my TWENTIETH high school reunion??!!

i went to sunny hills high school in fullerton, CA.

a while back, i performed a wedding in Laguna Beach, and down the hill from the wedding, in the same complex, there was a 40TH YEAR reunion party for my old high school. i went to my 10th and it was actually pretty fun...

today, i got an invitation to sunny hills' 20th year reunion. i don't know if i'm going to go to this one, considering it's going to cost NINETY DOLLARS a person. but, i may, for the hell of it.

have you ever gone to any of yours?

HATER-ade and lazy music supervisours.

if you know me, you know how much i hate commercials, and last night i saw a commercial that really bugged me.

anyway, when you watch THIS, listen to how they've completely butchered Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. disgusting. we're talking the fat, bone, and meat have been cut away, leaving a completely jarring, disjointed musical excerpt. the edits in the music make no sense. sure, they're in time with the music, but why couldn't they use 30 seconds of the piece from beginning to end, instead of omitting every other phrase!???

i guess the part that bothers me about this is that an ad company or music supervisour is actually allowed to do something like this to a piece of music. i am tired of lazy music supervision, where they will do anything they can to use Barber's Adagio for Strings or Orff's O fortuna just one more time. they've both been used to death. music supervision has become lazy, just to try and squeeze out one last drop of some sort of emotional response. emotional response that only a piece of music can evoke...

again, if you know me, you know how much i love to drink gatorade. so my problem is with the ad company and not with gatorade...although a company ultimately has to be held responsible for their advertising. a good example: remember how great those NICK DRAKE VOLKSWAGEN ADS were, and how much vw ads suck now?

bubbles+ elephants = cruelty OR "science"?

if you know me, you know i have a very soft spot and deep love of living things that are not human...as opposed to my not-so-deep love for some living things that are human.

so, in orange county, there has been some controversy over an exhibit that is taking place, performance art style, at the DISCOVERY SCIENCE CENTRE, and it makes me sad.

i don't know how i should be feeling about this, especially if Tai, the elephant, is being well-cared for, overall. i simply don't trust humans and their motives sometimes. all this being said, i thought i would share this with you:

Artist Yang says putting elephant in bubble isn’t demeaning

Free Grooverider!

if you know me, you know how much i love dance music. i wanted to share this news with you, especially since i recently served on a jury on a drug possession case.

this week, thanks to a flyer in our monthly Fabric subscription CD, we learned that GROOVERIDER, the legendary drum and bass DJ/producer who hosts a show with Fabio on BBC RADIO ONE, has been incarcerated in the United Arab Emirates for possessing cannabis/marijuana. he was sentenced to a four year jail sentence.

there is an online petition in support of Grooverider, to try to convince the authourities to allow him to come home to serve his sentence. (if you read the text of the petition, it is slightly dodgy but it's still a show of support...)

Free Grooverider Petition

i still love jury duty

so, i've got a lot of work to catch up on, but after spending seven days in court, we finally reached a verdict yesterday afternoon:
1) NOT GUILTY of possession of marijuana with intent to sell

• GUILTY of possession of marijuana under 28g.

2) NOT GUILTY of possession of ecstasy with intent to sell

• HOPELESSLY DEADLOCKED on the lesser crime of possessing ecstasy (the judge declared a mistrial on this one)

3) GUILTY of possession of ketamine

Marcy, Ernie, Steven, Charlie, Julie, Tina, Chris, Steve, JoAnn, Laurie and Tony were the best co-jurors a person could ask for! Also, if i ever need a criminal defense lawyer, and i can afford him, i'm going to try and hire VINCENT LABARBERA, JR.

Many more details to come!

yesterday, while i arrived at the courthouse...

...i got out of the elevator and bam almost ran into a longtime L.A. news reporter, DAVE LOPEZ. i thought, "whoa" and then he said "hi" and smiled. weird. then i walked down the hall and i saw a Fox 11 tv camera and a couple of people whose names i don't remember but who i've seen on tv even though i really don't watch local news...

they were all there to cover the sentencing of a woman that was taking place in our courtroom! with our judge, and our bailiff, and our court reporter! crazy.

oh yeah, and we STILL didn't reach a verdict.

court, jury duty and things of that nature

i'm still on the jury. final arguments started yesterday. any of you like to make a wager that i will NOT be done after today? BTW we start today at 1.30pm and court closes @ 4.30pm.

there was also a CRAZY INCIDENT at the courthouse yesterday; it happened right as we were leaving. we could see smoke coming off the building, and AlSto said the cop said it happened on the sixth floor. i had NO idea it was something this insane.

i've spent a lot of time at the courthouse this past week; maybe i'll try to retrace this guy's last moments.

as soon as i figure out how to upload audio...

...i will. this is a podcast i recorded for a private intranet website. but, i liked the way it turned out so here it is, without the music. just pretend to insert them into the spaces marked ==.

ALBUM REVIEW: REAL EMOTIONAL TRASH by STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS
You may recognize the name Stephen Malkmus, for his work as the singer and guitarist of the trailblazing indie rock band, Pavement, from the 1990s. But after Pavement broke up, Malkmus continued to showcase his fertile mind and musical prowess in a few one-off projects, and most notably on solo releases both with and without his band, the Jicks.
Now based out of Portland, Oregon, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks have released a new album, called Real Emotional Trash. it’s the first release for Malkmus in a few years, and it’s his first album to share its name with one of its songs. Real Emotional Trash won’t be a disappointment to music fans who long to hear skilled guitar work, quirky lyrics, and an intelligent take on psychedelic low fidelity.
==
Malkmus has played with The Jicks in some shape or form for years, and the current lineup includes bassist Joanna Bolme, keyboardist Mike Clark, and former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss. The quartet has a palpable chemistry, and succeeds in putting complex elements behind a noisy exterior for an all-around accessible sound.
==
Real Emotional Trash officially has three sides. For LP collectors, this means it’s one side short of a double album. For others, this may mean an album that's too long. However, each song sounds as if it belongs, like each song is an essential contribution to the whole, and so, the length of the album isn’t excessive. Several of the songs have been described by Malkmus as “triple part saga, acid mind blowers”, and that’s as good a description as any.
==
There are also shorter, more direct songs on the album, and some of them feature Malkmus’ remarkable ability to double his vocal parts with his guitar…or maybe he’s actually doubling his guitar with his vocals… Regardless, the result would be a fantastic thing to witness live, and on record, it is a moving, effective technique.
==
Various parts of the album were recorded in locations in Montana and Oregon with one engineer, T.J. Doherty, who recorded the last two Wilco albums. Then, after some recording equipment mishaps, the album was taken to be mixed in yet a different place, with a different producer, Nick Vernhes. In interviews, Stephen Malkmus describes Real Emotional Trash as a “great record (made) the very hard way”, but you don’t hear any of the trouble that went into the making of this great album. At least, once you give it a listen, you'll be grateful for every little bump in the road the Jicks had to endure.

what ever happened to....PART 2

in my teenage years, i had a large number of pen pals. i found/"met" a few of them through a magazine called Star Hits and then things grew from there. i had pretty intense friendships with these people for a while, and i wonder where they ended up. if you've heard of any of these people, please have them contact me!

• THOMAS KUFFEL: lived in Modesto, CA
• JORGE ________: from Columbia, went to SUNY, fantastic artist
• PHIL WEST/PHIL KEY: lived in Seattle, loved music, so funny and a writer?
• WILL __________: the king of XTC fans. he read a lot of books and worked in a bookstore.
• GEORGE KING: lived in Hollywood. we were actually pretty good friends for a while.
• TOZAR NORRIS: i met him through George King.

did i ever show you this?

i found a new fun website: http://barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com/