Where is the hotel?

will fucking kill you

Kathryn took me to the beach last week. Only my fourth time since moving to LA in 2005.

dream girl.

don't start no shit

job review.

i'm coming back.  i promise.

and finally.

also.

other than being a TOTAL FREAK OUT CRAZY LOONEY MOOK, i don't know if blago is guilty of anything.....yet.

not saying he didn't do some shit.  or that he should be gov.  BUT.... he was elected. and i do think he is right, in his totally goofball way, in saying that he has not been convicted of anything.

just sayin.


plus i will miss him and i am really mad that the Illinois State Senate dragged ass so long and didn't vote early enough for THE DAILY SHOW to be able to at least get on last installment of  "SCUM DOG MILLION-HAIRS" in before the weekend.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Scumdog Million-Hairs - Geraldo Interview

Daily Show Full Episodes
Funny Political Videos

Important Things With Demetri Martin
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i went to see 'The Wrestler' and all i got was a staph infection.

last night i saw "the wrestler" with amber.
now i am sorry. but i do not understand why this movie is getting so many accolades.  okay. i will say that mickey rourke was excellent at playing a fuck up, much like he is in real life. so it's not that much of a stretch. not like when say, john travolta made his comeback.  he at least was coming back from sorta watered down roles. hadn't had much action in awhile and was maybe feeling like a loser.  then he comes back as a bad ass in pulp fiction.
but whatever.

that's not why i decided to blog for a SECOND time today. 

today i was walking in the park. right now, for that matter. and right when the opening chords of  "break up your band" by CHAVEZ came on (on shuffle, so randomly)  i thought, "oh yeah. this is a jam. man, the 90's ruled."
and that reminded me of the part in the wrestler where randy the ram is trying to lap dance marissa tomei to RATT and they start lamenting the 80's  and the end of hair metal. and then both exclaim "the 90's sucked!"

and that's when i realized that i really thought that movie was a piece of shit.

and then UNWOUND "valentine card" came on and i thought "exactly."

also, i am sorry. and i know i do not have kids, but this is all i have to say.  the only thing that affected me about that film, that moved me in any way was the grimness of his situation.  i did not feel any empathy for his character.  i just thought 'ya know what dude?  don't want your daughter to call you a piece of shit? don't be a piece of shit."

and....
one more thing:
i once put (accidentally) put my thumb into a deli meat slicer and blood absolutely DOES NOT SPRAY AROUND THAT MUCH.

what up

MORGAN just asked if this was my dad.

it's not.

also.

to paraphrase the great JC WATTS SR.

A BLACK MAN HEADING THE REPUBLICAN NATIONAL PARTY IS LIKE A CHICKEN BECOMING THE CEO OF KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN.

i love jc watts sr.

R.I.P Ron Asheton

i woke up today to the news that Ron Asheton was found dead in his house.  what a bum out.

it was my second job, guitar teching for J Mascis, that i was fortunate enough to not only meet ron but ended up spending a good amount of time with him as he would fly out to various shows on that tour. J would do half a set of his songs with Watt and George Berz and then Ron would come out and they would play a half set of stooges songs, Watt on vocals.  I have so many fond memories of those gigs.

As a matter of fact it was at the very first show on that tour that i met Ron.  not only was it just the first show of that tour but it was thee FIRST show i ever guitar tech'ed.  despite my protestations and my better judgement J had hired me to be his guitar tech.  i told him that i didn't know a thing about guitars.  that basically he should pretend like i had never touched one.  i was nowhere near qualified to be guitar tech'ing for j masccis.  he didn't care.  the tour manager at the time, eric fischer, told me that j said "he'll figure it out."  so, it was the first show at sxsw in 2001.  i spent the whole day after an 11 am load in waiting for j to show up and basically show me how to string a guitar. at like 2 pm i find out that ron will be playing with us that night.  so now not only do i have to worry about mascis but i am supposed to be worried about the guy that wrote like every song that ever mattered to punk rock?  j shows up at like 4 pm and gives me theeee most basic guitar stringing lesson ever. there are 6 of his guitars i have to restring. i break like 5 e strings in a row. i am a mess. time is running out.  i have no clue what i am doing. mascis at this point in our relationship is a man of few words to say the least. and then ron shows up. i am star struck. i am fumbling. i am useless.
he hands me his guitar and asks if i can tune it up for him. he's pleasant. he's unassuming and he is a legend in my life.
i tell him, "hey. i am sorry. but i can not tune your guitar.  i have like 5 more of these to do and i don't know what i am doing. i am sorry." i must have apologized like 10 times.  there is nothing i want more than to tune RON ASHETON'S guitar.  but i can't.
his response "david don't worry about it.  my girlfriend will do it."

well that show happened and in a couple of weeks i was changing strings on 6 guitars at a rapid pace. ron would show up for the shows in the bigger cities.  we would shoot the shit. he was SOOOO excited to be playing again.  people were buzzing about this combo of dudes shredding stooges songs.  iggy was mired in mediocrity at the time and i think that ron was thrilled. we were all thrilled that he was getting some sort of attention. the fans would flip when he would shred solos, jamming on his wah pedal. he would often try to defer  to j during the solos, but j insisted that ron do them.  he was just happy to be there. 

in dc, during the last song of the set, he broke a string.  during the break between the encore i was frantically trying to change it but the end was stuck up in the guitar. i was threading the new string through from the top trying to dislodge the piece when i stabbed myself in the finger.  there was blood everywhere. finally they went on and i had to give him j's blue sparkle telecaster instead of his black strat. he finished the show with that guitar and i put his guitar in the case with my blood drying all over the white pick guard.  the next day i would fix it in nyc.  ron showed up early and opened his case and took out his guitar and exclaimed "jesus! there's blood all over this thing!"  i thought he was pissed.  i ran over to him and apologized. i said "ron! i'm sorry. i was gonna clean that off that was my blood i stabbed myself last night with a string and i didn't have time to wipe it off before you guys went back on stage. "
he was bummed. he said "oh. i thought i was shredding so hard last night that i was bleeding."  it didn't matter though, he wailed every night.

shortly after iggy came groveling back and they got the stooges back together.  i know ron was thrilled. i was lucky enough to see them play all over the world.  japan. barcelona. baltimore.  it was such a pleasure seeing ron finally getting to play in front of thousands of people freaking out while he played. 

there is one moment that i think about often, one of my favorite touring memories.  we were in london in 2001 leaving to drive down to portsmouth to play a show.  i got in the van to drive and i turned around to make sure that everyone was there and there in the back were pretty much every guitar hero i had as a teenager. and now for that matter.  there was j and watt.  kevin shields was along for the ride. and ron.  i remember turning back around and starting the van and smiling to myself thinking that if you told me when i was 17 that this would be happening i wouldn't have believed it. 

in high school i would come home on tuesday afternoons and set my stereo to record a show on the cleveland state university radio station. it was called "blows against the empire".  one day when i got home from skating with my friends i laid in bed and listened to the show.  and one day there was this song that blew my mind, the chorus "now i wanna be your dog". and man, from that opening riff, i remember sitting up in bed and getting up and going over to the stereo and turning it up and dropping my jaw.  that's not hyperbole.  i sat in front of the speakers. it was the first time. i don't think i had heard a scuzzy guitar like that before.  i was 14. and right before the song finished the tape ran out. i was freaking. i had to wait a week before i could call up this college dj and sing the song to him on the phone and find out what this was.  i am glad i got to share that memory with ron and let him know how much his band meant to me.  i am sure he knew how much the stooges meant to a lot of people all over the world.  it's just that you would never know it. 

and this is one of my favorite pieces of tour memorabilia i have.  it's a photo from that 2001 tour outside of the great american music hall in san francisco.

l-r:
Steve McKay (stooges sax player, jammed with us that night), Eric Fischer (tour manager, who would end up tm'ing the stooges when they reformed and becoming Ron's right hand man), me, J Mascis, George Berz, RON ASHETON, and Watt (who would fufill a life long dream and get to actually be in the stooges when they got back together.

home invasion worthy. totally.

OMG!
it's true.

 

date farmers are having an opening at the NEW IMAGE ART GALLERY this weekend TOMORROW NIGHT!  i will be there for sure.

did you know that they are my favorite artists from the desert?  you know when you see desert art and it's... you know. you WANT to like it. but at the same time you know as soon as you get the painting out of the desert and into your house it's gonna look totally lame. it's gonna look like a souvenir. it will. you know it. i know it. it was great in 29 palms. but in chicago, il it's totally gonna suck and you will be ashamed.

but

the date farmers!  they are rad. they make desert art that you can totally be proud of hanging in your house.  though you might not be able to afford it, which is cool. cause that's the deal. art that is good should be totally unaffordable.  one day you will get the guts to do a home invasion of a rich person and THAT is how most of us will proudly display great art in our homes.  it's true.  no one needs to get hurt.  just tied up with super soft rope you can get online at dominatrix websites and then take a couple paintings. you can leave a few. that way everyone is happy. no chafed wrists. no totally bare walls. 
i call it passive home invasion. obama calls it sharing the wealth.  WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE.

so the point is.  totally go check this show out because it will inspire you.

NEW image Art GALLERY
7908 Santa Monica at Fairfax.

new image art

NOT TAPPING MY PHONES MIGHT KEEP MY HEAD WARM. i don't know. but give it a shot.

okay.  here's the deal. dudes, the election is OVER.  please, please stop emailing me and asking for money.  don't you know? it's officially a recession. how do I know?  cause all last week when i was driving across the country with hopper arguing about whether the magick markers were cool enough for her road trip or not we defaulted to NPR. and it was ALL recession, recession, recession. 
i mean, i realize that the ART WORLD has not been affected by these blaring headlines. and i do appreciate their valiant efforts to keep the poor school kids of the US blissfully unaware of the dark times ahead. (for real. i mean, seriously)
but i am an adult that is only peripherally attached to the art world. and not yet in the position to be making money while burning it, YET.

SO.
that means that i totally do NOT have $25 for a pretty lame, let's be honest, blue knit winter hat. 
first: i currently reside in southern california. 
second. it's $25. come on.  i mean i could get that thing at a 99¢ store for 89¢.
third.  limited edition??? really. big deal.  does anyone really believe that one day you might find yourself a proud owner of one of the last remaining BARACK OBAMA GENERIC LOGO KNIT HATS. you might have the last remaining one outside of the smithsonian?  i doubt that will happen. i mean i know that won't happen. 

now.  had i gotten an email from the DNC saying they were going to be celebrating the release of the DARK KNIGHT on bluray dvd, that would have piqued my interest.  maybe they could have offered a bobblehead barack with shitty JOKER make up on.  i would pay donate $ hundreds for that.

and finally. here's another thing.  before you assume i am totally down with your "movemement for change" allow me to see some of that movement in action first.  so far, while i am not as disappointed as some, i am not totally stoked on some things.  don't make my brothers weird libertarian vote seem like a good move.

(please note. most images in this post found using google image searches with the relevant subject + "eat shit". try it. it's fun.)

ugh. baguettes.

this is EXACTLY what it is like eating with french people in PARIS.

exactl;y.

day one. 10 west

5 arguements in just past west covina. Route change! We are now going through 29 Palms to Flagstaff. We are trying to recast entourage the tv show with all the characters from the dark knight. Feel free to chime in. So far we have the joker as ari gold. And michael caine as eric the little manager. The only rule is that the joker has to be ari gold. Also. Some piece of shit threw a rock through the back window of my car last night. I swear I am totally ready to shove some pencils up peoples nostrils. I'll deal with it when I get back. DIE