The Man in Black

Indeed.

Well said...well said.

He Walked the Line

The year was, probably, 1984. As a young kid I would often thumb through the parent’s record collection. One album cover struck me in particular. It was a shot of man in front of a microphone, beads of sweat running down his face, thick, rockabilly hair, wearing black. He looked weathered; tough. At an earlier age I learned how to work the record player on my own. So I put it on. Not exactly music for kids, but for some reason it became a personal favorite. There was something about that baritone voice, energy of the live show, which happened to be in front of a prison audience. It became the most heavily rotated album of my parent’s records. It was Johnny Cash: Live at Folsom Prison.

Johnny Cash was the anthem of the beaten down, blue-collared work force. His songs were brutally honest and edgy. I later bought the infamous Live at Folsom Prison when it was remastered for CD, with songs that didn’t make the final cut. If you’re unfamiliar with Johnny Cash, I highly recommend that album as a starter. Over the past few years Cash has gained recognition among the younger, mainstream artists and fans. He was even nominated for some MTV VMAs this year. He’ll be sorely missed.

Johnny Cash, the Man in Black: 1932 – 2003.

Nailed It

And nailed it they did! Small Brown Bike that is, with Nail Yourself to the Ground. That's part of the reason I was dissapointed with the new album. I love the EP so much; I thought they were heading in that direction. The new album is growing on me fast, though. Watch out!

More or Less (mostly less)

Yeah, I’ve had a little difficulty in finding Small Brown Bike CD’s. For some reason, Zia’s and other record store chains have a debilitating lack of Small Brown Bike. I went hunting Friday for their previous EP, Nail Yourself to the Ground, only to be met with a frigid void. I’d imagine I’d have to order The River Bed online.
I’m interested to hear how it sounds though, especially since I think the songs on Nail Yourself are great.

P.S. Gabe, I liked The Fire Theft e-card that you sent me. Hopefully, Zia’s will stock up on that release.

River Bed

Lame posters we've been lately. Yes, The River Bed did come out yesterday. It seems as though I picked up Zia's only copy. Sorry, Brock! I can't believe they only had one copy! First impression: not so great. What!? Well, it seems like they're going through some experimental change. It's quite different than their previous material. I mean, there's good songs on there, most notably Safe In Sound. I probably just need a few listens to get used to their new direction. It just doesn't have that hardcore intensity that they're most noted for.

Nothing is something

Wish I had something to mention about the last few days, but I don't. Sorry for the lack of updates too. I've just been lazy. Judging by Gabe's last post, I guess that means Small Brown Bike's new LP, The River Bed came out today. Be sure to check it out.

-Late

Rock On

Before this trip I was posting at least once a day (except weekends). I've been lame this week. Still recovering from a good vacation, I guess.

Small Brown Bike's album comes out this Tuesday!!! Rock! They posted the first and second place winners of the t-shirt design contest on their website. They're OK. I wish I could've gotten mine done and sent in on time.

Modest Mouse should have an album out his month also, but so far, no date.

The Fire Theft has a flash version of their site now. Album on the 23rd!

The lesser known Radiohead

So, they played "Follow Me Around" in Seattle last Sunday. So far, that's...

Creep, Bulletproof, Big Ideas, The Bends, Nice Dream and Subterranean Homesick Alien.

Still no Bishop's Robes (although I've read that they've been teasing it like crazy) and still no Big Boots. They haven't been playing Optimistic or The Tourist lately either.

Oh me oh my...

Hey what's the deal with Zwan's rumored new bass player? Some guy from a band called Urge Overkill, (I guess that means Corgan threw in the towel on girl base players). While I'm at it, what's the deal with Rolling Stone's new 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time? It's cool that they put Johnny Greenwood and Ed O'Brien on the list, but it's unforgivable that J. Mascis isn't even on the list. And then it just becomes an industry of... cool.

A Gabe post...sweet. I'd love to hear about your trip...well, I've heard about it, but if you decide to put it in blog form then I'd read about it.

5 down, 5 to go

Five out of ten chapters in math homework are done, and I’m gonna try and move in on three more this afternoon. Not bad! I hadn’t even finished one set of homework questions before I quit the class last semester. Maybe things are coming together, or maybe I just want to get it over with.
Hey Mercedes was good, as usual, but as you might know, the band was sick. You could tell they weren’t feeling well either. I think Damon (their drummer) was the only chipper one that night. “What else is up” you say? Well, assuming I get through this hellish math before Friday, I plan to try and find a hotel for San Diego in September. Yeah, I gotta get my junk together regarding that whole thing…

Goodbye, ta ta.

Back into the Swing of Things

Yup, that's me. I'm back from lovely Colorado and I had a wonderful time. Unfortunately I never had access to a computer so I couldn't blog from there! Perhaps I'll do a journal similar to Brock's. Glad you finished that up, Brock! Sounds like it was a grand ol' trip.

Champs and chumps

If you’re lucky, they’ll let you sell your soul for an average GPA. Yessir, tonight is my math class, and guess what? It’s the same instructor that I had last time. Goodness gracious, if that means anything then I guess it means that he’ll lecture from 5 to 7:30 (ten minutes before release) and then dump an initiation test on us. Oh well. Hey Mercedes is tonight, and I can’t miss that. Thankfully, this guy is pretty flexible. If we need to skedaddle he’ll usually let a student leave a test unfinished and then come back and work on it next week. What a champ.

So I hope they play “It’s Been a Blast” tonight, and of course, “Quality Revenge At Last”. It should be fun.

Hell and Highwater

Come hell or high water I was going to finish that damned trip diary. And now that it’s done, I can get back to posting the usual junk…err...magic. Anyway, speaking of trips, Gabe is on one right now in Colorado. I think he was going to see Radiohead at the Red Rocks too. I’m excited to hear how his trip went.

Last night I went to my first screenwriting class. I liked it very much, although I’m starting to realize how grim my chances are of succeeding as a director/screenwriter. Hopefully, I’ll make some good movies and write some good scripts. I had the plan to use one of my original ideas for a movie as my project in this screenwriting class, but the instructor informed the students that we’d all be tearing into one another’s work and that if we had a project that was equated to “our baby” then we should probably leave it out. So, I decided to write a new story for this class…I pretty much just made something up while I was in class.
The other neat thing about this class is that we’ll bring in pages from our scripts and then assign classmates to read parts of our script. He wants us to get a feel for how our stuff will sound coming out of another person, to see if our dialogue mechanics work. I’m looking forward to that.

Ok, I’m outta here. See you later.

Brock's Adventures Day 8-10: Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

I was much slower to rise the next morning. For that matter, so was everyone else. By the time we had all gotten ready for another day in the city we came to the conclusion that there wasn’t much else to do. In a short amount of time we had been to places we hadn’t been before, seen sights that we hadn’t seen before. (I had seen Alcatraz, the wine country, Pier 39, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Japanese Tea Gardens, Lucas Valley and more) So, to round out our 4th day at San Francisco, we rode the cable cars.
That’s something I wish we had in Phoenix, even though it’d be pointless to have. In fact, to this day, San Francisco is the sole city in the world to use the cable car system (and it’s a very crowded ride). I remember sitting there at the cable car station and watching them fill up each car to the brim with people. They would cram, cram and then cram some more. And when they ran out of space? They just started putting people on the outside of the car, letting them hold on by the brass rail. When we finally got in a car we rode into the city and stopped at a little coffee shop and it was at that little café that I saw one of the oddest things on my trip.
At a table behind ours was a couple sitting and eating cake and drinking coffee. There was nothing out of the ordinary with those two; they simply didn’t finish all of their food. However, after they had left the café an elderly woman came in and sat down at their table. And ate. By all appearances, she didn’t seem to be homeless. She had nice clothing on and she looked groomed. She probably just thought to herself, “well here’s some perfectly good food, so I’ll simply take care of it”. Weird…
After browsing through some stores and walking around the city for a while we rode the cable cars, again, this time on the way to dinner. The second time around was much better since I got to hang out on the railing. We coasted up and down hills and I almost bumped into a few parked cars and street cones with my toe. Our driver was also an interesting fellow. At one stop there was a beautiful girl waiting for the car. When the driver stopped he told his attendant that he could only take on a single. Visibly pleased, the girl said she was single, at which the driver jumped away from his post and exclaimed “twenty-five to thirty?” All the way downhill he kept chuckling to himself unbelievably; “I’ve waited years to use that joke, and finally I got the opportunity!”

The last two days were pretty much just the indigestion of my trip. Don’t get me wrong, they were still nice and I was still mesmerized by the city. By now however, everything was wearing a little thin and I was starting to realize that I had been away from home for an uncharacteristically long period of time. (By the time I finally got back I was just 4 days shy of being gone two weeks)
Instead of doing anything ambitious I took time to meet up with a friend of mine who lived in the Bay Area. He was doing well and we spent a good amount of time just hanging around in my hotel lobby chatting. After that we went on our Chinatown tour. That wasn’t too great to be honest. I mean, I guess it was ok from a certain point of view; it’s just that I saw a plethora of garbage and useless kick-knacks. Most of the crap the vendors were selling were glass capsules with condoms in them, ingeniously labeled “break glass in case of an emergency”. Oh, and to answer your subliminal question, no, I didn’t buy any.
I guess I was expecting to see some oriental items, not birth control and fortune cookies with pornographic fortunes. Maybe I simply didn’t look in the right shops. Heck, I’m a tourist, I’m American, therefore I probably gravitated to all of the businesses that most Americans in Chinatown do. I saw some great swords that were imported from China though, and some teapots.
We spent the next two days getting back to Phoenix. Along the way we stopped off in San Diego and visited Coronado Island, my home away from home. San Francisco was amazing to be sure, but I’ll always enjoy San Diego. Maybe one day if I’m ever ludicrously rich (which is highly unlikely) I’ll move there. For the moment though, I was content to get back on the road and return to Phoenix, Home Sweet Home (awwww, sugar coated ending!)

Brock's Adventures Day 6-7: Pour the Wine

It was daylight receding and I was sitting there in a darkened, wooden room by a window that glanced out at the street. The place I was sitting in was none other then the Buena Vista café, a quaint little joint positioned along the crevices of the city. Nothing was particularly outrageous about this place. No props or attitude garnered it its claim to fame. By all rights it was the kind of café that could be found in any big city. The only thing that made this our destination for dinner was one thing; the Buena Vista was the birthplace of the Irish coffee. With a little caffeine, a frothy covering, and a healthy dose of whiskey, it was well reputed and notorious within San Francisco’s social circles. Of course, I being the under-age minor I am only took a slight taste of the concoction, but I earnestly believed through that sip that the Irish coffee earned every bit of notoriety it had contracted. Thankfully, the Buena Vista also had good food.

While I’m telling you about this place I should also mention that this was after we saw the Japanese Tea Gardens. While visiting the soothing calm of tranquil gardens, everyone decided to get something alcoholic, so I followed along in high hopes of actually eating somewhere within the city. And we did. The Buena Vista was stationed along a road just before the piers. It was there at the table that everyone decided they wanted to do something else alcoholic for the next day in the city: They wanted to visit the wineries. Napa Valley, Beringer, and even the Francis Ford Coppola Vineyard were on their list of wineries to stop off at. Considering that I had already indulged my wishes to see Alcatraz, I decided to tag along and see if I could get on one of the vineyard tours. After the choice had been made (and we had finished dinner) we left the Buena Vista Café and strolled around the city to get a glance at life after the sun had set. We didn’t go anywhere particularly interesting, or lively, but we did come across a small gallery that was currently showcasing some artwork by Marc Chagall. Marc Chagall had painted a series of dark paintings during a stay in Russia, and those pieces were about to be put on display. As a result everyone was in the grips of his works. The paintings we glanced at in this gallery were not those understated pieces, but rather some of his more recognized works. Colorful and bright, the reds, oranges and blues of these paintings seemed to wash and run into one another. Misty clouds of liquid sunshine composed the visages of famous musical icons like The Beatles and renowned landmarks like the Golden Gate Bridge. Chagall’s overstatement of the bluntly obvious though had turned McCartney’s rosy smile into a sneering grimace more characteristic of the Joker. These pieces were totally unlike the works currently being popularized in the paper. It was in those paintings from Russia that dark figures and harshly beautiful women haunted Chagall’s mind.
It was an understatement of his work, and seeing his work was an understatement of my trip.

The following day we drove out to the Wine Country to see if it was at all possible to go on a Wine Tasting Tour of the vineyards. My family felt that it was completely plausible for these wineries to hand out free bottles of wine to anyone who happened to stumble upon their grounds. Moreover, they had planned to find this one particular vineyard whose name escapes me now. At any rate, we set off to find the wineries and to go on a tour. Hours and hours of driving produced no sign of that particular vineyard; yet, it did provide a fine tour of the countryside. Sure, I was in throes of boredom sitting there in that car looking for a vineyard that was starting to seem non-existent. But the countryside was beautiful. It was green and lush, and the plains of the valley rose and descended in hills and expanses. Now that I’m sitting here typing up this description of the countryside, I’ve come to wish that I had brought a camera of my own to take pictures of the land. Finally, after a time, they decided to stop at the Beringer winery and take their tour.
When we got out at the Beringer Vineyard I couldn’t help but be reminded of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I suppose the best word to describe the winery is “whimsical”. It had such a surreal personality. It was like the winery was slightly stationed in the real world and slightly in the bizarre. Some of the more fantastic elements included winding cobblestone paths that led into twisting stairs and large looming wooden doors that opened up into barrel-laden rooms. I kept looking around to see if I could find any surly Oompa Loompas stumbling around. Sadly, I only found half-hearted employees. Also disappointing was missing the final tour of the day. We had spent so long driving around looking for this unknown vineyard that we missed the other vineyard’s tours. Still, my dad decided to get some wine while he was there, and we found a good Mexican restaurant on the way back. So…it wasn’t an utter loss.

Lose Control!

Check out three songs from Hey Mercedes' upcoming album Loses Control here!

Brock, Pitchfork Media has a review of the B-side, Wicked Child. They say the newest B-sides have been pretty blah. Which I agree with. They're not up to par with their older B-sides. I have only listed to Gagging Order, though, and the B-sides for There, There.

Moving Along

Just a quick message to say hullo…

So today I’m searching for the new b-sides included in the new Radiohead single, “Go to Sleep”. The single doesn’t hit the American shelves until September 9th I believe, but the MP3’s are online right now…somewhere.

Here’s what I want: Fog (again), I am a Wicked Child, I am a Citizen Insane, Gagging Order (also known as ‘Move Along’, an old Kid A track).

If you’ve got a clue as to where they are, clue me in. Likewise, if I find em first, I’ll let you know.

Refuel

That was my little something that I planned on posting. I guess I just let it slip my mind yesterday when I got wrapped up in watching the Back to the Future DVDs. I think I only have two more posts or so on that trip diary, so that’s all well and good.

Yesterday was pretty interesting. Like I said, I got involved with the Back to the Future movies sometime around 1:00 and I ended up spending the rest of my free time reading that screenwriting book. It’s a good book, and I’m about halfway through it now. I had a couple of ideas and thoughts for movies that I want to eventually make. Reading that book has helped me to sort many of those ideas out and make them “presentable”.
After that, I went over to Marco’s place and watched a movie called The Tao of Steve. Although I wouldn’t say it was a resounding masterpiece, it was viewable. Then, preceding that viewing, we went in search of gas. If you turn on CNN you can hear about our great tragedies, such as a loss of gas. Marco and I managed to find gas however at a small QT station right by his apartment and my house. As soon as we found it we called up his co-workers and got them to drive over and refuel their cars as well.

That’d be great if Year of the Rabbit didn’t have any gas and they got stuck here in Phoenix. “Hey dudes, sorry you’re stuck. But hey! At least you can play songs for us until the gas lines get fixed!”

Brock's Adventures Day 6: The Bridges and gardens

The following day we decided that it was time to go on a hunt for the Golden Gate Bridge. When we first arrived in the city of San Francisco the entire vicinity was engulfed in fog and mist, which made it very hard to locate the Golden Gate (despite the fact that it was one of the most notable pieces of American architecture). It was funny though at first because when we first drove into San Francisco we came across the bay bridge and followed it into Oakland. Most of my family immediately assumed that it was the Golden Gate Bridge that we had crossed. “Oh, that has to be it” my brothers exclaimed. “I mean, how many bridges are there in San Francisco? That was a bridge, and it was in San Francisco. Therefore, we just crossed the Golden Gate Bridge!” I on the other hand insisted that it wasn’t the Golden Gate Bridge on accounts that it wasn’t bright red and because it had many more supportive beams. If you’ve ever visited San Francisco or if you live in it, then you know what I’m talking about. The Bay Bridge is steely and gray, and it has multiple beams jutting out from its surface. The Golden Gate Bridge however, is red and occupied by two massive beams on the far ends of the bridge’s encompass. Still, despite my reasoning, I was shot down by just about everyone else in the car. “Maybe they took the red paint off and colored it gray so that terrorists couldn’t find it” someone offered. “Those terrorists will smash into any national monument they can, and I’m sure they’d want to destroy the Golden Gate if they got the chance to.” Quietly, I deferred on the matter and let it rest. Besides, the second we were bombarded with a street vender selling t-shirts and post-cards, they’d get an idea of what the Golden Gate looked like. Sure enough, before visiting Alcatraz I collected numerous post cards with pictures of the Golden Gate on them, promptly displaying them before one and all in my party as irrefutable evidence that we had, in fact, crossed the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate.

That’s why our second day in the city of San Francisco ended up becoming nothing more then a glorified search party fumbling through the fog in order to find an unmistakable landmark. Eventually, we found it. After following the guidance of a map (which is a wondrous device when put to use) we found the Golden Gate Bridge. I’m glad we found it too, because it was truly an experience for everyone in the car to behold. Alcatraz had been my own personal destination. The Golden Gate Bridge on the other hand was something we all wanted to see, and it was a brilliant sight indeed. The city was still under the fog’s siege, making the bridge look very mysterious and confounding. In fact, it reminded me of that part in the Incredible Hulk where the military chases Bruce Banner to San Francisco. The Hulk, trying to escape their jets and helicopters, clings on to the beam of the bridge, lurking above the fog. I actually managed to pull a fast one on my younger brother Parker by saying, “Look! There’s the Hulk” and pointing wildly into the air.
After we drove through the bridge we were led into Marion County (which is pretty much owned by writer and director George Lucas) where we had lunch. At lunch we decided to go and visit the Golden Gate Park in San Francisco as well as its renowned Japanese Tea Garden. Hence, we left the green and lush Marion County and stumbled into the equally green and lush Japanese Tea Gardens. I’m glad I got to see that too, because a lot of the foliage and plant life were natives to Japan. They even had ponds set up around the garden with stepping-stones for you to cross on. At one point we came to a bridge that curved so sharply, we had to climb across it as opposed to walking.
After seeing the gardens we enjoyed some nice hot green tea in the peaceful atmosphere. Ultimately, it ended up being the most peaceful day of the entire trip…bridges and all.

If We Only Had Gas

No, not that kind of gas. Brock and I live in Phoenix, and if hadn't heard already, we're having a gas shortage crisis. In fact, I may not be able to go to the YOTR show tonight because I need to conserve the gas I have. What a bummer!! Maybe their tour bus won't be able to get gas and they'll be stuck here playing shows until the matter's resolved!

Brock, where's that little somethin', somethin' you were going to post, huh?

The Shame

Forgiveness preeze!

(I'll put a little something more up later on today) Right now I'm reading that screenwriting book that Gabe and I got for our class. It's fantastico.