Where is the hotel?

radical weekend

i had an amazing radical weekend of DIY action this weekend.
first nina and i watched "final destination 3". i like to call this one "neck escaper".

then we went to sarah's benefit art show/bake sale. it was instant olympia weirdness/radness. i couldn't stay long cause i had to be at LAX at 7 AM to pick up the aussies arriving from melbourne.

i took them to our house and they crashed immediately and i went to the No Age album cover photo shoot downtown at the smell.
It looked amazing! They had painted the store front of the smell with their logo and the radical title of their upcoming album "Weirdo Rippers".

i climbed the scaffolding in front of the old japanese theater next door and got a god's eye view of the action as the band played,

the kids spazzed out,

the old dudes took photos,

and the neighborhood mexican gay bar cast what we thought was a disparaging eye.

turns out that what we thought was a bad 'tude (can you blame us? check the body language) was anything but....after the photo shoot a tray of jello shots appeared out of nowhere! that guy didn't care about the legality of anything! he just walked a tray of cherry and vodka jello shots out the front door of the bar onto the sidewalk and let all the kids, of age or not, go to town!

then i went back home to check on my guests (still sleeping). i tivo'ed the oscars and while nina hung out with them i went to the Family grand opening on Fairfax, across from Canters. it was packed to the gills. No Age played there again but it was too nuts for me. so i stood on the sidewalk and ruminated about growing old. i thought about this great story i heard on npr the other day about getting old. check it out here.

finally betsy, cali and i went to damiano's pizza down the street for slices and ginger ale. it was awesome to get stoked about Tyco Brahe and his amazing accomplishments. i love the universe.

it wasn't a thing of the past

Hello 2016

Skip Tracer (Lee Ranaldo)

this she did in public for us to see
she came in here too drunk to do the show
between the trains and cars
broken glass and lost hub-caps, images of a gun
row house row house pass through
let the city rise up to fill the screen
clothes flung out of closets, doorknobs falling off
the guitar guy played real good feedback, and super sounding riffs
with his mild mannered look on, yeah he was truly hip
the girl started out in red patent leather
very I'm in a band with knee pads
we watch her fall over and lay down,
shouting the poetic truths of high school journal keepers
row house row house pass through, let the city rise up
twister, dust buster, hospital bed, I'll see you, see you
see you on the highway
now we're told so merge ideas, of song forms and freedom
miss seafood, miss cheesecake, a couple of miss donuts
the edge of a blade pressed to the throat of your reflected image
poised, yet totally screwed up
yes sir, yes sir, step right up

none of us know, where we're trying to get to
what sort of live where we trying to build
now we're told so merge ideas, of song forms and freedom
seasons out of life, nothing is out of reach
L.A. is more confusing now, than anywhere I've ever been to
I'm from New York City, breath it out and let it in

where are you now?
when your broken eyes are closed
head in a cloudy dream, green and sailboats
borrowed and never returned
emotions, books, outlooks on life

hello 2015!

hello, 2015!

happy post valentines

at first i thought britney's new look was epic cause i thought it looked like this:

but she shaved it all the way. oh well.

ps. someone just asked me if all the shirts on display were "all the ones i was selling tonight" and if the one cd on display was "the only record for sale."

dooors just opened.

a lesson in commerce and all things obvious

1. When I am selling t-shirts I am not selling drinks, nor am i a coat check.

2. If I had things such as posters, buttons, stickers, vinyl lp's, the goo cd, long sleeve t-shirts, hoodies, or "anything that is free" i would have it on display. I would not be hiding a mess of lp's waiting for someone to ask.

3. pointing at a wall of t-shirts, that are all no more than 3 inches apart, and saying "i want that one" means nothing to me.

tonight a 28 year old kid told me that he had been into sonic youth since they "came out". i said, "wow, really, since 1982?". he said "oh, yeah. my parents were fans" whatever, dude. you can't be 2 and be into any band. i told him i hoped his parents still had all their records and t-shirts. he claims not to know about their records but he they said they had a t-shirt from every show they had been to. it alarmed me that a person so annoying MAY have access to a (possibly) epic collection of t-shirts. that's assuming that his parents:
A. exist
B. were fans of SY and similar stuff in the '80's
As he was walking away he found a $1 bill on the ground. he turned and said it was his lucky day.
then he he asked me if i sold ear plugs.
i wish.

it's been awesome hearing the youth the last two nights. i requested skip tracer tonight. lee said they might play it tomorrow, but that they do play it. lee's songs are my favorites. they weren't always but definitely once i hit my late 20's i saw the brilliance in lee's songs. think about it and you know it's pretty much true...they are buried gems. eric's trip?? mote?? wish fufillment?? need i say more?

last night we were in northampton, ma. sy played a benefit for kim and thurston's kid's school. seeing the students with their parent's was rad.

this kid drew the bones on his legs and arms.

this kid designed the special edition Sonic Youth / Awesome Color / Wooden Wand shirt he is wearing. it's pretty sweet. Somehow he sorta channeled and early 90's vibe. even though he wasn't near being born then.

and these kids were super sweet. but he claimed never to have heard of king buzzo or the melvins.

mascis (owner of the project x 7") in his snow boots.

me in mine.

understand this

i feel like i need to make it understood that i am NOT proud of my suitcase explosion mentioned yesterday. it was NOT a regular occurence. so it shouldn't be a cause for alarm. however i do have a problem keeping a house clean. i can keep it picked up. but i would not say that i can keep a house clean. however that does not affect my ability to be punctual, which i pride myself on.

ok.

thank you for not making me talk

welcome to new england. northampton, ma to be exact. have you been here? i love it here. it's a small town with a great vibe. probably the best of all the towns like this (olympia, yellow springs, asheville, etc). i love new england. i will live here someday and build a house in the woods. there's a huge rocker scene here:
mascis (of course, the hometown hero)
moore/gordon
julia cafritz (pussy galore)
david sylvain lives in vermont, right over the border
deep wound dudes are still around
byron coley
and more that i don't know about to be sure.

you can go from this:

to this:

in like 4 hours.
awesome.

i saw these sweat pants on the subway today and they reminded me of being a 14 year old death rocker. i don't know why cause i didn't wear sweats and i didn't wear any white.

isn't death rocker a better word than goth? i think so. i'd much rather be known as a death rocker than a goth. but maybe there is a difference. i guess now you could be a goth and be into evenesance. a death rocker would most definitely be into christian death. i always thought it was awesome that rik agnew was in the adolescents and christian death. i read a horrible review of the crass book tonight and now i want to make a crass style collage when i get back home using road maps. but i also want to draw on maps. that's what i'll do this year. i keep getting a waft of something in my room that smells like a familiar flower but there is nothing like that here.
the snow is piling up outside and i really think the cave singers are the best band i have heard in a long, long time.

i had a suitcase explosion

it's true. i am embarrassed to say it. i first coined this term when on tour with interpol 4 years ago and paul was late to the lobby call on a morning when we had a flight from vegas to LA at 6:45 AM. there was not much time to spare, i couldn't get him on the phone and no one was answering the door. so i got a key to his room from reception and went in and saw that basically in 5 hours his suitcase had exploded all over the room. i couldn't believe the blast radius. we had checked into the place AFTER the gig and were leaving so early in the morning i couldn't understand how one could even unpack. and since i have mocked and taunted others i have seen with this problem. and tonight it happened to me. in a desperate bid to not have to buy ANOTHER (my third) camera battery charger (which was seen in NYC this weekend by Juliet, but is not at her place) i dumped, literally, both my bags all over the floor. and i still didn't find it. LAME.

and it's still there, 6 hours later. i left it to go meet mary! for the second day in a row.

we ate dinner and went and saw the sleepwalkers exhibit at the moma. it just so happened that it was the last night. i thought i hated it but i think i liked it. even though it was freezing. i liked that they had it at this time of year, that it forced people to go outside in the winter. i guess it was sort of the same thing the christo installatiion, the gates, did a couple years ago. i thought i hated that too until i went and saw it. the aitken exhibit was beautifully shot i thought and once you figured out what was happening on the different screens and how they fit together i liked it more.

take that australian right wing fuck

i think i decided to vote for obama, from cnn:

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Australia's conservative prime minister slammed Barack Obama on Sunday over his opposition to the Iraq war, a day after Obama announced his intention to run for the White House in 2008.

Obama said the country's first priority should be to end the war in Iraq.

He has also introduced a bill to prevent President Bush from increasing American troop levels in Iraq, and to remove U.S. combat forces from the country by March 31, 2008. (Watch as Obama outlines his plans for Iraq )

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who will face his own re-election bid later this year, said Obama's proposed deadline would spell disaster for the Middle East.

"I think that will just encourage those who want to completely destabilize and destroy Iraq, and create chaos and a victory for the terrorists to hang on and hope for an Obama victory," Howard said on Nine Network television.

"If I were running al Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama but also for the Democrats." (Watch Obama call for a new generation of leadership )

Howard, a staunch supporter and personal friend of Bush, has defied widespread domestic opposition to the war, keeping about 1,400 Australian troops in and around Iraq, mostly in non-combat roles.

He is seeking a fifth term later this year, and recent polls suggest voters are increasingly unhappy about his refusal to set a deadline for withdrawing Australian troops.

"You either rat on the ally or you stay with the ally," he said. "If it's all right for us to go, it's all right for the Americans and the British to go, and if everybody goes, Iraq will descend into total civil war and there'll be a lot of bloodshed."

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs, traveling with the senator in Iowa, said Howard's words were misguided.

"The United States has sacrificed more than 3,000 brave young men and women and $400 billion, only to find ourselves mired in the middle of a sectarian civil war," he said. "Even Republicans ... know that more of the same is only going to attract more terrorists to Iraq and make our country less safe."

Gibbs went on to say that Howard was not in a position to be overly critical.

"If Prime Minister Howard truly believes what he says, perhaps his country should find its way to contribute more than just 1,400 troops so some American troops can come home," he said. "It's easy to talk tough when it's not your country or your troops making the sacrifices."

chain of events

the beginning of the end of my 3 month vacation starts like this:

sorry i missed a day but i found out the hard way that there are still places in the world that don't have internet access and one of those is juliet's apartment in greenpoint.