Category: art & literature

Feb 22 2009

The Sweet Remains @ The Roxy

One of the guys in The Sweet Remains, used to attend the same church as I do in LA.  So when his band was booked to open for K’Naan and Mishka at The Roxy in West Hollywood, a bunch of folks from church decided to go.

I got to the club a little early, and asked someone who looked like they worked there if he knew when they would be selling tickets.  He asked for which show, and I said tonight, to which he responded…”I think tonights sold out.”  Since I hadn’t eaten yet, and there was still plenty of time before anyone I was going to meet was going to be there, I decided to walk down Sunset in search of some food (I hadn’t eaten yet.)

Around 7pm, a few of the folks I was meeting showed up, and the ticket office opened.  We tried to get our ticket and were told that sorry, the show was sold out.  It was looking kind of bleak for awhile.  Eventually, a couple of the folks in our group who were on the list, were able to get in and talk to the guy in the band, who was able to talk to the folks at the venue and they let us purchase tickets (though we were supposed to leave after they played).

Most of my group filtered out after The Sweet Remains were done, but I hung around, curious about Mishka and wanting to see at least a little bit of K’Naan’s set.

Mishka, was celebrating the release of his new album Above the Bones, his first release on Matthew McConaughey’s record label.  Matthew was of course in attendance as well.  I hadn’t heard of Mishka before, but I enjoyed him quite a bit.  He’s got a mellow reggae style…definitely influenced by the beaches and “roots reggae.”

The last act of the evening was K’Naan, who I was first introduced to when he opened for Stephen Marley at the Roseland in Portland.  He’s a Toronto based, but Somali born Hip-Hop artist.  His music is definitely influenced by the rhythms of Africa and reggae as well.  In fact, he recorded the majority of his new album at Bob Marley’s home studio in Jamaica.

K’Naan is a blast, and I had wished it wasn’t a work night, so I could have stayed for the whole set.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/02/the-sweet-remains-the-roxy/

Feb 13 2009

Club Nokia: Michael Franti & Spearhead

I’m really behind in posting things…but I feel like procrastinating right now…so here we go…

Thanks to LA Metblogs, I was able to check out Michael Franti & Spearhead @ Club Nokia on Jan 30th.  Club Nokia is part of the newish LA Live development next to the Staples Center.  It is designed to complement the much larger Nokia Theater.  It is still a fairly large venue, holding up to 2,300 people.  It has two levels…the main floor and a balcony.  For this show, the main floor was open floor space, and the balcony provided seats (Most of which were also general admission).

My friend and I staked a claim to a couple seats in the balcony to enjoy the show in a more relaxed setting than the “pit” of fans directly in front of the stage.  Despite getting there shortly after 8pm (when the show was supposed to start), the second opening band was already on stage.  The first thing I noticed, was how incredibly good the sound quality was.  The mix was spot on for the space.  No distortion, and the vocals weren’t overpowered by the instruments.  Second, there really isn’t a bad seat in the place.  The balcony seats all still feel very close to the stage, so for such a large venue, you still get the feel of an intimate show.

Franti & Spearhead were amazing.  They came on around 9pm and played for a little over 2 hours.  I wouldn’t have been disappointed at all if I had paid for tickets.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/02/club-nokia-michael-franti-spearhead/

Feb 02 2009

Relentless7

Relentless7 is Ben Harper’s new band.  They announced two shows around noon on Wednesday at The Mint, a small venue near my house.  I decided to throw caution to the wind and get a ticket to the Thursday night show and check it out.

Technically the Thursday show, was actually on Friday, as the doors opened at midnight and the show was scheduled to start at 12:30am.  Thankfully, the show started pretty much on time.  I found a nice spot near the middle of the stage, with only a couple of girls in front of me.  Basically I was no more than 3-5 feet from Ben Harper.

The show was fun.  The band played an 11 song set.  It’s a little more “rock” oriented than his stuff with the Innocent Criminals.  There were a few issues with the sound, but I think that mainly was because of the venue.  Too many clubs have the mains up so loud, and then the guitars/bass/drums up so loud, that the vocals can get drowned out.  A few songs into the set, Ben had them turn around one of the monitors to use it as a vocal field.  So yeah, the mix wasn’t great in the venue.

I’ve got a couple pictures from my Blackberry, that I may upload later, I haven’t had a chance to see if they are worth putting out there.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/02/relentless7/

Jan 20 2009

The First Dance

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/01/the-first-dance/

Jan 20 2009

The Government

from Saul William’s email list:

 

We have overcome.

Except those of us now in Gaza. Except those of us whom police kill. Except those of us who are suspects. Except those of us whom the church hate. Except those of us damned to taste good. Except those of us held by fate. We are meeting in the capitol. Word is, freedom will not wait.

All that once was never shall be.
All they could do won’t be done.
All we sang of is now happening.

[note to self:]
Must write
new songs
to become…

…And so it was. Through the collective imagination of the people, the force of will and human potential, and an unflinching ability to hold himself to task, Niggy Tardust was liberated. His ability to see beyond the boundaries and obstacles of ‘genre’, ‘race’, and suppression, allowed him to encompass a grace and sound that embodied the all. All that had stood against him, now stood with him. All that had claimed a lesser harmony, now craved voice and resonance. He stood with poets, painters, dancers, students, children of the night who had transformed themselves into a million bright ambassadors of morning, and proclaimed,

“We declare declaratives and deny the official. Based in the landmark of the G-spot, we have overtaken ourselves and overthrown our forefathers. Let there be light within the light and let it answer to the name of Darkness. We are forever risen from the deadly: the anti-virus and the All Stars. Granted power by forces unbeknownst to us. Made in the likeness of kindness. We offer anger to the angry and fear to the fearful. We dance at our own funerals to forsake the mourners…

…This is no time to cry! This is no time at all! Here is the moment of the overlooked and the unforeseeable. We are the elected officials of the people: poets and artists. We are the declarative statement of the inarticulate, the irreparably damaged goods of the bad meaning good. We are the government! We are the government! We are the government!”

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/01/the-government/

Jan 15 2009

God’s Secretary

by R.S. Gwynn

Her e-mail inbox always overflows.
Her outbox doesn’t get much use at all.
She puts on hold the umpteen-billionth call
As music oozes forth to placate those
Who wait, then disconnect.  Outside, wind blows,
Scything pale leaves.  She sees a sparrow fall
Fluttering to a claw-catch on a wall.
Will He be in today?  God only knows.

She hasn’t seen His face–He’s so aloof.
She’s long resigned He’ll never know or love her
But still can wish there were some call, some proof
That He requires a greater service of her.
Fingers of rain now drum upon the roof,
Coming from somewhere, somewhere far above her.

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2009/01/gods-secretary/

Dec 30 2008

2008 Project List

Here is the list of books I’ve read in 2008.  My goal is to finish 52 books (the equivalent of a book a week).

Total Pages Read: 10,774
Shortest book: 96 pages
Longest book: 928 pages
Fiction: 17
Non-Fiction: 13
Poetry: 1

Last book read:

31.  Drown by Junot Díaz.  Short Stories about a Dominican immigrant family.  224 pages. (Finished 30 Dec 08)

Full list below the cut:

Continue reading

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/12/2008-project-list/

Dec 10 2008

Musical Obsession of the Moment

Robert Francis

“Little Girl” from the album “One by One” (2007)

Found via Buzzbands.LA (here)

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/12/musical-obsession-of-the-moment/

Dec 04 2008

for roses & cigarettes

for roses & cigarettes 
 
i dreamt about your bed 
or mine it wasn’t clear 
just that once (or twice) 
 
do you remember that weekend? 
the one where the past was forgotten 
when we went over that cliff and 
we unravelled into each other 
 
or do you remember this weekend? 
the one where we drenched ourselves in rays, 
our feet in the ocean… 
connecting us to the rest of the world 
and each other 
 
this is where we are, 
    we be, 
            we see 
we make love

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/12/for-roses-cigarettes/

Nov 24 2008

Cormac McCarthy novels in film development

Cormac McCarthy is one of the best authors of fiction about the American Southwest.  Film adaptations have already been made of All The Pretty Horses and No Country For Old Men, with No Country winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards for 2007.

repost from the powells.com blog:

Ridley Scott recently spoke with Empire Online about his adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel Blood Meridian.

“It’s written. I think it’s a really tricky one, and maybe it’s something that should be left as a novel. If you’re going to do Blood Meridian you’ve got to go the whole nine yards into the blood bath, and there’s no answer to the blood bath, that’s part of the story, just the way it is and the way it was.

“[C]learly the major esthetic achievement of any living American writer,” declares Harold Bloom in the New York Observer

With the adaptation of The Road due out next year, are there any McCarthy novels left that you’d like to see on the big screen?

Permanent link to this article: https://www.rhinoblues.com/thoughts/2008/11/cormac-mccarthy-novels-in-film-development/