« August 2003 | Main | October 2003 »
September 30, 2003
Black Flag Reviews
A couple of weeks ago, "Black Flag" tortured thousands of humans in the LA area over the course of three nights. Wanda and I were apart of that crowd at the Sunday night show.
The only really good thing to come out of these "shows" has been a few exceptionally funny reviews:
Chris Ziegler's review in the OC Weekly notes:
Flag founder Greg Ginn is a guitar genius, but this show demonstrated further talents: "Wow," said one Flag apologist, watching a wave of meatheads try and find a beat to mosh to. "Ginn’s like an idiot savant—at pissing people off."
Tim Jamison's review in Razorcake notes:
After the Robo part they lose the bass player and drummer. Then they plug Dale back in and Dez continues to sing. This went on for nearly two hours. But hey, I could have been in St. Louis trying to kill time on a Friday night instead of being bummed out at a Black Flag show. Did I mention this was all for cats? Rock for cats? I will allow the obvious joke about why guys get into bands slide right by me.
Posted by Ms. Jen at 8:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 29, 2003
Flametrick Subs This Weekend
The best band I saw at the Las Vegas Rockaround wasn't even at the Gold Coast - it was the two hour live set that The Flametrick Subs played at the Double Down Saloon BEFORE they went on for the Rockaround (at 3 a.m. no less!)
Don't miss their messed up antics Friday at the Doll Hut (with Devil Doll) or Saturday at the All Star Lanes Bowl-a-Rama with The Hyperions and The Irish Brothers.
The last time the Flametrick Subs played was at the Liquid Den in Huntington Beach to a crowd of about seven (me and all my friends). Don't let this happen again!
Posted by DJWanda at 11:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 21, 2003
Grisham For Governor: Awarness Rally
Kimm Gardener from Channel 3 emailed this announcement earlier today:
Wanted to drop you all a note that this show is on sale now. Should be fun and all in support of Jack in his bid for Governor!
The Lineup so far:
Adolescents
TSOL
The Bronx
400 Blows
Channel 3
Narcoleptic Youth
All Day
1208
Also am hearing that Manic Hispanic and Skulls have been added.....
http://www.goldenvoice.com
Hope that you can make it out!
CH3
Kimm, Mike, Alf and Anthony
Update 10/2/03:
This show is now at the Henry Fonday Theatre at 6126 Hollywood Blvd, in Hollywood. It starts at 7pm.
Posted by Ms. Jen at 4:25 PM | TrackBack
September 19, 2003
Arrrrgh! Int'l Talk Like a Pirate Day
Ahoy, Mateys! International Talk Like A Priate Day is upon us. To brush up on your lingo, go to the official site by clicking on the flag above (which I blatantly pirated in honor of the occasion). With pickup lines like "Wanna shiver me timbers?" or "Ya know, darlin’, I’m 97 percent chum free" you're sure to score some major booty.
Posted by Lucky at 12:23 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 16, 2003
The RIAA Prank
Mr. John Hargrave is truly brillant. His 6 or so pages of documentation on prank phone calling the RIAA and various record companies is very funny.
The Recording Industry Association of America has been making headlines with their recent threat to sue anyone engaged in digital piracy, even my grandmother. Although my grandmother has about 300GB of warez, hackz, crackz, cheatz, pr0n, and MP3s stored away on her nitrogen-cooled dual-RAID systems, she is no thief. She's simply keeping them for a friend.
Still, the RIAA continues to go after innocent file-sharers like my grandmother, who recently got a monster tat of Dr. Dre flipping the bird to a bunch of cops inked across her back. But that's beside the point. The point is that I was trying desperately to get someone in the music industry to take my money. I had called the RIAA, online music stores, and even the music companies themselves.
But what about the artists? They're the bottom of the food chain in the music industry, the musicians that get their cut after the producers, executives, distributors, retailers, and RIAA lawyers take their share. Why not just send some money directly to the bands, and eliminate the middlemob? So that's exactly what I did next: I mailed checks to ten artists, ranging from the mega-successful to the ultra-obscure.
Posted by Ms. Jen at 8:35 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Raed Much?
"Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Fcuknig amzanig huh?"
Posted by Lucky at 1:41 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 12, 2003
Johnny Cash Died 9/12/03
"Cash once credited his mother, Carrie Rivers Cash, with encouraging him to pursue a singing career.
'My mother told me to keep on singing, and that kept me working through the cotton fields. She said God has his hand on you. You'll be singing for the world someday.' "
Thank God he did. Rest in peace, Johnny.
Posted by at 8:56 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 10, 2003
Showdown at the RIAA Corral
The showdown between the music industry, as represented by the RIAA, and the average music fan who file shares seems have come to a big head this week. There are multiple articles whirling around about the RIAA's lawsuits, about their amnesty program, about ... about... about...
Fred Von Lohmann, senior intellectual property attorney for the EFF, has a well balanced opinion column in the LA Times today that actually proposes solutions that could possibly work for all parties. 'Amnesty' for Music File Sharing Is a Sham:
Here's what the RIAA has proposed as its "solution" to file-sharing: an "amnesty" for file-sharers. Just delete the MP3s you've downloaded, shred those CD-R copies, confess your guilt and, in return, the most change-resistant companies in the nation will give you nothing. Oh, the RIAA promises not to assist copyright owners in suing you. But its major-label members reserve the right to go after you, as do thousands of music publishers and artists like Metallica.
In other words, once you have come forward, you are more vulnerable to a lawsuit, not less. This is more "sham-nesty" than "amnesty." What a waste.
Rather than trying to sue Americans into submission, imagine a real solution for the problem. What if the labels legitimized music swapping by offering a real amnesty for all file-sharing, past, present and future, in exchange for say, $5 a month from each person who steps forward?
Additional links to the EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's "File Sharing: It's Music to our ears"
Posted by Ms. Jen at 6:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 8, 2003
Odd Combo?
The Queens of the Stone Age and The Cramps will be playing together at the Greek Theatre on Halloween. Is it just me or does this strike you as an odd combo?
Posted by Ms. Jen at 12:15 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
September 5, 2003
Enchanted Tiki Room 40th Anniversary
In the not-too-distant past(i.e., last year), the Enchanted Tiki Room was slated to become a food court. But thanks to the efforts of mid-century preservationists (or more likely to corporate greed), this year Disneyland's Polynesian Pop Palace is celebrating it's 40th Anniversary, complete with commemorative seriagraph and merchandise by Shag
Opens Wednesday, September 20, 2003
Artist Signing: 10am-1pm
Disneyana Shop, Main Street, Disneyland
**Yes, you have to pay the entrace fee to see the exhibit & buy the goodies**
Posted by Lucky at 3:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
September 2, 2003
Happy Gas, Anyone?
From the Weekly World News, so you know it's true...
Have you recently noticed a lot more small planes flying over your neighborhood? And that you've been feeling pretty upbeat about America lately? The real reason why might surprise you.
"It's because the aircraft are spraying a chemical the government calls HG-C, or Happy Gas-Civilian," claims sociologist and researcher Dr. Carla Halcourt.
"The plan to spray urban areas with the gas was hatched in Washington as a way to take the American people's minds off the sick economy, unemployment, rising prices and terrorism.
"A whiff of HG-C makes people feel happier almost instantly. As far as is known, it has no serious side effects -- though it can cause fatigue, diarrhea and hair loss. Even so, the use of this gas on Americans is outrageous and unacceptable. It's like a form of chemical brainwashing."
Dr. Halcourt belongs to a group of a dozen D.C.-area researchers who call themselves the Committee of Concerned Scientists and say they first learned of the scheme from contacts in the Defense Department. According the researchers, HG-C was first developed in Iraq and later refined by U.S. scientists to make it less toxic.
"Saddam and other Middle East despots had been using HG-C to keep civilian populations under control since the early 1980s," explains Dr. Halcourt. "When the CIA learned how effective it was, the decision by Uncle Sam to make a modified form of it here was almost irresistible."
Aerial dispersal of HG-C began in the spring of 2002, say the experts. They claim that to be as unobtrusive as possible, the spraying is often conducted by small, unmanned drones, flying at high altitude or at night.
"If you think you hear the hum of an aircraft high overhead late at night, when your home was never under a flight path before, that's almost certainly an HG-C dispersal plane," reveals Dr. Halcourt.
Weather balloons sent aloft by meteorologists in the group have confirmed the presence of HG-C in the skies over New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and nine Midwestern cities chosen at random, the researchers say.
"If you have any doubt that this stuff works, take a look at polls that show the vast majority of Americans give 'high marks' to President Bush for his handling of the economy, despite federal deficits exceeding $450 billion and the worst job market in 20 years," Dr. Halcourt says.
"Then take a look at the vacant smiles on the faces of your neighbors."
The Bush administration calls the Happy Gas claims "pure bunkum," claiming that any unusual government aircraft citizens may spot over their hometowns are probably involved in the war on terrorism.
"I can tell you categorically that this president has no specific knowledge of any mind-altering gases being distributed over American cities without the approval of local officials," a White House source insists.
