These Are A Few Too Much of My Favorite Things Syndrome

If I have to attend one more holiday party, I may burst.

I might have a touch of "These Are A Few Too Much of My Favorite Things" syndrome...which can lead in only one direction, likely GOUT.

I will though anoint thee with an invite to attend the Bay Area's Xmess party to end all X-mess parties...

I'll be kicking down some holiday mixes for the gathering, and if ya ask nice, will give ya a disc to keep as a stocking stuffer...

Greetings and Happy Holidays,

On Sunday, December 23rd, at San Francisco's Make Out Room, GIBBSMO is proud to present The Parker Brothers Christmas Spectacle. Please join us for a night of rocking holiday classics performed by the Parker Brothers and including their very special guests: Beth Lisick, Chuck Prophet, Stephanie Finch, Kelley Stoltz, Mark Eitzel, CVS, Tom Armstrong, Ralph Carney, Marc Capelle, Brian and Sandra Mello, Eric Moffat, Phil Crumar, Tippy Canoe and Spiral Stairs ( formerly of Pavement).

Also featured will be the hilarious (and bawdy!) comedic stylings of Johnny Megget and Chris Portfolio, as well as classic holiday reading by Pete Simonelli.

There will be someone bi-polar dressed as Santa, a snow machine, decorations, a tree, elves, drink specials and some other festive crap. The only thing missing will be your drunk uncle, and trust me, I will be channeling him all night.

A portion of proceeds will benefit the SF Food Bank and there will be a raffle featuring fabulous prizes from DEMA, Open Mind Music, Cha Cha Cha, Savers, RubyDolls, Event Magic, Lil Tuffy and anything else I can clean out of my garage and slap gift wrap on.

Tickets are available in advance thru the Make Out Room's website at: www.makeoutroom.com, or you can risk getting them at the door.

Santa and Gary the Magical Jewish Unicorn informed me it's probably going to sell out... or maybe not. But still, better safe than sorry suckers...

Uh, This is a dressy event, so act like you are appearing in court.

Thanks everybody.

Happy Holidays and I hope to see you all there!

Cheers,

GIBBSMO & friends...

What: Parker Brothers Christmas Spectacle

Where: The Make Out Room, 3225 22nd St, SF CA, 94134

When: December 23rd, ( that's two days before Christmas, and one day before you are calling in sick to work.

Why: To benefit the SF Food Bank and to spread holiday cheer.

Watch: Doors at 8pm. Show begins at 8:30

Cost: $10 with 2 cans of food. $15 without.

Please forward this notice only to people who like to get their Santa on.

www.gibbsmo.com

I will be there, and hopefully still standing...

I've found myself in bars a lot lately, and nothing unusual there I suppose.

This past week, I was at two different tiki bars on opposite sides of the bay Thursday & Friday night.

Thursday's find was a delightful oasis I spotted on a basically bland stretch of Oakland residential surface streets...

Check out the Kona Club if ya find yerself near the intersection of Piedmont & Pleasant Valley Ave. I guess it's been there for exactly two years, but no one tells me these things...



It's apparently the product of the vivid imagination's of Crazy Al Evans & Bamboo Ben, two dudes who obviously made this joint a labor of love. They took a ratty run down english pub and painstakingly transformed it into a tiki heaven. The place is kept tropically cozy, even clean & tidy. The staff I met is friendly, drinks are exceptional, and exceptionally cheap when one compares what I spent at the Tonga Room the next night.

Yes that very same Tonga room in the Fairmont Hotel where a cheery cheesy cover band comes out on a party barge in the middle of a man made indoor lagoon . It rains every 15 minutes, and last call is at midnight, even on a Friday night go figger...

Then, needing extra libation, I was swept up into a cab, and ended my evening traversing the streets of the mission district between the 500 club, Kilowatt & Benders, finally shutting the dawn down at home with a cold bottle of Fernet and some roommates...

The next night, high in the east bay hills, far from the tropical concoctions, I entered the red wine zone. At a house party I was privy to a lot of very fine red wine drinking. Some Italian stuff was popular at first, but then a double magnums of 1996 Chateau St. Jean Reserve Cabernet was opened. That was a nice 3 liter black cherry and cassis burst, but then several bottles of mid 1990's "Cinq Cepages" went down rather quick as well.

For those not anal about grape juice, those 1996 Cinq Cepages were rated wine of the year by the Wine Spectator upon release, and are actually made of a blend of five red Bordeaux grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Merlot and Petite Verdot. I suppose a couple bottles these days are going for about $300-500 and all the wine we drank down on Saturday night would collectively be worth about at least a couple grand easy, if you could find any of this stuff at all...

Then again back when I lived in Sonoma in the mid 1990's, I was getting a lot of Chateau St. Jean product out the uh, "back door" for as low as $50 a case...

But those were the uh, good ol daze, and still money don't matter to me... Since I ain't ever had much. I'm all about da music...

And that's what I'm livin for this week again I suppose...

I gotta end this posting nonsense so I can get back to planning my holiday getway to L.A and then Las Vegas where I can see the one and only Cheap Trick playing on Dec 27th.

Cheap Trick - The Magical Mystery Tour

Tomorrow night, I'm apparently headed to see the legendary retired pimp & soul meister named Darondo at the Rickshaw...

Compared to contemporaries like Sly Stone & Al Green, Darondo walked away from the biz decades ago, and was only recently rediscovered for reissue by Ubiquity label. So they put together the album "Let My People Go", and brit DJ Gilles Peterson also got in on the action for his "Digs America" series.


Apparently Darondo had moved to Sacramento and is making a one night sorta appearance back in SF after decades away from the scene. So we hope it goes down boffo, should be funky, soulfully slick if not downright awesome...

Darondo - Sure Know How To Love Me


Darondo - Let My People Go


I hope he's aged as well as the wine I had on Saturday...

Anyhow...

Hope to see some folks down at the holiday party on Sunday at the Makeout Room


If not, we'll see ya in the coming months next year I assume...

Here's some additional happy holiday tuneage to close out this post fer the needy amongst us...




Ian Anderson ( of Jethro Tull) - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen

Bootsy Collins - Sleigh Ride

Southern Culture On The Skids - Merry Christmas Baby

James Brown - Let's Make Christmas Mean Something This Year


Daniel Johnston - Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer

See Ya'll...