life's the illusion, love is the dream...

ugh, i feel old. this is a feeling that rarely comes across my neurotic self but last night it hit me hard. i decided to put on the tv to a show i don't really like at all, sixty minutes. i saw the "i'm morely, i'm blah and i'm blah" and the briefings on what the features were on, etc. the very first commercial is for AARP and the music is the god damned buzzcocks "everybody's happy nowadays" and i just sink like a ship. wha th fuc!!?? first off, i love many a buzzcocks tune but that is one of my favorites so it hurts that much more. part of me wants to write a letter to the aarp (not an email) and tell them their use of rock and/or roll in an ad is very distracting and noisy...basically come off like some old codger. yeah, that will show them. not.

i did not watch the show and remembered seeing andy rooney when i lived in new york a couple times. he looked to be about 188 years old so that made me feel better. maybe i'm dead.

jew chicksa not shicksa

shaabat shalom y'all...

christ! what is the deal with jewish women...i have found myself in a trance by one in the recent five years or so and a couple more in the last two or so years. one specific woman is sarah silverman. many despise her brand of humor and it is easy to dismiss it as not being p c which i can understand but really, she is so damn funny. i just got this la weekly article sent to me about her and her upcoming show on comedy central. i really like her and have seen her perfomance three times and every time she killed. seattle, go see her next month at the showbox and laugh.

so - back to the jew girl thingy for a moment. my pal gNat goes out with a jew girl, so does my pal washburn (wait, he married her) and i always hear about jew girl this and gew jirl that. when i was living in so cal i did not want to be around them and when living in nyc (the upper west side no less - jewish peeps everywhere) i was living with my vegan, half vietnamese half white girlfren. what is it that these jewish girls possess? i think i know but as deborah harry so aptly sang..."i know, but i don't know".

Brown Ford

when james brown died on christmas day - and damn it, i cannot get that through my head, the GFOS, mr. dynamite, mr. please please please, soul brother #1 is dead...say it ain't so... and then president gerald ford kicked it, many folks started talking about the three's. how famous (whatever) people die in 3's. well, that did not happen did it? i don't think so, correct me if i am wrong. ahmet ertegun does not count unless you are some record nerdlinger (uh, like me). that being stated when people started yapping about the next person to go, castro was tossed out there and that is a pretty safe and good bet for 2007. someone else ponied up another prez...jimmy carter. i say no to that - he's looking great, active and not 93 like ford. jesus, 93. anywho, i actually thought it would be ms. liz as you see her here looking very foxy and washing a dog no less! this thought is going through my head again and i don't like that feeling. ms. taylor is kind of weirdo now (and then too) but she has been in a ton of movies i really dig "suddenly last summer", "virgina woolfe" and "drivers seat". so, hats off to elizabeth...now just don't leave yet without telling the world that michael jackson is the scariest person ever and richard burton was richard burton. elizabeth taylor defines freak sauce...weirdo, scary and totally cool.

really?

holy guacamole...i swear, maybe you tube is saving saturday night live for anytime i want to watch the best of the current episodes, you tube saves the day. 'dick in a box' with that andy kid and jt = hi-fricken-larious! when prince was on last year, i saw both songs in all the purple badness on you tube again. remember the chronic of narnia? ok, enough - here's the latest newest clip and this made me laugh out loud too

throw your weed away!

knocked out...

consider this for a moment...who are you in this picture? muhammad ali or are you on the mat on your back, sonny liston? recently i felt like both men and what a feeling to have knocked yourself out! but wait, the look on ali's face is exactly that feeling i have currently and that is one of triumph, strength and overcoming all the bullshit i created by knocking myself out. last week was muhammad ali's birthday and i completely did not metion it...he was my first and remains my number one hero. happy belated to my main man ALI - !! your picture here reminds me of every single thing i love about you...especially when i recall seeing interviews with you after this second liston fight and you told reporters you were telling liston "get up"!

indeed, get up!

achtung baby

what was the last thing you did not catch when you were not paying attention? last week, within the space of five days i got not one, not two but three parking tickets (two from the same traffic cop, different days no less)!! distracted? sure but better to just say i was lazy...but if anybody has ever drove with me and seen the way i drive and park - it comes as a bit of a surprise that i finally received a ticket. i am notorious for parking wherever i please and not getting a ticket let alone driving sometimes like a maniac. but really, beyond the laziness and going well past distractions, this is more about just not paying attention. things go by when you fixate on one or two or one things...and i do not have myopia damn it. does it take getting parking tickets to wake me up? i'd much rather spend the $122.00 (for the three) on a million other things!! i am actually going to fight one of these and we'll see how it comes out.

meanwhile...i am paying closer attention and i see a lot more than what i was looking at last week. good thing, i nearly lost it after number three...

Ese oscuro objeto del deseo

oh, did i mention the frye museum here in seattle...yes,often. one item of note while visiting last was i saw an old friend jd and she looked great. i also saw some trimpin thing with clogs and two bits which brings a smile to my face but in the bookstore i spyed the book you see above this banter. "film as a submissive art" really gave me an education on the much darker side of cinema. it took me forever to find this book - which i found at the strand while living in nyc close to ten years ago - but now it is back in print. i strongly recommend this book to anybody who thinks they know a lot about movies and cinema. all the heavy hitters are within these pages like antonioni, brakhage, goddard, etc. but he does pay attention to one of my favorite people to ever live luis bunuel. after seeing this outside of my own home has me picking it up again and i realize sometimes i re-read this kind of book and it all seems fresh all over again.

get this book!

oh!

three is a magic number for music...really now - best bands are three with a singer or even better - the trio. dear god, sleater kinney could clean your clock live and they made exceptional records. one thing which always impressed me about them was how their artistic angle was there was no real "art" beyond rock and roll. they embodied rock with blistering songs and no god damn bass. i am not going to compare the two but when one listens to the jon spencer blues explosion and they hit that same groove - that can be just so sweet to the ears and hips. i for one will sincerely miss sleater kinney. from the first time i saw them play to the last they consistantly kicked it out hard and harder than most.

but back to the trio angle. hmmm, how about the jam? so much (if not most) of their music still holds up thirty years later. years ago there was a band called beat happening. the nutty trio who made music i'd rather not try to describe and ditto for that other washington now san francisco freak trio known as the melvins. oh, that nirvana band was mostly and best as a trio! local favorites the a-frames...a trio of mind thumping craziness. are the flaming lips a trio? sure they are! and what about the trio's of hip hop like tribe called quest (starting as a quad), the beastie boys and de la soul? all triple trouble...bring on the three's! anybody who wants to throw rush in the middle of this i am ok with that not because i love 'tom sawyer' but because geddy lee is jewish and i love my jewish rock stars -and i don't mean billy joel and gene simmons. oy!

violent affection

perplexed by being so tired and ready to sleep...i am drawn to scribble some words. and really, only few things are on my mind currently and translating these might not be completely easy. certainly i can express some simple thoughts...like the listening to my morning jacket. everything about this band spells out a band i would not fall for but i have like a ton of bricks. the song i am listening to is "what a wonderful man" from the album 'z' - it is so damn good. i love these guys. oh yeah, i had a bowl of soup tonight, homemade noodles, crazy good dumplings with scallions and white pepper, i totally love the stuff. and sunday is my favorite day of the week...love it! it is long, sleepy and semi-productive. see that fairfield porter painting, god i love that too - as i have mentioned previously, one of my favorite places here in the emerald city is the frye and the f. porter show they had there some time back about 2.5 years ago was sublime. i love his paintings.

can you see where i am going...goodnight!

for how long must we tolerate...

what an incredible day...even if i kinda (well, a lot) despise the democrats this is such a great day for maybe, possibly - a change will come with the house and the senate changing hands. i like nancy pelosi and i love the idea of a woman as speaker of the house. i am feeling good about all of this and feel as though we all need to pay close attention to the coming weeks and months on these newly elected folks...and hold them to the promises made this last election year. look at that bastard cheney...he does not care about you or anything you do. we all must take the time to do whatever we can to stop this war! we all must do something, anything. get involved locally - and let's make some changes along with the people in power. this is a big day.

if we want it.

for elG

for you
from me
with love

her face is like a beautiful modigliani painting and her body curves with the arc of a cubists dream...she speaks like she is on a highway with the words of a storyteller - - her smile radiates and her laugh knows all....she wears jewelry that sparkles with her phenomenal eyes in a fight to the finish
she's got everything she needs but she is not sure what she wants
captivated by all that she is and all that she is, is - elG

porque te quiero.
siempre

rock on and rock off

quickly...name your favorite record from when you were 13...ok, fourteen or fifteen. prior to my hearing x, the clash and any sort of punk rock and/roll, the stones, deep purple, and the always present led zeppelin exisited. especially the latter, zep mattered so much. i had decent taste too for i was still listening to bowie, your krla low rider stuff and al green on eight track in my mothers car but zeppelin was mine (and a kajillion other teenagers too). led zeppelin III remains a huge record in my headspace soundtrack. i hope you like it too after you hit this here download check out song "out on the tiles" - zep perfection. how i post this love of zep while listening to joanna newsom is beyond me but there is some connection...

like a fruit, that's ripe for the picking...

i do not care about the year end as some guide post to reflect on the past 365 days however, i am a bundle of contridictions so i thereby give you an informal list of the best things of this thing called 2006.

where to start...how's about the phenomenal tribe called quest show at bumbershoot this year? ok, it rocked the hard jams like nobodys business. i have always wanted to see tribe and they delivered big time!! i saw lots of decent shows this year but that might be the best along with coco rosie. swimming in lake washington proves to me to be one of the finest experiences about living in seattle. refreshing, exhiliarting and downright cathartic, the lake hits me the right way. when there i run into people i see once in a while and the time down there just says 'summer'. the darger show at the frye art museum...dear god, that was a jaw dropper. i went three times and probably still tripping out. eating at the el asadero taco bus on rainer, the schezuewan (sp) noodle bowl and the kebab house in greenwood were the places to dine - all offer inexpensive, delicioso food all the time yet remain slightly chaotic in their own little ways. my nephews and neice - are simply the best. i love those kids and feel the finest word spoken that hit my ears this year hands down is 'uncle'. friends friends and how they put up with me and my on-going insanity, thank you all. and speaking of, ahem, friends, seeing some go to the wayside was a gift that keeps giving...hindsight always 20/20 eh? reading about sonny liston, bee season, the new yorker and entertainment weekly (did i just admit that) were all enriching. the magnuson-kelly experience in august was lovely and just perfect. so this year has been nothing less that extraordinary and i am so grateful. the best thing about this year? sleeping!

move it or movie it

i see a fair share of movies yet never enough. this year i did ok, not great but ok. same goes for the quality of films this year however i found a couple that really did it right. the first three that comes to mind are pedro almodovar's "volver", the nearly flawless "iraq in fragments" and "little children".

all three demonstrate the power of cinema for me. rich characters in both the feature movies and the doc, "iraq in fragments" showed me something i must remind myself of often - just how small this world is. tired of hearing and reading about iraq? me too but damn it, this movie is a must - not only for the incredible humanity but it clearly is one of the most beautifully shot movies about something so fucked up i ever have laid my eyes on. i have already wrote about "little children" and just cannot encourage you enough to see this fantastic movie! it is still resonating after a couple weeks...clearly shining brightly. almodovar's movies are like gifts for me - always a surprise and really exposing a part of me that i kind of forget exists. "volver" has pedro almodovar giving you his love of ladies (and his lovely ladies) with such compassion and admiration, one watches with complete thrill - !! i am so glad he keeps making such great movies, his consistancy really has to be admired and i for one cannot be happier.

strange but i found these movies fascinating where i did not think i would: "united 93" & "casino royale". hmmm! other films this year i really loved: "the departed", "neil young: heart of gold", "borat", "half nelson", "OSS 117: nest of spies", "heart of the game" & "babel". best movies i have not seen yet: "letters from iwo jima", "pans labryinth", "perfume" among others. most overrated movie of the year: "little miss sunshine" - c'mon, grandfather arkin dies and that sweet child does not have any emotional reaction whatsoever? that still bugs me. omigawd, movies this year i am going to see and i must be nuts: "dreamgirls" & "rocky balboa" - wtf, rocky? well, let me explain...i know someone

me versus me

coffee smells so good but is awful when it becomes part your breath. and i love coffee but have a weird thing about my breath being bad. i want to tell people i know that they have bad breath and sometimes i do, other times i just can't bring myself to do it. do my friends tell me when i have bad breath? betty does. i have another friend who i dine with now and again and he always tells me if i have some residual mustard from a sandwich on the face or something to that order with the silent finger pointing to his own upper lip. aren't we fortunate to have people like this in our lives? i think so but i am so unyielding when it comes to receiving other advice that i wonder how one differentiates between mustard, bad breath and everything else. i hear talk and talk and elicit conversations of all sorts but now i find myself thinking, if i have bad breathe - i tend to keep my mouth shut until i can brush my teeth or i stand at an appropriate distance to best suit my conversationalist. nowadays, i want to keep my mouth shut and i am realizing this prior to my opening and saying anything - how so new of me! and my blog will be taking a turn for that as i write about my favorite movies of the year, jesse paul miller, winters arrival, ferry rides to get a snack and how i want a cat and a dog and another cat. i talk too much but before i forget to mention i

bunny

vashti bunyan. who? vashti bunyan that's who. i was not sure who to listen to last night while eating stir fry with orange cat's bff so i threw on vashti bunyan's second *in thirty years* cd "lookafterring" and it was a perfect for the experience. joni came to mind which seems the only direction you need to go in. ok, wait - nick drake was tossed out there too...and true that. i mention this cd because i listen to so much loud music that sometimes when i have too much on my mind and just that perfect amount in my hands, going slow is the best for me. bunyan sings sweetly and without being too wispy or syrupy - go get this or the above first album by her "another diamond day"...i bet you like.

sueno y moon

hi dean...how's things after luna? fine with me too - actually better than fine, things are great. what made me think of you and the galaxies of the past...? places, songs, and people, er, person for sure. but what exactly does it all mean when the first thing i thought of hearing you recently around turkey day that conjures up this text? sorry but the dream syndicate. at my new favorite blog detailed twang by a mr. jay hinman - he too recently wrote of your influencial quartet and their glorious "days of wine and roses" lp. i "you tubed" (love that!) and found y'all at the whisky *where i saw the dream syndicate play in the years past* doing "that's what you always say". fantastic!

and just last saturday night/sunday morning "the days of wine and roses" was a soundtrack to what turned out to be quite a sleep deprived yet delicious and luscious time. when one is listening to steve wynn sing "when you smile" and you just taste (or dream) that smile he is talking about, it heightens everything at once. at this point, nothing, nobody can save me - not you, not morrissey outside my door (who did not come in to chat - he just sang outside), and the phone did not ring. when you hear the dream syndicate dean, what do you think of? i most certainly get taken back to the the thoughts of the past when i was 20 years old when this crazy great record came out but these thoughts have seemed to be replaced by the most beautiful grey sunday december morning.

fathers and suns

and plants and birds and rocks and things.

southern california. people refer to it with curtains of orange color, el lay or even a cultural wasteland but i big to differ. or, what it is becomes so much personalized and made onto your own. i've seen strip malls with any kind of food one can desire, brown people everywhere, distractions of all sorts, the omni present traffic and sleepy communities where everybody knows nobody. more than this, i can deal with this place like i never have before. i, tourist! and what a wonderful way to visit where one grew up. calling this home is best called "home one time", once - in a time where the same remained however the water was clean, orange groves exisited and the good old days where something parents spoke about. going down memory lane with friends and old neighbors is a bit much for this guy. looking back at the past gives one a navigation point but looking at my niece and nephew reminded me the good old days are happening now. kids don't kid. they live.

*thanks to floyd for the crazy pic of del taco*

j o e y cunyq, cold, koolhaus

so i creep, yeah...just keep it on the down low

i am using shatner, a jew and a candian one at that, to lighten up this blog. his image says it all, "go and download some wierd soundtrack at archer-bullseye or for that matter, go to those links to the left and see what you can find. i'm amazed on what is out there...last week music from polanski's 'fearless vampire killers', popol vuh soundtrack to 'aguirre' and more morricone that one can fathom. or go for a swell fairport convention download at chocoreve...illegal? don't ask me and i am saying it is or it is not. just have fun and dear god, don't download that goonies soundtrack.

il gato nove code....! viva goblin e maestro argento!