From the San Francisco marina to the Castro. Venice Beach and the Canal Club to the Mint and the Unknown Theatre, in Hollywood. Electric Avenue to The Santa Monica Pier and, of course, the beaches. Some fast moving Rock shows and some slow moving waves.
Its been a crazy few weeks. Fabulous moments both entertaining others and of being entertained. Played for and to and with... I am happy in this area. I'm halfway between Venice Beach and Santa Monica. Just off Main and Ocean Park. From my window an insane sunrise and sunset on the ocean (pollution makes for some unreal sky-shows every evening between 5:30 and 6pm at this time). A few blocks to the beach and I am out for my walk in the morning, sucking in the vitD and salt water views. My laptop bag is full of portable hard drive, power cables, bluetooth mouse, and stuff and more stuff, making it almost twenty-five extra lbs I'm carrying every day (*** just had a "Been There" FLASHBACK ***).
Most days I stop into the The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, at Ashland and Main, on the way back home. They have great, unsweetened, green tea on ice. I get a large one and work online for a few hours thanks to their free WiFi. On my way there, today, a young man seated on the wall near the Santa Monica Farmer's Market said to me, "Back the fuck off, Bitch"! And then... "Charles Manson told him to tell you that". I just keep walking, breathing, walking.
I`m not terribly L.A. - I am entirely Venice Beach. I wake up with all my curls about my head and splash water on my face, brush my teeth, grab my Levis from the floor where they dropped the night before, a clean t-shirt and I`m out the door, barefoot, with laptop and shoes dangling off my shoulder. I`ve met a group of slightly ruffled-in-the-morning musicians and writer-types at the local cafe. There is always a rocker or a princess on site, making it entirely entertaining just going out to tea. There is, also, that one character, it seems his face changes every day, but every day he appears, that one character who really must believe the more obnoxiously loud he discusses the next big movie he is going to take to Cannes, the more those beautiful young things in LuLulemon or Juicy Couture are going to want him, despite the fact that he is 60 something and leers to almost drooling as he spits into his iphone.
Friday night I meet up with musicians, Jon Jay and Brian Boland, at the Canal Club in Venice. The boys love this place. The atmosphere is cool and relaxed. People dropped by all night to say hello and I met the fabulously talented songwriter-performer, and an award winning documentary director, Peter Goetz. Click the Pic. Pretty, I mean Peter, made me dinner and we played guitar and uke, and talked shop and talked art and listened to music and each others stories. Very interesting man and super sweet. I will enjoy podcasting him and his work (no not his work on Survivor) when i come back down.
Ladies! We must bring him up North.
The boys tell me how much they love Venice, and relay stories of sitting next to a guy for months and sharing drinks, televised sports events, and pleasant conversation, before they even find out he was Paris Hilton`s manager - that kind of cool and relaxed. The food is great, during happy hour it even tastes better ($$), and there is always something going on or someone going off.
On this night we met the smarmy gentleman from Venice, via the rest of the planet. According to him he is a pretty big guy, carrying a "just in case i get into trouble", $1300 gold coin precisely placed next to his Republican card (my first, admitted, card-carrying Republican). He introduced himself a few times before he started handing me his cards. Perhaps four times he tried to offer me one or another of his many cards, forgetting the entire conversation we just had. Well, mostly he had. Sir Smarm owns just about everything and everyone in music and film... or at least his cards say so. He would just get through an enormous monologue then he would start over again, and again. Approximately five times he told me I was adorable and said "look at those cheekbones"... the fifth time he repeated it, he poked my cheeks! That was it for me. I had already smiled through the "you have a smashing touche", and deflected "are you kinky?" with "no I'm 40". But seriously Sir Smarmsalot!!!
Now, If you know me at all, you know I can pull the blond out as quickly as is needed to amuse myself and a few others at times. That said, I work very hard in this business and, at 40, I don`t expect to be poked in the cheeks. I don't care who or what you think you own. I wonder, did someone poke Ray Lamontagne in the cheeks (If i was Ray and they poked my cheeks I'd beat them with my heaviest guitar and send them the bill for the new one - Ray's likely more evolved than I). Still smiling, I kiss the boys goodbye and they walked me to a cab.
Me n' Brian on Electric Avenue
Saturday afternoon - Brian (Boland) called around 3pm with news that he was on his way to get me in Santa Monica and take me down the road to the studio he works at on Electric Avenue (if you're my age the song has already entered your mind and you're humming along...heeehe). Jon Jay stops in when we're mic'ing the live room. Brian hits record, gets behind the kit and out comes his inner Ringo. I start into a jam I`ve written, 'Down to the River'... the boys fall in and we're off!
This raw, off the floor lovely will be given as a free download to all who follow my tweets and pulses, or have joined any of the Swamp FOlk Records Groups on my social networking sites and on my official sites. ( i dropped layered vox on top of the live, so the ladies up north can get an idea of their parts).
Here first, for my blog subscribers: Down to the River
After the session, we ate Indian food and went to Hollywood to see Toy Robot at the Unknown Theatre. I love the relaxed feel of the clubs I've been hanging out in and am pleased with the bands I've seen so far. Could be that my favourite to date is Toy Robot, and not just because our lovely Dave Krusen plays in the band, but they were high-energy power-pop and showed off a bit. Frontman gutarist/singer Lord Loren, was fun to watch. Good player. This pic below was my favourite angle.
Dave plays again Wednesday night with yet another act Puppies and Kittens... oh wait no, that is another band he plays in... awe hell whatever! Just go to Molly Malone's on Wednesday night for smashing sounds. Dave ROCKS!
Another few worth mentioning are The Hellen Back Quartet, whom I chirped about extensively in the last blog.
The delightful finger-style artist, Scott Goldman, was playing when we entered the Unknown Theatre. He was mesmerizing. I always prefer this kind of music to come on after the headliner as it brings me right down... ready to fall into lala land. Tonight it was the first offering and as it was still quiet in the place, it was a delight to get right up to the stage and watch his fingers go. His eclectic, well-played CD, Trial and Terror, is on offer at his shows. Check out track 9, 'Waltz Garage'. At cdbaby: Scott Goldman - Trial And Terror Enjoy!
Also that night, 'The Karabal Nightlife' took the stage. Lead singer/guitarist, Jesse Davis, stressed me out just watching his intensive showmanship (resembling some of the seriously messed up crack-addicts i've seen at Pain & Hastings). But the kids love that stuff. Good sound, LOUD, but good. The bass and drums were a treat. These women played really well together. Bass player, Lindsay Mancha, cute as cute gets in her long socks and short skirt, almost dwarfed by her enormous bass, actually slid up and down the fret board a few impressive times. Drummer, Courtney, was the rock star in the band, for sure. She is so relaxed behind her kit. Her precisely lazy fills and sparse bits were all in the pocket - she didn't miss a thing. Lovely player. EK and I gushed about her just before I had her sign my copy of their album. I'll find her last name and fill it in here. Watch for her in more and more working bands in the next few years.
I'm thinking Krusen at Molly Malone's on Wednesday with his mates, and Thursday night at the House of Blues for the Peter Goetz show (Brian's playing bass... Yay).
L.A. is huge. Hard to band-hop as the good Live clubs, while many, are spread out all over town. This place could use a Hess Village (Hamilton Ontario). L.A. would actually know what to do with it if they had it! Put it near a beach though folks because seriously, how much better is it walking home from the live show along the ocean on the beach? I Really, Really like it here. Only thing it doesn't have is Mikey. I have to leave in ten days and work out a deal with this country to get back here to work. I found a good group of artists/producer/creators here that are into hard workin' and hard playin'. My kinda business!!
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