Diane Birch: Possible Grammys' nominee for Best New Artist

I have a handful of blog entries that mention Diane Birch or link to an intraffik column that I wrote about Diane Birch. As I was glancing through a November 17, Tuesday, Variety, I came across this:

Variety Plus: Music for Screens -- Fall 2009. Grammys' new artist. Diane Birch: Raised in South Africa as the daughter of a preacher, singer-songwriter Birch hasn't sold impressive amounts of her debut album, "Bible Belt," yet, but her lilting vocals, smart pop melodies and winning lyrics have drawn comparisons to Laura Nyro.

If she gets nominated, I'll admit that I'll get excited.

And here's another article, this one from the LA Times, that puts her as a front runner for a nomination.

Duke Basketball vs. Arizona State and Connecticut

The Arizona State game was the first time I've gotten to see Duke play this year. My initial thoughts:

Which coach gave them a number one vote in the coaches poll? Even after watching them beat Connecticut, I can't help but believe that this vote will go to another team.

I think it is evident that they miss having a true point guard who can speed up the floor every so often. I think that will come back to bite them at various points of the season.

Their big men seemed to get beat left and right by a couple of Arizona State's players. I believe the half time criticism on ESPN 2 was right on when one of the commentators said that Duke just didn't look very athletic.

On the plus side, I wasn't overly nervous about this game. My sense was that Duke was just the better team and that Arizona State was lucky to stick so close. It just seemed that Duke was in control.

The Connecticut game was obviously my second game. My thoughts watching the game:

Duke had some bad defense the first ten minutes or so. They adjusted though.

Maybe Zoubek should be a Dennis Rodman type player and just rebound and kick the ball out. That guy had so many up close shots that he simply couldn't hit. Get the rebounds and help reset the offense. I don't know.

The last ten minutes or so of the game either was great Connecticut defense or Duke's offense just went south.

What's up with Kyle Singler? In my mind, this was the second game he just wasn't up to par. And perhaps it was my imagination, but in the last ten minutes it looked like he wasn't even involved in the offense. I wonder if he's injured or sick.

Looking at the score of the Arizona State vs. LSU game, obviously the fact that Connecticut blew out LSU really didn't mean anything. With UCLA stinking it up in the early season and California losing two, as well, perhaps Arizona State will be the team to beat in the PAC-10 (along with Washington).

Andre Dawkins looked great offensively in both games. I'm sure Duke is super thankful this Thanksgiving week for that guy. If Elliot Williams hadn't had to transfer to Memphis, this team would rock -- of course, still short a point guard unfortunately.

UCLA vs. USC: Football

I grew up an UCLA fan. Of course, I've turned my main college allegiance to Duke, but I still cheer for UCLA (perhaps football more than basketball).

Now UCLA football has been in the dumps for awhile. But now for the first time in years, USC is struggling. Okay, UCLA, this is your chance to possibly knock USC out of the Top 25. The AP Poll has USC at 24. The USA Today Poll has USC at 22. USC is 7-3. I would think that if USC goes 7-4 that they'll get knocked out. What better motivation is there. Go out and take the game UCLA!!!

Thanksgiving Day

To my handful of readers: A Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you are well.

Silver Needle at Dragonfly

Went to see Silver Needle at Dragonfly on a Sunday night.

An interesting encounter with the ticket guy occurred that night. I was told it was free before 10 p.m. I got there around 9:45 p.m. and the guy demanded that I pay up. One of my friends said, "We were told it was free before 10 p.m." The guy said, "I didn't hear anything like that." We paid up, but quickly found someone in the band to discuss this issue.

Phone calls were made and the issue about 10 p.m. was cleared up, but . . . when we went to the ticket guy and asked if he'd return our money, his response was, "No, it isn't my money to give back. I can't give a refund."

I was dumbfounded. Clearly I would think this was a matter of fairness. He was unaware that the night was free before 10 p.m. and insisted that we hand over $10. One of the guys in the band called up the owner of the Dragonfly and cleared up the matter. Other people started to file in for free. We go to the ticket guy and ask that he provide us our refund since he was wrong in taking our money. He refuses. Crazy.

Anyways, more e-mails/calls were made to the owner and our money was returned.

As for Silver Needle. A good set, fun times. And a birthday cake.

Mo-odds, Pu$$y Cow, Madison Bloodbath and Inoculators at the Blvd

I headed off to The Blvd in Boyle Heights. I've never been to this bar/music venue and actually I'm not sure if I've ever been in Boyle Heights -- though I used to live in Montebello.

The first band of the night were The Mo-odds.




Next up was the reason I showed up on this night, Pu$$y Cow. This was their last show of the year. There was a guest appearance by Andre from Silver Needle.








Up next were a couple bands I've never seen. The first was Madison Bloodbath. They rocked it. The lead singer is a bearded guy who sings like a crazy man.





The next band up were the Inoculators. This was their kick-off show for their tour. The drummer isn't going to join them on the tour since his wife is going to have a child soon. Cheers to them.

Lake @ The Smell

A friend of mine a few weeks back had suggested checking out his friend's band, Red Pony Clock at The Smell. I'm always up to checking out new bands so off I went . . . even if I was feeling slightly under the weather. I met up with four of my friends.

The first band up for the night was Stellaluna. They're a band from Phoenix. They played in the front stage. There was a nice crowd to see them though perhaps a bit shy. The band kept on encouraging people to come closer. They had just arrived from Phoenix, traveling throughout the day.


In the back stage was Red Pony Clock.. This is a large band. They had seven folks on stage. From what I could over-hear, they were missing members so they're even a larger band than just seven. One member plays a vibraphone -- sort of looks like a xylophone. Another played the accordion. Then you had a violinist. I love violinists in bands. I have to say what I found interesting was the fact that three of the band members were using music sheets. This sort of makes me wonder if a number of the band members are new.




During the break, one of my friends mentioned that a band called Lake was headlining. He went to check out when they were playing and was "told" that they were playing last. He was like, "Well, they're really good, but I don't think I can stay out that late." So off he went. Meanwhile, the third band was starting to set up. I don't know who said it, but one suddenly asked, "Is this perhaps Lake?" A crowd was beginning to form. I turned to a couple guys hanging nearby and asked, "What band is this?" The reply, "Lake." Well, a friend quickly sent a text message to the guy who had left. He probably missed one or two songs. Lake is also a rather large band of six. They also have the trait of switching instruments throughout the set. I loved them from the start. The lead singer at one point said, "You guys need to talk over our songs to make us feel more comfortable." Yes, they had all of our attentions. Too bad they're from Seattle -- though one of the female members mentioned that she used to hang out at The Smell when she was in high school. Who knows, maybe they'll relocate and start playing at Spaceland in a year or two.






The last band I saw was actually Lake again as they accompanied their friend Karl Blau. There was perhaps a fifteen minute break and then they all came back on stage, but this time Karl Blau led out. So I got about an hour of Lake and really did enjoy it all.






The one great disappointment: there weren't any vegan tacos like the last time I went to The Smell!!!

The Shakers at the Kibitz

So after Switchfood on a recent Wednesday night (yes, this is a delayed blog) I ended up heading to the Kibitz to catch my friends, The Shakers. I arrived at 11 p.m. My question, of course, was when were they going on stage. If they were the last band, I was going to have to say hello and then take off. Well, they were the first band of the night so they went on at 11:30 p.m. There was a small crowd. Too bad there wasn’t a larger crowd. I think they rock, personally.

Mosaic Film Festival: Marbles with Thoreau

I went to the Mosaic Film Festival on Saturday. Mosaic is a church that meets at the Mayan Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. I don't attend the Mosaic church. I was there to support a friend, Melody George, and her short movie "Marbles with Thoreau", which was in the festival. The film festival was split into two sessions of shorts. I only went to the second session so I missed out on seeing the winning short, ""The Magic of J Mac." I am bias and do believe that my friend had the best short film out of the Session 2 group. I will say that the animated short "Lovesick Fool" by Dominic Polcino was full of laughs. Also, "Love Lessons for Miles" by Matthew Morgenthaler was an interesting tale of a lonely mother sabotaging her child's attempt to grow up.

Switchfoot at The Roxy

Roxy. Switchfoot. A couple months back a group of us decided that we were going to go see Switchfoot. And so the day finally arrived, November 11th. My friends decided that they were going to head out starting at 5 p.m., because they believed the band was playing at 7 p.m. I was like, I can’t leave that early. I have work. So they took off without me. I headed off around 6 p.m. I caught up with them at about 6:30 p.m. They were in line, waiting. It is sweet having friends who like to go really early, because then you can just cut in line. Anyways, come around 7 p.m. we were still outside waiting. One friend started to wonder what was going on since the band was supposed to play at 7 p.m. Well, when I got there I was given my ticket so I looked at the ticket. Hey, wait a second, it states that the doors open at 7 p.m. Hmm. Well, I believe they started to let people in around 7:15 p.m. Once inside, we waited around some more until the band finally came on at around 8:45 p.m. Interestingly enough, there was no opening band.

There were a number of false alarms regarding Switchfoot coming on stage. Starting around 8 p.m. after every single house music song died out folks felt for sure that Switchfoot was going to start playing. Cheers would go up and then die down. I noticed that one of the band technicians came over and removed the microphone and at that point I told a friend, “They’re going to start.” Soon after, Jon was seen on the VIP section wall. He then pushed through the crowd to get back onto the stage. Actually, he didn’t push through, the crowd just departed for him. He passed right next to me. For some reason, I always find these concert moments interesting. You're packed in close and yet somehow during certain points of a set, the crowd opens up.

Now this Switchfoot concert was dedicated to playing their new album, "Hello Hurricane." I hadn’t purchased the album in advance so I wasn’t familiar with the material. So my honest opinion: I thought the concert was choppy. Some of the songs I thought were awesome. Some of the songs I thought weren’t so great. Perhaps if I listen to the album a few more times I'll gain a greater appreciation of the album as a whole, but for now I have to go with a choppy set.

After playing through their album, they left the stage. They then returned for a seven song set of their greatest hits. Now this part of the set rocked out as I was obviously well versed in the music. A fun part of the show was towards the end (I forget which song, perhaps it was “Twenty-Four”). Jon said they wanted to do something new and a kid in the audience yelled out, probably the following, "Let me sing with the band." Well, he was brought up onto the stage to help with the song. That was cool. During “Twenty-Four” Jon told a story about the time he wrote this song. He was showing off his skate boarding abilities in front of his girlfriend. He fell and broke his wrist. It so happened that he married this young lady.

After this second half of the set ended, the audience demanded an encore. They got it. A final song. Jon asked for a music request. The request was to sing “Dirty Second Hands.”

Some notes: On stage, there were a number of decorative birds hanging from the ceiling. At one point, Tim jumped so high that he sent one of these birds in motion. He took some amusement in this, watching for a moment as the bird swung above him. There were a couple guys near the front of the stage that were jumping around throughout the set. Awesome. Back to 6:30-ish, there was a young couple waiting in line. My group of friends and I spent the rest of the concert hanging out and getting to know them. What was fun on my end was watching one of my friends. She’s a bit Switchfoot fan. Throughout much of the set, her hands were clasped together.

Anyways, here's the set list I found from a blogsite called wereawakening:

blinditachil7 also provided the setlist:
01 - Needle and Haystack Life
02 - Mess of Me
03 - Your Love Is a Song
04 - The Sound (John M. Perkins' Blues)
05 - Enough to Let Me Go
06 - Free
07 - Hello Hurricane
08 - Always
09 - Bullet Soul
10 - Yet
11 - Sing It Out
12 - Red Eyes
13 - Dare You to Move
14 - Stars
15 - Oh! Gravity
16 - This Is Your Life
17 - Twenty-Four
18 - Only Hope
19 - Meant to Live
20 - Dirty Second Hands

Below are some photos I took:



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A Movie Review: Capitalism: A Love Story

"Capitalism: A Love Story." Derivative. I do agree with his attack on the Wall Street/US Government bailout, but I find his use of sob stories irritating. Often times all you need to do is take out a calculator and you realize why people lose their homes. I'd really have liked to have known a little bit of the background story of these individuals. Also, there is a moment in the film where he attacks Timothy Geithner and then at the end of the movie he holds great hope for President Obama. Wait a second, isn't Geithner now Obama's Treasury Secretary? Oh well.

Happy Hollows and Casxio at Spaceland

Spaceland. A friend of mine had never gone to Spaceland. She wanted to go. So a small group of us headed out. Two of them (including the friend that had never gone to Spaceland) showed up at 9:00 p.m. and sent a text asking me about my whereabouts. I had previously sent a text stating that I wasn’t planning on showing up until 9:45 p.m. I figured, oh well, I better head down there. So I arrived at around 9:15 p.m. and caught the back end of the first band called The Widow Babies. I can’t really say too much about them. The next band up was Casxio. I’d heard of this band previously. In fact, I believe they were on a bill once with another band I wanted to see, but I didn't stay around long enough to see them play. So this was the first time I’d actually seen them. I have to say I enjoyed their set greatly.









Finally, my last band of the night though not the official final band of the night, The Happy Hollows played their residency. Towards the end of the set, Sarah made a fun comment. Here's my attempt to repeat what she said, “We wanted to put up a poster out front, advertising our residency. But we’ve had no time. So we brought some crayons and paper. It is over in the back. You can design a poster for us. The winner will win a prize. A big prize.” That's a cool thing to do, but I didn't participate. Not artistic. And I needed to go to bed.

Eagle Rock Music Festival on Intraffik.com

I'm back up on intraffik.com with a look at the Eagle Rock Music Festival. Go check it out.

Renting and Landlords

Rights of a tenant. I recently had a friend who was asked to move out of her apartment. She was given no compensation. She didn't know the law in Glendale, CA, which requires that a landlord needs to pay compensation if they really want a tenant to move out. I figure this is a good article for tenants to read so that they don't get taken advantage of by their landlords.

She's Your Sister @ Bootleg Theater

I saw She's Your Sister at the Bootleg Theater on Saturday night. It was their first show in 1 1/2 years. I saw their last show. How time flies. The time gap didn't seem to cause any issues for this band. In fact, though obviously time clouds your memory, I thought in some ways they were better this time around -- especially in terms of stage chemistry.

The Pixies at The Palladium

The Pixies. Got to see The Pixies Thursday night at The Palladium in Los Angeles. Such an awesome night. Will post more on this story latter on Intraffik.com.

For those who are looking for immediate reviews, check out the LA Times and Variety.

See below for some photos I took.