i often dream of trains

It probably has something to do with the fact that I'm going to see Robyn Hitchcock play this week, but a couple of nights ago, I had a dream wherein I was in Hitcock's living room (and I knew it was his living room because I saw it in the documentary Sex, Food, Death...& Insects), with a few other folks, and we were writing and playing songs with Robyn. And at one point he pulls out a toy megaphone and explains how the previous day he'd been playing with it, writing songs with it, singing into it in gibberish-German.

Not sure what it all means, but it was a very vivid dream.

in barlight, she looked alright, in daylight, she looked desperate.

so john mccain...how are you liking sarah palin now? she certainly changed the game alright. we'll see about 2012. or hopefully not.

PHINALLY!

What 28 years of waiting feels like...



the moment...

Phils win!

didn't anybody tell you, this river's full of lost sharks

Another one for the "I really should have my camera with me all the time" files...Monday evening rush hour, 16th & Valencia, guy is standing in the middle of Valencia holding a McCain/Palin sign. That is mavericky, my friends.

help save the youth of america

What popped into my head while watching the last debate between Obama and McCain.

Americans are hurting and angry and angry and hurting and hurting and angry.

I wonder how Joe the Plumber feels about being in a tug-of-war betwen Obama and McCain?

McCain scares me when he salivates over using a hatchet and a scalpel.

Didn't McCain vote for most of the Bush budgets that were pork and ear-mark laden?

McCain knows how to save all these billions of $$..which is funny given how much money Charles Keating cost the u.s. taxpayers in large measure thanks to McCain.

Again with the overhead projector!

Americans are hurting and angry at being reminded how hurting and agry they are.

Actually, McCain backslid on the torture thing, so stop giving him credit for it.

Schieffer is letting McCain get the last word much too often so far.

Schieffer is challenging them to get into a vebal pissing match on stage?

Does McCain really want us to believe that he wouldn't have gone negative if Obama had done the town halls? Nice that Obama finally (sort of) called him on that b.s.

Enough with the crocodile tears and the calls for repudiation. Get to something meaningful.

Here we go, ACORN. Forget that they are above board. Forget also, McCain, that YOU went to an ACORN meeting. Obama did a good job countering the ACORN issue.

Again, McCain gets the last word!

Nice question about the respective Veep nominees. McCain backed off of the "bridge to nowhere" lie but kept up the gas pipeline lie. And why is he talking about autism when Palin's baby has Downs Synrome? Nice answer by Obama..."she's a capable politician who's excited the base of the Republican party". Says it all in answer to a question about her qualification to be President.

Uh oh, he called the black guy "eloquent".

Nice eye roll by McCain when Obama talked about human rights and labor protections. Says all you need to know about GOP ideology.

And AGAIN McCain gets the last word. Did someone tally this?

And Joe the Plumber gets another shout-out, this time on health care. Again, this needs to be tallied.

McCain still hasn't learned how to smile without looking creepy.

"Senator Government"...funny from a guy who's been in Congress for two+ decades.

How could Obama have voted against Justice Bryer, who was nominated in 1994?

Niiiiice use of the Ledbetter Supreme Court decision and subsequent attempt at legislation.

Why no mention of Joe the Plumber in the Roe v. Wade segment?

"Health of the mother" is just a malleable trope for abortion extremists? Ok.

And AGAIN McCain gets the last word.

Is this the first question about education in any of the three Presidential debates?

Yes! Obama talks about student loan debt.

Sarah Palin's kid is not autisitic? Or at least the baby isn't. Is one of the other kids autistic?

At least Obama got the last word on closing statements.

Nineteen days to go (as of Thursday morning).. The election can't come quick enough.

my mind's gone loose inside the shell

This is the nexus of middle class America, negative political advertising, and an economy that's in the crapper.

The next was a woman, late 50s, Democrat but strongly pro-life. Loved B. and H. Clinton, loved Bush in 2000. "Well, I don't know much about this terrorist group Barack used to be in with that Weather guy but I'm sick of paying for health insurance at work and that's why I'm supporting Barack."

This quote encapsulates how McCain and Palin's associative language trick linking Obama to Ayers has worked in the minds of some voters. It works in much the same way that it worked for Bush in getting people to think that Saddam Hussein was suporting al Queda (link goes to pdf) and might have had something to do with 9/11. All they (McCain/Palin) have been doing is saying that Obama associated with a known terrorist on a non-profit board, and people hear half the words and make the leap to "Obama=terrorist".

And these weren't hard-core conservatives in the focus group. They were "Reagan Dems and Independents. Call them blue-collar plus. Slightly more Target than Walmart."

This is a frighteningly fascinating look into how people process information, and that the skilled rhetoriticians who craft campaign messages know this and (in this case as with Saddam::al Queda) use the power of association to get low-attention voters, outright dimwits or people just looking for a good rationalization to make the link, all while keeping a plausible deniability of being able to say "Hey, we never said Obama is a terrorist". Perhaps the only saving grace is that the economy is bad enough that it even trumps the horribly misguided perception that Obama is some kind of Manchurian Candidate.

It's at once fascinating, disgusting and frightening.

you made me realise

Random thoughts and observations from an evening featuring excellent Thai food and My Bloody Valentine.

* First, the menu at Basil Thai is good from top to bottom. How do I know? Well, our group of 10 ended up eating most of the menu. Lesson #1 - when leaving the ordering for the table to the one person at the table who is a professional chef, don't be surprised when you have more dishes than people. Given that we had one vegan, a few vegetarians and a non-meat eater who would eat fish or chicken, and well...we needed lots of dishes. I'm pretty sure we had just about everything on the appetizer menu. I know that the spring rolls, curry puffs and potstickers are quite good. Among main courses, a tip of the hat to the wok-fried scallops, the crispy catfish (with quite a spicy kick), the eggplant curry....damn, all of it was good.

* My Bloody Valentine are yet another band who I didn't see when they were first around. Given they've had a layoff of more than a decade, I'm sure nobody going to the show knew what to expect. Well, they might have if they read some of the reviews. In any event, what we got was a sensory overload of noise and lights. The band were sharp and powerful (especially the rhythm section) but they were loud. Real loud.

* What's sad is that MBV's records feature pretty melodies and layered sonic textures, yet when they play live at bludgeoningly loud levels, they obliterate the interesting subtleties in their music. The only plus to that is you don't just hear the music, you feel it. The bass rattles your midsection, the guitars seems to wash all over you. Combined with the sensory overload of the lights, you can almost leave your body...almost like the waves of noise and light might carry you above the crowd and let you float there. For the first time in a while at a show I zoned out and forgot about everything else...the people I was there with, the crowd of strangers around me, and was just...there. As a friend said in an email, "I felt I was on drugs without taking any - how cool is that!"

* The 20+ minute wall of feedback and noise at the end of "You Made Me Realise" sounded at its apex like a jet plane landing. It also went on about 10 minutes too long.

* The Councourse at the Design Center is a truly awful sonic experience. Really (see the yelp reviews). No band worth a damn should ever allow itself to be booked there again.

* Too funny...their old label head thinks that MBVs loudness is a one-trick pony, a crutch.

* Other things I remember...red, sparkly telecaster, stacks and stacks of Marshall amps, feedback, backlighting, fans in big silvery boots, long lines to go for the bathroom, for people who were going for a smoke, the ticket-takers handing out earplugs.

no woman no cry

Reading this, which reports that Hillary Clinton and Dianne Feinstein will be working with Joe Biden on prep for his debate with Sarah Palin, I wonder if perhaps Tina Fey might be a better debate prep surrogate.

it's a dirty story of a dirty man...

Irvine Welsh reading from his new novel Crime, this past Saturday at Edinburgh Castle...

"he was stuck in a skanky vortex of his own making"

there's that name again

as i mentioned in this post, my band's got a show upcoming at mr. smiths in san francisco. it's this thursday, september 18. starting at 8pm. it's good music, good films...good times.

we also have a television appearance airing on saturday night september 18 at 11pm. it's a public access show called the collection agency (ignore the band listed as playing for september...it's us, not my first earthquake) and it airs on san francisco public access channel 29.

punchdrunk lovesick singalong

if you have an itunes account,hurry and subscribe to the npr all songs considered podcast.

why?

radiohead, that's why.

there's a 2-hour concert up, taped very recently down in santa barbara. the gloriously obsessed folks at 58hours.com have the set list here.

so yeah, go get it. now.

my mind is filled with radio cures

this song, telephone (link to mp3) by petracovich just kills me every time i listen to it. so tender, so sad, so direct. there's another mp3 on the website and more music at her myspace page.

hot soft spots on a hard rock planet.

This was quite a week for music. Eight bands at three events, and while I liked some more than others, none sucked. Which is always good.

Wednesday night, a friend who I hadn't seen in a long time was singing back-up on a few songs at the record release show for Goh Nakamura, so I figured I'd go check it out. A bonus was that Scrabbel were playing as well. I hadn't heard of them until I got the email announcement for the show. So I clicked through their website and was instantly hooked by their infectious pop. The show was as good as I'd hoped. Scrabbel were charming and Goh Nakamaurah was outstanding. His songs are soulful and (especially on the new album Ulysses) you can hear the Beatle influence loud and clear.

Thursday my band hosted (but did not play this time) our monthly Vive le Rock night of indie music at Mr. Smiths. Our guests this month were The French Semester (from LA), Man Versus and The Lag.

The French Semester, friends of our drummer Carter, were outstanding. Crisp, tight, and energetic. The latest record, Open Letter to the Disappeared, is a solid collection of lo-fi, laconic pop that reminded me of their fellow LA bands Irving and (Irving spin-off) Sea Wolf (now with a song in a car commercial!). The theme of the night (for me) was cool instruments, and bassist Gil Disloquez's Hofner bass (strung for his left-handed playing...just like Paul!) made me want one of my own. And for only $349 at Musician's Friend, that just might happen.

Man Versus, who are based down in San Jose, brought out a good crowd and delivered with an excellent set. The most obvious comparison is Mates of State, thanks to the piano-heavy arrangements. MV's sound is more expansive, however. Next to the music, the coolest thing (following my theme for the show) had to be guitarist Jennifer Roye's bad-ass flying-V Gibson (like Gil's bass, strung to be played left handed) which she played through a Marshall head and cabinet. I mention this because you'd think, seeing that gear, that she'd be a total shredding rocker. Turns out a relative is, which is where she got the gear. And while she didn't fire up any 80's hair-metal riffs, her playing was excellent.

Sunday afternoon was the inaugural Rock Make Festival deep in the heart of the Mission. A gaggle of bands were scheduled. I managed to catch French Miami, Rademacher and Man/Miracle. Besides the music, a bunch of area independent artists, jewlery and clothing designers had tables full of good stuff.

You'd think this would be enough to sate me, but in addition to our own rehearsals, there's upcoming shows by Calexico, Spoon, and My Bloody Valentine among others. And this without going to the Outside Lands and Treasure Island Music Festivals.

And of course, the September installment of Vive le Rock, featuring us, The Sleepover Disaster, and short films by Waylon Bacon. September 18 at Mr. Smiths.

despite all the amputation you could dance to the rock 'n' roll station

The USGS runs a research project where they've put sensor-activated remote-controlled cameras in Glacier National Park.

Go to the page and you can see videos of bear cubs fighting wolves and dancing bears. No, it's got nothing to do with the Grateful Dead or Russian music or the circus. Just bears doing their tree rub thing, which makes it looks like they're dancing.



Try watching it and not smiling. But heed the warning at the end...don't dance with the bears.

big ol' jet airliner

This piece in the New Republic (which I saw via TPM) dicusses how much longer it will be before airline travel becomes too pricey for most of us. The main problem of course is the cost of oil. In fact, the article contains this startling nugget:

Despite recent fluctuations, a growing number of economists are bracing for oil to hit or surpass $200 per barrel in a few years, and most industry analysts agree with Douglas Runte, of RBS Greenwich Capital, who told The Wall Street Journal in June, "Many airline business models cease to work at $135-a-barrel oil prices."

So what happens then? Does the joke commercial from a year or so back, where we have to pay for overhead storage and the bathroom, come true? We already have to pay to check bags on most airlines. The airlines even charge more for exit row seating now. So what's next?

Beyond the prices it's also the experience that has become dismal. Fewer flights means almost all of them are packed, even the red eyes. Packed flights are also more likely to create tense passengers. And going through secrurity becomes more annoying and demoralizing year after year. Shoes off, no liquids in > 3oz containers. This despite any solid evidence that anyone can bring down a plane with a shoe-bomb or a regular sized container of shampoo.

Now there's word that TSA can seize laptops and other data devices *without probable cause*, download the data and can take their sweet time getting the evice back to the owner. And the standards seem to differ at every ariport. At Lihue Airport in Kauai recently, I was asked to remove my digital camera because it looked too much like a video camera (I'll add that the TSA crew there were totally pleasant about it, so no disrespect to them). This was a surprise because I didn't realize video cameras were a problem in and of themselves. It's not that I don't appreciate security measures - I certainly don't want to be blown up mid-air. But please, can we get some sanity back into the process?

Between high prices, deterioriating services and annoying and just plain incomprehensible (and possibly unconstitutional) security processes, it's like the airlines and the government would rather we don't fly at all.

it's good to see you back in a bar band baby

It's been said often that The Hold Steady, especially singer Craig Finn, look like the guys who work in the cubicle next you. That's certainly true when Finn takes the stage in a short-sleeved polo shirt and khakis. However, Finn has 100x the stage presence of people who try 100x harder to look the part of a rocker.

Last night's Hold Steady show in San Francisco was, as is always the case when they play (or at least the times I've seen them) a loud, unabashedly celebratory, communal event. They are one of those kinds of bands that don't so much play *to* an audience as *with* an audience. There is no fourth wall with them. While some bands, like The National need the fourth wall to make what they do work so well, The Hold Steady need to tear down that wall and get down on the floor with you to celebrate the love of the music.

Finn's songs are full of references to a recurring cast of characters, most of whom would be at Hold Steady shows with the rest of us. At least when they aren't in jail, rehab, on a drug-fueled vision quest in the Sonoma, or hanging out at the banging "camps down by the Mississippi" smoking meth or inhaling nitrous oxide, or getting wasted in Ybor City. They turn up in song after song throughout the band's 4 albums. The newest, Stay Positive, continues the musical integration of keyboard player Franz Nicolay to the point where you can't imagine most of the songs written as they were without his presence. He's almost become as dominating a musical feature of the band as Tad Kubler's guitar or Finn's lyrics.

Though I got to the venue in a bit of a bad mood, I came away from the show in a great mood. The band did a great job of covering all four records in the set. The recurring "Stay Postive" theme would sound corny coming from any other band. But when Finn sings it so earnestly with his band grooving tightly behind him, it's hard not to have his songs be among those certain songs that get scratched into our souls.

if you close the door, the night could last forever

i hate stretches like this, when sleep doesn't come easy. the saving grace perhaps is that while work is busy, it's not as busy as it's going to get come late fall and into winter. also, I'm only 10 real days and 8 working days from vacation.

so since i'm up...

finally got around to watching the velevet underground documentary under review. not great, not bad. long-time fans will learn a little bit, novices will learn a bit more. it suffers from the total lack of lou reed's and john cale's participation, though it was cool to see mo tucker interviewed.

the hold steady are in town this tuesday and i can't wait. i missed them the last two times they were around. once i chose (unwisely) instead to go see voxtrot (liked the record, "eh" on the show, plus it was a second date that probably shouldn't have happened anyway). then last fall i was out of town when they came around, with art brut opening up. i'm really sorry i missed that one. this pitchfork review of the new record, stay positive, sums it up as well as anything else i've read. i expect the show will be the usual celebration of music and friendship and barroom camaraderie.

and how about this new song from the broken west? catchy. looking forward to the new album.

i don't have too many tv addictions, but mad men looks to be one. just now catching up on the first season (thanks to comcast on-demand). will need to dvr and catch up on season 2 asap. also on the horizon is the dvds for last season of the wire. kp and i cranked thru the first 4 seasons in a bunch of marathon sittings. i almost want to stretch out season 5 for a long while, if only so it won't be over too quickly.

damn. seriously, i gotta be up in three hours to go to work. tomorrow (well, later today) is gonna suck. hard. a shot or three on the snooze button may be in my all-too immediate future.

subpoenaed in texas, sequestered in memphis

it does seem i've sequestered myself from the blogging life for the last oh, 11 months or so. honestly not sure why. i suppose that for a few weeks i fell out of the habit and then just fell away from it altogether. and it's not like one less voice in the great wall of internet self-absorption is all that missed.

and not to say that this signals some return to regular posting, but this missive has come about because in catching up on a few other blogs i'd stopped reading, and getting to read a few new blogs, and in thinking about the microblogging that i guess i do on facebook (in the status updates) i got to wondering once again if there's something worthwhile i have to offer.

that is, does the world need more rants about how evil the fisa bill is or how great the national are or how great i'm sure the new hold steady record is, etc, etc. does the world need more navel gazing, or more personal life updates about my soccer-playing or my new music project or whatever else is going on?

i wouldn't mind posting more if only to keep my writing chops sharp. i've got a couple of scholarly writing projects that i'll need to finish in the next 3-6 months, so it's not like i'll just be number grinding guy at work. also, i've found that now firmly back into the music groove i want to keep up my creative chops in other ways (though my photography has fallen woefully out of regularity).

so anyway, yeah.

playing kiss covers, beautiful and stoned

** update, monday 8/27...

good review of the show here. i'll agree with most of it save for the comment about sky blue sky bieng kind of sterile. yeah, it's mellow and precise, but it's a beautiful record. everytime i listen i hear new things in the playing and arranging that i didn't notice before. i'll agree that played live the band added some dynamic range to the sky blue sky songs, but that's the point -- i don't want to see a band recreate the studio versions when they play live.

in any event, a great show. they're such a solid band, full of amazing musicians playing songs that are superbly written and imaginatively arranged. the greek is a wonderful venue...clean sight-lines, good sound. it's quite a sight to see the lights reflecting off of the tree canpoy behind the crowd.

*****
Wilco! Tonight! Hooray!

...doing "Heavy Metal Drummer" at Bonnaroo...

you cast a long shadow and that is your testament

yes, i did just post about joe strummer last week. but it's his birthday today (he'd have been 55), so why not. from streetcore, the last mescaleros album..."coma girl"...