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This Saturday is the first Saturday of the month and therefore, it is time once again for Amoeba Hollywood’s Auction, hosted by the inimitable Brently Heilbron.

Amoeba Auctions started as an on-going event to help raise money for the Gulf Coast Relief Efforts. Our auctions have included every conceivable kind of memorabilia from the entertainment world and beyond. Collectibles, promotional items, concert tickets, tour jackets, t-shirts, celebrity underwear, puzzles, toys and all kinds of swag that can make your heart go pitter-pat, have been won. And on top of that, Amoeba matches all individual donations and winning bids up to $1,000. Everybody is a winner!

There will of course be many interesting items to bid on this week, but we have one very special item to auction: An autographed copy of the classic comedy album, Weird Al Yankovic In 3-D.

Weird Al Yankovic was spotted in the Amoeba mezzanine perusing DVDs by yours truly. I mentioned it casually to Brently, who sprinted off as only a former track star and Texas State Champion can do, and I have to say Brently accosted Mr. Yankovic in the most courteous and polite manner I’ve ever seen. Weird Al gladly autographed the record even as we twisted one of his arms behind his back. Actually, he was incredibly gracious and happy to sign an album for the Amoeba Auction, personalizing it, “To the lucky highest bidder.” That can be you! Yes, you sitting at your computer! So come on down this Saturday March 1st @ 4PM. It's not everyday you get to bid on a rare chunk of vinyl, actually autographed by the artist as they shopped in Amoeba while at the same time helping the ongoing relief efforts for the Gulf Coast. Thanks, good luck and happy bidding.

Corrie
2.5 Years Employment
Register Mama


ME: What are you listening to these days?

CC: Neutral Milk Hotel, Vic Godard, Magnetic Fields, Iron Maiden and some Slayer have graced my headphones this week.

What's the best film you've seen this year?

CC: There Will Be Blood & Juno.

What song describes your life right now?

"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want "-The Smiths

Is there a song you think is perfect, start to finish?  That every time you listen to you wish you'd written?

"Wave of Mutilation" -The Pixies

That's a good pick! What is your favorite music-related film?

It's a 3 way tie between Help, Don't Look Back and Krush Groove.

Two of those are two of my absolute faves too!  So, in the grand scheme of life, it's probably an over-discussed topic, but what the heck:  name the best Radiohead album.

I'm a sucker for OK Computer-- it changed my life -- I mean, that's the one as far as I'm concerned-- but The Bends is AMAZING,and In Rainbows does not disappoint.

1980 saw the Casablanca release of Tony Joe White's The Real Thang album, which contained the amazing track "I Get Off On It", in which he discusses various individuals and their predilections--  junk food, trannys, trenchcoat flashers, bondage. Combine with a couple of other album highlights "Disco Blues" & the disco-ized version of "Even Trolls Love Rock and Roll", add copious amounts of cocaine and you've pretty much 'crystallized' the Casablanca Records story. 1980 was also the year that Polygram final squeezed Casablanca's founder out of the picture.  Neil Bogart went on to put together Boardwalk Entertainment, signing Joan Jett.  He also signed Get Wet -- if anyone out there knows what the Lou Reed connection is with them, please chime in. Anyhow, Mr. Bogart's body gave out on him 2 years later. 

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Maybe it’s the spring thaw, and not self-doubt. This muddle I seem to be writing about is in reality a torrent of mud and ice pushing me down hill. Why? Because it’s almost March, Easter is around the corner, (at least I hope so … I gave up television for Lent!). If winter is done, spring must be near. Perhaps, there isn't a fiasco-muddle-shamble going on here after all. Nor is there a voice telling me I’m in the middle of a crisis of faith. (Then again, there may be a voice telling me I’m not experiencing a crisis of faith). Alas! Maybe I should just put away the Edgar Allan Poe collection; his gloomy narcotic influence has been forcibly illustrated here repeatedly and is perhaps detrimental to your entertainment, dear reader. What am I suppose to do? Just write a straight forward description / history about the ephemeral nature of 45 sleeves! It might be said of this blog, blather written in babble -"blab la bla blab la bla"- It does not permit itself to be read! And why not? There are ideas which do not permit themselves to be thought out. Ideas die often in their infancy: wringing their sweaty little hands, furrowing their soft miniature brows, pushing away ghostly acknowledgments as quickly as possible, otherwise something bad might reveal itself, and then the idea ... expires. Now and then, the conscience of an idea takes up a burden so immense that it can only be thrown into some late night rant. And thus the essence of this blog is divulged. There you have it, thank you Mr. Poe!

The act of heckling performers has to be as old as time itself.  I'd bet even way back in the prehistoric, early days of mankind that whenever one cavemen got up to entertain his fellow cave dwellers that some neanderthal in the group would heckle him midway through his bit.

It just seems to be part of the human condition for those in the peanut gallery to feel the need and right to shout out their criticisms, even if unjustified, at those giving their all onstage. Those onstage include stage actors, musicians, comedians (perhaps the number one target of hecklers), and even politicians.  Additionally many self appointed critics have also been known to scream out their feelings at the movie screen, proving that heckling is meant as much for the benefit of fellow audience members as for the performer(s).

And even though it comes with the territory, especially for stand-up comedians, it has to be pretty tough for those up onstage, already performing a demanding draining job, to have some uninvited (often drunk) loud-mouthed bozo scream out his/her dissatisfaction with your performance.  For the rest of the audience, however, a heckler hounding a performer can often result in some entertaining interplay between the two parties. Of recent performer/heckler altercations, probably the one that first pops into most minds is the November 2006 incident at the Laugh Factory comedy club where Michael Richards (aka Seinfeld's Kramer) went off on a nasty tirade on some African American audience members (see below).  How he handled it is a textbook case of what not to do if you wish to remain active in showbiz, especially in these camera phone/YouTube digital days when every move is being documented to be later used against the respective parties.

RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video 91543

As a kid I grew up around Southern California’s custom car culture. My Dad did custom auto body, paint and design. He was constantly chopping, welding, re-chopping, re-welding, filling in some Bondo here, pounding out a dent, re-filling in some Bondo there, pounding out another fender, painting, taping off, re-painting, all performed on some innocent Detroit family car, transforming your average Ford or Chevy into some kind of mutant So-Cal testosterone by-product of too much sun and youth. The smell of Bondo, the polyester fiberglass resin used to fill in holes, is the smell that takes me back to my childhood!  I may just drive a ’97 Toyota, but my heart has always been wrapped around the 1934 Ford Roadster my Dad owned when I was a kid. There was, and is, nothing like cruising around town in a hot rod - the rumble of glass-packs, or the pure simple beauty of pin stripping or the swagger of flames painted across the polished curves of a vintage fender and hood.

West Coast custom car-building legend Boyd Coddington has died at the age of 63.  Coddington had been hospitalized during this past holiday season, but the cause of death has not yet been released.  Born in Rupert, Idaho, in 1944, Coddington started to build cars in his parents' garage as a teenager.  He became a machinist by trade, and at one point worked for Disneyland on the graveyard shift, but by day he would tinker in his home garage producing one car at a time. His designs soon captured the imagination and spirit of Southern Californian car-culture fans. Presently Coddington’s shop in La Habra, California has some 70 employees working in a 50,000 square foot facility which includes an in-house body and paint shop.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

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Saturday March 1

When the going gets tough... the tough take the law into their own hands.

Harley Davidson

& The Marlboro Man

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

Writer / Producer Don Michael Paul scheduled to present this rare screening of his action comedy cult classic!

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Upcoming:
Mar 8 Streets Of Fire
Mar 15 Can't Hardly Wait (10th Anniversary!)
Mar 29 The Funhouse

Modern music lost another great with the passing of rock and funk drummer (and sometime singer) Buddy Miles, best known as member/co-founder of  Band Of Gypsys with Jimi Hendrix,  who died yesterday (Feb 26th) at only 60 years of age.  So far a cause of death has not been announced.

During Miles' long career, in addition to Jimi Hendrix, he performed with such artists as George Clinton, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Barry White and David Bowie. Earlier on in his career, in his pre-Hendrix days, the young Omaha, Nebraska-born percussionist played with Wilson Pickett, Ruby and the Romantics, The Delfonics, and The Ink Spots.  A child prodigy, he initially played in his father's (George Sr.) band The Bebops.

But it was as musical collaborator with Jimi Hendrix that he truly made his artistic mark - first teaming up with the guitar legend in 1969 when Hendrix produced an album for the Buddy Miles Express. (Express followed the short lived band Electric Flag that he was in with Mike Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites.) The Hendrix collaboration led to Miles' drumming on Hendrix's Electric Ladyland and soon after officially joined Band Of Gypsys with bassist Billy Cox.

Band of Gypsys' self-titled album recorded live at New York's Fillmore East was their only release, but to this day it is considered to be one of the best live albums from that era in rock music. After Hendrix's death in September 1970, Miles continued to contribute to tracks by the late guitarist (posthumously constructed in the studio with Hendrix recordings). Many, many years later he and Billy Cox would regroup to record a live album (The Band of Gypsys Return), which was released two years ago.

I've been commissioned to write a blog about one of my favorite Canadian bands. As someone who spent a year and a half in rural Iowa with no friends and a satellite dish, I spent many Mountain Dew-fueled hours watching Much Music with the VCR remote in hand hoping to tape videos by the likes of the Dream Warriors, Zumpano, Leonard Cohen, Trans-X, Lime, Skinny Puppy, Frontline Assembly, or Eric's Trip whilst adroitly changing the channel within microseconds of a Bootsauce song's opening notes.



But there was one band who, I don't think, ever got any airtime on Much and will not likely ever be inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. That band is ...  Zit Remedy. They formed in 1985 and only recorded one song, "Everybody Wants Something" which they sold for 2 dollars (Canadian) which, echoing Peter Saville's costly New Order packaging for "Blue Monday," cost less than the blank tapes they were recorded on. There's a Zit Remedy website that does a good job of providing the biographical information for the seminal band. I will say that a bit of the information is wrong, or out of date. Anyone who keeps up with Degrassi knows that after Craig Manning's dad died, he formed a band Downtown Sasquatch with Spinner, Jimmy and Marco which practiced in... legendary Zit Remedy frontman Joey Jeremiah's garage. And he performed his song "What I Know" at the Degrassi Battle of the Bands as a sort of apology to Ashley Kerwin. So, obviously there's a lot of musical talent coming out of Degrassi. In fact, there's a wikipedia entry devoted to them.

Vestron VA5118

The early days of MTV were spent pushing bands and recording artists, as it was Music Television.  Here's some fine evidence of that time period and of the power of the M in 80's advertising...


The "Hip Clip" phenom of the mid 80's, precursor 90's and the "alternative" and "buzz" words...



 

I always get that depressed feeling the day after the Oscars. It is sort of like the day after you go to Disneyland or the day after you get back from a vacation. It feels like what I imagine some people would feel the day after the Super Bowl. Of course as soon as they are over, I start to look forward to next year. There are some absolutely horrible movies out right now. It is a rare day when there is nothing that I want to see in the theaters, but that will all change in a couple of weeks or so when some great and exciting movies start to come out again. Luckily the DVDs are still coming out to keep us busy during these sad days at the movie theaters. You can start to catch up on the great films of last year if you missed any of them. Michael Clayton came out last week. Into The Wild comes out next week. No Country For Old Men comes out March 11th. There Will Be Blood comes out in April.

There are also some TV shows on DVD to keep you busy. I was too young to watch the original Bob Newhart Show when it was originally on in the late 70s. I didn't start to appreciate the genius of that show until years later when I got to watch the reruns on Nick at Nite. But I did watch Newhart when it aired from 1982 to 1990. I did really love this show for some reason-- maybe this is why I have always wanted to open up my very own little hotel... or this is at least why I love to stay at hotels. The first season of Newhart gets its debut on DVD today. But just like we had to wait until Season 2 of Dynasty for the debut of Joan Collins, it was not until Season 2 of Newhart that the great Julia Duffy first appeared. She was without a doubt my favorite character on the show and I think she probably had the best lines. I was really obsessed with TV comedies back in the 80s. There were just so many great hilarious comedies on TV back then. I am still not really sure what happened, but the great comedies just simply don't exist anymore. Maybe my sense of humor changed-- but how can you really compare 2 & 1/2 Men and Reba to shows like Newhart and Family Ties?

As reported in the Sunday Fashion & Style section of The New York Times, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova got in a little shopping at Amoeba Music while in Hollywood, in the days leading up to the Oscars. The musicians/actors and stars of the Irish indie film Once,  won an Oscar last night in the Original Song category for the film's moving composition "Falling Slowly"  --  which they also performed live at the televised event (see clip below). 

The picture above, courtesy of the New York Times'  Emilio Flores, shows the couple shopping at Amoeba Music on Sunset where they reportedly spent time shopping for DVDs (Amoeba prices are way better than back home in Dublin) and talking to fans of the indie success film Once, fans who were pleasantly surprised to see its two stars in the aisles of Amoeba Music.

Personally I was so happy Once won because not only did I fall in love with the film when I first saw it last March, but I saw it under the best possible circumstances: on the big screen in Dublin, Ireland, not far from where much of the film was shot.  And I saw it with two of my favorite people, my dad and sister, who both loved it and its soundtrack as much I did-- so much so that the next day, inspired by the film, we decided to take a short drive south of the city to Killiney, to that beautiful location overlooking Dublin Bay and the Irish Sea where the two main characters in the movie go on their memorable motorbike ride.

Their website claims that the Coffee Table is Eagle Rock's hippest restaurant. So why would they go out of their way to ruin a good thing? Personally, I like Eagle Rock and The Coffee Table exactly the way it is, which is slightly awkward, a clientele of families, college professors, students from Occidental College and Zack De La Rocha. It's like a college town relic from the 90's. Walking in there for the first time you'd expect  to hear Nirvana and A Tribe Called Quest, followed by The Pixies. The food is relatively inexpensive compared to Hollywood's prices and it's plentiful. Also, the coffee is good. Can't name your restaurant The Coffee Table if your coffee sucks.

I sometimes come here on my days off for breakfast. During the week it is quiet enough to have a decent conversation with a friend without having to endure someone else's conversation right next to you. You're not going to hear stories of a screenplay or a record deal, nor are you going to see people that looked like they stepped out of the pages of Vice magazine. If you are into that, this place is not for you. In fact, stay as far away from Eagle Rock as much as you can. It's my day off, after all!

The Coffee Table would like to be hip, but its far from it. And that's the way I like it.

The Coffee Table Bistro
1958 Colorado Boulevard
Eagle Rock California. 
Open daily from 7 AM to 9:30 PM.

Alejandro Sanz, a pop singer from Spain, has a beef with Hugo Chavez.  It all started with comments Sanz made back in 2004 while on tour in Venezuela. During that time, opponents of Chavez circulated a petition signed by 3 million people that would force Chavez into another election, which Chavez at first resisted. Sanz, not a fan of Chavez because he felt that Chavez was against free speech, said, "If I were presented with 3 million signatures to stop me from singing, I'd stop singing." Chavez’s people, upon hearing his comments, created a website that they hoped they would get 3 million signatures to stop Sanz from ever singing again. It was joke, but for Sanz, it was mean-spirited attempt at humor. Soon afterwards, Sanz claimed that the government of officials harassed Sanz and his crew, making it impossible for Sanz to play in Venezuela by forcing hotels not to let him stay there, thus forcing promoters to cancel the dates.

To add to the fuel to the fire, during a show in Miami, Sanz wore a Venezuelan flag draped over his shoulders, then held up a shirt that was handed to him that said “Chavez Sucks.”  Soon that footage was all over the Internet, thanks to Youtube.



After a third attempt to play in Venezuela was canceled, a petition in support of Sanz started to circulate, only this time his support came from artists from all over the spectrum of Latin entertainment. Pop icons such as Shakira, Penélope Cruz and Jennifer Lopez; to conscious artists such Fito Paez and Joan Manuel Serrat, as well as conservatives Gloria Estefan and husband Emilio, all signed in support of Sanz.

Glad to see Ms. Cotillard get the serious nod; Esther and I thoroughly enjoyed her performance...In celebration of the award show buzz, here's a small gallery of award stickers...none of which are Oscar related...

Welp, I got 67% (that's 16 out of 24) right.  Red is for what I got right, and blue what I got wrong .

Performance by an actor in a leading role
George Clooney in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood" (Paramount Vantage and Miramax)
Johnny Depp in "Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (DreamWorks and Warner Bros., Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Tommy Lee Jones in "In the Valley of Elah" (Warner Independent)
Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (Focus Features)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Casey Affleck in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (Warner Bros.)
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men" (Miramax and Paramount Vantage)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Charlie Wilson's War" (Universal)
Hal Holbrook in "Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment)
Tom Wilkinson in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role
Cate Blanchett in "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" (Universal)
Julie Christie in "Away from Her" (Lionsgate)
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose" (Picturehouse)
Laura Linney in "The Savages" (Fox Searchlight)
Ellen Page in "Juno" (A Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production)

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" (The Weinstein Company)
Ruby Dee in "American Gangster" (Universal)
Saoirse Ronan in "Atonement" (Focus Features)
Amy Ryan in "Gone Baby Gone" (Miramax)
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton" (Warner Bros.)

As we all know, the Oscars are really about the fashion--  because, as my dear floor manager Don Ford always says, "It's about the pageantry."  Oh, yes. 

Please, just this once, allow me to be utterly self indulgent and....Let's look at some of my favorites from the red carpet!





Best Accessory:



To Amy Adams for her see-through birdy bag.  This bag is aaaaaamazing-- that's an arched winged flying bird on the top!  I saw her admit to Ryan Seacrest on E! that it holds ... nothing!  It's made of gold mesh and essentially is just there to look good.  (On the dress side of things, props to Miss Amy for wearing Proenza Schouler as well!  Lovely color on a redhead.)

Best Accessory Part 2:



To Vanessa Paradis.  She's got the ultimate arm candy.

Worst Accessory:



To Diablo Cody for her exposed ink. I know this may make me unpopular, but as anyone who knows me knows, I firmly believe that tattoos (and chewing gum) have NO place on the red carpet on such a night as the Oscars.   I mean, I know she was a stripper and all, but the Oscars are all about glamour, people.  And leopard print, that's a whooooole other story.  Call me old fashioned.  Whatever. I can take it.

CD sales are down but record sales are up. Vinyl, long written off by the industry as obsolete, has been experiencing a renaissance of sorts over the last several years, with vinyl sales on the increase, steadily building in momentum over the past few years. In 2007 there was an estimated 15% increase in sales of new records just from the year before.

And it's not just DJs who are buying records these days. Nor is it just fans of hip-hop/rap and electronic/dance music -- the two genres most associated with vinyl -- but fans of other types of music, including different sub-genres of rock and experimental, among other genres. Additionally a lot of music fans, especially young fans who are tired of MP3s, are discovering the superior warmer analog audio quality of vinyl pressings -- be it on a 7" single or full-length 12" album.

In some cases artists or labels are pressing up vinyl-only releases, often as a way to beat the current rampant free-downloading of MP3 files. But even with a lot of vinyl releases, the record label includes free MP3s such with the new Cornelius vinyl copy of his Gum 12" EP on Everloving/Warner which comes with a printed card in its jacket containing information on the link to MP3 versions of the same songs on the vinyl just purchased.

"A lot of people appreciate the whole aesthetic of vinyl. There is something permanent about the LP format that they really like.  With MP3's, even with CDs, there is a disposability with the format," offered Chris Curtis of Hollywood Amoeba Music, where he is a vinyl point person between the floor and warehouse -- overseeing many smaller genres but getting a good overall grasp of the state of vinyl in 2008 with music fans. "To kids that were born after 1990, the LP was dead," said Chris, "but you see a lot of kids coming in to buy vinyl. I think there is a certain coolness connected with it."

         


          


           


                                



       

With daylight, reason returned and gone was the previous night's debauchery, but both the sentiment of horror and remorse remained in regards to the conversations I elicited with … the Voice. Guilt, was it guilt I suffered? The voice’s disparaging remarks about 45’s and my love for such trivial objects. But I found myself sharing the same odious views! How can that be? I needed to convince myself, somehow, that my soul survived untouched by the experience. Again I felt obliged to plunge headlong into excess; quickly I made myself a triple espresso, straight-no chaser of cream, as I had to focus on the tasks of the day: a new blog.

Anyway, back to reality, here are some more 45 company sleeves from around the world.

Virgin Vision 70021

1977: Crime & the City Solution formed in Sydney. It seems that almost from their inception they were cursed to never be spoken of without a mention of famous Australian Nick Cave. Their original line-up included vocalist Simon Bonney (the band's only permanent member), Don McLennan on drums, Harry Zanteni on guitar, Phil Kitchener on bass and Dave MacKinnon on soprano and tenor saxophones. Simon Bonney, whilst born in Australia proper, had grown up on a remote farm in Tasmania where his family grew wheat, barley and opium poppies before he moved to Sydney.

Shortly after their formation, Crime & the City Solution relocated to Melbourne and the line-up changed with Dan Wallace-Crabbe taking over guitar, Kim Beissel replacing Dave MacKinnon, Lindsay O'Meara handling bass and Chris Astley joining on keyboards. The band recorded a handful of demos and some live performances are available; the recordings are interesting. Simon Bonney's distinct, moaning vocals are immediately recognizable. The music sounds very much of its time- kind of a dark, brittle post-punk with saxophone that makes it sound vaguely Roxy Music. It's a bit raw but miles ahead of the contemporaneous Boys Next Door, who aside from their cover of the Young Charlatans "Shivers" were pretty awful. [Note: If you have the Young Charlatans' demos, please let me know]

The Boys Next Door, by their second album, 1980's Birthday Party, pursued (thankfully) a sound very different from the bland predecessor of the previous year, Door, Door. Now the band careened through a cacophonous terrain owing a lot to The Cramps while taking a bit from Crime & the City Solution's post-punk take on The Doors as well. The Boys Next Door moved to relocated to London, signed to the 4AD record label and got huge. Meanwhile, Crime & the City Solution remained silent. I'm tempted to make the analogy of the story of Hedwig and Tommy Gnosis but, to be fair, The Birthday Party were an amazing band with a lot of talent... and a lot of ego. Rowland S. Howard, The Birthday Party's guitarist and writer of some of the band's most amazing songs and Nick Cave disbanded the group in 1984.

Gerhard Richter Kerze (Candle) 1983

.... possibly I could afford to get this. The Painting that adorned Sonic Youth's sixth double LP "Daydream Nation" is going to the auction block. With a catalog price of £2.5m, I doubt many Sonic Youth completionists will be bidding. I will happy to take it off your hands though if you realize it doesn't match your curtains. It will look great above my Ikea couch that I found in the street.   Read More About It Here!

Longtime self-described "experimental/psychedelic/freestyle" Bay Area group O-Type,  featuring Bruce Anderson, Dale Sophiea, Jim Hrabetin, and Marc Weinstein (of Amoeba Music) are playing a very special and recommended mixed-media show titled "The Curse of the Fine Arts" this Sunday evening, Feb 24th @ 8PM at the Berkeley Arts Festival.  Additionally, tonight, Thursday Feb 21st, their music will be featured as the soundtrack to the short film High Heels (directed by founding member Sophiea) which will be screened at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco as a selection of the SF Indie Fest as part of the "Bay Area Shorts" segment at 7:15PM.

O-Type was born out of legendary band MX-80, which Sophiea and Anderson formed back in the mid seventies in Indiana before they moved west to Cali. MX-80, who defied categorization except maybe as "outsider" music, released several revered records on such labels as Island and Ralph (the Residents' label). Being hard to define doesn't sit well with labels, so Anderson and Sophiea started their own label, Quadruped, and busily cranked-out several diverse types of music under a slew of names, including O-Type, The Gizzards, Brutality, Half-Life, and of course MX-80. Marc Weinstein and Jim Hrabetin joined the fold in 1984 and have been part of the experimental musical family ever since.

Amoeba Music and Phil Blankenship are proud to present some of our film favorites at Los Angeles’ last full-time revival movie theater. See movies the way they're meant to be seen - on the big screen and with an audience!

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Saturday Feb. 23

Somewhere...
somehow...
someone's going to pay!

Commando

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

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Upcoming:
Mar 1 Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man
Mar 8 Streets Of Fire
Mar 15 Can't Hardly Wait (10th Anniversary!)
Mar 29 The Funhouse

TransWorld Entertainment 38009

        

         

         

         

                                       

        


As with all previous Graffiti in Yokohama pics - all of these were shot by Acco - over last few months

Guitar heroes are a dime a dozen...what about synth heroes?  There are many examples. Keith Emerson threw knives and carried his own antibiotic kit to deal with some of the gifts bestowed upon him by groupies. Ray Manzarek rocked the perverted professor persona pre-synthesizers and then sort of recast himself as a late night sleaze demon in the 70's.  Robert Mason had a very interesting take on his Stardrive records, head cocked back with a can of beer in hand.  Here's a gallery of men who dared to forge their version of "Synth Hero," see if you can match the picture to the name & band lists...

12

34

56

78

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The Master Cleanse diet was developed in 1941 by Stanley Burroughs. It calls for the practitioner to starve his or herself except for a concoction of lemon juice, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. At night you're to take a laxative tea and saltwater which, through a top-down enema, is said to remove toxins from the body, help one lose weight and even cure chronic diseases. Salt, salt, lemonade, turn the corner and you know the rest... Such famous celebrities as Robin Quivers, Jared Leto and Beyoncé Knowles have all used it to lose weight and it seems to be exploding in popularity.


Who needs the advice of doctors when you've got Howard's sidekick, Jared looking like a magician and Mrs. Jay-Z?

So why is the dangerous diet so popular? Well, I live in California, for one, where all New Age hokum is defended with a "Don't knock it til you try it" acceptance irreconcilable with my Show-Me skepticism. Also, I suppose, because of the very real effects coupled with observational and speculative science. Practitioners get, after not eating, light headed and euphoric, which Burroughs assured dieters was a byproduct of toxins leaving the system. But Burroughs was a dictatorial nudist who insisted his children not wear clothing, not a scientist or doctor. Blindly assuming some charlatan's logic infallible is akin to accepting a lunatic's observation that rain comes from a celestial being shedding tears because we eat cashews. It reminds me of Scientology more than science... only creepier.

    Leader of the Church of Lemonology (with clothing)                              Lemonologists' version of Dianetics

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It reminds me a comedy skit that I heard years ago about a once in a lifetime opportunity to get every recording ever made.  But apparently this current offer to attain the "world's greatest music collection" and to own the "largest collection of recorded music in the world" is for real. 

Very real but at a real high price: $3 million dollars precisely for this ebay item, which closes on Thursday, Feb 21st at 6AM PST, and boldly boasts to include "3 million records and 300,000 CDs containing more than 6 million song titles...From Thomas Edison to American Idol, this is the complete history of the music that shaped and defined five generations."

Damn! And you thought Amoeba had a lot of records and CDs!  The seller claims that it is "the undisputed largest collection of recorded music in the world. About half of the recordings are new and never played, and every genre of 20th century music is represented. There are countless rare recordings worth hundreds, or even thousands of dollars each on the collectibles market. Organized and cataloged, the collection is meticulously maintained and housed in a climate-controlled warehouse. The estimated value of this amazing collection is more than $50 million."

The item, which claims to be the "most viewed and watched listing ever on ebay," has gotten an awful lot of attention alright, but not so much from potential big spenders as much as curious music fans like the folks at Mojo magazine who really want to interview the seller, eBay member jpaulhenderson5a4e, about this whole collection. The two photos here are part of the alleged collection which the seller claims  "was purchased by the collection's owner over the past fifty years and represents a lifetime of work and his desire to see the music preserved for future generations. Advancing age and health concerns are forcing the owner to sell." 

Charter Entertainment 90139

The "love that dare not speak its name," which Oscar Wilde shared with Lord Alfred Douglas was cited at the former's trial for gross indecency.  Accepting homosexuality as morally permissible has often been cited by conservative moralists as providing a slippery slope to Gomorrah, setting precedent for even lewder acts, such as bestiality or incest.  However, regarding incest (but I'm betting bestiality, as well), its lure seems to have been with us as long as homosexuality.  If not always accepted in practice, incest is a longstanding part of mankind's fantasies as a seedy imaginative otherworld, suggesting what's always possible if man-made laws didn't get in the way.

Greek deities and demigods, for example, were a saucy bunch: Zeus, the longest running head of the Gods, was the son of brother and sister Titans, Chronos and Rhea.  Following in the family tradition, Zeus's second wife was also his aunt Themis, goddess of law.  After things went south with that, he hewed even closer to his father's matrimonial views and married his sister Hera, who gave birth to Hephaestus, buttfugly God of blacksmithing.  Hera, being the Goddess of chain-smoking trailer trash with a thing for two-timin' goodfernothins, had little need or love for such a ghastly son and kicked the poor fuck out of Olympus.  Despite this treatment, according to some versions of the myth, Hepahestus sided with his Ma's henpecking his Pa, resulting in Zeus beating the tar out of him, giving him an eternally permanent limp.  Those kind of mommy issues point towards meth addiction and a life of petty larceny, if these had been mere mortals.  But they weren't, so Hephaestus managed to marry the most beautiful of all the Olympians, Aphrodite, Goddess of love, who was also his half-sister by way of Zeus's tryst with Dione.

Zeus's sexual exploits don't end there, though; he had a beautiful girl, Persephone, by another of his sisters, Demeter, Goddess of farming.  Hades had such a hard-on for his niece that after his proposal was denied by his brother, Zeus, on the grounds that no daughter of his was going to live on the wrong side of the tracks, the God of the underworld entrapped Persephone anyway.  Such incestuous relations didn't merely involve the Gods: that ideal male physique, Adonis, was the result of a union between Syrian princess Myrrha and her father King Theias, after being bewitched by Aphrodite.  And we all know about Oedipus marrying his mom, Jocasta.

Every once in a while a magical sort of album comes out. I guess what is magical to some people is not always magical to everyone else. I am also pretty sure not many people would even use the word magical when describing their new favorite album, but "magical" is exactly the word I feel that best describes the new album by Atlas Sound. It is a bit dreamy and ethereal and ambient. Just all around fantastic. The man behind this new Atlas Sound is Bradford Cox. He is the man behind the band Deerhunter as well. This new album Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel is out on the label Kranky, the same fantastic label that put out the Deerhunter album. I am not always in love with everything Kranky puts out, but every once in a while they put out a fantastic little album like this. I might just really like the label because I like seeing my name on albums and in liner notes. Kranky has put out albums by Labradford, which I have to admit that I bought one day at a record store simply because the band was named after me. The dude in Deerhunter also shares my first name, which is also what I think first intrigued me to pick up the Deerhunter album and give it a listen. These might be selfish reasons but at least they brought me to discover some great albums.

The Atlas Sound album opens up with a tape recording of a young boy telling a ghost story. It is a nice little introduction to this secretly beautiful album. I didn't really fall in love with it the first time that I listened to it. It was not until track 13 that I actually started paying attention. I then went back and started to really appreciate the entire album. I really like albums that take you on a journey. The album may not be full of big amazing powerful songs one after the other-- some of the songs take a while to build up into anything at all, and other songs just sort of fade into each other without any real transition. The album reminds me of Slowdive or Seefeel at times. It could easily fit in with some of the albums that came out of England in the early 90s. Some of the songs could easily lull you to sleep and put you in a nice little dreamland. But if the album is not working for you, just skip ahead to track 13. The song is called "Ativan." He could have easily opened up the album with this song, but it is kind of nice to have a little fantastic surprise saved up for you at the end of the album. Then you can really go back and appreciate the whole album more. The final song is also a great little ambient song to finish of the album for you. This album could easily slip through the year without very many people finding about it, but I think enough people will talk about it and share it with their friends. It could also easily charm its way into everyones music collection.

I'm so relieved that the writer's strike is finally over!  We will still have to cope with mainly repeats for a few months on TV though, while they start up writing/filming again. 

We've all had our own ways of coping with the interruption of the season during the strike, and one of mine was to go online and watch Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick's (My So-Called Life, Thirtysomething) new show Quarterlife.   Has anyone out there besides me been watching this show?  Has anyone else out there even heard about it?

It's an online only show that's about a group of post collegiate 20-somethings.  It's a strange, kind of irking format-- 8 min or so segments are posted twice weekly for our streaming enjoyment.  Give me an hour, hell, even a half hour-- I need more of a story arc!  But you won't have to wade through it the way I did.  Apparently (thank you, writer's strike) the show is coming to NBC in about a week and I am guessing they will sew the bits together into a full hour. 

The 20-something group of friends live in a crappy apartment complex somewhere in Los Angeles.  There's a main character, Dylan, a too-pretty-to-be-an-outcast outcast.  She lives with her friends Debra and Lisa, both skinny-as-all-get- out but burdened with complex problems of course.  Note to casting agent: you can't make a model-esque actress more relatable simply by slapping some eyeglasses on her!  Oh well.  Anyway, Dylan has a video blog where she talks about her own inner thoughts and her friends' lives.  I have no idea why someone would do this and think her friends would not discover and watch the blogs....but I guess on this show it's used as a catalyst for drama. Also causing drama, in a nearby unit there are three 20-something guys, ladies man Danny and film nerds Andy and Jed.  Also, Debra's hippie style friend Eric moves in with the gals after a few episodes and starts filling the house with his aggro leftism.

If you're like me, you love a new country. Yesterday, Kosovo took the plunge. Of course, Serbia is predictably bitching and moaning but, haven't they gotten used to rejection, what with being successively dumped by Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro and Macedonia? And didn't Serbia ingite the Great War when they were trying to assert their independence? And didn't Serbia only include Kosovo because it invaded it in 1912? Let it go, Serbia. You are too possessive. You smother your mates and now you're alone and forsaken.

Of course, from looking at new countries, choosing independence seems like a pretty tough row to hoe. Look at some of the Earth's newest countries.


 
East Timor, approaching ten years of independence, is still plagued with violence, corruption, lack of economic development