One of the satisfying things about being a homeowner is fixing the pond when it's leaking. Sticking your bare hand in to pull out mound after mound of slick stringy green algae. Or fixing the lock on the door with some 3 in 1 oil and a pair of pliers. Or finding the can of fish food that the localraccoon or possum has dragged up the stairs and tried his damndest to gnaw open (unsuccessfully). Or hanging your pig shaped cutting board with the "Disco Sucks" sticker on it that you made in wood shop at Center junior high school in your office. Speaking of the ADL (Anti Disco League,) I realize that I've hated disco since I was in Junior High. I mean, dancing is great, but why can't you dance to soul music (Prince), or funk (James Brown), or swing (Bob Wills). Why soul-less disco? I guess that hate is too strong a word. Disco is not worth hating. Perhaps detestation is a better way to put it. Oh well, some people not have way I guess.
posted by Greg 1:47 PM
Tuesday, May 29, 2001
I like hanging out with journalists, but the drinking scares me a little bit. But they did this, so I guess it's OK.
posted by Greg 2:56 PM
Monday, May 28, 2001
A fun thing to do if you're at stuck at work all day with nothing much going on is to bring in your guitar and go to tab sites and try to play and sing all the songs you like. It's a fun way to learn about songwriting and work out your chops. Today I've found a couple comprehensive sites with tabs for Husker Du and Elvis. I'm working out Elvis' "You Gave Me a Mountain," an inspiring gospel number about how it's hard to have faith with all the bullshit that life throws at you. I'm also working out a cool version of Husker's "Flexible Flyer," another inspirational, although secular, Grant Hart song in 6/4 with amazing lyrics. Sample:
Bm G D If your heart is a flame burning brightly Bm G D You'll have light and you'll never be cold Bm G D And soon you will know that you just grow C Bm AaddG You're not growing old
For those of you not familiar with tab(lature), those letters above the lines stand for chords. Go ahead, give it a try.
Yet another good thing to to is to go to Phil Hendrie's site and listen to the last five days of his show archived. You can waste a lot of time this way and he'll make you laugh and think, really think about things.
Or if you're like me and you enjoy reading about charismatic psychopaths, you can read a whole book about that supreme nut L. Ron Hubbard called "Bare Faced Messiah." This story is both scary and sad, and only fit for serious students of psychology, mass hysteria, and brain washing.
Gotta give two thumbs up for Soldier starring Kurt Russel. Although Kurt only says about 30 words in the whole movie, his alternately vacant and intense glare says volumes for him. Not the deepest sci-fi film out there, but better than "Battlefield Earth." (interestingly, Soldier gets a 7% on the tomato meter at rottentomatoes.com, while Battlefield Earth gets a 5%. What does that tell you?)
And "Me, Myself, and Irene" also gets the up-turned thumbs. This one had me laughing hysterically, especially the part where Jim Carrey ... well, I don't want to spoil it.
I got to go to the Forrest Ackerman's Ackermansion again on Saturday. This was my second visit and was just as fascinating as my first one, which you can read about here. (see the March 4th entry.) This time we got to go down to the basement, a dirt floored crawl space filled with rubber monsters and skulls. Mr. Ackerman couldn't resist the opportunity to shake us up a little by turning the lights off for a minute while everyone was packed in down there. Upon leaving (only after Roger had scored the vinyl record album "Forrest Ackerman presents Music for Robots," upon which 4E wrote "row, row, row your bot.") Emma stuck out her hand to shake the great one's. Mr. Ackerman accepted her hand and immediately fell to one knee, his face writhing in pain from her super grip. Since he's 85, we all we're a little freaked out, until we realized that it was just another one of his crazy OLD jokes! What a guy!
Oh yeah, yet another thing to do is to go to guitarplayer.com and enter the giveaway. Someday I'll win. Or if you win, will you give me number E?
posted by Greg 2:16 PM
Thursday, May 24, 2001
Woah! I'm back. Thanks to everyone who came out to the Charming Snakes show last weekend. And thanks a ton to Coulter Stevens and Solomon Jefferies for rocking so hard. And thanks to everyone who came down from San Francisco too. Be like me: Buy this Munch poster from the Museum of Modern Art in New York for only $2.95. You'll love it!
By GREG MCILVAINE, Greg's Blog staff writer OSLO, NORWAY - I was looking up "The Kiss" by Edvard Munch this morning and I came across the Edvard Munch Museum site. It's a great site with good descriptions of the paintings and some biographical information. He's a really amazing artist, and not just because of "The Scream." They have a great version of his "Starry Night" at the Getty here in LA. Along with the Ensor it's well worth a trip up the hill.
posted by Greg 1:08 PM
Monday, May 14, 2001
What a fun weekend. I was up in the Bay Area for Pete's wedding. Congratulations Pete and Lisa, it was great fun. I drove up with my usual travelling companion and my good friend Joe, who kept us laughing the whole trip. Even when driving through San Francisco. When we arrived on Friday I got to see our friends Ryan and Foji play with Fojimoto at the Edinburgh Castle, and they even let me sit in for a couple songs. It was a lot of fun and I really appreciate them letting me do that. On Saturday we all went out for Irish breakfast (basically just regular breakfast with drinks) before heading over to Joacim Miller Park in the Oakland Hills for the wedding. It was a great wedding in a really cool woodsy setting, and many beers were consumed and old friendships rejuvinated. After the wedding Steve took us to an awesome Ethiopian resturant in Oakland called Asmara, where we ate all kinds of great meat, beans, and flat bread pancakes, and drank still more (Ethiopian) beers. After that our party headed over to Don and Jen's house to drink still more beers. They were doing great, glowing in anticipation of their upcoming nuptuals. It was nice catching up with them, and I was having a great time until I passed out. Sunday morning we spent in beautiful Los Altos at Hobie's with my life partner's mom Jerri. This was followed by a sleepy drive down the 101 back to beautiful Los Angeles and home.
Other stuff: This is a very interesting and thought provoking article by Matt Welch about France and liberalism and the phenomena of people getting what they want and then realizing that they don't want it, asking for something and not realizing what they're getting, or something like that. It's very good.
This a painting called "Vita somnium breve (Life is but a Dream)" by Arnold Bocklin from 1888, a German Symbolist and one of my favorites. I think it's about how life is short, and you better watch out or some guy will chop your head off with a bundle of sticks (or a cudgel according to artmagick, a really great site about symbolist, romantic, and pre-raphaelite arts.)
posted by Greg 2:13 PM
Check out this guy's site full of Banjo jokes: Q: What will you never say about a banjo player? A: That's the banjo player's porsche.
Want to read something interesting? It's called The Great Push - an Episode of the Great War, a first hand account of WWI by a stretcher bearer member of the London Irish, Patrick MacGill. The whole thing is online. Here's a quote: It was interesting to see how the events of the morning had changed the nature of the boys. Mild-mannered youths who had spent their working hours of civil life in scratching with inky pens on white paper, and their hours of relaxation in cutting capers on roller skates and helping dainty maidens to teas and ices, became possessed of mad Berserker rage and ungovernable fury. Now that their work was war the bloodstained bayonet gave them play in which they seemed to glory.
posted by Greg 12:20 PM
Monday, May 07, 2001
Wow. I now live in the ultimate house! Thanks to everybody who made it over on Saturday to help break it in! I was very tired from moving all morning, and all I had to do was put on good music and I was fed extremely well and entertained by the bottomless pit of talent that is my friends. Now to business: I had to take down my server for the move until I get the new connection all set up, so meanwhile you can find my new mp3 files on the sounds page here. I'm getting really exited about the gig at Goldfingers next Saturday, May 19th. The Beth Champion Band and Fojimoto are both coming down from San Francisco, and I'm working up an extra special set with some secret rock tsar backing musicians. I made up these flyers today to give out at the Psoma show tonight at the Martini Lounge with the following themes:
And "
They have a great version of his "
I drove up with my usual travelling companion and my good friend Joe, who kept us laughing the whole trip. Even when driving through San Francisco. When we arrived on Friday I got to see our friends Ryan and Foji play with 
Want to read something interesting? It's called 
It was interesting to see how the events of the morning had changed the nature of the boys. Mild-mannered youths who had spent their working hours of civil life in scratching with inky pens on white paper, and their hours of relaxation in cutting capers on roller skates and helping dainty maidens to teas and ices, became possessed of mad Berserker rage and ungovernable fury. Now that their work was war the bloodstained bayonet gave them play in which they seemed to glory.
