Over the last few years, I've noticed a trend in movies to add points clearly motivated by political concerns. Nothing new, of course, but I've become more sensitive to it lately....perhaps as a result of our current political climate. Sometimes these additions have completely ruined movies for me. I'll give an example: "Arrival."
Now, all in all, I thought the movie is well made, acted, etc. The basic story is intriguing. What if aliens came to earth, and we were charged with figuring out some means of communication with them? I find it all interesting, and certainly within the realm of possibility. So, for the first three-quarters of the movie, I was invested, although I found the plot point of the lead character having lost a child an "uh oh." And, surely enough, that whole point reared a huge reveal at the end that ruined the entire movie for me.
It's not that I don't like children (I really like their innocence, for one thing), and I do want families to continue to exist. But I'm worn out by movies having some sort of "having a family/children is everything" messages. And this might be a big reach, but I find them a way Hollywood studios can prove to the religious right that "we care about children! And life! See, it's in the movie!" Like I said, maybe a big reach. But I don't remember movies from even fifteen years ago having the same sort of "but....children!" message to them. Recently, my wife reminded me of Maude Flanders' oft-repeated refrain in The Simpsons: "what about the children?"
Another one, and it ties into a movie I watched yesterday, is "A Quiet Place." I believe I wrote in this blog about the plot point in that one that I found utterly ridiculous. The couple in the story have lost one child during the monster epidemic going on, and so, months later, the woman is pregnant. AFTER the epidemic of monsters killing anything emitting sound has been going on. Whaaat? You want to bring a baby into that world? A baby that's bound to.....uh......CRY???? There's a whole reveal of a box they have built that they can put the kid in, with what looks like a full CPAP mask to put over the kid's face. Sweet Jeebus, really??? At that point, I wanted this whole family to die, if they're going to be that stupid. "I'm sorry, honey, but I know you understand. Hand and blow jobs only, until there ain't no more monsters, okay?" That would be more like it. I don't think the movie would've suffered one whit using that logic. And otherwise, the movie's good. But again, the message is: people have to have children. And at any time ever. Ya know what I think? People do have to have children, the human race needs to go on, but maybe after the vicious monsters that eat anything making noise are dealt with, or are dead, or whatever. Let's wait a bit, shall we?
I watched a movie yesterday called "The Silence." It was recommended to my viewing habit, I suppose due to watching the "Sabrina" show, as both Kiernan Shipka and Miranda Otto are in it. Now, this move, again pretty well done, is similar in many ways to "A Quiet Place." "The Mist, " too, really. Some creatures, apparently living in a sealed cave for who knows how long, are freed by some spelunkers. They kill the cavers and fly to off to wreak havoc on the eastern seaboard. In this film, Shipka's character has recently lost her hearing, so the family has learned to sign a bit, and that is a help. But there is no pregnancy to deal with. Thank you. There are some heart-wrenching scenes in it, for sure, but no stupid ones. And there are the notions of how many people are forming their own sometimes brutal religious cults to try to deal with the situation. That felt completely authentic to me. Also, as the creatures are somewhat localized, at least for the time being, the fact that electricity and wi-fi still existed made more sense to me.
But, when looking at the Wikipedia page for the movie, I saw that it's rating about 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, and people have a lot of issues with it; probably the main one being its similarity to "A Quiet Place." Yeah, that may be, but you know what? I like it much, much more than "A Quiet Place." (purses lips, blows raspberry) So there. Come to think of it, there was an episode of "Black MIrror" sort of similar to this, but I can't remember it that well. I think those monsters were robots of some sort.
Yesterday, Pocket FishRmen played a soup party at Dozen Street in Austin. Yes, a soup party. I had a couple of the offerings, one from our own Cris Burns, and liked them both, although by the time we got there, said offerings were lukewarm at best. Our set was fine, although I learned a huge lesson. I wore a pig mask yesterday, that I can play in okay, but Lance should not play on a backline kit he isn't that familiar with while donning a mask. During the first song, I got tangled up in the drum rims a couple of times and was flubbing some things. After that, though, all was fine. At least, there wasn't too much of a crowd, and I soldiered through okay. I had added several Seinfeld "no soup for you" type samples to the SPD-SX and went overboard with those. It was fun overall. Cris Burns was especially smokin', it seemed.
We were home by 10 and watched a couple of movies last night (yesterday was a big day for watchin'!). The first was "Gwen," which came to us via Shudder. Categorized as folk horror, I thought Michelle might dig it. Not sure I would call it horror, minus one effective jump scare, but it was effective. And a complete downer. After that, I went for the Blu ray of "Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory." Or "Lycanthropus," if you like the original Italian title better. I do. About three-quarters of the way through the movie, Michelle asked me "why did it get that goofy title?" American distribution houses loved to re-title these movies with phrases they thought would bring in the young people. It's a pretty good, fun movie. And starring the first Mrs. Roman Polanski, of whom I knew not. It also has Luciano Pigozzi, or as he's known, the Italian Peter Lorre, in it. It pre-dates the Italian horror and giallo boom, but its script comes from Dardano Sarchetti, who wrote many.
The night before, we watched the Joe Bob Briggs Christmas show on Shudder. We almost made it all the way through the third movie, but I bailed due to a weird stomachache. Finished it off early yesterday. Fun show; the movies were "Black Christmas," "Jack Frost," and "Silent Night Deadly Night 2." Can't say I thought much of "Jack Frost." "Black Christmas" is always welcome, and I was surprisingly entertained by "SNDN2." I agree that the lead performance in that one is "one for the ages."
Onward, folks.
Showing posts with label Pocket FishRmen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pocket FishRmen. Show all posts
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Sunday, April 7, 2019
He's Back, Folks
Over two months since I've written?? Goodness. I had no idea it'd been that long. Wow. Well, a lot's happened, but nothing too earth-shattering. Maybe one or two things.
Band shows. Yes, they've been occurring. More Swishbucklers than anything else, really, but still.... SXSW was pretty decent this year. Four shows, four days. Not bad. Let's see if I can get through all this in an almost linear fashion.
In the month of February, the Pocket FishRmen had shows two Fridays in a row. February 8th we played the Nomad, always a favorite venue, and what I remember of the show is good. Cannot remember who we played with, though. Probably All Monsters Attack. I only remember two drummers being at the show, though. Hmm.....oh, yes! Sexy Finger Champs. There we go. Yes, very fun show. We'd drawn the last slot, but enough folks stayed around to make it an overall good time. (Funny how quickly I'm forgetting these shows and line-ups. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.) February 15th, we played at the Limelight (formerly Wacky's, I remembered!) in San Antonio. That show turned out much better than I feared. It was Patrick's birthday show, so the line-up was Harvey McLaughlin, us, and the Sandworms, another band of Patrick's that plays infrequently, as in almost never. The audience built steadily through the night, and all was great. We even got all individually asked by this young woman there if we would play her swingers' party sometime in the summer. We'll see if that comes to fruition, but I think we all agreed to it if it involves enough money.
Now, one thing that I didn't mention yet. When I was driving to the February 8th show, I noticed the temperature gauge in my HHR didn't move from the stone cold position, which indicated that most likely the thermostat was stuck open. I made it home fine, but after discussing the situation with a few folks, Matt Silaski insisted on coming over to help me change the thermostat. I readily agreed. He's a great dude, and it's a job I didn't feel like tackling all by myself. So, he did. The thermostat was truly trashed, and together, we had it changed out within a couple of hours. Without losing much coolant, even. All was good, all the way through the trek to San Antonio on the 15th.
On Friday, the 22nd, Michelle and I did our frequent grabbing of Chinese food before she went to work, but I took a side trip to get some gas at a station near the house. Right as I was pulling into the station, a bunch of warning lights came on the dashboard, and the ol' HHR started running as if it were missing a cylinder. Despite going ahead and putting some gas in the car, I thought this might be it. I'd been waiting for the signal to go on to a new vehicle for awhile (largely with the "I'll help you" urging from my mother), and this was the final straw. I limped the car home and immediately began the search for a new one. I had Michelle take me to get a rental the next morning, as I searched.
The rental car was a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, and I liked it quite a bit. The 2019 Santa Fe (no Sport) was a model I was looking at already, and this was the early favorite. I also looked at the Honda CR-V, Ford Flex, and the Toyota Rav4. Either the size just wasn't right, or there were other issues. The Santa Fe was the one. Plus, I just liked the dealership. They didn't pressure me at all, and kept lowering the offer without me even griping about anything. The whole experience was as painless as it could be. I bought the one I test drove. Had it by that following Tuesday. Which was good, because, due to an impending band Mardi Gras trip, Michelle and I had to bump our anniversary dinner to Wednesday night (our actual anniversary was that Friday). I had a new car to take us in! First new car I've ever owned. Hope it lasts a long, long time. I plan on babying it as much as I can.
But, of course, fetishing my new car was short-lived, as I had to take off on this aforementioned band trip. The Hickoids/Swishbucklers were going to play Louisiana around Mardi Gras. I say "around," because we actually left after playing Lundi Gras night, but hey, close enough. Cody wasn't with us for the first couple of nights of this trip, so it was Swishbucklers and Hickoids (with Tommy Rowsey on guitar) on the first night in Lafayette (Friday, with We Are The Asteroid), and Swishbucklers the second night in New Orleans (at the Saturn Bar). The Lafayette show was tons o' fun, although I don't think the Hickoids were at our best. We hadn't had much time to prep with Tommy on guitar. I still had a blast at the show. Saturday night turned out pretty well, although Dave Catching's band played before us, and the crowd had dwindled before we hit the stage....or floor. At least, we got to park on St. Claude, right out front.
Being Mardi Gras and all, we were staying Biloxi, about an hour plus away. We had already checked into our hotels there before driving back for the show. And, then it was back to Biloxi, to bunk for the few hours before the next day.
Sunday morning, I felt like garbage. Not sure what was up, probably just lack of sleep, but I felt awful. We were expected at a party in New Orleans that all the folks we were involved with were going to be at. Some sort of chefs' party. Good food, in other words. And boy, did the food perk me up. I felt better almost immediately after eating. Sometimes, the fix is very simple. And it was a good thing I felt better, as both bands had a show in Hattiesburg that night. After we picked up Cody from the airport. Yes, he flew in for the last couple of shows. We played at a pretty nice bar there with a band called Space Trash. I fell in love with this band almost immediately. Not the most polished, not the most dynamic, but I think they'll get there. The ideas were certainly there, pretty original, and they were great folks. I wish them well.
We got back to our hotel at a decent time, and I finally got some decent sleep. Which helped for the next day, most definitely. One downside, though. I got bitten several times by bed bugs during the night. Yes, you read that right. My first time for this (I think). Tom was staying on the couch in the room, and he was bitten as well. Patrick was in the same bed as me this night (he'd been at the casino the first night, pre-Cody), but he didn't get bitten at all. Something was up. I had checked the bed for bugs, as I usually do, but can't vouch for how thoroughly I checked. There will be more on this development as this post progresses.
Monday, it was back to New Orleans. We had some time to ourselves before the show, and I spent some time in the Quarter (trying to dodge parades!), before heading to our show, which was at a bar called Gasa Gasa, uptown. I ended up walking all the way there. Wasn't a problem, although after making the trek, I wonder if there weren't a couple of areas locals would have said "you didn't walk through there, did you?!"" I ate at a burger joint near the bar and showed up a little ahead of schedule. And Gasa Gasa was a great time. The Hickoids shared the stage with Dave Catching's band and the Gools, the same two bands the 'bucklers played Saturn Bar with. We had to get a drum set together, as the house kit the bar supposedly had was pieces at best. Well, the drums were fine, but the hardware was pretty much non-existent. Anyway, great show. Great friends there (special appearance by Jacky Morgan!). And we got in the van and drove home. Yes, all the way. I picked up the mid-Louisiana shift for the second straight time.
Let's see, what's next? Well, I got home, and Tom was convinced we'd been bitten by bed bugs in Biloxi. At that time, I still thought it was a couple of very large mosquitoes. Once I looked at the bites online, I realized he was right. So, I quickly washed all my clothes, and after seeing some sort of small bug under my backpack, washed and dryed that as well. I told Michelle what had happened, but since nothing of mine other than my backpack had been near the bed, was hoping for the best. I still thought we might have brought in some strays from somewhere else, as Tom and I had walked around the area quite a bit Sunday morning. I suppose we'll never know. But I did tell Michelle to be vigilant, although I thought we were in the clear.
The following Friday, the Swishbucklers had a show at the Brick at Blue Star in San Antonio. While I like the place itself okay, it's not the best place to have bands play. It's one of these multi-use things, with several businesses and yet not much room for parking. After unloading (which you can't even do near the door), I had to park about four-tenths of a mile away. Sucky. Don't know if I'll agree to shows there anymore. Or so I write. Ha! Anyway, the show itself was fine, although the makeshift stage they had was somewhat rickety and a bit small. Still, we had a good crowd. Sex Pump played after us, and I thought they were great, but the crowd had started to dissipate by then. The opening band....I forgot the name....we played with them at Paper Tiger before....was especially great, playing punk covers from the "glory days." Great deep set list.
The following week was SXSW....and I think I'll stop this post here. There will be more to come on the subject of bed bugs (did they, or did they not have them?), and of course, rock and roll. And other things. I've missed writing. More to come.
Band shows. Yes, they've been occurring. More Swishbucklers than anything else, really, but still.... SXSW was pretty decent this year. Four shows, four days. Not bad. Let's see if I can get through all this in an almost linear fashion.
In the month of February, the Pocket FishRmen had shows two Fridays in a row. February 8th we played the Nomad, always a favorite venue, and what I remember of the show is good. Cannot remember who we played with, though. Probably All Monsters Attack. I only remember two drummers being at the show, though. Hmm.....oh, yes! Sexy Finger Champs. There we go. Yes, very fun show. We'd drawn the last slot, but enough folks stayed around to make it an overall good time. (Funny how quickly I'm forgetting these shows and line-ups. I don't know if that's a good sign or not.) February 15th, we played at the Limelight (formerly Wacky's, I remembered!) in San Antonio. That show turned out much better than I feared. It was Patrick's birthday show, so the line-up was Harvey McLaughlin, us, and the Sandworms, another band of Patrick's that plays infrequently, as in almost never. The audience built steadily through the night, and all was great. We even got all individually asked by this young woman there if we would play her swingers' party sometime in the summer. We'll see if that comes to fruition, but I think we all agreed to it if it involves enough money.
Now, one thing that I didn't mention yet. When I was driving to the February 8th show, I noticed the temperature gauge in my HHR didn't move from the stone cold position, which indicated that most likely the thermostat was stuck open. I made it home fine, but after discussing the situation with a few folks, Matt Silaski insisted on coming over to help me change the thermostat. I readily agreed. He's a great dude, and it's a job I didn't feel like tackling all by myself. So, he did. The thermostat was truly trashed, and together, we had it changed out within a couple of hours. Without losing much coolant, even. All was good, all the way through the trek to San Antonio on the 15th.
On Friday, the 22nd, Michelle and I did our frequent grabbing of Chinese food before she went to work, but I took a side trip to get some gas at a station near the house. Right as I was pulling into the station, a bunch of warning lights came on the dashboard, and the ol' HHR started running as if it were missing a cylinder. Despite going ahead and putting some gas in the car, I thought this might be it. I'd been waiting for the signal to go on to a new vehicle for awhile (largely with the "I'll help you" urging from my mother), and this was the final straw. I limped the car home and immediately began the search for a new one. I had Michelle take me to get a rental the next morning, as I searched.
The rental car was a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport, and I liked it quite a bit. The 2019 Santa Fe (no Sport) was a model I was looking at already, and this was the early favorite. I also looked at the Honda CR-V, Ford Flex, and the Toyota Rav4. Either the size just wasn't right, or there were other issues. The Santa Fe was the one. Plus, I just liked the dealership. They didn't pressure me at all, and kept lowering the offer without me even griping about anything. The whole experience was as painless as it could be. I bought the one I test drove. Had it by that following Tuesday. Which was good, because, due to an impending band Mardi Gras trip, Michelle and I had to bump our anniversary dinner to Wednesday night (our actual anniversary was that Friday). I had a new car to take us in! First new car I've ever owned. Hope it lasts a long, long time. I plan on babying it as much as I can.
But, of course, fetishing my new car was short-lived, as I had to take off on this aforementioned band trip. The Hickoids/Swishbucklers were going to play Louisiana around Mardi Gras. I say "around," because we actually left after playing Lundi Gras night, but hey, close enough. Cody wasn't with us for the first couple of nights of this trip, so it was Swishbucklers and Hickoids (with Tommy Rowsey on guitar) on the first night in Lafayette (Friday, with We Are The Asteroid), and Swishbucklers the second night in New Orleans (at the Saturn Bar). The Lafayette show was tons o' fun, although I don't think the Hickoids were at our best. We hadn't had much time to prep with Tommy on guitar. I still had a blast at the show. Saturday night turned out pretty well, although Dave Catching's band played before us, and the crowd had dwindled before we hit the stage....or floor. At least, we got to park on St. Claude, right out front.
Being Mardi Gras and all, we were staying Biloxi, about an hour plus away. We had already checked into our hotels there before driving back for the show. And, then it was back to Biloxi, to bunk for the few hours before the next day.
Sunday morning, I felt like garbage. Not sure what was up, probably just lack of sleep, but I felt awful. We were expected at a party in New Orleans that all the folks we were involved with were going to be at. Some sort of chefs' party. Good food, in other words. And boy, did the food perk me up. I felt better almost immediately after eating. Sometimes, the fix is very simple. And it was a good thing I felt better, as both bands had a show in Hattiesburg that night. After we picked up Cody from the airport. Yes, he flew in for the last couple of shows. We played at a pretty nice bar there with a band called Space Trash. I fell in love with this band almost immediately. Not the most polished, not the most dynamic, but I think they'll get there. The ideas were certainly there, pretty original, and they were great folks. I wish them well.
We got back to our hotel at a decent time, and I finally got some decent sleep. Which helped for the next day, most definitely. One downside, though. I got bitten several times by bed bugs during the night. Yes, you read that right. My first time for this (I think). Tom was staying on the couch in the room, and he was bitten as well. Patrick was in the same bed as me this night (he'd been at the casino the first night, pre-Cody), but he didn't get bitten at all. Something was up. I had checked the bed for bugs, as I usually do, but can't vouch for how thoroughly I checked. There will be more on this development as this post progresses.
Monday, it was back to New Orleans. We had some time to ourselves before the show, and I spent some time in the Quarter (trying to dodge parades!), before heading to our show, which was at a bar called Gasa Gasa, uptown. I ended up walking all the way there. Wasn't a problem, although after making the trek, I wonder if there weren't a couple of areas locals would have said "you didn't walk through there, did you?!"" I ate at a burger joint near the bar and showed up a little ahead of schedule. And Gasa Gasa was a great time. The Hickoids shared the stage with Dave Catching's band and the Gools, the same two bands the 'bucklers played Saturn Bar with. We had to get a drum set together, as the house kit the bar supposedly had was pieces at best. Well, the drums were fine, but the hardware was pretty much non-existent. Anyway, great show. Great friends there (special appearance by Jacky Morgan!). And we got in the van and drove home. Yes, all the way. I picked up the mid-Louisiana shift for the second straight time.
Let's see, what's next? Well, I got home, and Tom was convinced we'd been bitten by bed bugs in Biloxi. At that time, I still thought it was a couple of very large mosquitoes. Once I looked at the bites online, I realized he was right. So, I quickly washed all my clothes, and after seeing some sort of small bug under my backpack, washed and dryed that as well. I told Michelle what had happened, but since nothing of mine other than my backpack had been near the bed, was hoping for the best. I still thought we might have brought in some strays from somewhere else, as Tom and I had walked around the area quite a bit Sunday morning. I suppose we'll never know. But I did tell Michelle to be vigilant, although I thought we were in the clear.
The following Friday, the Swishbucklers had a show at the Brick at Blue Star in San Antonio. While I like the place itself okay, it's not the best place to have bands play. It's one of these multi-use things, with several businesses and yet not much room for parking. After unloading (which you can't even do near the door), I had to park about four-tenths of a mile away. Sucky. Don't know if I'll agree to shows there anymore. Or so I write. Ha! Anyway, the show itself was fine, although the makeshift stage they had was somewhat rickety and a bit small. Still, we had a good crowd. Sex Pump played after us, and I thought they were great, but the crowd had started to dissipate by then. The opening band....I forgot the name....we played with them at Paper Tiger before....was especially great, playing punk covers from the "glory days." Great deep set list.
The following week was SXSW....and I think I'll stop this post here. There will be more to come on the subject of bed bugs (did they, or did they not have them?), and of course, rock and roll. And other things. I've missed writing. More to come.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
A Week and a Return to the Grind
Hello, fair reader. I haven't turned this laptop on in a week, so I know it's been a week since I've written. So, what's up?
Last week was "back to work" for us gubbimint employees. Monday went much smoother than I thought it would. I figured after five weeks off our computer systems would be F.U.B.B. (thank you, Wishbone Ash), but to my surprise, no. I signed on with the usual effort and all seemed good. There was a small problem with updating my GERS password, but I'll deal with that later. (I know that last sentence might as well have been "I snortered my lubiar, next to the myutra" to the non-government employee.) So, work was resumed. Not a whole lot of work, mind you, as our projects schedule is pretty much fried now. And that was fine, as I managed to get sick during the latter part of the week, and having something meaningful to do during the day might have been a bridge too far. I'm still feeling a bit ill but have been better the last couple of days.
Tuesday night, the Hickoids had our first rehearsal in a while. We started going over ideas for recording at Dale Watson's studio in Memphis, which will happen in May. Danny Grace will guest, and it should be a blast. Of course, Tuesday night is when I began to feel ill, so by the end of practice, I was just wanting to get out of there. Still, we accomplished.....something, I think.
By Thursday, I felt terrible. I guess a low-grade cold had finally taken hold. Michelle had the same thing a couple of weeks prior; it just took its sweet time getting to me. Thursday night, Pocket FishRmen rehearsed, but up until three hours or so before rehearsal time, I didn't think I was going to make it. But I did. The way the rehearsal room is set up now, I only have to replace the snare drum and kick pedal, and I'm ready to play. Very easy. If I would have had extensive setup to do, I would have cancelled. And I'm glad we rehearsed; it went really well. I went back to the hammered double kick during the "We Kill Evil" chorus for the first time in years. The band (and I) preferred more of a tribal approach during the choruses, but after years of trial and error, I never came up with a way of playing that which felt right. I just went back to the double kick metal part. Sounded fine to me. It's manly, too. And after practice, I felt somewhat better. The cold has lingered since then, and I'm still not fully well....but close.
Wednesday, I received the Severin bundle which was technically my birthday present but had been held up by a manufacturing delay. I'm still going through all of that, but damn, is it nice! The bundle included Blu rays of "All the Colors of the Dark" (a Sergio Martino classic), "All the Colors of Giallo" (a feature-length documentary on...guess what?), a quartet of cheap American Mondo movies, and "Skinner," a 1993 horror movie that...well, it's interesting. There were also two enamel pins, one of Sergio Martino, and one of Edwige Fenech. The quality of these surprised me....they're heavy suckers! There was also a t-shirt of "All the Colors of the Dark" characters, created by my buddy Craig Merritt's company, Pallbearer Press. And.....black gloves, so you can dress as a giallo character yourself. I would have left off the "All the Colors of the Dark" logo, but hey, they fit my gnarled old drummer hands!
The "All the Colors of the Dark" release includes two cuts of the movie, a DVD version, and the soundtrack on a separate CD. There is a commentary by Diabolique Magazine's/Daughter of Darkness Kat Ellinger, and several other interview features (none with Edwige Fenech, though.....boo).
The "All the Colors of Giallo" release includes four hours of giallo trailers with optional commentary by the aforementioned Ms. Ellinger. I'm about 60% through those now, and man, is that some entertainment! I won't spoil it here, but Ms. Ellinger makes an observation about Lucio Fulci during a "Don't Torture a Duckling" trailer that would have caused a full spit take from me if I would have had liquid in my mouth upon hearing it. Hilarious! There is also a DVD containing a number of Krimi (German crime films, which largely pre-date and inspired the giallo genre) trailers; I haven't watched any of those yet. There is also a third disc, which is a CD sampler of soundtrack music.
The American Mondo collection contains these four films: "Mondo Bizarro," "Mondo Freudo," "Ecco," and "The Forbidden." I've watched "Mondo Bizarro" and about 40% of "Mondo Freudo." Both of those contain optional commentary from Johnny Legend and now-deceased memorabilia collector Eric Caidin, which must have been recorded at least ten years ago. I watched about half of "Mondo Bizarro" with the commentary on, and I'd suggest doing that. Johnny, as a scenester in Hollywood during the 60s knows a lot of the locations and a lot about the people involved in the making of these movies. For the uninitiated, these films were inspired by the Italian Mondo craze of the 60s ("Mondo Cane," etc.), but whereas those movies largely had "real" footage (I suppose that might be up for debate a bit), these American Mondo movies were largely the opposite. "Mondo Bizarro" closes with what is supposed to be white slave trade going on in Saudi Arabia.....with the hills of Los Angeles clearly visible behind the setting. It's rather hilarious, especially with Legend's commentary. When the legendary Vito of the Hollywood scene appears, I remembered I'd seen shots from this in a Zappa/Mothers documentary. Legend is certain that some Mothers are in the movie in other places. There is also a nice video interview featurette on the disc that documents the.....documentaries. I still haven't popped in the "Ecco"/"The Forbidden" disc yet.
"Skinner" was a trip. A film directed by Heidi Fleiss' boyfriend when that scandal broke, starring Ted Raimi, Ricki Lake, and Traci Lords. What else do you want to know? In many ways, it's very reminiscent of "The Silence of the Lambs," but at the same time, I think it's its own movie. I was surprised at how well made it was, especially since it seems very low budget. But it's effective. I'll watch it again, I feel certain. Creepy. The KNB guys worked on the special effects, but one of the special features explains that they weren't there on set; they just sent the stuff over to be used. Nice practical effects, though.
Another thing occupying time is that I'm continuing to transfer old cassettes to mp3 format. I finished the Lather transfers and have begun the Puffy Brutha Man transfers. So far, I haven't found the "Pump First Then Pay" cassette amongst many others I have, but I still have the original master tape of the recording. I need to get that transferred, and now I have more motivation. So far, the sound quality of the tapes hasn't been as bad as I had feared. The tapes (so far) have been in pretty good shape. Whew. I thought most of them might turn to powder when I started the transfer process. So far, okay. It's a slow process, though, being real-time conversion. And I have to pretty much babysit the transfer. It'll be a while before I'm done with this.
And that's the report......two more weeks of work. Maybe more.....who knows?? End, cold, end!
Last week was "back to work" for us gubbimint employees. Monday went much smoother than I thought it would. I figured after five weeks off our computer systems would be F.U.B.B. (thank you, Wishbone Ash), but to my surprise, no. I signed on with the usual effort and all seemed good. There was a small problem with updating my GERS password, but I'll deal with that later. (I know that last sentence might as well have been "I snortered my lubiar, next to the myutra" to the non-government employee.) So, work was resumed. Not a whole lot of work, mind you, as our projects schedule is pretty much fried now. And that was fine, as I managed to get sick during the latter part of the week, and having something meaningful to do during the day might have been a bridge too far. I'm still feeling a bit ill but have been better the last couple of days.
Tuesday night, the Hickoids had our first rehearsal in a while. We started going over ideas for recording at Dale Watson's studio in Memphis, which will happen in May. Danny Grace will guest, and it should be a blast. Of course, Tuesday night is when I began to feel ill, so by the end of practice, I was just wanting to get out of there. Still, we accomplished.....something, I think.
By Thursday, I felt terrible. I guess a low-grade cold had finally taken hold. Michelle had the same thing a couple of weeks prior; it just took its sweet time getting to me. Thursday night, Pocket FishRmen rehearsed, but up until three hours or so before rehearsal time, I didn't think I was going to make it. But I did. The way the rehearsal room is set up now, I only have to replace the snare drum and kick pedal, and I'm ready to play. Very easy. If I would have had extensive setup to do, I would have cancelled. And I'm glad we rehearsed; it went really well. I went back to the hammered double kick during the "We Kill Evil" chorus for the first time in years. The band (and I) preferred more of a tribal approach during the choruses, but after years of trial and error, I never came up with a way of playing that which felt right. I just went back to the double kick metal part. Sounded fine to me. It's manly, too. And after practice, I felt somewhat better. The cold has lingered since then, and I'm still not fully well....but close.
Wednesday, I received the Severin bundle which was technically my birthday present but had been held up by a manufacturing delay. I'm still going through all of that, but damn, is it nice! The bundle included Blu rays of "All the Colors of the Dark" (a Sergio Martino classic), "All the Colors of Giallo" (a feature-length documentary on...guess what?), a quartet of cheap American Mondo movies, and "Skinner," a 1993 horror movie that...well, it's interesting. There were also two enamel pins, one of Sergio Martino, and one of Edwige Fenech. The quality of these surprised me....they're heavy suckers! There was also a t-shirt of "All the Colors of the Dark" characters, created by my buddy Craig Merritt's company, Pallbearer Press. And.....black gloves, so you can dress as a giallo character yourself. I would have left off the "All the Colors of the Dark" logo, but hey, they fit my gnarled old drummer hands!
The "All the Colors of the Dark" release includes two cuts of the movie, a DVD version, and the soundtrack on a separate CD. There is a commentary by Diabolique Magazine's/Daughter of Darkness Kat Ellinger, and several other interview features (none with Edwige Fenech, though.....boo).
The "All the Colors of Giallo" release includes four hours of giallo trailers with optional commentary by the aforementioned Ms. Ellinger. I'm about 60% through those now, and man, is that some entertainment! I won't spoil it here, but Ms. Ellinger makes an observation about Lucio Fulci during a "Don't Torture a Duckling" trailer that would have caused a full spit take from me if I would have had liquid in my mouth upon hearing it. Hilarious! There is also a DVD containing a number of Krimi (German crime films, which largely pre-date and inspired the giallo genre) trailers; I haven't watched any of those yet. There is also a third disc, which is a CD sampler of soundtrack music.
The American Mondo collection contains these four films: "Mondo Bizarro," "Mondo Freudo," "Ecco," and "The Forbidden." I've watched "Mondo Bizarro" and about 40% of "Mondo Freudo." Both of those contain optional commentary from Johnny Legend and now-deceased memorabilia collector Eric Caidin, which must have been recorded at least ten years ago. I watched about half of "Mondo Bizarro" with the commentary on, and I'd suggest doing that. Johnny, as a scenester in Hollywood during the 60s knows a lot of the locations and a lot about the people involved in the making of these movies. For the uninitiated, these films were inspired by the Italian Mondo craze of the 60s ("Mondo Cane," etc.), but whereas those movies largely had "real" footage (I suppose that might be up for debate a bit), these American Mondo movies were largely the opposite. "Mondo Bizarro" closes with what is supposed to be white slave trade going on in Saudi Arabia.....with the hills of Los Angeles clearly visible behind the setting. It's rather hilarious, especially with Legend's commentary. When the legendary Vito of the Hollywood scene appears, I remembered I'd seen shots from this in a Zappa/Mothers documentary. Legend is certain that some Mothers are in the movie in other places. There is also a nice video interview featurette on the disc that documents the.....documentaries. I still haven't popped in the "Ecco"/"The Forbidden" disc yet.
"Skinner" was a trip. A film directed by Heidi Fleiss' boyfriend when that scandal broke, starring Ted Raimi, Ricki Lake, and Traci Lords. What else do you want to know? In many ways, it's very reminiscent of "The Silence of the Lambs," but at the same time, I think it's its own movie. I was surprised at how well made it was, especially since it seems very low budget. But it's effective. I'll watch it again, I feel certain. Creepy. The KNB guys worked on the special effects, but one of the special features explains that they weren't there on set; they just sent the stuff over to be used. Nice practical effects, though.
Another thing occupying time is that I'm continuing to transfer old cassettes to mp3 format. I finished the Lather transfers and have begun the Puffy Brutha Man transfers. So far, I haven't found the "Pump First Then Pay" cassette amongst many others I have, but I still have the original master tape of the recording. I need to get that transferred, and now I have more motivation. So far, the sound quality of the tapes hasn't been as bad as I had feared. The tapes (so far) have been in pretty good shape. Whew. I thought most of them might turn to powder when I started the transfer process. So far, okay. It's a slow process, though, being real-time conversion. And I have to pretty much babysit the transfer. It'll be a while before I'm done with this.
And that's the report......two more weeks of work. Maybe more.....who knows?? End, cold, end!
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Writing This When I Should Be Writing Something Else
Well, sometimes that happens. I'm currently hands-deep in the write-up of our recent Italian trip, but I want to scribble about something else today.
I still play drums in a couple of bands, as if any of you who might be reading this well know. At times, I don't even know why I still do it, other than the cameraderie it brings, and....it gets me out of the house. I still greatly enjoy music, and playing it, but the aches and pains hauling equipment brings are greater at my age. I went through a long bout of physical limitation in playing, chronicled in this blog back in 2016, I believe, and got through it all somehow. My playing now has never been better. And yet, at times, I still ask myself "why are you doing this?" The two bands I'm in don't require much creative involvement from me, as they both have songwriters who the bands are closely identified with. And that's a good thing. In the case of Pocket FishRmen, it's a great thing.
Brant Bingamon is one of the great American songwriters, in my opinion. And yes, I'm biased, since I play in the FishRmen, but still, it's true. He has a very unconventional approach to song structure that's always interesting to play with. And over the last few years, I really like how the FishRmen have worked in coming up with new material. What happens is: Brant sends us all a demo, we individually listen to the demo, we listen to the demo at rehearsal, Brant plays the basic song for Cris and Jason to get chords and notes down, we begin arranging the song using members' ideas as fit....and voilà, a song is born.
All this leading to: last Thursday, Brant sent us a second demo of a song he'd been working on, "I Believe The Woman." We all knew full well a topical song of this nature might have a limited shelf life, so we'd better get this one in the set pronto. We set about creating our arrangement. In the initial run-throughs of the song, it was most important to just figure out how long each part went, and that took some time. Jason is the one who'll take charge during this time, getting the "number of times" each part goes, etc. And he'll work with Cris on the chordings, etc. Cris will usually suggest his own stingers during this time. This is the time I know to stay quiet and just concentrate on making sure I know the structure.
Once the structure is known (and "Believe" took awhile; at first, none of the structure really made sense to me), Cris and Jason will begin adding a little more to the arrangement, and then I'll start chiming in with things. One of the things I've done ever since playing in bands is something I'll call "forcing accents." I certainly did this in this song in the following to each chorus, to sort of build to a release of the next verse. Another contribution I made was to suggest everybody be conscious of framing the words of the song; you want this to be understandable by the audience. For instance, I suggested removing "extraneous material" before each chorus, to ensure audiences will hear Brant's "I Believe The Woman" each time. We decided to hang a bit before each chorus, and it worked like gangbusters. I also suggested a sing-along of the chorus at the end, but that still needs some work on the length of it. Still, in an hour we had a workable version of this song ready to go.
I write about this, as it's been awhile since either of my bands has had a new song ready to go; the FishRmen largely due to limitation in practice space availability, since remedied, the Hickoids...well, not enough rehearsal time, frankly. I hope that changes soon. Last Thursday was magical, and I like the feeling. It's one of the reasons I keep doing this. Let's come up with more, guys.
I still play drums in a couple of bands, as if any of you who might be reading this well know. At times, I don't even know why I still do it, other than the cameraderie it brings, and....it gets me out of the house. I still greatly enjoy music, and playing it, but the aches and pains hauling equipment brings are greater at my age. I went through a long bout of physical limitation in playing, chronicled in this blog back in 2016, I believe, and got through it all somehow. My playing now has never been better. And yet, at times, I still ask myself "why are you doing this?" The two bands I'm in don't require much creative involvement from me, as they both have songwriters who the bands are closely identified with. And that's a good thing. In the case of Pocket FishRmen, it's a great thing.
Brant Bingamon is one of the great American songwriters, in my opinion. And yes, I'm biased, since I play in the FishRmen, but still, it's true. He has a very unconventional approach to song structure that's always interesting to play with. And over the last few years, I really like how the FishRmen have worked in coming up with new material. What happens is: Brant sends us all a demo, we individually listen to the demo, we listen to the demo at rehearsal, Brant plays the basic song for Cris and Jason to get chords and notes down, we begin arranging the song using members' ideas as fit....and voilà, a song is born.
All this leading to: last Thursday, Brant sent us a second demo of a song he'd been working on, "I Believe The Woman." We all knew full well a topical song of this nature might have a limited shelf life, so we'd better get this one in the set pronto. We set about creating our arrangement. In the initial run-throughs of the song, it was most important to just figure out how long each part went, and that took some time. Jason is the one who'll take charge during this time, getting the "number of times" each part goes, etc. And he'll work with Cris on the chordings, etc. Cris will usually suggest his own stingers during this time. This is the time I know to stay quiet and just concentrate on making sure I know the structure.
Once the structure is known (and "Believe" took awhile; at first, none of the structure really made sense to me), Cris and Jason will begin adding a little more to the arrangement, and then I'll start chiming in with things. One of the things I've done ever since playing in bands is something I'll call "forcing accents." I certainly did this in this song in the following to each chorus, to sort of build to a release of the next verse. Another contribution I made was to suggest everybody be conscious of framing the words of the song; you want this to be understandable by the audience. For instance, I suggested removing "extraneous material" before each chorus, to ensure audiences will hear Brant's "I Believe The Woman" each time. We decided to hang a bit before each chorus, and it worked like gangbusters. I also suggested a sing-along of the chorus at the end, but that still needs some work on the length of it. Still, in an hour we had a workable version of this song ready to go.
I write about this, as it's been awhile since either of my bands has had a new song ready to go; the FishRmen largely due to limitation in practice space availability, since remedied, the Hickoids...well, not enough rehearsal time, frankly. I hope that changes soon. Last Thursday was magical, and I like the feeling. It's one of the reasons I keep doing this. Let's come up with more, guys.
Saturday, March 17, 2018
Three gigs today! Oh, wait......two gigs today!
So, last night, I took it easy, stayed home, did a little laundry, watched a movie, practiced drumming, etc. My usual Friday night when I'm gigless for the last couple of years or so. There were a few shows I was interested in, but most of them were by folks who play regularly around these parts. So, I stayed home. Plus, I was getting a bad sore throat and feeling a bit sickly (just how I woke up today).
Around 1 in the morning, technically today, Phil Owen posted on the Skatenigs Facebook event page that today's show is completely off. Pocket FishRmen have no gig today now. A post by Adam Brewer of Texas Rockfest on someone else's wall today confirmed that they just haven't had enough people through their gates to pay for the show today. In his initial post, Phil promised we'd do this bill somewhere sometime. So maybe it'll happen in the near future. I'm somewhat disappointed, largely because we tore the paint off the walls at Nomad Thursday night and was looking forward to a quick 30-minute onslaught with the FishRmen today. But....it's not to be. I still have two Hickoids gigs. Maybe, feeling the way I do, that's for the better.
The first gig is at Voodoo Doughnuts, on Sixth Street, where we played their grand opening a couple years back. The second gig is closing out the 04 Lounge tonight. Both gigs will be mostly backlined for drums, but I've packed my "contingency suitcase" anyway. About to head downtown, figure out where to park, and roll these suckers (my cymbals/snare combo, too) what might be many, many blocks. Still, I'll take that over the alternative. I hope Jimmy Ford can get the Dinola van down into VD territory to get gear out to play. We shall see! Complete report tomorrow!
As I mentioned, I'm feeling ill, so I'm ending this here. It's been a pleasure, folks. Write ya real soon now, ya see?
Friday, March 16, 2018
Pocket FishRmen, Nomad, 3/15/2018
Last night, Pocket FishRmen took the stage for the second time this SX, at Nomad in a nice line-up including Queue Queue, Suckling, and Dinola. For the record, this is maybe only the second time the FishRmen con moi have played two days in a row, the other time being a West Texas trip in 2013. And it showed last night. I'm going to say, while trying to keep a small sense of modesty and decorum, that we tore the roof off the place. Damn, it felt good to be in a band hitting on all cylinders like that!
The backline drum kit at Nomad was in great shape, stayed in place, everything. I used my own snare and stand, throne and added one cymbal stand. And, puzzlingly, as I was removing my top hi-hat cymbal from the clutch, I dropped the main part of the clutch and could not find it on stage. The sound man and I both looked for quite awhile (the next band didn't have drums, so we had some time). I left the sound man with a clutch of mine to get through today with that kit. Weird.
I didn't use the sampler or lights last night, and man, did that make a difference in setup time! Gotta get an assistant. We dropped "Pronounce" from the set list, as that really does need the sampler for the electronic drum sections. Kinda falls flat without it. The rest was fine. I imitated the other samples as need be; having this new headset mic facilitates that.
Today is a day of rest, as they say. I may go see something later, depending on how I feel. Actually, after three days in a row of it, I don't feel bad at all; yesterday, I was much droopier. The leg is cooperating. Maybe I'll head out later.....hmm.....
The backline drum kit at Nomad was in great shape, stayed in place, everything. I used my own snare and stand, throne and added one cymbal stand. And, puzzlingly, as I was removing my top hi-hat cymbal from the clutch, I dropped the main part of the clutch and could not find it on stage. The sound man and I both looked for quite awhile (the next band didn't have drums, so we had some time). I left the sound man with a clutch of mine to get through today with that kit. Weird.
I didn't use the sampler or lights last night, and man, did that make a difference in setup time! Gotta get an assistant. We dropped "Pronounce" from the set list, as that really does need the sampler for the electronic drum sections. Kinda falls flat without it. The rest was fine. I imitated the other samples as need be; having this new headset mic facilitates that.
Today is a day of rest, as they say. I may go see something later, depending on how I feel. Actually, after three days in a row of it, I don't feel bad at all; yesterday, I was much droopier. The leg is cooperating. Maybe I'll head out later.....hmm.....
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Pocket FishRmen, The Lost Well, 3/14/2018
Last night was the SX 2018 debut of Pocket FishRmen (for the record, I have three gigs with both bands, totalling six), at the Lost Well, a familiar dive for a lot of us. We were on a Saustex-created bill including We Are The Asteroid, Dinola, Sabbath Crow (who almost live at the Lost Well!), and Cannibal Bitch. The show got under way at 9:00 and somehow ended before 2:00. Professionalism! Actually, Cannibal Bitch, a two-piece sludgefest, only played about 15-20 minutes. The Lost Well was debuting a new sound system, and fortuitously, we had the same sound man from the White Horse the night before!
Pocket FishRmen had drawn the 11:30 slot; I think we were on by 11:45 or so. Our set was pretty okay, at least by reaction it was. I played fine, but it was a real bitch setting everything up by myself. Brant is always a great help moving gear (Jason helps as well if he's free of his own setup), but getting everything up and running for PF is becoming more and more impossible, if I'm using everything for the show. By everything, I mean the drums, the sampler, the lights, a costume, etc. As a lot of drummers do, I set up offstage beforehand, so I can just put the pieces together on the stage. But the sampler, lights, etc. all need to be done after THAT is done. It takes a crazy amount of time. I need an assistant. Where can I find one?? Aaaahhh!!!
One major distraction last night was these new stage lights that were very bright, one being placed on each side of the stage on the drummer's sightline. So, yes, I was regularly blinded while playing. The sound man realized that; maybe some adjustments to those will be made for future folks. With all these issues, I didn't have a great time but like I said earlier, played okay. All the bands did well, but there was not a huge turnout for the show. I wonder if the whole SX thing isn't a bit watered down; even for "our" shows.
Until tomorrow!
Pocket FishRmen had drawn the 11:30 slot; I think we were on by 11:45 or so. Our set was pretty okay, at least by reaction it was. I played fine, but it was a real bitch setting everything up by myself. Brant is always a great help moving gear (Jason helps as well if he's free of his own setup), but getting everything up and running for PF is becoming more and more impossible, if I'm using everything for the show. By everything, I mean the drums, the sampler, the lights, a costume, etc. As a lot of drummers do, I set up offstage beforehand, so I can just put the pieces together on the stage. But the sampler, lights, etc. all need to be done after THAT is done. It takes a crazy amount of time. I need an assistant. Where can I find one?? Aaaahhh!!!
One major distraction last night was these new stage lights that were very bright, one being placed on each side of the stage on the drummer's sightline. So, yes, I was regularly blinded while playing. The sound man realized that; maybe some adjustments to those will be made for future folks. With all these issues, I didn't have a great time but like I said earlier, played okay. All the bands did well, but there was not a huge turnout for the show. I wonder if the whole SX thing isn't a bit watered down; even for "our" shows.
Until tomorrow!
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