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Unlike many, I look forward to Thanksgiving not because of what I get to eat, but what I get to cook. For this reason, I love to host the holiday. In a village like Los Angeles, it’s usually easy to find many lost little lambs who’ve no place to eat (and no ability to manage kitchens themselves). Honestly, it’s like flunking Home-Ec is a requirement to moving to the City of Angels; I guess Type-A personalities don’t have a lot of patience for braising.

Nothing makes me feel more like a magical wizard than when cooking-challenged people like my boyfriend watch me prep food. Am I roasting zucchini or casting a sleep spell on the whole kingdom? Because his reaction would be interchangeable in either event.

I learned to cook from my Mom; sometimes instruction was direct, but mostly I just hung around the kitchen while she cooked and made a nuisance of myself, learning by observation. I was hypnotized by corn starch and its ability to turn any liquid in to a thick sauce. Separating an egg seemed like a delicate and ancient Chinese dance, and gee whiz…! See what you can do when you whip those egg whites?

There were some causalities, from which I grew wiser. One sneaky bite of unsweetened chocolate taught me that some of life’s greatest pleasures can come from something so foul. I learned Tupperware cannot be used like a pot on the burners, and soon after I learned how hard it is to clean cooked and melted plastic off a grill. One of the few scars I have on my body is on the knuckle of my left thumb from the first time I learned how to use a peeler – I don’t remember what fruit I cut myself on, but I’ve always remembered how to hold the instruments securely since then. Oh! And I learned it doesn’t take very many bittersweet chocolate chips to destroy an appetite.

This week, 33 years after its original release, the Rolling Stones' critically and commercially acclaimed 1978 album that topped the Billboard 200 album charts and spawned the crossover disco-blues fused worldwide megahit "Miss You," Some Girls is being re-released in a newly remastered form that is now available at Amoeba Music in three versions: the Some Girls remastered LP pressing, Some Girls Deluxe edition CD, and the Some Girls Super-Deluxe edition CD which include unreleased songs and a single for "Beast of Burden."

As aptly noted by the Amoeba Online Store reviewer of the Some Girls Remastered 2-CD Deluxe Edition, "The remaster gives the drums especially a terrific crispness. And the bonus disc is far from inessential, showing a range of different tacks the band could have taken on Some Girls, including the country jangle of “Claudine” and the rollicking “Do You Think I Really Care,” in which Jagger outsneers the punks coming up behind him."

That comment makes reference to the fact that Some Girls was released at a time when punk was in its prime and established rockers like Jagger were seen as old fogies past their prime and creativeness. Recorded between October 1977 and March 1978 Some Girls, with its obvious punk influences, was seen as Jagger's reaction to this attitude. But beyond punk and its even more obvious disco/dance influences Some Girls was really Jagger's paean to New York City (the song "Shattered" with lyrics like "Life's just a cocktail party on the street, Big Apple people dressed in plastic bags directing traffic" "or "Miss You" with Jagger singing how "I been walking Central Park" - are among the album's many examples) with countless references and nods throughout to the Big Apple which, at the time, was in its most run-down, albeit decadent, best.

When recently in New York I was fortunate to catch a short run punk & post-punk themed gallery exhibit that included some wonderful posters, flyers, and other memorabilia of this music from the mid 70's through the early '80's. Titled Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post Punk Graphics 1976 - 82 this one-month only exhibit at the Kasher Steven Gallery on W 23rd St in the Chelsea district, that closes this week but is rumored to be coming to the West Coast sometime in the future, is a most engaging collection for anyone with even a passing interest in this influential time period in music. Simultaneously on display in the same space is the related Laura Levine: Musicians photo exhibit that overlaps some of this same period but whose timeline runs up to a decade later.

This photography section of the exhibit is credited exclusively to NYC music photographer Laura Levine who reportedly started out by talking her way into punk clubs and their backstage areas with a camera slung round her neck and a fake press pass in hand. Within no time she was a legit member of the press working as photographer for the likes of the The New York Rocker, Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Many of her photos on display (nearly all black and white) intimately capture that famed early 80's Downtown New York scene; a world that included artists and musicians from all backgrounds and genres. Photos include Afrika Bambaataa, an early days 1982 Madonna, the Beastie Boys and Run DMC together in a group shot, John Doe and Exene Cervenka (during their X days), Joey Ramone, and The Clash.
Meanwhile the Rude and Reckless: Punk/Post-Punk Graphics, 1976–82 portion of the gallery includes two hundred plus items on display. As well as posters and flyers (there's a great one from the Mabuhay Gardens in SF that featured the DKs, Angst, Toxic Reasons, and the short-lived talented local band the Fried Abortions) are fanzines, flyers, clothing, stickers, and punk buttons/badges.

Another great opportunity to donate much needed funds to the people of catastrophe-stricken northeastern Japan presents itself at Thee Parkside this Sunday in the form of Aftermath - A Citizen to Citizen Tsunami Rescue and Relief Benefit featuring various Bay Area Japanese punk and avant garde performers. Wonka once said, "a little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men," and I cannot think of anyone who embodies that sentiment better than my friend Bob Nozawa (pictured below in ommpa-loompa orange) of Aftermath headlining act Ass Baboons of Venus. I caught up with him recently and asked briefly about the upcoming show, his band and their recent fund raising events for Japan.

This isn't the first benefit for Japan the Ass Baboons has played, no? Any idea on how much you've raised for the relief efforts collaboratively?

Bob Nozawa: It's the second show. The first was beyond anything we expected! Tthe final tally (including donations at the door, art and beer sales) ended up totaling around $25,000! There were so many people involved in getting that event together that it would be impossible to list them all, but I would never do that anyway because I hate lists.

What organization(s) will this benefit be donating to?

BN: This one is for Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California's Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.

Will there be any art or merch available for purchase to contribute to the funds raised at the show?

 

In the early-1990s, while walking down Hollywood Boulevard as a cluck from Colorado, I remember coming across a videotape of The Misfits playing live from 1983 and thinking “dude, no fucking way.” I’d never seen actual footage of them, but perpetually carried one of their sadistic Elvisy horror-themed songs stuck in my head (particularly “Queen Wasp”). I wanted to see their devil locks, the face paint, those signature Crimson Ghost insignias and battle ax basses and the basement crowd reacting to one of their purportedly awful performances. Danzig the former grave robber. “Skulls.” Green Hell. Only and Robo and Doyle and Mr. Jim (god bless him). Ed Wood and Plan 9 From Outer Space. All that stuff. I bought it. And everything was as I’d hoped it would be, from the shit-quality to the clam notes to the indecipherable lyrics from a lurched over Danzig. I brought it back to the 303 and impressed would-be Fiend Club members. There’s something irretrievable about this kind of history that gives you a pang of inflated significance.