But Then...

There's this:

Once again, mind blown, tickled, amazed.

Nothing new

Just a comp with some tuneage:

Vids return

Ok, so here's a go with Vimeo, and some easy-peasy, livin' greasy editing software:

Now that I've reclaimed my CPU from the throttling of Windows, I should be able to cobble some more of this.

What's that? The audio? Yeah, takes a certain ear. I'll have more EZ listening next time....

LovEvolution 2011

This was my 3rd time attending what was previously LoveFest, and the first time it went from a street party to an EVENT, which led to some ups, some downs....(the chill tent was a sweet space for the chillers, the parking charge (more than the entry fee) was so very NOT chill.)

So I started with one goal, to see DRC:

This woman modified my existence back on Halloween night in 2000, and it's always a kick to see her kick butt, which she so obviously does.

Before that we saw a great set by Kirin Rider, but we had to move to keep up....with the beats and the float...

To show what I mean, here's my buddy Rob following the next great treat, Hedflux:

This was followed by the set by DJs DRC and Denise, which took some serious steam out of me...hence the chill tent visit.

But of all the things to happen....I was reading over the event guide and could not believe my eyes....a 6pm, half hour set by Moby? Sure there was an AFTER party for big bucks with Moby headlining, but was he really going to throw down on the same float as Kirin?

Yep.

So, maybe you know better than me...(quite probably), but I figured his set would be more like his albums...I dunno, kinda mellow.....something. But after a great set by Marcus Schulz, here comes Moby....and he BRINGS IT! A truly frickin' kickin' set...just left me and my jaw hanging....

Maybe this'll give you an idea...

After that, there was no serious thought given to sticking around, not for Disco Vader, or another act that I can't bring myself to type...(I'm sure Blogger would have my yarbles....)

So, another event that I don't think I can stay away from. Hopefully they keep having them on the same weekend....

Or perhaps I should just stay.

Pinball? Again?

You know it!

Bigger, better, with a little lingering regret that I couldn't live at the Expo for a while.

When you've got pinball, you're bound to be surrounded by....

ART!

ALIENS!

CATBOOBS!

Already looking forward to next year!

The Flaming Lips are Always Awesome

Another fine evening with the Flips.

LOVE THIS!

Thanks fellers!

So Long Kyte

Vids are gone.

It was nice while it lasted.

Now I need to choose...YouTube or Vimeo....

Meet The Residents?

Well, that's not really possible, seeing as how The Residents are officially anonymous and don't exist outside of their performances/creations. About as close as it gets is to meet Hardy Fox or Homer Flynn, the public face of the collective, the guys who have been there from the beginning dealing with everything but The Residents' side of being The Residents.

So, I already had plans to head back to Cali to catch a double feature of Cinematic Titanic at the Castro, when suddenly it was announced that Homer Flynn would have a gallery show in Oakland displaying a ton of original material from the eyeballed greats, and the reception was to take place the day that I flew in. Luckily all of the pieces fit together and at 4pm, right when the studio opened, Rob and I were the first to stroll through and glimpse the original designs of some of the most iconic of The Residents' visual work. There were black and white photos that on close inspection could be seen to be cobbled together from multiple sources, pre-PhotoShop. There was the original photo of one of my faves, the eventual Duck Stab cover. And, holy crap, the original Polaroid of THE Santa Dog, a real, live wiener dog with Santa outfit including beard, that had gone on to become a recurring design/release from the group. There were giant, wall-sized hangings from The Mole Show, images from Vileness Fats, and, of course, one of the original eyeballs with top hat above.

We were examining the correspondence between Hardy and Hal from Warner Brothers, when a fellow came in wearing sunglasses and pulling a wheeled case behind him, and I'll be damned if it wasn't the man himself, Mr. Hardy Fox. I'm sure I had a goofy grin on my face as I stared, which prompted a "hi", from him and an overly-familiar "HELLO" from myself. It seems he was dropping off another impressive gem, the original reel recording that the band had submitted to Warner Brothers, perhaps the one that was returned to simply "The Residents", and spawned the name. Another piece of the legend.

Watching the time, we knew it could be dicey getting downtown for the CT show, but as of 5pm and beyond Homer had yet to make an appearance. We were watching out the front window as Hardy and another person chatted on the corner, and we had fooled ourselves into thinking that it might be Homer he was with. I knew that Homer was supposed to give an interview shortly after arriving, so it seemed it may be the only chance to meet the man. However, after emerging into the sun, I could plainly see that the man in question was not the man of the hour, and I turned to Rob and said, "that's not him." Rob said something like, "no, but THAT is." I turned and there he was, grey hair, granny-type glasses, and a bundle under his arm. Loudly I exclaimed, "There he is!", which caused them all to look my way and there was no turning back. I shook his hand and thanked him for making all of these wonderful items available for us to take in on such a personal level, that I was of course a "big fan" and that it had all been awesome. Rob then shook his hand and we dazedly made our way to the car. Once I got my head on straight I grabbed my camera and shot the below video as we passed the scene from which we had just come:

So that was the day that we didn't meet The Residents.

And then we laughed ourselves silly with two dumb movies and some of my favorite funny people, after which I was really exhausted but yet again shook the hands of all of the Titans, and shared with Joel the fact that he and I "go way back" to Halloween of 1988. He seemed to think it was amusing. And I have to say that Dave "Gruber" Allen remains one of the most warm, and hilarious folks I've ever met. The man acts like you are the special celebrity. I had chatted him up in Portland in the past, and as I said goodbye and shook his hand, I told him it's always great and that he's so damn funny, and he did this little bow with a two hand grip...just a great guy.

The following day we hit The Rock

And, of course, on the last day there was pinball. This game caught our fancy:

With magnets and chains, bumpers giving you car lengths, and a race between friends, it was a definite winner. I, however, was suffering from THE CURSE. This is something that afflicts me every once in a while and seems to have no rhyme nor reason, and I've simply grown to accept its power when it hits. It's when suddenly things keep going wrong with a specific aspect of my existence, usually affecting technology.

It started after I had realized that with the older games you are able to launch multiple balls at once if desired, which can be fun until you have a game with an automated kickback lane that cannot handle more than one ball at a time. As I watched the game I had been playing feebly attempt to correct this mistake, I knew that I could not just walk away..but how to fix it? Rob had the answer, pick the damn thing up and make the balls go where they needed. Ah, yes, we can do that here. I managed to then slam a ball under the chin of a rotating head on the Party Zone game, and picking that one up didn't seem the way to go. I then had to tilt the hell out of the Indiana Jones game to free a ball.

Finally, I managed to actually wipe out on the above racing game so badly that nothing we did got the car moving again. Luckily it kept racking up my laps and the fellow working there exclaimed that he didn't realize the score even went that high. So while failing at racing, I had excelled at racing. And here's my proof:

Note the hazard that I had become....to myself and fellow racers. Sorry folks!

NOW IT CAN BE TOLD..again, apparently....

So, yeah, OK, over a month later and I guess I can still remember...

It all started with a trip up to Portland to see The Residents at the Wonder Ballroom. I had caught the very first show of the Talking Light tour over a year ago, but it was a show that had continued to evolve...new songs added, new stories told, and strangely enough, though most of the music came from a laptop, each show had a little more of this, a little less of that...I had downloaded a bunch of the tour and was happy to hear those variances keeping the whole thing fresh every night.

What was truly awesome was being so close to the stage, straight on from the center watching "Randy" do his thing, appreciating all the nuance of his performance, seeing his blazing, crazy eyes behind the old man mask, and he even screwed up a bit, which forced some improv that was unique to that one show. Powerful, deep, I wanted to know who in the audience was unawares of what was waiting for them, and how immersive and tripped out it all was. And of course there was one idiot in the crowd who either didn't catch the first song or didn't recognize it, because he kept shouting out for them to play it. And no one told him, we all just kept quiet and let him be an idiot. "Smelly Tongues" indeed. It was also interesting to see the audience jump the gun on a bit of dialog, telegraphing a funny payoff yet to happen and again infusing an alternate take into the proceedings...

That night after the show I stayed at a hotel near the airport, where I received my special status in the post below. I asked the clerk what I got for being so special. He was new and had to ask some disembodied voices in the back room, who I could hear shrug and say/ask, "a bottle of water?", followed by the realisation that they didn't have one to give. I then drove around for way too long looking for a late night chow stop, to find only one in my long quest. Meh.

The next morning it was up and away, five minutes to the airport (such a nice difference!) and off to California for the next big thing, VIP status at the Warfield in San Fran to see DEVO, my heroes since....yeah, long time.

VIP status meant the innermost seats of the balcony, which was more VIP for some than others. Being off to one side denied us a view of the video backdrop and the drummer hammering out those crazy DEVO beats. There was little communication about what else the VIP status entailed, but I had read about their Portland show including a meet and greet afterwards, but I was not sure the same would be true for us. So I stupidly did not bring my camera inside, nor did I bring anything special for them to sign. We had to ask someone after the show if there was anything more, and were only then told that we get to stick around and meet the band. So we did.

When the moment came I shook Mark's hand and had him sign my ticket, he noticed my Residents t-shirt and I told him it was from their latest tour. There's a connection between these bands, but it has seemed rather slack over the years. When it came time to snap a pic on Rob's cell phone, we failed. I'll regret that for a while. I then had a chat with Bob2 about the Residents, and he was surprised to hear that they had played Portland just one day after them, and he seemed genuinely interested and enthusiastic to know what they were up to, how was the show, etc. I thought that was cool. Then Gerry signed my ticket and it was done. 2 out of 4 signatures, no Bobs. Ah well, the regrets fade....

Of course we hit the Pinball Museum again, as evidenced in the previous post below, and then enjoyed a fantastic start of spring on the Golden Gate: beautiful day; 2 big ships cruising below us.... Leading to this fridge magnet:

Next up, Cinematic Titanic double-feature in San Fran, and you'd better believe I'm bringing something extra special for the Titans to sign, and a camera!

Nightmare Fuel

I'll post later about the trip that started with the VIP status above and continued on through the DEVO show, but for now I wanted to share this bit of weird:

Once again, the Pinball Museum provides a peek at these old, strange devices.....BIMBO! Their rotating stock of games keep the visits fresh. I'll always recommend a stop if you're in the Oakland area.

But then I remembered that this is not the full extent of my Animated Clown Nightmare footage. This one comes from the Santa Cruz boardwalk:

That'll do for now...pleasant dreams!

Something

Yeah, yeah, long time no blog.

Problem and reason being not much to blab about.

Got some stuff coming up....attending shows by The Residents and DEVO as well as playing shows with W.U.P.S.

So there.

Oh, and Blogger won't let me color my text...or let me change my email login to a Google login, so here's a big thanks for that!