Have I mentioned how much I love love love the fog?  San Francisco’s Indian summer fog has arrived, and not a moment too soon.  It’s half the reason I live where I live.

Damn, Gina… I haven’t posted anything on here in over a month!  What can I say?  I go through spells of not having anything interesting to share (assuming I ever do).  It’s not that I haven’t been busy.  If anything, maybe too busy.  I figured I ought to at least check in with you, though.

Been to a bunch of great shows and events the last month or two.  Crowded House at the Warfield, The Blasters, Reverend Horton Heat’s 25th anniversary show at The Fillmore (filmed for a DVD), Wicked with Shel, Conan O’Brien live, disco dancing in stretchy gold bell-bottoms and white platforms, and Phantom Of The Paradise (spawning a minor obsession).  Had a couple of fun TCB shows in San Jose and Sacramento, where we got to debut “The Draize Train” and I got to go all guitar hero.  Got on a go-kart for the first time in over a decade, which was way more fun than I expected.  Got hit with a nasty computer virus (which I’m normally ultra-vigilant about).  There may have been more exciting events of note.  What am I forgetting?

Oh, and I finally finished watching the full Brisco County, Jr. series I remember from my youth.  Such a good show!  Such a tragedy it was only around one season (1993/94).  A quirky, sci-fi western with the incomparable Bruce Campbell, the late Julius Carry (a.k.a. Sho’nuff), and the delicious Kelly Rutherford… all written by the guy who went on to produce “Lost.”  I’m not a big DVD watcher, so this was an accomplishment for me.  Let me know if you want to borrow it.  😉

Coming up, I’ve got a few weddings to go to, including one this weekend.  Friends which also happen to be exes.  By this time next month, the clear majority of my exes will be married, if the hitched don’t already make up the majority.  It’s too depressing to do the math, but I’m pretty sure.  They’re all breeding too, or will be soon.  Good for them.  I won’t lie… it does make me feel behind the curve a bit.  I am now older than my dad was when I myself, the youngest, was born.  I’m used to feeling, frankly, more mature than most people my age (which could be horsefeathers, but hey, it’s how I feel).  Settling down is the one area where I sometimes wonder if I’m missing out on something essential.  I know there’s no “right” answer or path I have to take in life, but did I somehow fall behind my peers here?  Do they all know something I don’t know?  Or is it vice versa?  Much to ponder.

In lighter news, I’m also going to clean out my storage unit once and for all this weekend.  That means a pile of dusty crap on my living room floor for a few weeks while I sort it all out, but I think I’ve at least got a plan now.  If you have little ones who might be in the market for free toys from the 80’s and early 90’s, be sure to let me know.  It’s almost all gonna be up for giveaway.

Lots of stuff on the horizon.  TCB has a few shows in central CA in October, starting out on the tropical shores of Bakersfield (10/15) and ending in giddy Fresno (10/16).  By then, I should have my new signature guitar picks in use, woo hoo!  Then November will mark TCB’s 5th anniversary!  There’s a good chance we’ll be doing something in SF to celebrate that, so stay tuned.  I think I’ll need to write something about that, you know, looking back on the last five years and all.  And if all that weren’t enough, I’ve started playing with a few different original bands — one on the Smiths side of things, the other a rockabilly band — so we’ll see where those go.

OK, I think we’re sufficiently caught up.  Onward and upward…

Watching: “The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.“

[amtap amazon:asin=B000F7CMPE]

I’m freshly returned from my first ever trip to Charlotte, NC.  A business trip.  Was it high on my wish list of travel destinations?  Of course not, but it was a welcome diversion… and perhaps more importantly, it was an ideal next step in expanding my comfort zone.  This was a five-hour flight, after all.

I’ll confess to a certain reticence concerning the South, and spying a large Nascar store in the airport as soon as I walked off the plane didn’t help.  (In fact, I was later to find that a Nascar-branded skyscraper was visible from my hotel room!)  I grabbed a cab and headed towards downtown.  It wasn’t long before I was experiencing first hand the heat and humidity that was to define my whole trip.  Near triple-digit temperatures and the crushing moist air made me wish I had brought my business casual shorts and sandals.  The good news is that I was in air conditioning more often than not during my 3+ days in town.

I don’t mean to sound negative though.  Aside from the weather and the almost comical lack of vegetarian food options (even the upscale Asian place served no tofu nor much of anything else veggie apart from a side of noodles), the trip was really valuable.  Not least because I found it all very inspiring.  Not just the change of scenery but even the general experience of travelling.  It really seems to get the creative juices flowing, or at least it does for me.  I remember my consulting days were rich in that department.

Christ, why don’t I do more travelling on my own time?  It’s exciting, that getting up early on the day of your flight, the nerves as you pack up and leave the house, that walk through the airport parking lot, all leading up to some great unexpected wide open.  It was the same preparing for Ireland as it was for anywhere else.  And then once you’re there,  I mean, my memory/concept of both work travel and vacations is wrapped up in experiences like the ones in Charlotte.  Walking around some neon-heavy outdoor marketplace on a night so hot and humid you can wear shorts.  Walking light because all my stuff is securely in the hotel.  There’s something to the idea of having so few possessions to worry about.  Just being out there without much more than the clothes on your back.  Even the rental car — when there is one — isn’t actually yours.  Somehow it makes you live in the moment more.  Really live.  No strings.  You’re simply there absorbing all the new sights and sounds, taking it all in.  And there’s a feeling of such independence that goes along with that too.  You, dropped into unfamiliar surroundings and left to fend for yourself.  You against the world.  Mano-a-mundo.

Speaking of consulting, that was definitely the vibe of the trip.  Preparing for it was not unlike reliving those old days.  Bringing a laptop, living out of a hotel, wearing my trusty work jacket (and digging out of it two crusty Dramamine vials that expired in 2006)… then keeping receipts for expenses and just remembering all the little details like that.  Well, it was my own white collar version of a washed up gunfighter dusting off his guns and coming out of retirement for one last ride.  Happy and sad at the same time.  I really need to get around to writing my old consulting stories here and just exorcising that once and for all.

I always enjoy catching the local news when I’m travelling, just to try to get a flavor for the place.  Usually I’ll watch the Fox affiliate, because even though their 24 hour cable station’s reputation is understood, the local branches like our own KTVU seem relatively independent.  Charlotte’s?  Not so much.  I’ll spare you the breakdown of every skewed story choice, story angle, and show of incompetence I witnessed.  You’ve got the Daily Show to do that for you at the national level.  Suffice it to say the anchors’ views — or perhaps in some cases the network’s views — were plain as day.  So much for journalistic integrity and unbiased reporting, eh?  Is “news” like that a bad influence on the local public, or is it actually a product of the existing public disposition?  I watched and thought no wonder people here think this way… it’s what they hear every day on T.V.  But I guess they might say the same for the more liberal Bay Area.

Anyhoo, Charlotte was nice.  We all stayed in/near what is kind of like the Metreon of that city.  A movie theater, an outdoor music bandstand, several restaurants.  We met up with a local coworker one night and walked around downtown for the evening.  Highlights included Crave, billed as a “dessert bar.”  Basically it was an embarrassingly trendy bar that also happened to serve food… to the tune of 26 gourmet desserts.  I bought two.  Because I’m a grown-assed man, that’s why!  Don’t question me.  Oh, and when walking near the ball park, we happened across The Breakfast Club: a full time 80’s dance club!  Sounds great, right?  Well, even though it was open on a Tuesday night, all we saw was a bouncer, and empty parking lot, and what looked like a half dozen prostitutes loitering nearby.  We passed.

So there you have it.  Another wall comes down.  This makes all of the continental United States and possibly even Hawaii “reachable” again.  Pretty exciting stuff.  I may not be that far from a European trip… eventually.

“In the face of such uncertainty, believe in these two things:  you are stronger than you think, and you are not alone.”

— Maya Angelou

I can’t believe it, but I’m down with another sore throat.  For once, I actually think this one can be blamed on allergies, but I’m not taking any chances.  The headache, the fatigue, it could be anything.  This may cause me to miss The Lost Boys in Santa Cruz.  Aww piss!

I had an exciting birthday weekend that included another great show by Slim Cessna, as well as some dinners and lunches with friends and family.  This weekend is a merciful three-day, but as I’m too lazy to drive down to SoCal for Hootenanny (I-5 on a holiday weekend?  No thanks.), I’m left with some time to kill.  Could this be the weekend I finally make some headway with storage?  Let’s consider:

The Facts

When I left the East Bay in 2004, I put everything I owned (that I wasn’t taking with me to S.F.) in a storage unit out there.  We’re talking years of toys, sports equipment, baseball cards, school papers, books, and God knows what else.  I haven’t even cracked the door on this place in the last six years.  I don’t remember all of what was in there or even how much of it there was.  For all I know, the unit was broken into the day after I left it, and I’ve been paying monthly rent on an empty unit for the better part of a decade.  This is hundreds of dollars going out the window every year, and for what?  Because I haven’t gotten off my ass to take care of it.

The Options

The way I see it, there are four possibilities, and they are as follows:

1. Do Nothing
   There’s nothing that says I have to do anything about it now.  It’s not that expensive, and I could leave it all in storage for another 10 years if I wanted to.  The upside is that it costs me no effort.  The downside is not only the monthly rent but also the mental and spiritual weight of knowing I have all these possessions in my name that are going to waste and occupying space in my consciousness.
2. Keep It
   There’s too much to move in my car in one trip, and it’s a 45 minute trip one way.  But I could take a few trips, or else rent/borrow a truck and get all of my stuff out of there.  The question is: what would I do with it?  I don’t have room in my place for all of that crap unless I want it in a big pile in the middle of my living room.  And then there are the spiders to consider.  After all these years undisturbed, I shudder to think how many critters — alive or dead — might be lurking in all those dark boxes.  The last thing I want to do is bring that nightmare into my house!  All I’d really be doing here is trading the cost of the storage unit rent for space in my living room.  No me gusta.
3. Give It Away
   Now we’re getting into the more serious options.  I think the reality is that I have lived this long without this stuff, to the point I don’t even remember most of what’s in there.  Do I really need it anymore?  I guess I always thought I’d have kids someday and that they’d inherit all this stuff and it would find the perfect use.  Even if I do have kids though, they’re going to be all about Nintendo.  What would they want with an old G.I. Joe or a box of baseball cards?  I feel like the era of passing toys onto your kids has started to pass.  It’s not the same as it was with our parents’ generation, is it?  Or is it?  I can see the value in going through all these old toys again and the memories it will surely evoke.  Is that final going-through-them-in-preparation-to-give-them-away a sufficient final extraction of value?  Or do I need to keep them longer?  Or could I get away with taking and keeping pictures of them?  The memories could be preserved that way.  It feels like a scary proposition to just give all this stuff away.  For all the time and effort and money that went into collecting it and storing it for what amounts to almost my whole life… to just wake up one day and sweep it out the door?  That’s huge!
4. Sell It
   This feels about the same as just giving it away.  It has the bonus of at least feeling like it’s going to someone who appreciates it.  I mean, if someone bothers to track down a Hot Wheels from me, he probably really wants that car.  So it would be like it was serving a purpose again, plus there’d be at least some money in it.  If I could snap my fingers and sell everything in that storage unit for its fair price, heck it might not even add up to what I’ve spent on storing it the last six years.  And of course it won’t be that easy.  It’d probably be a big pain in the ass to catalog and sell all of that stuff.  Ebay?  Craig’s List?  It might take weeks to move it all.  And this isn’t exactly the economy to be selling trinkets.  But I feel like I should be getting some money for it at least.  I mean, my parents paid for most of it with their hard-earned money during my childhood.  The least I could do is get a return and pass it on to them.  Just getting rid of it feels like it would be an insult.

The Horns Of A Dilemma

On the one hand, I feel like I need to shed this weight, but on the other it pains me to think of the wasted money and stress of keeping it for all this time just to suddenly dump it unceremoniously.  So in all seriousness, I’d love to get your input.  Surely some of you have been through some variation on this same experience.  Am I being ridiculous?  The Buddhist in me says “give it away, let it go, it’s served its purpose, and it’s only hurting you now.”  And I secretly fantasize about what it would feel like to know all my material possessions are right here with me, easily tracked, easily moved, and easily disposed of.  Like I’d be more mobile.  Lighter.  What to do?

The Sudden Change Of Subject

That debut album from The Drums finally came out.  It’s pretty good, kinda like Joy Division with an upbeat surf slant… and a healthy dose of new romantic.  In terms of accessibility, I think their “Summertime!” EP was a little catchier, but this album is still worth a hear.

Listening to: The Drums – “The Drums“

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Before I begin, how is it I write about food so much on here?  I didn’t intend that to happen, but somehow it has.

Anyway, it came up again the other day that over the years, so many of my favorite sinful foods have disappeared off of menus and shelves — often not long after I discover them to begin with.  So for no reason other than pure junk food nostalgia, my top 10 delicious-yet-extinct snacks:

1. Cheddar Beer Kettle Chips – Kettle Chips are pretty fantastic in general, but they’re made better by the fact that they occasionally release strange flavors that are suggested to them by customers.  Well for a few years (2005-2007?), they had such a flavor called Cheddar Beer which sounds disgusting but actually tasted exactly what it sounds like.  There was a malt aftertaste!  So weird!  I don’t really even like beer, but I was obsessed with them and had them with lunch almost every day for a couple of years.  Then, for no reason I can guess, they were retired.  I was, and remain, crushed.
2. WWF Superstars Ice Cream Bars– This was the prize of catching up with an ice cream truck.  Never mind if you weren’t into wrestling.  You could ignore the trading card that was included, and even the wrestler that was stamped on the bar itself.  The point was the ice cream sandwich that was chocolate on one side and a to-die-for shortbread cookie on the other.  I am sadly aware of no substitute for these.
3. Peanut Butter Boppers– Sugary peanut butter rolled in chocolate chips?  Yes, please.  This was one of my original “long-lost foods,” and no one I knew remembered them.  Thanks to the information age, we can easily find proof of their existence, but for years my only evidence that I wasn’t crazy was the brief appearance of a box of Boppers in grampa’s fridge near the beginning of The Lost Boys.  which reminds me: this Wednesday Corey Feldman and his band will be hosting a screening of The Lost Boys at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (where the movie was filmed).  I am so there.
4. Tato Skins– Back to chips here, these Keebler snacks were amazing.  Really thick almost like a cracker.  I thought they disappeared completely, but I saw a bag in a vending machine in the Midwest a few years back.  I guess it’s one of those things where they stopped selling in certain markets?  According to Wiki, they may be related to T.G.I.Friday’s chips?  Must research this.  This is all reminding me of some other long-lost chips.  O’Boise’s?  Chachos?  Both also made by Keebler.  Keebler apparently ruled my chubby little world in the late 80’s.  Thank God we all still have lime Tostitos to fall back on.
5. The Potted Plant – For a short while, the Hungry Hunter restaurant had a desert on their menu that was as follows: vanilla-cheesecake custard served in a clay-colored plastic bowl that was shaped to resemble a flower pot.  It was then covered completely with crushed Oreo.  Finally, a plastic flower was stuck in the top.  The overall effect was that they’d set a potted flower down in front of you, and as you ate it, it would at first appear that you were scooping up soil and eating it with a spoon.  As a kid, this was beyond fascinating to me… not to mention insanely delicious.  With a lot of effort, I suppose I could reproduce it.  When it went away, I instead ordered their Bailey’s Irish Cream pie.  Which was an excellent backup, and was my gateway into drinking Bailey’s and eventually real drinks.  So if I’d turned out to be an alcoholic, just think, I could have blamed Hungry Hunter for nixing the Plant!
6. Chocolate Lasagna– While we’re on the subject of chain restaurant deserts, did you ever try this creation from Olive Garden?  It was just several layers of chocolate cake, butter-cream frosting, and chocolate chips.  Seriously delish.  And since I liked it so much, of course, they took it off the menu.
7. Cookie Sandwich – OK, if we’re going to do this, let’s do it.  Me liking a dessert has proved to be the kiss of death time and time again.  The Elephant Bar’s awesome and massive chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich went the way of the dinosaur as well.  I know there are even more than these last three examples, but I’ll end this theme.  Just trust me, if you like a dessert, never introduce me to it or else the chef will make it his highest priority to stop making it.
8. Out Of The Blue-Berry Snapple– I used to be a major lemon iced tea junkie.  These days, I can rarely drink it anymore because it’s so sweet.  But there was a short-lived variation around 2007 that used blueberry flavor instead of lemon.  It’s with us no longer, and my attempts to reproduce it with my own ingredients have failed.  But it did serve to hook me on blueberries which I now eat all the time in all forms.
9. Orbitz Cola – This was basically like a fruit drink with little balls of like gelatin floating around in it.  Come to think of it, I only had it a few times.  I think some girl I liked talked me into it.  Well, these days we have bubble tea, and it’s actually probably better.  So maybe never mind on this one.
10. 1980’s Cereal– This is a simple three-way tie between a trio of my faves among the scores of entertainment-themed breakfast cereals of the era.  Smurf Berry Crunch were red and blue and tasted very much like what is modernly known as Cap’n Crunch Berries.  E.T. cereals had a peanut butter thing going for it, not unlike the modern Reese’s cereal.  Mr. T cereal tasted pretty much like modern Cap’n Crunch, and has the added distinction of being featured in a memorable scene in Pee-wee’s Big Adventure.  I’d have also mentioned Count Chocula, but all the monster cereals seem to get “re-issued” every so often.

There’s a good chance #1 on this list would have been Mother’s Cookies, had they not been miraculously resurrected last year.  They’re back in stores, so we can all rest easier.  But they deserve honorable mention for sure.  And you know on second thought, those may not actually be the top 10.  But they’re the 10 I can think of at the moment.  I’m sure more will come to me later.  And I know there are whole websites dedicated to discontinued foods of the 80’s and 90’s I could look to.  How about you?  Any bygone dishes you still long for?

I’ll leave you with this bizarre one from the early days of the internet.  G’night kiddies.

Reading: Chuck Pahlaniuk – Pygmy

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And by “world,” of course I mean “Bakersfield.”

Well, it seems Old Man Hudson’s birthday is coming up.  And what better way to celebrate than to relive some of my fondest memories of the few decades?  By which of course I mean running down the last few TCB shows…

Bakersfield / Fresno

It’s been over a month now, so my memories are fading.  I meant to write about this earlier, but alas.  That Bako/Fresno weekend was a hell of a trip.  I drove out to pick Nick up at the farm and got the whole tour, goats and all.  Loved it.  Saw a bunch of meerkat-looking things on the side of the freeway just standing and watching cars drive by.  (This was a little north of Morgan Hill on 101.)  Blazing hot Bakersfield, as a town, was interesting.  We stayed at the newly renovated Padre Hotel, and though it was pricey, it was totally worth it.  I wish we had more time there, because it was pseudo-Vegas and gaudy, but undeniably comfortable.  One of the nicer rooms I’ve been in, honestly.  Downstairs was a different story, because it was packed to the gills with locals.  The prevailing style and attitude of the town was as douchey as I expected.  A lot of big pickup trucks, awful club clothes, and general meathead-ery.  Like our own West Coast Jersey Shore kinda.  The overall effect was not unlike Biff’s casino in Back To The Future II’s alternate 1985.  There’s just a weird vibe in that city.  But that doesn’t apply to everyone.  We had a good crowd at Fishlips, and after a little while, we even got some of that seated room up dancing.

On the way out of town, we visited Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace museum and had Macaroni Grill for the first time in years.  I myself even made a detour to see C-Po in Visalia, tucked almost in the shadow of what I think were the Sequoia National Park mountains.  Saw the Moz-friendly Velouria Records.  The place we played in Fresno (the all ages Starline) was actually great, and the show itself was probably the best of the last few months.  The crowd was way into it.  Nick rocked his electronic drum-kit.  I joined For The Masses for “Personal Jesus.”  I’m hoping we get to play there again.  Have I mentioned how much I love playing Fresno?  That town just fits us!

And so does its Claim Jumper, which of course we hit the next morning.  So yeah, great trip.  Special thanks to For The Masses.  I’m so glad they’re back together.  Such nice guys, and they sound amazing.  That “Pain That I’m Used To” intro gives me chills.  The shows were fun, had some side adventures, and saw a lot of California roads I’d never driven on before.  Me gusta!

Slim’s (San Francisco)

The Slim’s Moz birthday show was another huge night, with 450+ in attendance.  Fascination Street’s San Francisco debut went every bit as well as we all expected.  I’m sure they’ll be back soon.  Love Vigilantes put on a great set, and TCB overcame several obstacles to have a killer show.  We had to cut some songs, our big intro video plans were botched at the last minute, and some other drama too.  My brand new Les Paul got a big gash in it at some point during the evening, but I didn’t see it happen.  But despite it all, it was good times.  The Jenny Wehrt raffle situation went over well, and I think she sold all of the paintings she brought.  Hope to have her back next year!  I’m telling you Bay Area folks, our annual Slim’s show is the one not to miss.  It’s been pretty consistently epic if I do say so myself.  🙂

Seattle

It was always going to be a quick trip.  Barely 24 hours, but in that time, holy shit did we eat some good food.  In just one day, we accidentally found Beth’s Cafe which turned out to be some hip locals place.  Among other things, I had the best blueberry muffin.  So good in fact that I assumed it would be the culinary highlight of the trip.  How wrong I was.  Before the show was a delicious arugula salad with chèvre and pistachios.  Then after the show, we were looking for a 24 hour place.  A punk rock girl at the venue directed us to The Night Kitchen, a place so hip that no one we asked on the street could help us find it… despite us thrice circling and asking around on the very block it’s located on.  We eventually found it, and with it the true culinary highlight of the trip.  Everything we had was amazing, but the prize goes to the fried cheese curds.  Delicious and revolting at the same time.  Picture bits of fried mozzarella sticks where the batter is like salty donut batter.  My mouth said yes, but my conscience said no.  Whew!  OK, so then the next day we hit up Luna Park, and with a few hours to kill before heading home, a waitress suggested Full Tilt in White Center.  This is a homemade ice cream parlor (that serves beer floats) and has old arcade and pinball games.  (Operation Wolf!)  Despite being stuffed from Luna Park, I managed to squeeze in some salted caramel ice cream.

Sorry for “fooding out” there, but believe me, this trip warrants it.  Now, the Yang to that good food Yin was, without question, our dirty hotel in the meth part of town.  Let’s just say I chose to lay down some towels to avoid too much contact with the sheets.  The show itself at Tractor Tavern was great!  We played solidly and drew a big and fun crowd.  Our friend and fill-in singer Virgil helped us out and did an amazing job, with some real vocal chops and showmanship.  A total success!

Fin

I’ll leave you with some new music.  When I was in Chicago a while back, I heard a song playing in the background while checking out some antique shop.  Mainly I noticed the glammy guitar tone, and I knew I had to find out what it was.  Turns out it was — quite unexpectedly — Monsters Of Folk.  And that killer guitar work was not at all representative of the rest of the album.  But just the same, it ended up being a great find, and believe that I am no fan of most modern folk music.  My assessment?  A lot of the singing reminds me of Yes.  I hear a Simon & Garfunkel influence in songs like “Magic Marker.”  But the glam factor is in there too, where you hear a Bowie sound in many tracks, including the one that boasted the aforementioned killer guitar solo “Say Please.”  Other standouts included “Ahead Of The Curve” and “Dear God.”  At the end of the day, I wasn’t blown away or anything, but it’s certainly worth a listen.  I love how that happens sometimes where you come across new music when you least expect it and occasionally end up finding a gem.  Hell, it’s how I’ve found some of my favorite bands over the years… including The Smiths!

Listening to: Monsters Of Folk – “Monsters Of Folk“

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Some random stuff to share here, and I don’t even know where to start.  In no particular order…

It appears, friends, that I spoke too soon.  You may recall a couple months back the elation I expressed at I hearing that Boudin’s butternut squash soup was to become a regular weekly event.  Well I’m here to tell ya… be careful what you wish for.  You see, in my constant proselytizing for the delicious soup, I failed to think through the possible consequences.  For the past few weeks, I’ve faithfully gone to the local Boudin for my mid-week lunch ritual only to find that they had already run out of butternut squash soup for the day.  The message about b-squash got out all right, and now it’s come back to bite me!  Once I could see as a fluke.  But several weeks in a row now?  That’s a trend.  In fact, that’s a deeply disturbing trend.  And it simply won’t do.

Missed Opportunity Of The Day:  I was thinking about that infamous and hideous bust from Lionel Richie’s “Hello” video (see below), and it occurred to me that the legions of ridiculous Mission hipsters would gladly give their most prized pair of vintage L.A. Gear for this most iconic and ironic of sculptures.  Somebody ought to market reproductions of that bust.  Hell, make it a Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!  (Incidentally, the fate of the actual bust — which I suspect would go for a pretty penny on eBay — is recounted here.)

In other music news, you need to check this out.  Coming to you by way of Paul, it’s The Swinger.  This is some code that someone put together that takes and existing song and puts it in swing time.  It’s hard to explain, just check out the link.  Slick!

H.P. Lovecraft was a dadgum genius.  I wish there was something I could do to make him more famous than he already is.  I just finished “The Case Of Charles Dexter Ward,” one of the most entertaining stories I’ve read in ages.  And it’s just the latest of several of his short stories that are knocking my socks off.  I don’t know what it is, but this guy’s got my number.  I’ve picked up several more volumes of his stuff, waiting to be read over the summer!

Finally, I’ve found myself on another kick of trying to organize my massive “to do” list.  There are a lot of reasons for why that might be.  For one, I actually have made good progress on it, and I dare say I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel (in terms of organizing the list not completing it).  I’ve been giving more thought to why I even have this list.  Do I really have any serious hope of somehow finishing it all before I die?  I recently read a quote that was something like, “when you die, your inbox won’t be empty.”  That’s a pretty powerful truth to accept.  And yet, I still feel somewhat powerless to let my list go.  I’m maintaining this thing, and for what?  In trying to reassess its contents, I realize that a lot of it is just clever little tidbits that I’ve saved for some unknown reason.  What would I do with all these clever little things?  Write a novel?  A screenplay?  Five albums worth of songs?  Would I somehow memorize them all and have them ready to fire off in conversation at just the right moment?  Maybe.  But I think more likely there’s just some switch in me that causes me to hoard ideas the way those people on T.V. hoard trash in their living rooms.  Something in me can’t accept that these things are just momentarily valuable and then should be let go.  How do I let them go?  🙁

The quote of the week comes from one such saved snippet from some conversation I had with a friend long ago.  I thought it was clever, so I saved it.  Now I’m going to let it go, remove it from my “to do” list, and try to accept that this blog is where it was meant to live forever.  Enjoy.

Friend:  “Nice, where’d you meet her?”
Benjamin:  “Meet her?  Dude, look at her!  Me and Anthony Michael Hall made her in my bedroom.”

So for whatever reason, I got the sudden urge to clean out my closet and get rid of all the stuff that I don’t wear anymore.  Of course I wasn’t hoping to get any money out of it — I don’t wear those kinds of clothes.  But I figured if I can prevent it from going to waste and maybe gain back some of my apartment real estate in the process, everybody wins.

Well today I had at it, and I’m left pissed at all the clothes I piled up.  Sure, there were plenty of old t-shirts and shabby clothes that aren’t much good to anyone who isn’t desperate purely to keep warm.  But there were also loads of perfectly good quality bowling shirts that I used to think were so stylish.  See, back in the early and mid 2000’s, I was all into the clothes of Daddy-O’s.  Girls love the dresses there, but I was all about the bowling shirts.  I can’t knock the quality, because they really make good stuff.  But these days, those things look less rockabilly to me and more… I don’t know… douchey Vegas?  That’s not an across the board indictment, because certainly some guys can still pull it off.  It looks more appropriate on older men, I’d say.  Anyway, my point is that those things aren’t cheap, and so I’m looking at hundreds of my old consulting dollars down the drain.

I am not dumping any of my Hawaiian shirts though, because I have every intention of bringing back the Hawaiian shirt this summer.  You have been warned.

In my digging, I was surprised to find my beloved and practically unused powder blue suede shoes, as well as my real saddle shoes back before you could buy them at Hot Topic.  I came across (and kept) some sweaters and sweater shirts, several PeopleSoft shirts, a few holy skater shirts from middle school.  I had forgotten I even had a t-shirt from Shotgun Willie’s strip club in Denver.  (That’s a consultant story I’ll share in redacted form someday.)  And horror of horrors, I even found some silk boxers!  I had chosen to forget I ever used to wear silk boxers.  And the last remaining proof goes in the garbage tonight.

In fairness, I did unearth some other unnamable corruptions in the back of my closet.  I don’t know if the Dragonfly shirt company is still around, but they should be charged with crimes against humanity for some of the blasphemous garments they supplied to my wardrobe.  Plus, was I like… a raver at one point?  I have all these trippy millennium-era club shirts.  Black and white swirly patterns and weird shimmery materials.  Blanket apology to any woman who had to be seen with me in them.  I almost hesitate to give them to Goodwill, as passing on these dark testaments to the lower bounds of fashion is surely no show of any “good will.”

Now you may be thinking to yourself, “where are the pics?  I want to see these unspeakable things!”  No, you don’t.  Believe me.  You think it will enrich your life, but you are mistaken.

So long black Nike swim trunks with the giant white “swoosh” across the butt.  Goodbye hideous plush polo shirts I used to wear when I started consulting.  Au revoir countless pairs of semi-worn black slacks that span my career from working in a pool store to last year.  Sayonara black satin club/bowling shirt monstrosities.  Adios polo shirts with a stripe across the chest that I used to sport every day in place of the t-shirts I wear now.  Ciao endless piles of white t-shirts that I kept for who knows what reason.  No, I didn’t have to get rid of you today, but you’ve been going to waste in my closet for the last decade.  And the momentary fond memories of 1997-2005 that you brought back to me during this exercise is your final act.

Listening to: Robert Gordon – “Are You Gonna Be The One“

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Well kiddies, I survived the trip to Chicago/Milwaukee with virtually no problems.  Despite all the little things that went wrong along the way, the overall trip was fun and well worth it.  Not to mention the added bonus of expanding my (mentally) allowable travel range a little further than before.  Another step on the path, you know.  I had a non-stop out there, a layover on the way back.  Different airlines, different jet models.  The little puddle jumper was not as stressful as I thought, and I’m a new fan of that big Boeing 777.  So big you can barely even tell you’re in the air, and I almost didn’t notice we had landed.  Plus the bathrooms are huge comparatively… ah, but I digress.  Anyway, if you’re interested in the trip, read on.  Here are some scattered impressions:

1. There’s a certain magic to travelling that I do miss sometimes.  It used to be that I travelled almost every week for work, to the point that I probably took it for granted.  In a taxi heading into downtown Chicago from the airport at dusk, I observed its skyline for the first time.  At once both familiar and foreign.  You could see that it’s a world unto itself.  And I got to thinking about how to millions of people, Chicago is “the city” the way that to me San Francisco is “the city.”  Chicago has its own neighborhoods and character, its own touristy areas and locals-only bars and restaurants, its own scenes and players and hot shots and local celebrities.  And to think that every big city around the country (and even the planet) are each their own little world the way that S.F. is its own little world.  It’s one of those things that makes you feel tiny in the grand scheme of things.  In a word: wonderment.
2. Chicago loves it some brick buildings.  I suppose if San Francisco ever had a bunch, earthquakes would have knocked them down by now.  But I don’t know if it’s an exaggeration to say that half the buildings in Chicago are brick.  Unpainted brick.  Which is to say that a lot of the city is the same color.  But I didn’t dislike it.  It had a ton of character wholly unlike any west coast city I’m aware of.  The scores of burned out factories might be considered “blight” by the locals, but I found it charming.  The library was amazingly decorated on the outside.  And though there were plenty of skyscrapers (including the epic Sears Tower which there sadly wasn’t time to visit), there’s still a lot of open space between buildings which S.F. somehow seems to lack.  Not to mention a river going through the middle of the city.  My evidence, though collected in only a couple days, is based on time walking around the city, through the outskirts, and even riding on the famous elevated subway.
3. Chicago also loves it some flowers.  Tulips to be precise.  Many buildings throughout downtown and really all over the city were landscaped beautifully with these perfect tulips.  All I could think was that in S.F. those would last about two days.  As it was, it gave a certain Disneyland quality to walking around town.  It didn’t hurt that I saw almost no litter anywhere there.
4. Oh, and Chicago also loves it some purple shoes.  Fashion in general was a little off, but it could have just been our proximity to the colleges and their awkward youths.  But whatever the reason, I saw plenty of ridiculous hipsters and more than my fair share of purple shoes.  I don’t get it.  There also seemed to be a trend that I don’t notice around here so much: many young, black women seemed to dress in a sort of traditional 60’s girl group style.  By that I mean nice plaid dresses, tasteful hairstyles, super classy all around.  I much prefer it over what I usually see in the Bay Area.  Maybe it’s a Midwest thing?  Also, I saw virtually no rockabilly folks, but there were some tatted up goth types here and there.
5. This trip reminded me some of old times.  It used to be the with band trips, we’d all pile into the same van and deal with the hassles together.  It seems to breed a certain camaraderie.  Over the years, we’ve all gotten to where we book our own trips and make our own plans with other friends or girlfriends or wives, and band trips end up just like any other trip… and the show itself just happens to be the one time we all meet up.  Well, for this trip we all shared one car and one room, and for all the occasional inconveniences that go along with that arrangement, I think it’s nice to do that every so often… get in the trenches with each other as it were.  Sure, it stretches you comfort zone a little, but the benefits far outweigh the hassle.
6. The food on the trip was decadent and delicious.  We ate at Giordano’s pizza the first night and the famous Gino’s East on the way out of town.  Gino’s deep dish actually did live up to all the hype.  It was amazing.  I had lunch at some point at a place called the Midtown which was also great.  Chicago has several 24-hour combination Baskin Robbins / Dunkin’ Donuts.  They are seriously on every other corner, including directly across the street from our hotel.  I saw at least as many of them as I did Starbucks.
7. We didn’t spend as much time in Milwaukee, but it also had a lot of character.  The last (and only time) I’d ever been there previously was near the end of 2004,  right around the time I first started bloggin’ I think.  It’s a nice town with a liberal feel.  We ate at the equivalent of S.F.’s Ferry Building, and I had a delish made-to-order salad and some juiced apple/beet/strawberry/lime concoction.  Unfortunately that was about all I had time for before it was time to fly home.
8. I guess I should say something about the shows, huh?  The Double Door in Chicago was a big place, and it reminded me of a slightly-smaller Slim’s.  The sound guys were great, and after a rough start, we played a good show.  Astonishingly, there were a few separate people from the San Jose area that happened to be in town and came to the show.  Apparently, this is a hot little place, with such acts as The New York Dolls and The Buzzcocks coming there later in the Spring/Summer.  As for Milwaukee’s Shank Hall, they fully embrace the Spinal Tap tie-in.  They also have a history of some huge acts, which of course I can’t remember now.  But the walls were adorned with autographed publicity photos of those bands.  Hundreds of them.  Smashing Pumpkins, Blue Oyster Cult, The Reverend Horton Heat, and a ton of others.  Anyway, the sound here was great too, and we played well I think.  Because of some logistical issues, we didn’t get a chance to hit the hotel before the show, so I played what I believe is my first ever TCB show where I did not shower immediately before.  I survived, but it is not my preference.  Not only do I feel clean and refreshed, but it helps to clear my head and prepare me for the show.
9. A general comment on the trip… I am again reminded how easy it would be for you and your significant other — and this goes for me too, of course — to just take a quick weekend trip to some far off city for a date/getaway weekend.  If you plan ahead, you’re talking like $200 round trip.  Fly off to Chicago or wherever, some city you don’t really know, and just explore and find new vistas and restaurants, just the two of you.  Sounds like an adventure, doesn’t it?  I don’t know why I haven’t and don’t do that more often.  Seems like such a good idea!
10. On my way out of Milwaukee, one of the TSA ladies took a look at my pedalboard case and laughed at the sticker that reads “I ♥ Hunting Accidents.”  She told me she loved it.  I explained to her that it gets me a lot of dirty looks and I wasn’t sure how wise it was to display it up north, and with a wink she said “yeah, we may be the only two people in this whole state that support it, but I do.”  It made my afternoon.  🙂

OK, I think I’ve bored you enough.  In closing, fun trip!  This weekend, TCB is off to Bakersfield and Fresno, and then the following weekend is our big Slim’s show!  Tell your friends!  Spread the word!  Goodnight all!

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.  If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

— Warren Buffett

Not to start things out on a negative or unnecessarily shocking note but…

I fucking knew it!  Those rat bastards!  I’ve written before about my hate hate hate of scalpers (like here and here), but I think this news takes the proverbial cake.  Turns out that all that time we’ve been grumbling because scalpers always end up with the best tickets to sell… all that time we’ve been gnashing our teeth and cursing that the whole thing must be rigged… well it turns out it was!  I’m sure this isn’t the whole story, but these guys were certainly contributing to the systematic fleecing of fans that’s been such a black mark on the concert-going experience lo these many years.  To the gallows with you fucking snakes!  A pox on all your houses!

OK, I need some good cheer to mellow me out.  This Stephen Lynch video cracks me up.  I think you need to watch it too.  Go on, do it.  I’ll wait.

Did I mention a couple weeks ago that I caught Deadbolt in Oakland again?  The show — for whatever reason — was much better this time around.  There was still police tape lining the stage.  Still sparks flying.  Went home hoarse from all the smoke.  Saw the usual suspects there too of course, and as an added bonus, I was among the first to snag their brand new album “Voodoo Moonshiner” (which features the return of The Mocker).  And when I say I was among the first, I mean the band had literally picked up the first discs on the way to that very gig.  Hot off the presses!

And actually, on the topic of CDs, I’ve been hearing a lot of good music lately.  Notably, The Legendary Shack Shakers have a new album out which is great as usual.  I also finally gave in and picked up that Passion Pit album everyone is so nuts over.  It was alright.  My assessment?  Two parts Daft Punk’s second album, one part The Postal Service, and (unexpectedly) a hint of what I think is Peter Gabriel’s influence.  Strange!

Listening to: Passion Pit – “Manners“

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Well it was a long drive to and from SoCal this last weekend, but a worthwhile trip all in all.  In lieu of a full narrative, here are 10 fun facts about the trip, in no particular order:

1. Both shows were great, particularly the Juke Joint in Anaheim.  The 454’s “Secret Agent Man” helped us out on a couple songs.  I felt like we were all pretty solid, and I really felt like I was “on.”  I attribute some of that to a new guitar, which made its debut this weekend.  More on that in a future post, but you can see that it’s featured on the Couch Guitar Strap site, along with me, my strap, and Meg’s photography!  How cool is that?
2. Nick was kind enough to play tour-guide for me while in Hollywood, and one of our stops was the famous Griffith Observatory, which I’d never seen.  The drive up to the top of the mountain included some close encounters with coyotes, closer than I usually get to them near my house anyway.  The building is amazing, and the view you can imagine.  We posed for obligatory pictures next to the bust of James Dean.  I narrowly resisted the urge to pose with Griffith Park’s dancing bear statue, a decision for which I am sure to receive flack from some of you.
3. I got to see Jessica and Paulo!  We dined at the hip “Kitchen 24,” and they even made a rare appearance at our show!
4. I got to see Colin!  We spent some time in Amoeba, and just before parting ways, we saw Brigitte Bardot herself pull up, put her two puppies in a stroller, and step into the store.  She smiled at us!  And I snapped a quick pic of her Jaguar (the plate read “BBARDOT”) as proof.
5. Hollywood is just drowning in famous hotels, offices, high schools, avenues, and other landmarks.  Big pink Greek houses that could only belong to celebrities.  Thanks again to Nick who pointed them all out.  In San Francisco, we have the occasional small claims to fame.  This or that restaurant appeared in this or that movie.  But what a trip it must be to live in Hollywood and be just surrounded with that stuff daily.
6. I made it to a Claim Jumper after all.  That’s right, bitches.
7. The Castro is pretty gay, no question.  But I’d argue it’s got nothing on WeHo.  My favorite sight?  The giant billboard for Pink Moving.  Phone number is 877-OMG-PINK.  I love it!
8. While we’re at it, Hollywood Blvd. beats the Haight or just about anywhere else in the Bay Area in terms of quantity of stores to shop at.  So much to do and see there, I think Shel and I would never get bored.
9. Before you go thinking I have some love affair going on with L.A., let’s be clear about the cons, because they are major.  Deal breakers even.  The traffic is horrific.  There are 4 million people there, so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise.  But the consequence is then terrible air quality.  I was hoarse and coughing the whole time I was down there, and it was so refreshing to breathe in the cool and moist air of home as I crossed the Bay Bridge last night.  Sorry SoCal.
10. The most unexpected aspect of the trip was that I started to realize that as part of getting over some of my travel anxieties of the past couple of years, I’m starting to actually rediscover the excitement of travelling!  As much as the long drive down I-5 sucks, the freedom of open road, no schedule, and anything goes reminded me a bit of when I first got my license as a teen.  I’m only scratching the surface of it now… barely a formed thought… but more to come as I get my head around it.

Well then, that’s the weekend in a nutshell.  It was not what I expected, but in some ways even better, and a welcome diversion to be sure.  I’m looking forward now to some of the upcoming trips… I think.

“Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life you’d like to.”