chase the light

[NEKO CASE GALLERY] [VIDEO LINK]
I love Neko Case. And after my holiday in Ireland, that pretty much spills over to all curly haired girls. Except Nicole Kidman. Anyway, she was back in town tonight doing another show at The Derby. It was billed as “With Friends”. Those friends included Jon Rauhouse, Kelly Hogan, and Carolyn Mark. Openers were Ian Moore, and Victoria and Stolie. Victoria and Stolie were quite good for not ever having heard them before. I chatted to them briefly after the show. Stolie asked if I played the bass. I guess she thought I did because she said I was watching her play the bass most of the time. I said no, and then she teased me… “Well, then what were you looking at?” I think she might have been implying that I was looking at her breasts. Granted, they were very nice breasts and resting nicely on top of her bass so I wouldn’t be surprised at me. I dunno, maybe I was. I still liked them, er, the girls, um, their music. Jeez. I did eventually get around to telling her I play guitar. Stolie works for Bloodshot Records and does publicity for Neko, yet she’s also a singer songwriter. Victoria doesn’t work and sings and songwrites too, or something like that. Ian Moore went on next and was amazing. Another one I’d never heard of before. He’s playing at the Knitting Factory next month and I’ve gotta catch that show as I liked him that much. No CD out but he did have a DVD that I bought.

Then came Neko. I love Neko. God I love Neko. God, I love curly haired redheads who sing and are named Neko. If it was feasible to be a Nekohead and just follow her around the country I probably would. If it’s a band you follow around, that’s cool, but if it’s a girl it’s probably stalking. Neko, Carolyn, Kelly, Jon, and some guy on guitar whose name escapes me, came on and sounded amazing. The vocal harmonies were lush and all the songs a bit saucy. Lot’s of standards and gospel tunes too. Next to nothing of her own material. After having seen her twice before I was now armed with the knowledge of where to stand to get the best view. Just to the left of her mic. And that’s where I stood, about two feet from her the whole show. Jon Rauhouse just kicks ass on the steel guitar. Got some video clips of different parts of the show, including Jon ripping it up and some of “Wayfaring Stranger”. I love you Neko Case. You never call, you never write… What’ sup Baby? Looks like I’m going to have to fight for her with this guy [LINK].

Nothing quite like looking over your shoulder to see a bunch of grown-ups pressed up against the window gawking at a rainbow. Looked like a bunch of kids waiting for the ice cream truck. So I joined them. Last week we had a major downpour and it flooded an area by my office. Once they got the bulk of it cleaned up they needed to dry the carpet and drywall out. So they brought in these industrial blowers and it sounded like we were on a plane for two days. That combined with a box of packing peanuts that I received my new Shag figurine in, we thought we’d try a little experiment. It really came down to how much of a mess we could make. Video documentation exhibit A and exhibit B is below. We were pretty bored. [VIDEO LINK]

The little gold men arrived in their spacecraft this week and are all hanging out at the Kodak Theater. They will be performing mind control experiments on viewers for 4 hours next Sunday. Blake Edwards will be receiving the lifetime acheivement Honorary Oscar shown above. It’s the only one engraved because they already know who it is going to. Duh. It reads, “In recognition of his writing, directing and producing an extraordinary body of work for the screen.” Which includes, “Days of Wine and Roses”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “The Pink Panther” and sequels, “10”, “The Great Race”, “Operation Petticoat”, and one of my all time favorites “The Party”.

Oscar trivia.
5,803 = Voting members of the Academy.
24 = Number of award categories for the 76th telecast.
50 = Number of Oscars molded for the 76th telecast.
36 = Number of films receiving nominations.
2,443 = Number of statuettes awarded since 1927.
13.5 in. = Height of Oscar.
8.5 lbs. = Weight of Oscar.
500’x33′ = Width and length of the red carpet at the Kodak Theater.
Bob Hope = Person who has hosted the most shows. 18.
19 = Number of High Def cameras used for this years telecast.

Chris 333 and me, Chris 222, caught Melissa Etheridge [LINK] tonight at The House Of Blues. She’d seen her before and I’ve seen Melissa 4 or 5 times so we were a couple vets. Chris 111 didn’t come, but I don’t know him anyway. There are three Chris’ at work with the offices 111, 222, and 333. The guy in 111 even has Chris in his last name. Friggin’ weird. Anyway Chris 333 and I jammed over to the House Of Blues after work and ordered up some drinks and bopped our heads for the next couple hours. Melissa came out and ran through a bunch of new numbers which only showed how strong her early material is. I actually found her a bit of a bore tonight. I think because she’s not as edgy as she used to be. The first tour I saw her on she just blew doors off the place, now it was like a dress rehearsal with weaker tunes. Since a lot of her material is relationship based I think it was better when she was depressed. Kinda like Aerosmith was better on drugs. It was much more of a bar scene than a concert scene. Maybe I’ll pass on the upcoming Indigo Girls tour [LINK] based on the venue or hit one of those acoustic Husker Du/Bob Mould [LINK] shows instead. There would probably be much less drunken brawling going on. Speaking of Husker Du I love this that I read about them… “If you?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢re looking for a character gauge, one thing is clear: people who like Husker Du are cool. There are plenty of jerks who like The Ramones. There are plenty of jerks who like The Beatles. But if you meet a person who likes Husker Du, you KNOW that person isn?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t just another closed-minded conformist bonehead dick-bag.” Yeah, what he said. Melissa gets a “C” for tonight, the crowd gets an “D”. All that really matters is that Neko Case is back in town next Saturday anyway.

Stayed the night and had breakfast with Keith and Shelli this morning then headed down the peninsula to have lunch with a couple of former work friends. It was pouring rain until the central valley and it completely cleared by Santa Nella. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I arrived back in L.A., and that’s what I love about home.

Keith, Shelli and I met at Jack’s Bistro [LINK] in Jack London Square for champagne brunch. We tried to ignore the champagne. Two of their friends were also there and I got a bit of pee spam when I went to use the restroom. MTV advertises on the urinal pads. That would suck to get your name pissed on all day.

With a wacky hat shop and a camera you don’t have to spend any money, and you can always blame the hat if you don’t like the photo.

After lunch we took their dog Stoli to Point Isabel Dog Park. AKA Point Poop. Of course Stoli was spazzing out over going and was the first one in the car. I drove Keith’s Mini Cooper. Shweet little ride! At Point Isabel you can run your dog, let them swim in the bay, sniff other dogs, and then take them to Mud Puppy’s [LINK] for a bath. Great little dog friendly place. It also has the unfortunate association of being where Laci Peterson’s body [LINK] washed up on shore.

Later we drove over to Marin to a friend of theirs with a car load of musical equipment. We set up for a jam night. As if the weekend wasn’t fun enough we had a blast going through a bunch of songs, “Tiny Dancer”, “The Joker”, “Breakdown”, etc. Charlie, the host, was great and was the Paul Schaffer for the evening. His girlfriend was craft service, providing garlic shrimp, some bacon wrapped thingy’s and bowls of chili and bread which were all to die for. I sang one horribly squeaky version of “Save It For A Rainy Day” by The Jayhawks because of my vodka destroyed voice, but Shelli sang the rest and Keith was Rick Wakeman for the night. OK, maybe more Jon Lord with his synth patches. Excellent night to be inside playing music while it rained outside.

After 200 or more lifetime trips up the 5 freeway to San Francisco I had always tried to pass the “land of a million cows” as fast as possible. Damning the smell, I finally stopped to take a look at them. I got out of the car and it seemed like half of the million cows turned and looked up at me. I felt like I was expected to say something after all this time. All I could think to say was “I’m sorry we eat you”. I wasn’t sure how to say that in Cow though. That’s a lot of Double-Doubles out there [LINK].
Continuing on my way to San Francisco via the 152 and Casa De Fruta [LINK]. Word of advice; it’s not safe to drive through Pacheco Pass with one hand on the wheel and the other out the window taking pictures. Although you can nab some good backlit cloud photos on certain hairball turns. I stopped by Dreamworks [LINK] for a visit and to pick up Barbara.
I dragged former work friend Barbara up to the city for a V.D. dinner at Rocco’s [LINK] sans reservations, which turned out to be fine. After that we met up with Keith and Shelli at the piano bar Martuni’s [LINK] for some Martini’s and tunes. Hence the name. Shelli wanted to sing a bit and she’s friends with the piano player. Being Valentine’s Day, in the Castro district, and having gay and lesbian couples flying in from around the country to get married at City Hall this weekend, it was fairly packed with freshly minted Husbands and Wives. Including a couple of friends of Shelli and Keiths’ who got married the day before. So we toasted them and Shelli donned a film noir hat for a run through of some blues number. We saw an older woman who was sporting the mullet of mullets which was quickly dubbed the Ulti-mullet. The piano player and his hand picked singers ran through some gay anthems [VIDEO LINK] Did you know gay men like showtunes? Who knew?

[MAMMOTH GALLERY] [VIDEO LINK]

Watching “Big Fish” in the window reflection on the way home from Mammoth. The 6th annual Imageworks ski trip wrapped up Sunday with a quiet ride home. Busted ankles, lost snowboards, jacoozeeing, and snowmobiling were all part of the fun. I am now a snowmobiler. Whatever that means.

There’s a tooth in my washer!!!!! Oh my God that’s disgusting. I’ll never use that washer again. People, if you lose a toof, put it under your pillow. Just don’t put it in your pocket and forget about it. Eh hem. Good grief. I wonder what awaits me in the dryer? Anybody lose a molar?

French Toast with Canadian maple syrup and fruit compote $8.50. After brunch at Campanile/La Brea Bakery [LINK] the parental units wanted to go Farmers Market and then to the Beverly Center. It’s been a very 3rd Street day. You do know meat has artifical coloring right? It’s not red because it’s bloody. I’m also currently disturbed with the fact that my Mom was in the back seat singing “One Toke Over The Line” [LINK] while it was playing on the radio. Word for word I might add. I’m still undecided if that is really cool or really strange. It is frightening, I do know that.

I have an idea. If Humble Pie [LINK] was to release another album, say some unearthed live recordings, they should distribute them via swap meets worldwide. That’s about the only place you can buy a Humble Pie album these days anyway, so why not take it straight to the fans? Brilliant, eh? After walking around around the Fairfax Marketplace, not swap meet according to them, I started noticing all these classic rock album covers popping out at me. Paintings over here, crazy shoes over there, and some strange abstract crap thrown about the ground below me. I’m probably in that mindset after having just bought a book on the album cover artwork of Storm Thorgerson [LINK]. I took a few of my shots and mocked them up into classic rock album covers from the 70’s. Complete with worn covers and frayed edges. I miss album covers. Foghat rules! Update: 02/05/2004 Because of this post, I like that if you now type in “Humble Pie Album Covers” [LINK] into Google, my site comes up first. That’s funny. Ok, maybe not anymore.

Mural and weeds on Benito’s wall at Fairfax and Beverly.

Argh! I can’t stop playing!!! Click, then click again to hit the penguin [LINK]. 578.7 588.8 593 high score so far. Apologies to whoever made this as I commandeer its use. Must….hit….penguin…farther…

I love trips to the market. Although, today I snuck out on my Whole Foods [LINK] and cheated on her with the nearby Ralphs [LINK] market. I feel ashamed but I needed food and some household things like towels and lightbulbs. She can’t provide that so I went looking elsewhere. The sexy allure of overstocked shelves and big beautiful aisles is hard to resist.
So I’m pushing my cart around Ralphs and come across the candy section. On the top shelf I see a bag of “Sugar Free” Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. I love the regular Peanut Butter cups. So what if they’ve nailed the taste but without sugar? I could sit and drink diet Dr. Peppers and Reese’s Sugar Free Peanut Butter Cups everyday! Excellent! So I pick up a bag and on the way home I eat a few. Hmmm… not bad. Not really as good as the real ones but not a bad substitute.
So I’m home cleaning the house and flash forward a few hours later. Man, what the hell is wrong with me?? My stomach is making the most god awful noises and… In the unraveling of events I just happened to look on the back of the Reese’s bag [LINK]. Needless to say, read the fine print first. My dream of a Dr. Pepper and Peanut Butter Cup world just came to a crashing end. Aw crap, literally. Their idea of excess consumption and mine are obviously different.

Ya see, about 5 years ago I took a little journey to Paree. I accidently left behind any sort of hygiene products on my rush out the door. So after a day or two in Paris I really wanted to find some deodorant and other little nicities. Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, deodorant is bit hard to come by in Paris. I searched and searched and finally made my way into a perfume shop. Far back in the corner was a little 2.5 oz. stick of something called Extra Vielle deodorant from Roger & Gallet. Score, I had found the one stick of deodorant in France. That little stick cost me $16! It ended up costing me more later. This stuff better be good for $16. Well it was, and that would be the start of a love affair for Roger & Gallet products that includes an avalanche of deliveries to me in the States. I was telling Naz [LINK] about this at work a few weeks ago and I actually parted with a bar of soap for her to try out. The verdict? Estatic! Enough to want to go in on my next order. So, $65 later for me, and $82 later for her we got the soap de oro goods today. So, yes I import my soaps and cologne from France because I wouldn’t have it any other way. I probably shouldn’t be admitting to this. They do smell nice though, so go ahead and order some for yourself and see [LINK]. Brought to you by American Soaps That Suck Ltd.

Another in a long line of cats that does absolutely nothing all day. I know, I sat and watched her do nothing today. Yep, nothin’. Absolutely nothing.

As my New Years Resolution I have personally vowed to try out every web based fad this year. Stupid, or otherwise. I will begin with Mr. Picassohead [LINK]. Which I quite like. I still have to show my iPod [LINK], and flip off a Hummer [LINK]. Other great fads of the past include, “What’s your Hobbit name [LINK]?” “Popo Moss of Lake-by-Downs”. The very old Oracle Of Bacon [LINK] was fun for a few minutes back in the day. The current internet darling of fads, a Blog with comments enabled. Been there, doing that. There is the occasional Google Bombing [LINK]; “miserable failure“, “weapons of mass destruction“, and “french military victories“. I will do them all with no shame.

After having to deal with the cold all week we finally got the snow. A little late as now I have to deal with it at the airport and don’t get to enjoy it much. Included in the fun was two de-icings of planes. Which I thought was mildly interesting because I’ve never had to do that before. Sheltered So Cal. native that I am. The first de-icing in Boise, no problem. The second de-icing in Salt Lake I could have done without. Well, not without doing it, just the time it took. It’s probably left over Agent Orange from Vietnam. If you’ve never seen a plane de-icing, here ya go. [VIDEO LINK] It didn’t get light in Boise until 8:00am. Please get me home to my sunshine. Not a cloud in the sky when I arrived home. L.A. is my utopia.

Day 3, Boise. Find something to do. Ok, well, there’s the pink flamingo display down the road, there’s some fire hydrants down that way, how ’bout the co-op food store? Or there’s the Basque section of town where I was able to purchase a paellera. I also picked up some paella recipes and saffron. Oh man, can’t wait to fire that up.

We eventually ended up at my cousin’s. Who oddly enough bought a home a few miles from my sisters. So we went for a visit and I checked out the Childen Of The Corn field next to them. Looks like Kansas or something up here. The absolute highlite of my day though was the Mexican restaurant. Not because the food was good. It was middle of the road, but it was the menu that had me cracking up. They would phonetically spell some of the words. Pollo would have (poy-yo) next to it. Chipotle (chee-pote-lay), etc. If taco (tah-ko) had been on there I would have lost it. I guess you just get used to Spanish being a semi-secondary language in L.A.

This is the view I had all week. A giant wet nose looking at me. Kelsie needs more attention than any dog, ever. She just won’t let it go. All you have to do is put your hand on her head and she’s happy. Unfortunately you have to do that all day long. She’s one clingy girl. [VIDEO LINK]