Y'all Need to Help Me Raise My Brows

So, I've been compulsively taking notes on an as-yet-to-be-explicitly-discussed creative project; as my old friend Mark once said, "Watch what you talk about when you talk about your writing -- the gods are watching." So I'm not talking about this much. My computer's been in an Apple hospital in Memphis (this is for true, I swear, Memphis) since mid-month, and in the meantime, I'm sketching out characters and scenarios, doing reading for research, et cetera. Right now, I'm reading two things -- one comic, one painfully pulp -- that I feel can help me, but I'm feeling awfully low-brow in these choices. So I suppose what I'm asking for is suggestions.

Let me be more specific.

My project involves witches, and I'm rereading some stuff I've read before, and a few things I've always wanted to, to turn over other people's ideas and also to make sure I'm not ripping anyone off by accident (curse this photographic memory of mine). I'm curious as to what folks' favorite witch lit and cinema and such are -- comix, movies, novels, songs, poetry, nonfiction, whatever. I'm trying to immerse myself in this in the time I have without my own machine, and it'd be more fun with a little help from my friends.

Oh, and thanks to everyone who came to the Living Room this weekend. That was a really fun, entertaining reading. And no, I'm not just saying that because they made pie and I had a date -- I didn't get to eat any of the pie. I was too nervous.

Take me to the movies, 'cause I love to sit in the dark

What do you get when you add a Siamese twin punk band, disenfranchised African-American voters, a koala businessman suspected of murder, a singing Tony Soprano, Cuban moppets on the run, the Jonestown massacre, flamenco dancers, Matt Dillon as Bukowski, Bollywood-style musical numbers set in a Hong Kong circus, Garrison Keillor's homespun wisdom, Emperor Hirohito talking about hermit crabs, cosmonauts stranded in space, Tibetan monks watching TV, and surreal Japanese porno about George W. Bush's finger? Either a really complicated rumble or the 49th annual San Francisco International Film Festival, which starts today and runs through through May 4. Reverse Angle editor Sam Hurwitt calls 'em as he sees 'em on the KS website.

On a housekeeping note, LiveJournalistas may be interested to know that there is now an LJ feed for this very blog for their reading and feeding convenience.

Touch My Omelet

Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
Proceed directly to Bear Parade and read

Michael Earl Craig's e-book, Touch My Omelet.

here comes the rain again

Call me wanky, but the intense, neverending rain (except for those sweet, sweet hours this weekend, gorgeous) has got me thinking about how we wee wanker humans are affecting that most natural of phenomenons, the weather, even here in the beautiful bubble of the SF Bay Area, which sometimes I like to pretend is immune to most disasters. Ha ha, yes, I know. We're coming up on the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake and I'm a dunderhead. But still. Ye olde climate change is getting me a little buggered, as usual. There's nothing new on that tip.

Still, here are a few of my personal faves at the moment:

1) The new issue of Vanity Fair is their green issue. And while the cover is full of wanker Hollywood types like Al Gore and Pretty Woman Roberts, the inside is full of coolness, like Chip Giller, the founder of my favorite environmental Web site Grist.




2) Guster, my new favorite band. Yes, they are hippies. But they are also super cute Jewish boys with a great sense of humor. Definitely check out the songs "Backyard" and "Come Downstairs and Say Hello" from their media page. They're on a Campus Crusade environmental crusade tour right now. Check out this report from ground zero in Michigan:

April 6th -- East Lansing MI
About a half hour before our scheduled National Biodiesel Fuel Press Conference today in East Lansing, Adam hit his head on a tampon dispenser in the bathroom while getting up from taking a crap, requiring a trip to the Michigan State Infirmary and four staples in his head.

There are two tragedies here.

1) We lost our one articulate spokesman at the press conference. Ryan stepped up to the podium and did his best to talk about renewable energy, alternative fuels, and making a difference in your community, but the one guy who actually knows what he's talking about was getting his bloody scalp stiched up.

2) I'm like a pig in shit today. All I could think about during the press conference was writing this road journal. I know it's wrong, but I feel the way Jon Stewart must have felt the day he walked into the office and learned that Dick Cheney had shot his 78-year old hunting buddy -- no one died, and it's just good clean fun. Lots of it. If I had Ed Helms standing by I'd ask him "did Adam Gardner really take a crap and then cut his head open on a tampon dispenser today" and Ed would take on a grave tone with his wonderfully redundant response -- "Indeed yes, Brian, I'm here on the scene in East Lansing where Guster guitarist Adam Gardner has apparently sliced his head open on a tampon dispenser in a bizarre bathroom accident, all a mere half hour before he was scheduled to speak at the band's big press conference on biodiesel fuels."




Ha ha. Tampon dispenser. Crapping. My kind of humor, friends.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

3) Ming and Ping

This freak played at the Rickshaw Stop Saturday while I was working. The crowd FREAKED OUT and LOVED THE SHIT OUT OF HIM. Basically he pretends that he has a twin, and his twin is somewhere else, like in Hong Kong or something, and then they coordinate their live show with a "live broadcast" of his twin shown on a screen behind them. It was pretty amazing. Bad, fun, danceable electropop. Drag queens abounded and played the cowbell. Ming insisted that the dancers were "extra spicy!" It was impossible to find pint glasses anywhere because it was so sweaty, packed, and impossible to focus.


4) The Milo Foundation

A great dog rescue group in the Bay Area. We fostered our doggie friend Goldie from this organization, and we may again. though Dan and I are still sad about giving away Goldie to our new family. It kind of broke our hearts. Because we are the sappiest dog lovers in the Western Hemisphere.

5) Spiral Gardens

If you get down West Berkeley way, stop in at this rad nursery and "Food Security Project" on Sacramento Street. I bought all of my seedlings here, and now that I've finally gotten on the snail's asses by sprinkling iron phosphate everywhere, my hollyhocks, Oregon snowpeas, rhubarb, strawberries, bull's blood beets, curly mustard greens, etc., etc., are flourishing. They're volunteer run and serve the local community, striving to provide fresh, organic produce for all folks, regardless of income. Oh, and they sell redworms for your worm composting, if you're into that sort of thing. Lord knows. I am.

6) The Current

You can stream this totally fucking mindblowing station through iTunes or Windows Media. THIS is what public radio should sound like. Check out Mary Lucia's set list from today (Mary Lucia, by the by, is Paul Westerberg's sis):
4 - 5 pm
4:25 Nouvelle Vague - I Melt With You
4:19 Thunderbirds Are Now! - Harpoons Of Love (Aquati
4:16 The Sounds - Song With A Mission
4:10 Paul Westerberg - Seein' Her
4:06 The Lashes - Sometimes The Sun
4:03 Hockey Night - Saturday Night Gallop

3 - 4 pm
3:58 The Faint - Let the Poison Spill From Your Lips
3:55 Heavy Sleeper - I'm With You
3:52 LIVE - Eagles of Death Metal In Studio
3:52 Weezer - My Best Friend
3:48 The Fall - Hit the North
3:45 Crystal Skulls - Treat It Well
3:30 Marjorie Fair - Stare
3:27 Elliott Smith - Memory Lane
3:25 Hank Williams - A Mansion On The Hill
3:19 Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - The Charging Sky
3:14 Louis XIV - Marc
3:10 Drive-By Truckers - Sink Hole
3:08 The 101ers - Letsagetabitarockin'
3:06 ACDC - There's gonna be some Rockin'
3:01 Friends Like These - Karen

2 - 3 pm
2:56 Jamie Lidell - The City
2:53 Belle & Sebastian - White Collar Boy
2:48 Minus Story - Little Wet Head
2:45 Tammy Wynette - D-I-V-O-R-C-E
2:40 The Double - Hot Air
2:35 The Teenage Prayers - Center Of The World
2:33 Morphine - Yes
2:30 Run Come (Throw Away You - Run Come (Throw Away You
2:24 Kelley Stoltz - The Sun Comes Through
2:19 Patrick Phelan - Fall
2:14 Breakestra - Family Rap (This is the Sound)
2:10 The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Knock Me Down
2:06 Psyche Origami - Commercial Property
2:01 Gogol Bordello - Immigrant Punk


I love them because 1) they play your on-line-submitted requests; 2) they post their setlists in real time; and 3) because MINNESOTA ROCKS!!!!!


7) Hammocks.

Damn man. When that rain stopped for a few hours and the damn mongo hammock dried out, I just wanted to stay in the sunny yard forever. The smell of mint, the twittering of the incredibly greedy birdfeeder-emptying songbirds, the incessant evil barking of the newly arrived Rottweiller next door. Yeah, life ain't perfect, but it seems a hell of a lot better when it's spent in a hammock.

Y'all mind if I drive?

The weekend's all gone. It's Monday night, so here are my/your editorial favorites for the next week:


1. The Neko Case interview at Pitchfork. I'm kind of over the 'Fork -- it's not them, it's me -- but it seems like Neko really lets loose in this one, although it ends too quickly for my tastes. Here's a sample:

Pitchfork: Still, there are lots of traditional elements to the songwriting. It's not like a Brian Eno record.

Case: That's totally true. I'm a huge Brian Eno fan and Taking Tiger Mountain is one of my favorite albums of all time. But when I think about songwriting my mind goes first to things like Roy Orbison or Dolly Parton or any classic songs by the Platters or Jackie Wilson. Or old r&b songs like "Nothing Takes the Place of You". They're really simple structurally and they don't adhere to a time or place, and that's very powerful. I think of all songwriting as high art, but that's what I instinctively think of first. Not that more experimental artists aren't just as valid. I'm sure lurking under the surface in my mind are people like Brian Eno and Roxy Music wearing giant sideburns and leopard skin pants going, "You can put a saxophone on it!" In my sleep, I'm tossing and turning. Bryan Ferry's going, "Neko, wake up. You don't have to do it that way." [laughs]

Pitchfork: That's quite a dream.

Case: I've had a waking dream like that but not a sleeping one.

(Read it all here: http://pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/c/case_neko-06/)

2. The Alternative Press Expo. Rogue Reporter and I went on Saturday and, though it was totally overwhelming, and I think the goodly geek overload actually rendered her physically ill, I came home with some new comic wonderfulness, all of which is serving to inspire me in my own wannabe graphic novelling. One thing I bought was "Locas in Love," which collects the first four Penny Century comics. Wotta phenomenon! I also got "Fortune's Bitch," a local comic that follows a luck-obsessed sex worker around the Tenderloin. (Sorry, I can't find a link for it.) And I got the first volume of "Hopeless Savages," a sort of Anglophile Locas Lite meets Spy Kids. It's cute as a button: http://www.onipress.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=223

3. Bunnywith: My Book of a Thousand Bunnies. This didn't come from APE -- Ross brought it home and I think it's funnier than a seven-arm chickenshaped ticklebot. Or something. There is definitely something wrong with me. http://www.eyesuckink.com/Bunnywith/BunnyBook1.htm

4. Having a friend who works at a record store. My friend/favorite ex-boyfriend ever took me out to lunch today and gave me a huge stack of vinyl:
The Kinks, "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneyground"
The Billie Holiday Story Vol. 1
The Stone Poneys, "Evergreen Vol. 2"
GWW "John Birch Society Blues" (A Dylan bootleg, apparently)
Tim Hardin Golden Archive Series
John Prine s/t
Merle Haggard's/ tribute to Bob Wills
Ella Fitzgerald sings the Duke Ellington songbook

... and two more that I already have, which he instructed me to pass on to others. He also gave me two new boxes of tapes for my car. It all does my unemployed heart SO much good. We also frolicked amongst the junk sculptures of the Albany Bulb. Let's hear it for bicycle wheels!

FOR FUEL

click pic for fuel