Toonerville Gang gives Glendale/Los Angeles the middle finger

If you keep up with news on Los Angeles gangs, you’ve heard about the Toonerville gang. This from the Glendale New-Press (“Curfew put on gang members,” Veronica Rocha, 28 January 2009): A judge tentatively ruled Wednesday to allow an injunction that restricts certain Toonerville gang members from engaging in gang-related activities near the Glendale-Los Angeles border. Alleged Toonerville gang members who were named in the injunction will be under a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily curfew and are forbidden to be involved in graffiti or drug-related activities, use lookouts, trespass, loiter or possess weapons within the safety zones. The three-year injunction defines a safety zone that covers a 4.5-square-mile area that includes Verdugo Road, the Glendale (2) Freeway, south Glendale Boulevard into Los Angeles . . . But [Judge David] Yeffe did not allow a provision in the injunction that forbid the alleged gang members named from going to the Chevy Chase Park and Palmer Park along . . .

The Toonerville Gang just gave Los Angeles and Glendale the equivalent of the middle finger. At Palmer Park, Glendale, this Saturday morning, I saw a rather large (see photos) tagging of the wall surrounding the basketball court. Two Glendale police cars were parked along the street – I guess they were making a police report. The tagging appeared to have an impact on the neighborhood. I saw a father/son walking into the park. The father saw the tagging and turned around to leave – I’m not sure if they eventually returned to the park.

Movie Review: The Wrestler

The Wrestler. Yahoo.com has this description of the movie, “ . . . In an effort to build a new life, Robinson takes a job at a deli, moves in with an aging stripper and tries to build a relationship with her son.” I wonder if I saw the same movie, because I don’t remember Randy Robinson every meeting the stripper’s son. And they didn’t move in together. I wonder if there is another version of the movie out there somewhere.

I enjoyed this movie. It shows a life of a guy who was once a big time wrestler, but is now way past his prime. He wrestles at small time gigs, which pay in twenty dollar bills. He must work at a grocery store during the week to make ends meet. He makes so little money that he can’t even pay his monthly rent at a trailer park. He was married at one point in time, but that ended a long time ago. His only current relationship is with a stripper, who is also way past her prime. And then comes a heart attack right after a wrestling match (which I have to say this, I don’t watch wrestling so I don’t know how violent and bloody these wrestling matches are, but this was one bloody match with barbed wire and staple guns, not for the weak of heart). This puts a halt to the life he loves, because he is told he can no longer wrestle. It causes him to re-assess his life. He attempts to reach out to the stripper, trying to create a true relationship. She resists, but eventually agrees to meet him outside the club. He tries to reconnect with a daughter we learn about midway through the movie. Initially she resists, but then decides to give their relationship another chance. He also starts putting in longer hours at the grocery store. But things start to fall apart. The stripper does hang out with him for a day, but then withdraws. He has another falling out with his daughter. His duties at the grocery store begin to wear on him. And so he has a chance at a final rematch with a wrestler from his past glory, the Ayatollah, and he takes it.

For me, this movie was about emotional connections and inabilities to deal with what life throws at you (or what time takes away from you). The wrestler and the stripper had an emotional connection even if those moments were spent at a strip club. I felt that she wanted to start a relationship, as well, but also felt concern that what they had wasn’t real. Much of her life was built around creating sexual illusions with her customers so that when a real connection occurred she wasn’t able to recognize it. The wrestler and his daughter had a damaged relationship. There is only brief mention of the background story, but you do learn that the wrestler ran away from his responsibilities. His daughter hated him for it, but gave him a second chance, which he ruined by making some very poor choices – putting certain priorities above his daughter. These frustrations of having to deal with a transition in life caused him to make a potentially serious miscalculation by getting back into the ring with the Ayatollah.

Oscar question: Does Mickey Rourke deserve an Oscar nod for Best Actor? I’d have to say yes. In a previous review, I came down negatively on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. So if Brad Pitt can get a nod for the picture, Mickey Rourke surely deserves one for The Wrestler. Does he deserve to win? Perhaps, but I haven’t seen all the movies that have Best Actor nods, so I can’t really form an opinion yet.

Echoplex: IO Echo and ZaZa

I was out at the Echoplex Tuesday night for Indie 103.1’s Check One Two. (I wonder what will happen to this night with the radio station no longer around.)

I arrived during the middle (perhaps closer to the beginning) of ZaZa’s set. ZaZa is an ethereal rock band. I actually wanted to come and see their whole set, but got held up. I checked out their website beforehand and was stunned by their music. Their vocals just allow you to float out there in space. A number of times, when you see a band live you hardly recognize them because your impression of them was made via manipulated music recordings. As soon as I walked into the Echoplex, I knew that ZaZa was on stage. The only difference between their website recordings and their live show was that perhaps the drums played a more driving force during their live set. Based on my brief read of their website, I guess they’re originally from the West Coast (I don’t know if this means Los Angeles), but are now based out in New York City.

I hung out with a couple friends for awhile and then IO Echo came on stage. I’ll have to admit that I found it hard to get into the set during the first couple songs. I had this slight level of anxiety. I’d convinced my two friends that this was a local band to check out. Also, this was only the second time I’d seen them so honestly I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. I’d built up this band based off of seeing only one previous gig. Sometimes you see a band for the first time and think they’re great, and then the next time you scratch your head and wonder what you were thinking previously. After awhile I stopped thinking about my friends’ potential negative opinions about the band and started getting into the music. It was hard not to get into the music when towards the center of the floor the crowd was jumping to the music. The band ended with a couple songs that they just hit out of the ballpark. And then it was over. Hmm, how long was that set? Where was the encore? Hey, I wanted more.

IO Echo isn’t just a band. To me, it is a mixture of music and performance art. The band is creepy good fun – a horror flick movie with magical vibes. This was a night we all went down the rabbit hole with IO Echo.

Note: A longer version of this may soon appear elsewhere on the web. When it does, I'll link to it in a blog update.

A weekend filled with music of various Los Angeles bands

Quick round-up of music as I just recently blogged about many of the bands I saw over the weekend.

The New Fidelity and The Automatic Music Explosion played Club Dynamite Saturday night. AME Jeff got some vocal time. Is that a first? AME has this great new song built around high speed adrenaline that doesn’t allow you to breath – sorry, can’t remember the name of the song for the life of me, so you’ll just need to go see them to experience it. The New Fidelity went searching for a tambourine. At one point, the lead singer from The New Fidelity was right in front of me and then he suddenly disappeared. I re-located him lying on the floor with his guitar. The hot sister dj team S.I.S provided the dance atmosphere between sets. There aren’t any pictures from the night. If you’ve ever gone to Club Dynamite at Fox and Hounds, you’ll understand.

Get Set Go, Underwater City People and Silver Needle on Sunday night. Yes, it was just two weeks ago that I saw Get Set Go and Underwater City People at Old Towne Pub. The last time was a farewell party, this time around it was for a birthday party. It was Celeste’s (UCP) birthday. One of the guys from Get Set Go was wearing a Bang Sugar Bang t-shirt during the set. It brought back memories of a favorite band that no longer exists. Get Set Go’s bass player for the night was Andre from Silver Needle – a pink glitter bass at that. Jon (guitar) from Underwater City People seemed particularly excited about the night, knock down his microphone stand more than a couple of times. I think he was more excited about the birthday party than Celeste herself. They had a really good set. Silver Needle took the stage next. I haven’t written about them before. Andre did double duty for the night, bass for Get Set Go (as mentioned) and guitar for Silver Needle. There was a moment towards the end where their lead singer, Daniel, was searching his pockets for some time. Johnny 99 figure out what he needed. A guitar pick was quickly delivered. Talk about communication skills. The three bands playing that night at Old Towne Pub have a long history together. It was highlighted by the fact that all three bands used Get Set Go’s bass drum, just a sharing of equipment night.


Below photos are of UCP and Silver Needle.

Duke Basketball: Duke v. Maryland

This wasn’t even a game. From the very start, Duke steamrolled Maryland. I was jumping up and down while Duke was pushing up the score, but it wasn’t because Duke was getting an edge up on Maryland, it was because Duke was expanding on its blow out. Sometimes it is just cool to see a blowout, especially one against a conference rival. The first half was Duke just steadily increasing their lead and it ended with Duke up 40-15. I found the start of the second half as the most interesting moment of this game. Maryland scored first on a free throw attempt and then Duke came back with a three pointer by Jon Scheyer. Maryland scored on a lay-up and then Nolan Smith made a three pointer. Maryland then called timeout and afterwards scored on a lay-up. At this point Duke had outscored Maryland by only 6-5. Duke was starting the second half on another amazing run. Maryland appeared ready to keep the score respectable, but something happened because after that Maryland lay-up, Maryland appeared to give up. Soon afterwards there was an amazing play where Duke scampered up the court after a Maryland turnover. Jon Scheyer passed to Smith who passed to Gerald Henderson for a score. This was against only one Maryland defender. Maryland had simply given up. With about 12 minutes left in the game, Duke turned the game over to the bench players and about a minute later so did Maryland. What followed was 12 minutes of playground basketball. I think even the refs decided to take the rest of the game off; just calling the hardest fouls to make sure things didn’t get too rough out there. The ESPN commentators complained that the refs should call the game closer, but if they did they would have added another 15-20 minutes to the game and I don’t think anyone wanted that. In this case, I think the refs were right to just let play go on. It was interesting watching the Duke subs, specifically Miles Plumlee. I remember the Georgetown game. In that game he got extensive time and seemed to me to play fine. In this game, he appeared to have two left feet. Of course, in the Georgetown game he was used mostly for defensive purposes versus offensive. Also, it is hard to judge someone when it is garbage time and you’re getting mobbed just by touching the ball.

Greivis Vasquez. Before the game, it was well publicized that Greivis Vasquez said that Cameron Indoor Stadium was his house, “That’s my house.” Okay, he scored 4 points. The guys on ESPN were wondering early on about why the Duke fans weren’t given him more heat for what he said. ESPN decided to do their own “Cameron Crazies” verbal attacks. These aren’t exact quotes, but close: first, if this is his house, it got foreclosed on; second, if this is his house, he hasn’t come home yet; third, he should have done his talking after the game, not before. I actually felt sorry for the guy. It is one thing for the Crazies to go after you; it is another for ESPN to tear into you.

A coming number one ranking? In a way I hope they don’t get the number one ranking this coming Monday. I prefer to see Connecticut or Pittsburgh get the number one ranking. I hope this isn’t considered blasphemy. I would prefer that Duke gets some motivation from not being ranked number one – get a chip on their shoulder. When would I like to see them ranked number one during the season (of course, I want them ranked number one at the end of the season)? After a defeat of North Carolina on February 11th, of course.

Side note: This was Maryland's worst ACC loss ever.

Homeless in an RV

I wrote a blog over a year ago about homeless living in RVs. The following article was in the Los Angeles Times on Thursday, January 22, 2009:

Tough economic times have spilled onto the streets of Venice, which has become a favorite place to park for scores of otherwise homeless people living in cars and campers. The practice has ignited a mini-uprising among residents living in the pricey coastal community.

The number of cars and recreational vehicles has swelled so much over the last year that Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the city's coastal areas, has proposed creating special zones away from neighborhoods where people can sleep in their vehicles. "The community has been going ballistic," Rosendahl
said. "They can't park their own cars. Some of the folks who live in their cars and in campers defecate and urinate outside and create other issues of quality of life and health."

His proposal, similar to programs in Santa Barbara and Eugene, Ore., would allow the cars and recreational vehicles to park in select "municipal properties, parking lots of churches or community-based organizations, industrial areas and other areas that would have minimal impact on residential communities."

. . .

Up to 200 people are living in campers or cars in the Venice area, which has many residential areas where overnight parking is not restricted, the councilman said.

Times are getting bad . . .

Stab City, Toys that Kill and Pu$$y Cow at Juanita's in Highland Park, a January Tuesday night

Stab City. This band plays one crazy set. The lead guitarist just wouldn’t stop moving around. He was constantly in motion, either swinging away at the lights above or seeing what strange sounds might result from pressing his guitar against the corner of the wall. In regards to the drummer, I’m not sure if he’s playing the drums or dancing around the drums. He spent time standing atop his drum set, slamming away at it and then taking part of his set with him while jumping to the stage front. When he decided to go back to his seat, he left what he took behind. A couple friends decided to help him by bringing the missing piece back onto the stage. I noticed the drummer yelling, “Leave it there.” They didn’t hear him saying that so I just have to leave it up to my imagination in regards to what might have come next.

Pu$$y Cow. Someone spilled some beer on the stage. I think it was the lead singer, Joe. Joe had to come off the stage while the Juanita staff went looking for a mop. The Juanita staff came back with the mop and began mopping up in the middle of a song. Flaco the bass player helped out a little, taking the mop for a brief while. With one hand on the bass and the other on the mop, his skills at mopping didn’t come through properly. They ended their set with a loose cover of “Na Na Hey Hey (Kiss Him Goodbye).” They had some CDs for sale. They had sticker prices at $0.25 and upwards. Random prices. I don’t think anyone paid the sticker price. FYI: This is the band that wears the hats, slightly beaten from mosh pit encounters.

Toys that Kill. I couldn’t even really get any solid photos of this band – to the side is a photo, which I just don’t feel captures the band’s stage presence. There was a crush of fans right up against the stage the whole time. I saw one photographer squeeze in for a brief while. I personally found myself immediately slammed to the side as a mini-mosh pit formed. This is an interesting band where two of the guys look like they’re just over the age of twenty-one while the other two look like they might be in their early thirties. This is just an observation, because it shouldn’t matter. This band had the crowd going. They let the drummer have the small stage to himself while the two guitarist and one bassist played in front of the stage. This made for an intimate mosh pit setting – that sounds a bit awkward.

Juanita’s. So this was my first time at Juanita’s – as well as a number of other friends. Cheers to Pu$$y Cow for getting us out there. This show was initially supposed to be at Mr. T’s, but was shifted due to the fact that Mr. T’s is closed for a couple weeks or so. I’ve driven by Juanita’s a few times and often noticed people hanging outside of it. It has a nice area with a patio in the back. One thing to remember if you plan to live in Highland Park, don’t live next door to Juanita’s unless you’re a type that stays up till 2 a.m. – on a work night. As I was walking to my car, one of the bands was playing and I could hear the music loud and clear.

Movie Review: Yes Man

Yes Man. This movie is just stupid fun. For example, who in the United States would believe that a curse would fall upon you if you broke a convenient? And who actually would say yes to everything? But who cares, this movie was just fun to watch, from the stupid face tape wrapping scene to the running photography artwork. What is precious about this film for someone who knows the East Los Angeles area is that one can consider this a love story to the eastside. There are scenes from Elysian Park, Griffith Park, and Spaceland. I believe there is even a scene set at a restaurant called Home (just speculation, but this is the scene where he is having lunch with a friend and his Persian date) in Los Feliz. Maybe this biased my opinion of this movie, but who cares. It is a comedy worth spending time laughing along with during these dire economic times.

Hanging at The Roxy with The Mulhollands and The Automatic Music Explosion

I was out at The Roxy Monday night to catch two of my favorite bands: The Mulhollands and The Automatic Music Explosion. It was the Hollywood Roxxx night with Switchblade Kitty. I guess this night is meant as competition to The Key Club’s Steel Panther (Metal Skool.) It must be working, because Hollywood Roxxx used to be over at The Viper Room. The Mulhollands started the night out at 8:45 p.m., an early start. Erik from The New Hotness was the replacement guitar player for the night. Mofo Daniels (Murray) has a broken left arm. There were some technical difficulties that Sarah Jeanette needed to power through. One of the microphones that she was planning to use wasn’t working. And the main microphone she was using was going on the blink early on. Erik worked out just great for The Mulhollands. Hey, will they turn themselves into a five piece band? Sarah Jeanette was being offered drinks left and right during her set and finally refused one, saying, “I’ll end the set drunk with all these drinks.” Even though the old-school microphone was giving Sarah Jeanette some problems, I think it is a great little addition to their set. Sarah Jeanette has great vocals and the microphone just seems to highlight the fact that one should focus in on her vocals during the set.

The Automatic Music Explosion was up next. This was their first set of 2009. They also play Saturday night at their home base Fox and Hounds. They are giving Max (drums) some love. Jodie headed over to the drum set. There was some drum directed moves made by the rest of the group. Bands often leave the drummer alone in the back. The AME is showing the best dressed drummer some love now. A friend of mine came along with me for her introduction to The AME. I turned to her towards the end of the set and said, “It just gets better.” It did. The AME is just one of those bands that continues to turn the volume and excitement up until the very end. The set was turned up so much that The AME brought down the Roxy’s curtains. As they were concluding the night, the curtain came on down and the last ten seconds or so of their set was done hidden behind the curtains. An interesting end of their set – a mistake or planned who knows, but it made for a distinctive AME night.

Interesting note: I would say that three-quarters of those there during The Mulhollands’ and The Automatic Music Explosion’s sets were fans of those two bands. I stuck around for the next couple of bands (I skipped out on Switchblade Kitty – maybe another time I’ll catch them) and the audience appeared to change. It was like a significant number of folks came out just for The Mulhollands and The Automatic Music Explosion, and then went home for the night.

Jessie Deluxe was up next. She’s in a two piece band. She plays guitar and has a drummer. She’s just pure rock. This was the first time I’ve seen her though I have seen her name up and around before. On the Roxy’s large stage, her two piece band provided an interesting contrast. After the set, I saw her mingle on the floor a bit. There is always the chance of false first impressions, but she seems like a person you’d want as a friend. Perhaps that’s not cool to say about a rock singer, oh well.

Pittsburgh Steelers: Heading to the Super Bowl

My anxiety level was at the extreme this afternoon watching the Steelers-Ravens game. The Steelers took a 13-0 lead, but then Baltimore scored a touchdown after they got great field position off a returned punt by Jim Leonard who started from Baltimore 38 yard-line and ran all the way to the Steelers 17 yard-line. Half time should have ended 16-7, but for some reason with just a few seconds left Ben Roethlisberger threw a pass up the middle instead of towards the sidelines and the clock ran out on them. I guess if one gets technical it was a fair 13-7 half time lead for the Steelers, because the only reason the Steelers were in position to score was due to a phantom roughing the kicker call.

In the second half, the Steelers pulled away slightly with another field goal and were up 16-7, but then Mitch Berger had a horrible punt and once again put Baltimore in great field position and so Baltimore scored another touchdown. With the score, 16-14 I was at a high level of anxiety, but Troy Polamalu calmed me down with a great interception and some nifty running to score a touchdown.

The McGhahee hit. That was a hard hit by Ryan Clark. An interesting note from the CBS commentators was that this was a clean hit by Ryan Clark even though it was helmet to helmet. On espn.com, Tim Graham wrote, “The officials missed an ugly penalty.” That is an interesting difference of opinion there. Even if this was a missed call, I don’t think it would have changed the outcome (it might have changed the score, but not the victor). There was a little over three minutes left in the game at that point. Even if Baltimore had scored, I suspect it would have taken them down below the two minute warning. The reason I argue this is that Joe Flacco didn’t appear to me to have a good handle running the two minute offense. Yes, there was more than two minutes left in the game at the time of the hit, but with the need to score twice, Baltimore should have pushed the tempo up. To me, it didn’t seem like Flacco was doing this very well.

Special Teams. Over the last couple years, I’ve always though that a serious weakness of the Steelers was their special teams play. This year, I didn’t get that feeling until today. Hopefully today’s game was just a fluke. How often do punters kick off the side of their foot? Both of Baltimore’s touchdowns were off of shortened field position provided by the Steelers special teams unit. Of course, in the earlier game (Eagles versus Cardinals) there was also some poor special teams play. Maybe it was some weekend curse.

The long ball. I never felt like this was a game that Baltimore could have blown open, but this is a game that the Steelers could have blown open. There were two moments where I felt a touchdown was all but possible, but both Santonio Holmes and Limas Sweed dropped the passes. The Holmes one is understandable – mainly because he’s also was one of the heroes of the game, but Sweed’s was just wrong. I felt the same way about the San Diego game. There were moments where the Steelers were close to a blow out. If the Steelers can work this out just a tad, they will have both a deadly offense and defense for the Super Bowl.

Hines Ward. I do hope he can play two weeks from now. The Steelers offense did seem to get bogged down once he left the game. This is something to stress about over the next two weeks. Fingers crossed.

Offensive line. The offensive line was great against San Diego, but just okay against Baltimore. There were moments where they held the line just longer enough to let Roethlisberger find an open receiver. Other times, Baltimore went straight at Roethlisberger. Of course, Baltimore is the second best defense in the league. The Steelers went after Flacco just as much. Pittsburgh had three sacks, Baltimore four.

Against Arizona. I’m feeling rather positive. The Cardinals do have a great offensive machine. I’ve always loved the Kurt Warner story. I think though that the Steelers will play the pass and allow their front to cover the run just like they did against Baltimore. This will hopefully slow down Warner. I also suspect that the Steelers offense will score more points against the Cardinals. Obviously, Arizona has a good chance at victory, but I think the Steelers have a better chance.

A night at Old Towne Pub Pasadena with UCP, Power Cords, Get Set Go

I headed off to catch Underwater City People, Power Cords and Get Set Go at Old Towne Pub Sunday night, 11 January. I’ve followed two of the bands (Underwater City People and Get Set Go) for awhile. It was a last second show. It was a farewell for Sarah, who is Mike TV’s girlfriend. I’m not friends with Sarah (though I do know who she is), but I was happy to show up and catch the show. What was cool about the night was that there were only three bands – what is so cool about that? Well, the night started off at 9:15 p.m. and ended at around 12:15 a.m., which meant that each band had an approximate 45 minute set. That is what was so cool about the night. Underwater City People started it off. It being a last minute gig, per them, they hadn’t practiced. None the less, it was a great set. (Amusing moment: for one song they had to talk things over for a moment to figure out exactly how to get the song going.) For Underwater City People, I believe they played a set list that was requested by Sarah. The Power Cords were up next. This is a band that I’ve heard of, but never seen. For some reason, they reminded me of another local band called New Fidelity. They are a four piece band. Their sound is semi-similar to New Fidelity. They call themselves avant garde post-post rock. I have no clue what that means. I will mention that on their myspace page, New Fidelity is one of their top friends so perhaps it isn’t just my imagination thinking that the two bands sound similar. Like New Fidelity most of the band members share vocals though perhaps for Power Cords it is more of a shared responsibility versus New Fidelity where there is more of a lead vocalist with the other guys doing backup vocals. As for Get Set Go, they started their set with a cover song from The Cure. I have to say that Mike TV is one of the coolest musicians in the Los Angeles area. During both UCP and Power Cords, he was out in front pogo dancing to the music. I was at another Get Set Go show where he was the only person standing near the stage for the first band of the night. Get Set Go also mainly played a set list requested by Sarah. Towards the end, Sarah tossed out a couple other requests and after that the night ended.

Book Review: The Narrows by Michael Connelly

I just finished reading the book, The Narrows, written by Michael Connelly. This book was written back in 2004/2005 so I am a bit late to the read. It is a crime novel that continues with the Harry Bosch character. I believe this is my fourth Michael Connelly book. The first time I read Michael Connelly was back in 1997-ish. I was staying at my cousin’s mother-in-law’s house and I noticed one of Connelly’s books. (I believe it was The Last Coyote. I’ve also read Trunk Music and City of Bones.)

The Narrows is a sequel to another of his book’s The Poet. I haven’t gotten around to reading The Poet, but that wasn’t a hindrance. I didn’t realize this book was a sequel though I figured it out rather quickly. Connelly provided enough references were I felt I had a decent enough back story to not find myself confused to death. (I would have realized the book was a sequel if I’d paid more attention when I bought the book, but it was on the discount table when I saw it and since I like Connelly I just picked it up without paying much attention to what the storyline might be.)

For The Narrows, you know who the killer is so there isn’t a who-done-it element to the book. The joy of the book is following Harry Bosch and his FBI ally Rachel Walling as they attempt to track down The Poet. Connelly gives the readers insights into what is happening before the main characters figure out the same facts. For example, the FBI puts a GPS tracking device on Rachel Walling’s car. They do this to use her as a potential bait should The Poet target her. You know this long before Walling figures it out. So in one sense it makes you feel smarter than the two characters and in another it makes you want to read further to see how the characters learn about these various facts.

Over-all, this is a great book. My only problem with the book was the next to the last chapter. This chapter does wrap up the first half storyline in the book, but it also seemed tacked on. Connelly did provide clues during the first half that helps back-up the conclusions made in the chapter so there isn’t a where-did-that-come-from feel to it. It is just that as the book raced towards figuring out The Poet’s next move, I “forgot” about the first half of the book and therefore I had the feeling that so did Bosch and Walling. My only wish was that there were more references regarding Bosch’s and Walling’s thinking on the earlier storyline during the back half of the book. It is a minor issue and hardly prevented me from enjoying the book.

Soon enough I hope to read another Connelly book. It looks like the next Connelly book will be Angels Flight. I bought it at a dollar book store. Of interest, it is signed by Connelly.

Off to Spaceland: Ida Maria, Rocco Deluca, HoneyHoney

Spaceland on Monday night, January 12, was apparently the place to be among my various friends. I met up with a handful of friends and then ran into other friends who had also made the trek out. “I heard there were a number of good bands playing tonight,” was the common theme among us all.

Ida Maria. She rocked Spaceland. She’s an artist from Norway. I’d never heard of her until reading about her in the LA Weekly. The LA Weekly describes her as “packed with bare-bones garage-punk jams longer on attitude than ornamentation . . . larger-than-life reputation for onstage antics.” She’s definitely a woman filled with attitude. At the end of her set, she’d destroyed the stage, but she still had vocals to finish up so she grabbed two microphone stands and rushed towards one end of the stage with finality on her mind. Her onstage antics included a self-only wet t-shirt contest which resulted in everyone noticing she wasn’t wearing a bra. She does have the onstage antics down, but I can’t say they’re larger-than-life. Maybe people who love Ida Maria haven’t seen Shayne from Spider Problem – now that’s a person with onstage antics. I loved the set – and the pink high top shoes she wore. Perhaps my thirty minutes of enjoyment had something to do with the fact that just before the set began a friend of mine began jumping around chanting, “Ida Maria. Ida Maria. Ida Maria.” It sort of got me going and I will say that from her very first song, I had a smile on my face.

Rocco Deluca. He’s doing the residency at Spaceland this month of January. This guy can rock it. The first half of his set was a thrill of rock and roll. He uses a resonator guitar, which in my mind gave the music a southern rock feel. He had folks bouncing with the music. He slowed it down during the second half of his set. There were a couple cool duets with a female singer. There were also a couple other guest musicians. My nitpicking, I got really into the first half and wished he’d continued in that vein, but I can’t complain too much because as mentioned I did enjoy the two duet songs. I read online that Kiefer Sutherland of “24” fame has taken an interest in Rocco Deluca’s music and that a Rocco Deluca music video is on the “24 – Redemption” DVD. I couldn’t help but think that his music would be great for that Louisiana-based TV show “True Blood.” (Anna Paquin just won the Golden Globe for “Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series – Drama.)

HoneyHoney. This band is the main reason I headed out to Spaceland Monday night. For some reason, reading the LA Weekly, the band name just caught my attention and I figured I had to give this band a listen. I wasn’t disappointed. As the LA Weekly puts it, HoneyHoney is “an appealing uptempo brand of melodic folk-rock.” Hey, when Suzanne Santo is jamming on the violin, you can’t deny that this is uptempo music. She also plays that banjo, but she had problems tuning it so she didn’t really use it during the night. HoneyHoney is a two piece band (I think) with Ben Jaffe on guitar. He helps out on vocals, as well, but Suzanne is the main vocalist for the band. They also had two other musicians playing guitar and drums. What was endearing (at least to me) was the fact that midway through their set (which started a bit after midnight) Suzanne said something like, “I’m going to sleep in tomorrow morning. I’m so used to going to bed early that by 9:30 p.m. I was wondering how I was going to make it through the night.” It is nice to know that not all musicians get an extra boast of energy starting around 1 a.m. It was unfortunate that Spaceland partially cleared out soon after Rocco Deluca, because people missed a great set. (I suspect that Suzanne isn’t the only one who needs her sleep. Tuesday is a workday and I think even in Silver Lake people need to head to bed for the next day’s grind.)

Other than music, something to remember the night by: there was a guy who was trying to hit on every woman in his near vicinity. Most of the women shifted just out of conversation distance soon after initial contact.

Over-heard comment from Suzanne regarding the audience, “Hey, everyone, why don’t you . . . oh thanks, I thought you were all going to stand away from the stage during our set.”

Notes from Vivace

Pittsburgh Steelers: The Playoff Push

This is my first blog on the Pittsburgh Steelers this season. It hasn’t been that I haven’t watched the Steelers play football, it just that I haven’t put together any blogs.

Before the season started, I was worried to death that the Steelers might not even make the playoffs. My thinking was that they’d be lucky to make the sixth seed.

When the season started off with the offensive line looking awful, I grew even more concerned though it did appear that they had created a cushion in their divisional race.

Now here we are. They’re the highest seed left in the play-offs and I’m still worried. The Baltimore Ravens are next. I’d say the last two games against Baltimore ranked as vicious wars. How difficult is it to beat a good team three times in the same season? It sounds rather difficult to me.

I have to say that the San Diego game was beautiful. First off, there was the Pittsburgh atmosphere of snow swirling around in the first half. The game itself started off with a quick San Diego touchdown, which caused me some concern, but as soon as I started to notice that the Steelers weren’t going to allow the San Diego running back Sproles to run anywhere, I figured that at a minimum San Diego wasn’t going to open up a lead. Then when I noticed that the Steelers’ offensive line was actually protecting Big Ben, I started to think that this might be a close game, but that the Steelers’ would definitely win it. Of course, by the third quarter I was finally convinced that the game was over.

What I liked was seeing Big Ben go deep a few times. I remember watching various games and the announcers were always concerned about the fact that Big Ben didn’t seem to throw deep that often. The fact that he went deep a number of times and that the passes were within inches of being perfect seems to indicate that his shoulder is doing just fine. I also liked seeing Willie Parker running both up the middle and to the side. He also looks healthy.

I obviously have a slightly fatalistic outlook when talking about the Steelers – always fearful a disaster is around the corner – but here’s an optimistic take: maybe the Steelers-Baltimore game won’t be a close game at all. The Steelers were a banged up team during the season. With a team that appears healthy now perhaps they’ll win the next game rather easily.

Movie Review: Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Straight out: sorry about this review.

Based on looking at Yahoo, I know this is a well liked movie by audiences. Currently, it has an A-. As for me, I was bored stiff. (Last year, I had the same reaction to Sweeney Todd. People loved the movie, but I walked out of the movie bored.) After an hour, I was looking at the time. This is a rather bad sign when the movie is nearly 3 hours long.

To me, the movie was going through the motions between the various stages of the Benjamin/Daisy relationship. The relationship moments I loved -- except for the last scenes, which to me just made the movie look silly. The whole tug boat, World War II portion of the movie felt like some useless side story. I will attack one part of the Benjamin/Daisy storyline. The part where Benjamin re-creates the moments before Daisy's accident in Paris. Oh mercy. Was this five minutes long? It felt like an hour. (Note: it is interesting how a drawn out moment like this bored me, but there were scenes in another movie called Rachel Getting Married that were probably even more drawn out that I simply loved.)

And is it me or did this movie seem to have an anti-George Bush feel. Was the whole Hurricane Katrina moment meant as a dig at George Bush? If so, another attack on this movie for having a useless political bent. Or perhaps Katrina had some over-arching meaning to the movie that I totally missed.

Anyways, I can't say this is an awful movie due to the fact that it felt like such a well made movie. I will say I don't consider it Oscar worthy and rate it as an average movie -- not the best movie of the year, but also not ranking with the worst.

Movie Review: Doubt

This is the second movie I've watched recently where ambiguity rules the day. In Doubt, one isn't sure if Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) is correct in her child molestation accusations against Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). My guess is that she is not correct in her accusations that Father Flynn is molesting the first black student, Donald Miller, in school history; however, I do believe she might be on the right track. There is one child who appears to withdraw from Father Flynn, but then even there just because a child withdraws whenever a figure of authority passes by doesn't mean there is child molestation going on.

I consider this a well done movie -- great acting, great storyline, great everything.

Now Really, Toonerville Gang Graffiti

Sometimes I wonder if I’m seeing something different from what those in the “know” are saying is happening. Here’s an article in the Glendale News-Press (“Graffiti fueled by rivalry,” Veronica Rocha, 23 April 2009): NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Despite an injunction, Toonerville gang graffiti has increasingly been seen directed at a rival gang, officials said. Glendale Police Det. Rafael Quintero said the gang has not spray-painted any graffiti in the city in retaliation to the injunction, as most members are afraid of it. The graffiti has appeared on businesses and city property outside the Los Angeles River and Glendale Safety Zone and has been directed at a rival gang, he said. The zone is defined as a 4.5-square-mile area that includes Verdugo Road, south Glendale, the Glendale (2) Freeway, Glendale Boulevard into Los Angeles and a 1.25-square-mile area of Tujunga just north of Foothill Boulevard. City and police officials identified the areas as a zone because they were known as the Toonerville gang’s area. But some streets, including Emens Way, Justin Avenue and Flower Street — which is outside the zone — were hit in early April with the gang’s graffiti, according to police reports. The graffiti was spray-painted in an area that a rival gang claims, Quintero said.



My comments: Okay, Glendale Police Det. Rafael Quintero, do you really believe that statement you made: the gang has not spray-painted any graffiti in the city in retaliation to the injunction, as most members are afraid of it? I suppose this photo I took in Palmer Park was directed at a rival gang. I do believe the graffiti in this park took place soon after the announcement of the injunction. I didn’t do a follow up blog, but a few weeks after that photo was taken another rather large Toonerville tagging took place in the general area of Palmer Park. Hey Det. Rafael Quintero, I love that you’re trying to reduce crime associated with the Toonerville gang, but let’s not overly brag about the success of this injunction (in regards to graffiti reduction).