Thrushes - Heartbeats

Artist: Thrushes (myspace / website)
Video/Song: Heartbeats
Why: I'm in that kind of mood



Upcoming shows that should be in Los Angeles, but are not:
6.13 Big Art Show Baltimore, Maryland
6.19 Artscape! Baltimore, Maryland
Aug 16 2008 Athens Popfest! Athens, Georgia

Last week I saw a commercial for the new movie The Love Guru and thought two things:

1) Wow, Brendan Fraser is trying to be mike meyers (bad idea),

2) thus it might actually be 25% funny.

The newest commercial I saw during SNL made it very clear that it was indeed Mike Meyers doing his same old shtick. (even worse idea)

Come on, it kind of looks like him with a crazy hippie, Beatles went to India wig from afar.


oh well, still not seeing it.

lorange blog food review no.1

McDonald's Southern Chicken Sandwich
Conclusion: It ain't no Chick-Fli-A.

I left a town called Lorange

You see I like being that couple.
The couple that meets one summer night in Silver Lake and falls in love despite living thousands of miles apart. It didn’t hurt that we shared the same mobile phone carrier.

So I have been holding back telling you readers the conversations, the plans, the potential hi-jinks because the stories would be sappy in such a sickening way that a few of you will curl in disbelief and stomach propelled disgust. Yes it’s that sappy, and as this is my blog, my space, I plan on sharing some of them with you as time goes by. You don’t have to read them, you don’t have to like them; I really don’t care what you think to be honest.

I’m happy.

It has taken me many years of making mistakes, learning from them, and repeating them again to get to this point. In the past I’d placed myself in bad situations and took a few down with me. I’m sorry that I did. After my divorce I tried to act like I wasn’t the cold, fucked up asshole it (the process of divorce) made me into and even when I could admit it, I just. didn’t. care.

Lorange was my state of mind

Friends and a few special folks helped me tremendously in the beginning despite those moments I figuratively swung my way though life. When I was done, the damage completed and tallied, half of you were still there. One or two absolutely hated me. Fair enough.

Late 2005 I decided that I was better off alone for the time being. People called me guarded and far worse, called me on my insecurities and since then I have dropped that wall I'd surrounded myself with considerably. I made amends, I apologized. Some still hated me.

Having a lot of trouble not being shy (which became awkwardness, and in turn weirdness) I instead had fun blogging about my infatuations and the music that I connected with. Some of these localbands, certain local artists have no idea how much their songs or shows meant to me during those years. Some smiles by others reminded me that I wasn’t a complete loss and that in time I would know what to do with them. On occasion little moments were quite unreal but those moments really did happen; it just became easier to smudge the words to create a more digestible truth (hence this blog’s "inspired by actual events" tagline). But dead end infatuations and blog post fantasies do not make a fulfilling life and eventually I decided that the real world, with my few real friends and family was once again important to me.

I also decided to wait. Wait for that person who would make me swoon like never before.

I’ve mentioned many times in this blog that I’m great believer in Timing. Being in the right place, at the right time and meeting someone passing right through your life at that exact perfect moment.

That moment was August 8th, 2007 @ 11PM as B. walked down the stairs of El Cid on her first visit to Los Angeles.


So I call us "that couple" now. The ones that meet and found loving each other the easiest thing we ever did.

The one that can say that yes, you’ll know that moment when it happens to you.

Rob Z'S Lounge Thing this Weds 5.14.08

ROB Z'S LOUNGE THING
@ El Cid 9:30pm free!

Rob Z and friends are doing the lounge thing again this Wednesday.
Always fun. Always free
Also with loungeified versions of tha bands PCow and Vermouth

Shower Thoughts: Alex - Part 1

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


Many years ago a friend asked to borrow my silver mini Mitsubishi turbo diesel pick up. Reluctantly I agreed as he made it clear this would be the most important thing that I could ever do for someone I called my best friend.

Outside the Concord BART station Will waited for me with his best happy face of the week on over the usual faded, green surplus pants and black henley shirt. The ever present knapsack was tossed on the floor of the cab.

I asked him again where he was going, when he was coming back, all which thoroughly annoyed him.

"I. I just need to do something in The City."

"What?"

"Look. I need to drive around and go somewhere. I just have something to do, okay?"

"I take it you're not going to tell me then?"

"Jesus Christ Robert! I'll be back tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Don't worry! I just need to drive around for a bit.

"Are you going to see Alex?"

"No," He threw his cigarette onto the moving roadway, "this has nothing to do with Melinda.

"Well maybe." He responded to my raised eyebrow.

I never cared for her Alex's given name and continued to refer to her to how she introduced herself years earlier in Alameda at the roaming underage dance club set up shop for the night in the old movie house lobby, a grand two floor space with a hand painted rotunda. I came to learn later that she hooked up with my friend Rich just to get closer to me that night which explained her willingness to sit in my lap in an old RX-7 as we crossed the grated bridge deck back to Oakland then to The City. We found a dinner off Union Square populated only by a 13? 14? year old girl who sat alone drinking a cup of coffee in a short skirt and fuzzy jacket. We then chatted with two strangers on the cement wall of Coit Tower as the sun came up in the most brilliant glow over distant fog banks. Leaving East through the tunnel on Highway 24 I felt the tingle between our hands as she fell asleep against my chest.

I knew this had everything to do with Alex and Will's recent break up.

"Have you talked to her recently?"

He didn't answer as we stopped in front of my house. I pulled the keys out and handed them over. "You promise you'll be back by the morning?"

"Fuck. I said I would."

"Alright. I just need my car back, you know?"

Will released the brake and put the truck in gear as I observed in from the sidewalk.

"Hey Robert," he said calmly, "Thank you, you've been a great friend for doing this. And don't worry if you don't hear from me...You'll get your truck back."

He accelerated away as I yelled his name.


photo by telstar logistics used under creative commons license

weirdness this morning

In order of occurrence, not weirdness.

month old laptop starts acting weird. can't type at random moments
keyboard and track pad stop working completely
I frustratedly close the lid and head for the shower
I hear a grown man's voice outside yelling OW OW OW OW OW
I casually think "hey maybe someone got hit by a car," but those are the only sounds I heard.
No screeching brakes, no screams, nor sirens.

I think nothing of it as I turn on the water.

Leaving my apartment only to see this:

There were a lot of people from the church across the street, hands clasped together, up to their chest or face. They look upon worried. A couple young men assisted with traffic control around the firetruck using the stop signs normally meant as additional auto guidance as the parishioners cross through the Glendale intersection.

I worried about him too on my drive to work.

I've promised myself that a hour a day will be spent on this blog. Time for a revamp and some stories.


Thank you so much for reading my little blog. Good things have been going on and I would like to share them.

kthxbai.