Alfred Peet, entrepreneur and the founder of  Peet's Coffee & Tea, who opened his first store in Berkeley over 40 years ago and is credited with spawning our insatiable appetite for gourmet coffee has died at his home in Ashland, Ore. He was 87.

He was born in Alkmaar, Holland in 1920 where
his father ran a coffee roastery business.  After the Second World War, Peet left Europe and in 1955 immigrated to San Francisco working for E.A. Johnson & Co, importing coffee.

Peet set up his first shop in 1966, opening a small store in Berkeley at 2124 Vine Street, near the UC campus. To set himself and his coffee apart, he personally hand roasted high-quality beans, soon he opened new stores in Oakland and Menlo Park.

The founders of Starbucks, such as Jerry  Baldwin,  were among his early customers and
found their inspiration in Peet's business plan.
Early on, before Starbucks became the
gargantuan enterprise it is today, they purchased their roasted coffee from Peet’s, until Peet could no longer keep up with the supply demands of the chain.

After Alfred Peet retired in 1983, Baldwin and his partners purchased Peet's Coffee for $4 million.

I can’t emphasis how important a great cup of java is to me. Back in the old days, before internet time itself, whenever a friend of mine traveled up to the Bay Area, I would beg them to bring back a couple bags of Peet’s coffee.

I salute you Alfred Peet! You've made my life richer!

Amoeba Music recording artist Brandi Shearer, whose anticipated album "Close To Dark" on Amoeba's newly launched record label just dropped this week (8/28) and who just wound up a month of dates on the East Coast, will be doing a very special free instore performance at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 1st) at 2PM sharp. Note that this return to the Amoeba Hollywood stage for Shearer will be streamed live online via audio and video feeds - so just return here to this site on Saturday starting at 2PM PST.  Other artists performing for free at Amoeba over the next number of upcoming days include Norwegian Prins Thomas who will be bringing his "cosmic disco" sounds to the Amoeba Music Hollywood stage tonight (Friday August 31st) at 8PM. For more info on this talented artist and his Amoeba show click here. And on Tuesday at the San Francisco Amoeba Music there is a recommended free instore when the New Orleans group Galactic perform with special guests (the Quannum emcees who also make cameos on their new album- From the Corner to the Block) Gift of Gab and Lateef the Truth Speaker. For more info on this Tuesday evening show at the Haight Street store, which starts at 7PM but for which you should probably arrive early to get a good position,  click here.  Update:  the previously scheduled Amoeba Berkeley instore with Patton Oswalt for this coming week has been canceled.

September 3 is Labor Day. Everyone else in the world celebrates on May 1. In April of 1856, stonemasons in Melbourne protested in favor of the work day being reduced to 8 hours as suggested by the "8 hour movement" (8 for rest, 8 for work, 8 for leisure). Previously, working 16 hours per day, 6 days per week was perfectly normal.
On May 1, 1886 over 400,000 workers protested in favor of the adoption of the 8-hour-workday in the U.S.A. Government troops responded by opening fire, killing 7 in Milwaukee followed by the Haymarket Riots in Chicago 3 days later. In that, a cop was killed and at least 4 workers when violence flared up between cops, scabs and protestors. 8 activists associated with the rally were sentenced to death. One commited suicide in his cell and four others were hanged. In 1893 the 8 were pardoned. Of course most had been dead for six years so...
G
So, taking a page from the Christian Church which successfully co-opted countless heathen holidays by re-branding them feast days and religious observations (e.g. Easter... in which a breeding rabbit carries eggs that symbolize... Jesus, and his, uh, hatching from the tomb-metaphorically speaking); Labor Day in the U.S.A. was moved to to September. 

Grover Cleveland didn't really like the idea of Americans feeling solidarity with the rest of the world's Reds and bomb-throwing anarchists. Besides, it's the last day when you can wear white! And if we want to express solidarity with other people, can't it be with Australians on their Flag Day? Or Qataris and Tunisians on their independence days? No harm there, right? You want to be a rebel, wear white after Labor Day and leave the molotov cocktails at home, ok? For the rest of you, grill and maybe take advantage of that furniture sale.
It's interesting that with late 19th century workers' newfound free-time resulted in growth in popularity of sports and motion pictures shown here:

BLACKBURN ROVERS V. WEST BROMWICH 1898

And, since it's a three day weekend, here're are a couple of high-spirited, modern-ish Labor Day rebels keeping their clothes white year-round.
 
The Rubettes "Sugar Baby Love" 1974

Paramount Home Video 83421

Parker Posey has been doing movies now for almost 15 years. I have been a devoted fan of hers since the very beginning. I sort of feel like I have grown up with her over the years.I still remember seeing Dazed and Confused for the first time and falling in love with her. I had just moved away from home and started college. I am not really sure what it was about her. But she just seemed genuine and real. Like someone I would want to hang out with. She also continued to pop up in brilliant little indie films over the years. And she was always good. Her first real film was Dazed and Confused in 1993. But she also had a part in the Tales of the City miniseries. Check out my pal's blog about Tales of the City right here. For anybody dealing with coming out of the closet in 1993, this was a super important little piece of television. This was definitely the first time I saw a positive gay character on television. There had not really even been that many on film up until this point. I knew I had to move to San Francisco after I saw this. Maybe this is why Parker has been so embraced by the Gays. She had a role in an important part of gay film history.


I just watched "Broken English" last night. I wanted to see it in the theater really badly but didn't get the chance. It just came out on DVD last week. I had heard that this was a new sort of dramatic role for her. I have loved seeing her in all these brilliant little roles over the years. But I was also ready to see her do something sort of different. The film is a tragic little romance film that seemed to really get the critics talking about her. The movie totally broke me heart and made me laugh at the same time. A brilliant little movie by Zoe Cassavetes, the daughter of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands. Her mother, Gena, also has a role in the movie. The film reminded me a bit of "Come Early Morning" starring Ashley Judd. Maybe just a bit less depressing. It doesn't hurt that she has a great supporting cast. Both her love interests Justin Theroux and Melvil Poupaud are not to hard to fall in love with. Justin also is fantastic as Jesus in "The Ten."

New Orleans emcee Mia X is from the old school and has been making hip-hop for twenty plus years. She is probably best known by most rap fans for the period she was signed to and associated with Master P's No Limit label but her rich rap history goes back long before that.  However to go online and do a search under the artist's early rap years will  inevitably yield inaccurate results - whether searching on the  AOL.music,  All Music Guide, Yahoo, VH1 websites or on the Wikipedia bio on her which erroneously states "Although born in New Orleans, Mia began her rapping career in Queens, New York as part of New York Incorporated, which disbanded after only four years. She then returned to New Orleans and met with Master P, an aspiring rapper and producer who signed her to his record label, No Limit.".   "That's not correct and I am tired of people telling me that I used to live in New York and started my career there," Mia X said by phone recently noting that she never lived in New York - always in New Orleans. So how did this misinformation get out there in the first place?  "I think it was someone at VH1 who first got it wrong in a story about me," Mia X said. It turns out it was John Bush - writer for All Music Guide who got it wrong but then all the other websites listed above (Yahoo, AOL, VH1) plus many others, including whoever entered the artist's Wikipedia information, all copied the erroneous bio.  The original mistake came about apparently based on the fact that one of the members (Denny D) of New York Inc. was from New York - but he lived in New Orleans before returning to New York - according to Mia X.   So for the record here is the updated, accurate bio on Mia X c/o the AMOEBLOG.:  

I have never liked the idea of listening parties just because most of the listening parties I’ve been involved with have come off as being insincere marketing ploys by record labels. So, when it was suggested that Nativo, the club that I spin at, was to host the Manu Chao listening party I was optomistic about the turn out. First off, this is Manu Chao’s first album in six years and fans have been waiting for this for a while. Manu Chao’s fans are generally open-minded and like a diverse variety of music. So, I hoped that we didn’t have one of those listening parties where you play the album and everyone sits around and gets some cheap label promotional item.

Myself, Mexican Dubweiser and Mando Fever took turns deejaying that night, playing Cumbia mash-ups, Latin Alternative remixes and some Brazilian House. After the crowd had a few drinks in them the dance floor started to come alive. Around 11:30 we decided to play Manu’s new album, La Radiolina. I watched with a shared excitement,  the Manu fans hearing the CD for the first time. It’s been a while since I have been so into an artist where I was excited about hearing a new album for the first time. The Manu fans were dancing as if they were at one of his concerts.

Nacional Records & Amoeba who were sponsering the listening party, gave us some dope giveaways, including a $50 gift certificate for Amoeba Records that we raffled off during a slight intermission while playing the album. That gift certificate was a big hit! After the album was done playing, I expected most people to leave but people stayed until the end. Mexican Dubweiser played a straight-up Cumbia set and I finished the night with some Baile Funk. I enjoyed playing that stuff at the end of the night because people were so wasted by then that they started to dance pretty crazy.

AMOEBLOG:   How long have you worked at Amoeba Music Berkeley and what exactly is your job there?
 
DEAN SANTOMIERI:   I started working in the record business in 1971 when I dropped out of SUNY Buffalo. I moved to the Bay Area in 1975, and although I thought I was through with the record business, unemployment was high and my friend Ivy got me a job at Tower Records in Berkeley.   In November 1990, I visited Marc (one of the Amoeba owners) the first weekend Amoeba opened and he offered me a job. I thought about it over the weekend then gave my two employers, Tower and Revolver Records, notice and started two weeks later. This would be late November or early December 1990. A year later I took a job running the Media Center at the California College of Arts, but continued to work Saturdays at Amoeba. In 1996, I left CCA and went back to Amoeba full time. I am a buyer and I work in the classical department. Most of my time is spent helping customers and pricing used CDs.

 

AMOEBLOG:   What makes working at Amoeba unique compared to other jobs you've had?                

DEAN SANTOMIERI:      I could say many things, but Amoeba’s generosity in accommodating its employees stands out, for example, many of us are touring musicians and are graciously given time off. But the lengths to which the owners, managers and Amoeba employees have gone to help each other in time of need is what I find most unique about Amoeba. It is also what makes me most proud about working here. We live in a time when the escalating cost of health care, salaries and pensions have caused companies to drastically reduce or eliminate benefits, but what the Amoeba family has done for Dax Pierson (Amoebite pictured above who was in a serious auto accident while on tour with his band) and others is unlike anything I have ever seen.

Hilly Kristal has died.

Apparently he had lung cancer. 

It's sad to me that after fighting for years to save the seminal punk club he founded, CBGB's, and losing that battle, he then lost his life less than a year later. 

He was 75 years old.

R.I.P Hilly.


Here's a performance by the Ramones at CBGB in 1977.


And here's Blondie performing there the same year:



It's lame and depressing how almost all the cool parts of New York City are being swallowed up by rents and landlords and all that gentrifying junk.

The first time I ever went to NYC I was 19 years old and super wide eyed and I dragged my friends to CBGB.  I coulda sworn I could still smell Lou Reed and Dee Dee Ramone in the dirt coating the street there in the Bowery.  We didn't have fake IDs and we were obviously too young to get in to the club but I went into the shop next door and got a shirt and wore it proudly for about 5 years....until Hot Topic started hawking them and every mall rat across America suddenly had one...Everything rock n roll started to feel even more hollow at that point.

So I am continuing watching the Tales of the City complete series.  Now I'm on to More Tales of the City! 

I have to say, it's not as good as the first series, just like everyone told me, but it is still highly enjoyable.


More Tales of the City is the second part of a 3 part mini series based on Armistead Maupin's novels about San Francisco and the lives and loves of some of its inhabitants in the 70s.

One of the most unfortunate aspects of the More Tales is that several of the characters from the original series Tales of the City have been recast, most unfortunately Michael "Mouse", one of my favorites from the first series. His replacement has a dimpled chin and a sleazy moustache.  Not exactly the sweet Brian Boitano look alike I so adored from the first series.  But whatever.  Brian, a sort of side character in the first installment, has been recast for More Tales by this aqua netted hair older looking dude. The character of Mona has been recast also.  I never thought I would miss scary tiger face lady Chloe Webb but now that she's gone I must say she added a certain gravitas to the flighty character of Mona that her much younger, less interesting replacement lacks. 

Mad brothers know his name....It's a daily operation

These infamous hip-hop words (above) are among some of the numerous memorable lyrics uttered by GURU (Gifts Unlimited Rhymes Universal) over DJ Premier's track on the February 1991 Gang Starr single "Just To Get A Rep" (Chrysalis/EMI) which, with "Who's Gonna Take The Weight" on the single's flip side,  is a true hip-hop classic!   Same for the January 1991 Gang Starr ablum, "Step In The Arena" - that "Rep" was culled from - each a key part of hip-hop's legacy with each phrase and rhyme known by heart to any true hip-hop fan.  Just to get a Rap harks from a time (late 80's/early 90's) that many agree was the "golden age of hip-hop" and a time that is very close to my heart as a longtime hip-hop fan.   And listening to Just to Get A Rep again  (see the video below and read the lyircs under video screen)  - brings back memories of that time when the single and the album had just dropped and when, like most new hip-hop albums back then, was brimming with amazing new hip-hop joints that (as a DJ) I was dying to play.  At the time I was doing Bay Area hip-hop radio and TV shows and interviewed Gang Starr many times. It was no big deal back then.   Back then (pre Dre's Chronic which ushered a new more mainstream era in rap's consumption) rap had still not gone 100% fulltime mainstream.  Meaning that if you were a Bay Area DJ on such independent small stations as KUSF, KALX, KZSU, KPOO, KPFA, or KFJC you could get artists like Gang Starr to make a live appearance on your show with little effort (today you are competing with David Letterman and People magazine).   Back at that time Guru and Premo made numerous trips to the Bay when they used to come to the Bay regularly to perform (EG at one of Dave Paul's BOMB Hip-Hop Showcases at the DNA) and do the rounds of local radio stations and retail outlets (big up to Leopolds in Berkeley and T's Wauzi at Eastmont Mall in East Oakland). If you have any memories of this hip-hop classic or wish to nominate one of your personal fave hip-hop classics - please do so below in the COMMENTS. thanks!

Well right now my wife is making homemade preserves, and then canning them … I’m not sure who this person is, but I do recognize her in that pair of Levi’s …

Mixology: well I am an old timer, so whenever I here that word, I think of cocktails. Then again, I often think of cocktails. Do you know that one of the oldest known cocktails was first concocted in New Orleans in the 1850’s? Called a Sazerac, it mixes Cognac with bitters. Just useless information I  picked up along the way, back when I ran a
speakeasy in the old country.

So I was thinking that many adult beverages would benefit by a soundtrack, the right
soundtrack. Humankind’s millenniums-long fascination with booze and music (they go hand in hand) is in many respects the zenith of civilization. I bet early humans invented some kind of alcohol long before they discovered fire or invented the wheel or prostitution or god. Perhaps music existed before the advent of booze. I’m not sure. But then came club owners, and it’s been down hill ever since.

 

It is a widely acknowledged thought that I am a man who enjoys his Irish and Scotch Whiskey. As sinful as it sounds, I often like my whiskey with a couple cubes of ice, and sometimes I even enjoy a whiskey with a splash of seltzer, like my man Sinatra.

Here we go, today’s taste:  Jameson Irish Whiskey. The back of the bottle reads, “John Jameson founded his whiskey distillery in Dublin in the year 1780.  All the craft of the centuries-old tradition of making Irish whiskey is used to produce ‘Jameson.’ From the rich countryside of Ireland comes nature’s finest barley and crystal clear water. These natural ingredients are carefully distilled 3 times, and slowly matured for long years in oak casks to create the natural smooth whiskey that is Jameson.”

Vestron Video VA3104

The Liars have a new album for us this week. With their fourth album they decided to go for that basic s/t title of "Liars." This band has sort of been all over the place with the four albums in their history. They started on the label Gern Blandsten with "They Threw Us All In a Trench and Stuck a Monument On Top. This was way back in 2001. And although they were not originally from New York, they were stuck into that whole new New York Indie post-rock dance-punk kind of sound. Along with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Liars were sort of an exciting change to how boring indie rock had become. They combined experimental techniques with a sort of more traditional indie rock style. It was exciting. Over the past 6 or so years they have put out another 2 albums on Mute and now another one. And they have managed to stay interesting and exciting. It was probably better for them to not become as quickly popular as Franz Ferdinand or the Arctic Monkeys. But I guess they have always been a bit too weird to get that popular. They have sort of slowly managed to get critical acclaim and hold on to their more loyal fans while getting a few more with each album.

This new album can easily be mistaken for some early Jesus & Mary Chain or Spiritualized. The band is made up of Angus Andrew on guitar and vocals, Aaron Hemphill on percussion, guitar and synth, and Julian Gross on drums. Angus is from Australia. The other two are from the U.S. They really do sort of capture that amazing Jesus & Mary Chain sound. But they don't come off as an imitation. It sounds like something new and exciting while reminding you why you fell in love with bands like the Jesus & Mary Chain.

See More Video SMV 101

Felix the Cat isn’t just a silent film star and  animation's first superstar, or a 1950’s TV phenomenon, or the logo for a Los Angeles Chevrolet dealership, (opened by Winslow B. Felix in 1921), with its benevolent, three-sided neon sign looming over the Harbor Freeway, or the doll aviator Charles Lindbergh took with him on his historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, or the mascot for the U.S. Navy's Bombing Squadron Two during WW2, or the image on tabs of LSD in the mid seventies, he's:

Felix the Cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
Whenever he gets in a fix,
He reaches into his bag of tricks!

Felix the Cat,
The wonderful, wonderful cat!
You'll laugh so much
Your sides will ache
Your heart will go pitter pat
Watching Felix,
The wonderful cat.

Drummer and Texas transplant Simon has been working at the Hollywood Amoeba Music store for a little over a year now.  Recently I caught up with the SoCal Amoebite, whose "best of" lists include AC/DC and Iron Maiden, to ask him about his all time favorite albums and films and the first album he bought (and if he still likes it? - he doesn't). I also talked with him about living in LA as an artist, about his experience working at Amoeba, and what he sees as the future of the music business. Simon also offered his recommendation for a good spot to grab a bite to eat near Amoeba Hollywood.

 

AMOEBLOG: How'd you end up working at Amoeba and what exactly is your job there?
 
SIMON: Well i was working in the service industry, for about a year fixing security systems, when I found Amoeba Music. I didn't like my job at all and always liked working in record stores. I decided to give Amoeba my resume and in three months i was hired.  I was hired April 10th 2006 and i work in the video department, new rock, and on the registers as a clerk.

AMOEBLOG:   When not working at Amoeba what music  or other creative type things do you do?

SIMON:  When not working at Amoeba I play drums in two metal bands:  Lethal Acts Properly Demonstrated and Mercenary Angel.





AMOEBLOG: What makes working at Amoeba unique compared to other jobs you've had?

SIMON: Amoeba is unique due to the fact that everybody is great to work with and there is no stress at all. I've never worked in a job where i can relax around the owners and managers. They are awesome!

In continuing my best of lists, here is my list of the best films of the 70s. In case you missed my list of 80s films, you can go back here and check it out. Since I was born half way through the 70s, I did not see most of these films in the theater. But through the magic of cable TV and the VCR, I watched and fell in love with these movies. The 70s still remains my favorite time for film. The style and sound of these films is something that could only be captured in the 70s. Many of these movies have been remade or are in the process of being remade. But they never live up to the 70s originals. Dawn of the Dead, Stepford Wives, The Omen, Superman, Assault on Precinct 13, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, King Kong, Poseidon Adventure, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Black Christmas, The Amityville Horror and The Hills Have Eyes have all been remade. There is obviously something magical about this period in cinema that Hollywood tries to recreate. I am really hoping that Rob Zombie creates a brilliant reinterpretation of Halloween. I know that versions of Logan's Run and The Warriors are already being worked on as well. Nothing can really come close to what these films are and the memories that they have created in all of us.

top 100 movies of the 70s



The Exorcist (73)
William Friedkin



                                                                                                      Alien (79)
                                    Ridley Scott
                                  

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CFP Video 11801

The bar at The National Hotel. That's me in the denim shirt.

Originally, I thought this trip to Nevada City would consist mainly of me giving my sweetheart the royal tour – showing him details, hidden mysteries and beauty that only a local knows, but the new and improved Film Festival proved to monopolize our schedule. Conveniently, the entire staff were the same people I would have tried to hang out with anyhow, so that was okay, but the only hidden mystery I got to expose Corey to was the dazzling amount of booze that an average NC townie can down in a day.

It’s historical.

He did get to meet my family.

I can’t even begin to tell y’all about my family. Sufficed to say, it is eccentric. Like, I’m one of the normal ones, and I bark at UPS trucks and punch people for offering me a “slice of melon”. But, odd as they are, they’re also loving. Corey did just fine.

Well, well – Look who’s come sauntering in like everything’s normal. If it isn’t little ol’ me. I think I can just waltz back in here after having been missing for days and expect you to just read my blog as though nothing’s happened? Is that it?

Well, I have another thing coming. You’re not some screensaver I can leave on, perpetually cycling a kaleidoscope of flying toasters while I go out and have a life! This is unacceptable! I mean, am I a blogger or not?

STOP!

You want the truth? Is that it? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH.

Actually, you can, but I love that line. YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE TRUTH. It’s so over-the-top. I’m totally going to say it to my future kids whenever possible.

Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City has been capturing the vast majority of my attention this past week.  Even though it was on KQED in the early 90s I have never seen it before.

I recently was eating with some friends at Zazie and the they immediately noticed Armistead himself enjoying his brunch on the scenic patio with none other than Judd from the Real World San Francisco.  You gotta love this city, right?  Jesus.

Armistead apparently does, cause he's written a bunch of books all about it and its various inhabitants.  They made this miniseries based on the books.  I love it!  It is just chock full of one scandal after another.  It's kinda like a 70s SF and with both gay and straight main characters version of  Melrose Place....or maybe I just think that cause everyone is pretty good looking and they mostly live in the same building complex on Barbary Lane.  Oh yeah -- there's tons of drug use in every episode.  This must have been "cutting edge" when it was on, with all the drugs and the bare butts and boobs and gay lifestyles....No wonder it was on PBS.  Whatever, I love the interconnectedness of all the characters and how parts of each person's story unfold slowly and tantalizingly.

“The amateur is the kind of a guy who draws a 9 to 5 line around his job … makes his own little box that he never gets out of … the professional doesn’t put on his cloak of excellence only at certain times … he wears it all the time”  -  Dr. G. Herbert True

“Over 2500 power-packed visual-verbal extravaganzas with slides, magic, music and wit.”

A self help seven inch record! On Idea Records (1966), and if this doesn’t help enough, you can always look for his full length album, “Are You A Prisoner?”

In case you have not already seen this really funny (but sadly true) Mad TV skit about the US foreign policy and the ongoing war,  in which Michael McDonald plays Apple founder Steve Jobs and introduces Apple's latest program - the iRack, take a few minutes and watch this brilliant satire that simultaneously pokes fun at Jobs and the Bush administration - but mainly the latter.

In his recommended new book "Tour Smart (and break the band)" - about the real deal of touring as a band or artist - longtime drummer Martin Atkins  (PiL, Killing Joke, Ministry, Pigface, etc.) who these days  runs a record label, invents new types of drums, books bands, and teaches a univeristy course in Chicago at Columbia College about the business of the art - tells it like it is to be on the road in a rock band, or in any band for that matter.  The 592-page book (which is in stores Sept. 1st but availabe online now) exhaustively explores every aspect of touring. The highly informative and entertaiining how-to book is written and edited by Atkins who invited about hundred music biz experts (from bus drivers to bass players) to voice their tales and experiences of life on the road for touring artists. Topics include making contracts, sketching itineries, pros and cons of drug use on the road, the importance of merchandise, sound checks, and dealing with everything from club sound checks to handling radio interviews and driving a tour bus 330 miles in unfamiliar conditions at 4AM after just leaving a gig,  Atkins' guest contributors include Henry Rollins, Steve Albini, and Kevin Lyman of the Vans Warped Tour.  Lee Frasers  of Sheep on Drugs describes the difficulty of being on stage tripping (peaking) on acid playing his guitar, which feels to him like it was made of sponge rubber, and trying to somehow keep in the (onstage) moment.

I recently caught up with author Martin Atkins, via email,  to ask him about the book and also the exhibit  entitled "The Religion of Marketing" that he just wound up in New York City at Fuse Gallery on 2nd Avenue and that featured items that are included in the illustration-heavy "Tour Smart."

I don't know if I have really explained how much I love the great late Mr. Jim Henson. I know I just talked about him and his great films Labyrinth and Dark Crystal. But there was also this amazing little show called "The Muppet Show." I don't really know where I would be without this show. I did watch a lot of Sesame Street. But it was the night time show "The Muppet Show" that really made me who I am today. It was one of those great shows that appealed to kids as well as their parents. So it wasn't like my parents had to make me watch the show. And they also never minded watching it along with me and my brother. It was hilarious and brilliant. Nothing really like it. And although some of the jokes may not be as relevant today, they are still hilarious. Season 1 of the Muppet show came out in August about 2 years ago. But this month, we get Season 2 of this great show.

The Muppet show was on the air from 1976 to 1981. It lasted 5 seasons. But it didn't get canceled or fade into obscurity. Jim Henson simply needed more time to devote to his feature films like Dark Crystal and Labyrinth. And his amazing trilogy of Muppet movies. The Muppet Movie (1979), The Great Muppet Caper (1981), and The Muppets Take Manhattan (1984). These were followed by more similar Muppet movies. But these early movies were the best. These movies only made me more obsessed with the muppets.

Each episode of the Muppet Show featured a guest star. And there was never the same guest on all 5 seasons. Season 1 featured Phyllis Diller, Paul Williams, Rita Moreno, Sandy Duncan, Ben Vereen, Jim Nabors, Florence Henderson, Joel Grey, Twiggy, and in one of my favorite episodes, Vincent Price. The list of season 2 guests is just as great. And the first episode features the amazing Don Knotts! Also featured in season 2 is Milton Berle, Judy Collins, Steve Martin, George Burns, Dom Deluise, Bernadette Peters, Elton John, Lou Rawls, Peter Sellers, Petula Clark, Bob Hope, John Cleese, and Cloris Leachman.

Amoeba Music & Phil Blankenship are proud to present the QUINTESSENTIAL counterculture car film:

Saturday August 25

Vanishing Point (1971)

From this week's issue of The Onion:
The barriers between exploitation and art began to erode in the late '60s and early '70s in the wake of the European New Wave's skillful appropriation of B-movie elements. In the U.S., that influence was reflected in films like Richard Sarafian's bizarre 1971 chase picture Vanishing Point, which stars Barry Newman as "the last free man on Earth" and "one of the last great drivers." When Newman offers to drive a new white Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in less than 15 hours, blind local DJ Cleavon Little makes him a counterculture hero as he reports on how Newman dodges the cops and hooks up with "the gentle people" along the way.

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

http://www.myspace.com/newbeverlymidnights
http://www.myspace.com/newbeverlycinema

Please come on down, tell your friends & repost!

As if you needed an excuse to visit that loveliest of all the lovely San Francisco venues, the Swedish American Hall, this coming Sunday it will be filled with the music of Bert Jansch.


Yes, that's right, Bert Jansch, oh -he- of- that- difficult- to- pronounce -last- name (last time I checked it was Yan-sh) will be making a rare-ish appearance here in our fair city.


Bert's one of those lucky people who came up in the U.K. in the late 50s/early 60s, so by the time he was a young man, he was in Swinging London's folk clubs impressing many a drunken lout.

My favorite records of his came out in the mid-to-late 60s:

Jack Orion (1966)    


and
Birthday Blues (1968) 




If you like your folk music straight up with just a slight twist of mournfulness, Bert's a guy for you.  His voice is so rich and warm.  It doesn't sound like anyone else's ever.  He's had somewhat of a comeback lately, with a great record released last year called Black Swan, produced by Noah Georgeson and with requisite omnipresent guest Devendra Banhart, among others.  From what I hear about his live shows, he's still got chops for miles.  Unfortunately, I can't make the show Sunday, so some of you will have to go for me and report back....Please?

New York City: Aug 23rd 2007
You gotta love Amoeba Music recording artist Brandi Shearer  who earlier tonight (Thursday 23rd) treated everyone to cupcakes at her final New York City gig in a series at downtown Lower East Side club the Living Room.  As a thoughtful display of gratitude for her New York supporters the  generous Shearer celebrated her very final night in a month of East Coast gigs  by buying a few dozen cupcakes (from Sugar Sweet Sunshine bakery on nearby Rivington Street) for all who packed into the Ludlow St. venue.  "I bought cup cakes for you all for after the show," she told the delighted Living Room crowd before she and her band, led by legendary guitarist Jim Campilongo and including Richard Hammond on bass, launched into their last offering of the night - another song in the 45-minute set that drew exclusively from the singer/songwriter's brand new album "Close To Dark"  to be released on the newly launched Amoeba Music music label next Tuesday (August 28th).  Fittingly, Shearer's next gig (post album release date) will be back in California at Amoeba Music Hollywood on Saturday, September 1st at 2PM, PST  (Note; that this gig will be streamed online: audio and video).

But for the past few weeks Shearer has been hella busy out here on the East Coast doing an assortment of concerts, radio and TV interviews and performances in Boston, Philly, and New York City where in addition to her Living Room series she also did several other performances including one for ASCAP and another on  New York City's WPIX TV Channel 11.   "I'd never been to New York before recently," she informed me shortly before taking the Living Room stage. "But I like it here."  She said that the New York audiences have been incredibly attentive and well-behaved, especially compared to some of the more rowdy types of crowds that she has witnessed over her rich and varied career.  She recalled the semi-shock she encountered  the first night, three weeks ago, at the Living Room when "In between songs there was not a word, not a word," she said.  "And I am just not used to that. I have strategies for people yelling and fist-fights."  "But  for a complete attentive crowd I have no strategies," she laughed.   But still she had absolutley no problem adjusting to the well behaved audience as proven by tonight's winning performance in which she shone (so did Jim Campilongo who plays the Living Room every Monday) during such songs as the roadhouse blues styled "Oh, Singer" and the sultry and hauntingly beautiful and sad country-soul "Congratulations"  - a song that sounds like it's made to be featured in some movie soundtrack if  ever there was one (You can just imagine it as the perfect backdrop to some sad and moving love story).  Between songs Brandi got a warm response when she told the New York crowd that she herself had become a New Yorker of sorts during  her past few weeks in the Big Apple - proof being that she had mastered how to ride the New York City subway while transporting an instrument.  

Cordell Jackson was probably best known as the "rock-and-roll granny" whose git-pickin’ ran circles around Brian Setzer in the 1991 Budweiser commercial. But she is also an early rockabilly pioneer and is thought to be the first woman to write, arrange, engineer, produce, promote and manufacture her own rock and roll record label: Moon Records founded in Memphis in 1956.

Born into a musical household in   Mississippi in 1923, her father played fiddle and lead a popular local string band called the Pontotoc Ridge Runners, she had  recorded several demos at Sam Phillips' Memphis studios for Sun Records. But without any success, or the likelihood of getting signed to Sun, she took the advice of Chet Atkins and formed her own label.

Her first release was "Beboppers  Christmas" b/w "Rock and Roll Christmas.” Soon she was releasing other singles from other rockabilly artists such as Allen Page and the Big Four, best known for their single "Dateless Night," written by Jackson.

Jackson continued Moon Records through the 1970’s and 80’s, remaining active in the rockabilly music scene. She recorded a novelty song called "Football Widow," which became probably her best known recording.  After the Budweiser ad, she enjoyed her quirky, new-found fame: she had a small role as the "Bathroom Lady" in “The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag,” appeared on the David Letterman show and had her original Moon singles displayed at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

She died in Memphis, on October 14, 2004.

Side note:  about her marriage in 1943, she said, “It was either marry a country dude or a city dude, and I chose a city dude.”

Released in theaters a little earlier this year Eddie Murphy's movie "Norbit" - in which, once again, he plays way too many different characters somehow mistakenly thinking that this feat will make up for another not-so-funny comedy - is already out on DVD and I watched it last night - or at least I watched as much of it as I could bear to sit through before hitting the eject button.  Like other comedians and/or actors who have similarly gotten increasingly lamer onscreen over the years (think Ice Cube or  Rob Schneider) Eddie Murphy has lost that certain edge that he once possessed long long ago in his immediate post SNL years. In fact so lame was Norbit that it forced me to go back twenty years to seek out a clip from Murhpy's 1987 Robert Townsend directed live concert film "Raw" - included below.


And speaking of Ice Cube,  who has morphed from homeboy in Boyz In The Hood to cuddly family-man in Are We Done Yet? over his 17 onscreen years, the former NWA member has just announced that he will be starring in the forthcoming movie "Comeback" to be directed by Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst for Dimension Films.   Scheduled for a mid 2008 release "Comeback"  will begin shooting sometime in November.
 

New World Video 9556

I feel like I am turning into a PG version of Elvis....

Coffee in the morning to wake up, Tylenol PM in the evening to fall asleep....it's the cycle of life at the moment.  And since it's rated PG, I don't think I will end up dying on the toilet or anything anytime soon at least.

But I digress.....

Speaking of R-Rated drug/alcohol habits, after about 6 months of picking it up and putting it down again, I finally finished the biography of Townes Van Zandt I've been reading.  It's called To Live's To Fly, and it just came out this March after almost a year's delay.


As far as interesting lives go, Townes is right up there with Roland Kirk and Brian Wilson.  He went through it all.

Born into a family so well off in the oil business it had an entire county in Texas named after it, Townes shunned his family's wealth and took to a life of alcoholism, rambling and flawless song writing.  I love that in the summers he would take off for Colorado with just a horse and a pack.  I've written about him on this blog before, so I won't go through his whole life history and bore all y'all, but if you have ever heard one of his records, like really listened to it, chances are it stuck with you.  So you probably don't need an explanation from me.

I've been waiting for years for someone out there to research and write a great bio of Townes cause his life was so crazy and lived to the fullest.  Last year's well made documentary Be Here To Love Me  contains beautiful shots and interviews but ultimately scratches the surface of Townes' life and leaves rabid fans like myself with even more unanswered questions than before. 

One of the most damaging drugs of our age has to be crystal meth (aka Tina, Crank, Speed, Ice,  etc.) - which doesn't discriminate when it comes to those who get caught up and spun into its dangerously addictive web - attracting, and in turn addicting, members of every age, gender, race, economic background, and sexual orientation it can - if given half the chance.  However of all the groups that fall prey to the drug,  it seems that the urban gay communities are the most resourceful in their fight against meth or at least in disseminating useful  information about the drug's dangers. But others are active too including the infamous, sobering Multnomah County Oregon State campaign that shows the before-and-after pictures of meth abusers. -   the visually powerful project that began when a deputy in the Corrections Division Classification Unit put together mug shots of persons booked into Oregon's Multnomah County Detention Center - not pretty.   Although not one of these meth offenders booked into the North West detention center, Mark E. Smith of the Fall (right), who is an admitted longtime speed freak (inspiration for the Fall's classic "Totally Wired" came from somewhere), could easily qualify as a part of this shocking-but-effective anti-drug campaign. One of meth's side-effects is the awful damage it does to teeth.

The Los Angeles bus-stop poster (above) photographed directly outside Amoeba Music Hollywood about a month ago was sponsored by West Hollywood's weholife.org which is funded by the City of West Hollywood.  According to this organization and other US health groups, longterm and widespread methamphetamine abuse can lead to devastating medical, psychological, and social consequences. Its abuse can include such adverse health effects as memory loss, aggression, psychotic behavior, heart damage, malnutrition, and severe dental problems in addition to, according to one health care organization,  "contribute to increased transmission of infectious diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, and can infuse whole communities with new waves of crime, unemployment, child neglect or abuse, and other social ills." 

The Lookout was written and directed by Scott Frank. It took ten years to get made and is a labor of love... and a big piece of crap.

It's set in Kansas City. Why? Scott Frank  says, "I spent time there, but mostly what I loved was that there was an urban environment right next to a rural environment and they're very close together. He can live downtown but work two hours away in the middle of nowhere and I really liked that." That is true, if you drive two hours outside Kansas City you're in the sticks, or another city. So, the setting is very important obviously. Kansas City is like a character in the film, you might say. Of course, his observation applies to nearly every city in the country between the east and west coasts. Obviously Frank had a window seat on a cross country flight or maybe a just layover at Kansas City International. And the in-flight entertainment, I'm guessing, was Memento.
 
"I really didn't know why, but I just loved where it was. I loved that the mob was no longer there, that it was sort of a dying mob city and more of a "sons and sons of" place now. I just thought it was kind of interesting. I ended up doing a lot of research." Apparently meaning he watched lots of old movies with Kansas City in the title because Kansas City has a very high crime rate most gangs there don't look much like the Lookout's. 


Note to Frank. If you'd googled "Kansas City" and "mafia" you'd have learned this:




 Despite being in prison in 1995, Anthony “Tony Ripes” Civella was seen as the new crime boss. In 1992 he had been convicted of a scheme to divert pharmaceutical drugs from traditional sellers on to the gray market. He was convicted and sentenced to 4 years. Since 1996 he has been free and very active. The remaining Las Vegas interests fall under power of Kansas City LCN Family member Peter Ribaste. His underboss is William Cammisano, Jr. In 1997 all three were placed in Las Vegas’s Black Book and are barred from casinos in that area. Today the Kansas City LCN [la Cosa Nostra] Family is reported to have 20-30 “made” members and is a very tight knit group controlling many street-level rackets.

Continue reading

While the Bay Guardian, The Examiner, the Onion, and SF Weekly may be  the widely known and widely available free papers around San Francisco, they are by no means the only free newspapers to pick up and read in the City by the Bay. Other free papers, which are usually weekly or monthly and in the tabloid size format, include the Noe Valley Voice, Bay Times San Francisco, Marina Times, San Francisco Bay View, The Potrero View, and the Bay Area Reporter (aka BAR). There are numerous other free papers found around San Francisco but I just want to take a quick overview of these ones and the aforementioned Bay Guardian, Onion,  Examiner, and SF Weekly. Please add in COMMENTS below any omissions that you see.

The daily San Francisco Examiner (which has gone through a lot of changes over the years) is currently in a tabloid size format and is free. While it gets critiqued for running stories from other papers and wire-services overall its not such a bad read on the bus or train as it offers a decent blend of local and national news (usually accompanied by clever eye-catching headlines.) with a pretty decent San Francisco entertainment guide, often doing stories on SF events not covered by the Guardian or the Weekly. Meanwhile the always fun to-read the Onion, the parody newspaper that publishes in ten US cities including SF, offers a really good local entertainment listing in its (straight-faced & serious) A.V. Club section.

The SF Weekly, while owned by New Times (the Clear Channel of the 'alternative weeklies'), is not all bad and offers some strong investigative pieces on local politics in addition to some excellent music reviews/interviews (especially local San Francisco/Bay Area artists).  But like many of the New Times imprints the Weekly is often given to smart-ass  editorializing that seems more geared to getting a reaction than making a concrete point. That aside it is a good read overall with good entertainment listings. Additionally their website is really good witih up to the minute reports on news items that eclipse the paper's Wednesday street date. For example after MF Doom's pathetic 12 minutes (possibly lip-synced) show at San Francisco's Independent club last Wednesday night that had concert goers demanding refunds, the SF Weekly online version the next day around noon, based on an email from a reader, opened a discussion group about MF Doom's SF-diss. Good stuff!

Out today is the new album from your favorite San Francisco band "Imperial Teen." They may not all live in San Francisco anymore, but they will always be a San Francisco Band. They became a band in San Francisco in the mid 90s and released their first album "Seasick" in 1996. This was also the year I moved to San Francisco. So this band is sort of special for me. I think this band is super special for anybody who discovered them in the 90s.  I was listening to a lot of super depressing and dreary bands in the 90s. I still love all those bands but I think I really needed some Imperial Teen in my life. I was always a bit afraid of pop music. I thought it would make me too happy. Around this time I started listening to bands like Heavenly, Henry's Dress, the Aisler's Set, and the Softies. But Imperial Teen combined great fun pop music with that sort of San Francisco indie rock that is hard to explain. I don't know if it just sounds like that cause I heard all these bands play live in San Francisco so much. Or if it really is a certain type of sound. I just can't separate the bands from the city.

Seasick was a great album and everybody who heard it loved it. But it was really in 1999 that Imperial Teen started getting more popular. They released the amazing second album, "What is Not To Love."  They also had their hit song "Yoo Hoo" on the Jawbreaker soundtrack. It was sort of hard to to get away from that song that year. But I really loved that record. Just like Imperial Teen will always be tied to my memories of San Francisco, "What is Not To Love" will always be tied up with the year 1999. It is part of my own little soundtrack to that year and the end of the 90s. In 2002 I had moved to Hollywood. A couple members of the band also ended up down there and they released the album "On." They left their major label for the indie Merge. Both those first albums are now out of print. So it is up to Merge to do some little reissues for some essential ablums that nobody should really be without.

MTI Home Video 1021

Posting for our good friends at the monthly Grindhouse Film Fest:
http://www.myspace.com/grindhouse 


Don't miss our next mind-boggling installment of the monthly Grindhouse Film Festival at the New Beverly Cinema, LA's greatest independent theater and the perfect home for our cinematic sleaze flashbacks. We've got a great reel of vintage exploitation trailers before the show, and our world famous free raffle (with loads more porn to give out this month, along with other trash).

Show up alone, bring a date or bring your momma...guaranteed fun for all.

Tuesday, August 21st

7165 West Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(One block West of La Brea)
(323) 938-4038
http://www.newbevcinema.com/
Admission: All seats $8.00

Cannibals and Zombies Take Over!

7:30pm BLOODEATERS {aka TOXIC ZOMBIES} (1980)
Directed by Charles McCrann

9:30pm THE MAN FROM DEEP RIVER (1972)
Directed by Umberto Lenzi

In contrast to so many rappers today who pride themselves on 'going dumb' and acting 'ignant' Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli prides himself on staying smart both in his life (along with Mos Def he owns an independent, non-profit black bookstore in Brooklyn) and through his refreshingly conscious music that harks back to the golden age of hip-hop when saying something positive was as important as a laying down a catchy hook for the radio and dancefloor.  It is no coincidence that "Kweli" in Swahili means "true" since the artist is 100% true to hip-hop as a positive black artform meant to uplift rather than dumb-down the masses.

 Like his longtime collaborators and old Rawkus pals Mos Def and Hi-Tek Talib Kweli has always stayed true to hip-hop's roots but yet has managed to stay current and vital. Personally I think he is one of the few contemporary artists making hip-hop that is worth a damn and when I first got his 2006 single "Listen" (off his new album Ear Drum) it just got stuck both in my head and on my turntable for weeks on end. It is the way hip-hop should be: good track and hook with lyrics that actually say something. Check out the video for Listen below. But later today (Monday August 20th) if you are in the Los Angeles area you can probably see/hear him perform it live if you check out his Hollywood Amoeba Music instore. It starts at 6PM but get there early to jockey a good position.  And if, like me, you will not be in SoCal take advantage of the live streaming of his instore via this website which also is scheduled to start at 6PM Pacific Standard Time.