p.s stay tuned to this website... cuz we'll be dropping some more mistletunes & blissfully bombed out xmess plays on ya real soon...
If I don't see ya at The Mezz in time for the show on Thursday nite... look for me to likely drop by the Il Pirata later just prior to the last call that same night ...
pssst... a couple mo X mess tracks to tide ya over til tommorrow
In 1942, Woody Guthrie moved to Brooklyn and soon, through his mother-in-law (the renowned Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt), he became involved with the Coney Island Jewish Community. He wrote songs about Hanukkah, about Jewish history and about spiritual life.
After his death in 1967, these songs sat forgotten in archives. "Lost" for almost 30 years, Guthrie's Hanukkah lyrics were discovered in 1998 by Woody's daughter, Nora Guthrie. She was so inspired by what she found, she asked the Klezmatics to write new music for the lyrics.
I spent my Thanksgiving picking through the bones of a San Francisco Tower Records. I saw the bankrupt store was open with it's "Everything Must Go" banners, and since I wasn't interested in football or turkey it was a logical choice.
The dead chain beckoned me with "Going Out Of Business" banners and I found myself there with a little downtime perusing the racks for likely the last time...
Nowadays in the post millenial environment with CDs copied at random, and music downloaded in ever increasing quantities, the demand & business model for vast stores like Tower has shrunk...
Since the height of the summer of love in 1967, Tower Records has maintaned a San Francisco flagship store at the corner of Bay & Columbus. The chain that started in the back of a drugstore store by Russ Solomon in Sacramento a few years earlier in 1960 had been in hot water as of late, twice declaring bankruptcy in the last four years. Despite being the first record store to sell online in 1995, and opening it's own download store this past June, the cash hemmoraging retailer could not make it in the modern era. With big box retailers undercutting margins, downloading of MP3'z, and home CD burning now commonplace, the bankrupt retail chain has announced they will shut down all their locations once the inventory is liquidated.
Here is Tony Bennett from a Tower Records complation put out a few years ago
At it's height in the late 1990s, Tower's operation, generated more than $1 billion in worldwide sales each year, via some 200 or so locations worldwide. The company championed indies through it's sizeable onestop operation, and published a widely circulated magazine. Tellingly, the magazine's former editor Jackson Griffith, is now employed at something called Digital Music Group, an online music operation.
Those without Griffith's foresight, the 3000 Tower employees left, will lose their jobs, and since Saturday, the Tower inventory is under court approved liquidation by Great American Group. Shoppers can currently get discounts of 10 percent off music, 20 percent off books and 30 percent off magazines, but crowds seen this weekend were not thick enough to keep the chain afloat.
Read on after the jump for a lil 'wistful look back at Tower and the the heydays of the late great record biz...
But first a few tracks from the late Anita O'Day .. one of the great ladies of jazz, a woman who earned her living on the road, and could act, scat, scoot and skedaddle...
During her most famous stint in the 1940's she sang with Gene Krupa's exceptionally rhytmic band...
She also got purty messed up on some of that junk back in the day, starting a heroin addiction at just 16. Despite some rough times, she eventually made a righteous comeback through the years, continuing to musically explore a variety of styles...even releasing an album earlier this year called "indestructible"...
Her husky voice was still a popular one and she kept performing throughout the years, with her inimitable precise delivery smooth, on key, o time, quick & dare I say a tad funky...
At it's height in the late 1990s, Tower's operation, generated more than $1 billion in worldwide sales each year, and operated over a 200 locations worldwide. The company operated a sizeable onestop operation, and published a widely circulated magazine. 3000 people will lose jobs, and since October, their inventory is under liquidation by Great American Group, with the days numbered for the stores. Shoppers can currently get discounts of 40 percent off music.
As it goes down the tubes, Tower has 89 stores in the US, and 144 stores run by licensees in nine seperate foreign countries. Tower had lately been facing off with major record companies that stopped shipments after Tower's debts went up to the $200 million range.
Sadly the winning bidder for the company's assets decided not to keep the stores open, unlike the other main bidder Trans World Entertainment which had intended to keep some of the company's more profitable stores alive. Trans World operates 1,100 stores it has acquired mainly from other faltering chains like Sam Goody and Wherehouse Music, consolidating most of these mall based acquisitions under the name FYE.
Tower was somewhat legendary in the music biz, with a rep for creative handpainted ads on the stores, large inventories, deep magazine & book selections, and stocking vinyl long after it's "official" demise. Sore managers tailored to their customers & often did special orders for imports and collectibles. Since 1979, they were one of America's first retailers to open up shops in Japan, before KFC, Starbucks and Nike bothered. Heck their stores were even immortalized in the video game Crazy Taxi.
Pictured at right is founder Russ Solomon in 1967 standing in the center of the once thriving SF store shortly after it first opened. (Seen in the bins is the Rolling Stones' "Her Satanic Majesties Request" with the 3D cover at $1.99).
Tower's famous Sunset Blvd location in L.A has held numerous record release parties and in-stores since 1969 with artists ranging from Prince to Tori Amos to Soul Asylum, but the store is expected to go onsale for about $12 million. Here's ABBA hanging out there back in 1976 .
The SF store held many record release functions as well, including this Love release for their album Elephant's Memory, to Sonic Youth performing in the parking lot in 1989, to this recent Chris Isaak appearance from You Tube.
R.I.P Tower Records...
I nostalgically trolled the corporate wreckage looking at numerous faceless recent pop CDs by groups I was uninterested in ever hearing.
After awhile I found a few gems amongst the discounted detritus. I picked up an imported boxset of Immediate era Small Faces CDs, and an out of print import from Elvis Costello's Demon imprint of "The Wild Sound of Tousan", which was Allen Toussaint's 1958 RCA instrumental debut.
A
mong my other picks from Towers bins was a CD reissue with bonus tracks of Sweet's Fanny Adams LP, and a Johnny Thunders retrospective CD with a DVD included.
I got a few DVDs as well, including early 1970's era performances from Johnny Cash & Alice Cooper plus some oddball cheesoid flick with Dennis Hopper playing Frank Sinatra.
Anyhow,
I also found another intriguing disc there buried in the various artists section...
Did you know that by the 1970's, the Canadian Babylon city of Tornto had a large enough West Indian population that it produced a fair number of reggae hits?
Like this one, from the son of legendary ol school Jamaican dub/ska artist Alton Ellis, his child Noel recorded this track back in '79. It's a tune that you may also recognize from The Clash, when under their auspices, it mutated and hence became their Armagideon Time.
These remaining tracks in this post are from a label called Light In The Attic, who with help from an archivist Dj named Sipreano are attempting to highlight the late 60's & 70's era Toronto to Kingston sonic connections.
This exodus is documented in a series called "Jamaica To Toronto: Soul Funk & Reggae 1967-1974". The CD version includes a 36 page booklet, and many groovin' dub & rock steady tracks...
Both British colonies, Jamaica and Canada seemingly had little in common, but for rudeboys looking to escape the shanty towns, and with with visitor Visas generally easier to obtain than those to the states, Toronto became the Caribbean's New York. So an unlikely Canadian city on the shores of Lake Erie became a hot bed of imported Carribean/Canadian talent. Soon island imports like like Jackie Mitoo, Johnnie Osbourne, Wayne McGhie, Lloyd Delpratt, The Mighty Pope, Noel Ellis, Jo-Jo Bennett, and others were making some smooth sonic moves in North America .
Here's from that compilation series, a skank worthy groovy soul break-beat jam out of 70's era T-town...
Here's a cut with some downhome organ grinder appeal...like a Jamaican Jimmy Smith, Jackie Mittoo could work up a feisty feast for the ears & dance floor.
Jackie Mittoo - " Soul Bird" (MP3, 192kbps) Another reissue from Light In The Attic Records is the long out of print 1971 LP masterpiece of Jamaican/ Canadian Soul Reggae artist Jackie Mittoo. The Studio One keyboard king also known as "The Cold Ruler" played on numerous late 60's ska & dub tracks. He was known to work with Ken Boothe, Heptones, King Tubby & Prince Jammy. His 1971 album Wishbone has never been on CD until now...
For more info check out some comprehensive Jackie Mittoo discography at the Roots Archives or the Roots Dub discogrpahy
I recall every thanksgiving that WHFS in Bethesda, and later Annapolis MD would play the full length extended version of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant on turkey day...
It was kinda cool to hear this 60's throwback with references to draft boards and whatnot give me political perspective between blasts of Dave Edmunds, Cramps, Rootboy Slim and whatever else that evil Weasel DJ dude was gonna play...
Although, the premise of Arlo's record never seemed as cool as anything his dad did...
I mean Woody was a real "this machine kills fascists" folksinging American hero type, while Arlo was a dirty hippie who seemed to think it was ok to dump trash wherever he wanted...
For every "Purple Mountains Majesty" that his dad conjured up, Arlo was likely just looking for some purple skunk bud or something...
There's nothing that makes this more apparent than his movie of the same name as his biggest song "alice's restaurant"...
All I really remember is Arlo just tearing it up on some polluting dirt bikes, and then going to dump his trash... Sad...
I still have a soft spot though, because I actually bought this album at a Goodwill store once, and after about a 45 minute session of trying to listen to it to see if it had any redeeming qualities...
I discovered it did indeed...
As I was struggling to stuff the vinyl back in the sleeve I found some obstruction was preventing me from getting the disc back in place...
I reached into the cardboard sleeve and discovered about 10 mint 1969 20 dollar bills..
likely stashed by some stoner who'd long forgotten about 'em...
I then went out and bought a shit load of beer...
that's something to be thankful for...
here's something else
In the early 1970's, William DeVaughn was a Washington DC area DJ, whose sole chart splash was this classic soul cut.
Last saturday night I ended up witnessing a live pay per view telecast coming out of the city of the scars, Sacramento. It was a sad & sickening occasion, something caled the Ultimate Fighting Championships. I was hired to photograph the crowd watching at a local bar, and it was not pretty.
Apparently, despite my ignorance, UFC fascinates a large, kinda scary fanbase of mostly males who like to pay to watch other males wrasslin, punching, kicking and stomping each other. The place where this event was being broadcast was an Irish sports bar on the edge of Golden Gate Park, and they were getting $15 a head just to watch this crap on TV.
here's a look at UFC's web site search demographic pull...
Oddly enough, despite the obvious homo-erotic ass grapplings on every screen in the joint, most of the weird loner guys in attendance did not know that this was a very gay looking deal. Despite being in San Francisco, there were no "out" queers in the bar that I could tell, although the burly waitresses looked like they could kick anyone's ass there.
Then the next day I saw another wrasstling video...one of a differnet sort...
a more lo-fi production for sure, but more interesting as well, even if the results looked just as stacked & fixed...
it was the 23 year old UCLA student vs UCLA security video...
A blogger named Bruinpied has discovered an interesting side effect aspect to the case of the Tasered UCLA student...
That's assuming you heard about the student of Iranian descent at UCLA's Powell library last week who refused to show his ID to guards he figured were racial profiling him. If not, do treat yourself to this five-minute long cellphone video of the UCLA student being repeatedly tasered by over zealous campus police.
I find it ridiculous that these glorified rent a cops think they had to "taser" the student at least 5 times in about 5 minutes. Whether or not he's not showing his ID card, or acting loud & obnoxious does not justify this type of institutional abuse of power. In more than half of the blasts administered, the kid was already handcuffed. They could have taken him out of the building in a much less controversial manner if that was really their intention.
The real damning part of the video occurs after the Mostafa Tabatabainejad is removed, and a UCPD officer threatens to taser another student who is complaining about the incident.
Sadly the settlement dough the University will pay out in the upcoming Tabatabainejad lawsuit will just drain the educational coffers of the state, since it occured at a public instituition.
---------------------------------
Previously, just after getting tasered, and prior to announcing his upcoming lawsuit. student Mostafa Tabatabainejad, had a Facebook profile up...
Here is a screenshot of Tabatabainejad’s profile at the time of the incident:
ironically or not, do note that the tasered student claimed his favorite quote was
He also claimed under interests a talent for taking simple problems and finding the most difficult way to approach them.
His current revised post-lawyer consultation profile now edits the references to drinking his life away ala Leaving Las Vegas and refers to more simple interests...
one of these new interests is
"I Love delicious food..."
His favorite quote has now been replaced by something about being imprisoned from Thoreau...
interesting... how just a few electric shocks can really change a man...
Come on folks out there in "the flyover" parts of the country... what's not to love?
We know ya all are just jealous ya can't afford to pay a million bucks plus for a rotting old house with no parking overlooking an all night free range vegan soy foie gras & hash brownie cafe.
The city that's so expensive & hip that none of the cab drivers even live here anymore, or evebn speak English and have never heard of anywhere you are going, but are cranking "the prayer hour" on their radios so loud you can't hear your Blackberry playing the mash up remix of yer new ringtone...
I head home enjoying a view of our bridges, with their perpetually in motion paint jobs, and soon to be corporatesponsors...
Apparently we need our most famous landmark to be sponsored, either cause we can't afford to maintain the bridge with a $6 dollar toll...or the "trustees" at the Bridge Districty offices are so morally bankrupt, they want more perks, out of town jaunts to other scenic bridges and perhaps throw in some luxury boxes as well. I guess something needs a logo around here & our local chicken sh*t sports teams just can't cut it anymore. It's become a town the jocks fear to tread and are so desperate to get out and away from, they are ditching quicker than their fans and free agents.
Apparently our cooties & freakish arrogant non-athelete worshipping behavior has them thinking they would rather live down the road in new suburban digs where only MC Hammer, All You Can Eat Indian Buffets, Fry's Electronics & bombed out Pay Pal offices are, than face the realization they just suck...
All my neighbors are non season ticket holding unshaven anarchist drag queens and pagan ritual santeria practicing ex-sex offenders who don't wear fur, but who'd marry their politically correct same sex partners if they believed in marriage. We'd care if we didn't already have full domestic partnerships with mandatory medical marijuana smoking cards, keeping us giggling through a social calendar of endless fudge packin' performance art shows, whiny protests, free std exams & glory hole filled bondage clubs .
Who wouldn't want to hang out with our million plus stinky homeless people, all drunk on fine Napa wines and getting fat on free sourdough bread and raining purple piss all day on people emerging from the underground trains for glorious shopping trips to our endless supply of trendy boutiques...
The "mainstream media" continues to exploit the post election fears of a country afraid of itself, the latest example, a Newsweek piece attempting to define local non entity Nancy Pelosi, our city and it's perplexing politics for an apparently aghast national audience. Headlined : Pelosi and San Francisco's Loony Left, A City Ripe For Satire, it's featured in the current issue. Among the quotes is the always appropriate John Burton, an ex-Congessman who offers a description of Pelosi that will no doubt endear her to the heartland
"She's no kook. She's an Italian-Catholic grandmother who goes to church every f-----g Sunday."
Then we get the image of the poor mayor whose pompadoured hair is going gray, and seems embarrassed by the city's left leaning streak, lately for banning JR ROTC.
Asked about the school board decision, Newsom buried his face in his hands. "Here we go again," Newsom responded, obviously exasperated. "This is exactly the kind of thing that is fun for people outside the city to cover, but it does generate a terrible message."
Soundtrack offerings of the day, based on the musical works from our #1 band of the 80's... that being the Santana refugees who formed Journey. (It's appropriate to note that the musical groups splish splashing these Journey tribute versions out, ain't from around here.)
A few years ago, those NYC boys with the Joy Division fixation seemed to be on the verge of a commercial breakthrough, but sorta vanished...at least from my left coast radar...
Same goes for Omaha's third wave of new wave warriors, the Faint,
I actually got excited enough & went out and bought that new wavey goth-tastic red Dance Macabre album, risking a snicker from the holier than thou dude behind the counter at Aquarius... and then heard little more from em over the last 5 years...
Although.. that may be changing. I just saw they'll be in SF early in December. It's some sorta invite only showcase sponsored by the death merchants at Camel cigarettes... I guess it's good to know death personally because on Thursday one of the grim reaper's pals handed me tickets...
Hey ... I took em... and a pack of menthol lights... ya never know ... maybe I'll need em...
Prior to hanging out at death's Beasthouse with a buncha stray graffitti artists, I caught Del The Funky Homosapien on Thursday... Which was a Bay Centric sorta event...
The track below is from Lyrics Born and features that afforementioned Homosapien of a Funky nature. Originally released on his "Same $%*+, Different Day" album, the track has now been ressurected with fresh vocal contributions as a guitar saturated bonus cut on the new Lyrics Born live disc just-released Overnite Encore: Lyrics born Live! out now on Quannum.
Another bonus cut is Lyrics Born with that son of a PIMP, Mistah Fab rippin it up about their blessings & travails in the game of LIFE. This mix was produced by Trackademics
Headed out the door in a few minutes to catch Del The Funky Homosapien w/ Mike Relm at The Fillmore...
hopefully they are feeling fresher than me, a guy who spent a little too much time last night consuming a bottle of Irish vodka...
I did not know that the Irish even were involved in the vodka trade.. go figger
The vodka seemed free at the time, but today I've definitely been paying for it...
I went out and celebrated after I cashed a check last night for selling some video footageof my encounter with Borat to G4 TV, the ICONS show it's used in airs on Sunday night... check it out...
here's some random tunes I'll toss at ya while I take some asprin...
I just caught the GreenDay / U2 collaboration and while I enjoyed the flashy video and the sentiments and all...
Being a permanent member of the corporate rawk peanut gallery, I just gotta wonder...
uh, what took these guys so long?
I mean everyone complained that it took the US government way to long to mobilize an assistance effort along the Gulf Coast last year...but U2 & Green Day, two of the biggest/richest bands left in rock, took a whole year to get their act together and all they have is a half ass cover tune & a Monday Night Football half time show ...
The original version of that song was by a '77 era Scottish punk band called The Skids. The band's guitarist was actually the late stuart Adamson, singer of Big Country. Hopefully the royalties will do some good for an old punker somewhere...
uh, nice choice at least, but uh, I still believe it's some 14 months after Katrina left the front pages?
Sh*t, I recall Michael Stipe had his Katrina single & video tribute bit ready in a few weeks...
Wynton Marsalis had a nationally televised concert, at Lincoln Center w/ folks like Cassandra Wilson, Terence Blanchard and other jazz performers and the Higher Ground Hurricane Benefit Relief Concert benefit CD was out within two months, in plenty time for Christams sales , a year ago!
Allen Toussaint & Elvis Costello recorded a whole album down there actually in New Orleans and had it out by spring...
Are like Bono & Billie Joe's schedules and label legal teams so busy that they penciled this thing into their blackberries or whatever pop stars & handlers do and just finally got around to finish it now?
Maybe they shoulda just hired a mash up DJ like Go Home Productions, Party Ben or Solofcon mix it and have it out in hours?
The track, already a big hit, will be featured on U2's new album, with a portion of the royalties going to Music Rising, a campaign striving to bring the music scene back to the Gulf Coast.
I suppose it all has something to do with Universal Music's holiday sales push & release schedules eh?
Not any real relevance to a post-Katrina charity effort...
But Uh...
Hey guys, it's cool and all, and the money raised will certainly come in handy I suppose, but is it me, or is it not exactly the freshest topic right now?
Maybe ya shoulda stuck to hyping the Darfur RED thing... most kids or adults for that matter, still don't know where that is...or why various factions in some east African country are slaughtering each other in a genocidal rampage...
I was as outraged as anyone by the US gov't's lackadaisical Katrina response, but said so within days, sent money & raised a lil hell. I think Kanye West made some sort of memorable comments as well, and sent a whole lot more money than me... Kanye West - He Say Bush Doesn't Care Mix...
Even Pepsi, has had a Katrina relief billboard in my hood for many months...
Now U2 wants to jump aboard that train now, 14 months later...and are bringing Green Day along?
Did all you guys just get the Hurricane Relief memo or sumpin?
Is the New Orleans Katrina rescue issue just slightly played out in November of 2006, in an age of a series of tubes called "internets" & instantaneous communications?
maybe not...
Anyhow, nuff of my pontificating...
are you still here?
look... i already told you... I gotta get out of here...
but, since yer still hanging around, here's one last tune...
I got it free courtesy the always entertaining Emusic.com...
So I thought it might be ok to pass onto y'all...
It's an interesting duet that just came out, that has nothing to do with Katrina, U2 or Green Day but is worthy of checking out...
It's built around the aged voice of Charlie Louvin, a man who should need no introduction, but since the media and the mayhem of the age ain't gonna pre-enlighten y'all ... I'll step up to the plate a bit.
Charlie was part of one of the greatest country / bluegrass acts of all time, The Louvin Brothers, with his brother Ira who both started performing in the 1930s. Louvin, born in Alabama hill country, toured throughout Appalachia and had radio slots on stations in Knoxville & Memphis Tn in the 1940's. By the 1950's they had a string of top country hits, and Charlie went solo also reaching the charts several times. His brother Ira died in a car crash in 1965.
He influenced a whole range of performers including The Everly Bros, Johnny Cash, Elvis, Gram Parsons, Nick Cave, and Cake who took Charlie out on the Unlinited Sunshine package tour with Cheap Trick and The Detroit Cobras a few years ago. Undoubtedly the guy he's singing with here, was a fan too, that being fellow country legend & Hall of Famer George Jones.
It's true that somewhere amidst this post there is a a track featuring East Coast Old School rapper KRS One & West Coast upstart AWOL One
but first ya gotta scroll to get to that lil bit o' soul...
Cuz I'm rambling out here in da Bay...
Where indeed,
The Hieroglyphics crew have been responsible for some great music & many lively shows over the last decade or so...
likely the original "backback" hip hop hoppers, the boys were hooked up with major Elektra for an early 90's spell, but went on to maintain the Hieoroglyphics.com website and a large fanbase through pro-active self management of their careers.
Anyhow, Del The Funkee Homosapien will be playing at The Fillmore out here on Thursday, and I guess I'll be there, at least once I wrap up a little evening work...
The biggest star from the Hiero crew is no doubt Del The Funkee Homosapien
here's Del in a collaboration with Reggae star Barrington Levy, Prince Paul & The Automator's Handsome Boy Modeling School, and look they even squoze in that skinny dude from Franz Ferdinand... go figger...
Handsome Boy Modeling School featuring Barrington Levy, Del & Alex Kapranos - World's Gone Mad
I've been a big fan of The Automator since I first heard him promoting his 1st 12" on KPOO, music to be murdered by in the way back machine... must've been 89 or 90 or so...
Here's a couple key cuts from a previous Automator Nakamura collab called Deltron 3030
Opening for The Hieroglyphics crew will be bad ass Bay Area turntablist & multimedia maestro Mike Relm, whom I featured a few samples from back in August.
The kid is a twistedly talented scratchmaster who has a great CD out called Radio Fryer that is like a mega mash mix up session that just won't quit, roaming from hip hop into Joy Division. The best part is you get two discs(!), an extra one to share with a pal...
There's some mixed tracks from him below...
His live show is getting much praise and i look forward to getting there around 10ish to catch the kid cutting live chaos in time to his viciously synched video montages, like his most famous bit utilizing the corporate lackey cult classic Office Space...
First here's a little background on the Relm, a Bay Area native and baby of the late 1970's, Mike has done the competitive turntablist scene placing in the top of the International Turntablist Federation's USA Heats. Eventually he started broadcasting on SF's Wild 94 FM, was featured in Doug Pray's critically acclaimed doc "Scratch", and worked on Qbert's Wavetwisters DVD on many other scratch related video projects. In additio to the afforementioned Radio Fryer, Relm has produced "Suit Yourself", a film documenting his tours with Money Mark, The Gift of Gab, and D-Sharp that is available on DVD).
from The Soundtrack to "Turntable Timmy", an animated series based on a so called "children's book" about a young scratching champion that featured Mike Relm & Qbert on the included CD
Thought I'd toss one more hip hop related cut at ya...
from So Cal graf artist & DJ Awol One w/ special guest KRS One... He's a member of the Shape Shifters crew, and currently on the tour across the Pacific Coast
Nov 17 2006 8:00 BIG SKY SKI RESORT BOZEMAN, Montana Nov 18 2006 10:00 ZEBRA COCTAIL LOUNGE BOZEMAN, Montana Dec 1 2006 8:00 SHAPESHIFTERS/ GRAYSKUL TOUR USA Dec 3 2006 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @CHAIN REACTION ANAHEIM, California Dec 5 2006 6:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @KNITTING FACTORY HOLLYWOOD, California Dec 6 2006 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @ELBO ROOM SAN FRANCISCO, California Jan 5 2007 8:00P HELL TOUR SKELETOUR SACRAMENTO, California Jan 6 2007 8:00P HELL TOUR SKELETOUR SAN JOSE, California Jan 7 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @TERRACE PASADENA, California Jan 8 2007 9:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR PHOENIX, Arizona Jan 9 2007 8:00P HELL TOUR SKELETOUR TUCSON Jan 11 2007 7:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR FT COLLINS, Colorado Jan 12 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado Jan 13 2007 8:00P HELL TOUR SKELETOUR DENVER, Colorado Jan 15 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR SALT LAKE CITY, Utah Jan 16 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR MISSOULA, Montana Jan 17 2007 7:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR SPOKANE, Washington Jan 18 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @ WOW HALL EUGENE, Oregon Jan 20 2007 8:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR PORTLAND, Oregon Jan 21 2007 10:00 HELL TOUR SKELETOUR @ CHOP SUEY SEATTLE, Washington
His latest solo effort has emerged on Cornerstone RAS, the Long Beach based label affiliated with Skunk records the late great Sublime.
Over the weekend, between work and the miniscule amount of play I snuck in, there was a lil' time to make a meandering post that included tracks from the SF based band Bomb.
I though today I should toss in one more related tune that is kinda fun for the whole family...at least if yer the Manson family.
Probably not so much fun if yer the Santorum Family
... a picture making the rounds, of the clan from the night Rick, the child pimpin' politician, conceded his PA Senate Seat and sent his creepy kids out for sympathy...
( insert Uncle Fester ) and we'd have a suitable casting call for a sequel to the Addams Family don't ya think...
Sorry I'm not as sad as the pictured folks, cuz here in Fugazi Country... what else is there to do but rejoice...
Party Ben's Destiny's Child vs Fugazi Mash Up - IndependentRoom
Speaking of Fugazi, Bomb singer Michael Dean used to live in Charlottesville Va and before moving to San Francisco had a band called Baby Opaque. That's who he was playing with when I first met him, at The Landsburgh Cuiltural Center in DC in October or November of 1983. It was the same room where what I believe was the last Minor Threat show occured a few weeks earlier.
This time the empty furniture storefront was hosting a Crippled Pilgrims, Nuclear Crayons, No Trend show. I think it was billed as Noise From Nowhere and maybe Mink Deville showed up to jam as well to the assembled few dozen attendees as well. Dean was a quirky character in a striped shirt, and as usaul had some sort of female attendent...
Dean's band Baby Opaque put out a single, then an album.
One of his bandmates was Michael Berube' who now teaches at Penn State & has recently been called, along with Howard Zinn and others, one of the "101 Most Dangerous Academics in America" by conservative nut hound David Horowitz. For some reason I wanna connect John Beers who would later become half of Happy Flowers to this band as well, who I believe later went by the stage name was "Mr. Horribly Charred Infant".
Happy Flowers was a comedy noise rock project ala Eugene Chadbourne meets Throbbing Gristle or something like that, and the duo had a good run on Homestead and was way more popular than you'd imagine. I don't know why I am stringing all this together, but it is leading me to the next tune anyhow, I swear!
Anyhow, Baby Opaque went up deep into the VA Beltway to record at Don Zientara's Inner Ear studios,(which was basically his basement) and Ian Mackaye of Minor Threat happenend to drop by and was cajoled into lending some backing vocals.
This is a rare recording in which Ian ( now of The Evens) sings a cover, a darn good one at that, a folk tune made most popular by Johnny Cash. Here they are decades before Me First & The Gimme Gimmes would get it together to do some country, Baby Opaque with Ian MacKaye doing Long Black Veil...
More Coming when I get time... go peruse the archives...lotsa nuggets still in there anyhow...
If that won't tide ya over Go To E Music and download 25 free Mp3'z from The Dischord Records Label back catalog and lock in a subscription before they raise the prices on Nov 21st...
Today I'm just gonna ramble on a bit & reminisce and point out and meander and randomly revelate, hope ya find it relevant...
or scary, bizarre , bloated or ponderous or whatever ya want...
hold on... cuz this blog don't stop...
I started out just emailing a pal I have, a good friend who was in a great late 80's & early 90's SF band called Bomb...
They are just awfully under appreciated and more so each day, and perhaps rightly so... but I thought I'd share a few tracks that were faves of mine...
Their music was dark, silly, evil, booming and loud... and aside from all those good things...despite even a year or so of major label status, remains relatively obscure...
So here's some Bomb mp3'z below for the hundreds of y'all that stop by each day...
plus a few more treats I find relevant this weekend as I fester at work...
Here's the basic Wiki I recently wrote for last.fm, and a few more tracks for y'all to mull over
Bomb, was the name of an acid fueled San Francisco based hard rock band started in the late 80's. They toured extensively, released several albums, including one on Warner/Reprise in 1992, but began their career with a vinyl only LP on their own Boogadigga Records circa 1987 entitled "To Elvis In Hell".
The band were known for intense music & wild onstage antics and occasional nudity featuring diminutive, deranged, drugged & demonically caterwauling singer/bassist Michael W. Dean. The guitars were a squall of affected and eerie riffs provided by Jay Crawford & Doug Hilsinger, with explosive drumming that was ominously thunderous, repetitive and tribal via the pounding of Tony Fag ( aka Short). Their first LP caught the attention of Rock and Roll scribe and historian Greil Marcus, as well as a slew of indie zines and punk rock fans across the American heartland where they toured.
They signed to Bay Area based Boner Records in 1988 who put out "Hits of Acid" on vinyl and cassette.
This record was followed up in 1989 with "Happy All The Time" a vinyl & cassette EP. At the time they were one of San Francisco's most popular local acts outdrawing local faves like Primus, Chris Isaak and 4 Non Blondes, and soon worked out a European deal with Gary Held's fledgling Revolver label to release "Lucy In The Sky With Desi" in 1990, the band's first CD, which combined material from both earlier Boner releases.
Heck, they even did a certain Depeche Mode cover that was recorded and released in Germany in 1990, a good decade or so before Johnny Cash got hipped to it by Rick Rubin...
In 1991, they attracted the attention of former Jane's Addiction manager Charley Brown, who got the band a deal with the Warner Bros. side imprint Reprise, originally founded by Frank Sinatra.
Gee do you think that song title could've dimmed their prospects with Warner Bros?
Then the band made the mistake of sending this pixelvision quality video postcard I helped edit to the Burbank offices of the label...
If that wasn't bad enough...
How about telling WB's in house legendary Van Halen / Doobie Bros./Bullet Boys producer Ted Templeman you don't want his stinking help and instead spending your budget flying out to fat worthless world music remix czar Bill Laswell's pad.
The CD/Cass that resulted was "Hate Fed Love" ponderously produced in Brooklyn by Laswell's lackey's , basically sucking most of the life out of the band's sound and creating a record that would soon flood cutout bins nationwide. Can you say Tax Write Off?
(Ironically, The Flaming Lips, another difficult to pigeonhole act that Bomb toured with, were brought on board the label at the same time with a more loving touch by a certain David Katznelson, and are still on the WB to this day. Even after Katznelson left the corporate hoo haw...)
Bomb's total lack of tour support, non-existent radio & retail promotion, infighting, spiraling speed and heroin use all doomed the band. They broke up in 1993, but eventually emerged out of rehab & ruin to play some celebratory San Francisco shows in the late 1990's and released a fan farewell CD only EP called "Lovesucker" on indie Wingnut records. Discography
CDs Eps & LPs
* To Elvis In Hell, Boogadigga LP, (1987) * Hits of Acid, Boner Records LP & Cass, (1988) * Happy All The Time, Boner Records, LP & Cass (1989) * Lucy In The Sky With Desi, Boner/Revolver CD & LP, (1990) * Hate-Fed Love, Reprise/Warner Brothers Records, LP, (1992) * Lovesucker, Wingnut Records, EP, (1999)
7" Single
* Personal Jesus/Nineteen, [Rave Records] German ltd 7" single
Compilation Appearances
JDs Top Ten Homocore Hit Parade Tape (1990) Song : Bomb - B/E/A/F/A/G
Trademark of Quality - Warner Bros. Promo CD(1992) Track #11: Bomb - Nineteen
Heck On Wheels - Warner Bros. Promo CD (1992) Track #10 : The Power of Suggestion
CMJ presents Certain Damage Vol 43 (1992) Track #18 Bomb : All My References are Dead
Michael, there singer, maintain's a website where you can download more of this band's music, see some extra vids etc, even grab some loops to mix yer own Bomb mash ups... Check it out y'all...
Another one of my favorite SF rock bands around the same time as Bomb, shared a roadie named Kyle...
He's now a daddy, and has had plenty experience babysitting the adult children in both bands...
After Bomb drove him to the brink of his sanity, he started working for Sister Double Happiness.
Eventually, they needed to do some road gigs, and my girlfriend & I would loan 'em our salvaged psychedelic painted van, painted by the former owner Bomb's nude Satanic drug shootin' dancer dude Eddy Caranaza ( R.I.P)
I ended up seeing Sister Double Happiness dozens of times over the course of a few years, and I cannot say I ever got sick of em... In fact I still go way out of my way to see their singer Gary perform almost any chance I get... Gary was the vocalist in the great Texas punk band the Dicks, and his big boomin' drama filled voice sounded like Janis Joplin and The Devil himself had got down in his gullet and were fighting over a bottle of whiskey...
But the funny thing was, he is such a teddy bear of a guy, ya can't believe this amazing & sometimes sinister wailing is coming out of him. When he was in the Dicks, Gary had a mohawk & would do stunts like perform with liver in his panties, and at the height of Sister Double Happiness' popularity, shortly after releasing their blistering debut on SST Records... he joined a monastery and considered becoming a monk...
Fortunately, after a 6 month sabbatical or so, he returned to entertain us all for awhile longer... The band whose core along with Gary included Ben Cohen on guitar & Lynn Perko on drums. They ended switching bassists a few times, and doing several more records on a variety of labels including the aforementioned Warner/Reprise, Sub Pop, plus some stuff through Dutch East India & Innerstate...
Supposedly there's an official live video called Greetings From Zurich out there as well
Here's a couple great early tracks from them recorded in the latter 80's... Sister Double Happiness - Sister Double Happiness
Here's a blurry lil web video I did for Gary Floyd's latter 90's project Black Kali Ma, about a decade later...
If ya like any of it, lemme know i can probably dig up a few more audio rarities from Gary or Bomb next time around...
For a spell, after all my fave bands broke up, one of my many jobs, was being a Taxi Driver here in SF...
Heck I even designed a color scheme for a small company a couple years back
The cab driver mystique in some ways puts these road warriors in the class of the true working class heroes... and often they are someone on the real fringe of our society...
You get your lovable curmudgeons, old outcasts, immigrants, junkies, religious fanatics and combinations thereof...
I had a Jamaican Jesus Freak Crazed Caribbean Cabbie that took me home last night blaring some religious programming...but he could just as easily been a wrap wearing Sikh who cranks the prayer hour at 5 am when I'm still drunk and trying to get my own relationship with god to just stop spinning...
I prefer the rock n roll cabbies which are fewer and far between, i know of maybe a handful left in the industry, like this guy...
Who does a highly recommended local cabbie blog of note...
Here's a few tunes with that Taxi Cab theme I thought I'd share... and later some links to other cabbie blogs around the world...
The next song here was actually written by another SF cab driver, a guy who also led a double life as a radical musician fella with his band The Looters.
Mat Callahan was a real mover and shaker out here in the music & local political scene before he moved to Switzerland. At least he was moving & shaking me out of bed with phone calls in the mid AM after I'd been out all night carousing. Lately I hear he's still producing records, and written a few books, like this one that came out recently via the always excellent AK Press.
According to the hype :
The Trouble with Music includes discussions of: technology and its effects on music making and listening; superabundance and the absence of critical thought; the development of radio; music criticism; copyright; the digital domain and the internet; labor and music making; and the special relationships between words, dance, politics, and music. A large segment of the general public seeks a relationship to music, which turns an exceptional profit for those who own and control it. Callahan provides a means of evaluating music and a powerful critique of the music industry. Whether you whistle at work, sing in the shower or conduct concertos, this book will challenge and enhance how you think about music.
Pete Seeger just says
"Yes–let's break the grip of Stars and Hits. Music could change the world. Read this book."
It includes a foreword by Boff, from Chumbawamba, go figger...
here's another track done as a duet with Yvonne Moore, this is one he used to do with the Looters back here in SF during the first Gulf War...
Mat got his start with a sort of late 70's Marxist folk group called Prarie Fire, and his next group The Looters were part of the so-called 80's "world beat" scene out here. They eventually impressed Daniel Ortega enough to be invited to play a big stadium show in Nicaragua, Jello Biafra added them to the Alternative Tentacles roster. Soon, Chris Blackwell was impressed enough to sign them to Island Records, and they were opening for acts like Ziggy Marley & Grateful Dead. Mat took the Looters advance and wisely established a recording studio & performance space collective in the Mission District where numerous bands played & rehearsed. The space ended up doing tons of benefits for struggling non profits, and was staffed by dozens of volunteersoverr the ten year run. It's the first place I saw Sister Double Happiness, and later after I started helping out there the first place I caught Chumbawamba, Sublime, Primus and many other groups too numerous to mention.
In the early 90's Mat was also involved in helping getting Michael Franti on a similar career path as his own, and Franti has since gone on to great success globally. This basically involved getting Michael's righteously chrismatic butt off of Jello's obscure non-paying indie Alternative Tentacles like Mat did and hooked up with the major label mess that was Blackwell's Island Records.
Franti was soon opening stadium shows for U2, but when back in town he was honing his act with Charlie Hunter at the Komotion space in the Mission. In the meantime Mat would be driving cab all night, and writing rock operas by day, and a few daze a week fending the cops and disrespectful punker trash away from our little hiole in the wall on 16th St...
I ended up answering phones & Franti's fan mail in our lil office in the Redstone Bldg...and getting access to something called the Internet... which meant being able to email perhaps a dozen or so people I knew in the world that also had access. There were no pictures, or web browsers... just strange networks & nodes like Fido.Net started by our friend Tom Jennings down the street.
Anyhow, after changing the lineup & sound of his group, Michael Franti soon shifted out our lives and rehearsal space on daily basis, went over to Capitol, before lately managing his own affairs, where he is currently affiliated with indie Anti Records...
Friday nite is here...and so is another Random Revelations post...
and we start with this news bulletin
R&B star Gerald Levert has suffered a heart attack & died at his home in Ohio...
Son of O' Jays lead singer Eddie Levert, Gerald scored his first R&B hit at age 20 and was known for tossing teddy bears from onstage, he was 40.
In addition to his own solo work, he'd recorded with Levert, LSG, and had a duets album last year. He also co-wrote and co-produced the late Barry White's last No. 1 R&B hit, 1994's "Practice What You Preach", and other artists including Stephanie Mills & The Winans. Ironically most younger folks may only know Levert's voice & face anonymously from the chorus of Chris Rock's spoken-word comedy single, "No Sex (In the Champagne Room)".
R.I.P Levert ( 1966 - 2000) , a guy who had access to health care, and just seems too rich, talented & young to be dead of a health related condition like that...
But according to Chris Rock, Levert's Cancer horoscope read clearly "You're Gonna Die"... it just wasn't of cancer.
here's his 1991 #1 R&B single...and a smattering of others...
and so here's one for all the old people still alive who haven't fulfilled their horoscopes
An old new wave classic, at least in my opinion, that was ironically the first song I heard when I flipped on the radio in my rental last weekend in LA.
While the election has tilted the house out of Republican control, and we have an inkling that the Senate is leaning Democrat as well, however the best news of the day is that Rumsfeld is out...
perhaps only 4 yers too late... but hey, it's a start...
Now all we need is that racist idiot George Allen to concede in Virginia and the country moves perhaps not forward, or at least somewhere ...
Macacalypse Now!!!
If Allen wants a recount, he has to lose by less than 1% and he can't request it until the vote is certified, which doesn't occur until November 27, 2006. Then he would have through December 7, 2006.
Supposedly Republicans are taking a licking in some previously "safe" districts...
All I know is that this country and planet have taken a licking for way too many years...and that ain't safe.
and here in California, the right is still grabbing power, mostly through bogus initiatives that play to people's fears and powerlessness, then entrap them in even worse scenarios than alreay exist.
The folks at Fox News have been claiming that Republican pariah Dick Cheney wasn't on the campaign trail because of his confidence in the results that will turn up after all the voting hub bub is over. Hmm, interesting theory.
Either something sinister about all those deeply flawed e-voting machines and how Republicans automatically can't lose...
or even that Dick, like all political vampires, just knows not to be seen in the light of election day...lest he strike terror in he hearts of men... a heart that he's barely holding onto as it is... Fox has speculated Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist is not appearing with President Bush at a campaign rally is "so he can hit other cities." None of the anchors mentioned the fact that Bush has a lower than 30% approval rating -- To read more, CLICK HERE.
I went to City Hall to pick up an absentee ballot awhile back...
Still haven't finished it....
I originally decided it would be easier to take my time filling out the many choices ahead of time, mainly because I don't want to be held up by anyone in front of me come Nov 7th...
Now i'm waiting behind my own procrastinating indecisiveness....
ah, so many Rank Choices... So little time...
On my way to pick up my ballot, I had to walk across the Civic Center area, where apparently our civic life is often represented by homeless crackheads, illegal immigrant drug dealers, and the occasional weekly farmer's market...
Across the plaza where the United Nation's treaty was signed, as city hall came into view, I was met ironically with the fetid stink of a truck & many blue porta johns being emptied...
Dodging that cloud of pestilence, I came upon a group of Nation of Islam supporters, hands held in a chain, with a speaker on a platform praising Our Heavenly Father, next Minister Farrakhan & for some reason praying for Fidel Castro into the mic...
Across the way on the steps, was a smaller group of Asian Americans who were being drowned out, but apparently rallying for a school board candidate and the publisher of Asian Week newspaper who is campaigning to be re-elected to the board of that darn regional commuter rail system that refuses to operate itself past midnite (unless the bridge is closed).
I sauntered around the campaign rally & entered City Hall where I was quizzed by some oblivious and young latino security staffers stationed at the metal detectors about who all the protesters were...
They shrugged as they had heard of neither group... and likely weren't big Bob Dylan fans either...
and then I went down into the basement to pick up my absentee ballot, which is in three languages & five large oversized pages, plus two more pages of instructions... and of course a large envelope to contain everything in.
The best part was having the concept of ranked choice voting carefully explained to me by the bookish staffer. Because my district supervisor race isn't in play this year, the rank choice portion for me only applies to two citywide races. The two races that are eligible for this electoral procedure, the City Assessor-Recorder & Public Defender elections, are two that each have only one candidate... running unopposed... I guess no one wants these jobs, or even to come in second.
So the ballot requests you must make three ranked choices, each different from the last, although there is oddly only one name to choose from.
Conundrum for the Dumb?
go figger...
that's so SF in a nitwit nutshell...
We proudly & expensively present to you more complex choices than you can possibly make...
Meanwhile let's hope the real will of the real salt of the earth out there is in tune with how far we need to come in this country...
The mainstream corporate news have found other issues to pay attention to this year, rather than the Mexican election general strikes & blockades, and now the riots and rampant brutality occuring in the city of Oaxaca.
What with all the celebrity adoptions in Africa, Republican sex scandals involving evangelicals, fundraisers & creepy congressmen, bad John Kerry jokes, backdated stock options and whatever, it's wonder we have time to focus on anything else anymore...
What began in the spring as a protest by striking teachers and left-wing activists against corrupt state governor Ulises Ruiz, has evolved into a very unstable and dangerous situation. At least a dozen people have been killed, and more injuries, beatings and acts of violent retribution are widespread since Vincente Fox sent in the federales.
Here's a picture of Mexico's Federal Preventive Police officers assisting a member of the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) , from November 2nd 2006, in Oaxaca, Mexico. At last reports the federales had circled the last remaining strongholds of protestors at the Benito Juarez University and were casually reminding them that they should all go back to class and pretend nothing is wrong.
The APPO claims they still have the city, but obviously the strength of their movement has been seriously challenged by the heavy presence of military hardware and troops.
The government have broken the people's siege with the help of tanks, water cannons and widespread use of gas fired from helicopters. The civilian resistance continues to hold the local student radio station, and says the police have partially retreated from some areas. The APPO radio is calling for the people to come down to the University area. They request that people stay united & support the movement, to leave their homes, bring medical supplies, including Coca Cola and vinegar for the burning eyes of those hiit by the gas attacks.
It is believed that by request of the government forces, The Red Cross is unable to assist any APPO supporters with injuries and many elderly, children and injured adults are in dire need of medical help.
Here is a song they played today on Radio Universidad that is broadcasting the news of the APPO and their struggle against the Mexican government and the corrupt regime of regional governor Ruiz.
It's a song from late Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, written just a few months prior to Allende's murder by the US/CIA supported Pinochet in 1973. The song runs with the populist refrain "The People United Will Never Be Defeated". His collaborators on the tune were the foremost folk group of the time Quilapayun...
Ortega, who escaped to France during Pinochet's murderous reign died in France in 2003...ironically four days after the 30th anniversary of the bloody coup d’etat. His remains were repatriated for burial in Chile.
If all this seems somewhat esoteric to you, and unrelated to your life here in the U S of A, realize that the world is a small place with millions of people suffering unjustly, and our nation's collective economic and military policy are amongst the prime reasons.
For example in the above mentioned Chiean coup of 1973, it is widely known that the US government was in full support of Pinochet's actions that took out a democratically elected government. Thousands were tortured, and dissapeared, a reign of terror that still haunts millions of it's citizens, as a vibrant nation was radically transformed from an open society to a fascist dictaorship overnight.
In a few years leading up to the coup, our government spent millions creating creating strikes, disinformation campaigns, funding political groups, and training death & torture squads. All the while we were conferring with corporate stakeholders like ITT & Anaconda mining, who would later offer jobs to the dirty tricksters & bureaucrats in Washington and stations abroad who enabled the activities.
U.S. intelligence officials in Chile & Washington met with Pinochet's hard rightwing reps for months before the coup, and our warships stood by off the coast of Valparaiso to give symbolic support for Pinochet's illegal & brutal military insurgency. Once the coup was complete the US released millions more in economic aid & funding as a reward to the new regime.
In fact, historic release of intelligence documents shows that the US government not only supported taking out Allende, they never wanted him in and had been determined to keep him him out in the first place.
In 1964, 9 years before Pinochet's military overthrow, The US had actually spent more money influencing Chilean politics and keeping Allende out of office the first time he ran unsucessfully for president than was spent by both US Presidential ( Goldwater vs Johnson) campaigns that year.
The US was ultimately very concerned that if Allende's brand of "social democracy" actually worked, and people benefitted in some way, that the interests of US corporations could be hurt.
Allende's wife in 1975 said that over a four decade period US mining interests lead by " the copper companies earned $420 billion on original investments totalling $35 million."
Allende, a doctor, had created programs to feed and educate the poor, and do some actual wealth re-distribution.
What if the idea of poor people actually having a voice spread to Argentina, Venezueala, Guatemala, or even across the ocean to Spain, Greece or Africa?
Or god forbid, New Orleans and Oakland?
Now we are supposedly speading our darn good and pretty smart democracy to Iraq, while Latin American countries increasingly awken and vote in politicians who look a lot more like Allende than a Bush, Kissinger, Pinochet or Negroponte.
Meanwhile today in Oaxaca, Low flying military helicopters are continuously dropping tear gas on protesters, while armored cops swing batons indiscriminately at groups of civilian resistors. Barricades of junked cars remain in various locations, and poor people of all ages are scrambling for cover.
The Federal Government troops are violently pushing into the area, and want to take control of the AM radio station known as Radio Universidad that has spread the words of teachers, students, workers, indigenous people, and others the Mexican government wants silenced.
Tanks and large machinery were used in Oaxaca today and thousands of women, children, and men were protesting in the streets, most simply & peacefully resisting and marching. There are reports that several more protesters were killed during the incursion of the police, including a child. Many who have been abducted were taken to Ixcotel Penitentary and military camps and are being beaten & interrogated there. Federal poloice and plainclothes agents of the state are also raiding and destroying homes in Oaxaca, as already happened in Atenco.
The APPO radio says two tanks were disabled, and calls for protestors to continue disabling the miltary vehicles, by using paint stripper on the electronics, and burnt oil on the windscreens.
For an mp3 stream of an APPO broadcast click to tune in here
Fortunately we are mostly spared this in our newscasts as Madonnas adoption style, Reese Witherspoons divorce, droll & unending streams of sports world trivia, and John Kerry's weak humor clog the US headline machine. The latest scandal to distract us all of course will be the pastor that puts out... Ted Haggard, the outed evangelical Christian leader dude who apparently leads a double life that includes sucking dick, paying for buttsex & doing meth, and then preaching about hating fags ...
Gotta love this clip from Jesus camp...
meanwhile back on the battlelines in Oaxaca
Supporters of the Popular Assembly of the People walk in Oaxaca last week where the months long protest has turned increasingly violent as Mexican State Police and vigilantes skirmish with masked civilians at blockades and throughout the city.
Here is a picture of a policeman who was apprehended by protestors and accused of thieving before being tied to a lamp post and publically ridiculed the other day.
it appears that a bomb went off outside PayPal's 4 story HQ in San Jose on Tuesday eve. A window was shattered, but no one was injured, even with dozens of employees onsite. Even if merely a Halloween prank, the incident remained suspicious enough for ATF & FBI agents to converge and employees told to work from home on Weds. The SJ Mercury News got some dumb relatively random paranoid of employees & Animal Rights activists conspiracy quotes from some quickly rounded up so-called experts just to liven up the news report.
`You're a target if you have a commodity that's of any particular value, whether it's home invasion or the CEO being kidnapped. It doesn't have to be a terrorist group; it could be the Animal Liberation Front,'' said Forrest Franklin, director of operations for Focus Group Consultants in Carson City, Nev., who has worked as a consultant for Silicon Valley companies. ``If you've got 3,000 people in your company, you've got 3,000 potential perps.''
Ken Silva, chief security officer for VeriSign, agreed that such attacks can come from disgruntled employees.
`
Uh, get on the clue train guys....Let's Face it, PayPal has no shortage of enemies, like those with frozen accounts, and others with unsatisfactory dealings, some that recently resulted in a million dollar class action settlement paid out in 28 states. The EBay owned financial transaction service provides extremely weak customer service and has upset many with it's less than satifactory resolution process. Wired speculates further with a snarky article called... Top Ten Reason You'd Want To Bomb PayPal
So last night in San Francisco, amidst a sea of boys dressed like girls and ghouls, and girls dressed like Playboy Bunnies, a buncha juveniles with no common sense, but armed with guns started shooting near the Castro during Halloween.
I was down the street avoiding all the dangerous gawker types, bridge & tunnel fools, and goo gawwing yee haws...
So I kinda knew better than to enter the fray...
call me wise,
or chicken shit ...
either way...
I didn't have time for it...and that's sad, because i have time for all kinds of other bullshit...
like taking these pix...
as for the deranged onslaught of violent youths...
It sadly is not surprising...
a few years ago the neighborhood revellers who are less 7 less from the neighborhood were interrupted with a knife attack by some kids who came in from "bad neighborhoods" for trouble making...
I got some bad vibes from thugs on the street on my way around last night and i was just wearing a clown nose...
Despite the so called vigilance & best efforts of police & neighborhood organizers, the bottlenecking of people going in and out of the event is where the shooting occured.
I notice that the shooting also occcured relatively early, in fact just after the music was turned off and police started making announcemnets to go home...
wonder if just letting people go about their partying like years ago would have helped... I mean would any of this happened if the event was less "controlled"?
Who knows...
the fact is
times have changed... and kids have guns.
Great...
maybe old people like me should be armed now too?
Actually my instincts are too just avoid large crowds...
and so i did last night...
after a bit of running about, I retired to adult landia to catch some live bands South of Market at the 21+ sanctuary of Annie's Social Club...
or something like that... I soon came back to the mission and saw the streams of bleary eyed Halloweeners coming in from the Castro district down 17th...
I was safely tucked into a local bar...at a sorta door person controlled private party, hanging out with old friends...and keeping busy with booze, and buddies and not worrying about the guy gettting pummeled outside by two skateboarding thugs into a bloody pulp...
although I heard about it...later
Anyhow...
Last year at the same bar I hung out in a corner with my pal Bone Cootes
this year I did not...maybe he knew the night would be Cursed...
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some o my recently played tracks
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But first a few tracks from the late Anita O'Day .. one of the great ladies of jazz, a woman who earned her living on the road, and could act, scat, scoot and skedaddle... 
to Sonic Youth performing in the parking lot in 1989, to this recent Chris Isaak appearance from You Tube.
and an out of print import from Elvis Costello's Demon imprint of "The Wild Sound of Tousan", which was Allen Toussaint's 1958 RCA instrumental debut.
and a Johnny Thunders retrospective CD with a DVD included.
The city that's so expensive & hip that none of the cab drivers even live here anymore, or evebn speak English and have never heard of anywhere you are going, but are cranking "the prayer hour" on their radios so loud you can't hear your Blackberry playing the mash up remix of yer new ringtone...
The track below is from Lyrics Born and features that afforementioned Homosapien of a Funky nature. Originally released on his "Same $%*+, Different Day" album, the track has now been ressurected with fresh vocal contributions as a guitar saturated bonus cut on the new Lyrics Born live disc 
I went out and celebrated after I cashed a check last night for selling some video footageof my encounter with Borat to G4 TV, the ICONS show it's used in airs on Sunday night... 
from The Soundtrack to "Turntable Timmy", an animated series based on a so called "children's book" about a young scratching champion that featured Mike Relm & Qbert on the included CD
They are just awfully under appreciated and more so each day, and perhaps rightly so... but I thought I'd share a few tracks that were faves of mine...
