9:28 AM

Music: The Old 97’s

(earlier this week)....I can’t help it ….. I’m not able to concentrate today. I’m very tired this morning. I had a dream about Keith Richards last night….. very strange indeed! He was working at Hoffs Hut behind a desk, it was a “greeter” type position and he was very happy doing it. Mick was somewhere in the dream as well but I can’t remember everything.

No more sunflower seeds for dinner!!

I’ve been listening to music on my ipod all morning and for some odd reason, I’m not able to concentrate on all the e-mails that I get here at work. I have to be at work at 8 a.m. tomorrow morning to take notes in a meeting. I’m so not looking forward to that. I mean, what do they think I am?…. a secretary or something. I’ve never taken notes before in my life! I can’t even read my own writing. I guess this is where a little recorder comes in handy. I’ve talked my boss into using one as a back up. Actually I’ll be the back up because I’m not one to follow directions very well or listen to others while following along. My thoughts usually travel off into a guitar riff or song.

I had a great weekend. First I stayed home on Friday night working on my ipod/computer because I deleted my entire library of music on my computer somehow. You can imagine the look on my face when I realized what I did. I got most of it back from the trashcan but lost some. It’s all so frustrating, having a few different programs i.e. Music Match, itunes, limewire, and my ipod full of songs that are different from what is in my folder. Ok yeah, whatever… after I stare at my computer for a few hours first, I usually can figure everything out.

Saturday - I hung out with a co-worker/ ex-neighbor. We had a drink and chicken tacos at BBC in Long Beach then went shopping. It’s more fun to shop when you’ve had a drink first. I was going to see The Undertones at the Galaxy until I got an e-mail from a friend regarding a record release party in LA for this record label called “dangerbird records”. I finally got to see Joy Zipper and also got turned onto a new great band called Sabrosa Purr. Wow! 2 great bands in one night! and for FREE!! The party was held in the backyard at this gallery in Silverlake near the silverlake lounge. It was an open bar but I only had one small plastic cup of wine.

I met a few of my friends up there, it was a fun/cool spur of the moment thing to do on an otherwise boring Saturday night.

The bands were very loud and I was expecting at any minute that the cops would come and pull the plug on it. It also started to rain but luckily they had a tent over the stage and most of the party.
Joy Zipper are kinda like The Velvet Underground sound wise. The other band “Sabrosa Purr” was a little more like my bloody valentine with more pop in a Nirvana type sound. You get the idea anyway.
Both bands are worth seeing again.
I was starving after the show so I talked my friends into going to the 101 café. and for a Saturday night, it was pretty dead in there.

……. Sunday, I went to lunch with my friend from high school. She is having another kid. We are the same age and she already has two kids; one girl who is 14 and a boy who just turned 1. It was great hanging out with her. She's is a realtor and is going to help me find a place to buy, I hope. well.... Eventually, anyway...

During lunch my "Supermex" friend told me that I am going to have a baby and it will be a girl.. no… not now! My friend who works at Supermex knows of this game or whatever you want to call it and it’s done with a necklace and your right hand. He did this with my friend Lilah and it was right…. The necklace said she has one girl, one boy and her last child will be a girl. He did it to me and it said I will have one baby and it will be a girl. We did it to him and it said he has 2 girls and will have one more girl. Hmmmmm.
it was an interesting lunch. If I see you and there is a necklace with a charm on it around, remind me and I’ll show you how it works.

This week is the week to go to Silverlake Lounge. So many good bands will be playing together, It will be rockin’.

Here is the list of rock for the week:

April 27^th thru May 4^th

Wed – The Vacation , The Thieves,The Chelsea Smiles and Sabrosa Purr at Silverlake Lounge.

Thur – The Vacation, The Gunshys, Frisky Jones and All hours at Silverlake Lounge.

Fri – Jon Brion at Largo

Sat - Grant Lee at Largo

Sun – Mark Lane at Tangier

Mon - I don’t know rest maybe?

Tues – The Brokedown at Spaceland (excellent new band - reminds me of wilco)

Wed – Brendan Benson at Troubadour

Top 10

1. The Rolling Stones (sister morphine / dead flowers)

2. The Cars ( just what i needed)

3. Jon Brion (under the radar)

4. Big Star (feel)

5. Epic Soundtracks (everybody else is wrong)

6. The Vacation (marshmellow girl)
7. Sabrosa Purr (god damn you!) -this is my new favorite band

8. Rhett Miller (our love)
9. The Willowz (i wonder)

10.The Waterboys (don't bang the drum)

11. Stereophonics (dakota)

3:09 PM

TOP 5 THAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO.
1) Dead Meadow

2) Jon Brion

3) Them

4) The Cars

5) The Vacation

GIGS TO SEE
April 19 thu April 26^th

19- Tuesday / the color turning at the troub or allegro geller at king king

20- Wednesday / goldenboy at silverlake lounge

21- Thursday / david garza at largo or evil beaver at spaceland
22- Friday / jon brion at largo or ryan adams at henry fonda

23- Saturday / the undertones at the galaxy or colin hay at largo

24- Sunday / I don’t know…. Rest maybe?

25- Monday / paul f. tompkins comedy show at largo or telecast at silverlake lounge

26- Tuesday / the vacation at the silverlake lounge for their record release party with friends…. the high speed scene and the drugstore cowgirls

I’d really like to go see
1- Dot the I

2- The Korean movie called Oldboy

3- A lot like love
4- Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
5- Charlie and the chocolate factory
6- The sisterhood of the traveling pants
7- Sahara
8- Mr and Mrs. Smith (yep.)

9- Voices in Wartime

10- Palindromes

WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO
Friday I went to see Dead Meadow at Spaceland and they had a bunch of openers. The first one surprised me with the whole 20 minute mandolin solo, which I would enjoy as much as the next guy but just wasn’t in the kind of mood that night. What made it worse is when his friends joined him and it was like a deadhead fest up there…. Oh the agony of it all. next up was 2 more bands then Dead Meadow. The band right before Dead Meadow were from Italy and boy did they stink and I mean that in a “dude, have you ever heard of this thing we have here in the US called SOAP and water!” gheez.. they sounded like someone else from Britain, as do many of the bands nowadays. Perhaps a little Oasis-ish…. They rocked a little. Dead Meadow were loud! I even had ear-plugs and it still fucked up my ears for days after. They are such great musicians. I kept watching the bass player because I found it amazing how hard he played and for a long period of time. The riffs that they all come up with are mezmorising. Just an incredible band to lose yourself in. The only problem that I had was when the guy who works at fingerprints came and stood next to me while taking photos in my space and my friend roger said he kept staring at me… I felt it but didn’t want to look. It was annoying, needless to say. Then some headbanger who didn’t have any rhythm what-so-ever, kept banging his head into my space. I did meet a really nice girl from KUCI (was it?) that wanted to do an interview with the Italian band, I told her that she better go catch up with them before dead meadow goes on, just in case they leave. There was this one other idiot near us while the Italian band was on who kept yelling out stupid stuff. I really wanted to punch him but he was drunk and might have kicked my ass. During the whole show, I kept envisioning, just kicking the crap out of him. Is that so wrong?

Saturday night my friend Rick invited me to a play in Burbank. I think I’ve only been to one play in my life….I was a teenager and I think it was in Cerritos and it was called Grease. I’d like to go to plays more often, especially the small ones held in tiny places.
To my surprise the lead character in this play called “Wife Swappers” by Justin Tanner was none other then Todd Lowe who is in The Gilmore Girls playing the guitar player in Lane’s band. The play was great and really funny. A little.. ok…” a lot” on the raunchy side.
After the play we decided to go see Rhett Miller at the Largo. It was sold out but we got in and found a good place to stand by the kitchen. I was really happy to find out that my favorite comedian Greg Behrendt was the opener, this guy cracks me up. He is all about the Rock ‘n Roll mixed in with comedy. If you have never experienced Greg Behrendt before, then I suggest you check the Largo website and check him out at least once.
I was standing by Jon Brion for most of the set so that was exciting to know that he may very well get on stage with Mr. Rhett Miller later on in the night.
Rhett hit the stage and did a lot of the Old 97’s tunes mixed in with his 'best of' solo stuff. It was all excellent. It started getting a little mellow and I was feeling very tired then Jon came up and they did some Bowie tunes and some other songs that I can’t remember right now. I’m glad we ended up going to see Rhett, it was a great Saturday night.

One of my “largo regular” friends is probably on a plane right now heading back home to Boston. “Hi Mark! Good luck to you” maybe you can catch Jon Brion when he plays in NY on the 27^th.

more to come.....

12:51 PM

music: the jesus & mary chain (i hate rock ‘n roll)

thanks to my friend roger who makes me the best compilation cd’s ever! i’ve kept them all from over the years and they still hold up. one in particular that i’ve been listening to lately that he named it so appropriately, “agitated”. it includes many great bands: the dirtbombs, lord high fixers, the saints, cabaret voltaire, broadcast, joy division, wire, ESG, suicide, stereolab, my bloody valentine, magazine, gang of four, blacktop, the hunches, the warlocks, the jesus & mary chain.
it’s “shake your ass” type music.

roger should be a dj, - hey! maybe tita will let you spin some songs with her sometime at ‘vida’. i wouldn’t dance but i could have a drink and talk to all the cute rocker boys!

i haven’t been doing much since last wednesday when i got strep throat and a sinus infection, because i’m still sick. i’m feeling better but it still lingers. i missed the vacation last night (sad face).
i’m going to see dead meadow no matter what on friday tho’!! this band brings a smile to my face just thinking about them live, on stage. the drone of the guitars….. the loud buzz, just everything about them.

i’m listening to ‘joy division’ now… just reminds me of 7^th grade dances… you know, when we danced like the go-go’s… ha ha. Imagine kicking your leg one at a time in front of you off to each side as your arms do the opposite towards your head. (oh fuck it, just go watch “valley girl” they do the dance) and of course the iggy pop - pogo dance, that was always fun to.

i’ve been trying to organize and add songs to my ipod for the last couple of nights. it’s a task, let me tell ya! i’ve got a 20 gig and now i’m wishing i had bought a 40 gig instead. but i don’t know if the special U2 ipod came in 40 gig. i only got it because of the color. it didn’t even come with free U2 songs at all, they only offered $50 bucks off of their entire catalogue. what shit! the full catalogue would cost about $400 bucks or more and they only give you $50 bucks off?? i’m not a huge U2 fan, in fact i’m kind of over their shtick. the color is cool and it’s a collectors item, or it will be. anyway…..i have 5,100 songs on it now and i have about 20 more cd’s to go. i’ve been obsessed with this for the last week or so, for hours and hours from the moment i get home from work until i go to sleep at night. the ipod is a great conversation starter piece also, i’m at starbucks today for my morning ritual of a chai latte and a blueberry scone, when some of the service guys from my work walk in and start talking to me about music…. i love that! now that they know i like music – we can talk some more and i can get a date! ha ha. and we are talking… cute service guys, the ones that work on the motorcycles.

i’ve also been watching a lot of tv shows lately. i know it’s a brainless thing to do but sometimes that’s what i want to do. some of the shows i’ve been watching are either on tv now or a series of old shows from cable that i’ve rented from netflix : dead like me (so good), summerland (reminds me of my surfer boyfriend days in high school), the gilmore girls (this show can be annoying at times but for the most part it goes by fast and is pretty funny. although they got rid of rory’s old boyfriend for good “Jess - Milo Ventimiglia” ) he is now on my other favorite tv show about the 60’s and american bandstand – american dreams (I love this show! it has it all; music, drama about the 60’s almost 70’s, cool cast) , last but not least – lost (this show is interesting. it has drama and it’s a mystery. they just killed off one of the main characters – i hope he is going to start doing movies or something now, for his sake.
his name is ian somerhalder and my friend cari and i were behind him in line at henry fonda theatre for the interpol gig a few years ago. grrrrrr! another show that i just received via netflix is called dead wood. i’ve heard so many good things about this and i can’t wait to start watching it. i don’t have cable so i’ve been deprived all these years. i kind of like that new show that is based off the original bbc “the office”, tho’ nothing will ever compare to the original….. that show rocked!

….in other news:
britney is pregnant, joaquin phoenix is in rehab, angelina and brad are indeed a couple, An influenza virus estimated to have caused the deaths of more than 1 million people in 1957 was mistakenly sent to thousands of laboratories around the world during the past six months, an al Qaeda-trained Algerian man was convicted in britain terror strike plot, jackson accuser's mother pleads the fifth - i’m so sick of hearing about m. jackson – put the fucker in jail already and throw away the key! c’mon! we all know he’s guilty. plus he bought all the rights to the beatles songs and named his first born “prince” at the same time the actual artist formerly known as price had lost his newborn baby!, and gross….. a german cannibal “armin meiwes” and prosecutors launched rival appeals at germany's top criminal court wednesday against his manslaughter conviction for killing and eating a willing victim, violence flares in iraq -a U.S. contract worker taken hostage in iraq this week appealed for his life in a video released on wednesday and asked the U.S. administration to negotiate with the insurgents on his behalf, Now, and last but not least…set your tivo’s because starting may 1^st "Family Guy" is officially "uncanceled," YAY!!

9:41 PM