Coachella is coming in April and I'm pretty sure I'll be there. Anyone else going and maybe want to get a house out there??

Another Eurythmics Video from the VHS recording. This is a high quality tape, recorded on my super awesome VCR from back in the day and yet it still looks pretty bad, especially when it's compressed to fit here on the web. Same thing with standard def. TV these days. I almost can't watch something if it isn't HD. Spoiled, all of us. Anyway.... Another video:

Somebody brought up the Eurythmics the other day and I forgot how much I liked them and how great they were. I bought a bootlegged VHS tape of their greatest hits videos a LONG time ago. It was at some CD store and the kid working had taped it off a Japanese import laserdisc he had. I had to pay $20 for it ( alot of $ for me back then) but I couldn't figure out any other way to get it so... Anyway, totally worth it.

Pause the song over on the right hand side, and watch the video if you want. Sort of silly and over the top video, but it's sort of charming too and Annie Lenox just makes things work.

The Great Michael Jackson

I know it's been a few months but it still feels like the world is missing him. Couple things:

1 - The song playing right now on this page is a Jackson 5 song that I never really heard much but is one of my favorite songs in the world right now. Little Michael belting out that chorus is GORGEOUS. Not sure why this song isn't more well known. Anyway, it's good stuff.

2 - I'm going to see THIS IS IT. I don't expect it to be a masterpiece or anything, but I'm guessing that there's at least a few 'wow. this guy was an amazing genius freak' moments in it.

Anybody want to go to the movies?

Google Reader

For those of you who read this and don't use Google Reader, you should. It's brilliant and if you are a heavy blog reader, saves you hours each week and reminds you to check blogs that you may sometimes forget about (like mine)

If you have a gmail account you just click on Reader at the top of the page. If you don't have one, you can still sign up for it. It allows you to add any page that gets updated and then you just login to your reader, can read every single one of your blogs that you are following and then be on your way. Anytime there's a new posting, it shows up. It's brilliant.

In other news, umm went to Down n Derby last night at the Echoplex. Tons o fun. roller skating in a nightclub with great tunes and cool people.
Going to AZ next week for a few days.
Getting a new roommate.
That's it for now.

Here is an interesting quote from Brian Eno. Great musician from the 70's and collaborator with David Byrne and U2. He has also created some app for the iPhone that is supposed to be pretty cool. Anyway the quote is below. It's from a year of his diary published about 10 yrs ago. But it's out of print and costs over $100 to buy it now. He is also coming to CSU Long Beach in a few months and would love to go , but THAT costs $100 to see him speak. Man, just cause he's smart does he have to be expensive too?

One suggestion is that the whole basis of human specialness is our ability to cooperate — and to cooperate you have to be able to imagine what it would be like to hold another picture of the world. You’re unable to cooperate unless you can be mentally in at least two worlds at once — your own and that of the person with whom you’re working. The failure to grasp other pictures of the world is what we call autism, and in its extreme from is something we regard as a sever dysfunction. Well, all animals are by our standards relatively autistic — unable to see into each other’s minds, lacking empathy.

So how do we develop this ability to experience and speculate about other ways of thinking and feeling about the world? I think we do it by continually immersing ourselves in cultural experiences that rehearse us. This is obvious in films and novels — where we quite explicitly enter an imagined world and then watch imaginary quandaries. In doing so we develop a lot of surrogate experience about what it is like to be someone else, somewhere else, with different assumptions.

Something cool to think about when creating or viewing any type of artistic project, be it music, movies, paintings, books etc. Hopefully most art can be entertainment AND something to take you outside of your life for awhile.

Also, put a new song over on the right hand side. It mentions Michael Jackson and Joe Jackson in it so maybe that's why I thought of it again. (lots of death in the celebsphere these days, right? farrah, mcmahon, MJ etc. You think there really are more deaths or have we just created more celebrities and therefore have more of them to pass away?

Anyway, saw Keri Hilson perform this on David Letterman and it was great.

http://www.thedailytube.com/video/17693/keri-hilson-ft-kanye-west---knock-you-down-live-on-late-show-with-david-letterman

It's worth watching. Dave was overwhelmed with Keri and the performance and I totally agree. Everyone has their favorites; some it's Conan, some it's Kimmel, some (no idea why, but) it's Leno, but for me Dave is by far the classiest and most interesting talk show host. He seems really honest and has REALLY good taste. Love that he's a pretty old dude and still blown away by a young hot musician like Keri.

Anyway, this performance and song really work for me. I think I might be crushing a bit.

Happy summer everyone.

Saw the movie UP last night. Had no real idea what it was about and wasn't THAT excited to see it initially, but was blown away. Pixar is a fascinating company in that they seem incapable of producing a crappy movie.

The animation is gorgeous, the story is always good, it always makes me laugh out loud a few times, even the music is amazing. Ended up being very pleasantly surprised. I think the only other animated films that come close for me are Miyazaki and they are much different. Anyway, if you haven't, go see Up.

Decided last minute to go to Coachella yesterday. Here is a summary of what happened.

First, we got there and the parking was actually very close. Easy to get to, parking lot watered down to avoid dust and friendly people working the lines. They also passed out free earplugs, had lots of food options and water was only $2/bottle.
First we saw a few songs by Friendly Fires. They sounded pretty tight, had good energy and were fun. Then hit the DJ tent and danced a little to Shepard Fairey (decent) and Busy P (better)

Then went over and saw Brian Jonestown Massacre. VERY solid. I'd never seen them live and was impressed. Great, bluesy early Rolling Stones type stuff. I was neither here nor there on them before, but seeing them live won me over. No meltdowns, tight songs, fun crowd.

Next up was YeahYeahYeahs. They were amazing. Karen O is a FULL ON ROCK STAR. Came out with gold dress and gold sparkly stuff with some turquoise tights and her signature bangs. They played a lot off this recent album (which could be the best album of the year. Seriously. It's Blitz) and were the band playing as the sun went down. It's so dramatic being out there in the heat and then having the sun slowly set behind the palm trees and the temperature dropping about 15 degrees almost instantly. Very physical experience. So yeah, they were GREAT.

Then came My Bloody Valentine. I loved it. They played tons of stuff off of Loveless, which was one of the defining albums of the early 90's. Lots of swirling guitars, softly mixed vocals and loud, tremolo guitar. The last song contained a 15 minute feedback section. It was literally the same chord played over and over with a constant, insane drumbeat the whole time. One of the loudest things I have ever heard in my life. It was literally just a giant wall of noise. A lot of people hated it (and they have a right to, it was literally punishing to the audience), but I was fascinated. It went past the point of interesting and it became communal with everyone looking around at each other trying to figure out what was going on. You couldn't talk cause you couldn't hear ANYTHING over the sound, but you all were going through the same thing. It finally ended and they went off stage. Pretty fascinating.

Then the closers... THE CURE!
First time I had seen them live and they were awesome. Robert Smith looked and sounded great. It was a simple 4 piece setup with 2 guitars, drum and bass. No keyboards, few sequencers, no frills. Just straight ahead rock n roll sort of. Different than I expected, but really lean and tight.
Lots of deep tracks from all kinds of albums. Disintegration, Kiss Me..., Pornography, etc etc.
Then they came back for their encore and Robert said that they were going to play until we went home. Then they played a couple encores with old stuff like The Kiss, Forest, etc. and then after Fire in Cairo, they cut the main PA system and all the video monitors. Luckily we were only about 4 rows back and the band kept playing just through their amps. So could still hear Simon's drums and bass and guitars. They were playing Boys Don't Cry so the crowd just filled in all the lyrics for Robert. Then they started into Jumping Someone Else's Train. They literally were not going to stop until we went home!
After that, they had to turn their amps off. I can understand Coachella wanting to wrap it up, but way to go Cure for playing until the last absolute minute. They tried to get us to sing along to another one without any vocals or amps, but nobody could hear anything at all, so they finally had to leave the stage. Freakin' Rock n Roll thing to do. They looked good, played really tight, grabbed from all over their catalog and played until "the man" said they couldnt play anymore and then STILL played some more.

Overall, a well run festival, great bands and I will go back next year for sure. Wow.

Should I just realize what I am and be happy with a monthly blog post? Maybe.
Anyway, here is some random stuff that happened in March and April:

The picture above is an art show we went to on Melrose. Ruel designed a toy for it. But a really cool toy and a really cool opening. We had fun. I bought a little zipper pull when I was there.

My nephew named him "Strawley" Pretty good name I have to admit. Also went to Disneyland, AZ twice, bought a new Guitar Amp, New camera, did some cool photo shoots and worked a lot.

Also, there is some great music out there right now. The song playing at the moment is ZERO by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Their whole album, It's Blitz, is great. Also, Doves came out with a new album called Kingdom of Rust. It's another brilliant album from beginning to end. Lots of good music in the world still.

See you in a month.

Just got back from a busy weekend in Arizona.
Hit a spring training game in PHX on Thur, went to Alice Cooperstown for a pulled pork sandwich and then rode the new light rail over to my sister's house in Tempe. It worked quite well and was a clean, quick trip. Not a ton of riders, but hopefully it picks up. Nice to see PHX with a halfway decent public transportation system.


Then on Friday, had a mtg with Rachel to plan out a shoot sometime soon. Seems cool and like she'll be a good model. I think we'll do some good stuff soon. Had a Coyote screening on Fri night. good crowd, good response and some cast members there as well. Went out Fri night. Me, Brett, Brian and Laura and Jenna. Hanging out with laura after all these years. Who knew?
Saturday had Derin and Keeley's reception. Good food, good times and a good couple. Then off to another screening of the movie at The Screening Room. Saw more good friends there from years ago and then hit Desert Diamond where I was exhausted, but made some good spending money for the trip. Winning money is fun.



Sunday we hit another Spring Training game in Scottsdale and made our way back to L.A. I think other people have photos that I'll post eventually, but for now you'll have to imagine it in your mind.


Here is a link to a new UK girl called LaRoux. It's a very 80's feel to it and there is something fascinating about this girl. I think she may make it pretty big. Cool song with sort of a cheesy yet brilliant video, but worth watching.

LaRoux - Quicksand

Detroit and Beeps

So I got back from Detroit almost 2 weeks ago and it's a brilliant city. Granted there are tons of burnt out, abandoned houses and I'm sure there are really dangerous parts of town, but there is a blue collar ethic about it that I really like. Met tons of cool people, some cool architecture, it's close to Canada, GREAT radio stations and there are SOOOO many great music acts who were/are based in Detroit.
Check out this list and it will seriously blow your mind:
Stevie Wonder
Parliament
Gladys Knight
Suzi Quatro
Alice Cooper
John Lee Hooker
Iggy Pop and the Stooges
Brendan Benson
The White Stripes
Aretha Franklin
Eminem
Kid Rock

and Techno was basically born in Detroit with Juan Atkins, Derrick May etc. Even Madonna was born and grew up in Michigan.

Anyway, it's pretty impressive. Hopefully I'll be spending a few months there end of this year, but more on that later. In the meantime, here's some pics above (and the new song, which has nothing to do with Detroit. It's Architecture in Helsinki and they're from Australia, but it's still a catchy tune)

QUick update to tell you that I have been watching American Idol proudly and loving it. Great television. Although Emily, the girl who I thought might win it all got booted before the final 36. She was the bleached blond tatted rocker chick who sang Barracuda. One of my favorite songs of all time and she nailed it.

But when she got to Hollywood, she panicked at the last second and sang some lame No Doubt song (not that NoDoubt is lame, but it doesn't really show off your vocal skills) and then forgot the words the next day and didnt sound all that hot. Sad, but she's gone. A few other favorites disappeared as well. It's too tough to keep track of them until they hit the final group. So when it gets down to the final 36 I'll prob post a lit of my favorites and of the people that I HATE. Oh, I know some people don't like him, but that Norman Gentle guy is a freak and I am diggin that character he's got going on. Fascinating. Oh, and why doesn't Ryan do "Seacrest... Out" anymore?

OK. First, go to the right and pause the music that is playing. You will need both your ears and eyes for this.
I found this video and I think it existed before and was just edited for this Justin Faust guy's song. It's short and brilliant. I immediately discovered 3 things:

1 - it's impossible to watch it without feeling really happy all of a sudden and
2 - it's impossible to watch it only once
3 - that i SORELY want some of those wardrobe pieces



Justin Faust EP Sneak Peek from Justin Faust on Vimeo.

Here is a picture of Juliette Commagere. We saw her play at the Troubadour about 3 weeks ago. I have been following her music for about 3 years now and she is amazing. gorgeous girl, amazing voice and her new songs are big, epic, cinematic numbers. I've had a prety big crush on her since I first heard her voice. But she's dating her brilliant drummer from Hello Stranger days.

The show was great and I highly recommend checking out her Myspace page. The song playing right now is just HUGE and almost brings tears to your eyes if you're in the right state of mind.
Juliette's page

And speaking of playing, our band is playing another show this Friday at the Cat Club. We've got a new/old song that is added to the set. Its actually an old toughskins song from the college days and we've just changed it around, updated it and made it even harder than before. Should be a really fun show. Will post some more photos hopefully.
Also have some news about the house here at Albright that is pretty crazy, but will wait to post that info.

OK. This is the moment that I seriously step up my blog writing, both quality and quantity. The reason being that I am going to post one of the BEST television news interviews EVER. I know that sounds excessive and exaggerated, but it is totally true. I happened to see it on the news one day while fixing some fresh salad and pasta and started laughing out loud. Some woman was found dead in her home after a long time. Apparently her son knew about it and met cops there knowing the dead body was in the back of the house rotting. There were cats and garbage everywhere. Pretty crazy story. As soon as I saw it I had to record it on our DVR.

The thing is, when you watch it the second time, it's even funnier, I promise. You'll want to pause the song in the player on the right so you can hear it. Go ahead.... I'll wait. OK. Now hit PLAY




Most people say they never saw it coming whenever there is a murder or death in their neighborhood, but not Henry Foster. It didn't surprise him...

Send this link on and share it. It's brought me tons of joy over the last few weeks. Keep checking in every once in awhile for more good stuff on this blog. I'm also going to be giving away prizes every once in awhile for people that can answer questions so add it to your Google reader or other RSS feed thing. Happy Holidays and we'll see you back real soon.

Here is a picture of the latest Cerasoli/LeBasse gallery opening.
Cool group show of about a dozen different artists and then a solo room by an artist named Evan Harris. Good stuff, but nothing that really clicked hardcore with me. The space is great though and Evan Cerasoli was DJing strictly 80's tunes. A little Cult, Eddy Grant, Depeche Mode etc etc.

Whenever I hit art openings I feel the need to make more money to buy more cool original art. Taryn went with me and really liked it. She almost walked out with a couple of paintings I think, but will find something there at another show soon I'm sure.

Also, for some reason the current song popped into my head and had to add it for anyone that checks in here every once in awhile. I've always loved this song for some reason. Pretty silly, but those nice warm chords and that heavy Miami Bass beat with some nice vocals are a pretty deadly mix. Ghost Town DJ's BROUGHT IT HARD on this one.

OK. can't figure out to make the heater work so my feet are freezing and its time to hop under the down comforter.

Here is another couple pictures. one from chicago in front of the city offices and the big Christmas tree and the other backstage at the Mint from a show we played the other night. Chicago was cold and snowy. I think it's a cool city but I've never spent THAT much time there. It's sort of like New York except not nearly as exciting and also a little more 'real'. So it's good and bad. Not as much constant stimulation but also not as much constant stimulation.

The show was also good and bad. It was good cause we had a blast and are more relaxed and having more fun than we have. Each show gets more fun and we sound a little tighter. But we also played in front of maybe a couple dozen people and went on at about 12:45 on a Tuesday night. Pretty empty and quiet but fun stuff. In the spirit of music and life on stage etc. I changed the song today to Feel Flows. It is used a couple times in ALMOST FAMOUS and is a really cool song in most parts. That movie is definitely a top 10 for me. Cameron Crowe is a brilliant director and that movie is his own story, which always makes for a good movie. There are parts that almost bring tears to your eyes, not because they are so earth moving or incredible but just so well done and realistic and .... just real. If you haven't seen it, go check it out. If you have, see it again. I could watch it almost every night and love it more every time.

Ok. Posting from my blackberry on here for the first time. Here is a picture of the socks discussed below.
I'm in the chicago airport and sitting next to some guy that literally makes me ill. He is about 40 and reall swarthy looking. He has on some hip shoes with orange stitching and some socks with little birds on them. He's got his powerbook and his iphone and his blackberry all out on his lap and is going through his facebook pictures.
Oh, he is also on his way to miami and smells strongly of alcohol and gauthier cologne. A really sweet sickly smell just a small step above vomit. And of course he was the last one to get on the plane. Just sitting there with everyone else boarding. DOUCHEBAG. I should have found his profile on facebook to post how douche-y the guy was.
The thing is, I worry that I'm going to end up like him or maybe already am. He's obviously single and considers himself a 'cool' guy and party boy. I mean, I would never wear those idiotic socks or smell so raunchy but other than that.. Anyway, I really don't think I am as trashy and I sure hope people don't see me that way. I need to go throw up.
Secret pony show tonight in L.A. Let u know how it goes soon.

OK. The Pony has gone it's first ride and it was a good one. The Cat Club is on the Sunset Strip. Slim Jim Phantom owns the place. He was the drummer for the Stray Cats and has a small club there. GREAT place for our first show. The crowd was great, the songs were tight and we had a total blast. We opened for a band that had guys from Guns n Roses, Jellyfish, Joey Ramone band, Billy Idol's band. They are all BRILLIANT musicians and their set right after ours was a lot of fun. A cover or Don't Stop Believin' that was mind blowing.


We've still got a long way to go to get to the point they were at, but we had a quick 25 minute set that was more fun than we thought. It's amazing how fast stuff goes. You get up there and sort of forget what notes, songs, lyrics etc you're even playing. You just let your mind sort of get to it and time flies by.
We're playing again at The Good Hurt Dec 11th and if anybody is here in L.A. let me know and we'll get you on the list to check it out. We've got even another song that's in the works so if you came last time, come again. If you missed it the first time, make sure you come this time. You'd hate to miss out on this much fun. www.myspace.com/theponyrunswild

We just got fiOS internet from verizon which is supposed to be really speedy, but it's CRAWLING along today so I'm not going to upload any photos on this posting. I have yet to find an internet service that is worth what they charge for it. Anyway...

-Pony pictures coming soon from last performance. We're playing again Dec 11th at Good Hurt so if you're around west LA area, plan on checking it out.

-The fires are mostly out. It was REALLY smoky and ashy for a couple days there. All the cars are dirty, lots of coughing and hazy skies and smelly air. Lots of big homes burned to the ground. Happens every year. I guess L.A.'s way of keeping population down?

-Saw Slumdog Millionaire the other night. Brilliant movie. It's in very limited release but will go wider I'm sure and will be at a theater near you sometime soon. It's another Danny Boyle masterpiece with lots of action, some great touching moments and a cool story. There's a funny moment at the end where both Sarah and I thought something different was going to happen and we were both wrong. If you see it, let me know if the same thing happened for you.

K. More postings with photos soon when the internet speeds up a bit.

Well, I never got around to writing about the Ft Collins festival OR posting a song by Paper Bird (A BRILLIANT BAND from Denver. go to their myspace page and listen to a song or two since I haven't posted one. -http://www.myspace.com/paperthebird )
And I didn't post pics from the Tour deFat, the event that convinced me to start riding my bike a lot (which I have), but sometime soon it will happen

In the meantime here is a pic from the Ft Lauderdale Film Festival. This was a Sunday morning brunch cruise. John Ratzenberger accomodated us with a group photo. Nice guy and very funny in real life, not just as Cliff. He was complimnetary about Coyote too, which was cool. After an interesting cruise and other stuff that sort of drove us crazy, everyone left except me. I then went down to Miami to chill in South Beach for a couple days. Weather was great, got to hang with some friends there and get a little color before Fall/Winter show up (assuming they ever make it this year). I guess that's it for now.

I am going to post more about the recent Ft Collins trip cause it really was a pretty cool experience, but am waiting to upload a song or two from one of my new favorite bands from Denver. It will be a good posting though and you'll be glad you waited for it.

In the meantime, we're looking for a roommate here. Empty room just sucking cash right now. Also trying to stay alive with some strange sort of allergies. I sneeze about 80 times a day. Never had this happen before that I can remember. If there is never another posting, you'll know that I died from allergies. In the meantime, here is an epic song about rock n roll. Remember, a really cool post is coming soon.

Yeah, yeah. I know. It;s been awhile, but you know.... Olympics and stuff.
So here's another grab bag:

-new song is from Viva La Vida. Everybody has heard the singles and this isn't one yet I don't think, so I posted it. It's really mainstream and everybody knows about it, I recommend picking it up. Those guys write great songs. Last time I was in Denver I had XM radio in my rental car and it had a station alled '30 days of coldplay' that played nothing but. And I'm not a HUGE fan, but with the hundreds of stations on XM it was actually one that I listened to the most probably.

-Just got back from Vegas. We had the Fantasy Football Draft. Pretty nerdy thing, but it's definitely a male bonding event that has been a tradition now for close to a decade. Pretty fun group of guys and fun event. There's always talk of how the league is dying and questions of how long it will go on. And I think it may go on for awhile. Here's a couple pics:








You can click on them to make them bigger if you want. By the way, my mustache is gone. It was something different for awhile, but hey if I get enough positive comments (unlikely) I'm always open to bringing it back.







-Heading to Fort Collins, CO tomorrow morning. Coyote is the opening night film followed by a "GALA". Never been to Fort Collins, but 7 of us from cast and crew will be going so it should be fun. Will write a follow up summary when get back. Cheers.

Back to my MBA days, I am posting a bullet point entry today.

- Just got back from Denver. It gets HOT there in the summer. Nice place though. I might even visit again sometime soon.

-The Dark Knight (as everyone in the world already knows) was spectacular. Well written, hit on some pretty heavy themes that apply to today's world, great acting and amazing direction. If Nolan doesn't get nominated for Best Director for the Oscars, I will be very very surprised.

-The Weepies are a great little band. Music that makes me nostalgic for something, although I'm not sure what. beautiful songs, a GORGEOUS voice and a really cool feel. Mike Warner entered a contest to make the video for their latest single and won. It's a great song and really cute video. I'm not big on posting video clip links, but this is worth 3 minutes of your day.
SEE IT HERE

-I am thinking of starting a podcast. It would be more interesting than this current blog, I would update it more and I could introduce some more songs that i am really liking. Would anyone download if I did a weekly or biweekly podcast? lv some comments and let me know.