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Monday, November 12, 2001
Here's some new demos from me and the BS:
A Chill.mp3 - 2.3mb
About a Place.mp3 - 3.0mb
Fool's Gold.mp3 - 2.2mb
She's a Sheila.mp3 - 2.4mb
posted by Greg McIlvaine 8:31 PM
Happy Birthday Kelli!!!
She's in Vegas seeing "O" right now! Isn't her headshot great!! Good Luck at the tables tonight Kelli!!!
posted by Greg McIlvaine 6:41 PM
Sunday, November 11, 2001
posted by Greg McIlvaine 11:17 AM
KEN . LAYNE . DOT . CON - Here's Ken's short obit for Ken Kesey. He says it well and has a couple good links. I'll just say that the Ken Kesey who's in my mind from numerous readings of "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" was a true American Hero, and his inspiration will be missed.
posted by Greg McIlvaine 8:48 AM
Friday, November 09, 2001
Hey! Check out this great new poem that Molli wrote:
ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS ASK
All you have to do is ask
and i will sing for you
play for you
dance, even
Spin me like a top
wind me like music box
I'll go on and on
until you just can't take it anymore
Just say the word
I'll flip on like a light switch
Clap on and clap off
if you just put your hands together
Snap your fingers
and the fun will never end
Click me
like the remote control
on the TV set
Turn the knob
and the water comes out
hot
Or
cold
Bake me at 350
and I'll turn nice and juicy
Water me
and my leaves will turn green,
my petals magenta
Push the button
and i'll go up and down
like an elevator
Punch in your password
And I'll search for you
all day and night
hoping to find you
the right answer
Swirl me, mix me
whip me up
I'll set like gelatin
and go down
nice and easy
Tune me in
and i'll sound off like a siren
never quiet
never peaceful
jibber jabber
until you just can't think
Light me up
and i'll burn real slow
ease your mind
lift your soul
Use your key
and i'll rev up good
get to 60 in a matter of seconds
and take you
anywhere
All you have to do is ask
and i'll zip zip
like a firecracker
sparkle in the colors of the rainbow
all for you
- M.A.R.
Thanks Molli for letting me post this in my blog!
posted by Greg McIlvaine 2:40 PM
posted by Greg McIlvaine 1:57 PM
Thursday, November 08, 2001
Prognosis! - I learned from Matt's site that Prognosis, the English language newspaper he co-founded in Prague, would have turned 11 years old yesterday. I still have a few copies of the paper, a couple posters, and a bumper sticker on my filing cabinet. Here's a story sort of related to Prognosis, which you may have heard me tell before but which I've never written down:
After college I set off for Europe to do the "Grand Tour" thing, in my case focusing exclusively on museums, and more specifically on the great painting collections. I had vague notions about traveling to Prague when I was done, knowing that I sort of knew a few people there. I knew Welch a bit at UCSB, (Weekend Connection, The Brothers Steve, etc..) and had a letter from him with a phone number in Prague of his "office."
 Anyway, the trip was fantastic, I got to see the great museums of London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris, Antwerp, Brugge, Paris (including my favorite one which I won't shut up about, The Gustave Moreau Museum,) Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, Dusseldorf, and Berlin. But after a month travelling alone with no guitar, I was lonely and musically starved. I called Matt's number from Berlin. I think I talked to Jeff Solomon, who encouraged me to come down, and told me I could talk to Matt if I called back at a certain time. I did call back and Matt was very casual, "Yeah dude, get down here! We'll set you up! No problem!" He gave me the address and I told him I'd try to show up the next day.
Well, since my Europass didn't work in Czechoslovakia and I didn't know what I was doing, I ended up giving the conductor 10 marks for a ticket that probably cost 2, and I got off the train in the outskirts of Prague and had to navigate the subway to Prague 1 (old town).
I made it and eventually found the office, with the help of someone who showed me how to get up there from the street. I walked in and it was no big deal, I guess scruffy ex-gauchos showing up with huge backpacks and no place to stay were pretty commonplace at that time. I saw Matt and Jeff, and Doug Arrellenas who I already knew, and met a whole slew of people. The best part was that Jeff said, yeah, my guitar's in the closet, help yourself, so I got to play for a few minutes and boy did that feel good.
So Matt says he's almost done for the day but has to interview some government official, do I want to come? Sure! So he introduces me to the translator and future Mrs. Whalen Denisa and off we go. As part of my cultural indoctrination we stop for a Smaziny Sir (spelling? It's fried cheese served with tartar sauce. Yummy! How much? Oh, like a nickel or a dime or something.) They say stuff like, "see that hardware store, it's been open since the 1700's" and stuff like that. Then we enter this old building with an elevator that never stops, it's just a loop with one side going up and one side going down. You just step in when the box comes by and step off at your floor. We got up there and like any government office it's packed with people. They sit me down and enter an office, so there I am in Prague surrounded by a bunch of Czechs sitting in a government office.
So half an hour later they come out and say OK, do you want to see the bridge? Hell yeah! Why don't we stop and get a beer on the way to take with us? A fine idea, I'll buy! A dollar later we're set up with three big good beers and we're walking down the cobblestone streets past incredible architecture and atmosphere. We turn a corner and there it is: Charles Bridge with the Prague Castle in the background! Incredible:
So I'm overwhelmed. We go hang out on the bridge and Matt tells me that this is where they play music for money sometimes, and hey we should play this weekend. OK. We get some Moravian wine. Denisa say, see that apartment building, that's where Vaclav Havel lives. He could live in the Castle but he prefers to keep his old apartment. Cool. "Hey, let's go say hi to him, and we'll try to set up an interview for Prognosis" someone suggests. Ha ha, funny one! No, they're serious, so off we go to the President's pad. I still think it's a big joke on me, but Denisa goes up and rings the bell, then starts talking over the intercom. That was the secret service she tells us. Vaclav is in Moscow and isn't expected back tonight, but Mrs. Havel is supposed to be back tonight. Wow, I thought, I can't believe how close I came to seeing one of the coolest world leaders ever. Little did I know.
It's about dinner time, so they suggest that we go to the Havel's favourite pub/fish restaurant, which is right by his place. Sounds great. On the way in who should leave the restaurant but Mrs. Havel and her dog! Denisa walks up and talks to her for a minute, telling us later that she asked her for an interview and got a positive response. Pretty great!
We enter the pub and Denisa excuses herself to the bathroom, and somehow we sat at a table with a Czechoslovakian flag. The waitress comes over and shakes her head and points to a different table, and eventually we figure out that we had sat at the President's table, obviously a no-no. On the wall Matt points out the signatures of some people who have dined here with Havel, such as Keith Richards and Paul Simon.
 So we eat, and since everything is so cheap and I'm so exited, I get us a nice bottle of champagne. It's time to go and I'm pretty drunk and have to go to the bathroom. As I get up I notice a commotion by the door, and a short guy enters with a small entorague. I squeeze past him to get to the bathroom. In the bathroom it hits me: I just squeezed by Vaclav Havel!!
That was quite a night, and it turned into a whole crazy summer in Prague for me. I didn't work for Prognosis, aside from a being a guest on Jeff and Nicko's radio show, but I hung out there a lot and distracted people. Plus they let me use their bathroom, which was a big deal in Prague, involving paying for toilet paper by the square and having to do your business with a babooshka sitting by the door, but that's a long story.
Now, speaking of long stories, Matt made a couple references in his post with that qualifier, which led me to suggest: Hey, you should write a book about it! It could even be one of those books where a bunch of people write their own versions of the same story. There's a huge pool of writing talent there obviously, and Prague in the early 90's was a very unique place to be historically. Waning communism and waxing capitalism were represented roughly equally, and there was definitely something in the air that suggested that anything was possible. And I got to meet cool people like Ice (yet another long story;-)
posted by Greg McIlvaine 1:39 PM
posted by Greg McIlvaine 10:47 AM
Wednesday, November 07, 2001
Tip: Whenever you have a recording emergency on your hands, call out the os-matt team!
posted by Greg McIlvaine 12:10 PM
Monday, November 05, 2001
posted by Greg McIlvaine 3:12 PM
Saturday, November 03, 2001
I visited Watts Towers today. It's an amazing place that every Angeleno should visit. Admission is only $2, and it's an inspiration:
Over about thirty years, Sabato ("Sam") Rodia, an artisan living in one of the poorest parts of Los Angeles, built a mosaic fantasia in spires of reinforced cement rising to almost one hundred feet.
posted by Greg McIlvaine 5:39 PM
Thursday, November 01, 2001
You may have noticed that I've stopped writing about politics in this blog. There are many better commentators than myself, and it's awkward to switch gears from Symbolist art to Terrorism. I've been reading about it a lot though, and Matt has posted my email to him attempting to explain and refute post modernism. I'm also finding myself agreeing with the opinions expressed on such weblogs as The Rallying Point, InstaPundit, Fredrik Norman, and Bjorn Staerk. And some guy named Ken who seems to be on vacation.
posted by Greg McIlvaine 3:39 PM
posted by Greg McIlvaine 9:45 AM
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