Michelangelo Antonioni died yesterday. He was partially paralyzed by a stroke in 1985 and unable to speak for the last 22 years.

 

He began his career in the 1930s but really began to make a name for himself in the 1950's.  While his peers made gritty, immediate neo-realist films focusing on social issues and the struggles of the poor; Antonioni used film to examine the space between bourgeois characters with a highly refined and stylized directorial aesthetic.



In 1960 he released L'Avventura  starring the iconic Monica Vitti. It was a radical departure from European film before it. It remains an amazing depiction and evocation of alienation and dread. Its title is seemingly ironic (although "avventura" also means "fling" apparently in addition to "adventure").

His subjects were almost always aimless, wealthy and unhappy. The films invariable had very long takes, minimal dialog and a surface that prevents the viewer from coming up with easy answers to Antonioni's implied questions.  L'Avventura and his subsequent films practically filled the screen with emptiness. Il Deserto Rosso (1964), his first color film, remains one of the bleakest and most beautiful films I've ever seen. I'm sure Criterion will "present" it in the months to come. It also has one of Giovanni Fusco's best scores, mostly consisting of disconcerting electronic beeps and belches (and silence) not to mention amazing Carlo Di Palma's amazing and ground-breaking cinematography.

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Last Thursday night I watched the second episode of "Mad Men" - the engaging and very stylish new TV drama on (of all places)  AMC about the business and home/family lives of  young upwardly mobile American ad men in the very beginning of the sixties. The show, which was created by former Sopranos * writer//producer Matthew Weiner, perfectly nails the whole style and feel of that era in American history when things were radically different from today, both socially and culturally. It was a time when everyone seemed to smoke cigarettes, often chain-smoke, and also happily knock back cocktails after work everyday.   And do it sans any guilt or conscience whatsoever. Different times indeed!


As the show reminds us it was time when people weren't  all caught up in safety issues. A different time for sure when one didn't fuss with such silly distractions as putting on seat belts while driving.  As last week's episode showed, neither mom nor her kids in the back of the car had seat belts on when she had a little crash.  And speaking of mom. This was before the idea of women's rights was a common concept across America. Men were cads, or at least could act that way towards women.  (Although you can tell that in this well written script that their dominant ways will not go unchallenged by all women for too long). As well as getting away with being cads men also got all the good jobs too. Women, it seems, were either wives who stayed home or else single women who became secretaries in offices like the Madison Avenue one in Mad Men where they're likely to be subjected to harrasement - except this was eons before the concept of sexual harrassement really existed. 

City Lights Home Video

The new album by the new band the 1990's comes out today. I am a bit surprised there is not a band called the 1980's. There is for sure enough bands copying and sometimes reinventing the sounds of the 80's. But since it is now reaching the late 2000's, it has come time for bands to start reinventing the 1990's. Very soon there will be a whole bunch of bands sounding just like Nirvana and L7. There are already a group of bands reinventing the sounds of 90's rave. Shoegaze and Britpop never really stopped existing. The indie rock sound that sort of came into existence in the 90's is still as strong as ever. The new album by the 1990's is called "Cookies." And it actually is sounding a bit 90's. But in a good way.

The 1990's are from the great town that is Glasgow, Scotland. This great little town, which I recently found out is not really that little, has already brought us Franz Ferdinand, Belle & Sebastian, the Fratellis, Bis, Mogwai, and The Yummy Fur. Two member of the 1990's were in the Yummy Fur. Lead Singer, Jackie McKeown and bassist, Jamie McMorrow. This should remind you a bit of Franz Ferdinand. Both Paul Thomson and Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand were in The Yummy Fur. If you like Franz Ferdinand, you would probably like the 1990's. But they really don't sound that much alike. They are reminding me a bit of Imperial Teen. Imagine a British or Scottish Imperial Teen or maybe Sloan or Phoenix. They also remind me of that other 90's band Pavement. They are one of those bands that create wonderful little catchy pop songs. It is very easy to get addicted to these songs. The same thing happened with me and the band Sloan. All I wanted to do was listen to Sloan after I first heard them. This could easily happen to you after listening to these guys. It was what I liked so much about the fun music that was 90's britpop. Bands like Blur and Supergrass were just fun to listen to.

In addition to being the setting for countless movies including Clint Eastwood's "Escape From Alcatraz" and Burt Lancaster's "Birdman of Alcatraz" the island of Alcatraz aka "The Rock" has also been the setting for some music videos. Eighties metal guitar gods the Scorpions chose the former prison setting, smack in the middle of the San Francisco Bay as their set backdrop for the video of their  popular song "No One Like You." (see clip below).

The next decade horror-core, hardcore Sacramento producer/rapper Brotha Lynch Hung  got permission to shoot on Alcatraz for scenes for one of his music videos. During the overnight shoot Brotha Lynch Hung swore on his life to me, in an interview for XXL at the time,  that he witnessed a ghost in one of the creepy abandoned old cells on the small island.

Listed as a historic landmark for over twenty years the best way to access daily tours of Alcatraz (home to the oldest operating lighthouse on the west coast) these days is by taking the ferry from either the Fisherman's Wharf in SF or from the other direction: Angel Island and Tiburon. For more information on Alcatraz, which is well worth a visit and is administered by the National Park Service click here. 

Like the close by and even bigger  Angel Island, where you can even camp by booking in advance, a lot of times people who live in the immediate Bay Area tend to never bother to visit (outside of mandatory guided trips when they are kids in school) and this is too bad because often what is on our own doorstep is worth a visit over a lot of out-of-town destinations. The state park of  Angel Island, is  probably the best and most immediate rural , remote-feeling getaways for those who live in SF but who don't have a car to drive for miles/hours on end.

 

During the 80’s and early 1990’s, there was an effort by Hollywood to make movies about Latinos but rarely did you see Latinos actually played by Latinos. During my back injury I watched a slew of movies from that era, including Scarface and Carlito’s Way. In Scarface, Al Pacino played a Cuban refugee with F. Murray Abraham as a Cuban as well. In Carlito’s Way, Pacino played a Puerto Rican. In each role Pacino had a terrible accent. I also watched Altered States with Thaao Penghlis, a Greek actor from Australia, playing the role of Prof. Eduardo Eccheverria, a professor from Mexico. In the movie, Thaao doesn’t try to hide his Aussie accent. I guess Hollywood figured his dark skin would suffice. To top it off, I watched Lou Diamond Phillips play Ritchie Valens in La Bamba and Angel Guzman, a former Chicano gang member turned math wiz in Stand And Deliver. Phillips is everything but Chicano. He, according to his bio, is of American of Scotch-Irish, Hawaiian, Cherokee, Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese descent.


During that time period, it seemed like no effort was made to use Latinos in staring roles, even if the movie was about Latinos, unless you were James Edward Olmos. Olmos played most of the big roles during that era. He played Jaime Escalante in Stand And Deliver, Abraham Quintanilla in Selena, police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice and starred and directed the prison gang classic, American Me. This led to the classic joke by La Cucaracha’s satirist Lalo Alcaraz,
“He’s in Olmos every movie!”

The only other Latino actor that worked as much as Olmos during that time was actress Lupe Ontiveros. Lupe was a graduate from Texas Woman's University in Denton Texas who relocated to Los Angeles and got into acting by accident. She claims to have played the role of a maid over 300 times in her career between her stints in movies, television and theatre. She portrays a maid in El Norte, Goonies, Charlie’s Angels and Fame, just to name a few. One of the only roles that she didn’t play a maid or a women with a heavy accent was in the movie Chuck And Buck, made by Puerto Rican filmmaker Miguel Arteta, in which she plays a Beverly Hills executive. Even the pseudo-ultra hip, Sex In The City had her as a maid. Perhaps there was liberation for rich straight white females, but not for the Latinas.

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So I’m back after a small hiatus. First, my back kept me in bed for a week. All I could do was lie on my back and watch endless hours of T.V. After my back got a little better, it was time to hit the studio with my band, Monte Carlo 76. We have been writing our second record for close to three years now and to finally hit to the studio is a welcomed relief. During this time it has been painful to sit for long periods of time. Even as I write this I am on my knees with my laptop on my bed rather than sitting at my desk. I still managed to check out a few bands (Calle 13, Ely Guerra and Manejo Beto…more on them later) and I recorded all my keyboard tracks. I just had to do all this while standing up.

If you are under 25 and you are reading this, remember this; Take care of yourself because the older you get it becomes so much harder to recover from injuries, especially if you don’t take care of yourself. I will recover, but like I said, it’s taking a lot longer then it used to.

Before you start second guessing that you clicked on the right blog, I’ll explain myself. While I’m known to ogle a pretty gal now and again, the reason for my purchase is for one woman in particular: Sandra Bernhard. 

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This week legendary Motown songwriter Ron Miller died at age 74.

Miller got his professional start in the music business in the 1960s, when Motown founder Berry Gordy saw him perform at a piano bar and invited him to Detroit as one of the label's first songwriters and record producers. His songs have been recorded by many leading artists, including Judy Garland, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Ray Charles. "For Once in My Life," written with Orlando Murden, is one of the most recorded songs in history, with more than 270 versions, according to All Music Guide. A rendition by Tony Bennett and Stevie Wonder won a Grammy award this year. In 2005, Charles' and Gladys Knight's version of Miller's "Heaven Help Us All" picked up the best gospel performance Grammy.

Born in Chicago, Miller was a die-hard Cubs fan, who wrote his first sad song as a child about his beloved but hapless team, his daughter said. Before meeting Gordy at the piano bar, Miller made ends meet by selling washing machines and taking odd jobs. He served in the Marines, as well, and was stationed all over the world. Throughout the 1970s, Miller wrote the book and lyrics to many musicals, including "Daddy Goodness" and "Cherry," based on William Inge's "Bus Stop." Barbra Streisand recorded "I've Never Been A Woman Before," from the musical, for her "The Way We Were" album.

"My father will be reborn every time someone sings one of his songs," Lisa Dawn Miller said. "When they feel joy or sadness or any emotion, that will be my dad and his words." Miller is survived by his wife, Aurora Miller, and six children. Here is a list of some of his songs:

Saturday July 28

Rowdy Roddy Piper in

John Carpenter's They Live

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

http://www.amoeba.com
http://www.video-maniacs.com
http://www.newbevcinema.com http://www.myspace.com/newbeverlymidnights

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reposting for the New Bev:


The New Bev Is Back!!!

PLEASE please please come support the New Bev, we need your attendance and promotional help more than ever right now!!!

Help honor Sherman's memory by watching some quality films at his theater!!!


Friday and Saturday its 3D YES 3D 70's porn!!!!!

THE WILDCAT WOMEN & THE PLAYMATES both in 3D so everything they got is comin' at ya!! Playing at 7:30 both nights as well as at 4:30 on Saturday.



Also Saturday night, we have an Amoeba midnight show with John Carpenter's

THEY LIVE

at midnight. Yes, the one with Roddy Piper.



And all you 80's fans will be in heaven on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with

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Here is an odd assortment of events that happened on this day in history, July 27th.

Charlotte Corday, the assassin of Jean-Paul Marat 1768, is born as is the great Leo Durocher, 1906, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants.

Vocalist, producer and songwriter, Harvey Fuqua is born 1929, Doc Pomus in 1925 and Bobbie Gentry in 1944.

Another recent victim of visa problems entering the US to perform, UK based and Sri Lankan singer/rapper and designer M.I.A. has apparently overcome her American immigration issues this time around and will be performing all scheduled shows including a highly recommended free instore at Amoeba Music, Berkeley (2455 Telegraph Ave.) this Saturday at 2pm!

Yes, the scheduled Saturday afternoon show with the artist often associated with Diplo is due to kick off at 2PM but, as regulars to Amoeba Berkeley already know, space is somewhat limited when it comes to in-stores at the East Bay location so get there early if you want to secure a good vantage point - especially for this artist who will most likely attract a large turnout.

Expected during the performance, which will be followed by a meet-and-greet/signing session with the artist who just celebrated her 30th birthday last week, will be her performing tracks from her last album (the critically acclaimed 2005 Arular which launched her unique blend of hip-hop, ragga, grime, and baile-funk Stateside) and her soon-to-drop new album "Kala" (due out August 21st)  featuring the song Boyz. (check out the colorful, mutli-cultural music video for this new single below -scroll down past "Continue reading") 

Good word has it that if you buy either the vinyl 12" or CD version of the new M.I.A. single at Amoeba Berkeley on Saturday that you will  receive a certificate good for two bucks off the ablum "Kala" when it drops in August plus a limited edition bandanna designed by the musician/designer herself (while supplies last). For full details/restrictions, click here. 

Etta James has been hospitalized.

She is having some kind of complications from abdominal surgery she had last month. 

She's 69 years old, which still sounds young to me! 

Miss Etta James indisputably has one of the great voices of all time.   Here she is performing "Only Time Will Tell"


I just learned that Etta lived in San Francisco in the 50s.  Pretty awesome to imagine her here, kicking around our city. 

She's still a touring artist and apparently had to cancel dates due to her hospitalization.  Hopefully she'll be back out on the road before long.

Tales From the Crypt. Do you remember that show? I sure do. This was before HBO became the best place to watch television shows. But they still had some good programming. Long before we were all addicted to Six Feet Under and The Sopranos. Tales From the Crypt ran on HBO from 1989-1996. The show would have probably not survived and for sure not been as good if it were just on regular network television. Shows like the Twilight Zone were able to still be amazing on network TV without showing any nudity or graphic violence. But these were different times. We were all accustomed to seeing a lot of blood and violence with our horror at this point. And HBO could get away with that. The great thing about this show was its guest stars. Each episode had a new batch of guest stars. So it sort of was like "The Twilight Zone" or "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" of the early 90's. I tried to watch the show whenever I got a chance. But I have started collecting the DVD's since they started coming out in 2005. Season 6 was just released this week. And the final season comes out October 23rd.

I am not sure where my fascination with horror came from. It probably started before 1989. But this show definitely helped to cement it into my consciousness. I remember the excitement I would feel whenever I could catch an episode. The opening sequence really set up the show every evening. The Cryptkeeper was sort of the Rod Serling of the show. Maybe Rod Serling mixed with Sophia from the Golden Girls. He used a lot of those horrible jokes and puns we have all heard a million times. He was basically a sickly little skeleton voiced by  Josh Kassir. Josh has done a ton of voiceover work. But this was his shining moment. He also did the voice for the cartoon "Tales from the Cryptkeeper" which was on from 1993-1997.

It was my birthday this weekend and I got one of these new-fangled devices: The I POD.  I know I am super late on this, but hey I grew up in a household that only got rid of its wood-paneled answering machine within the last 5 years, so I have always been more than a little slow on these things, ask anyone.  Despite the existence of this blog, I am not a huge fan of technology. 

So, the I Pod. 

I drive a car that's from 1993.  It has its original stereo, a tape deck.  At the suggestion of other more technologically inclined folks in my life, I've tried getting CDs to play in there with the whole tape-to-CD Walkman contraption, to no avail.  I resigned myself to listening to tapes and the radio, and had given up hope on anything else.  When it was suggested to me to try an I Pod, I scoffed in said suggestor's face.  I didn't even want to give it a go.  But I was eventually convinced and to my amazement, the suggestor's  I Pod WORKED....I realized I could listen to ANYTHING I WANTED IN MY CAR!  But I STILL didn't want to cave and get an I Pod.  Technology, you see.  It scares me.  Like I said, I just am not a fan.  Too complicated.

Also, I am kind of old skool in general.  I like to play records.  I consider records a superior way to "take" my  music.  It sounds the best.  I know that sounds maybe snobby, but I truly believe it.  I like to see artwork.  I like to see liner notes.  I like to feel and smell and see all of it together....I guess what I am saying is that at its best music is a sensual experience for me.  The idea of this little computer holding all of that seems kind of cold and most definitely uninviting.

This weekend, on Saturday (July 28th),  from 10AM til 1PM, is your chance to be a star when the world-famous Apollo Theater of Harlem, NY will make its once a year visit to California in search of "amateur" talent for upcoming Showtime At The Apollo shows back in New York City at the historic 125th Street venue.  This year the producers of the show will only visit five American cities outside of New York in search of talent so this is a great opportunity to try out if you are an aspiring entertainer: be it singer, rapper, spoken-word artist, comedian, dancer, musician (any instrument), etc.  And on Saturday their only West Coast tryouts will be held at the Oakland Convention Center located 1001 Broadway in downtown Oakland.  

Note if you plan on attending the tryouts (for which there is no charge and is based on a first come, first served basis) I suggest you get in line earlier than the scheduled 10AM door opening time. The first 300 in line will be admitted to audition. But even though the cut off time is 1PM the actual tryouts inside the auditorium will last long past that - until 6PM or possibly even later - so pack a sandwich and bring lots of water, and sunscreen (you might be in line outside for hours). And another tip is to get lots of rest the night before so you are at your best.

 A couple of months ago I attended one of the two-a-year tryout sessions held in New York and wrote about it for the New York Press and what amazed me most was the level of quality talent who showed up to audition.  I enjoyed the tryouts even more than the actual Amateur Night at the Apollo (held every Wednesday for the past 73 years) and am looking forward to attending the Oakland session for which I am scheduled to write a report for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Scattered … That’s where I am these days. Completely to the wind all over the west coast.

If I’m not in the middle of packing up some 250 boxes of household items, records, and books, and moving from an island in the Puget Sound back to my native LA, I ‘m sitting in a van doing a small tour back up the coast to the northwest. (Of course, first I welcomed the movers to LA, found a change of clothes, found some musical gear, bid a big hello to all my newly-arrived-to-LA crap, then said goodbye to my wife and son and hit the 5 freeway north in a van with six other band members. It’s hardly a coincidence my life is so scattered. “Can I discharge myself now, please, sir?”

Side note (about the 250, maybe even 300 boxes):  there wasn’t really a  problem with our last house, the rooms were great, yard was huge, but  the very large basement looked kind of sad and a little desperate until I filled it with crap … oh how the basement purred once it was full. So 1,100 miles and a semi-truck filled with 11,000 pounds of personal possessions later …

Truthfully, yet not exactly, the biggest excuse for not writing this week about my nearly, yet not necessarily, favorite subject (7 inch 45’s--I had promised something for the good people at Amoeba at least a week ago):  cable was finally installed in our new house and just in time for the Tour de France.

For me, July is inevitably about my birthday, BBQ’ed sausages on the 4th (just meat--none of this mango/pesto/tofu stuff, save those ingredients for a smoothie) and bicycle racing in France. My money for the 2007 Tour was on Alexandre Vinokourov. He would have been my choice to win the Tour last year but his old team, Astana-Würth, was ripped to shreds after five of its riders were implicated in the “Operación Puerto” doping case and scandal, leaving Vinokourov with only three teammates and for the most part a team without a pot to piss in (pun intended). Last year Vinokourov was never accused or implicated in the doping scandal, however as of this morning all that has changed. On Tuesday Alexandre Vinokourov tested positive for a banned blood transfusion after winning last Saturday’s time trial, prompting him and his team Astana to pull out of the Tour de France. I’m broken hearted once again. “So it ain’t so Vino.”

I finally got around to watching the most recent 北野 武, Takeshi  Kitano  dvd the other night; 2005's  Takeshis' ...


It  concerns  an established actor, Beat Takeshi, and his crossing paths with a struggling actor, Takeshi Kitano. A significant number of the cast play dual roles which I was embarrassingly  slow to comprehend, given the fairly confusing abstractions within film.  As Beat Takeshi,  Kitano plays himself as boorish  and self-important and satirizes his own artistic conventions to comic effect.  In his film-within-a-film,  he plays a  bandaged yakuza character. Annoyed by cicadas at his Okinawan hideaway, his character "unexpectedly" shoots his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.

The second half of the film grows even less conventional.  Sometimes it just seemed strange for the sake of being strange.  It moved toward abstraction like David Lynch's last few films have, as if to bait the deluded fans into comparing their own narrative reconstructions.  I started to lose a bit of interest at that point since that kind of "artistic innovation" became pretty cliché before my parents ever met.


One ingredient I quickly realized was possibly detracting from my enjoyment was the absence of longtime musical collaborator Joe Hishaishi (or, Hisaishi Joe, Mamoru Fujisawa's Nipponized version of "Quincy Jones"), whose moody, jazz  & Japanese -influenced scores have always contributed to the tone of Kitano's previous films so complimentarily. I guess Takeshi Kitano and Joe Hisaishi got into it on the set of  the amazing "Dolls" a few years back and lamentably ended their artistic arrangement. Apparently, Kitano saw Hisaishi walking in the rain with Hayao Miyazaki.
 

Not to be confused with the East Bay based Hieroglyphics producer of the same name, Domino the SoCal rapper with the Southern drawl that betrayed his real roots, who arrived  on the rap world in late 1993, was the pop-rap artist who scored hits with "Ghetto Jam" and "Sweet Potato Pie"  signed to Outburst but picked up by RAL (Rush Associated Labels) And who, despite his LBC claimed roots and his Snoop Dogg affiliations, sported a delivery that was less gangsta and leaned more towards the pop/RnB spectrum of hip-hop music:  a catchy sing-song style I guess you could call it.  Not too long after he arrived in December 1993 he scored his fiirst hit "Ghetto Jam" which garnered Gold status after six straight weeks atop the Billboard maxi-single charts. It was followed up soonafter with an even bigger hit - "Sweet Potato Pie"  (see video above). The album's groove-laden production came care of AMG and Battlecat and would prove to be Domino's only real hit. His delayed sophomore follow-up album, 1996's "Physical Funk,"  and subsequent releases including 1997's "Dominology"  and 2001's "D-Freaked It' all fell short of the mark.

So I was just talking about how excited I was that "The State" would be coming out soon on DVD a couple of blogs ago. If you forgot, you can look at it here. I finally got to tag my own blog! So I mentioned that the entire cast of The State was in David Wain's new movie "The Ten." My friend just happened to let me know about the special screening last night at the Lumiere.  I, of course, ran over there after work to meet some of my great special friends to go see it. The movie comes out August 3rd, so I was especially excited to see it early. I had already watched the trailer a bunch of times. And I am obviously a huge fan of the creator of the movie and not only the cast of "The State", but almost everyone else in the film.

 
I will just start by saying that the movie is unbelievably awesome. I really don't want to give too much away. So just watch the preview at the bottom of this entry and check out the website. It is better than any comedy you have probably seen in a while. Please go see this movie instead of the horrible movie that is "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry." Just like the world of sitcoms, they really don't make comedies like this anymore. The movie is basically broken into ten parts, with each part about a particular commandment from the bible. The cast pops up in multiple connected stories all put together by Paul Rudd, who narrarates in between each section. It is sort of like 10 skits from "The State" or "Kids in the Hall." But even better. In addition to Paul Rudd and the entire cast of "The State", the cast includes Jessica Alba, Gretchen Mol, Adam Brody, Liev Schreiber, Justin Theroux, Oliver Platt, and Winona Ryder.

If you are a regular at Amoeba Music you may have already seen the silk screened poster art of Forest Stearns who has done several pieces specifically for Amoeba events.  Or maybe you've been lucky to catch Forest doing his art live at one of the interactive music-and-art Amoeba instores he has been a part of over the past year.

These include one with DJ Shadow (San Francisco Ameoba instore) and two with Cut Chemist (San Francisco and Hollywood Amoebas).  He has also done live interactive art with hip-hoppers such as Z-Man and at other events such as Reggae On The River.

Additionally the NorCal artist, who is just about to move to San Francisco, designed the poster for the Noisettes instore show at Amoeba San Francisco which reportedly everyone loved including Universal who Forest says want to take and flesh out to make an animation based on the illustration.  I recently caught up with the aritst to chop it up about life and art, and art and life. For more information visit his website: draweverywheredotcom.


AMOEBLOG: What inspires you to make art?

FOREST STEARNS: Art is what I do. It is a way to be myself. It is exciting and thought provoking, it creates a dialogue and has a lot of history to build from.


AMOEBLOG: And what keeps you doing art on the shitty days?

FOREST STEARNS: The shitty days are cool. I can sleep in then have some tea then by that point I can do some art and the day turns out pretty nice. The shitty days are when you work for someone else and hate it. I work for myself and work with others on projects that I get to choose. I am an optimist, so shitty days can usually be squashed by either looking at the art of others or getting down with some art of my own.

Fifteen years ago SoCal hip-hop group the Pharcyde dropped their debut album, Bizzare Ride II, which to this AMOEBLOGGER has long been one of my favorite albums,  not just hip-hop but of any genre.  But as you know sometimes our minds, and our memories, play tricks on us and what we remember from our past as being great doesn't always stand the test of time. And since I hadn't actually listened to this J-Swift produced album in a long while, last week I went digging in the crates to locate the Pharcyde debut, which was originally released in late November 1992 by Delicious Vinyl,   and I  played it from start to finish - twice. And you know what? To me, it is still as amazing an album as that day all those years ago when I first heard it.

With the exception of the overplayed and admittedly gimmicky "Ya Mama" track (the hit single that dropped the year before the album did) I can listen to the musically diverse album repeatedly and never tire of it.  Another album single (Passin Me By) is one of those songs that i will probably never get tired of hearing for the rest of my life. It is one of those perfect songs!  Other standout tracks on this consistently fun and upbeat album include "Officer" (about not outsmarting the po-pos),  "Otha Fish" (another single), the no-holds-barred "I'm That Type of Nigga,"  "Pack the Pipe" (a hip-hop dank anthem), and the bouncy ol skool flavored "Return of the B-Boy." Below (after you hit "continue reading" is the video for Passin Me By. Do me a favor and in the COMMENTS box below list your favorite one, two, or three albums of all time - whether hip-hop or other genre. Thanks!

I had almost forgotten about Unkle. It seems so long ago that "Psyence Fiction" came out. I guess 1998 was almost 10 years ago. If you remember correctly, this album was huge. These were the years when Electronica was breaking through to the mainstream. This was one of the albums that really put the genre on the map and made people start noticing electronica acts as artists. One of the reasons they got so popular is because they combined all these different genres into one album. With the help of DJ Shadow they incorporated sounds of hip hop with dance. Trip Hop had already been created and this had been done before. But Unkle also brought in major popular rock vocalists such as Thom Yorke from Radiohead and RIchard Ashcroft from The Verve. Like many new fans, this is what first made me check out the album. I was obsessed with Radiohead and The Verve. So I was obviously going to check out anything that they were attached to. I did not pay much attention to their second album out in 2003. But I am again finding myself listening to Unkle.

The new album is "War Stories." There is also a larger special version that comes in vacuum sealed plastic. I think they made it with one of those vacuum sealers that they advertise on infomercials. This time, we have vocals by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Autolux, Gavin Clark, 3D of Massive Attack, the Duke Spirit, and Ian Astbury of The Cult. Ian Astbury is actually on two tracks. "Burn My Shadow" and "When Things Explode." So far they seem to be my two favorite tracks. Maybe this is because I have been a big Cult fan for a very long time. I sort of keep it a bit of a secret. But I really do love myself some Southern Death Cult, Death Cult, and Cult. His vocals, especially here, sound a lot like Jim Morrison. He has one of those voices that is very recognizable. I could not really imagine these songs working until I actually heard them. It ends up working beautifully. His voice fits in nicely with the orchestrated electronics on the album.

That is some hot stuff, Baby!

Talk about hitting two senses at once!  That's exactly what the new line of graffiti themed, rich chocolate bars do. And nothing could be more tempting to this graffiti fan with a sweet tooth than the colorfully eye-catching, decadently rich tasting new line of "graffiti" chocolate candy bars unveiled recently by downtown New York City's Chocolate Bar company - the award-winning chocolate maker with an eye for style and originality.

The ten individually flavored  chocolate bars are each beautifully presented in  graffiti-tagged wrappers, each especially designed by such legendary graffiti artists as Crash, Dondi, Blade, Crime 79, Lady Pink, Dr. Revolt, Iz the Wiz, Voice of the Ghetto, and Spar One. The confection creation, with proceeds benefitting the NYC children's arts' All Stars Project, (which benefits New York City high school kids' arts programs) was the idea of Chocolate Bar's Alison Nelson who said that the reaction from the longtime graf artists was "positive if not a little suspicious" when first approached to be a part of the candy-wrapper project.  But, she said, once the graffiti artists got involved that they had fun with the unique collaboration, even getting to "choose the flavor they wanted to design."

Lady Pink chose Banana Milk which is described as Milk chocolate filled with banana cream ganache. while Crash chose Dark Rum (dark chocolate with rum infused ganache.). Blade's flavor/design is Milk Caffeto milk chocolate with ground espresso and Dondi White's is S'mores (milk chocolate with marshmallow and graham bits).  The gourmet chocolate bars weigh 2.25 ounces each and are priced at $4 per chocolate bar or $40 for the nicely boxed "graffiti bar set" of all ten which while pricey for chocolate is cheap for art - provided that, unlike this weak AMOEBLOGGER, you can resist eating the art!

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I'm not real good at forgiveness, myself. If you've ever wronged my family, you can keep that in mind as you watch this cute as a bunny in a jumper video:

Banned: no blood, no sex, no drugs ... interesting as to what this society will not tolerate, dontcha think? She reminds me of someone real specific that I have love for, and I have to say she is one tough cookie from all I have heard.

- The Insomniac is Back

Slade - the great UK rock group performing Look Wot You Done from 1971 when they were more rock than glam - glam rock didn't fully kick in til 1972/73. In 1972 they released the hard rock album "Slayed" featuring such timeless chant-alongs as "Gudbuy T-Jane" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now."  Then there was the song  Cum On Feel The Noize  which years later  popularized in the US by Quiet Riot. . Formed in 1966, Slade's lineup was   Noddy Holder (vocals / guitars /bass),  Dave Hill (guitars / vocals / bass),  Jim Lea (bass/guitar/vocals /keyboards / violin), and  Don Powell - (drums / percussion) and their most successful years were 1971 to 1974 during which time they made some truly classic hard rock and glam songs - scoring over a dozen UK Top of the Pops hits.

I just read that rock photographer Autumn DeWilde is going to be putting out a book of Elliott Smith photos in November.  She's an LA based photographer that took many of the pics of Elliott toward the end of his career.


The book is going to come with a CD of songs from a performance at Largo.  Here's a tracklisting:

'Between the Bars'
'Angeles'
'Clementine'
'Clouds' (Quasi)
'All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down' ( Hank Williams Jr.)

God, "Clouds" is one of my favorite songs ever.  It was written by Sam Coomes, one of Elliott's best friends.  Elliott always had the most impeccable taste in covers. 

Largo is a club in LA that Elliott started showing up at right after he moved there in the late 90s.  Jon Brion still performs there every Friday night.  There are many stories of Elliott drinking at the bar, then being coaxed up onstage, sometimes with Jon, sometimes with whomever was performing that night, and taking requests, jumping from instrument to instrument effortlessly, covering Beatles and metal songs.  I still want to go!

Autumn DeWilde also came to my attention through Elliott when she took the promo and album shots for Elliott's album Figure 8.  Now she takes pics for bands like the Foo Fighters and White Stripes.  Big time.

Look, I had never seen Female Trouble before last weekend at Midnight Mass.  I know, I know, and I am trying to make up for lost time here.
I am sure everyone has already spoken their piece and covered everything I would want to say about this movie, but if for some reason YOU still haven't seen it, what the hell are you waiting for?  It's genius, esp Divine's performance.

Unlike most of my pals, I am no John Waters expert.  I have seen about 4 of his films before and mostly enjoyed them.  At times I have felt the same way about John Waters movies that I feel about punk rock:  I greatly respect and appreciate the aesthetic and message of the work but sometimes find the overall experience abrasive.  Other times I find it exhilarating. What I am trying to say here is that I think John Waters is a total genius and think his ideas are dead on, but sometimes I find his movies or portions of his movies somewhat...harsh.  Does that make any sense? 

In person, he's one of the sharpest, most intelligent and gracious people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and he is twisted in all the right ways.  Who else would suggest a Sing Along screening of his favorite film of the year, United 93?  Who else would insist that the fact that the 9/11 attack on the more vaginally shaped Pentagon building is largely ignored while the more phallic Twin Towers are focused on further proves America's sexism?

The State is finally making its way to DVD! There have been rumours for years, but it is finally happeing. Still no exact date. But it will happen in the fall. I am just so excited that I had to share it with you all. The show was originally on MTV from 1993-95. This was followed by a special on CBS. The show may have disappeared but its cast has been busy ever since.

The original cast was:
Kevin Allison, Michael Ian Black, Ben Garant, Todd Holoubek, Michael Patrick Jann, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter, and David Wain. Kenney, Black, and Lennon went on to star in Viva Variety. Black, Showalter, and Wain created Stella. Kenney, Lennon, and Garant all went on to create and star in Reno 911! The entire cast had roles in the recent movie Reno 911! Miami. Many original members have also been busy in the film world. David Wain directed the new movie "The Ten" and it stars some of the cast. It looks amazing...check out the preview here...

The State was on back when MTV was actually still a good channel. The show was simply brilliant. I did not even have cable back then, but I watched it every chance I got. So I have been waiting and waiting for this to finally come out on DVD. This is one of those shows with crazy obsessive fans that have been demanding it be released on DVD. They had to redo the score for the show. Back when this aired, MTV had a special deal with the record labels. As long as the artists that they used in the scores of the TV shows also had music videos in rotation, the music could be used for free. Things have obviously changed. MTV does not really play music videos anymore. They also would have had to charge like 300 dollars for The State DVD box sets if they had not changed the music. No worries. The music is not what got my obsessed with the shows. The cast was amazing and worked really well together. Most of the skits were original and they did not use very many recurring characters. The only thing that I can compare it to is a really good skit on MADTV. I am also a huge fan of Kerri Kenney, Tom Lennon, Ben Garant, and Reno 911! I can't get enough of that show. Maybe Viva Variety! will also be released soon as well!

  The folks who throw the fun themed All Tomorrow's Parties Don't Look Back series, in which they invite chosen acts to recreate live an album from their back-catalog, have convinced the seminal D.C.-born, NYC based Girls Against Boys to perform their classic, early nineties, post-hardcore album Venus Luxure No. 1 Baby.  And this weekend the band, that  began as a side project of Eli Janney and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty and whose lineup then became Janney plus Scott McCloud, Johnny Temple, and Alexis Fleisig, will perform the entire album from start to finish in exact sequence for two performances only - one in NYC and one in LA.

The first concert is tonight, Friday (7/20) at the Bowery Ballroom in New York City  and the second is scheduled for Sunday night (7/22) in Los Angeles at the El Rey Theatre  at 5515 Wilshire Blvd. This will be the first time the band has performed in LA or New York in five years (they performed in Europe this year - most recently in Spain last month). I  recently caught up with Johnny Temple,  one of the band's two bassists, to ask him about this unique two-gig, bi-coastal, event, and the idea of a duel bass rock band.


AMOEBLOG:  How did the two bass players  idea come about and how does it affect the band's sound?

JOHNNY TEMPLE: A lot of the rock bands of our era, well really the rock bands of any era, tend to be more melody driven, while we tend to be more rhythm driven.  Basically we all grew up in Washington DC which is very funk music oriented. We grew up listening to a lot of soul and funk and Go-Go music which, as you know, is native to DC. And a lot of bands from DC have a greater emphasis on rhythm and groove than a lot of other (non DC) rock bands do. So by having two bass players it  kind of pronounces the bottom end, the sort of rhythmic feature of the songs, more so than  the melody.

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On Sunday I threw my back out and I’ve been in bed ever since. I haven’t been able to do much other than lie on my back and watch endless hours of TV.I watched endless hours of movies and, Baseball. Flipping back and forth from Blue Jays v. Yankees, Red Sox v. Royals, and Angels v. Devil Rays games put me fast asleep. Nothing is better than a baseball game nap. To me it’s a part of the ritual. I spent a good part of the games snoozing. The combination of the games, summer heat and the softness of the bed made me forget the oppressive pain in my back that has been running my life for the last five days. It was the best sleep I’ve had in years.

It reminded me when I saw the movie, Taste of Cherry. A few years ago, on a whim, I rented Taste of Cherry. It took me several days to watch it. It was story about a man who wanted to kill himself and searching for someone who would either bury him or save him. The movie, shot in Iran, had these long gorgeous shots of the hills outside of Tehran. The pace was beyond slow. Each night I’d pop the DVD into my player before I went to bed and I would fall asleep after a few minutes. It took me many nights to finish the film. The movie wasn’t boring. It put you in a dreamlike state, thus leading one into slumber. When I finally finished the movie several evenings later, I watched an interview with the director, Abbas Kiarostami. He said he purposely made his movies to be like a dream and that the highest compliment who be if someone would fall asleep during one of his movies.

I can imagine the highest compliment Abbas would like to receive would not be the applause of the audience after his movie had been shown. Rather, it would be the snoring of the audience members, in deep sleep, only to be awoken by the ushers once the movie was done.

All of my 80s lovin' friends must be rubbing off on me today, cause this video is hitting the spot at the moment. It's almost like Romeo and Juliet, Pia and Jermaine. (Thanks, Miss Elise!)

It feels very strange to say I actually miss the 80s (so I'm not gonna say it), but can't we all agree that we miss 80s videos at the very least?  I think so.

More shots of graffiti from around the San Francisco Amoeba Music on Haight Street - including some pics from directly across the street from Amoeba.

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Last night Curt and I went to go see the Polyphonic Spree at the Great American Music Hall. Like I said before, I really do love the GAMH. But I had no idea what I was in for at a Polyphonic Spree show. This was my first time seeing them. And to be honest, I thought they would be maybe a bit over the top but a also maybe a bit annoying. The opening performer, Jessica Hoop, kept telling us that the show was going to be amazing. She bascially said, "You are really in for an amazing experience if you have never seen them before." Whatever. I was not convinced. We did get to sit in the little VIP section up in the balcony  where the lights are controlled. I dropped off some CD'S for the band from Amoeba because they had not received them yet from the label. So their manager gave us some VIP type seats. The manager was very nice but the most amazing thing about him was that he had a baby with him in a baby bjorn. So he was basically controlling the light show with the baby. I didn't get to ask him if it was his, but it sure was a cute little thing. But don't worry, the baby had big headphones on to block out the noise. I figured with 23 people in the band at least two of them were probably a couple and probably had a baby that they brought on tour with them. So basically, Jessica Hoop was correct. The show was amazing.

  The show started with lead singer and band leader Tim Delaughter cutting through a curtain that the entire band was hidden behind. I knew it would be a large band. But it really was amazing to see 23 people crammed on to the stage at the GAMH. I tried to memorize what everyoned did in the band. Here is what I remember. Besides Singer Tim, there were 7 back up singer ladies who were also a chorus and a synchronized hair dancing group. They had some great moves. 2 drummers, 2 keyboardists, 2 guitarists, 1 bassist, 2 violins , 1 cello, 1 harp, 2 trumpets, and 1 trombone player. It is sort of like a mix of a church revival and a bar mitzvah perfomance and a jam band. That does not really sound like it would work. But it does. The whole band seems to be having so much fun playing music that you can not help but to enjoy it as well. They often get unfairly compared to a cult. Any band with so many members that performs in robes is bound to get that comparison. And after seeing the show I was ready to sign up for the cult. Tim is a great ringleader and sort of seems to have some sort of power over the whole band and audience. I can almost understand how people like Jim Jones had that similar cult power. But these guys are just making good fun music. They are not waiting for armageddon or planning some mass suicide. So I really don't think they are a cult but if they are, I'm OK with it.

Have you ever committed a crime or offense for which you were not arrested? In other words: have you ever done something illegal (anything at all) but never gotten caught for it?  If so and you are a legal resident applying for US citizenship you legally must admit all details of your crime, and essentially turn yourself in. The direct question is part of the US government's current INS (Immigration & Naturalization Services) form for permanent residents, here in the USA for over five years, who are applying for US citizenship. The form in question is the N-400 INS Application for Naturalization ten page questionnaire. It must be accompanied by a money order for approx $400  a fee that is scheduled to increase substantially by the end of this month when it's raised to $675. As a result there's been a significant surge in the number of applicants at INS offices around the US trying to get the application process rolling by the July 30th cutoff date for the lower application fees.  NOTE: Due to the huge rush on INS offices, the same day this AMOEBLOG was posted the date for the new rates was extended until August 17th.

But the fee increase is only one reason for the rush. The other reasons are more serious and are rooted in the new post 9/11 America - where race profiling has become more common a practice and border crossing has gotten increasingly more difficult for non-Americans - even if they are US "residents' or Green Card holders. More importantly the consequences of the possible new immigration laws means that many immigrants, especially Mexican, whose status is currently "Alien" figure that now is the time to up their status and try to become US citizens. 

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