long before blogs i thought that one up because i was writing poems at the time, sad poems, angry poems, scary semi suicidal poems at the time
and i didnt want to make people nervous. namely my friends and family.
it didnt work.
great line but no one knows what to do with it.
scribners can slap fiction on the side of sun also rises but everyone knows fucker did go to spain did go to the bullfights and did drink his ass off, so whatever with your labels man.
nothing in here is true.
and you can repeat it but it doesnt work. for some it dares them to look that much deeper to find the real truth even if there isnt any real truth,
seriously who puts truth in a blog?
hem was fat and drunk and probably bi which aint so bad for a writer. who knows, maybe thats why he was able to write such newstyled female characters who were tough and sharp and indie and moderne.
maybe thats how it was back then, quick thinking quick talking sassy
dames
whose pupils beamed when you called them that
and whose smiles peeked out when you meant it.
and hem gave you the truth up front but you didnt know it because it sat there on a bed of beautiful lies.
hemingway wrote like a man who knew how to quiet down a room of ticking clocks just by being there
while wearing that classy clark gable moustashe that no one even dares attempt these days for fear that people would hiss fraud as they passed in the street.
today i interviewed the president of goldenvoice, the revered la punk and alternative promoters of the 80s and 90s, who after clear channel and a few other mega corps squeezed them out of the traditional concert business (by signing long term exclusive contracts with the arenas, or just straight up buying the venues outright) thought up a little masterpiece named Coachella which the LA Times hailed as “easily the premier large-scale event on today’s U.S. rock landscape.”
Goldenvoice in a nutshell (is) more an emotional thrill ride than
a standard business. It began in 1981 as an I-think-I-can upstart,
stepping into a void left by mainstream promoters scared of punk and
unaware of the vital rock scene bubbling beneath the Top 40 surface.Goldenvoice had a field day bringing bands out of their do-it-
yourself circuit into established venues with professional sound and
production. The company also had a nose for the best of L.A.’s
thriving scene. (Goldenvoice President Paul) Tollett recalls a
1987 Goldenvoice concert at Fender’s in Long Beach,
where the opening act stole the show from the other nine bands.
The group was called No Doubt.
Talent agent Marc Geiger, who represented such acts as the Smiths, Echo & the Bunnymen and New Order with his partner Don Muller, remembers how Goldenvoice dominated the underground music scene.
“Goldenvoice bought everything and, more important, they were also the nice guys,” says Geiger, who later co-founded the Lollapalooza tour. “They’d be the guys who would be backstage handing out joints and letting extra people on the guest list and not being uptight, in a town where not being uptight gets you far.”- LA Times 4/29/04
it’s good that i hadnt read that before i interviewed mr tollett because it was nice to be pleasantly surprised by his offer to be put on the guest list for this year’s two day nearly sold out concert starring weezer, nine inch nails, wilco, bauhaus, new order, the arcade fire, gang of four, the raveonettes, rilo kiley, the chemical brothers, spoon, bright eyes, tegan and sara, keane, the secret machines, and many others.
we spoke for twenty minutes, an assignment i was given by our good friend kate at the weekly. mr tollett was very easy to talk with, he truly understood good music, and seemingly enjoyed our conversation also. i thanked him for setting up the secret pixies show last year as a tuneup for headlinging gig the next day down the 10 and he convinced me that no matter what i might think about trent reznor’s commercial success over the last few years, or lack thereof, on a live stage hes unforgetable.
and so i said, great, then why also have coldplay, and he basically said different strokes for different folks and we were cool.
the one thing i didnt have the guts to say was that he needed to set up an old mans section on the side that would be airconditioned with nice chairs that had waiter service where pretty girls would deliver cold beverages and snacks at ridiculously high prices.
maybe i’ll let him in on that one when i muster up the courage to ask for a photo pass after the article runs and he sees that im legit.
and once i wrote a book of happy love poems and i put nothing in here is true so people wouldnt vomit all over the pages.