this week in rock in la

tonight 7/16

the C, the echo

jerry cantrell, roxy

berlin, hollywood park

hr, alex’s bar

diana krall, greek

dazz band + sos + zapp band, vault 350

lewis black, the canyon

 

tomorrow 7/17

ike turner, harvelle’s

the magnetic fields, wilshire ebell theater

jurassic 5 + pete yorn + flea, avalon

wasp, house of blues

sha na na, the canyon

rick royale, lava lounge

glen phillips, largo

hr funkenstuff, roxy

lori carson, mccabes

patterson hood, spaceland

wu tang clan + redman + dialated peoples + sage francis, orange pavillion  

   

sunday 7/18

etta james, the canyon

modest mouse , avalon

mellow man ace, key club

rooney, wiltern

young dubliners, warner park

 

monday 7/19

sonic youth, henry fonda

modest mouse, wiltern

 

tuesday 7/20

TSAR + shapes of racecars, spaceland

linda rondstat, universal

jill sobule, largo

 

wednesday 7/21

boz scaggs + casandra wilson, hollywood bowl

becky, sixteen-fifty

tracy bonham, the hotel cafe

 

thursday 7/22

india.arie, royce hall ucla

gomez, avalon

walkment, sixteen-fifty

zilla, knitting factory

 

friday 7/23

the polyphonic spree, el rey

string cheese incident, wiltern

jewel, disney concert hall

bow wow wow, key club

 

makeout city + wizbang + dc thornton

dear kobe,

i hope you realize that the only way that people will not hate you is if you win it all this year.

 

hopefully against the heat.

 

your twenty-five years old. you have three rings, but now you have lost the greatest coach of all time, you’ve lost the second greatest center of all time, and the greatest nba announcer of all time.

 

two and a half years ago  you lost the greatest general manager of all time.

 

since then you’ve gone to the finals and lost twice. this last time, embarrassingly.

 

your in the middle of a rape trial.

 

against a white girl.

 

a young white girl.

 

los angeles, i hope you realize, doesn’t care about your rape trial.

 

los angeles is interested in you winning the nba title.

 

immediately.

 

you have a few nice things working in your favor:

 

  • your young black talented and rich
  • you have one of the greatest players of all time in magic to give you advice
  • you get to play with one of the best point guards ever who no longer has to try to run the triangle, which was a bad offense for him
  • you have a great new coach to play for whose number one concern all year will be how to get you the ball.
  • you probably didn’t rape that white girl.
  • and if you pull this off, without shaq, people will have a good reason to compare you to mj.

somehow i don’t think you will be able to do it.

somehow i think your an orange county punk who probably should have gone to college

somehow i think your breaking up a dynasty that you could have been part of for a long long time but instead you acted like a diva bitch and ran off the two best things anyone could ask for: a great coach and a great center.

somehow i think i will start paying more attention to the clippers next year

somehow i think that when people utter the old phrase “be careful what you wish for”, they will think of you number eight

and they will look down

and shake their head.

eric case + everything is wrong + new yorkish

in a ponderously bold move

the president of the united states is actually going to turn his back on the NAACP and not meet with them, still upset, reportedly for their accusations that the civil rights group has made against him, the Associated Press reports today.

“(President Bush) has many friends who belong to the NAACP and respects their proud history of championing civil rights,” White House communications director Dan Bartlett said. “Differences of opinion and opposing views are of course part of the national debate. Yet the current leadership of the NAACP has clearly crossed the line in partisanship and civility, making it impossible to have a constructive dialogue.”

Impossible?

How would the President know that it’s impossible to talk to a group when he hasnt talked with them in four years?

Mr. Bush will certainly debate Sen. Kerry. Will he decline any debates with the Democrat since they will surely cross the line of partisanship?

And what is crossing the line of partisanship, anyway? Isn’t it balking at an invitation with a group year after year after year simply because they traditionally overwhelmingly vote against you?

They’re still Americans. Don’t they deserve to be included in the dialogue? Aren’t their concerns and issues important?

Isn’t the message that the President is sending one that says, “disagree with me once, shame on me… you… disagree with me twice… wont get fooled again”?

or something?

i thought the president was a cowboy.

i thought the president wasnt afraid to stand his ground and answer his critics.

i thought this president was proud of his accomplishments over the last three and a half years.

and as dumb as this president is portrayed in Fahrenheight 9/11, you’d think the yale grad would think he could take on a bunch of minorities who certainly are wrong about comparing his anti-abortion stance toward the taliban, and being upset about the rapidly deteriorating inner-city education problem, or the high unemployment rate for blacks.

guess i was wrong. again.

“The president may be too busy to talk to you,” Kerry told the NAACP today in Philadephia, “but I have news for you: He’s going to have plenty of time after Nov. 2.

“I will be a president who is truly a uniter, not one who seeks to divide one nation by race or riches or by any other label.”

The NAACP has about 500,000 members. There are 36 million African-Americans in the USA, approximately 13% of the nation’s population, according to the March 2002 census; which also reports that 11.9% of Black men were unemployed at the time of the survey, while only 5.7% of white men were unemployed.

Also of interest is the fact that although Blacks account for only 13% of the population, they accounted for 23% of american poverty.

If the president and his party of economic superstars wanted to prove their mad skillz, i cant imagine an audience who would benefit more that enlightenment than the NAACP.

the president missed a great opportunity.

bunnie + bunny + kevin

people want me to get excited about nomar

possibly coming to the cubbies.

im not so sure about it.

the problem is simple, and my pal karisa will be mad at me for it, but i dont want the cubs to be in a three-way trade with Arizona and Boston because sure the Cubs will get a star shortstop and mightilly beef up an already powerful lineup

and they will only have to give up some minor leaguers to get Mia Hamm’s sweetie

but i dont want the Red Sox to have a rotation that includes Pedro, Schilling, and The Unit.

call me crazy, but whats the use of getting a shortstop if it means having to face that firestorm of arms in October?

i would much rather just get struggling shortstop Orlando Cabrera from montreal in exchange for those very same minor leaguers.

and some will say, but the Yankees will get crushed by the Red Sox if they get Randy Johnson, and those people are fools.

if the Sox get the big unit, steinbrenner will just get someone else. the cubs cant survive such an arms race. they can, but they wont.

it’s my opinion that its completely in the best interest of the Cubs to totally lay low and not wake the sleeping giants who are the yankees and who are up some 7 games in the East.

they dont need to stack the deck any more against either the Sox or the Cubs.

what the Sox need to do is trade their man Lowe and some others to Houston and get the Rocket back where he belongs.

after that piazza-aided schellacking that he took in the all star game, im sure clemens would like nothing more than to retun to boston, join up with a real rotation, and beat the team who let him go.

this of course would inspire the yanks to make a bid for the big unit, but perhaps if the cubs really did get cabrera for prospects, they might be willing to move greg maddux, glendon rusch, and kyle farnsworth to the diamondbacks and pay johnson for a half a season.

but thats me, mr. vegas.

danielle + sk smith + andy dolan

today is jeff jarvis’s 50th birthday

creator of Entertainment Weekly, creator of the Daily Stern, and inventor of the word Blook, jarvis’s the buzzmachine is one of my favorite blogs and one of my daily reads.

i like the buzzmachine because jeff blogs the way you should: often, in detail, with links, and with good analysis.

i like that he has comments and keeps his stats public.

i like that he tries not to say fuck because his kids read his blog,

but sometimes he says fuck anyway

and i like that even better.

whats great about his comments is that he proves that even if you get 12,000 hits a day that doesnt mean that you will get a ton of comments, and those that you get wont neccisarilly be all that intelligent.

it makes me grateful that even though i get less than ten percent of his hits, i get on average more comments and most of them are more-enlightening.

i would like to see a few more pictures on jeffs blog. i would like to see him talk a little more about why he likes Howard Stern. and i would like him to encourage his commentors to write better comments and quit hiding behind fake email addresses.

i would also like to see him get a sit down interview with Stern and publish it on his blog.

other than that, i think the blogosphere is grateful for his centrist views on politics, and his hands-on opinions on technology.

and no one has covered the Stern vs FCC battle in greater detail, and for that we should all give him praise on his birthday.

as 9/11 was the impetus for many “warbloggers” to find their nitche, i might say that jeff found his when Howard was dropped by Clear Channel several months back.

and today mr. jarvis is 50…

i remember my 50th birthday…

WWII was in full swing and i was helping the cause by collecting nylons from the ladies in the neighborhood.

the cubs had assembled a mighty fine team and movies cost two cents.

ah the good old days.

Jeff Jarvis’s BuzzMachine