So I saw this car parked out in East Oakland - dusty and dirty and truly in need of a wash and on its window was that age old finger-on-dirty-windscreen tag of WASH ME PLEASE.   Wash Me Please with the please dramatically underlined, as if to strongly, but politely stress just  how  very dirty and in need of a wash this vehicle had become.

I find it interesting that people have been, without fail, tagging those same three words (or just the two words WASH ME)  on  dirty cars for decades and decades. For as long as people have had cars there's been people who've been neglecting to wash them  - and consequently other's who've been tirelessly tagging them  with that kind reminder: "Wash Me Please".

Forever it seems those exact same words have been written on cars, apparently never going out of style or been modernized with each passing new decade. You'd think they'd be updated to something more in line with contemporary slang, while still packing the urgency and importance of the request.   Maybe something like "Wash My Ride Beyoootch"  But hopefully not as it is nicer this way - those same old-fashioned, demanding yet civil, words with that message WASH ME PLEASE mark a return to both kinder times and to a graffiti  tag classic.

 

I have been fortunate to witness amazing events. I have been blessed to be at the right place at the right time, sort of. I also have unbelievable bad timing. When I heard Paul McCartney was going to perform at Amoeba, I was excited until I heard which day he was going to play. The evening Sir Paul was to play Amoeba, I had an opening night for Nativo! A new club that I spin at. This wasn’t the first time a legend was performing and I had to miss it. Once I had a show the same night I had free tickets to see Tom Waits perform acoustic in front of a small crowd. I went to the show anyways but I had to bail to my own gig after a few songs. Another time I made the mistake of making a date during a SXSW conference, not knowing the time I made the date was the same time Johnny Cash was performing at Emo’s in front of 300 people, me being one of them. Once again I had to leave early after a few songs to meet my date and then I couldn’t get back in. On top of that, nothing happened between the girl and myself, ever.

I showed up to Amoeba early, hoping to catch at very least Paul McCartney’s sound check. The Amoeba bosses told us that we could watch sound check just as long as we weren’t gawking at Paul during the check. Having done many sound checks myself I always hated people gawking at me while I was sound checking. I’m usually trying to get the gallos out of my throat or awkwardly playing a part just to get a sound and it never sounds pleasant. I would make it a point, from one musician to another, to respect their wishes and not be a fan. I would continue to get the store ready for the in-store and not stop and stare.

The band was jamming on stage. Paul McCartney was nowhere to be found. I continued to take down box sets that might inhibit people from viewing the performance. The band blasted into “Ride My Car” I had my head turned while they were playing the song. I figured one of Paul’s band mates was taking the lead vocal since Paul wasn’t around. I turned around and there he was, singing and playing that familiar Vox bass. I resisted the urge to go closer to the stage and continued to work. But soon the fan in me and in the rest of the staff won out. Slowly, like cats creeping towards some foreign object in curiosity, we all edged closer to the stage. Soon, none of us were working, only watching the “show” that was supposed to be sound check.

In honor of the fourth of july the record labels are not putting much out today. Nothing worth me talking about at least. Besides Velvet Revolver, Collie Buddz, T.I. and Kelly Rowland. I don't really like to do bad reviews about things I know that I am not going to like. So I will not waste your time. But there is something I can't stop thinking about and that would be the new Transformers movie. I am allowing myself to talk about it only because the official soundtrack to the movie does come out tomorrow. So it kind of all ties in to today's street date.

It is really hard for this soundtrack to compete with the awesomeness that was the original soundtrack to the original 1986 Transformers movie. We have songs by Smashing Pumpkins, Linkin Park, the Used, HIM, and a new theme song by Mute Math. Nothing too exciting. It just gets me a bit more excited for the film. I did pick up the 20th anniversary special edition DVD of the original 1986 "Transformers The Movie." And it really is awesome. Just in case you forgot, this movie "starred" the voices of Judd Nelson, Leonard Nemoy, Casey Kasem, Scatman Crothers, Orson Welles, Robert Stack, and Eric Idle. This was the last film for both Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers.  This movie was obviously a big deal. The original TV series was on from 1984 to 1987. I was ten when the show first started and became obsessed with the show and got a lot of the toys. The show was basically one big commercial to go out and buy the toys. But one can really say the same thing about Star Wars or any movie aimed at kids. I didn't know about any of this as a kid. I just knew that I loved myself some transformers. This movie was rated PG which allowed it to be a sort of more adult movie. This was the movie that killed off its hero Optimus Prime. The themes were a bit more mature and the 80s soundtrack was aimed at an older audience. The soundtrack is by Vince Dicola. Vince not only did most of the music for Staying Alive, directed by Sylvester Stallone, but also was featured on the Rocky IV soundtrack. Sylvester Stallone obviously knew a thing or two about music.  This DVD features some amazing extra features. Commentaries by the director and also fans. Tons of trivia and trailers and some documentaries. The movie really is a classic of its time but it really is the music that holds it all together. But don't worry the original soundtrack is still in print if you want to pick that up as well.

If you've ever checked out the murals on the outside walls of the three Amoeba Music stores (Hollywood, Berkeley, San Francisco) you may have noticed a similarity in styles between all three. That's because the same two artists, Larry Smulian as designer and Brian Blesser as art executor, contributed their art to the outside of all three music stores.  "Larry does all our ad art, and Brian did our murals on the front of Berkeley way back when, and the side of Haight street, and the top of the front of Haight," said Amoeba Music's Marc Weinstein.




Note that these artists contributed to the Ivar side of the Hollywood Amoeba (not the Cahuenga side of building - more on that art and the artist who created it in a later amoeblog) and that they are not responsible for the graffiti art side of the Haight Street store.





 Most of the pics displayed here in this BLOG are from the Haste Street side of the Berkeley Amoeba Music store and are chosen because they are among this blogger's favorites for many reasons including the historical content's significance -  mainly being the fact that they represent the period during the 1960's history of Berkeley's Peoples Park - which is steeped in radical political activism - not to mention that People's Park is directly behind Amoeba Berkeley in the same block bordered by Telegraph & Bowditch and Haste & Dwight.