new layout

So this looks ok in IE, Firefox, just so so in opera.

safari folks, how bad is it?
Having a problem with the right column being way too large and the body not wide enough

excuse the tweaking in the mean time

Stilt Walkers & Jugglers?

Apparently for kiss or kill this Friday, not only do you get the following bands, but also New Fidelity has some stilt walkers & jugglers friends that work at the El Capitan Theater coming by just because.

Well because it's totally fucking stupid cool is what I say.


She's Your Sister 12:30 (love them)
Pu$$y Cow 11:45-12:15 (love them)
The New Fidelity 11:00-11:30 (love them)
Bobot Adrenaline 10:15-10:45 (love them)
Wrapt In Plastic 9:30-10:00
("To know them is to love them.
Those who didn't know them, love them afar"
which means I'm a TNG dork and I haven't seen this band yet)

Upcoming Kork dates (besides every Friday):

Sat 8.12.06
Hello Stranger's CD Release Party (once known as Vagenius)
Sat/Sun 8.26-8.27
Two days, 26 bands during Sunset Junction Street Fair
9.15.06 ?
The Muffs

fourthirtyam

I don’t care if I own multiple styles green strip shirts
I'm still trying to wean myself of my blue ones.

I don’t care if it has become a habit to say I don’t like people.

I don’t care that I cherish holding a strangers hand as she tries to figure out what the hell I want. (nothing actually)

I don’t care if I'm bored with things like my hour commutes, ineffective management and watching dollar movies by myself.

I don’t care that I find myself competitive over things I don’t even want
anymore

I don’t care that I have a wedding to go in a week
no suit bought yet
and thankfully no date

I don't care if I'm the biggest liar ever.

106 degrees is too damn hot

Stayed home Friday night with my only excitement was a phone call in my local Albertsons.

All that supermarket excitement wore me out and I went to lay my head down on to the pillow and the damn thing was smoking hot.

How the fuck does a pillow radiate heat?

We all know flipping the pillow is like the oasis waiting for you in a desert, so I flipped it over to the "cool" side and quickly popped my eyelids open, chest pushed upwards with both hands.

What happen to the cool side?

All day you're sweating, just looking for comfort and off in the distance - is that a mirage? - No wait it's real! You’re using the last of your energy reserves sliding down the dune, momentum propelling your upper body down faster towards the tree line and there it is on the hottest day of the year: the cool underside of the pillow.

But no,
it was more like pulling a hot barbecue coal briquette out and laying your head on it.

Saturday:

Up by 6 am, cooked a giant breakfast, washed the car and decided to wax the whole thing in my garage with the door pulled down. Probably the best idea for mild heat exhaustion because even though I'd hydrated as much as possible and took a nap in the evening, I never did feel quite right afterwards .

Temp in my bedroom at 10pm: 96 degrees

So I did the smart thing and went to an all night dual birthday party at Ashley's ware/house until about five am.

From left to right:
The b-day girls, P+A+Me, and some of us were just too tired to party



Temp at 3 am: I guessing 80+.

End mandatory 'gees it's hot in the summer, go figure' post.

It will make a grown man cry

Saturday night I learned what a Tequila Stuntman was.
Sadly I missed then actual event when I was outside yapping, but I believe the correct sequence was:

Snort the salt
Take the tequila shot
Squeeze the lime into your eyes

7.10.06

Monsters Are Waiting...photo stolen off myspace

A couple weeks ago I spent some time after work cruising along the shop sign lined streets of downtown Los Angeles. 30 miles wasted driving through congested intersections, over the 101, into Chinatown then a loop back up Spring Street.

Downtown LA is boring.

Eventually I ordered a mental course change towards Hollywood more so to head in the right direction of the Monsters Are Waiting show at the Troubadour then for any other reason. Still had a couple hours to waste so I parked by IHOP and trekked it up to the Hollywood & Highland shopping center to grab a cup of coffee and tourist watch.

Basically the only reason one would go there because
Hollywood & Highland is boring.

What you'll notice is that tourists can't dress themselves.

Either they play it safe and wear matching colors as some sort of safety measure (the paranoid tourist of an evil Los Angeles) or the more retarded guy I saw apparently just keep updating his vests with new long, untucked button up shirts.

Maybe he was big Full House fan or something.

Not that I dress well or all those ugg boots with some hippie blouse, a boa and designer cowboy hat wearing ladies seen in this city aren't justifiably laughable either, but at some point you just have to let old fashion styles go. Don't worry people, let that vest and long sleeve button shirt fly free to the heavens. If Corey Feldman could give them up, so can you.

So why am I writing about an evening from over a week ago?

Three points:

This isn't fucking Full House anymore.
You, your clothes and that show sucked (done)

Monsters Are Waiting were great (overdone by me)

The opening band Van Gunn (myspace link) are worth mentioning:

First photo by Jenn McCune, others by Keven Fedirko

Okay they looked normal cool (not fake poser hipsters) in a rock band sort of way
They played their instruments like rock star experts.
They said they were from Amsterdam.
I would even say they rocked.

Problem was that they sounded too fucking much like Bon Jovi for me.

All the good rock parts of the Bon Jovi experience were in effect but fortunately without the big hair and Heather Locklear metal hoop earring fans. I'm sorry, but three songs into it I just couldn’t take post traumatic flashbacks of my youth anymore.

I'm not saying Bon Jovi were a bad band 20 years ago; I mean they are a dried husk of themselves these days. A husk torn through its cellouse threads, with frayed edges turning a wrong color of black-green.

I'm just saying that I fucking hate Bon Jovi.

Anyhow don't let my personal hatred of all things Bon Jovi get in your way of this band. I'll be the first one to tell you that I don't know what I'm talking about 90% of the time and these guys should be given a listen to...especially if Bon Jovi and Full House is your thing.

Download a song from their label's website here

Next Shows:
7.25.06 @ Cinespace $ ? 21+
8.05.06 @ Cat Club $10, w/ flyer: $7

Enjoy this classic Triumph vs. Bon Jovi (shorten) clip from Conan O'Brian

Weekend shows

The Waking Hours with Lisa back on bass!

Friday, July 21st
at The Knitting Factory
7021 Hollywood Blvd
All ages

$10 but only $8 with a flyer

~~~~~~~~~~~~~


There is my usual thing for Friday of course:

Kiss or Kill @ Safari Sams
$3 before 10 / $5 after
or just sit outside, order drinks, & be social

Drugscene 12:30---
Red Lightning 11:45-12:15
- featuring Alain Whyte (from Morrissey)
The New Fidelity 11:00-11:30
Mother Tongue 10:15-10:45
The Ebbs 9:30-10:00

~~~~~~~~
SUNDAY, JULY 23rd!

HOOLIGAN HIGH, L.A. & O.C's newest ALL AGES EVENT kicks off in September 2006, but you can catch the premier show at the brand spankin' new Safari Sam's club in Hollywood this Sunday.

Featuring:
T.S.O.L.
THE UPRISING
BAD REACTION
UNIT F
RABIES

$12 / ALL AGES / First band @ 7:00pm

my current addiction

Some of you already know about The Rock Insider, but if not please go check out what I think has become one of not the best Los Angeles based blogs for new music this year.

Today she (jax) posted the video for The Knife's song "We Share our Mother's Health" which was my perfect soundtrack for driving down Highland Avenue on Tuesday night.

This song + windows down + warm summer night = perfect.

You might be already familiar with a cover of their song "Heartbeats" by Jose Gonzales used in that '‘bouncing balls'’ commercial (via youtube) for the Sony Bravia television. It's actually a very cool commercial.

Anyhow I'll post the music video because my readers (all 10 of them) are mostly too lazy to click links, but do check out The Rock Insider which always has pretty pictures and links to download great music besides this song.

normal is rare

This post should be all about rainbows and cotton candy.

Maybe a line about the peach snapple sunsets (thanks given to the high desert wildfire) from my drives back into LA this week.

Last night was a good night even;
Smiles from improvised music and spoken words
slowly turned my glass of Guinness with my left hand
in place
thinking of an introduction
that was nothing more
nor nothing less
and everything I wanted it to be.

This post should be about those things and not about that phone call I just ended two minutes ago. The one that completely ruined my day.

Grr.
I felt so normal before that.

Beatnik Bonanza tonight

Rob Z always put on a good line-up of assorted music and other arty stuff like poetry, spoken word, or some random mixture of his many creative friends.

I'll be here tonight if you want to say hi or kick my ass* or something.


*because I'm a tough guy**

**I can't even write that without laughing

My little sister knows cooler people than me

I caught this one amazing band last night called Hobo Jazz, which reminded Corey and I of this old Bay Area band with the wonderful name The Fabulous Hedghogs.

Anyhow I totally forgot my sister knew the main guy in the band from music school. He now goes under the title That 1 Guy and has created this one string, upright bass, thingy out of metal pipes and electronics.

Amazing.

I can't hear and I really don't care

Saturday Morning:

If you're like me, you're screwing around online with some Bollywood highlight show playing on the living room TV.

The television stood muted while the stereo played a little man in gray loudly; largely overtaking my thoughts. Drinking coffee to shake off my new addictions to rolling in at four am (thanks to cal-trans road work this time), not knowing how to approach people, strung out to fake I don't want to touch you hugs after the one who laughed at me once gave a better one.

So I was already a little off when I was told how weird it was for me to call.
Maybe I'm a sentimental fool
Maybe I still enjoy the moments together
because they're fun
because you're fun

Maybe weird should be spelled
i-t-h-i-n-k-y-o-u-r-e-w-r-o-n-g
or
i-m-s-o-r-r-y-y-o-u-f-e-e-l-t-h-a-t-w-a-y

There is nothing weird or wrong in being friends
as far as I'm concerned.

Friday little bits

Photo by Jessica Oyanagi

There is a wonderful article about Jessica Dobson in the OC Weekly that just went up today. Check it out here.

When I first heard her original girl+guitar demos I knew this was an artist to keep an eye on. Within a year or so, when I finally saw her perform a mostly solo set, I was blown away. The next week I saw her with a backing band and walked away even more amazed.

'Wow,wow and wow' I wrote back then (12/2004).

She is really that good.

random upcoming show listing after the jump


Tonight @ Kiss or Kill @ Safari Sams

The Randies are back tonight after playing the Southwest leg of the Warped Tour just long enough for this show then back on the road again. Come say hi

Automatique
(making their Kiss or Kill debut) 12:30---
The Randies 11:45-12:15
The New Fidelity 11:00-11:30
The Knives (just back from their June tour) 10:15-10:45
The Rainman Suite 9:30-10:00

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you're looking for something different:

Z.O.N.K. is back to hit the Sunset Strip tonight
@ On the Rox, (Above the Roxy)
w/ Iration, Z.O.N.K., DJ Peyote Cody, Celeste Lear, Ed Valance

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On work related note:

A vendor is trying to stick us with $20 transportation surcharge for a delivery they offered to make to us without mentioning that there would be a charge.

We have our own driver that picks up from them because they are only 3.5 miles away.
20 bucks is a little excessive for 3.5 miles don't you think?

So I just faxed them a very somewhat professional and stern list of reasons why they should void that charge out.

I ended the fax with:

I would appreciate a review of this matter at you earliest convenience.

Thanks a bunch.

B+S+H-F=GLB

New Fidelity photo by shutterface

On Saturday was the monthly picnic and I should be writing about Underwater City People and how they played the old stuff and how they are taking a different route with the new album.

Dirtier, rougher.

I should also mention how Chissum Worthington prerecorded all his segue ways and lip-synched to them. You could barely tell unless you were upfront. I swear he does it more for his own amusement than ours.

I should do all those things but I going to talk about The New Fidelity instead.

I've seen the New Fidelity many times since Midway played with them out at King Neptune’s. The pull in a good crowd, with many a cute girl [redacted] among their many fans.

Here's my review:
I liked them.
They play a spot on cover of The Jam's song "Town Called Malice."
They play the next three Fridays at Kiss or Kill.

Here's a not that useful review off their site below:

"Aside from their masterful harmonies, the New Fidelity sound nothing like the Beach Boys and everything like the soundtrack to an ’80s movie that was never made.
Take the wistfully danceable "Casa Grande" for instance, about a "sunny winter’s day bike ride through Long Beach." John Cusack should be on that bike! Or "First Day," about doing dishes in your apartment and reflecting on the way that love sometimes walks into your life . . . and fucks it up! Molly Ringwald is doing those dishes right now! Seriously!"--Alison Rosen, OC Weekly

ok after all that fun and music finished, what remained was myself, serina, ashley, the pumpkin and mike schnee aka chissum worthinton sobering up in the Old Towne Pub's patio until 9pm.

As we discussed taking a walk around Old Town Pasadena, there this guy (pictured) hitting on the pumpkin and for some reason he was inspired to try to get schnee to show his penis to us all.

It was a weird attempt to impress the pumpkin I think. God knows I've tried but never took this route in my feeble attempts. Good thing 'cause weird guy wouldn’t stop even after his friends kept calling him back and saying hey that's looking like you're going gay from over here.

It was a good time to leave and now is a good time to mention that drinking plus the sun plus the heat plus not eating equals me grumpy little bitch

B+S+H-F=GLB

Friends who stand around bullshitting instead of walking will eventually lead to me yelling at them top walk more than once.

This will not impress the pumpkin either.

Even after they thougt it funny to let me walk ahead and turn the corner I still managed to have a little fun on a dare to go lay down on a couch in a storefront display. I almost did it and that show off schnee did it with contemptuous glee. Yeah you're better than me. I get it.

I failed again to impress the pumpkin.

Our grand walkabout lasted a whole three blocks with an ending at Subway. Food help but so did closing my eyes in an attempt to block out schnee and his of so funny ways. Oh everybody loves schnee. I get that too.

After that we all went to a party that was fortunately pretty mellow then I got bored and left. blah.

oh pumpkin,
how can I ever impress you?

I can't get this song out of my head

Band: Love Arcade (formerly know as Snow White)
Song: Keep It Comin




crazy busy at work this week.
this song might or might not help make it go faster

I didn't get enough sleep last night.

Not enough sleep means that I'm:

moody
sad
loopy
slightly paranoid
and hungry.



Did I write about Saturday and the Kiss or Kill picnic? I would but blogger is going down in afew minutes so I'll just upload some pictures that Ashley took.






Here's a few stray lines I found scribbled about ??? in an old notebook:

At some point
you realize that your fingers have reached the top her neck,
fingers guided from behind just where the stray tails of fine, curly hair meet your nails.
there is no where left to go.

you know what I love?

You know that moment when you're talking to someone, a stranger, a cute girl with big eyes and the whole time you're smiling and she's smiling and never once does your eyes unlatch from theirs.

It gets to the point of simply ridiculous smiles shared between the two of you because you're way beyond having any doubt that they're smiling at you the same way.

The moment comes to a close.
You turn to leave.
(you have to leave, she's done talking, your transaction is complete)
Feel your right foot stumble over the top of the left,
almost bump into the door frame going out and your friend laughs at that silly grin on your face.

As you get into the car, you're still smiling

Happy Birthday xTx

Fucking everybody gets a happy birthday post today.

At least these people are worth it.
Is it bad to forget your brother's birthday but not some blogger that you will never meet?

Just wondering.

A year ago I came out of lurkerville to wish xTx a happy birthday partly because I love her fucked up mind, but party because begging for attention was not beneath her.

One day we will met.
It will happen*

I'll ask if you want to try a free Chick-Fil-A sample
You'll say 'no thanks'

It'll be hot.


*(after I go out drinking with deadpan which will happen too. really. if you're still interested. yes I suck. I know. just ask Cortney - she can tell you many a story)

Happy Birthday Cortney

Years ago my favorite anonymous redhead fell head over heels in love with me at first sight had pity on me and let me kiss her.

She freaked out. I laughed.

Oh I can tell you stories of all our adventures! And so can she and some of those are best left unsaid at this point.
Oh such fun and the fights.
And more fights. Good times. Um yeah.

Interesting Fact #1:
Did you know it is statistically harder to get into vet school than med school?

Today is her birthday again and also the slow count down to her leaving this year for vet school in the Caribbean.
St. Kitts to be exact. She will be missed.

Well eventually missed 'cause she hasn't even left yet.

Interesting Fact #2:
If you do a google image search for the phrase "dirty whore" you'll eventually find this post (below) I wrote for her last year.

My friend Cortney is awesome because:

She puts up with my shit.

She can speak Swedish.

She makes a broccoli pie that everyone loves except me. Come on, its broccoli, Eww.

She used to let me drive her super fast turbo VW bug all around all crazy and shit in-between cars back and forth, flipping people off and then when they came on back up to me I'd cut them off and they would skid off the embankment and die and shit, which sucked for them but since it wasn't my car they busted her and she covered OG style for me, serving something like 3 yrs in prison and that was rough on her with the crack smuggling and stabbing of her cellmate who got up all in her shit and Cortney was all like "hey bitch why you up in my shit" and the Riverside resident former meth lab owner, said "What you say? You ain't taking my saltines" and Cortney had to stop the shit right there and fast, 'cause she has a street cred to protect and knifed that skanky dirty whore right there in the cell covering her mouth and staring into the bulging eyes of the dying girl.

"Bitches. Can't live with them, can't kill them. Well not legally" as she laughed maniacally.

Happy Birthday Cortney even though it was last Sunday, but we'll party old school style with Tone-Loc and Coolio tomorrow!


Yo bitch! Why ain't you walking?


Read the sign. No parking you dirty whores. Shit didn't your momma teach you anything but skanking your dirty whore ass around town like Paris Hilton?

For this Saturday

Another picnic, more bands, free food, pay five bucks,
I hope to be drunk again.

It's a little long, but it takes an mildly dark turn in the middle.

more photos from corey

From left to right:

Joe very drunk by 6 pm
I need a haircut
Let's tackle Joe



Richard: "say what now?"
Echo Park Olympics x 2

July 4th photos from ashley

I didn't get to the bbq until 5.30 and found most of my friends already drunk.

This is not surprising.


The big secret of the day was Danny was going to get an additional surprise for his birthday, but the fancy camera they bought hadn't shown up yet unfortunately. He did have a nice hand drawn illustration of the camera in the box though. Actually it might have been a pasted on b/w picture of the camera.

I don't know. I make half this stuff up.

So after pissing off one person and finishing my stash of stellas we walked down to the Echo Park Lake. I highly encourage rolling down lawns drunk. After an hour or so I decided to take a little walkabout and apparently thought audioblogging would be a good idea. Coming back I bumped into a friend and we walked back hand in hand to the party. This is surprising because people are germ ridden and I don't like touching them. eww.

Eventually we ran out of beer and Joe made a proclamation for the need to create a beer run fund.

I instead had a shot of tequila and a kiss as a chaser.

Dear Anonymous

You will always be my favorite redhead.

Well except for Lucy 'cause she's everybody's favorite redhead.

Actually I think Woody Allen would be my number one favorite redhead if we go the co-gender route. Some old folk my go for Ann-Margaret or Carol Burnett if Lucy wasn't your kind of funny. I like Carol Burnett. She was silly and unlike Lucy still alive. The only thing Lucy is doing is pushing up daisies and they don’t get her jokes. Half imagine she's going 'oh come one! The pie factory skit? Hello? The grape squishing bit? Well fine fuck you stupid flowers! Do I have to call Desi over to smack you around?'

Anyhow I want to say I'm sorry. Your snarky comments are well deserved and quite amusing. Again I'm truly sorry. You know I love you.

You know who else I love (listening to) in the 80s? Rick Astley



That's a total lie, but the song is catchy.

Ha

I forgot I did that audio post until this morning. Silly me.

Nothing like trotting a whole house party of 20+ friends and strangers with drinks in hand to the lakes edge for the best in illegal fireworks that the black-market has to offer.

I should mention regarding that audio post I was worried about being killed by a car (or drunk driver) as I walked those few blocks rather than say a gang or something silly like that. Not that couldn't have happen there or even in the suburbs where I live (though the Asian gangs prefer home invasions in my area) actually, but it would've been unlikely with all the families enjoying the warm summer evening celebrations.

While the folks in my neighborhood might think Echo Park is ghetto, I like the area and hope to move in around there eventually as most of my friends live in those parts.

Pictures (as soon as I can snag some from ashley or corey) and stories coming up later.

I can't get this sulfer smell off me!

a long goodbye ends

Realized my Saturday was wasted with sleep and sweating it out in my unconditioned house. Woke up from second nap at 9 pm still feeling ill from the heat, showered and reached Ashley's house by 11 pm for a smaller get together for the NY girl. Banged on the metal sheets stuck between the chain link and steel poles as notice of my arrival. They were drunk my friends and needed smokes and jack in the box and with my sober arrival their plan was complete.

So sober me and drunk Corey bought a box parliments from the cute asain lady in the gas station box. She smiled at me like I was the first normal person she had seen all night in Boyle Heights. Maybe I was.

24 dollars later I had six sourdough jacks and corey's stupid potato wedges and crossed the golden state twice within half a mile. A little vodka in my soda, a draft started and more sleep on a couch at 2.30 am

I started drinking at 10am on Sunday.

the final goodbye for my NYC bound friend was the ye rustic inn and their bloodly mary breakfast. True friendship drags people out early but then again so does alcoholism.

This was my first bloody mary at 33.5 yrs of living, sad I know.
A girl jumped me from top of a bar booth. This should happen everytime I go out.
Sadly there was no keifer sightings.

We left at 3.30 in the afternoon.

what happen to saturday?

ok it's now 1.42am on Sunday and I should be more drunk. Sitting here at ashleys again not drunk. boring. cats trying to screw each other behind me and I'm a little jealous something is getting something tonight. sorry that's the lack of drinky in me that's talking.

ok it's now monday

All weekend was dedicated as a long goodbye to a friend who is moving back to NYC. After a confusing, rough start it was only recently did we start understanding each other.

Friday after hanging out at the Farmers Market we made our way to Kiss or Kill early enough to catch the Powercords. Ashley liked their cute, nervous nerdy boys nerd rock look and I kept saying how they've grown in confindence on stage. Silver Needle were up next to showcase for some UK warner reps while I was doing bar car in the parking lot then I went to catch The Strays you were cool and off stage very English polite as one would imagine.

(Jane, was that you?)

The couches outside remained filled with bodies on top of bodies, drunk requests to take it off were sometimes obliged, usually not. I did a lot as standing - watching - saw that why am I here look in her eyes. I worried about that one while distracted by a girl's drunk and meaningless hand in mine.

If you stay long enough after the club closes the creepy crawlies of east hollywood come up so close one could jump on top and give them a ride around the parking lot. It's 3.30 am and the hookers walk eastward blowing off cars with "oh no. you're too young for me sweetheart", their predators with shiny rims make passes through the empty painted slots wondering what action they missed. what action they always miss.

I finally fall into bed at 4.15 am on this first night of the holiday weekend.
I've been up for 23.5 hours.