Happy 30th Star Wars

Actually I have a lot to write about concerning that week 30 years ago in 1977 when I was about to turn 10 years old and I first came into contact with the Star Wars universe while on a summer camp movie outing. Though I'll probably come back and write more about it later, for now I'll just mark it with what for me is one of the most iconic stills from that incredible movie - that of Luke Skywalker staring off toward the two setting suns of Tatooine and wondering if he was ever going to escape from that rock and his dull life. Well, he did, and what an adventure. 30 years - hard to fathom.

Take a Tour of Hell with Meeno!

Peter Bjorn and John on Heavy Rotation

loving this band lately.

Places I have been as of TODAY

My endless search for the Perfect Moment

Spalding Gray talked about searching for a perfect moment on a beach in Thailand in the film Swimming to Cambodia and well, one of the places I look for the "perfect moment" is at live music shows - sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't, but I keep looking. Tonight I enjoyed one of those moments: pure joyful exuberance - brought on by good music, a wild house party atmosphere and a lot of giddy enthusiasm for the night's musical proceedings.

I caught the Brooklyn based Matt and Kim tonight and they were a blast - as advertised. I am quite positive that I was the oldest person in the room. The show was originally scheduled for a little hipster art gallery that puts on the occasional show here in Savannah GA but was moved for whatever reason to the "Pink Palace" - which from quick inspection seems to be an art school freakout party house. I love shows that go down in these kind of "unofficial" venues: the energy level is always crazier at a house party than one would find at a bar or club. Before the show I had the pleasure of yacking with Kim (drummer for Matt and Kim) and I told her how I came to hear about her band via a shoutout link on myspace (they were one of myspace's coveted "featured artists" a few weeks back which as you can imagine - with the unlimited potential audience out there - is perhaps the best instant advertising that any band could ever wish for). She said they were touring in Europe when the "featured band" thing hit and when they got back they had a zillion hits on their myspace site - she said she spent hours "adding" all the new friends. I asked them how this shoutout came to fruition and she said they know some folks over at SNOCAP who like them (a middleman outfit for selling tunes on myspace started by Shawn Fanning - the brain behind the old skool Napster) and they are in cahoots with some folks over at myspace and well, you know, this is how you get your name out...so see kids, it's all about who (and not what) you know out in the real world!)

Anyway, here is a Matt and Kim YouTube posted video for their incredibly infectious song "Yea Yeah" and from it you can see just how much fun this act would be in a living room party full of youth addled energy - and so it was (see my pix for proof) - a living room full of sweaty college kids jumping up and down, yelling, the floor juking-and-a-shaking underfoot - YEA YEAH!:


and here are my pix from tonight's show:

The Hammer of the Godz Levels Atlanta Rock Freakout and Leaves Good Taste in Mouth! Rain & Rock = Transcendent Experience

My pal Justin and I drove up to Atlanta to catch Wolfmother at the Soco Music Experience - a 2nd annual freebie put on by a booze company (last year was Big Star & The Flaming Lips). Anyway, perfect day, no traffic cluster fucks coming into Atlanta, BLUE SKY, a little hot, typical May day in the South. We got there a little early as the gates were opening (I left early in case we hit what is usually the nightmare of Atlanta traffic on a Friday at rush hour) and the people started coming in. The first band was Rose Hill Drive - who I had never heard before (though I see on their website that they are off to Europe to support THE WHO) so Pete Townshend & I highly recommend them - they were the full package! We caught about Half of their show because as they were ripping into Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots" the heavens literally opened up and the rain came down - first just a few drops - no big deal, i looked up and saw what seemed to be ONE black cloud and then the drops got bigger, and bigger and bigger and the wind began to HOWL! It was an awesome rock n roll experience - the energy level of the band and crowd was totally amped by the arrival of the wind and the rain. The roadies were scampering about like wet cats to cover amps, instruments, etc. though the band just kept right on playing, even harder and with more gusto. By the time they neared the end of the Sabbath song, the rain & wind were WHIPPING and things were blowing all over the place! We were getting soaked, the band was getting soaked and the music was the perfect soundtrack to this incredible burst of mother natures fury! LOUD, FAST and IMMENSE! It was only when massive bursts of Lightning began to crack all around us that they decided it might be best to continue this freakout at a later time. The last time I had a weather related Rock N' Roll religious experience was when it rained all over Jason & The Scorchers at Riverbend in Chattanooga in the mid-80's: they just unplugged & sat on the front of the stage and rocked out thier hits accoustically and the rain soaked and mud splattered crowed just ate it up, even more so than when they were plugged in. In fact, it is one of those epic gigs still gets brought up by those who were there - t'was pure magic & made of the stuff I am ALWAYS seeking and well, for a brief, perfect, shining moment, I found it with a band (ROSE HILL DRIVE) I'd never heard of before, being lashed by the rain, in Atlanta, during a WICKED southern storm (they eventually cancelled the entire night). So at the end of the ride, no Wolfmother, oh well, I got what I went there for and that's the point isn't it?



a perfect Atlanta Day at this point - a great day for an OUTDOOR concert!


ROSE HILL DRIVE crank it into OVERDRIVE!



Here comes the wind & rain - dig the Southern Comfort backdrop blowing all over the place!


It got so fierce that the guitar player was rocking out while using his Marshall amps as a wind break!











No outdoor free concert is complete without the requisite crazy old freak SMASHING A GUITAR IN THE RAIN!

MICRO-LENDING

Great Piece on Kiva.org - which is in the biz of MICRO-LENDING to Poor people to help give people a leg up

In honor of HST on Derby Day

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson

Before Bush, there was CREEP and Rove was there.

You've got to wade through four minutes of this dated, but interesting (if you are into computers and politics) CBS News piece on the '72 campaign. Keep an eye out for a 21 year old Karl Rove talking about grabbing the GOP youth vote for Nixon in '72 at the CREEP HQ (committee to re-elect the President). He must have done a bang up job, as Nixon won in a landslide. What better place to learn the evil tricks of the trade than as a young whippersnapper at CREEP. My oh my, how our world has benefited from the unbridled ideological ambitions of young men like Karl.