Collected Thoughts 06-30-09

More Michael Jackson thoughts...

• If I were a time-traveling supervillain I would bomb the recording of "We Are the World". I can't believe the list of names involved. You would irrevocably destroy the cultural timeline.

• Two of my favorite people from the Jackson trial have had great MJ intel in the last week...
  
  
  • J. Randy Taraborrelli - J. Randy first met Michael as a preteen. He's been in intermittent contact with The King of Pop throughout the years, though not in the last four years. You've probably seen him all over the TV shows. For what it is worth, I consider him an solid source though understand that he is emotionally involved in the story. (Which, in my opinion, makes him more valuable than the tabloid jackals.) He has had some excellent pieces on MJ in the Daily Mail this week.
    
    Several months after the trial ended, Taraborrelli had all of the Jackson trial media out to his Hollywood Hills home to "figure out what it all meant". It was a really cool gesture.
    
    
  • Roger Friedman - I got to know Roger pretty well at the trial. He's not emotionally involved in the story like Taraborrelli, but he does always seem to have a dog in the fight. Roger has a great collection of long-term sources though, and I always look to him for the details of Jackson affairs -- especially the finances.
    

Non-Michael Jackson collected thoughts....

• I snuck-off to The Echo for a couple hours on Monday...
  
  
  • Radars to the Sky played some new songs that sounded incredible. I don't think indie rock for the indie rocker is what most people want these days. But if you long for the I.R.S.-era R.E.M. or the softer side of Superchunk then you should probably get reacquainted with Radars to the Sky.
    
    
  • I think any serious live music junkie needs to respect Casxio at this point. I've been a fan since the early days of this blog. They continue to improve. They're one of the scene's finest gems, one of the most entertaining and satisfying sets you can see right now. Don't be afraid to dance without irony.

• I'm not prepared to talk about Transformers 2 yet. I dislike it less the further I get away from it, though!
  
  
• FROM: The United States of America
  TO: North Korea
  RE: the two of us
  
  Hi there!

• We can all El Oh El at U.S. soccer, can't we?
  

• A Fine Definition of Quality: The US government detained a comic book writer for traveling with a comic script about the US government detaining a writer for imagining a terror attack. (!) The national security clods are so fucking humorless.
  

• Here's something really cool: (To me, anyways) The original show bible for Animaniacs.
  

• Toyota makes brainwave-operated wheelchair. Say it with me: The Singularity is near!

• Potato Gatling gun (!):

Collected Thoughts 06-27-09

A few more MJ thoughts...

• "Black or White" is the greatest roller skating rink song of all time.

• It also has a weird music video concept. So, let me get this straight: Macaulay Culkin doesn't want to go to bed and has a "parents hate rock music!" moment right out of a Twisted Sister video that sends dad soaring to Africa where Michael Jackson is dancing with tribals. This may or may not show dear old dad that he should open his mind to all cultures, especially rock music and Africans (These things are to Michael Jackson, of course, inexorably linked). Then Michael dances with Native Americans and Russians in their natural stereotypical environments, but only dances with one Hindu woman on an urban street.
  
  But all of the prior events are merely the lives of people inhabiting a snow globe which is owned by two giant babies who live on top of the "real" earth. But it can't be the real earth because in 1991 there were no giant babies sitting on the north pole, so it's another alternate earth. Then, presumably on this Alternate Real Earth, Michael time travels dancing through various wars and conflicts. Cut away to Alternate Real Earth Macaulay Culkin who is a junior rapper and hangs out with Michael on his stoop. Then we see Michael dancing on the Statue of Liberty's torch, which in Alternate Real Earth is located in a cyberpunkish utopia with all the other world monuments in one place.
  
  Then we see a large Asian man turn into Tyra Banks, who turns into a lot of other people that look like they are from Dove soap commercials or something.
  
  Oh but wait, all of this stuff was just a music video afterall! The video pulls away to reveal one of the morphing people being filmed on a soundstage This must be the real world! Oh, no, it isn't. Because Michael Jackson is really a werepanther. He stalks into a dark alley, transforms into Michael Jackson again, vandalizes a car, and then works out his sexual frustrations.
  
  Then we learn that all of this was actually a piece of television entertainment in The Simpsons' universe.
  
  A snowglobe universe inside of an alternate reality inside of an alternate reality's film studio inside of a Simpsons episode? Outrageous!

• I think Michael Jackson's contributions to media (the music video) and dancing are probably more important and influential than his contributions to music itself. While Michael's music inspired many future artists, he was not imitated musically nearly as much as his dance moves were imitated.

• The correct way to approach the music of Michael Jackson is to approach it the same way you would approach the music of Queen. The theatrics and fantasy drama are not just in the lyrical content but also in the key changes, the song structures, and (with Michael) especially in the record production. The appearance of a gospel choir at the end of "Man in the Mirror" is pure, glorious spectacle.

• Michael Jackson fans around the world associated their feelings about Michael Jackson with their feelings about America. His positive effect on American perception around the globe is incalculable.
  

Collected Thoughts 6-25-09

My mind has been flooded with various Michael Jackson thoughts. During the molestation trial I became obsessed not unlike the way in which Clarice Starling became enveloped in Hannibal Lecter. It's all coming back to me now...

• Of course the Jackson 5 and Off the Wall stuff is great, but that stuff is great in the way teenage romances and musical guests on talk shows are great. I've been thinking about what elevated Michael, what made his music so much more impactful, and someone else (I can't remember who) tipped me off: it's the menace in his music.
  
  Think about it. The best of Michael, the music that swells in equal measures one's heart, spine, and loins, is the material he recorded with a menacing sneer. "Billie Jean," (and other Thriller singles) "Smooth Criminal," "Scream," and the much under-appreciated "D.S." from HIStory all feature this quality. It's in Michael's voice and usually a spiny guitar part. Justin Timberlake is always at his best when he copies it. When Michael lost the menace and started writing terrible love songs is when his pop power diminished.

• (How fucking hot is Janet Jackson in the "Scream" video? Good lord.)

• I think YouTube and easy-access digital media has had a hand in returning Michael to his former glory post-mortem. Everyone seems to be watching "Smooth Criminal" era concert videos with their jaws on the floor, or ordering early career stuff on Amazon and iTunes.

• That said, a part of me feels like I'm being denied the monument of spectacle that would have been a 75 year-old Michael Jackson. He'd have had no money, no one to float him, no face left, and three weird as hell progeny bopping around the globe. This man was not going to become more normal, he was going to become more bizarre. He would have been unlike anyone else who ever lived.

• Man, 50 is too young for anyone to die.
  

• I'm pretty sure Katherine Jackson will get the kids when it's all said and done.
  

• There's a "secret library" of unreleased material. During the trial there was testimony about Michael's Neverland dance / recording studio. We heard about how he'd go in there in the middle of the night just to fiddle with the recording gear or choreograph dance moves alone. I'm sure there is some fascinating, self-canibalizing stuff in there. I'm dying to hear it. It's probably terrible... but what if it isn't?

• Thomas Mesereau, MJ's chief attorney during the trial, said nice things about Michael on NPR today. I adore Mesereau; he is a brilliant attorney. I could listen to him read a phone book. He said Michael had a kind, loving heart and just wanted to be around other people like him.
  
  That's a simplistic view of Michael, but the second half is true. When you think about it, Michael's best work was done with people who actually cared about him. Quincy Jones still professes admiration. You can tell the difference from when Michael's collaborators were working with him vs. when they were just profiting off him.

• I keep waiting for BJ Hickman to resurface. He was the Michael Jackson superfan Diane Diamond got a restraining order put on. I met BJ a couple times; he was a real-life Eric Cartman.
  

• My favorite reaction I've heard so far came from my college editor's Facebook page. He mused (paraphrased): "Tito Jackson's brother died".

• Here's an article written about Michael in 1984. It sounds like it was written about the last ten years of his life. I'm too young to remember press coverage on MJ in his meteoric rise, but it was always my (apparently false) memory that the really weird stuff didn't start until around the time Dangerous came out. I always thought that the In Living Color parody of "Black or White" was a pivotal step in shame and humiliation. I guess not. I guess you could have seen it all coming 25 years away.
  

Other non-MJ thoughts...

• Relevant 2 My Interests makes a fair point. With the sheer number of celebrity deaths in this day and age, in 30 years five "famous" people will die every day.
  

• Monday while I was going through my Google Reader from the last week I hit a streak of LA blogs referring to or reviewing Grizzly Bear in some way or another. Ugh.
  
  The current crop of indie bands remind me of that time when a lot of people I knew were really into Fatboy Slim and Moby. Like those two samplemasters, today's indie "it" bands make music that seems very creative and moving on the surface, but is ultimately shy on beef.
  
  I heard a Moby track on the car ride back to Indiana and I was shocked at how shallow it sounded. My guess is that Grizzly Bear, Phoenix, and their ilk will hold-up in similar fashion. At the end of the day those bands amount to fancy elevator music. There's no meme, movement, or iconic frontman to historically place them. There's no reason to care past the next year or so.
  

• I miss the days when everyone who liked music was talking about The White Stripes or The Strokes instead of Grizzly Bear or Phoenix. There is plenty to mock about those mainstream rock bands, but they earned their place with songs, not just sounds.
  

• Hungry Beat has left Pehrspace and moved to La Cita.

• SOS had two good piece of news last week: SSPU topped the Billboard Modern Rock Chart (!!!!) and Muse has a new album coming out in September. Muse is, in this writer's opinion, one of the under-appreciated bands of the decade. Their show in LA a couple years ago was unfuckingreal.

• MGMT opening for Paul McCartney is genius. The average MGMT fan is 1) still very devoted to the band (i.e. will see them on any tour stop) and 2) just pop-curious enough to be willing to shell out a little extra dough to also get to see a Beatle play live. And the average Paul McCartney fan will not hate MGMT.

• The X-Men romantic story arcs mapped out. Comic books are fucking ridiculous. (But there's an amazing Toad-obsessed-with-Scarlet-Witch one-shot begging to be written.)

• When the earth lets loose a stinky one, the heavens shake. A friend of mine pointed out that, relatively speaking, 50 miles bellow us and 50 miles above us are effectively unknown alien voids to our existence. We're all fucked.
  

The Michael Jackson I Knew

His Bloggership at Neverland on June 13th, 2005, the day Michael Jackson was found innocent of molestation charges.

I knew Michael Jackson.

Michael and I were not especially close. We never exchanged gifts or hugs or handshakes. In fact, Michael and I never spoke in person. We never had have any phone conversations nor did we ever email. Actually, we never had any direct contact. Excepting one time where I am positive he glanced at me, Michael Jackson probably did not know I was alive.

But I covered the Michael Jackson child molestation trial for Entertainment Tonight and The Insider in 2005, which means I knew Michael Jackson. The press corps of that trial knew The King of Pop, one of the most mysterious and enigmatic men to ever live, better than most people who entered into personal and professional relationships with him.

Those who interacted with Michael personally and professionally would always need to do battle with the masks he wore, his lies and deceptions. Those who interviewed Michael were receiving no less a performance than those who attended his legendary concerts. But those who spent months in a courtroom with Michael had the benefit of multiple perspectives, objective testimony, and the shrewd mind of Judge Melville to help us navigate the endless maze of Michael Jackson’s peculiar world.

Every morning Michael’s black SUV caravan would arrive at the courthouse in Santa Maria. His attorneys would greet him and his entourage (which could include mother Katherine, sister Latoya, brother Randy, or other Jackson satellites) would march to the entrance. Media, corralled behind metal barriers, would be admitted after.

Michael Jackson was weak and plainly addicted to painkillers, but he gave his best smiling performance every time he’d walk to court in front of those cameras. Even in the fog of addiction Michael’s business instinct understood the importance of saving face during those perp walks. But once inside, free from the spying eyes of television, he looked like any other person who wished he didn’t have to be in court that day. His face was stiff plastic, but his shoulders fell slack like anyone else’s. He slumped in his chair, blew his nose, hugged and shook hands with those he liked and avoided the gaze of those he did not.

Michael rightly abhorred the media but the press corps became enamored with him, despite the sensational soundbites they’d feed their masters. His life was Disney fantasy merged with Greek tragedy and high-stakes corporate intrigue. When we weren’t filing or taping we were spending every moment discussing and debating The Truth About Michael; his mindset, his motivations behind every plot twist, and the minds and motivations of the shady cast of flawed characters that populated the epic drama that substituted for Michael Jackson’s life.

Michael kept a briefcase of about forty pornographic magazines in his bedroom. The cover of one of them, Over Forty, featured a woman that looked like his mother. District Attorney Tom Sneddon made sure we all had a good look at it. Katherine was in the room. It was a profoundly embarrassing moment, wrought with sexual shame, and said more about Jackson’s sexuality than any routine psycho-analysis of his tastes. I believe that throughout Michael’s life even the most insignificant detail of his privacy made public was equally embarrassing to the reclusive pop legend

I spent countless hours in a room with Michael Jackson, the most famous man on earth, while scores of people from his life – former employers and employees, friends, business associates, and family (each often indistinguishable) – all came to tell their story about the Michael Jackson they knew. At times it felt like a bizarro version of “This Is Your Life” where the contestant was a fallen god and the grand prize was freedom or incarceration.

Here is the Michael Jackson I came to know:

He thought of himself firstly as a father. He was an inappropriate parent, but a loving one, a protector to the best of his ability. He was a shrewd, backstabbing businessman of Machiavellian proportions who didn’t think twice about lying to avoid fulfilling multimillion dollar contracts. He was a devoted professional entertainer. He had the natural talent of an above-average pop singer coupled with the work ethic of a million mules; he worked tirelessly for his craft and earned every iota of his famous reputation as the King of Pop through persistent effort.

Michael Jackson was obsessed with the cutting edge of popularity. He was more obsessed with a philosophical notion of innocence, not only that of uncorrupted children but also his own self-perceived innocence, a status he believed had been wrongly taken from him by the same megamedia that granted him godhood.

He was once in love with Lisa Marie Presley, but neither of them was emotionally equipped to deal with it. There is no reliable proof that Michael ever molested anyone; he certainly never wanted to harm or take advantage of a child. He believed he was Peter Pan and decorated his home with mannequins, figurines, and paintings of children. He had the financial means to physically manifest the fantasies of his mind. He built Neverland to explicitly avoid living.

He was the greatest entertainer that ever lived. Simply. He had all the negative traits of a drug addict, to the tragic end.


Select photos taken June 13th, 2005, the day Michael Jackson was found innocent of molestation charges:

Collected Thoughts 06-22-09

• Wednesday at 9pm my friends and I left LA and drove straight to Indianapolis, IN. No hotel stops or showers. In Indy we stopped, showered and napped, then went to a wedding rehearsal and dinner. Then wedding the next day, all day.
  
  Saturday night was the first night I had any real sleep since Monday. (Tuesday night I didn't sleep to screw-up my schedule so I could drive at night) I've slept two real nights now and I still haven't recovered. We're doing it again at 6am tomorrow.
  
  This is madness! Why would I purposefully chose to do such a thing?!

• Late-night (as in, 1am - 7am-ish kind of hours) driving music over the two nights we drove included SSPU, The Movies, Rademacher, Tigers Can Bite You, and Thailand. Thanks LA bands for making hell driving awesome driving.

• Weddings are weird. I mean, pageantry and ceremony are distinctly odd things. Are they full of meaning or absurdly meaningless? Does the act of a ceremony change something forever, or is the tradition of the ceremony itself proof that nothing changes? Why are fancy monkeys doing these outlandish things?
  
  Not judging, just musing. Civilizations are creepy!
  

• I am sorry, but I love Indiana humidity. My skin and sinuses love it. And I spent part of yesterday riding a tractor mower, listening to Steve Earle, and cutting grass. I don't miss such things, per se, but it is kind of nice to remember what yardwork feels like.

• Steak n' Shake is on the docket for today. Middle-dwellers understand this.

• I think I like the new Sonic Youth. The lyrics are some kind of horrible silly, but it is still a pretty cool record.
  

• I have some poly-ticks links to share when I get back, but man, is this Iran business wild or what?

• I'm pretty sure we won't see healthcare reform and we'll only have some spineless Democrats to blame. I hate to be reactionary, and I know I should be giving my man Obama more than six months, but I'm already feeling like these clowns deserve to lose again next time around.
  

The Henry Clay People joining The Airborne Toxic Event on the road again...

I'd heard this was probably going to happen. This is excellent news. It sounds like a lot of these are larger venues.


The Airborne Toxic Event w/ The Henry Clay People

AUGUST

7 -- Chicago -- Lollapalooza (HCP only)

SEPTEMBER

17 -- Pomona, CA -- Fox Theatre

24 -- Boulder, CO -- Boulder Theater

25 -- Omaha, NE -- Slowdown

26 -- Des Moines, IA -- People's Court

28 -- Lawrence, KS -- Granada Theater

29 -- Tulsa, OK -- Cain's Ballroom 2nd Stage

30 -- Dallas, TX -- House of Blues

OCTOBER

1 -- Houston, TX -- House of Blues

2 -- Austin, TX -- Austin City Limits Music Festival

6 -- St. Petersberg, FL -- State Theatre

7 -- Atlanta, GA -- Variety Playhouse

8 -- Columbia, SC -- Headliners Live

9 -- Norfolk, VA -- The NorVa

10 -- Philadelphia, PA -- The Trocadero Theatre

12 -- Washington D.C. -- 9:30 Club

15 -- New York, NY -- Webster Hall

17 -- Clifton Park, NY -- Nothern Lights

18 -- Montreal, Quebec -- LaTulipe

19 -- Toronto, Ontario -- Phoenix Concert Theatre

21 -- Columbus, OH -- Newport Music Hall

22 -- Pontian, MI -- Crofoot Ballroom

24 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Fine Line Music Cafe

28 -- Vancouver, B.C. -- Commodore Ballroom

29 -- Seattle, WA -- The Showbox

30 -- Boise, ID -- Knitting Factory

31 -- Portland, OR -- Roseland Theatre

NOVEMBER

2 -- San Francisco, CA -- The Fillmore

Collected Thoughts 06-16-09

• This week I'm driving back to Indiana for a wedding. I get back next Wednesday and jump right into teaching at a summer program. Hopefully that weekend I can sort-out some future writing ideas.
  
  I'm going to be contributing to a couple other sites. I'm hoping to do feature-type pieces instead of the CGT-styled music reviews. Any suggestions?
  

• I never mentioned my Friday night debacle a couple weeks ago. I was supposed to cover Gliss at The Roxy. The Henry Clay People's Rolling Stones cover set at Stories in Echo Park ran late, so myself, Web In Front's Travis Woods, and WIF's webmaster Kenzier Lemmons piled into Woods' car and flew down Sunset Blvd. towards West Hollywood.
  
  We got pulled over somewhere near Fairfax and ultimately the car was impounded. I'm pretty sure the LAPD officer had no right to impound the car based on the offenses. Buzzbands' Kevin Bronson, who did make it to see Gliss, came to our rescue and took us home. I tweeted a pic!
  
  I'm super-bummed I missed Gliss (again). One of these days... It also kept me from making it to The Fuxedoes record release at Spaceland.

• I caught Malcolm Sosa (Rademacher), Sarah Negahdari (Happy Hollows), and Andrew Lynch (Poor Excuses) at Stories the same weekend. All were marvelous. Stories has a really cool thing going on and they make a nice companion store to Origami, in a way. As someone who is thrilled to see the end of brick-and-mortar stores, both places have really impressed.

• I spent the bulk of that weekend with Sosa and Joe Fielder (who was in town), which is to say I spent the bulk of the weekend alternating between food and beer. It was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Sosa is the easiest man in the world to hang out with.

• I also got to hear some nuggets of the next Rademacher record. It's going to surprise folks. It's the toothiest stuff I've heard from them. I loved it.
  

• I am sad to have missed the Buzzbands show at The Echoplex last night. It sounds like it was outstanding.
  

• FMLY, a new-ish DIY warehouse space in LA, has a great blog going on.
  

• The Airborne Toxic Event's new "band on the road music video" looks like it could have been taken from when I was on tour with the band. It wasn't, but I swear I've seen all the same facial expressions, manerisms, and body language (on and off stage) a thousand times.
  

• I know The Fiery Furnaces unnerve a lot of people (His Bloggership included), but their new record is a really nice listen. It's closer to the KCRW sect.
  

• An Aquarium Drunkard tweeted this restaurant. Their menu makes me drool.

• I saw Up. A creepy old man with an assault conviction kidnaps a boyscout, flies an unlicensed aircraft through a major metro area post-9/11, then takes the abducted minor to South America, and then they fucking let the guy attend a boyscout ceremony when he comes back?! I call bullshit!

• Boing Boing has a rare recording of James Joyce.
  
  You've read Joyce's delightfully filthy love letters before, haven't you? The same man who wrote:
  
  "Frail the white rose and frail are
  Her hands that gave
  Whose soul is sere and paler
  Than time's wan wave.
  
  Rosefrail and fair -- yet frailest
  A wonder wild
  In gentle eyes thou veilest,
  My blueveined child."
  
  
  Also wrote:
  
  "At such moments I feel mad to do it in some filthy way, to feel your hot lecherous lips sucking away at me, to fuck between your two rosy-tipped bubbies, to come on your face and squirt it over your hot cheeks and eyes, to stick it between the cheeks of your rump and bugger you."

• File under "No Good Can Come of This". Have these men not read Michael Crichton novels?!
  

• Here's a great break-down of the Iranian election protests. Andrew Sullivan and The Lede Blog have been indispensible during this.
  
  It's exciting. Will Mousavi, if he comes to power, be just as terrible? Quite possibly. But this isn't about Mousavi, Ahmadinejad, The Supreme Leader, or the United States' relationship with the Iranian government. This is about the people of Iran who, given the choice between two possible evils, very much insist on their right to make that choice.
  
  Remember this. Remember which conservatives insisted on military action against "the Iranians" when you hear them now bemoan "the fate of the Iranian people". Note also which conservatives actually prefer Ahamdinejad because they value their skewed, black-and-white alternate reality over gray truth.
  
  It's been confounding to watch the news networks attempt coverage. They can't break it down to liberal vs. conservative. They don't have enough visual elements, barely any people on the ground, and the story can't be expressed through two screaming talking heads. CNN, Foxnews, and MSNBC have no fucking clue how to report on a news story like this, one that has the real textures and nuances of real life, and is being played-out in an isolated country and on the digital landscape.
  
  Is it a revolution yet? It's already a technological revolution. The real battle is over digital communications. The Iranian government is shutting down internet and cell phone networks left and right, and the only reason you and I know of these people's struggle is because of Twitter. The international hacking community are the mercs. In the analog, print-and-vinyl world of the 1970s we would not know the humanity of this struggle.
  
  This is why progress and advancement -- "the future" if you will -- are better than the past. The future will only get better and our technological capacity, mankind's ingenuitive brain paired with her compassionate heart, will only liberate us, all of us, in the end.
  

Something to Do

Collected Thoughts 06-13-09

• I saw Red Cortez last night. Touring with Moz and other road endeavors has really tightened that band. Still one of LA's finest.

• Swoon is becoming my favorite record of the year. I have new Fiery Furnaces and Sonic Youth to try-out, though.
  

• I know the "Waaves controversy" was eons ago in blogger time, but I wanted to point out that Drowned in Sound had perfect pitch on it.

• DoubleX had a nice piece on Vivian Girls.

• YANP had a nice Ted Leo demo. He's playing The Echo in August! So stoked!

• Fun new video from friends of CGT Yea Big + Kid Static:

• LA Taco trucks win a legal victory.

• There is no reason to get anything other than the carne asada tacos at the Logan truck north of Sunset.
  

• Ridley Scott is making a webseries set in his Blade Runner universe. This could be awesome or epic fail.

• I liked Marcus Nispel's Friday the 13th remake. He is a much better choice to direct Conan the Barbarian than Brett Ratner, though I still think the production has the wrong idea. It should be someone like Peter Weir.
  

• How Dick Cheney corrupted the Department of Justice.

• "Fox & Friends" is one of the worst things in American media. It simply promotes ignorance under the guise of folksiness. Their speculations and asides constantly and consistently misrepresent opinion as fact, and it is shows like "Fox & Friends" that help create an alternate perceived reality that leads to silly nonsense like tea parties held by people whose taxes were cut.
  
  The thing is, clowns like O'Reily, Beck, and Limbaugh get it. They're just cynical capitalists. But the Fox & Friends hosts seem to be geniune idiots, disconected idealogues who never learned critical thinking. It used to be "news" organizations rewarded sharp people.
  
  They're also hypocritical on sex. Why is Comedy Central the only media outlet with any shred of intellectual honesty?

• My general thought on the Prop 8 ruling was that, while unfortunate, the court made a sound legal decision and if they'd overturned Prop 8 the would have overstepped their role in government.
  
  Then I read this MLK Jr. quote and I felt differently:
  
  I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
  

• My Colts will be AOK. I knew all that drama was ESPN-hype nonsense.
  

• Planet Earth has a flag!
  

• John K's. (Ren & Stimpy creator) sketch blog
  

• Magazine-quality color digital readers in two years. This is the future.

• Israel is developing a robotic snake. No good can come of this.
  

• Weird.

POEM: "Southern California June"

A marine layer.
The marine laid her.
Marrying later.

The Future of CGT

I didn't move to LA to be a music blogger. If I were to rank all of the LA music bloggers out there, I'd put myself in the bottom half of the top 10, maybe. I moved to LA (nearly five years ago!) to work in the creative end of television and movies, something I'd still like to do.

I started this blog in 2007 in part to break myself out of writer's block. I wasn't working on my screenplay projects, but I was writing these long music reviews on my myspace profile, and it seemed that I should follow the word count trail. Writing CGT nearly every day has made me a better writer. And though that first year is (in my opinion) pretty poorly written, those older posts contain a really wonderful, fresh enthusiasm of someone discovering the excellent LA music scene for the first time.

And while "making a post" about a show I saw is easy, writing about that show, trying to convey something that is meaningful and engaging to the reader, has gotten harder in recent months. It has started to feel less like a passion and more like a chore.

My problem now is that blogging, when done properly, takes at least two hours of my day, or up to six hours if I go to a show that night and see every band. It adds up to a 12-30 hour a week hobby. Maintaining CGT in its current form has been taking a damaging toll on my personal and professional life. I need to scale back considerably, for myself.

I'll still be making "Collected Thoughts" posts and I'll still be seen around at shows from time to time. I will still offer some thoughts on Los Angeles-based music. I may also do some writing for some other local sites. But I can no longer obligate myself to covering music on a daily basis. I can't keep up with the record reviews, show reviews, interviews, and press release emails without sacrificing some broader goals I have in life.

Classical Geek Theatre was not intended to be just another LA music blog. From the beginning I conceived of it as a sort of home-base for my voice as a writer. That's still the case. CGT isn't shutting down, just entering a new phase. I have a deep amount of respect for you, the reader, and look forward to continuing the CGT broadcast in its truncated, more manageable form.

BROADCAST DELAY

No posting until Tuesday or Wednesday, probably. Thanks for your patience, follow me on Twitter!

Your Evening Plans!

Ho there Classical Geek Thespians! There is music afoot this eve!

If you're east of Western Blvd. this evening then you already have my endorsement of the The Fuxedoes show.

If you're feeling less abrasive (or in an all ages mood) then I might mention that considerably further west at The Roxy is an savvy bill of female-fronted acts: between the trendier sounds of discsoul all-girl trio Von Iva (San Fran) and singer/songwriter-styled Sick of Sarah (Minneapolis, MN) is Gliss, the apple of LA's shoegazing eye.

Kevin Bronson (Gliss' internet patron saint) has the goods on their bullet-riddled tour.

Tonight! Friday June 5th
Von Iva
Gliss
Sick of Sarah
Sabrossa Purr

The Roxy
9009 Sunset Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
All Ages
$12

Collected Thoughts 06-03-09

• I really like Mika Miko, but their new song and its video don't showcase what is great about the band at all. The song itself seems sluggish and unchallenging, the recording is flat and unabrasive, and the video displays none of the fury of a Mika Miko live performance. They're "so much fucking fun!" and that video is "just kinda cute".
  

• LA Weekly needs a new Editor in Chief. I have an idea.

• I can hardly contain my enthusiasm for Transformers 2.
  

• Brian Blessed as Odin! Thor is sounding better and better.

• Now that his last two films have sucked, Bryan Singer wants to come back to X-Men movies. Fuck you! That guy abandoned my beautiful X-Men franchise, left it in the hands of Brett fucking Ratner (who let Fox stick their hands up his ass and puppeted him around, throwing-in mutants without consideration), went and made a Superman movie instead (I hate Superman), and now he wants to come back?! I hope Bryan Singer has a career full of ridiculous eyepatched Tom Cruis box office bombs ahead of him. Ugh. May Crom curse his soul.

• Have any photo printed on a shower curtian.
  
  Here are my suggestions.
  

• I don't have very convicted beliefs in regards to abortion and I don't think CGT readers care to hear my thoughts on it anyway. But I think we can all agree that Dr. Tiller's murder was some grisly stuff. In a church?! Yikes. Who wrote the script for this, Frank Miller?
  
  Ann Friedman reports: "According to the National Abortion Federation, since 2000 abortion providers have reported 14 arsons, 78 death threats, 66 incidents of assault and battery, 117 anthrax threats, 128 bomb threats, 109 incidents of stalking, 541 acts of vandalism, one bombing, and one attempted murder."
  
  Oddly enough Fox News, The National Review, and The Weekly Standard have not been calling for the systematic arrest, indefinite detention, and waterboarding of radical evangelical domestic terrorists. Quite curious!

• Speaking of indefinite detention, me and Obama are in a fight.
  
  
• THE SINGULARITY IS NEAR:
  

• I'm sure they're over-selling that thing. But just the fact that Microsoft is working on it is incredibly exciting.

• Cyberankles.
  

• TEH FUTURE :
  

Pehrspace shut down over the weekend, moving some shows

Pehrspace, one of LA's great DIY venues, had an event shut down over the weekend. Ironically it was Hungry Beat, the indiepop dance night, that drew the noise complaint... on the same weekend that LA-Underground hosted a noisy punk night with mosh pit included. I don't for a minute believe that Hungry Beat was the noisier evening.

This is the first time Pehr has had a night shut down. To protect the space they'll be moving week night shows to other locations and keeping things extra cool on weekends until this all blows over.

Pehrspace is a very important part of the local music community and it is important during this time to show cooperation and support to the venue and its neighbors. "Walking distance from Pehrspace" was a big selling point for me when I moved into my current appartment and most of the Los Angeles readers of this blog have fond memories from Pehrspace shows. The good news is that Pehrspace's managers are very professional, responsible people and I am sure they will soldier through this.

That said, next time you go to Pehrspace, help to keep the doors closed and the parking lot noise quiet. An angry or fearful "Fight the power!" kind of approach isn't really necessary. Maybe it's the Hoosier in me, but I think the best solution (the one Pehrspace seems to be employing) is to take it upon ourselves to be better neighbors.

Official statement from Pehrspace:

Pehrspace has been receiving noise complaints from neighbors these past few weeks and Officer Ford (via Eric Garcetti's office) visited us last Friday to give us a very polite, but stern, warning about controlling our sound levels for our shows. With the addition of L'Keg to the neighborhood (we welcome the company!), our neighbors are experiencing a new wave of sound intrusion into their homes and extra people in the streets so their patience is probably wearing as thin as it did when we first opened three years ago.

Pehrspace experienced our first police shutdown this past weekend (sorry Officer Ford) and, a few weeks back, one of our promoters received a complaint directly from a neighbor during one of our weekday shows. As a result, we will be relocating all of our weekday shows to other spaces with the same DIY mindset and outside promoters will no longer be able to host events at the space unless one of us directly associated with pehrspace is present that particular night. This will take effect immediately and last until our neighborhood status is in good standing once again. Sean Carnage has received several offers to relocate his Monday night show. He will be at Women (1852 Crenshaw Blvd.) tonight.

We will continue to host shows and events on Fridays and Saturdays with heightened awareness for noise levels in the parking lot and within the space. Recently, both L'Keg and Pehrspace have been working with Eric Garcetti's office to obtain permits for future (and sorta exciting) big events so we are asking our contacts at the office how to ameliorate our neighbors' view of the spaces. Just ONE more noise complaint can shut us down.

Officer Ford has noted and appreciated our efforts to soundproof pehrspace and it works really well, but absolute soundproofing isn't effective when our doors are left open or if the music is unusually loud during a performance. We have also been pretty laidback about parking lot/outside noise and this may have added to our neighbors' annoyance.

Please, if you or your friends attend any shows at both venues, be aware of your noise levels when walking through the neighborhood and when you're outside of our spaces. It's simple, respect our neighbors. If you notice any wild behavior, let us know and we'll take care of the situation. We really enjoy the spirit of our events and the community that we've built together throughout the years--it would be a shame to have to stop because of those few who lack awareness and respect for others.

Thanks,
Pehrspace

CGT Dance Card June 2009

TONIGHT! Tuesday, June 2nd

The Movies ramp-up production as a three piece again. (The grape vine whispers that Timothy James, Jessica Cove Gelt, and the band's old drummer are playing.) Seasons and Manhattan Murder Mystery play key supporting roles. Sounds like an award winner. I have a personal engagement, but man I wish I didn't. Bordello. $3.



Thursday, June 4th

Fol Chen and Karin Tatoyan play The Echo. I saw the two play together not long ago and it was one of the better shows of the year. And of course, Wait. Think. Fast. makes gorgeous music. 18+ $7.


Friday, June 5th

The Fuxedos celebrate the release of their new record at Spaceland. This is appointment music, folks. It's like a live-action Ren & Stimpy show. $8.



Monday, June 8th

Buzz Bands twittered that Oliver Future was playing all-new stuff at their Echo Monday residency last night. I'll see for myself next week. FREE.


Tuesday, June 9th

Grizzly Owls play the Silverlake Lounge. I got the new record, haven't listened yet... make that a weekend project. $8.


Friday, June 12th

Love is All were outstanding at Part Time Punks Fest last fall. But $16 to see them at The Echoplex again? Mmm... maybe.


Wednesday, June 17th

I'm driving across the country. Again. I have a wedding in Muncie, IN to attend and since several other fellow Hoosiers in LA are going, we're driving to save money. We're not driving my car this time, thank Crom. I'll be driving the midnight shift through the cursed Utah abyss though. Here's hoping the dark alien gods are lazy and leave me alone.


Friday, June 19th

I'll be in Muncie at this point but if I were in LA I'd be headed to Spaceland for the Mere Mortals record release. Spacey brit-pop, crazy Japanese bassist, etc. Black Kites, whom I like, are also on the bill. Darren Rivell, formerly of Indie 103.1's excellent "Big Sonic Heaven" show, DJs all night. $8.


Saturday, June 20th

HolyfuckingshitIcan'tbelieveIhavetomissthis.

Seasons, The Mae Shi, and Blue Jungle all on the same bill... at Mr. T's Bowl?! Is that correct? It's on the Mr. T's website but I can't confirm it. (Blue Jungle's myspace page refers to it as "Critical Mass," though. Heh.) Mr. T's calendar also lists Local Natives on the bill, but they're in San Diego that night.


Monday, June 22nd

I caught the Castledoor Spaceland residency last night and had a blast. I won't be able to make it a second night (will be somewhere in Kansas on the return trip, I reckon), but I recommend that you do and this would be the night I would tell you to go. FREE.


Monday, June 28th

I'm really excited to see Baltimore's Double Dagger at Sean Carnage night. The show was originally scheduled to be at Pehrspace but I suspect it will be moved, probably to Women (1852 Crenshaw). $5.


Tuesday, June 30th

The Strange Boys come back in town. Cowpunk doesn't get much better. At the Echo. 18+ $7.

Set Above the Rest May 2009

The nerfing of my automobile really hampered my show-going this month. Most of the best music I saw was garagey.


Set Above the Rest May 2009

1. Shirley Rolls @ Mr. T's Bowl 05-27-09 (review forthcoming)
2. The Monolators @ Echo Curio 05-04-09 (review)
3. The World Record @ Spaceland 05-15-09 (review)
4. Downtown / Union @ Mr. T's Bowl 05-27-09 (review forthcoming)
5. Avi Buffalo @ The Echo 05-26-09 (review forthcoming)

"Eastside of LA"

The LA Times has a fun piece on the use of "Eastside" to describe Echo Park / Silverlake areas.

The folks representing the "true" Eastside have harassed CGT in the comment sections in the past and I've paid them no heed. Neighborhood beefs and turf wars are small-minded and silly. It reminds me of when I was in high school and the "Class of '99" felt they needed to protect their identity from my "Class of 2000". These kinds of things are always self-manufactured wars of identity waged by insecure people who need a contrived structure to measure themselves against others.

("Oh hey, Mouse? Like LA vs. Brooklyn bands? Or Colts vs Patriots?" Quiet you!)

The "Eastside war" is really about ethnic tension, tension that is absolutely unnecessary.

I take issue with the poet in that piece who feels he needs to "fight back" against people like me. It's just silly. Neighborhoods have evolving history. People wanting to maintain the history of their neighborhood are noble. People fighting to maintain the status quo of their neighborhood are ignoring the fact that their neighborhood was something else before they lived there, too.

Somewhere the spirit of a Tongva tribal chief is thinking "I wish those Chicanos would get off my East LA land!" And if it weren't for gentrification of the Mid-Wilshire area then the people of Boyle Heights wouldn't be speaking Spanish, they'd still be speaking Yiddish. Were it not for FDR they might be speaking Japanese. Demography always evolves.

As does language. Language is flexible, not specific, and no word is ever what it has always been. Words and phrases, and their meanings, change. They can also have multiple definitions.

I use "Eastside of LA" to describe Echo Park / Silverlake because that is what it means -- in the context of a Los Angeles music blog. In that context it means something separate (but related by industry) from the Hollywood and Sunset Strip scenes. For the purposes of the LA music industry, Western Blvd. is the dividing line. The local music context for "Eastside of LA" in no way infringes on the historical geographic context of the phrase, and to suggest as much is absurd.

I find the poem at the end of that LA Times piece mildly offensive. "Colonization?" Pardon me, but I think we're all Americans here. To draw a parallel between my moving into a neighborhood -- as a free person to live amongst other free persons -- with the systematic elimination of native peoples is intellectually dishonest. I guess an Irish-American just can't catch a break in this town. (See how silly that sounds?)

There is no reason the poet in that piece can't appreciate an indie rock band that just moved to Echo Park, and there is no reason an indie rock band that just moved to Echo Park can't appreciate "true" Eastside slam poetry. They're both artists! That one group of people and artists wants to wage "war" against another is not only ludicrous, but contrary to the human benefit art grants us.

Calling Echo Park / Silverlake "the Eastside" doesn't challenge the identity of anybody.

In 2009 there are two real wars, a recession, a president who thinks he can detain people indefinitely, a socio-economic system that depends on illegal citizens while simultaneously rejecting them, millions of uninsured Americans, a California government that denies marriage equality to its citizens... and East LA's activist poets are concerned with a neighborhood turf war? Seriously? What a load of shit.

Here's an idea: forget about who gets to claim the name and put-on a set of events, one on each "Eastside," where artists from both areas can share their art and exchange ideas about things that really matter. (See the above paragraph) Bring-in the taco trucks, slam poets, whiteboy indie rock bands, and maybe even get Canter's Deli to come back to the Eastside to cater. Call it Eastside Unity Day or whatever. I'd be a lot more beneficial to the City of Angels than this utter nonsense.