The Mulhollands at Skinny's and stolen equipment.

I know hardly anyone reads this blog so it is unlikely that anyone can really help in finding a stolen Vox Continental organ, but I figured I'd post the link anyways.

If you do read my blog, you probably know that the Mulhollands are one of my favorite local bands.

From what I understand, Matt was using his organ for the first time on Monday night. It was really cool seeing him play . . . and to have it stolen perhaps only a few minutes later just stinks.

Up on intraffik.com: September Soundtrack

I am up on intraffik.com with my September Soundtrack.

Here's a summarized list of bands/singer-songwriters that I have on my Soundtrack:

Halos
Run Run Run
Diane Birch
Nick Motil
Jessie Deluxe
Rademacher
Red Cortez
Swim Party
Right the Stars
Maxim Ludwig and the Santa Fe Seven

Plenty more to read and view on intraffik.com.

Classic Work Story

In honor of the fact that the my office refrigerator just got cleaned on Friday evening, here’s an article I’ve been saving for awhile (“Yuck! 7 hospitalized after office fridge cleanup,” MSNBC.com, 13 May 2009): An office worker cleaning a fridge full of rotten food created a smell so noxious that it sent seven co-workers to the hospital and made many others ill. Firefighters had to evacuate the AT&T building in downtown San Jose on Tuesday after the fumes led someone to call 911. A hazmat team was called in. What crews found was an unplugged refrigerator crammed with moldy food. Authorities say an enterprising office worker had decided to clean it out, placing the food in a conference room while using two cleaning chemicals to scrub down the mess. The mixture of old lunches and disinfectant caused 28 people to need treatment for vomiting and nausea. Authorities say the worker who cleaned the fridge didn't need treatment — she can't smell because of allergies.

Conkerr Cancer

A friend of mine has a project of making pillow cases for kids with cancer. She is doing this with the Conkerr Cancer Organization. On Sunday, today, I and two other friends decided to help her out for a couple hours.

Here's the fabric I bought for one pillow case. I bought this at JoAnn's. When I was purchasing this fabric the cashier said, "I really love this material. What are you going to make?" "A pillow case," I responded, but then felt I needed to qualify, "but not for me." She responded, "I know, I keep on thinking about how I want to make something with this, but then I just can't see it in my bedroom."



Here's the sewing machine we used. I'd never used one before. You can actually see a stack of pillow cases to the side that my friend has already made.



Starting the process.





The finished product.





I stuck around to help make a few additional pillowcases.



I actually found the process a little stressful. I kept thinking, "I don't really know what I'm doing. What if the pillow case falls apart and the kid gets depressed about it or something like that."

My Summer 2009 Movie Rankings

My Summer Movie Rankings
(Just the Movies I Saw, of course)

Cream of the Crop

1. Up
2. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
3. Julie and Julia

Must See Even if Weather is Perfect Outside

4. (500) Days of Summer
5. Inglourious Bastards
6. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
7. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
8. The Hurt Locker
9. Transformers: Rise of the Fallen
10. Star Trek

Flawed but Worth It

11. Hangover
12. District 9
13. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
14. Funny People
15. Angels and Demons
16. Terminator Salvation

Heat Wave Outside, Time for a Movie

17. Away We Go
18. Moon
19. Bandslam

Skip No Matter How Hot It Is Outside

20. Public Enemies
21. GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra

Huntington Library in San Marino

Huntington Library. I took a handful of days off work recently and headed to the Huntington Library. Below are some photos I took.

I love the below painting.

I have no clue what the below symbol embedded into the grass means. I should look it up someday.

The below looks likes a lovely place to throw an outdoor party.

I will say this about the Huntington, if you like to explore you'll find yourself spending a lot of time there. I set aside a little more than 2 hours for the Huntington and it wasn't enough. If you'd really like to explore, I'd say put aside 3.5 to 4 hours. I would have spent more time except for the 4:30 p.m. closing time.

A Movie Review: Inglourious Bastards

"Inglourious Bastards". For some reason, I decided to take awhile to write up my review of this movie so details are foggy. I found it enjoyable. When I sat down to watch the movie, I didn’t realize it was going to take such a revisionist look at history. I started to figure out that this was going to happen in perhaps the last hour of the movie. Wow. Of course, all the hot women die in the movie for some reason. Anyways, fun movie to watch.

IO Echo at the Troubadour

I last saw IO Echo in February at The Roxy. After over six months, it was definitely time to catch one of their sets again. I wasn't sure what to expect. I know their show at The Roxy was well attended, but it was also a promoted event by KROQ (if I recall correctly.) On the other hand, they recently opened up for Nine Inch Nails.

I arrived at the Troubadour at around 9:15 p.m. I got there just in time to catch Funeral Party. At the time, there were probably 50 people inside the Troubadour. I couldn't help but wonder if they were in for a disappointing attendance figure.



I had no need to worry about a disappointing attendance figure. As Funeral Party played their set, folks started to trickle through the door. By the time IO Echo got onto the stage, the Troubadour must have been close to a sold out status.

Troubadour isn't the biggest venue and IO Echo isn't the biggest band (yet), but it sure felt like a mini-big time band setting. As the stage was getting set up, someone came out and tossed out a handful of IO Echo t-shirts. The crowd went crazy for them. And then the lights went out and a cheer went up. They didn't come out on stage; however. An emcee came out to introduce them. Note: it is probably still too early to tell 9/11 jokes/comparisons. The emcee said something like, "If IO Echo was a storm, they'd be the 9/11 of storms." The crowd actually went quiet. Perhaps it was my imagination, but the crowd definitely seemed to just quiet down.

The error in comment was soon forgotten, because IO Echo came out on stage and the crowd went crazy. As you can see below, IO wore a white costume that billowed throughout the set.









The below photo shows the billowing of the dress. I said to myself that it billowed like a balloon. She said it looked like an angry marshmallow.

I love the below photo.



The below is a photo taken during my favorite song, "I'm on Fire."







The one thought about IO and her performance. She looked in command of the stage. She's always given a great performance so perhaps I should restate the above. During this set, she climbed up the lighting structure, which I've seen her do before so it isn't like she's ever been a performer to just stand around in one place; however, for some reason, I just felt there was a difference this time around versus previous shows. Trying to nail down something here: maybe my sense was that she was able to better relate to the audience. I'll stick to that.



Crowd. As mentioned, the Troubadour was packed. I was able to get myself into the second row. A young lady pushed herself in front of me, pushing me back a bit. She asked if it was cool. I said sure, but then a couple decided to join her, which pushed me even further back. Okay, not so cool. I wasn't that far back, but it hindered my ability to get additional photos -- not that I don't have plenty posted here.

IO Echo ended their set with "Doorway."

They were cheered for an encore and came back on stage with a cover song. She ended the set with an Asian-like bow to the audience.

My last serious thought of the night while watching their set, "She paces the stage like a caged tiger. Beautiful and yet dangerous."

And as in previous blogs on IO Echo, if you'd like to read a past column I wrote up on intraffik.com, please click on the link.

A Movie Review: The Hurt Locker

"The Hurt Locker". Interesting flick though I thought it went on a tad long. I talked briefly about this movie with a friend and he had a disagreement with me about one of my thoughts about the movie. My thought is as follows: I found it interesting how the movie portrayed the three main characters. One just loved being out there. Another just wanted to get through his tour of duty. The third was nearing a mental breakdown and felt sure he was going to die. I felt this highlighted how solders react to the mental stress.

One of the great moments in the movie is the sniper scene. It was just this intense scene filled with the stress of the moment. What was also intense was the confinement of urban warfare and never being sure who is a civilian and who is an enemy. The stress for me was over-whelming at times.

The Shakers and Automatique at Fox and Hounds

I was out hanging with some friends Saturday night. Actually, playing miniature golf. After we finished, I said my good-byes, because I was heading off to Fox and Hounds to catch The Shakers.

When I arrived around 11:45 p.m. Automatique was on stage. I wasn't expecting that I would catch their set. In fact, I apparently caught at least half their set. They were rocking it Saturday night.



The Shakers came on at around 12:30 a.m. and went on till a little past 1 a.m. The were giving it 100% as can be seen by the below photos.









I say what a great way to end a Saturday night.

Up on Intraffik with Diane Birch, New Fidelity and New Maximum Donkey

I am up with a "night in photos" from Spaceland and El Cid at intraffik.com. If you have the time, check it out. Of course, many of the photos are posted here along with some different ones.

Up first for the night was Diane Birch at Spaceland. The lead singer for The Parson Redheads did an acoustic set to open the night. Towards the end of his set he said, "Thanks four being so quiet. You're a really good audience. That wasn't a joke." Of course, I think he'd have appreciated some claps and cheers, which happened after his final song. I think he appreciated the fact that people were listening and not chatting throughout his set.

Then Diane Birch came on stage. There were probably around 125 people at the time of her set. A nice crowd for a non-Monday night at Spaceland. The crowd was a mix of Spaceland regulars and Diane Birch fans. Maybe it was my own perception, but it did seem that some people who walked inside the doors of Spaceland had to take a couple seconds to orient themselves to their surroundings. She started her set around 10:15 p.m. and played until a tad past 11 p.m. It didn't seem like a 45 minute set. Included in this was an encore song, which she jokingly called, "This unexpected song." Afterward she stuck around to sign CDs and take photos with various folks. I'd gotten a CD at Hotel Cafe so I didn't need another. As with Hotel Cafe, there was a nice line for her CD. As I was leaving, I over-heard a couple guys who were a bit too enamored by her say, "Maybe we can be her agent out here in Los Angeles." What do you expect, I live in Hollywood. Observation: there was a guy in his 50s, who during one Diane Birch song decided to kick back on the stage. That's something I don't see all that often around the Los Angeles music scene.












I then headed off to El Cid to catch The New Fidelity and New Maximum Donkey. This was also a fun time. For a handful of songs, New Fidelity has a couple brass guys come up and join in the fun. I guess they didn't practice together all that much, because one of the brass guys said, "Rehearsals are for professionals." They sounded great.






And to end the night at El Cid, I caught New Maximum Donkey. This is probably only the second time I've seen them. I had to take off before their set ended. They were still going strong at 1 a.m.

The Mulhollands and The New Hotness at Skinny's

I am on my Mulhollands kick and am enjoying it. Yes. Anyways I showed up at Skinny's for the second Monday in a row and ran into The New Hotness. I hadn't seen them in awhile. I've seen them individually around town, checking out bands that we both know but I've always missed them when they're actually playing a set. What do I love about The New Hotness. I love their riffs. They're long riffs that most local rock bands are unwilling to do.



I just love the below photo.



Then the The Mulhollands took the stage. There was a much larger audience this time around versus the previous Monday's set. That was awesome. A lot of people I didn't recognize.
















The one unfortunate thing about their set was that a guy showed up who dropped his pants during their last song. He also did the same thing at a Fox and Hounds show a couple months back. I personally think he's a big jerk for doing that. Maybe some find it amusing? I find it disgusting.