Gotta Keep Rollin'

I'm driving down into LA this weekend for a quick jaunt in & out Friday & Saturday...

Hope I miss the rain that's supposedly coming & hopefully going before I get there...

Snoop Dogg ft The Doors - Riders On The Storm

I've got a nutty pal whose also trying to get me to go see The Who in Fresno on Sunday. All I know is that would be way to much time spent driving around out there... in the, gulp, Central Valley.

The valley itself is a long stretch of not much of nothing, at least culturally significant..which has made it the proud prime meth origination spot in the nation...

California authorities busted over 2,200 labs in the year 2000...

Little nowhere towns off the beaten path like Turlock, Manteca ( Spanish for Lard)
Los Banos ( Spanish for shithole) have long been popular outposts for hopelessly deviant drugged out California speed tweakers.

I knew some Central California tweakers once who were involved in finding some ornate stored antique European brass bridge railings in crates that they had melted down for a pittance in scrap metal money...

Dark Meat - Angel of Meth

Originally Meth was used on trooops and war workers during WWII to keep them going , Japan supposedly had a full scale meth addiction epidemic in the 1940s. By the 50s, speed was popular with Beatniks, and housewives..bikers and truck drivers. By the 1960's, Amphetamines were fairly mainstream, with President Kennedy even getting Vitamin & Energy Shots weekly.



Lou Reed was always known as a chemical cowboy, and you just know he had to be on something when he was making music like this... the 8-track Hall of Fame release Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music

Lou Reed - Metal Machine Music Pt 1

Eventually , with help of biker gangs and nowadays since the late 80's a highly organized latino drug mafia, Meth is everywhere...not just our lowly lil central valley.

Alaska had 66 speed labs seized in 2004... more than quadruple the number of just 4 years earlier...

Arkansas authorities seized more than 800 labs in 2004, double the amount in Texas a state w/ 10x the population.


Here's a 60 second PSA about the drug produced by Patrick Mandingo for Spokane Washington...

Meth PSA.mp3

here's a link to a recent PBS Frontline on the epidemic, where you can watch the whole thing online...

perfect way to kill time for all you tweakers reading this

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/meth/

Sic Pleasure - Speed Rules


Vibrators - Amphetamine Blue


Throwing Muses - Speed & Sleep


Fishmonkeyman - The Man Who Took Speed


Michael Holland - Crystal Meth Freak From California


Mark Lanegan w/Josh Homme - Methamphetamine Blues


DJ BC vs Wu & Louis Armstrong - When The Meth Comes Marching In



God knows, I love a good time as much as anyone...but why the cranky powder appeals to people is beyond me. I understand the physiological flava of the whole shebang...but if ya ever spent anytime around someone "enjoying" their speed binge, that experience seems like it should be enough to scare ya straight...

All I know is I'll be shopping at one of those truckstops in a few hours alongside folks like the chick above...and i just can't wait to see that concert crowd in Fresno...

If Ya Ever end Up on Ol' Hwy 5 , Here's Some Old Fashioned Central Valley Style Hillbilly Truckin Music For Yer Journey...

Hoyt Axton - Gotta Keep Rollin'

Buck Owens - Waiting In Your Welfare Line

Merle Haggard - The Bottle Let Me Down

Troy Hess - Please Don't Go Topless Mother


Now for something Completely Different:


As I dutifully reported last month, former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is coming stateside, and has added a second show in NYC to meet demand. His biggest US showcase will be at Coachella, in front of tens of thousands...

Not sure how all this will translate commercially over here, at least for a semi-obscure Brit singer whose current CD's hidden emphasis bonus track features the corporate radio friendly refrain "Cunts Are Still Running The World"

Jarvis Cocker - Quantum Theory

In honor of my excursion south towards the magic kingdom tonight, here's another track from Jarvis' latest disc

Jarvis Cocker - Disney Time


anyhow

excuse me now, but the staff are waiting for me here, so i gotta get going...