HAPPY    ALL    HALLOWS    EVE


OK, so the day has finally arrived...All Hallows Eve...Devils Night...So my final three suggestions for listening pleasures this wicked evening are here as well...

First, I'll break ranks and suggest a compact disc.  Not just a compact disc but a compact disc single, CD5, whatever...In 1997, the visionaries @ K-Tel came up with the idea to release a novelty single for the Halloween season by none other than Chubby Checker...Maybe they had seen his half-time extravaganza with the Rockettes back in '88 and, that being pretty scary, they thought he could pull of the Halloween thing. The tracks- Doin' The Zombie, House of Horror, The Twist, & Screams From Beyond rival the Fat Boys collaboration on the scare-o-meter (of course none of these tracks come close to the Fat Boys collaboration that the Beach Boys did, or worse yet Mike Love's "Rock n Roll Again" LP where he helps butcher some older songs...check out "Walk Away Renee" by the Association, Midi/Yamaha DX7 frights from hell...anyhow I digress)

Nothing beats a Halloween party with your friends. But in case none of your friends are having one (or you have no friends) here's a few suggestions:

Cinespia Presents: The Shining At Hollywood Forever Cemetery

A special screening of “The Shining” on Halloween night at Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
gates open at 5:30 pm, film begins at 7:00 pm. First come first serve for a $10 cash donation. You’ll be sitting on the cold, damn grass of a cemetery, so bring a blanket - no tall chairs. Bring a picnic!

Check out a preview of the Halloween feel good movie of a lifetime:


 
Very Be Careful @ La Cita in Downtown L.A.

L.A.'s best punk rock Vallenato and Cumbia group plays at La Cita. The VBC  is always  a good time. Wear a costume and destroy it  on the dance floor.

La Cita
336 S. Hill St
los angeles, California 90013
Cost: $8

Low End Theory @ The Airliner
Featuring: Themselves (Anticon), Daedelus, Nobody, Daddy Kev & others.

Check out a rare appearance from Themselves, featuring Dos One & Jel and the onslaught of great DJ's. But the best thing about this show is the cover charge. This is from their website:

Now, be forewarned: THIS IS A COSTUME PARTY. We'll be charging $5 with costume, $100 without (yes, that's ONE-HUNDRED DOLLARS without a costume). No exceptions. And when we say "costume" we mean head-to-toe. A mask with pair of jeans and T-shirt will not cut the mustard. So please, take some time and get yourself a REAL DEAL costume for the occasion. Full nudity also welcome.

Just now I walked in off the street after seeing not one, but two different dogs decked out in  eye-catching Halloween costumes. One little pug had bat wings and another had some kind of crazy colorful wig that flowed in the wind and got caught in his tiny legs - which got me thinking about the whole phenomenon of dressing up one's pet for Halloween which seems to be growing in popularity each year.

So in  keeping with both the Amoeba Dog Blog posting (scroll down a bit) I did earlier, and also with the theme of today, Halloween,  and this semi-controversial trend of dressing up dogs-in-costumes,  I am posting some video footage and still-picture collages of dogs decked out in a wide variety of Halloween costumes;  something that seems to get a real mixed reaction from folks with opinions being generally divided into either the  "Oh how cute that little doggie looks!"  or the  "That is so unkind to subject an animal to this kind of thing!"  

Regardless it is a very popular thing to do. In fact there are even annual Halloween dog costume contests such as the one below from last year in Nevada held by Lucky Dog magazine. And while other pets, including cats (a couple of whom snuck into the collage above), are also dressed up in costumes for Halloween it seems that dogs are the most obliging of all animals to go along with the program.  Anything to add on the topic? Do so in the COMMMENTS box - scroll down. Thanks!



The collage below was titled by its maker "Why Dogs Hate Halloween"

STELLA

This is the third installment of the AMOEBLOG featuring Amoeba Dogs (ie: dogs in some way closely connected to Amoeba Music - usually the pets and best friends of Amoeba Music employees in the Hollywood, Berkeley, or San Francisco stores. The three fine canines featured in this AMOEBADOG blog are Cugat and Stella (That is Stella pictured left) both of whom are the best friends of Oliver (Amoeba Music floor manager and electronic music buyer) and also Suki who is the pet and best friend of Brandi Shearer - the Amoeba Music recording artist who recently released the album "Close To Dark" and who, you will recall from the last Amoeba Dog Blog Part II knitted a doggie sweater for AmoebaDog Melina.

I asked both Brandi and Oliver to talk a little about their respective pooches: the basics such as what breed, age or weight the dogs might be and also how they originally came about getting their canines (something that is often really interesting I find). I also asked them both what their dogs really mean to them and if they have any significant impact on their lives.


                                                                                                                                                                                
CUGAT

I can state with ease, and it is a well established fact, I am something of a record geek. I prefer the term ‘record collector’ or even ‘music buff,’ but I can live with the ‘geek’ moniker.  Now I also know as a matter of fact, my wife wishes wholeheartedly I wasn’t such a collector/geek. See, there’s a particular and peculiar trait in people like me, and it’s called “the completist syndrome.” The definition: “somebody who collects a particular kind of thing and wants to obtain an example of everything available, even of inferior items.” I can’t just buy a CD of one of my favorite artists and be content, I feel compelled to collect everything in their discography … everything.

Let’s say I’m a Paula Abdul fan. I would have to collect, not just all her full length CD’s and Albums, but I would find it compulsory to track down every single variant of "Straight Up" or "Opposites Attract" in its many forms: 7” singles, CD singles, 12 inch singles, remix here, remix there…

side note: I ‘m not a Paula Abdul fan at all. In fact I can easily state, again as fact, I think she erred in not fulfilling her destiny as a Lakers Cheerleader. In fact, I believe her going into the music industry caused some kind of “butterfly effect,”  which might explain the personality of our chaotic American lives since the eighties. And to think, I always blamed everything on Ronald Wilson Reagan, (here’s one reason, just add up the letters, he’s President 666. Coincidence? There are no coincidences! Know what I mean ...)

So it's now only one more day until Halloween and I finally got around to watching the Paul Lynde Halloween Special. The special originally aired over 30 years ago in 1976. But it is now rescued from obscurity and released on a nice little DVD. I knew it was going to be ridiculous and hilarious. But it really is hard to even explain. You must simply watch it. The guest stars include Billie Hayes (Witchiepoo from H.R. Pufnstuf), Tim Conway, Betty White, Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West), Florence Henderson (The Brady Bunch), Billy Barty (Legend, Willow, Sigmund & the Sea Monsters), Roz Kelly (Pinky Tuscadero of Happy Days), Donny and Marie Osmond, and Kiss! I know what you are thinking....amazing. Yes it is. And with the brilliant Paul Lynde as the host and Bruce Vilanch helping out with the writing this special was bound to be amazing. Kiss perform the amazing song "Beth" on the special.  The show includes ridiculous skits and musical numbers and the network debut of the band Kiss. I sort of wish they still made specials like this today. There really was nothing like Paul Lynde and he paved the way for many who came after him in Hollywood.

Here is a clip from the special...


There are some very exciting things out today. First of all in the land of TV on DVD there are two very exciting releases. Twin Peaks the Complete Series comes out today. The definitive Gold Box Edition is really amazing. Not only does it include the recently released Season 2 but also the out of print Season 1. Also included is the original and European version of the pilot for the first time on DVD domestically! It is finally all together in one box. The 10 disc set includes new interviews and special features all supervised by David Lynch. This show was amazing and nothing has ever come close to its brilliance. I have been waiting for years to watch the whole series over again in anticipation of this release. If you have never seen this show in its entirety, I highly recommend it. For my review of Season 2 you can go back and read it here.  I can't even begin to explain how much this show means to me. Also out today is My So-Called Life on DVD. The complete series gets a better more deluxe treatment than the previous release on DVD. This show started a couple years after Twin Peaks in 1994. But it was just as important and nothing has really come close to this show except for maybe Freaks & Geeks. This new release comes with a book with photos and special things from the show. It also has interviews with cast members including Claire Danes and 7 audio commentaries. These are exciting times.

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I drove to Granada Hills today to buy a rug. To get there I used the Ronald Reagan freeway named after an actor from Illinois who made some films which are widely regarded as being universally unmemorable.



The ex-actor, after retiring from Hollywood went on to sell weapons to the Iranian dictatorship using the profits to arm death squads in central America. He also used funds designated for cleaning up toxic waste to fund instead the campaigns of sympathetic politicians and he closed institutions for the mentally ill which flooded the street with hundreds of thousands of crazy new homeless people that now fill our jails.

     

In 1959 Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States with two requests which revealed the Hollywood movie-lover in the famous shoe-banger:
1. To go to Disneyland
2. Meet John Wayne.

The United States had a better idea; show him a modern suburb on Sophia Drive in Granada Hills. Instead of inspecting an aerospace plant, he was taken behind the scenes of 20 Century Fox's "Can-Can"

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I saw Control with Morten. It's the movie about Joy Division and more specifically Ian Curtis. It's funny because the first I heard of it was critics tripping over themselves to point out that they liked it though they'd never heard of the band.  The point is always pretty much, "I'm a square. I'd never heard of these guys but I liked the movie although for a rock band, they sure weren't that much fun." I wonder what those critics were listening to back then. To me, Joy Division are one of those bands that, if you have taste, you should've at least heard during their existence if you were teenage or older. I mean, how separate are the worlds of music and movies that you'd have us believe you've got great taste and an ear to the underground if you still haven't heard of Joy Division. What bigger independent bands were there in the late 70s? And didn't you review 24 Hour Party People not five years ago?

Back to the 24 Hour Party People then. When that came out I saw a lot of dour Raincoats leaving the theater expressing their wish that whole film had been about Ian Curtis and not those awful acid house Blue Tuesdays or whatever was going on after Ian Curtis' death at which point their lot zoned out 'til the credits. Pity them. And I thought of how awful that would be- a film about Joy Division. Biopics are so suspect. Made For Cable movies that sit in the wings like vultures to be released in theaters only in the event of the subject's death because what is an awful film will likely reap the awful rewards at the Oscars.

Control is directed by Anton Corbijn which I didn't know till the end. Whatever you think of the guy, and I love his videos, you've got to admit that his images always have to easy to appreciate visuals. I mean, Bryan Adams got him to direct  "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" after all. He's fucking Dutch for Christ's sake.

My spies have told me that season 1 of Newhart is going to be released in the winter of 2008. Of all the shows based around Bob Newhart (the others being The Bob Newhart Show (1961-1972), The Bob Newhart Show (1972-1978),
Bob (1992-1993) and the bizarrely-named George & Leo (1997)) Newhart (1982-1980) remains my favorite. Dick Loudon (Newhart) is a writer from New York City who buys an inn in a rural Vermont town populated by colorful locals who exist to exasperate Dick. I like Bob Newhart in all of his roles which are essentially the same- a mild-mannered, stammering straight man. A bit like Droopy Dog (minus Droopy's explosions of anger and muscle). As David Hyde Pierce observed, "The only difference between Bob Newhart on stage and Bob Newhart offstage – is that there is no stage."

Trivia- the last two times that I flew, Julia Duffy was on the plane.

Country music legend and longtime Grand Ole Opry host Porter Wagoner died last night (Oct 28th) of lung cancer at age 80, according to a news report posted on the Grand Ole Opry website.  Always a fighting spirit Wagoner was active for most of his years and despite the fact that just a little over a year ago he had been seriously ill after suffering an intestinal aneurysm he somehow overcame this serious medical prognosis to make a miraculous recovery followed by a career comeback with a series of memorable performances including a wonderful appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" (see the video clip of it below).  Wagoner also played Madison Square Garden as opening act for the White Stripes at the insistence of the Stripes who are huge fans of Wagoner's music, Unfortunately since he went on so early not a lot of folks had already arrived at the cavernous midtown Manhattan arena. Throughout his career Porter Wagoner boasted over eighty songs on the  country-music chart with nineteen of them being duets with Dolly Parton - whose career he helped launch and whose careers are often connected. (They were actually married to one another for a time. Additionally they were named "country duo of the year" in 1970.

Truly a country music vet,  Wagoner had recently celebrated his fiftieth year in the Opry (he joined the Opry in 1957) and a little earlier this year released on ANTI Records the critically acclaimed album "Wagonmaster."  Look for it along with other recordings from the Missouri-born artist in the country sections at Amoeba Music. Today's LA Times summed up Wagoner's legacy accurately by writing,   "His showmanship, rhinestone suits and pompadoured hair made him famous, with his own syndicated TV show, "The Porter Wagoner Show," for 21 years beginning in 1960. It was one of the first syndicated shows to come out of Nashville, and it set a pattern for many others."  For more information on the late great Porter Wagoner visit his official website.

Well I have to say, finally after all those unforgiving decades, after all those wicked cruel years, the Curse of the Bambino is definitely dead and buried for good … the Boston Red Sox have won the World Series again. Again!

Beantown wins the World Series again! …No f ’in’ way! Sweeping the Colorado Rockies in four straight games? You’re shittin’ me! How the hell did that happen? The Rockies had won their previous 21 of 22 games. If Boston’s World Series victory in 2004 wasn’t beyond friggin’ belief, coming back to win against the much hated New York Yankees in American League Championship series and then sweeping St. Louis in the World series to end an 86 year drought … winning it ALL again this year, just a couple of seasons later is utterly mind blowing! This must be the new millennium!

This year Boston was just an evil heart breaker in the playoffs. First they swept the Los Angeles Angels in the Division series, and then they ripped out the hearts of all Cleveland Indian fans everywhere by coming back and winning the AL Championship series after being down 3 games to 1. And in the Series against Colorado, the Red Sox were simply overwhelming in every sense of the word. Tonight, Sunday, the Boston Red Sox swept to their second title in four years. Wow! With Jon Lester, Mike Lowell, who won the series MVP award, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Hideki Okajima, Josh Beckett, Curt Schilling, Jonathan Papelbon and the big bats of Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, Boston was just relentlessly, obstinately, unremittingly, unstoppable! (Thank god for my Thesaurus!) Congratulations Boston!

Side note: I’m actually a Dodger fan, always have been, always will be … just wait till next year! … Anyway, here’s the weirdest sports line of all; the Red Sox manager Terry Francona is undefeated in the World Series, winning 8 games without a loss.

Back in 1986, when this heated debate on "Crossfire" was broadcast, the beginnings of the current era of censorship in popular music were just unfolding  (meaning the era that began with the PMRC).  In this must-see 20 minute clip from the CNN show the late great, self-described 'conservative' Frank Zappa goes head to head with arch conservative John Lofton of the Washington Times.   Of course Zappa had been in the center of this fight against popular music since his career began decades earlier - defending both the music and freedom of speech.  But he was most publicly vocal during this mid eighties round which had begun the  previous year, 1985,  when the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) - the music censorship organization that was founded by then-Senator Al Gore's wife Tipper Gore and included many other political wives - first came about.  The PMRC and Lofton in this debate were most vocal about such songs as Prince's "Darling Nikki"  which was accused of promoting incest and videos such as Van Halen's  "Hot For Teacher" which is included below. Note that the arrival of the PMRC around the same time as MTV's meteoric early years, with its obvious influence on mainstream America, was no coincidence.

In September 1985 Frank Zappa testified before the US Senate Commerce, Technology, and Transportation committee, attacking the PMRC and making a historic statement that said the PMRC's proposal to ban certain rock music was an "ill-conceived piece of nonsense which fails to deliver any real benefits to children, infringes the civil liberties of people who are not children, and promises to keep the courts busy for years dealing with the interpretational and enforcemental problems inherent in the proposal's design. It is my understanding that, in law, First Amendment issues are decided with a preference for the least restrictive alternative. In this context, the PMRC's demands are the equivalent of treating dandruff by decapitation. (...) The establishment of a rating system, voluntary or otherwise, opens the door to an endless parade of moral quality control programs based on things certain Christians do not like. What if the next bunch of Washington wives demands a large yellow "J" on all material written or performed by Jews, in order to save helpless children from exposure to concealed Zionist doctrine?"

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The second installment in my October favorites series starts with an opera LP from Brazil, it's a single LP of excerpts from Johann Strauss' "O Morcego" or "Der Fledermaus" or "the Bat" if you must.  Issued on the Copacabana label, the sound quality is radio broadcast level and the performance by the Zurich Radio Orchestra is fine, but it's the cover art that makes this a Halloween treat. Cool record store sticker from the Loja Gomes store on Av. Afonso Pena. It appears that the store was once in the center of Belo Horizonte-a huge city about 300 miles above Rio...





Up next...a classic American mix



Folkways and Edgar Allen Poe...Folkways records released this version of the Pit & the Pendulum in 1967, the orator is David Kurlan.  I was abe to dig up a little about  his Broadway work, mostly roles in musicals. He also did a couple of other Folkways voice overs. His reading is straight forward and very effective, kind of like the polar opposite of the Lou Reeds double CD nightmare based on Edgar Allan Poe. The LP comes with a small pamphlet containing instructions for teachers as well a sheet of transparency images for the old mimeograph...

I do love conspiracy theories and here is one of the best. On this date, October 28 in 1943, at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Philadelphia, a naval military experiment often called the Philadelphia Experiment took place … allegedly. According to published reports the USS Eldridge turned invisible to eye witnesses for a brief moment, dematerialized, teleported to Norfolk, Virginia, and then reappeared in Philadelphia. The experiment supposedly had some horrific side effects on the sailors who either became extremely sick, insane or among other things, became engulfed in flames; many of the crew never led normal lives again. Since this had a few negative consequences on overall morale, the Navy halted the experiment and silenced the whole affair … allegedly.

The U.S. Navy of course has always stated that the experiment never occurred and many refer to the entire narrative as a misguided and absurd hoax. It doesn’t matter that many details of the Philadelphia Experiment contradict some of the facts about the Eldridge. (The USS Eldridge was not commissioned until late August 1943 and remained in port in New York City until September, 1943. During the month of October the ship was undergoing training exercises in the Bahamas -or was it the Bermuda triangle! - and never made it to Philadelphia that year. But who cares!) Conspiracy theories don’t get much more fun than this. Take this gem and sprint with it baby, because this where it all starts, this is the granddaddy of them all, from here countless Conspiracies can be traced, directly tripping into other conspiratorial ideologues of covert governments, secret organizations, murder corporations and agendas for world domination.  

Another round of well executed, attention grabbing promotional sales stickers.  A very transitory artform as said stickers are almost always attached to the outer shrink wrap, most of them get thrown away as soon as an LP is opened for play .  In vinylandia we often come across NOS Long Players or records that have their shrink  wrap preserved and once in a while a brilliant little piece of advertising art will still be on that shrink.  Here's this weeks finds...

Wooden Shjips are, quite simply, my favorite local band.  They have really got it all right.  They've got it right in sound, melody, musicianship, energy, independence, intelligence and gentlemanly-ness (very important).

They have a dense, heavy, fuzz filled sound that nonetheless still reverberates with hooks and energy, and its at their fantastic live shows that they show off this sound at its peak.  They have it stripped down to just the right basic elements with nothing remotely computerized (thank god!).  Those who speak and judge quickly may lazily label them "stoner rock".   Have you ever gone to see a "stoner rock" band where they busted out a trumpet?  Yes, the musicians lock together in repetitive, tantalizing riffs, and yes they have big amps, but the moral of the story here is although we do happen to live in a hipster- approved "stoner rock" time, didn't your mom ever teach you to not judge a book by its cover?


This band is far too smart and skilled to be labeled by simpletons.  They started off their recording career by literally giving away a 10" and a 7" to anyone that happened to find them at Aquarius Records, or anyone that would listen.  Imagine that, a San Francisco band, a ROCK band, no less (It's a rare breed here, don't know if you'd heard.), who care more about building an audience of listeners than making money?  Wooden Shjips' first show was a free show at Cafe Du Nord.  Again, they used their sound and their songs and their mysteriousness to build word of mouth support that packed the room.  Their second show ever was opening up for recently recuperated 13th Floor Elevators' Roky Erikson!  They've parlayed all this into a recently released full length, self titled record on Holy Mountain and they just got back from playing at CMJ.   One of the record's tracks was featured in the giveaway CD in a recent issue of Mojo magazine.  They got a write up in David Fricke's section in Rolling Stone.  They released a single on Sub Pop.  Not bad for less than a year's time since that first show.  A little intrigue and all the skills to back it all up was all it took.

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This week Mac McCaughan (left) of the bands Superchunk and Portastatic and the influential label Merge, which has released approx 300 albums to date and which he launched  along with fellow Superchunk member Laura Balance,  spoke to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation at a hearing titled "The Future of Radio." The hearing, which is not to be confused with the House of Representatives' Girl Talk-referencing copyright hearing from several months ago, took place on Wednesday, October 24th and is available in full transcript in PDF file by clicking here (finally your tax dollars at work doing something worthwhile).

According to the Committee's website, the purpose of the "The Future of Radio" hearing was to "assess the state of innovation and competition in the radio market."  And the Superchunk singer/guitarist's testimony stressed the role and the importance of the role that non-commercial radio has played in introducing independent musicians to wider audiences. He mentions Merge Records'  instances like the Arcade Fire and Spoon - two highly successful bands whose albums this year debuted in the  Billboard Top Ten. McCaughan also addressed the power of the internet, as well as the importance of maintaining network neutrality so that commercial and technological experimentation can continue. Additionally McCaughan urged the Committee to resist corporate pressure to loosen ownership restrictions in order to avoid a potential media monopoly; something that many others have voiced concern over. 

                     

                          THE ART OF CAEDMON RECORDS
                 (click on any image for full size and better detail)

Today I spill a lil on the curb for the late great Vincent Price who died exactly 14 years ago on October 25th, 1993. A truly great and most unique American actor Price will be forever remembered for his distinctive voice and the semi-serious/semi-comedic roles he played in the countless horror films he starred in. He will also be remembered to some for such things as hosting the PBS television series Mystery! in the 1980's and for adding the ghostly voice-over at the beginning of Michael Jackson's "Thriller." 

Vincent  Leonard Price was 82 years of age when he died of  complications from emphysema  and  Parkinson's disease and was still active up to within a few years of his death; one of his last major film roles being a part in the movie Edward Scissorhands. That last film of his, in which his role was small due to his ill health, was in 1990 and capped an extremely long and illustrious, and most prolific film career that began for the actor in 1938 and included well over a hundred films - many available on DVD at Amoeba Music.  Two of my personal favorite Vincent Price films are House of Wax (1953) and Theatre of Blood (1973) - the latter being the very first film of his I ever saw and the one that got me hooked on his ever-engaging on-screen persona.  The film is pure brilliant horror and suspense with just the perfect balance of humor - the sort of  film that makes most of today's over-the-top on special effects but low on anything else so-called "horror" flicks pale in comparison.

Saturday October 27

Greydon Clark's
80's T&A Arcade Classic!

Joysticks

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

 

This forgotten T&A classic not only has the greatest theme song of the 1980's ("Totally awesome video games!"), it combines everything you loved from that preposterous decade: Valley girls, arcades, nerds, slobs, boobies, left-over hippies and the all time greatest punk gang, The Vidiots (led brilliantly by Jonathan Gries of Napoleon Dynamite fame.) Help save the arcade from being closed down by those evil conservative townsfolk and yeah... play some games while you're at it!

You will not find another movie that genuinely captures the video game craze of the early 80's.

Special Guests (schedules permitting): Jonathan Gries (King Vidiot), Jim Greenleaf (McDorfus) and director Greydon Clark!!!

With special help from Jesse Hawthorne Ficks (www.midnitesformaniacs.com)

                                                                                                             Born and raised in East L.A., Raul Campos is a DJ that is both old school and new school. He knows the importance of keeping the party rocking, yet is deep in his selections and not one to play the same old jams. He has own show on 88.9 KCRW (Nocturna M-F from 10 p.m. -12 a.m.) and a new CD out on Nacional Records, Lotería Beats Mixtape, Volume 1. Raul will be doing an in-store performance at Amoeba this Friday.

Raul spent years playing clubs, parties, Quinceañeras, even doing a stint at "Radio Clandestina," a great pirate radio station out of Highland Park from the early 2000’s before starting at KCRW. An idea of the show’s eclectic play list ranges from Venezuela’s very cool Cuatro Poder, The Budos Band, Teddy Bear w/Iggy Pop and classics from Sonora Dimamita and Eydie Gorme Y Los Panchos.

In an interview with the L.A. Times, 106.3 Power Tools host Meraz is asked if Raul being Latino makes a difference from other Non-Latino DJ trying to play the same style:

"He's coming from a different space," says Meraz. "It's not just, 'Look what I found.' It's 'Look what I am.' "

Reposting the announcement for my friends at the New Beverly Cinema
-----

The New Beverly Cinema has The Wright Stuff. 

December 2-17, 2007. 

The New Beverly Cinema is proud to announce that Edgar Wright, director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, will be programming a special festival of films, The Wright Stuff, at the theater in December of this year. 

After selling out a screening of his films in August, Wright is returning to the New Beverly to show some of his favorite movies. Wright will be at the theater to introduce the screenings, schedule permitting. In addition, the festival will also include several surprise special guests. Painstakingly handpicked, the films cover a wide spectrum of decades and film genres. From horror to comedy, musicals and more, the festival is sure to have something for every taste.

Admission to all of the screenings is $7 for adults, $6 for students with ID and $4 for children and seniors. All evening screenings begin at 7:30, with a matinee double feature on weekends. No advance tickets will be sold. The box office opens 15 minutes before the first show. 

The New Beverly Cinema is located at 7165 Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles, a block west of La Brea. For more information on the New Beverly, visit our website, newbevcinema.com, or http://www.myspace.com/newbeverlycinema. You may email the theater at newbeverlyforever@yahoo.com with any questions. The New Beverly Cinema is thrilled to have one of today's most talented filmmakers program this exclusive festival.

Wright started out directing television in the UK, most famously the cult series Spaced. He then moved on to his first feature film, the horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, which won him the British Independent Film Award for best screenplay, and the Empire Award for best British film. In 2007, Wright's second feature, Hot Fuzz, was released to critical success, winning him best comedy at the National Movie Awards. 

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This recent no-holds-barred political speech (above) made in Congress by Representative Pete Stark (Democrat) -  in which he just relentlessly tells it as it is on the issues of kid's health care juxtaposed with the expense and moral issues of the war in Iraq and the GOP's stance on immigration etc. (perhaps even going a little over the top in some of the personal comments at Bush in making his points - but nothing obscene or anything like that) - made me wonder how different would the world be today if more politicians constantly spoke their minds as freely as this.?  You know like in that Jim Carrey movie Liar Liar where he had no choice but to tell the truth no matter how undiplomatic it might sound.

More importantly what if politicians also fully acted on their words by fully following through with concrete actions?  And what if - no matter what - they stood by what they said? Note  that since this speech Pete Stark did apologize. Full story in today's LA Times.

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"This Amoeba thing is getting to be very catchy," said Houston from the stage of her SF in-store appearance. (She was referring to her other appearance earlier in the year at the Hollywood store.)



The 61-year-old daughter of a Southern cotton farmer turned disco diva is touring in support of her new CD, A Woman's Touch, which is a mix of covers from people like Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, and Sting. Houston explained to the crowd why all of the songs that she sang were originally done by men, and not women, considering the name of her record: "Once Gladys, Chaka, or Aretha record a song," she said, "you don't need to go there!"




The audience was loaded with old queens (this being SF, after all), all there to pay homage to the woman who sang one of the top ten disco songs of all time, "Don't Leave Me This Way."


But besides being a disco icon, Houston is also an accomplished stage actress, and it showed in her delivery. She came out to the platform dressed like Tina Turner, in a tight tunic and leggings, with a shock of neatly dredded hair in a ponytail cascading around her. She placed a top hat upon her head, which had gigantic feathers dripping off of it. "This is my good luck thing," she joked, "my good voodoo spirit."


Accompanied only by a backing track and a microphone, she lit into her first song, "Wake Up," and then into an Al Green cover, "Love and Happiness." Before she sang it, she told the crowd a story about Al Green, and how she and a certain male friend of hers both had a crush on him in the '70s. "[This was] before the grits," she joked, referring to Green's run in with the law, a hot pot of porridge, and his woman's back.

As a ridiculously naive adolescent I thought of getting a tattoo of my favorite line by French surrealist writer and poet Arthur Rimbaud: “my wisdom is as scorned as chaos”… well in most ways we grow old, but in some ways we never mature… so here I am decades later, still tattoo free, (I will be the last musician on the planet not tattooed or pierced… it is my destiny!) and I find it now the time for the obligatory  “plagiarize or simply steal if necessary” blogging moment. My 14 year old brain was right and will always be right. Steal from Rimbaud because you can’t go wrong … besides, the signs are everywhere.

O! The vast highways of this god forsaken country, dotted endlessly with primary colored gas stations. Our shrines to shiny new SUV’s sucking fuel; build another on-ramp to another Arco, another Union 76, another Texaco with a KFC attached. For Christ’s sake, there can never be too many! Just remember, one day, I want my turn at greed and ingenuity! But first, where is the cheapest gas station? I must save three cents to every gallon! That’s 36 cents a tank full. If you add it up, that’s $1.44 from Seattle to Los Angeles. Or a 20 ounce cup of coffee at a 7-11! But then again, these are just numbers, simple math.

From that time to here, I can still see the old me in my rear view mirror! I remember the those beautifully crafted black and white Ford Crown Victoria highway patrol cars trying to lure me into a felony, they can’t stop me, I’m invisible, I have the entire 5 Freeway on my shoulder, at my hip, caressing me, pushing me, telling me to fly home like a homing pigeon over the battle of Verdun in 1916. Everyone is too busy killing each other to notice me overhead. 362,000 French and 337,000 Germans, nearly 700,000 men will die at Verdun with perhaps a million wounded, and I’ll fly over them like it’s a sunny Sunday afternoon in Central Park … but hey, please ignore the blathering of my brain, these are just numbers, and since there are no dollar signs in front of them … not enough people cared back then, so why care now.

As reported  by the BBC the popular torrent-sharing network OiNK has been shut down in a joint operation by the British and Dutch police. The home of a 24-year-old IT worker from Middlesbrough, England  plus his father's home were raided, as was his place of employment. Meanwhile OiNK's Amsterdam based  servers were also seized by the Dutch authorities. The BBC report speculated that OiNK was responsible for leaking 60 major pre-release albums this year to date and many stateside fans, that flooded message boards today, speculated that it was because of the more mainstream artists available on the network that led to the popular and high-fidelity network being busted.

According to  the BBC report the IT worker, allegedly the mastermind of the operation, "is being questioned on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and infringement of copyright law."  As explained in a report on the bust by PitchForkMedia OiNK was an invitation-only service in which "membership was maintained by
the consistent sharing of new music torrents. The more tunes you uploaded, the better your standing. Monetary donations were also encouraged."



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I saw Sea Monsters at the California Science Center, a fact which you probably already gathered from the title and not from hours of watching Forensic Files. The film is structured like a lot of the (superior) BBC "Walking With" series that focus on all those crazy monsters that didn't fit on Noah's Ark. Like the Allosaurus episode, Sea Monsters focuses on an slightly anthropomorphic female Dolichorhynchops and her search for a man amidst danger on all sides.

If you're a fan of magic lantern shows, or view masters, then you probably love 3-D. Well, really 4-D because don't all movies have duration/time, width and height already? Why didn't William Castle think of that?

                     View Master!                                         Magic Lantern!                                 William Castle!

      Anyway, Liev Schreiber's soothing tones placate you whilst giant marine reptiles swim toward you interspersed with period re-enactments of paleontologists finding fossils played by really hammy actors... and Peter Gabriel's light touch with the music should minimize any trauma from the bloodshed in all but the biggest bawl babies. Watching this with the sound off whilst tripping would probably be quite different in effect.
     My main gripes are the short length (which is the norm with IMAX) and that, because we stick to the story of one Plesiosaur at the end of the Late Cretaceous we only see maybe four or five marine reptiles. Personally, I'd rather have seen a lengthy and comprehensive expose of marine reptiles from the Mesozoic to the present. That would've given the parents more time to make out whilst sprawled out in the courtyard while the seven-year olds and myself got our learning on.
A Saltwater crocodile, which can grow up to 28 feet long can kill a shark. The largest predatory kind (the Great White) can grow up to 21 feet.

 

Rest in peace to Italian-American Napa Valley resident Vincent DeDomenico who was the inventor of the "San Francisco treat"  RIce-A-Roni and who died in his sleep last Thursday at age 92. But DeDomenico's legacy will live on forever and Rice-A-Roni is something that will always be synonymous with cable cars and San Francisco, California. Vincent was born in San Francisco in 1915 to Sicily, Italian immigrants who had moved to California and set up the family business in San Francisco's Mission District - the very successful Gragnano Products, Inc which supplied pasta to Italian stores and restaurants all around San Francisco and which by the mid 1930's changed its name  to the Golden Grain Macaroni Company.  A couple of decades later the invention of Rice-A-Roni would come about when in 1958, apparently inspired by the pilaf recipe of mxing rice and macaroni with some chicken broth,  Vincent mixed all the ingrediants together dry: rice and macaroni plus a dry chicken soup mix and voila "The San Francisco Treat" (its registered trademark) was born. Within four years Rice-A-Roni went national and just took off from there. By the 1960's it had become a cooking staple of US households and is still extremely popular to this day.  In 1986 the Quaker Oats Company purchased the family business from the Golden Grain Company and has continued to expand its product line.

The catchy Rice-A-Roni advertising jingle is one that everyone seems to know and has become synonymous with the City by the Bay - especially to outsiders/tourists - because it repeatedly identifies with San Francisco imagery (including the sound of cable car bells).  Additionally the jingle has been sampled in many hip-hop releases and also the words "Rice-A-Roni" have been included in rap lyrics by both Bay Area and non Bay rap artists.  Some rap songs over the years  that have included the words "rice-a-roni" in their lyrics include Timbaland And Magoo's  "Up Jumps Da Boogie" from Welcome To Our World  featuring Missy when Magoo raps " Eating Rice-A-Roni with Toni Toni Tone/Keep Cindy Crawford, to me she's to boney" and by the 2Live Crew in their take on Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman"  (the one that got Luther Campbell in a high profile lawsuit) with the lyrics  Ya know what I'm saying you look better than rice a roni. 

So these last couple years have really been all about Depeche Mode. But really, my life has been all about Depeche Mode and Dave Gahan. I still remember the day I first heard "People are People" for the first time. My life was really changed forever. This man named Dave Gahan has influenced countless bands  and artists. And much like Morrissey and the Smiths, I really can not imagine what music would be like without him. I am sure many would  like to imagine music without him, but not me. Generations before had The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. Or Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. For me and thousands of others, we had Depeche Mode and The Smiths. Siouxsie and The Cure. I think most of us who grew up in the 80s and 90s either loved or hated Depeche Mode. You were either a proud devoted fan or you made fun of them on a daily basis. The mutual love of Depeche Mode helped to create friendships and bring together countless boyfriends and girlfriends. Really, where would I be without Dave Gahan. After releasing his first solo album in 2003, "Paper Monsters," he went on tour as the solo Dave Gahan. The shows of course included many Depeche Mode songs. But his solo tours really lacked the energy of a Depeche Mode show. I have probably said this before, but there is really nothing like seeing them live. Just watch Depeche Mode 101 again, if you don't understand. Luckily Depeche Mode was not yet done. They released "Playing the Angel" in 2005 and it was really one of their best in many years. I had never stopped loving this band but it was really nice to know that they were still as good as ever. The band released another live album and another greatest hits. They released a great compilation of all their mixes. But most importantly they reissued their entire catalog of albums as deluxe cd/dvd combos. The albums really needed some remastering. The final two albums just came out a couple of weeks ago. They really are amazing. Each album has its own complete mini documentary about the making of the album. Dave Gahan is now releasing his second album today, "Hourglass." Some might say, enough already, Mr. Gahan. But for those of us still in love with the man that brought us "Dreaming of Me" 26 years ago, there can really never be enough.

    Lars... whoops- David Arquette                                                               The real Lars

In Lars and the Real Girl Ryan Gosling plays a shy loner who is henpecked by nagging family and friends determined to engage him. He reacts to their attempts to set him up on dates and hang out in familiar and realistic shy guy fashion. Then he buys a sex doll which he falls in love with and all at once we're transported to a world I could only recognize as the familiarly formulaic "quirky indie film". Of course it's in the Middle West (Ontario in real life), the last bastion of quirky, lovable, soft-headed townsfolk with hearts of gold and fresh-baked good intentions.
     What I had hoped was going to be a semi-comic observation along the lines of Punch Drunk Love or Chuck & Buck in one contrived bit plunged straight into the territory of an SNL sketch-cum-movie or an Improv skit that goes on for way too long (i.e. over 3 seconds). OK, it's not as bad as those examples, mostly because of the casting and because you don't have Horatio Sanz cracking up at the hilarity of it all. Ryan Gosling goes a long way in making Lars a character we care about even while the script or direction provide almost no insight into what's going on in his head aside from contrived instances with a psychiatrist. We never know if he really thinks the doll is real, does he ever have moments of clarity? What made him change from a believable loner into a delusional cinematic joke? We never know much of anything that goes on inside. You won't laugh, you won't cry even though it's calculated to make you do just that. Ultimately Lars is just an icon with funny hair, funny clothes, a funny name and a funny relationship with others a la Napoleon Dynamite. Here's hoping he doesn't similarly inspire a legion of "hipster" imitators or else I'm going to have to make a lot more calls to the Redneck Squad.
     I get the feeling that director Craig Gillespie (who also made the critically-despised Mr. Woodcock) didn't keep us distant from Lars deliberately like Todd Haynes did in Safe with Julian Moore.  Lars is viewed as a curiosity from arms length through the eyes of a guy whose prescription for social heterogeneity seems to be getting the world's "weirdos" laid or at the very least, some hugs.
     There are a couple of shots of the sex doll that register on the outskirts of funny and disturbing but for the most part Lars and the Real Girl is (like Waitress or Little Miss Sunshine) only about as quirky as a Halloween episode of Friends. Almost too edgy for an in-flight movie or your great grandmother. The story slowly flows along toward inevitable plot markers at molasses speed and then ends, gratefully, sort of abruptly.
     If you need more convincing if the film's mediocrity, check out these particularly rote hyperboles it inspired among some of the nation's blandest critics:

Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal "nothing short of a miracle"

Ann Hornaday for the Washington Post "a small miracle"

Wesley Morris for the Boston Globe "something miraculous has occurred"

The image to the left is the album cover art from the soundtrack to the film "Juice" that starred Tupac Shakur as the crazy & wild, revolver-carrying character Bishop (one of a group of Harlem teenagers) and - at the time of its release in 1992 - stirred up quite a controversy over said gun in the artwork that was also used in the movie's advertising campaign.  I remember back then, as you probably do too, seeing in magazines, on big billboards and also AC Transit buses driving by - advertising for the film with the image identical to the one left with a gun-toting Pac.  But soon-after a heated controversy arose over the inclusion of the gun in the movie poster   the artwork was altered - with the gun being airbrushed out of the image altogether.

The whole controversy over the Juice advertising campaign was instigated by reporter Anita Busch at the Hollywood Reporter  when she wrote a critical article about Paramount Pictures'  advertising campaign for the movie which, she wrote, some people feared would lead  to violence around the movie theaters. The article triggered a landslide of bad publicity, which in turn triggered fear, that ultimately led to the studios/producers of the film to alter the artwork and remove the gun (a revolver) from all movie related materials - as in the DVD cover art opposite right.  

Among shocked rap fans at the time (myself included) the feeling was that it was a bullshit censorship move; with the real irony being that Hollywood was not airbrushing out guns from other (non rap related) movies.  Clearly it came off at the time as a double-standard targeted at black youth and at a music that was prone to controversy - this being the time of Ice T's "Cop Killer" and other hot-button controversies.  In fact just a year earlier Vice President Dan Quayle used his high-profile position to slam Tupac's  first album, "2Pacalypse Now.  "There is absolutely no reason for a record like this to be published … It has no place in our society." was what Quayle said at the time of the rap album by the former Digital Underground member.

The month of October begins the massive turn inward that results in the great isolation of the later winter months. We in SoCal tend to be spared the brunt of all the snow and ice that is the harsh reality of winter for much of the rest of the country.  Even so, the general isolation that comes with winter certainly occurs here- try getting people out to a performance during even a light Feb. rainstorm and you'll know a true feeling of loneliness deep in your heart.  I thought that I'd put together a three parter featuring some of my favorite recordings for your post Mabon listening pleasure...those lonely nights in your SRO curled up next to your illegal space heater, anticipating the Samhain spirit night quickly approaching...

"SPOOKY SOUNDS" or "SPOOKY AND
OUT OF THIS WORLD SOUNDS" on
SOUNDS RECORDS
(Glendale, CA private press)



Always a favorite around the (((6))) compound this time of the year, this LP not  only has some truly great cat screeching and chain rattling, but really spooked out THEREMIN SOLOS.  Originally issued as two separate Halloween themed 7" EP's (one pumpkin cover, one werewolf cover). I have the LP, the cover of which is a picture of a"spooky" Victorian house.  My copy had a former life  as a library LP so the cover has a big rip where the card pocket was ripped off and there's a heat warp warning sticker to the left, which I believe gives my copy creepier feel.

For those who didn’t know, Lance Hahn passed away Friday after slipping in a coma a week earlier. Lance Hahn was a brilliant songwriter and a great musician. His band, J-Church (and before that, Cringer) recorded several album and many singles. He had friends all over the world, who when they get the news will be very sad.

I met Lance nineteen years ago. He was 21 and I was 19. We worked for nuclear disarmament organization. We would canvass rich liberal neighborhoods trying to sign people up as members much like Greenpeace does. It was a shitty job to say the least. The best part about it was meeting Lance. Lance was real funny and I loved the way he laughed. It was real. He and his friends moved to L.A. from Hawaii in the late 80’s because they thought the punk scene would be better in L.A. Unfortunately, they came right when the hair-metal thing was huge in L.A. and punk was out of vogue. His band Cringer only played a half a dozen shows in the three years they were in L.A. At the time I was taking a recording class at Harbor College. I told him that I could record Cringer for free. He took me up on the offer and we recorded Cringer’s “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones” E.P. It was my first time behind the mixing board. It sounded horrible and I knew it, but they released it anyways. I ended up playing a show or two on guitar with them before they moved to San Francisco. They asked me a few days before they left, "Hey, do you want to come with us?" I declined. Once they moved to up north they became a part of the Gilman Street community, released some records, did a few tours, broke up and became J-Church. I started playing in bands as well and every time I would come up San Francisco to play he would be at the shows. After the shows, we’d drink 40’s and eat burritos from one of the Mexican places on Valencia in the Mission District, then he load me up on punk rock gossip. He was like my punk rock comadre.

Two of my heroes growing up were Rod Serling and Elvira. I am a bit surprised that I actually turned out sort of well adjusted. I absolutely loved watching The Twilight Zone on television. One of my babysitters let me watch it and I really thought that Rod Serling was the coolest man in the world. His shows were nothing short of brilliant. I still look forward to the yearly marathons even though I have the episodes on DVD now. I also watched a lot of the "Movie Macabre" hosted by Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. The show originally aired in 1981. I also became obsessed with Elvira and watched her late night movie show any time I got the chance. The movies were absolutely horrible, but her hosting and commentary was hilarious. It probably helped develop my love of horror movies and just bad movies in general. But also my love of sarcasm. Elvira got her start in Hollywood with the comedy group the Groundlings. Both the Elvira character and Pee-Wee Herman were created at the Groundlings. I got to meet Elvira at Midnight Mass last year and the lady is still as great and beautiful as ever. I was excited to find out she had a new reality show coming to TV. The show finally started and I just finished watching the second episode. The reality show is on the Fox Reality Network. A channel that I am sure I will probably never watch again after the Elvira show. But the show itself is great. Elvira is basically looking for "the next Elvira." I am sure that she gets tons of appearance requests that she can't always fulfill and needs somebody to basically help run the Elvira business. Imagine how popular she is in the month of October. Maybe she should pick live five new Elviras.

The growth of the Japanese band Boris' popularity in America is a perfect example of life imitating art. Their songs—droning metal scapes that can last over 45 minutes--  start with the merest hint of sound and then build to high, layered crescendos of noise.


Boris has been around since 1992, but only really gained a foothold in the states after Southern Lord began reissuing their catalog here. A successful appearance at So