Redd, white, and yellow

Procrastination is the mother of getting stuff done. I finally tracked down the MP3s to the Steven McDonald/White Strips sort-of collaboration from a couple years back! I think it's awesome, and I don't even own any White Stripes records.

If you're not familiar with SM, he's one of the brothers behind Redd Kross, one of the bitchinest bands ever. The amazing thing about the group is that they changed lineups a number of times, yet they never got lame or boring--just different, from snotty punk trio to mutant '70s garage rockers to super sunny arena anthems. The one thing that stayed constant was the fun factor and lack of taking themselves too seriously. They also get points for making a concert T-shirt with Peko Chan of Milky candy fame on it.

GR trivia time: Eric was friends with the bros, and probably has a boatload of pics from the Neurotica and Third Eye era or so. Meanwhile Redd Kross' official photog, Vicki Berndt, was an early contributor to GR. She snapped the Chow Yun-Fat and Maggie Cheung covers and wrote an article about Japanese tattoo master Hiroshi III. I think that's what the dude's name was.

Un-Disfear

Shit. I mistakenly called this awesome Swedish hardcore/metal band "Unfear" in the new issue (GR41). That happens when you go to a thing called Murderfest 2.0 with more then 20 bands playing each day. They're actually called Disfear, and they're playing the East Coast pretty soon. Check them out.

Reading is fun

Last week, I gave Eric a ride to and from his dentist's office. Instead of going back to the GR office and waiting for him to call, I ran some errands and waited across the street at Dutton's...

I can't remember the last time I went to a "real" bookstore. I thought it was odd that a lot of the spines and jackets were designed to look like indie comics. And then I found out Penguin Classics are actually getting a makeover with guys like Charles Burns, Chris Ware, and Seth! I guess it makes sense--after all, book design rock star Chipp Kidd is a comic book guy, too--but this is getting incestuous. It's like novels looking like Classics Illustrated, which were comic versions of classics to begin with.

Indie comics are all over my shelves, floor, and furniture, so I bought a novel that looks like book: The Noodle Maker by Ma Jian. I've been waiting for another Wang Shuo book to be translated since Please Don't Call Me Human is probably my favorite book of all time. Shooting for Thrills was pretty great, too. But that hasn't happened for ages, so maybe this Chinese author will be my next thing.

So far, so good. It's about a state-employed writer and his pal, a professional blood donor. The first two chapters are dark and funny, and hopefully leading up to something inspired, demented, and meaningful. Am I hoping for too much?

Fashion weak

If I were in a movie I'd be the goofy Asian sidekick always wearing the dumb T-shirts. I mean it.

I just returned from GR2, where there was one Andrew Jeffrey Wright "Mr. E.T." shirt left, and it happened to be my size. If you can't imagine the merging of the two '80s icons, think of the long-necked alien with a Frohawk, gold chains, and a 40, all drawn with a rough-yet-spirited Central American or Southeast Asian folk-art sign energy. A genius drawing from the artist who brought us the "Labs with Abs" calendar and Bart vs. Black Bart print.

And then the other weekend, I bought the "War Is Not the Answer" T-shirt with Allen Iverson rendered in similarly-rough-but-full-color style. Basketball and peace--how could I resist? (It was also pretty cheap.)

So my closet is becoming a rack of punchlines. At least they're getting cut up with the addition of T-shirts from metal concerts, including Disfear, Brujeria, and High on Fire. No jokes there.

Dessert is not just for dessert any more

So this morning I had brunch with a bunch of friends at this new-ish restaurant in Silver Lake called Cliff's Edge. It's a fancy courtyard with a Southeast Asian vibe and nice grill-type food. Everything was pretty good, but the dish of the day was French toast with Nutella and bananas flambe. We bought it as a community dish--picking off it as you would fries--and it was pretty awesome.

Kind of like the other month when I had creme brulee French toast at Julienne in San Marino. At first I was disappointed by the size of the tiny slice, even with the torched and caramelized surface, but that little dude put me in a daylong daze.

Back to Cliff's Edge. I think it's funny how this fancy-shmancy eatery is next to a 99 cent store. Do they get their bananas and bread there? And was that Tracy Chapman we saw eating in the corner?

Malaysian Bigfoot news!

A couple issues back, I envisioned a massive article running down all the Sasquatch-type creatures that exist throughout Europe. Among those I contacted was noted cryptozoologist Loren Coleman. His response was so amazing that he became the focus of the article! A really interesting guy, and he keeps in touch. Here's a link to his lastest dish on Malaysian Bigfood sightings. The footprints are amazing!