Farewell Fidel, Odd Stuff and Band Notes.

This is two days worth of stuff so it's gonna be long - sorry.

Cha-cha-changes

Well Fidel Castro has stepped down – maybe the last communist ruler in the world – The Chinese seem to drifting into a one-party state with a degree of freedom for the economy and little for the people. In other words the kind of state we like dealing with (at least to view the historical record).

And oddly enough looking at the record – that after the World War 2 – the best chance an autocratic ruler has of dying peacefully in their bed is to be an unabashed and avowed enemy of the United States from day one. Look at Fidel – 40 years he was the uber red menace just 90 miles away and despite a plethora of keystone cop style attempts to kill him is still at 81 upright. Line him up with Iran’s Ayatollah who over saw the hostage taking in Tehran, Ho Chi Min (remember him?), The leader of the Sandinista Party Daniel Ortega is back in power in Nicaragua (they were an early version of the scary brown people who don’t speak English are going to destroy us) and of course Osama Ben Ladden still lives and breathes and makes the odd broadcast. Hell the last really big time adversary that the US and it’s allies managed to kill was Cue Guevara and now his picture is just about everywhere.

But if we look at rulers of our client states – results are not so good – Suddam Hussein being the most recent of a line of rulers who did what we told them and then changed his mind. Those we destroy with gusto – The invasion of Panama – the coup in 1963 in Viet Nam when we were worried that Diem might be going soft on the war. Either that or you own damn people storm the gates and if you’re lucky to go into exile (the Shah of Iran) if not you get a bullet in the head – Somoza for example.

It’s bit odd to think about.

Meantime The Supreme court - in as nice a piece of legal pettifogging as I have ever seen – has ruled that the ACLU can not sue the NSA for warrant less wiretapping because the people the ACLU are representing have no legal standing in the case – because they can’t prove they have been subject to illegal wiretapping. And why don’t they know? Because the NSA has said the list of people they have tapped is a secret – which they won’t release. So in order, per the supreme court, for someone to sue the government (and by extension the telecoms) for warrant-less wire taps, you have to know you’ve been tapped, which you won’t know because it is a secret who we are tapping.

Catch 22 anybody?

In other cheerful news – it seems that the suicide rate among people between 45-54 has jumped some 20% from 1999 to 2004 – much to the puzzlement of researchers. I’m not going to suggest that the Presidency of George Bush and the subsequent death of hope that came after he was re-elected have something to do with it but the gloomy hopeless sense nothing is ever going to be better that has withered this country’s soul can’t be helping.

As a sad note one of the folks mentioned in the NY Times Article (who had suffered from depression her whole life) had been getting treatment in a facility but after a month the Insurance company stopped paying – the woman’s parents offered to keep paying but per a friend she didn’t want to burden them.

Very depressing to contemplate on this Monday Tuesday – there is much talk about heath insurance but what we need is heath care – giving everybody health insurance just expands the universe of people that the insurance companies screw by not paying for their treatment. We need universal health care not a system to funnel taxpayer dollars to insurance companies who will be under very few pressures to spend it.

Alas the bad movie I saw this weekend is enough to break my mood - it was Brain of Blood – which not to shockingly was about brain transplants – the Amir of an imaginary eastern country is dying – the only chance is a desperate throw were his brain is to be transplanted into another body, the surgery to be done by the mad scientist – really it should have been a hoot – there is awful acting, a sinister midget, lots of time wasting wandering about – an acid scarred 7 ft child man who ends up with the Amir’s brain in him, women in chains in a dungeon – bad car chases but it just felt old and tired and it didn’t look like it was a lot of fun to do – this film links back to the earlier Blood series – Mad Doctor of Blood Island, Brides of Blood, Creature of Blood, CPA of Blood (kidding) and what not – which at least had a lot of pretty Filipino women in sarong looking things and lush jungle backgrounds to make things look interesting and other directors other than Al Admanson who is bad in a dull way. Brain looks like it was filmed in the same valley that they shot robot monster – I swear I recognized a rock or two. In the end it was a bunch of has beens or never where’s trying to squeeze a payday out the dying 60’s era B-movie business (it was 1972 and the drive ins and the grind houses were starting to dry up) – without any of the lunatic energy and what the hell spirit of the best (and the worst) of these kind of films – this one was just dull.

Meantime Bush has said that the reason the economy is in the tank is because people built too many homes – which is kind of surprising since a few months ago - before we realized what a real mess we have on hand – he was citing the number of homes being built as a sign of the economy’s strength.

Saw Fantasy Mission Force again last night – split between band rehearsal – and well I have no real words – nothing and I mean nothing about this film makes a lick of sense (and I don’t think it is just the dubbing) – scenes jump from on to the other like the editor was blind and deaf and the whole movie careens about like a drunk on rocking ship – one minute they are in a haunted house then they are attacked by masked Amazons who attack them with bolts of brightly colored cloth – then they end up fighting two Chinese guys in SS uniforms along with a mob of masked soldiers driving late 70’s and early 80’s big US Cars all of which are decorated with German and Nazi insignia – at which point Jackie Chan who had been in the movie briefly wanders back in and becomes the hero after the commandos are killed and the leader turns out to have double crossed them.

The thing is with this film is that to use sentences to describe what’s happening imposes an order over the film that it does not have. Really you can feel your brain trying to make some sense of this and finally throwing its hands up and going off to forget things like where you went to third grade.

Meantime – meantime meantime – Obama has won in the most recent primaries and won like big time. I would suggest to Hilary if she really wants a damn chance to win this thing is to fire that fat fool of a campaign manager and have you and your surrogates stop sounding like republican attack poodles spouting the day’s talking points to the assembled zombie horde. People with working forebrains hate this stuff and during the primaries have a means of showing it.

I find it odd that many of the people who are going on about how all Obama has is words spent the week after Reagan died saying again and again what a great communicator he was – I mean WTF was Reagan a mime? Sorry - I need to get that image out of my head – Reagan in mime white face doing the invisible wall in front of congress.

The right wing has jumped all over Mrs. Obama for saying she feels proud of her country for the first time – Meantime - Mrs. not as batshit crazy as Rudy but still as nutty as a shithouse rat – Sorry Mrs. McCain said she was always proud of her country.

This I think – exhibits the absolute and utter break between the progressive and the current right wing mind set in this country – as a progressive/ liberal or left wing I want this country to live up to its potential and live by the principles under which it was founded, granted the folks that wrote those principles didn’t think they applied to women, poor people, blacks, slaves or really anybody who wasn’t a white landowning male but the principles and ideals took on a life of their own and the years have gone by – slowly, haltingly, with plenty of backward steps, resisted every inch, they have progressed – that is the America we see, a system that is in process of becoming not perfect but tying to match its ideals.

On the other side we have folks that would be defending what was done if W decided to fire bomb all the puppy farms in America – “they have fleas you know” or deny with loud voices eyes shut and hands over their ears that there are any problems including the vast fields of dead smoldering puppies. America can, in their eyes do nothing wrong, as long as it doesn’t try anything new, then they bitch like crazy.

First rehearsal with the woman who’s replacing the Insect girl – she doesn’t have a nick name just yet – we’ve been tossing about things like Mistress Mclovin or some such but It’ll come – it took a while for S-Dawg to get his right – things were a little rough but she’s very good and brings a lot to the table - including a different spirit than Insect Girl which is good – you want, or I want, or really we want – people in this band to be themselves not mimic someone else – if we’re about anything we’re about being authentic people using mostly fake names.

It’s dada deal with it.

Anyway our true and major worry right now is the Dude who managed to wrench his shoulder pretty badly playing soccer last week – he was at rehearsal (which surprised us) but we all knew when the pain killers wore off because he just collapsed on his drum kit like Keith Moon after taking too many Rhino tranquilizers. He’s a trooper and game as they come so he’ll be there Saturday but it hurts to watch him move about with that ginger – waiting for it to hurt again way you do when you’re injured yourself.

Per the Enemy Below he’s not allowed to play soccer anymore – I’ll let him tell him that.

Peace Love Painkillers

More pics

The band in full cry -



Erin


The Enemy below

We can never get a picture of eamon without his eyes glowing. I wonder why.


And after the gig - dancing like idiots.

Pics from the gig

In a dressing room no less -


Just before we started.



Spencer at the keyboards


And Ah-one, and Ah-two and ah -



And away we go.

Sound Check, Directions, & The Woman Eater

Okay first band things – we’re playing tomorrow 8/1/07 8:30 pm The Luna Lounge – we have a real sound check – which makes me shake my head, like I know what to do for a sound check – and as a public service here’s how to get to the Luna Lounge – (from their website –lunalounge.com

By Subway

From Manhattan
Take the L train and exit at the Bedford stop (the first stop in Brooklyn). Come up from the rear of the train onto Bedford and North 7th Street. Walk 3 short blocks south on Bedford until you reach North 4th Street, turn left and head east 3 blocks to Metropolitan Avenue. You will cross Driggs and Roebling. Continue 1/2 block on Metropolitan until you come to Luna Lounge. Pretty easy...

From Lower Manhattan (including the Lower East Side)
Take the J train to Marcy Avenue (the first stop in Brooklyn), exit from the station towards the rear of the train and come down from the elevated outdoor station onto Broadway. The elevated train line will be overhead. Walk 1/4 block west to the corner of Broadway and Havemeyer. You will see a McDonald's across the street. Cross the street towards McDonald's (don't go in...), and walk 8 short blocks up Havemeyer to Metropolitan. Luna Lounge will be directly in front of you now!

From Brooklyn (East)
Take the L train and exit at Lorimer. Come up from the station following the exit signs to Union/Metropolitan. Do not use the exit to Lorimer. (Kellogg's Diner is on the corner). This is the intersection of Union and Metropolitan. Walk 3 short blocks west on Metropolitan. You will cross under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway overpass. Luna Lounge will be across the street on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue.

From Brooklyn (South)
Take the G train to Metropolitan. Come up from the station closest to Union Avenue (Kellogg's Diner is on the corner). This is the intersection of Union and Metropolitan. Walk 3 short blocks west on Metropolitan. You will cross under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway overpass. Luna Lounge will be across the street on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue.

From Queens
Take the L train and exit at Lorimer. Come up from the station closest to Union Avenue (Kellogg's Diner is on the corner). This is the intersection of Union and Metropolitan. Walk 3 short blocks west on Metropolitan. You will cross under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway overpass. Luna Lounge will be across the street on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue.

From Queens
Take the G train to Metropolitan. Come up from the station closest to Union Avenue (Kellogg's Diner is on the corner). This is the intersection of Union and Metropolitan. Walk 3 short blocks west on Metropolitan. You will cross under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway overpass. Luna Lounge will be across the street on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue.

From The Bronx
Take the 4 train, 5 train, or 6 train to 14th Street in Manhattan and transfer to the L train. Exit at the Bedford stop (the first stop in Brooklyn). Come up from the rear of the train onto Bedford and North 7th Street. Walk 3 short blocks south on Bedford until you reach North 4th Street, turn left and head east 3 blocks to Metropolitan Avenue. You will cross Driggs and Roebling. Continue 1/2 block on Metropolitan until you come to Luna Lounge.

By Car Or Taxi From Manhattan
Approach the Williamsburg Bridge via Delancey Street. Stay in the lane that is second from the right. Take the exit marked 'S. 5 Street'. Proceed about 1/2 block to the traffic light. You will see handball courts on your left. Turn left onto Havemeyer. Cross under the BQE and proceed about 7 short blocks to Metropolitan. Luna Lounge will be across the street on the north side of Metropolitan Avenue.

Address

361 Metropolitan Avenue Brooklyn, N.Y. 11211
Cover: $ 8 – Doors open 7 pm.

Oh yes

The Woman Eater Bites.

Sorry for the bad joke but it just comes out – the film, an early hammer B&W horror film is even for the era pretty bad.

The film is about a Mad Scientist who goes into the Amazon Jungle and finds a tree who’s sap or something allows the dead to come back to life – the only catch is that you have to feed the tree women (why is never explained – maybe it’s something to do with the XX chromosome pair or is that asking too much of a sci fi film to actually have some science in it – naahhhhhh).

The Mad Scientist (MS) finds this out early in the pic during a trip to the Amazon where, just as he gets to the place on the map he had the natives are having a sacrifice (which is pretty good timing you have to say) to the tree – there is some hoo – ha – a native girl is sacrificed to the tree ( she is played by of all people Marpessa Dawn who was the star of the French Film Black Orpheus – she was from Pittsburgh apparently but couldn’t find any decent film work in the US because she was black so like Josephine Baker ended up in France), one of the MS’s companions gets a spear in the chest and people drum and someone dances with snakes.

The MS is later found sick with fever and rescued – with a native as a companion.

Another side note is that while this was supposed to be happening in the Amazon, the actors playing the natives were either black or Indian – well it was shot in England and Amazon River natives would be hard to come by. End Side note.

The Next thing we see is a screen title saying “Five Years Later” and the MS driving up to his country home, getting out of his car, picking up the mail, going to his office and then opening the locked door in his office to his lab where his native companion (NC) is sacrificing a woman to the tree. (He drums for a bit to pad the whole thing out, then guides the poor woman to the tree – which is of the goofy looking monster from mars looking living tree – well it was hard to make living moving tress menacing in those days). First I thought gee his timing is pretty good – just happens on a sacrifice twice (well it is a movie but still).

At this point the MS talks about the sacrifice not being in vain.

Now here is where I started to lose the damn tread of the deal – one – how did the MS get the damn tree into his basement lab? A seed? Cutting? What? And just how many babes have they tossed into the damn tree over the years? Over the course of the film they manage to toss several the tree you’d think people in a small town would notice such a thing.

Anyway there is then a moment where we meet the female lead she is working as a Hawaiian dancer at a traveling caravan – which is okay, the only problem with that is she’s blonde, like Swedish, like raped by Vikings over several generations blonde and not many south sea islanders are blonde as best I can tell – well it was I suppose an excuse to put her in a sarong – not only do makers of these kind of films seem to have issues with women, they have to put them in humiliatingly skimpy costumes.

What a quit show business?

By means of what we can only call plotting because you want something to happen she meets the male lead, an automobile repairman of astounding misogyny (‘I dislike women who know about cars’ is a kind of real quote from him) who points her to the MS’s house where she gets a job.

The police are stiffing around because of a vanished girl (you still wonder is that the first? Were their others) there is a bitter older female housekeeper that MS once was having something with but now isn’t and the evil native servant who drums and shoves women into the tree.

It’s all very tedious and British – the actors are all good to fair actors (which you don’t get in American productions like this I can tell you) but actually that is a bit of a downer since part of the fun of a clunky bad film is the bad acting - which you don’t really get here, real actors were making this film, not producer’s girlfriends and the like.

Because he batshit insane – I mean really even if the sap from the tree raises folks back from the dead is it worth feeding it a constant steam of babes? I mean really who would be the first in line to get the up from the dead syrup in real life? Folks like Dick Cheney or Rupert Murdoch – and neither of them are worth one hair off the head of a hot babe, never mind feeding it to the tree (who seems to hug rather than devour his victims).

Anyway back to the batshit insane MS – he strangles his housekeeper dead then as the police close in (British police in these kind of films to tend to close in eventually) he says he has fallen in love with the female lead, then shows the female lead the tree and tires to resurrect the housekeeper – who while the body gets up – the mind is go.

“The mind is our secret” the sinister native servant says, “not for you”.

Now this strikes me as really taking the long way around to attack somebody – or deny him. Just say not to taking the tree or don’t go with him and the tree will die as he tries to feed it puppies or some such – this is just too lengthy – unless, as it seems the sinister native likes shoving women into the tree cause he tries to do with to the female lead – at which point the MS grapples with the servant, male lead arrives and drags away the female lead .

Now here is where things just don’t work – the law of monsters says, if you keep a monster in the basement, that monster will eventually eat you – or do damage in some why (see Frankenstein, et al) but that doesn’t happen here – the MS stuns the servant with a punch then tells him ‘I will destroy your god like you destroyed me’ (ah sir, there was really no reason to completely believe the native servant and start tossing women into the tree – at least without trying an alternative or two so don’t go all innocent on us okay? It’s insulting); Then he tosses a bottle of something on the tree which goes up like they had been watering it with lighter fluid and then the servant tosses a dagger in the MS’s back killing him at which point the servant kneels in front of the tree as it burns – the end.

Yep neither ends up as tree food – which in a monster film honestly you expect that hoist on their own petard moment yes? Hell even Ed Wood knew that – why else toss Bella to the fake Octopus? But not these guys.

Hope to see you tomorrow –

Peace, Love, Soundchecks