Chalk it up

Sometimes I hate my job when it has me here late at night eating pretzels and brewing strong tea to stay awake. I'll end up missing a show because I'm just too worn out to deal with traffic/parking/late set times/evil chipmunks/etc.

It's hit or miss if find myself in a club for a band on those nights anyhow; either grumping at every mistaken note played, still bitter when the bartender holds up eight fingers for a weak whiskey and coke.

So I don't go.

After watching this live clip of ROBOTANISTS I regret making that kind of choice, which is what happened for their LA show last month.

(The music starts a minute into the clip, as the band is reacting to the live web feedback between songs)



Check out more clips from this show from DeepRockDrive on Blip.tv


ROBOTANISTS next show:

5.19.08 for Blue Comet Cafe (Private Show - Video Shoot) @ Temple Bar
Email rsvp@robotanists.co.uk to join this free Hi-Def filming for bluecometcafe.com

A big difference 5 months make

I honestly don't know how people enjoy living in snow.

Late December - dead frozen leaves


Late April - new leaves about to bud


I have a bunch of photos on flickr but they still need to cropped and stuff with more to upload.

Hello from Michigan

There is nothing better after a long flight than to be greeted by a super cute girl with a hug, a kiss, a bottle of Vernors ginger soda.

This stuff is a highly spiced ginger ale that will make a person unaccustomed to that first whiff start coughing much like an untrained smoker. It's potent stuff.

Last time I was here I was catching snow flakes in my mouth and braving 10 inches of snow. Today birds are chirping, trees are budding, and I'm with my girl again.

Hello from Denver

Obviously I didn't take this picture, but it's pretty close to what I saw. If I had a camera you would be seeing pictures of the Grand Canyon and the snow peaked Rockies.

For some reason I've missed the Grand Canyon all the times I've flown back east so I was taken aback a bit by how frigging big it was.

I have nothing really to say expect flying Frontier was without hassle and their cutesy animal theme pictures plastered on the tail is also applied to the winglets. nice touch.

Oh and everyone in Denver looks like they jumped out of a LL Bean or REI catalog.

that's a little weird.

Midway one off show Tues 4.15.08

Midway @ Mr. T's Bowl in Highland Park
Tuesday 4.15.08, 21+, FREE

The Beeters,
MIDWAY (@10 or 11pm)
Avangaad (U.K.)
Vaudeville
LovelyBones

New singer, long time fan Jonna Mae (sp?) will be fronting this crazy ship of fools for a I have no idea and I don't care why 'cause I'm excited show at Mr. T's Bowl tomorrow night.

Did I mentioned I'm excited?
Maybe not so one off?

Calamity Magnet

Calamity Magnet EP Release Show
@ The Viper Room, Monday 4.14.08

I've been a big fan of Sara Radle and her various musical line-ups (Lucy Loves Schroeder, Sara Radle and Her Band, and her current gig as part of the reformed Rentals) for a few years now. Now that my workload has settled down enough to go out on a Monday night, I'm a bit excited to catch her new project Calamity Magnet.

This new band borrows a couple members of Justin Reiner's (popbandAlice) Loverlee project to create a melding of "the world of indie-pop with girl group harmonies of the sixties, adding a hint of country flavor and the occasional peek at a Beatles influence." (myspace bio)

Calamity Magnet EP Release
Indie 103.1 Check One... Two presents @ Viper Room
Free w/ rsvp (or $10), $3 dewars, 21+

Mike Krum @ 9pm, Let’s Go Sailing @ 10pm,
Calamity Magnet @ 11:00pm, The Happy Casualties @ 12am

So I made it to SFO last night just before midnight, slightly off our scheduled landing of 10.20. At least it wasn't canceled nor did I have to spend 10 hours re-booking flights like the couple next me.

Now I'm chancing my flight to Michigan next week as I board a different airline that just declared bankruptcy this morning.

I sure know how to pick them.

Anyhoogie, I 'm going to finish drinking my margarita as we celebrate my mom's 68th(!) birthday.

Drunken piñata smashing to follow.

Rob Z's Beatnik Bonanza Tonight!

As I finish my laundry, pack my suitcases, and start to hella worry about my Thrusday flight to SF to be canceled at any moment (thanks American Airlines), you might want to skip to El Cid, trip down the stairs, and catch the Rob Z's Beatnik Bonanza.

The time is nearly upon us for...

ROB Z'S BEATNIK BONANZA
Wed. April 9th @ el cid, probably 21+ , FREE

Are you sick of the same ol' rock show? well get a load of this. i bring to you an entire evening dedicated to the spirit of THE BEAT GENERATION. So break out your black sweaters and your berets and get ready for the BEATNIK BONANZA.

We kick our night off with the audio/visual artistry of THE MOSCOW COUP ATTEMPT

Then next up is a cavalcade of stars performing improv instrumentations and spoken word with THE BEATNIK BANDITS POETRY EXPERIMENT featuring...

THE BANDITS:
JON RYGGY(UNDERWATER CITY PEOPLE)
FLACO(PU$$Y-COW)
EMILY WEBBER(MIDWAY, IDENTITY THEFT)
VINCE MARTINEZ(PRESENT TENSE)

THE POETS:(in alphabetical order)
TIFFANY LETTIERI
BECKY MARTINEZ
BEN RUSSAK(HOBOHEAD)
DANNY SHORAGO(THE FUXEDOS)
*and just added CHISSUM WORTHINGTON(PU$$Y-COW,CHISSUM WORTHINGTON)

then stick around and i mean you damn well better stick around for THE HDR JAZZ TRIO. you've seen them kick out the jams now watch them kick out the jazz (you can also catch them at LA CITA downtown every monday)

So get hip and get down to EL CID WED. APRIL 9TH @ 9:30PM.
And the whole thing is free.

Shower Thoughts, Episode 2

Shower Thoughts is a collection of random memories that come to visit between the turn of faucets and the pull of the curtain.

There is no Coney Island ferry.

I thought of the summer of 79 walking along the Coney Island stands in summer shorts and knee high tube socks. We had the summer months to explore my dad's stomping grounds, visit statues, visit museums, ride the yellow cabs, the Staten Island ferry and visit cousins that magically appeared into my 7 year world.

As I ate my hot dog hanging off the tail of my right arm, the left grasped onto my dads leading the pack of us towards an oyster bar. I'm sure they served other fishy things but blue letters spelled out OYSTER with with a double stroke white outline. A ketchup and mustard only dog was fine for me.

“Just ketchup, just mustard.” I had whispered into my dad's ear.
The man at one of the shiny carts pulled out in a gush steam a dog and placed into the open paper square with a quick slab of ketchup, a dashing slice of mustard before my dad had finished reciting my words.

“Just ketchup,?” the shiny cart man joyously yelled, “Just mustard?” He gave my dad a look of you deprive your kids of true happiness.

May dad shrugged and asked if I would consider something different being in New York and all.

Behind the stack row of soda cans the man prodded me. “How about some onions? How about some sauerkraut?” Each time a threatening spoonful hung about the dog.

My disgusted look amused him.

“You don't know what you're missing.”

My dad finished up the order and with the money offered up his intent to make me try some oysters later on. The man barely chuckled as two dogs were already on their way to the next customer.

Walking away from the aromatic steam and toasted paper wrapped bun [it really was the best hotdog ever] I had my dad explain how you ate an oyster without eating the pearl.


Looking around the the tar walkway as my folks slid oysters down their throats I took in what now I remember mostly as a run down strip mall on the beach. I wondered where these folks lived; in the skyscrapers, in the red brick stacks of grandma's where the kids double dutch scotch and the old men played chess among the bubbled cement playgrounds and tiled walls. Or where they from up the Hudson in Poughkeepsie where Dad would leave us on a street with a cousin to show us around later that night?

We had taken the train up only be left out with a teenage cousin who looked a little put off by this babysitting. I followed my Dad's path until he disappear into an eight floor complex near the train station. My sister jumped over the cracks on the brick sidewalks as we decided to head towards the Hudson to watch the ships pass by. Mostly we skipped rocks and watched a tugboat moored nearby rise up with the tide and sink with the closing daylight.

After a hour my cousin went to bring my dad back down to his family; I wanted to tell him about the tugboat with the green trim and tires stuck to it before it was too dark. they cam back with cigarettes in their mouths.

My dad was chain smoking as he spoked to my mom, telling me to wait to show him the boat. Finally he informs us that there were some more new family to meet; More cousins and some more aunts. “You mean like Ti Ida?” I remember asking and the group answered in equally confusing manners, correcting each other and adding more until the story was agreeable by all.

After the strange looks and awkward chit chat over dinner it was decided that we'd stay the night instead of getting a hotel, against my mom's whispered protest to Dad. Makeshift bedding was placed together for us kids and cousins and a few kids down the hall tossed in because the attraction of visitors from California was too irresistible.

Settling down in the borrowed sleeping bag slash comforter hybrid bed my thoughts were racing. The train ride, the accents, the people, the darkness, the tug boat bobbing in the passing wakes of barges bigger than I ever seen before, the faces of the crowds, the cousins.

Deep sleep came to my sunken eyes. The ferry found me drifting the neighborhoods, skimming down the Hudson to Coney Island . I was the captain.
And I sailed like the ferry, like a train on the sea.

Like a train on the sea.

Like a train on the sea.

little birdie says tweet

The last few months: Bad timing, bad connections = missed shows
This week: perfect timing. thank you little birdie

Deep Sea Diver aka Jessica Dobson
@ Alex's Bar in Long Beach
Thurs 4.3.08 21+ .. $3 or $5 or $?

with this evening there will be THUNDER & LIGHTENING
& Automatic Year

Oh I should mention that she's looking for bandmates

jury duty today = sadly not a joke

Made it in line behind this guy:


not posting this to be mean or to make fun.
I kind of want it.

Makes me feel a little like I'm half assing it in my love of trek.

Oh well its almost 11 and they haven't even called up the first group of people. Maybe my plan to schedule it on a week with a holiday might pay off. Well it's one less day of potentially getting called up.

I want.

I want to get paid for this but that's not happening I found out this morning. My company is pretty cool but they can be cheap skates about a lot of things. First they pay 100% of my medical insurance [yay], but nothing for dental [boo]. I've priced out insurance at my former job and to include dental is such a minimal addition, to not include is just being cheap.

Not surprising jury duty isn't paid yet as I vented to my boss that I would rather be at work than serving, he spouted off how serving is important part of this society we all live in. Important does not pay the bills while coming in at 6 pm for eight hours does.

Guess I could sleep the last four hours on my desk.

/rant