Where is the hotel?

i saw a coyote in echo park

today i was in home depot. actually everyday i am in home depot. but today the "night at the roxbury" song came on while i was shopping for a new toilet fill valve. you know which song i am talking about. "What is love?" by Haddaway.
and i realized that i like it. a lot.

this is what happens to your beloved Angelas Trumpet plant in LA when it goes from highs of 85ºF (30ºC) on a monday to lows of 28ºF (-2ºC) on a thursday. and you wonder if the leaves will ever come back.
btw you can use the flowers of the Angela's Trumpet to hallucinate. i read that on the internet.
here's hoping it blooms again.

when i wake up

the first three things i thought about today:

duff mckagan (pictured here with me backstage at velvet revolver, continental airlines areana, meadowlands, nj december 2005)

jimmy pursey from sham 69 and the reading festival in 1978. he cried cause the skins were beating up the longhairs.

Unfortunately it was true about the "friction" from the Sham fans, 78 was like a crossover year from the old type festival goers, into the newer younger element, my clear memory is of a hippie having his acoustic guitar smashed over his head by some skins, whilst all the time saying "I love you man, I love you" it sounds funny today, but was disturbing at the time.

jimmy pursey sans tears

and cinnamon raisin toast.

everyone needs a smell

i have a couple of rad friends in nyc. in february they are going to a tiny town in nicaragua to volunteer at an orphanage there for a few weeks. kendra has been before and her stories were so inspiring that juliet is going back with her this time. the thing is this orphanage and the attached school needs some help. so kendra and juliet made a wish list on amazon. peep it out here. really. look at it. there are things on there that are $10 or less. books and stuff that the school needs. it's not a big deal. some of you people that haven't discovered that booze is bad for you probably spend that much on one drink. seriously....just take a look at it by clicking this word: raggunath.

kendra also has a flickr page with some photos from her last trip. check that out here.

and here are some things she has to say about the trip and the orphanage:

The time I spent with the children at the orphanage was fun and sometimes challenging but after teaching 6 years in the South Bronx challenging may not be the word I want. The children are intense but happy and positive about their lives even though they have so little compared to other children. We played games, made art, did our best to communicate. You can check out some candid shots of the children from the orphanage through the link to my Flickr set

In the photos you will see the school and the library. The main purpose of the February trip is to help update the library with a focus on laptops and resources for the teachers. As a teacher myself I was dismayed at the conditions of the classrooms and how little the teachers had to work with. The number of students in each class is very high and the teachers travel from classroom to classroom. Laptops in the library will allow teachers and students to research lessons and homework on campus. The teachers are in need of more instructional materials, basic supplies and reference books like dictionaries and encyclopedias. I went on Amazon to research available resources and created a wish list

The wish list provides a basic idea of what I think the school could use, along with a few items for the orphanage. Anything purchased from the link would be a huge help towards improving the library and the lives of the children. Due to Puerto Cabezas remote location accessing quality materials is very difficult.

i mean you know it's rough if a teacher from the South Bronx is dismayed. And by the way it's not like Kendra is a wuss or anything. She was not only teaching in the South Bronx but she was the school's union rep as well.

here are a couple of choice photos i pulled from her flickr page.

this kid in the middle made a portrait of crispin glover!

this should be a vice mag do photo. look how sweet that t-shirt is that the girl on the left is wearing! wendy could sell that at ooga booga for like $50, easily.

i saw this flyer the other day at the smell. that kid's gonna have the raddest band ever. "no pro's! no exp! just ideas!" plus "B-52's meet bauhaus minus the 90's" how awesome is that? just think...if these kids in nicaragua get some new books and a computer and some art supplies maybe the next time kendra and juliet go down they'll see a flyer like this in the center of town.

amazon wish list here

UPDATE: Juliet and Kendra leave on February 19th. So there is plenty of time for your donation to get there.

no time left

the reason we are late to my birthday party is that nina is washing her bangs in the bathroom sink as we speak.

wasted time!

today is my birthday...35 years old today.

(sign on echo park ave by aaron rose)

here's some Last Rights lyrics that pretty much ring as true today as they did when i first heard them in 1988. you can listen to the song here if you want.

(and that's a negative approach show but it'll have to do cause all the last rights photos i can find blow)

WASTED TIME!
but i gotta live one day
hanging around
won't get old before my time

cause my time is running out
i won't be young again
and i know i won't be around
to live my better days again!

one things for sure!
i gotta decide what to do with my life
one day you're young
the next day you're old
and i don't want to be left out in the cold

cause my time is running out
i won't be young again
and i know i won't be around
to live my better days again!

my time is running out
i won't be young again
and i know i won't be around
to live my better days again!

(breakdown!)

yeah i wasted time
hanging out with my friends
yeah i wasted time
but i'd rather do nothing else
NOTHING ELSE!

i wasted time
i wasted time
i wasted time hanging out with my friends
i wasted time
i wasted time
i wasted time hanging out with my friends
hangin round
hangin around and aroun

that's what i did yesterday hung out with some friends. cali and i went to the smell so he could be interviewed for a documentary and i hung around in the alley.

it was awesome cause i finally got to meet brendan fowler who is friends with more than a few of mine. i was stoked cause i have been stoked on his new single, "the song is the single". it's so rad, it's like a story about how to do something. but it's a mystery at the same time.

(brendan being interviewed. i don't have any better photos cause i am still trying to get over my fear of asking people if i can take their picture)

the smell! i haven't been there in like 6 years, since my first tour with le tigre. it was awesome being there and being around these people that are doing it and making things and seeing flyers by kids that want to make things. i feel like "wasted time" should be playing through speakers 24/7 at that place.

i am lucky enough that i have a when i have jobs it's pretty much like hanging out with my friends. the other day i woke up to this in my email.

maybe you've seen it before. harley took this in barcelona in 2003. we were on tour with interpol. i can't even remember what happened the night before. i mean i remember we hung out with ladytron and it was someones birthday. the next thing i know i am waking up to my alarm. time to check out of the hotel and get on the bus and go to gig. the thing is that the street the hotel was on was so small and twisty the bus couldn't get down it so we had to walk like a two blocks to the main road. and when we got there we waited and waited and waited cause the driver of the Pink Stink (which is what we called the bus, it was pink and it stunk) was stuck in traffic. and i couldn't stand it. i was either gonna puke in the middle of the day or i was going to pass out on the street. so i laid down. and two weeks later i saw this photo. i am passed out. lucas (center) and sam fogarino (drummer, interpol) spooning me.
and here you have it...here you can witness the beginning of my life coming full circle. because after this day i never really drank on tour again. i mean i would have a beer now and then but never to excess. this was one of the worst working days of my life, trying desparately to keep it together wasted still and hung over. and now i don't even think i really drink anymore. basically this hangover was so bad it scares me that i might ever have another one. and now since i hardly drink i am afraid that one beer can do this to me. and it can, really.
so this hangover turned me into a straight edger again.

and the other night we went out to amazing, authentic chinese in monterey park with kime and greg and a couple other people. it was awesome and spicy and it made me cry.
but best of all i didn't have to eat a duck with it's head still on.

none of those beers are mine.

oh yeah...
and nina took out the stitches!
note the two holes in my nail where the doctor stitched throught the nail! awesome.

february resolution: post everyday!

it throbs

it's true. it doesn't hurt unless it gets smashed into something but it does throb pretty much constantly.
i got a few notes from people dismayed and grossed out. so i thought the least i could do was put up a photo that wasn't so gnarly.

this guy was in the waiting room with me sitting in various permutations of this position for about 90 minutes. i wondered what happened. his baby looked a little roughed up too. but i saw them both later on and they were fine. i definitely had the most bad ass wound in the waiting room. my hand was covered in dry blood.

stick a fork in your eye

this happened to me tonight. 5 minutes before a perfect dinner was complete.
chronological order

the shins aside, 2007 is off to a good start

yesterday, while lamenting the fact that for the first part of the year it was going to be non stop news and blogs and yakitty yak about the shins, i was opening the new make up dvd i had just bought at amoeba.
in mid sentence talking shit about the shins i yelped "fucking awesome! i made that" which is weird cause it is pretty much the title of the beastie boys vid that came out last year. i think that's called "fucking awesome! I shot that" or something. anyways...i yelled out loud to cali and rene because when i opened the case i saw this:

and i made this when i was 24 years old and i promoted this show in cincinnati, oh at an all ages coffeeshop.

thanks to cali for pointing out to me that i had art work on a dischord release now. and shins or no shins that wasn't gonna change

rhyming and squealin'

poet laureate, Early Mike helps us coope with the Saddam debacle.

Here's a little teaser:

I do not like them in a noose.
I do not like them with a moose.
I do not like them here or there.
I do not like them anywhere.
I do not like cell phone cams.
I do not like them, Saddam-I-am.

go to his awesome blog, The Early Journey, for the rest. also check out his montage homage to all five Rocky training montage scenes. Cause i was supposed to write a Rocky Balboa review for Can't Stop the Bleeding but this will have to do. (Sorry, Gerard).

scams

ebay really bums me out. sometimes it's because something i really want goes for some insane amount of money. and sometimes it's because people sell totally bogus shit. by bogus, i mean actually bogus, like it's fake and lame and they are ripping off bands by stealing their image and selling it to retards on the internet. and by bogus i also mean, l a m e. like this guy for example, zpowerman, who represents both meanings of the word.

if you look at what he is currently selling a curosry glance will get you stoked (if you're into 80's hardcore). but when you click on the individual items it's another story.

1. he has three different "unused record covers" for sale, the l-seven 7" ep, the process of elimination comp, the necros IQ32 EP, and the seminal negative approach ep.
A. who cares dude? does anyone really give a shit about just having the cover (which it isn't even the cover, because...
B. it's a fake. in each auction he says.
"This auction is for a reproduction of a UNUSED NEGATIVE APPROACH EP COVER. The cover is in great condition. The Cover is on the same thickness poster board. The cover can be used to replace a missing or beatup cover or is suitable for framing. SEE PICTURE BELOW"
whatever...so maybe there is someone out there dumb enough to be stoked on some guy reproducing record covers at a kinko's cause you want to be 5 years old and frame it on your wall and tell all your friends that it's a repro of the real deal, from Graystone Hall (!) nonetheless.

but the thing that really made me want to go to town on zpowerman was this inanity:
the dude CHOPPED up his Negative Approach and Birthday Party shirts and harvested these from them.

according to his retarded ebay listing:
"This auction is for an ORIGINAL NEGATIVE APRROACH SHIRT IMAGE. THIS WAS CUT FROM A T-SHIRT THAT I BOUGHT FROM THE BAND AT A SHOW IN DETROIT BACK IN THE 80's. When my T-shirts got to thin to wear I use to cut the images out of them and put them on my dresser to cover up the scratches. If you look close at this T-shirt it is thinning and Very yellow That should show it true age. For those of you who have bought items form me you know that what I am saying is true. My wish is someone will by this and keep it with a collection of NA items they may have. SEE PICTURE BELOW"

nice one. way to go. have you ever heard of pledge, or those little furniture colored crayons you can use to color in scratches? no? to bad cause you just blew like $500. besides, how is it possible for a t-shirt to get to thin. i mean that's when they are the best. you don't take all that time breaking something in and then right when it's the comfiest to wear you decide to decimate it. so you made it into a doily??? ugh. come on.
i know my mom is gonna be shocked to read this but if you're NA shirt looked anything like this:

.

and you put it up for auction i would have applied both of the ebay gift certificates i got for christmas and paid the difference to own that. so, my point is...don't bum me out on a sunday that is sunny and 72 degrees by posting your lame forgery and cool shit you have ruined on the internet.

oh. and while i am at it.

last night show pony had an art opening. new works by kim petty, daughter of tom. i got one thing to say about that:
you can't color copy drawings from your sketchbook, mount them on a piece of construction paper, attach them to the wall with a white thumb tack and then charge $75 a pop for them.
kime should just turn that store into a permanent gallery of her own work, cause nobody elses really beats it and soon you won't be able to afford it. i heard that all 8 of her drawings sold out in seconds at the art basel thing in miami and that collectors were fighting over them.

2007 is all about grunge revival. so far this year i have seen, donita sparks (L7), David Duet (cat butt)(!!!), and last night, Eric Erlandson.

Cali and I saw pan's labryinth. i was taking photos in the movie. but like most illegal things i attempt, i pussy out after a few seconds afraid of being caught and making a scene.
but i liked how this one turned out, a lot.

moral of this blog:
Unless you are me taking photos of other people's movies, don't take other people's art, photocopy and pass it off as an original. and don't photocopy your own "art" and try to sell it to people because you think you can cause you are a kook.