listening a bunch more.  Maybe I will finally catch up to the rest of you!
 

Have you ever felt like someone stole your dream life before you even got a chance to pursue it?  That's how I feel every time I think about Cameron Crowe.  He's a writer, first of all, and a fine one at that, but he also directs and produces. Three of my favorites he's created are Say Anything (writer), Jerry Maguire (writer/director/producer), and Almost Famous (writer/director/producer). 

Say Anything is so cutting, hilarious and real, my friends and I still quote it on a daily basis, even though it came out back in 1989. (Among the most quotable moments: "Joe lies/When he cries".) It's a first love movie about the high school valedictorian and a schlumpy trench coat guy, and it's how so many of us fell in love with John Cusack.  The thing that I like so much about Crowe's writing is that he's both honest and tender.  It takes guts to be either of those things in Hollywood.  The characters he creates are true to life-- they are flawed but lovable. 

Continue reading

The following excerpt comes courtesy of AlterNet and TruthOut.Org, thanks to a link from Amoeba Marc who first spotted this engrossing and unsettling, yet must-read interview first posted a couple of days ago - with Naomi Wolf, author of the book The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot - whose title gives you an idea what to expect. Below is just some key excerpts. For the full interview  with AlterNet's Don Hazen click on truthout.org's website. or read just the bits below, especially if you already have major concerns or worries over democracy and the state of the USA  today.


_______________________________________________________________________________
 
  If you think we are living in scary times, your worst fears may be confirmed by reading Naomi Wolf's newest book, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. In it, Wolf proves the old axiom that history does repeat itself. Or more accurately, history occurs in patterns, and in order to understand where our country is today and where it is headed, we need to read the history books.

    Wolf began by diving into the early years leading up to fascist regimes, like the ones led by Hitler and Mussolini. And the patterns that she found in those, and others all over the world, made her hair stand on end. In "The End of America," she lays out the 10 steps that dictators (or aspiring dictators) take in order to shut down an open society. "Each of those ten steps is now under way in the United States today," she writes.

Continue reading

Vestron Video VA5053

December 4, 1619. 38 Brits got together in Charles Cittie. Captain John Woodleaf spake,

"Wee ordaine that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty god."

    Wahunsenacawhk                          Matoaka                                                       John Rolfe

They had reason to give thanks after a rocky relations with the natives started to calm down. Previously, after Chief Wahunsenacawh's daughter Matoaka (nicknamed Pocahontas) married John Rolfe, relations between the two peoples had improved. In the spring, however; new leader Opechancanough's adviser and famed warrior/magician Nemattanew (derided as Jack of Feathers by the English for his feathered costume) was murdered by two Englishman disproving Nemattanew's claim that a magic oil made him immune to gunfire.

Opechananough

In revenge for the murder, the Powhatan Confederacy attacked the English, killing 347 (or roughly a third of the colonists) and taking 20 women as hostages. Opechancanough mistakenly thought the English would accept defeat and leave. Instead they retaliated and the Powhatan decided to negotiate. At what was meant to be a peace ceremony, the English (led by Captain William Tucker) served the Powhatan poisoned liquor (prepared by Dr. John Potts) which immediately killed about 200 of them whilst 50 more were killed by hand. Opechancanough escaped.

If you are one of those individuals who has an uncooked turkey, a ton of people coming over for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, but don't have a clue as to how to go about cooking the bird - coz you have never cooked a turkey before then the above basic how-to-cook a turkey with Chef Tom  should be of help. And if so  you may wish to check  out the first part in this simple how-to video guide by clicking here.

The other day I made a trip out to one of my favorite places in the world: the beach at Bolinas, CA - about an hour's drive from Oakland or San Francisco,  north of SF, just past Stinson Beach on the Pacific coastline - where the beach is beautiful, the surfers many, and the out-of-context yet unobtrusive graffiti along the beach aplenty as usual.  And as usual much of the graffiti & murals along the beach at Bolinas is influenced by its surroundings: IE images of surfers and sharks and birds - as you will see in some of the pics below - part one in this three part series.

Of course this was just the other day, meaning in these immediate post Bay oil spill days. And even though technically Bolinas was not closed off to the public for fear of oil contamination and even though surfers were out en masse, it was still not completely safe - especially for dogs without leashes as you will see from some of the signs below - although that didn't deter a couple of canines that I saw running freely (without leashes) along the Bolinas beach. One of the reasons it was unsafe for dogs was because oil-contaminated birds were still showing up on the beach.

Above and below are some of the warning images from the beach at Bolinas but mostly images of graffiti art (of all sizes and types)  along the beach walls and leading down to the beach - all taken the other day.

This is Part One in a three part series. Part Two in this series will be posted in a few days and Part Three (which will include more big graffiti pieces) in about a week.  Thanks for checking it!  And if you know of any remote rural spots in NorCal where you also unexpectedly find graffiti or murals please share in the COMMENTS box all the way down. 

THE WRIGHT STUFF @ The New Beverly – Dec 2nd - 17th

Just when you thought you couldn't get any more excited about Edgar Wright's festival at the New Beverly, we've come to blow your mind. The line up of Edgar's special guests are so incredibly awesome, you are going to thank us profusely for the best Christmas present you have ever received.

The following performances will feature introductions from Edgar and Q&A's with these special guests.

Dec 2nd 7.30pm – Bugsy Malone & Phantom of the Paradise

On the night of Dec 2nd , Edgar will start off the whole shebang with a very, very special guest. Not only the super talented composer of Bugsy Malone, but the star Phantom Of The Paradise, Mr. Paul Williams.

Yes, that's right, one of America's greatest songwriters will be in the house and talking to Edgar.

Also! December 2nd, at midnight is the Dangerous Business Secret Show, all are invited, and it's something you certainly won't want to miss!

Dec 5 – Flash Gordon & Danger Diabolik – 7.30pm

In attendance with Edgar will be everyone's favorite Flash nemesis, Prince Barin himself, Timothy Dalton.

Then Joe Dante will be helping Edgar introduce Mario Bava's cult classic Danger: Diabolik!

december 7 - The Last Boy Scout and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang – 7.30pm

In attendance with Edgar, the writer of Last Boy Scout and the writer / director of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, as well as countless other crime classics, Shane Black, will be in attendance!

Dec 10 – American Werewolf in London and Tremors – 7.30pm

You can't get much more brilliant than John Landis, and we've got him! The director of American Werewolf will be in here in person and in conversation with Edgar.

December 12 - Top Secret and Bananas – 7.30pm

In attendance with Edgar tonight, a very special guest. When it comes to comedy, the name Zucker ranks high on the list. It doesn't get much funnier than Top Secret, and it doesn't get much more exciting than a Q&A with David Zucker himself!

Question:  Do you own a television?  How about a DVD player?

If you answered "yes" to both questions, you have no excuses.  At your earliest convenience (which is probably now if you're just fucking around and reading this), go get Metalocalypse Season One and WATCH IT!!  Seriously.  But finish reading this first.

Perhaps you've heard of a little thing called Adult Swim?  It's the late night cartoon extravaganza which airs on Cartoon Network.  Such shows as Robot Chicken, Moral Orel and Aqua Teen Hunger Force, oh, but to name a few, have quickly become some of my favorite cartoons ever.  Check out this clip from Season Two of Robot Chicken:


That's some funny shit there. 

But I am here today to tell you about Metalocalypse, the best fucking show on TV.  Premiering last year, Metalocalypse centers around the exploits of the biggest, most metalest band in the world, Dethklok. 


William Murderface plays bass.  "No one in the world is full of more hatred than him.  And he hates no one more than he hates himself."  Skwisgaar Skwigelf is from Sweden, and plays guitar.  He is the fasted Guitarist alive.  Nathan Explosion is the "brutal vocalist and lyrical visionary of DETHKLOK."  Pickles the Drummer "became the world's most celebrated drummer after fronting LA rock band "Snakes and Barrels."  Toki Wartooth also plays guitar, and he is the second fastest Guitarist alive.

Good Times Home Video 4438

I could be sad. I could cry. I could holler and make a scene at the bus stop. I could pay for my new milk at the 7-11 all in pennies and nickels.

But NO. I do not have to resort to any of these slightly dangerous outlets!

Because I have Leslie and The Ly's ...



S o o p a  -  D a m n !

We are talking the #29 most watched video on YouTube this month. I FAINT!
How many views? Almost half a million souls have been HEALED by this Queen.
You go on and spoil ya-damn-self!  Watch 'em all and be cured.


---------- The Insomniac

For your viewing pleasure... a random Columbia Records label gallery.                I've included parent company CBS & subsidiaries...


A beautiful trio of Import labels. 
The gray is French, Blue is Australian,
the Silver & Green is British...

         





































Six Eye White Label Promo, an absolute classic design...followed by two more WLP for Roadshow & Just Sunshine imprints...

Also out today (November 20th, 2007) on DVD  is the complete sketch comedy TV series from the ever hilarious Brit comedy duo of Matt Lucas and David Walliams, who make up and produce the best new comedy show from the other side of the pond in recent years - Little Britain.

This is the complete collection of the series in a nice box set of DVDs which maybe you have seen some of already on BBC America or else  on DVD already (it has been available in individual series before). If so you already know just how crazy and downright hilarious this show can be.  And this box set also includes a live concert.

True, it may take a minute to get into some of the characters or another minute to fully understand their sometimes thick UK accents, but once you do you will be hooked and won't be able to stop imitating these silly silly British wits.  It is hard - and sort of unnecessary to describe - but basically the plot of the show - which was based on a radio series - is that it takes an inside look at some of the strange yet very intruging and curious characters that inhabit them there British Isles.

 Below are some clips to better give you an idea of what to expect from Little Britain which you should find in the DVD sections at all three Amoeba Music stores. Ask for help if you cannot find it:





 



 
   

Rhino has finally decided to put out a special box set just for me. If I could imagine up any box set to best describe me and capture my little world of music, it would look something like this new brilliant box set released today by Rhino. The new "Brit Box" is a 4 cd set of the british music from the 80's and 90's that made me who I am. I have many mix tapes that resemble a lot of what is included in this box. Some of them made by me and many made by friends. I can remember the exact moment that I heard some of the songs on this box for the first time. The exact moment that I went to a record store in search of the albums from these artists. There are 78 songs by 78 different artists in this box.

The box is officially called "The Brit Box: U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit Pop Gems of the Last Millennium." It really looks awesome. The box is shaped like one of those red telephone booths in England. I have never seen one up close but we all know what they look like. It even has a working light. It also comes with an 80 page book of interviews and photos. It includes essays by Alan Mcgee, Stephen Street, and Alan Moulder. It drives me a little crazy when box sets or collections have a random order to the track listing. So it made me happy to see that the tracks are all in a basic order. The box set is not perfect. But it comes really close. I own or have owned at one point almost all of the songs in this box. If I didn't own one of the albums that all these songs were on, then I definitely had a close friend that did. I might have picked a couple different songs for some of these artists and I probably would have included a couple more artists. But overall, the box is very impressive. I really can't wait to open one up and read all those interviews and stories in that fancy little booklet. And I can not wait to listen to all these songs again. I have never stopped listening to most of the bands in this box. The Smiths, Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, The Stone Roses, Lush, Suede, Blur, & Pulp remain some of my favorite bands. It is really hard to even put into words the lasting effect that these bands have had on me and on a whole generation of music fans.

The title of  prolific modern artist Ron English's book "Son of Pop - Ron English Paints His Progeny"  pretty much explains the content of his recommended  brand new 100-page, full color art book recently published by San Francisco's 9mm Books.  It is paintings, in the artist's usual  irreverent anti-corporate style (McDonalds and the tobacco industry being two of his favorite targets),  only using his two children  (Zephyr age 12 and Mars age 9 - aka "the Kiss kids") as his subjects.  For more information on the illustrious artist Ron English, who describes his work as "popaganda" and whose body of work and history is too long to go into here, I recommend you check out his website or pick up the documentary about him - also titled Popaganda.  Meantime  check out the selections of his art here and also read the interview he recently conducted with the AMOEBLOG about the new book "Son Of Pop" which also, note,  includes a mini, 4-song, CD featuring his same two kids singing such songs as Wesley Willis' "Rock and Roll McDonalds"

AMOEBLOG:  When exact;y were the paintings in "Son of Pop" made?                                                         

Warner Home Video 35424

Vestron Video VA4376

Perhaps the strangest thing about Raising Sand, the magical collaboration between fiddler/chanteuse Alison Krause and rock god Robert Plant, is how much of a leap each of them had to take to record it. For both, they claimed that the recording required them to step out of their usual bailiwicks-- bluegrass and rock-- and into other song realms. But when you consider that bluegrass and rock are all basically offshoots of folk and blues, how could the jump be that hard?

The answer lies in their innate musicianship. Each of them understands their respective genres so profoundly, that any skitter outside of the “box” involves for them all new landscapes of vocalizing, arranging, and experimentation. To the rest of us it just sounds like more great-American music.

The difference comes down to small things. Plant, who admitted never really singing harmony before, says the project was a whole new, and therefore intimidating, song structures and performed bits that she says she would never have chosen for herself. experience. And as for Krauss, she says that she stepped out of her normal Bluegrass

Em and I watched this documentary about depictions of Chinese in Hollywood film called ... Hollywood Chinese. I love observing how Hollywood deals with all races and ethnicities. Sometimes it's hilarious and sometimes it's pretty appalling and then there's the rare occasion on which it rings true which usually catches me by surprise. The development of an Asian-American Cinema has interesting similarities and differences with more often discussed and documented minority film genres like Black Cinema and Gay Cinema which sprang up to tap into markets Hollywood mostly ignored for decades. In the 1948 case of the U.S. vs Paramount, the government ruled against the studios and they were no longer allowed to control the studios, the distribution and the theaters and Hollywood opened up, to a degree, to the minorities which they'd systematically ignored up to that point.

 

In the Classic Hollywood era, Chinese women (like all Asians) were generally played by white actresses as shy, subservient innocents totally devoted to their white lovers. Chinese men were usually portrayed as cruel, buck-toothed, long-fingernailed mystics who delighted in tormenting the white heroes who'd fallen for their women. Or, they're depicted as simple, asexual, buck-toothed peasants who almost always wear a queue. Either way, it's only the women that are sexualized.

The Life of Reilly, Starring Charles Nelson Reilly, at the Lumiere!

Film version of one-man show by the late gay actor/director Charles Nelson Reilly best known for his "Match Game" appearances!

Showing at 7:30 9:15 at the Lumiere 1572 California Street at Polk

http://www.myspace.com/charlesnelsonreilly