These chaps have the right idea!

 

  




   

Some "Cut & Run" types think it's ok to celebrate such other July 4th holidays such as:

Filipino-American Friendship Day
Day of Agwe - Haiti
Birthday of Queen Sonja - Norway
Commemoration of Jewish Genocide - Latvia
Family Day - Lesotho
Fisherman's Day - the Marshall Islands
Independence Day - Rwanda
King's Day - Tonga

Don
8ish years employment ("It's all a blur...")
Floor Manager Extraordinaire

Miss Ess: What have you been listening to lately?

Don: I've been listening to Adele, Sex & the City Soundtrack, Duffy and the new Kathy Griffin LP [For Your Consideration].

ME: What dance track changed your life?

Don: Donna Summer's Once Upon a Time was the dance album that changed my life. Not only because I realized I liked dance music but it was also the time I realized I like boys.

What album or song is your favorite to dance around to?

Wow what is my favorite dance lp? Hhhmm-- there are so many, but the stand out is probably "Dance This Mess Around" by the B52's. It's so much fun.




What lesser-known or forgotten artists should people seek out in the dance section?

Billy Ray Martin or Sophie Ellis-Bextor are two that spring to mind. Billy Ray is from Electribe 101 which was an amazing band also. Sophie is a current British pop dance diva.

What is your favorite Madonna video?

I have the good fortune to be part of the in-store crew here at Amoeba San Francisco, and this affords me many opportunities to do one of my favorite things ever: see live music.

I’ve seen some bands that I GREATLY admire (Earth, High on Fire, The Raconteurs, Thurston Moore, The Breeders, Boris, The Dirtbombs… the list goes on), some bands that I’m unimpressed with (I’ll keep those to myself), and sometimes it’s something I’ve never heard before, but it’s always something different and new.

One factor that can affect my experience as a viewer is whether or not the performers are having fun and are excited to be here. When artists are psyched up for the unique experience of an Amoeba instore, it makes their show all the better for everyone!


What is the point of this personal rambling, you might be asking yourself? Well, this coming Sunday, July 6 at 2pm, The Kids Of Widney High are going to be performing LIVE for FREE, and I can’t wait to see them. Have I ever seen them before? Nope. But I did watch the video for “Pretty Girls” on the Amoeba Website. After that I wanted to see more, so I clicked over to YouTube and found this mini-documentary about the school and the songwriting class that has created this group. It’s worth watching the entire thing, but be sure to check out just after the 9 minute mark, when former member Shantel Brown says “…and I hope they get to go back to San Francisco again.”  WHAT?!?! Are they going to be way excited to be here? That makes ME all the more excited… I think YOU should come by and check it out. There’s nothing like a room full of people who love music, is there?

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Ribbon mics, reel tapes, jukeboxes, tubes & radio transmission towers- the embodiment of old world recording cool.  Hell, we even have an "Olde World Records" in this bunch.  People have long  fetishized recording and audio gear, these labels are a testament to such interesting interests.

In a creepy crime similar to an incident that happened to the late Mac Dre's resting place three years ago when the slain Vallejo rapper's headstone was stolen, the gravestone of former Joy Division front man Ian Curtis was stolen sometime between yesterday and this morning from the Macclesfield Cemetery in Cheshire, England.

As reported earlier today by the BBC, "Detectives said the stone, which has the inscription "Ian Curtis 18 -5 -80" and the words "Love Will Tear Us Apart" was taken...There is no CCTV in the area and there are no apparent leads as to who is responsible for the theft."

The local authorities went on to speculate that the recent surge in interest in the singer might have led to the unusual theft. Last year's biopic on the singer, Control, and the documentary, Joy Division, which was released earlier this year, have both undoubtedly led to an increase in interest in the talented Curtis, who hung himself in the kitchen of his nearby Macclesfield home back in May 1980 when he was 23. Cheshire police have pleaded with anyone who has information to contact them.

This incident brings to mind both the theft of Jim Morrison's headstone from P’re Lachaise Cemetery in Paris in 1990, and the aforementioned Andre (Mac Dre) Hicks graveside robbery from Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery in 2005.  Despite the fact that a large reward was posted for the recovery of Mac Dre's headstone (and a beat-down promised if the perp was ever caught), the headstone was never recovered. Eventually it was replaced with a new one that was tightly secured.