Oh Halloween v2.0

I want to be with you Halloween. I do.
Every year you come by and I never dressed up*.

I'm just not that into you.



*ok maybe once back when I smoked, wore glasses, and stuck a child's costume from IKEA on my head with a tie.

Last October sucked btw; It started off sucky, it ended sucky, but this month has ended on a definite up note. Nothing feels better than the joy which held me after an evening of moving furniture into a livable condition and to sit among my boxes staring at the Los Angeles skyline at night.

Afterwards I walked over to the Echo to see the Softlightes with their perfectly timed background video and the perfectly wonderful sounds they made. Not sure how to associate this with the performance , but word 'purposefully' popped into my head as I watched them play.

Not much for a review, but I was barely awake and dutifully left after their last song and went straight to bed. Do I feel bad for missing Van She, the Australian answer to Mister Mister I'd posted about yesterday? um nope.

Anyhow this Halloween is already better (though still lacking a costume) with a possible trip tonight to the LBC to see the Randies with The Oohlas open for Veruca Salt (for free. I like free) and then Ashley's party on the way back.

I have no ending for this post.
How about:
It took me a half hour to find my coffee cup this morning

blort

this is not a post about moving

Yeah maybe a little about moving but I swear to (insert deity of choice) that this is it. I'm in pain, I have so much to unpack, and I don't want to think about it anymore. Stuff is piled four feet high with a narrow zig zag path from the kitchen to the bathroom and since my bed wasn't set up I ended up sleeping on the love seat. Not the most comfortable placed to sleep but it was that or the bathtub. Tonight I need to go through the boxes and find the one with my cat in it.

So thanks Corey, Ashley and Flaco for the help and support yesterday. Suckers.

Tonight's Show Pick - Free!

Mere minutes waking distance from me at the Echo (vs. driving 30 miles), the band I've wanted to catch for a while now The Softlightes (formerly know as the Incredible Moses Leroy aka Ron Fountenberry)will be playing.

They will be opening for the Australian band Van She.



(youtube link)

Ok if you sound like an 80s synth band do you really have to look like one and make a video highlighting this image? Do you want this throwback 80s style video to sum your livelihood? Your Art?

Um guys...replicating the 80s as closely as possible was so 2005.

Just saying. Maybe they'll be great; Must keep an open mind about these things. (Insert deity of choice) knows I have questionable taste in music.

keys picked up

Standing in my new empty apartment, my dumpy little place with a view of downtown and lake, one of the wooden frame windows doesn't want to stay up on its own and startles me with a clump sound against the peeling paint sill.

A screen is missing from the one that faces the lake and I imagine a drunken fall three stories down. I paced out spots for the kitchen table, the bed, the love seat and worry that I've haven't even listed half the stuff I'm bringing. The kitchen table is mentally moved to block my future death.

The paint is already one tenant old with punctures left where their photos were placed. Found artifacts in the drawers; a elementary class portrait of a little girl, an empty Mexican brand of sauce can, two red drawer handles with a single inadequate layer of red paint. A little thicker and I would consider leaving it.

A little dumpy place that holds none of my memories,
just a liberating emptiness.

packity pack pack

All I'm doing is packing, cleaning, packing and asking myself questions.

Do I keep this? Do I have room?
Why do I have two coffee makers?
Why do I Have a walnut cracker, a garlic smoosher thing,
and a candy thermometer?

Realtors kept coming by the house this weekend which would be fine if every object I own wasn't strewn around on the floor to be sorted and I didn't look like crap. All would've been avoided if the lame listing agent read the email where I stated this weekend was not okay to have hordes of strangers coming by, but hey I'm just the current tenant so my needs apparently don't matter.

One group was quite pushy with the agent insisting it really was alright for them to come by and look, translating what I said for the Chinese couple as the wife tried to push her way past me with the husband just hanging back.

Already tired, grumpy and unshowered I pulled out my long perfected retail smile, the one I last effectively used with 'Please get the fuck out my store. Thanks':

Me: Sorry but today is not going work.
Realtor: But...
Me: "I don't care. Sorry. Come back on Monday After 10."
Realtor: Monday?
Me: After 10.
He translates and the husband starts repeating loudly to wife, "Monday. Monday. Monday" until she backed off my step.
Me: Monday when I'm not here. Come by, knock your socks off.

Not exactly how I wanted to spend my birthday: becoming a grumpy old man.


On an unrelated note, I love this passage from a blog I stumbled upon awhile back:

and then i looked up from the last bite of my stale cookie, and a dirty, overweight hobo wearing broken eyeglasses was looking right at me. in one hand was a book, and the other was down his pants.

the beanies we were both wearing on our heads were very similar. i wondered if he was thinking the same thing.

and then i realized our hats probably weren't the only thing that we had in common.

lovely indeed.

things to do

1) I really should stopping napping in McDonald parking lots.

I was on my third scouting expedition for apartments last night and I think I found a wonderfully dumpy place in EP with a pretty kick ass view. This was the second time CB. I invited to tag along for company and her Nosey McNoserson tendencies which kick into near masturbatory joy at the opportunity to go through someones residence (empty or not), any door marked employee only, and your medicine cabinet.

2) I should thank Corey in advance in his help moving the refrigerator up that flight of stairs. I have such great friends.

The last time out with CB we grabbed a bite at the Bright Stop because I had never been there. This time coincided with my annual free Red Robin B-day burger / I'm getting too old to eat that make artery clogging food in one sitting. hello Mr superlicious Royal Red Robin Burger! Meet my mouth.

Sadly I had to go hang out in the Valley afterwards as my CB took care off some things leaving me with quality McDonald napping time. There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to work, drive, pack, clean the house nightly for the Realtors. Yeah so I have strangers checking out my house and smelling my deodorant in the medicine cabinet while I was basically doing the same thing somewhere else.

Oh I on the way out to the Valley my front right tire started making a strange noise that I first thought was a flat but went gradually went away in couple minutes. In the dark I couldn't see anything caught up in the wheel well and the tire looked alright but when I got home (60 miles later) I found a nice 4 x 7 patch of inner tread missing.

3) I should probably do something about that.

I'm happy

I'm happy. So happy.
happy happy,
happy cubed.
Happy bo bappy - Happy.

Happy to be moving but damn am I not stressed out this week. T-minus two weeks and I'm still looking for a place, still have to pack, still have to sell a bunch of appliances. grr

This isn't a real post btw.

Just busy these days you know.
Just tired from four hours of sleep naps every night, then back on the road by 5am for the last two weeks of these hour plus commutes. This makes me happy. I thought I would let you know.

Spent a few hours last night scouting rental locations in an attempt to thin my list in half. My last drive-by placed me in "Los Feliz" which actually means crappy street three blocks down from Sunset and Vermont.

By 7 pm I was napping in a fast food parking lot thinking about how close I'll be to places like Highland Grounds, my destination this night, once I move into Los Angeles proper. I curled up with my sweatshirt happy with this thought.

Seeing Bang Sugar Bang play a country-fied set was enjoyable; ending it with a country version of When in Rome's "The Promise" (youtube link) made me smile non-stop through the whole song (A normal BSB punk version to follow so say Matt). Next up were New Fidelity who put on a head bobbin' acoustic set and then Chissum's lyrical retardedness was a crowd pleaser. All very happy stuff.

After a few drinks and being a social smoker for the night I made my goodbyes to my friends and excuse me to a more than cute girl on the way out. Sometimes a cute girl smiles back at me. This makes me happy of course. Last night wasn't going to be sometimes.

My drive home felt long like I already knew it would.
This actually means I felt a little alone again. My guard was down.
I thought I would let you know.

Studio 60 vs Ugly Betty

I'm giving Studio 60 more time to find itself, but how I'm loving the show Ugly Betty. No accounting for taste I guess. Which one do you like?

Give a little next Tuesday

(youtube link if you can't see the video)

What: Rob Z's Potpourri at Highland Grounds
When: Tuesday, Oct. 17
Who:

Bang Sugar Bang,
The New Fidelity,
Chissum Worthington
(performer & your wonderful host for the evening)

21+ FREE

the simple life

I cant tell you how happy I am with the thought of moving even though my choices are either a so-so neighborhood mere minutes from work (hawthorne, torrance) or a so-so neighborhood twenty minutes away (echo park or koreatown) but closer to my hangouts and people who are charitable enough to call me their friend.

Actually the choice is simple and I'm all about the simplification of my life right now. That and I can only afford simple.

Central air? Don't need it.
Private garage/parking space? For wimps!
Yard work? Overrated
Electricity? Not if I can locate the TV Pedaler

Well I think I just got tired of driving so much just a sleep in an area that offered very little to me. Give me culture, crowded sidewalks of life encounters, in person conversations over long distance calls and less of these material possessions I've accumulated over the years.

I'm such a hypocrite though. As I talked to Corey about selling off my washer / dryer / refrigerator / beds / couches I hear Glen ask in the background: "Is he selling his TV?'

Hell no! It might not be a fancy new flat screen, but there is no way I'm giving up my old 32" Sony trinitron baby. Sure it's heavier than my love seat but the colors come out so pretty on it.

Um who is going to help me move it anyhow?

Good thing I don't share friends with Caroline on Crack because I would have to start giving out BJs AND money just to compete with her "help me move" offerings:

Afterward as a thank you, I will be providing pizza, maybe some Honey's Kettle chicken and beer at my new place as well as hugs and kisses and my undying gratitude.

I hear that Honey's kettle chicken is better than oral; pretty sure that's what she wrote.

Guess I'm upping my offer with all you can eat McChicken sandwiches.

time to move on

10 years is a long time.

So I put notice in with my landlord last night. Yes my friends, I'm leaving Casa de Walnut (city website, wiki) for destinations unkown at this point. I should really figure that part out soon. Guessing since work is in the South Bay-ish it should be close to there but I'm open to anywhere in a 20 mile radius. I'm also open to winning the lotto too...

continue


This what I'm giving up - some good some bad.

minumum one hour commute each way. (one morning was 2.5 hrs)

4 bedrooms, 2 car garage (too much space)

chopping down that pepper tree beast every year (a 20 foot weed)

a front and back yard I never used (I don't like nature)

a spa I never used (I don't like water)

Between the commute, rising gas prices, a crappy roommate who also just gave noticed, and with all my friends and hangouts 30 miles away in Los Angeles proper, it just seemed like time to move on with my life.

"thoughts came be haunting / memories can leave you awry"
- from the song Traffic is Depressing.

It wasn't just the cheap rent, but also the stability it offered for me and others after the reign of T. that kept me here. This month I'll be sweeping up dust in the cracks of this house - the residue of a relationship long settled and dealt with.

This is just the last spot of dust to be wiped off my clothes.

Now its my turn to make changes I should've done years ago and I couldn't be happier about the uncertainity of it all.

I'm a little stressed out right now

Wow.
How 'bout that LOST premiere last night?

No really, how was it because I fell asleep on the couch curled up in the fetal position. It's called the fetal position because when you're a fetus just kicking it in your mom's stomach (it's the stomach or wait...the lower intestines?? Whatever. Those place I've never seen) and well you're hanging out all curled up all fetal and shit. It's comforting; it's built into our genetic makeup at times of stress or damage. It's the default state - our safe mode on windows if you will.

Yeah so I fell asleep 15 minutes before the show came on without all my drivers loaded, dreaming of my special giant prehistoric tree branch where I overlook a French valley of tall grasses and beautiful streams. Wispy white clouds, mixed with coastal haze framed a race of mythical beasts below as I tried to get reception on my Treo.

I felt better this morning.

I'm suppose to go to Canters tonight. I was just there a few weeks ago when M + B came down to visit Me and Corey Disneyland and at my suggestion we would eat at Canters, drink at the Kibitz next door and catch a little bit of Steel (fading echo: steel, steel, steel, steel).

Been drunk at a Sunday Night* or two at the Kibitz before but never bothered to eat at Canters itself. My review: Overpriced and wasn't impressed with the pastrami - especially at that price - Give me half sandwich at Jerry's ($8) or better yet the whole thing at The Hat (only $6.50) with a bag of onion rings any time.

Damn now I have to go The Hat this weekend.

On this night a small crew was setup inside interviewing Rodney Bingenheimer (LA weekly article) at *his* booth by either nina hagen or was it the nina mtv vj chick.

We finished our meals and met up with Ms J. Pumpkin who unfortunately was leaning just for a split second on Rodney Bingenheimer's mint 67 GTO parked out front right at the same moment he came out to leave.

Luckily he didn't noticed as he quietly slid between us barely causing a ripple in the space time continuum and pulled away down Fairfax into the night.

* old weekly hangout of early kiss or killers - before my time

megaphones are hot

Artist: Overnight Lows (myspace, website)
Song: The Breaks
(youtube link)


It is unabashedly commercial pop but so what.

A health combination of sound + image + showmanship might equal some mainstream success for this still maturing band in the near future. Having seen them live multiple times, I'm not too surprised by how good they come across in this video and it's not even an official "real" video to boot. promo clip.

This song reminds me of what I left out my first post about them: I love the use of the megaphone in the latter part of the song - not surprising for this fan of The Wonderstuff (wiki) days.

God I hate when I date myself like that.

Anyhow, next OLOWS show:
10.19.2006 Viper Room 10.30 pm 21+, free

I already have an outfit picked out

T,

I'm tired of playing this game of chicken via email.
It's always 'why not?'

My answer is never good enough.

'Well that's not my problem.' you'll respond.

No. No it's not.

I forgot I had plans tonight

How is it that I ended up with two shows to go to in one night? Fortunately there only a couple blocks apart so no problemo:

First I have to get on to the Strip early for Metal Skool to catch Bang Sugar Bang and Silver Needle open up. The Mulhollands are actually first to play but I don't think the timing is going to work out for me.

A decent enough line-up right there, but down the street at the Viper Room I'll be squeezing in Monsters are Waiting at the same time as either Silver Needle or Metal Skool itself

Oh well. No matter how it pans out, at least I'll be sporting a hella cool collection of wristbands and ink stamps tonight.

On another note: I can't f'ing believe it's October already.