Tag Archives: rock

i save my reading for listening

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as i drive around this fair city i enjoy having others read to me

Morrissey’s autobiography was a delight mostly because Moz is an exceptional writer

and it makes me feel like i should stop watching so much TV and start reading

you know, actual books

because when you hear someone lie Morrissey explain things or describe things

and every sentence is so descriptive with analogies and metaphors that come from ancient scrolls

and legendary literature and you’re all, wait was that original or a Shakespearian quote

you feel equal parts excited and ignorant.

i also liked that he just wanted England to love him and it didnt. not like LA or Mexico or Scandinavia.

here people would dress like him and scream his lyrics right back at him and fill up this one and that one

theyd damn near riot, but in his beloved UK they’d barely bat their lashes

i also like that his record labels barely supported him and no one knew what to do with his successes.

it is a pattern that i have seen in my own life: some people and organizations are built for mediocrity

they have zero interest in wild success, all they want to do is keep on keeping on.

they don’t want failure, but in an odd way they feel more comfortable with a hiccup or two

than they are huge accomplishments.

they’re terrified of breaking records, leading the pack, or breaking through to the new thing.

here The Smiths and Morrissey were selling hand over fist – even when the group broke up, yet the labels were far more willing to spend endless amounts of time and effort into the unproven and even failed,

than they were to the quirky vegetarian straight edge asexual exception to the rule.

in the book he even says that Michael Stipe has always wanted to go solo.

fascinating!

im not dead, im doing things

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and for me doing things takes a little time. i can knock out certain things quickly but when i care about them time goes so quickly to catch up with my mind

im on schedule. have no fear. but when i do stuff i think about three or four steps ahead which is cool except it makes me stumble on the step im currently on.

ive asked the young kids i used to work with what their thoughts are on Adderall because i saw a movie on Netflix about how every kid in college is on it because it helps them focus and they had mixed reviews.

they said sure if you wanna clean your room in a night or paint details on a huge blank wall. but you can get addicted, it’s not cheap, and it fucks up your sleep. i’ll just stick to bad music, incense and Mexicokes.

been dropping off Birds at 5am. im a weirdo. it pays ok. a little less than Uber and for some reason it uses up more gas than i expected but it sends me into alleys and back ways and bizarre parts of LA that i wouldnt normally go to.

ran into two gay guys last night in hollywood. one of them was pulling up his pants. so much love out there. or hookers. hard to tell sometimes. whatever, love it is.

speaking of Love one thing i love about Hollywood is how you will see a perfectly good Ma & Pa Kettle house made of wood, with a porch and a brick fireplace right next to a 19 story modern hotel right next to a McMansion. everyone in their place. everyone wanting to be somewhere else. bigger, shinier, more secluded. more rocking. bigger pool.

i just wanna always feel like everythings ok. and right now its pretty ok.

speaking of Love, 20 years ago today Hole came out with Celebrity Skin named after the magazine or glam band or JK long live courtney.

today we are going to weezer and the pixies

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last night amber dyed her hair to prepare

me, i shaved and got a hair cut.

it was so hot today – like 95 degrees.

but in my office it was super cold. i have a little space heater. imagine that.

plus i wore a little hoodie.

i hardly ever eat at work, just nibble. my life is so boring.

all amber and i ever do is walk around and say hi to homeless people and then eat tacos.

thats what we did yesterday.

i had bought her a bowl of soup at Pho 2000 but still when we got home i was like, let me change into shorts and lets walk to Silver Lake

you gotta get in your steps.

you gotta live.

the more you live the more your body is all hell yeah.

so keep living, rock stars.

never die.

been reading Oscar Levant’s “the memoirs of an amnesiac”

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he’s talking about taking a train into LA’s union station

and how when he does he always goes to this newsstand and asks for a new yorker.

but one day the lady at the newsstand really rubs him the wrong way when she tells him she’s all out of new yorkers.

after that he vows to go to “an inferior newsstand” to avoid dealing with her ever again.

because he was a concert pianist, the new yorker would review his concerts and sometimes give him bad reviews.

it got me thinking how hard it is to write a good bad music review. you dont want to utterly destroy the performer, but you want to be colorful and entertaining. but ultimately you are judging the most subjective thing there is: art.

when i was at the record store in the mid 80s there were two bands that were bubbling under. fishbone and the red hot chili peppers.

both were good and funky and creative and fun and funny and all the things youd want if you were 18 like i was.

and if you had asked me: one of these bands is going to get huge and be a world wide sensation through the year 2018, which one would it be?

i would have said Fishbone, no question. Because as good as the Chili Peppers is, 18 year old me woulda said, ultimately they are derivative of PFunk mixed with a little more rock, but still white dudes doing fast funk.

and i would have been wrong. and their biggest tune, “under the bridge”, would have proven me a fool because it isnt funk and it isnt fast.

which is why i would add, it’s tough to make a good bad music review… that stands up to the test of time.

 

beyonce ruined everything last night at Coachella

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and i do mean everything.

how am i supposed to go to a concert now?

it’s not gonna be as great as she was last night.

how am i gonna even go to a club?

she took everything great about music and dance and spectacle and black pride

and shoved it in our faces

and flicked her long, wild wig at it

and smiled.

i was not a huge Beyonce fan, but last night not only did i, but we all saw the light.

we all saw the power of black girl magic.

she was graceful and fast and smooth and only got better as the clock ticked closer to two hours.

she didn’t rely on video screens or inflatable props

she was so magical that even the fireworks were all fuck this and felt like sparklers.

she had a whole damn marching band on stage with her, all of MC Hammers dancers, the twins from Cirque, an orchestra, and an all girl heavy metal band.

it reminded me of Kanye’s 808 n Heartbreaks redeux show at the Hollywood Bowl mixed with gasoline and twerking. it was the history of black college culture, hip hop, a cookout, and a family reunion when Destiny’s Child appeared and reminded us that you can come home again.

for years the rumors have been that Coachella would drop a boatload to get the Smiths to reunite.

all i can say after what i am still trying to process from last night ON TV

is fuck the Smiths.

beyonce showed us what giving 100% to the grandest idea you could think of looks and sounds like

ONE HUNDRED PERCENT

and it is flawless.

i made it through the wilderness

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i know i know i know

but i was sick.

then i got busy. then i got sick again. now im good.

im not good good because i have this issue with coughing that i will cough up phlegm but whatever its the winter and im a sensitive poet

and so many emotional things are happening in and around LA it’s bizarre.

for instance, at UCSB they had to cancel all of their finals so the kids can run away and hide at their parents house because of the fires up there.

my favorite teacher has had to pack up her family and shes considering just going to the ocean in a rowboat and watching the world burn from the sea

meanwhile we are seeing super weird photos of the smoke rising from the santa barbara + ventura region and it’s scary because when I think of the central coast

i think of the safest region in the whole world

it’s where i hope to escape to when The Big One strikes LA.

so to see it in misery like this is horrid. then of course there is the soon death of the Internet via Net Neutrality. Trump is trying to get the Middle East fighting with themselves. And the Cubs lost out on both the great hitter from Miami and the pitcher/hitter from Japan.

the only thing making me believe in humanity right now are my friends, the pretty girl who parades around my house half nude, and the upcoming Star Wars film which i have secured tickets for on Thursday night at 10pm even though i will probably fall asleep before the previews are over.

which brings us to Pussy Riot, Russias finest all-female punk band

who plays this week, two different nights in LA, and i wanna see it but i have to make money at Uber

and im so tired,

so tired.

so.

 

toughest question I was asked all week

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A very well meaning gentleman was tasked to help me on a project

he said can you draw it up for me.

I said no problem and in minutes I had it sketched out on a yellow legal pad using a blue pen

then he said the most curious thing. He said can you show me an example somewhere where someone else had done it?

I said have you ever met anyone like me?

I asked in your whole life how many xbi agents have you met?

even among uber drivers how many uber drivers do you know like me?

I said I am here to do

New Things

Big things

Cool things.

Things that if they had been done already, I wouldn’t be interested in.

No this hasn’t existed before and that’s why people are going to love it.

He asked well what about that saying that there’s nothing new under the sun?

I said I want you to listen to Pink Floyd’s greatest hits.

Yes there were guitars and bass and drums and vocals and saxophones before Pink Floyd

But there wasn’t Pink Floyd before or since.

And that’s what we should all strive for: to express our own unique freakiness that never was before we got here.

And one way to get there is to find the gaps where no ones ever been before.

And trust me, the audience will follow us there.

sometimes youre buying pillows at Fallas Paredes discount store

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and you’re waiting in a line that wont move and amber says hey im gonna get some bananas at the Jons and i’ll meet you outside.

and you wait and you wait and as you’re waiting you hear the booming sounds of what appears to be a band playing.

now you’re old enough to remember when rock music used to float through the air all the time.

but those times are long gone.

so when you connect with her outside you say, hey lets go over to that alley to see what local schmos are about to get shut down because clearly this music is too loud.

and as you walk with your pillows and bananas

you see a tiny little crowd in the alley are looking over a fence

and you get closer and notice theres an entire parking lot fenced off with a huge catering situation. really good smelling food and people in chefs outfits scrambling.

then you see a security guard but not in a cheesy Don Knotts outfit but a suit and tie like the Secret Service. and he’s guarding the back of what appears to be a stage.

and then you hear what has to be the worlds greatest Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band break into “Under The Bridge”

and someone nods their head.

and you see Flea’s head bounce above the fence.

and then you realize, uh, this is one of rock’s biggest bands playing 10 feet away from you

playing one huge hit after another.

so you keep standing there with 5-6 others and no one moves you and no one tells you to get lost

and amber goes to a woman smoking by the back door

and the woman says,

Randy Newman is coming on next.

and you’re all,

you mean one of my favorite musicians of all time?

you mean the same guy who I chose to see over seeing Stevie Ray Vaughn w/ BB King or The Who because they were all playing the same night in 1991 in LA

 

and even though i sorta regret never seeing SRV, i thoroughly enjoyed seeing Randy at the Universal Ampitheater that night.

and the stars say yes.

but it was taking a while.

and two college aged kids came out through the back entrance. past the secret service dude.

and i say, hey is it true that Randy Newman is on next.

and they say are you kidding us right now?

i say no, youre in there do you know if anyone else is playing?

and they say, oh youre serious? we are Randy’s children.

and we LOL and chat and i tell them to tell their dad that he’s amazing.

and 10 minutes later Randy walks from a car to that back entrance and plays.

and as he does Chad Smith from the Chili’s has a smoke and a chat and poses with Amber Smith and then puts on his motorcycle helmet and hops on his bike and zooms home

into the hills of Hollywood.

where 100% true stories like this happen.

do you realize

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That you have the most beautiful face
Do you realize we’re floating in space,
Do you realize that happiness makes you cry
Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die
And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It’s hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn’t go down
It’s just an illusion caused by the world spinning round
– The Flaming Lips

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debating seeing Roger Waters

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apparently this show is amaze

also hes 73

rock stars dont last this long

except for the Stones, i know,

and zep

WHATEVER

tix are like $181

the screens are supposed to be like U2, incredible

and i do love those songs

but they do depress me sometimes

amber has been paying rent, so maybe i should be happy about that and use that money for tix

but i wanted to use that money to pay off the national debt.

because debt is bad, mmmmkay? but missing great rock shows is also bad.

do you see the problems i have in my life?

we’re all gonna die.

i should probs go to the rock show. so i have something to talk to St. Peter about.

cuz lord knows i dont have any good stories up my sleeve,

and all the angels and saints are dying for rock reviews.

and not tales of freedom.