Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
Paris isn't perfect. If it were, the night we arrived my brother Greg, cousin Anthony, and I would have been able to walk right into the No Age/Abe Vigoda show, blow past the 20 or 30 people I envisioned being at the club, and enjoy the gig. Instead, it was sold out and we were stuck outside talking to Juan Vigoda who said if he had any pull he'd get us in. Well, I'm happy for the bands (who I can see in L.A. all the time) and can't complain because Wendy and I pretty much went straight from the airport to the hotel to a chocolate tasting that my Anthony's brother Carey and his fiancee Jamie had coordinated. Pretty damn cool, and it was nice to meet up with other members of my family who made the journey, too. And then, the very next day, we went to the Versailles to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit. Mom and Dad in the Hall of Mirrors with Matango. The installation was actually quite controversial for many of the more conservative people in France. Understandably, Versailles is a symbol of French tradition and culture, so it was shocking to them that a contemporary guy from Japan would get to take over a bunch of salons. I thought the work was a great fit, though. More pics and thoughts to come in Giant Robot 68, which is at the printer now. That evening, we went to an ex-bordello-turned-art-gallery where Carey and Jamie (above) had their rehearsal dinner. Here's the bride-to-be teaching us how to make our own placeholders without us even knowing it. There was a ton of contemporary art on display, blending Marvel Comics, Murakami, and glamor photography… There were some nice Polaroids and I spotted some original pieces by Moebius, too. More on that guy later… Before the next evening's wedding, Wendy and I went to the world's most famous museum to see the world's most famous painting. I know, I know. You're supposed to spend the whole day at the Louvre, but we only had time for the greatest hits. For me, that had to include the cover of The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy, and The Lash. I had no idea that Gericault's piece was so gigantic. (Seeing Hammurabi's Code was pretty rad, too.) I was shocked that photography was allowed at the museum. We saw a ton of Chinese tourists crossing the red velvet rope, posing with statues, and even fondling them. Man, I was so embarrassed of my people. Luckily, my family was more restrained at the wedding, which took place at the Rodin Museum. Supposedly, it's the compound where the sculptor actually created his art. I guess you need big doors to get slabs of marble and other materials in and out of there… Maybe a reflecting pool, too? Incredible venue, amazing ceremony, and so much gushy, personal stuff that I won't get into. You had to be there.
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This Friday, one of my favorite bands will be providing a live score to the 1925 dinosaur movie, The Lost World, at UCLA's Royce Hall. I asked my friend and guitarist/singer Zac Holtzman how Dengue Fever got involved in this project. GR: How did your scoring of the silent movie come to be? Why do you think Dengue Fever was chosen to to score The Lost World? ZH: Sean Uyehara first asked us to score The Lost World and perform it live at the Castro Theatre for the San Francisco Film Festival. It was right around when the film Up was coming out, and that film was heavily inspired by the Lost World. There's a number of references to it within Up, and it felt like the entire Pixar staff was at the screening. GR: Were you familiar with the movie? What was the songwriting process like? ZH: I had never seen it before, but the same crew that worked on The Lost World did the original King Kong, which was the first movie I ever saw. I was 3. As far as scoring the film, I would sit down with a guitar in my hand, and watch the film. I took notes of what I was playing, and what was going on in the film. We got it down to around 20 different themes or songs that felt good with the film, and then focused on smoothing out the transitions. GR: When you play at UCLA are you going to face the screen or the audience? ZH: If we face the audience, we will need monitors. The film has become the seventh member in our band: a very important, demanding member that requires all of our attention. GR: Is Dengue Fever the next Danny Elfman? ZH: I love writing original music for film. It feels like someone hands you a half-painted picture and asks you to do your thing. Writing all the rest of our music (that is not film inspired) is like getting handed a blank canvas. The Lost World screens at 8 p.m. on November 12l. For tickets or more information, call (310) 825-2101 or visit www.uclalive.org/
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As a tourist, Milan was prossibly the least interesting stop on our journey. As part of our trip, it was key because Wendy's old roommate Nicola lives there. So we stayed at his flat, did some catching up, and wandered around for a few days. Like Rome, Florence, and Venice, Milan's center is its duomo. It had a more gothic look than the ones in the other cities, but was simlarly packed with people and pigeons. The streets actually radiate from the plaza which was always full of pedestrians and shoppers, luxury boutiques and financial centers. I was often thinking about the layers of community and commerce that were built up around the churches in Italy. At this point in our travels, fatigue and cold were setting in. Maybe we were getting jaded by the architecture and energy, as well. So we actually stopped, sat down, and paid the extra Euro or two to sip our coffees at caf
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Frontier Nite at the Echoplex began at 4:00, with a killer lineup of The Pontiac Brothers, The Stains, Flyboys, Rikk Agnew, and The Deadbeats leading off the jam-packed lineup, but I didn't arrive until around 9:00 after The Middle Class had already begun. You might not be familiar with the band, but you've definitely felt their influence as they are credited as being the first hardcore punk band, stripping away all the art and delivering the goods with a machine-gun like energy and speed. The set was as solid as can be, followed up with the awesome single, “American Society,” which was first played by The Middle Clas's splinter band, Eddie and the Subtitles, and then covered by L7 on a Flipside compilation. Yes! Because I arrived late, I thought I was going to miss that song, for sure… Next up was The Avengers. Every good punk knows that the San Francisco band opened for The Sex Pistols' final show. They sounded great last night, and singer Penelope Houston totally commanded the stage with her pipes and gestures. They opened with a ripping version of “We Are The One” and didn't look back. The next band was the final addition to the lineup, and the only band I had seen before. But that was in their metal days opening for Guns 'n' Roses, and I really wanted to see them playing songs circa Suburbia. TSOL might have been the sloppiest, maybe even laziest, band of the evening but they still had the fiercest circle pit going. (Which sadly coincided with my photography skills getting derailed. I tried shooting the GF1 in full-on manual mode for the first time, was feeling good, and then lost it during this set.) It was fairly furious, culminating in the infamous “Code Blue.” The headliners of Frontier's 30th anniversary celebration were Adolescents. I had vague expectations but, man, they were awesome. Their set really captured both the fun and danger of my first experiences going to punk shows, growing up behind the Orange Curtain, driving to Long Beach to buy records at Zed, and attending shows at Fender's full of skinheads and drunks. This time it wasn't quite as scary, with the older guys being really old and the younger kids being really young. “Kids of the Black Hole”! Adolescents played all the hits before Tony went into a rant telling his son's PTA to fuck off, then ended with Iggy's “I Got a Right.” I guess even Adolescents grow up. Too bad I had to miss the first half of the sold-out show, but I left the second half stoked and feeling lucky to be old and from Orange County. Wow, I never thought I'd type those words. Thanks once more to Michael from Part Time Punks for putting on the show (did I mention that the all-vinyl DJ sets in between bands totally shred?) and Frontier Records for flying the flag, and I'd be all over a second round with Redd Kross and...
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This might be boring to some of you (and the same can be said of my vacation pictures…) but I had brunch with a bunch of Bots yesterday. A generation of GR Lounge members glossed themselves that, became tight through actual meetings, and even manage stay in touch. Sometimes they'd meet on Sawtelle, but more often their business has nothing to do with the magazine, shops, or site. They're totally autonomous. Above, Eloise and I are bookended by Wonki Wonki, his sister, and Aaron. (I'll use their screen names.) The beloved Wonki was in town this weekend from San Francisco, prompting the meetup that I was privileged to crash! You might recall his travel story about doing scientific research on the South Pole. Aaron has helped construct various aspecis of various iterations of the GR website. Eventually, he married another Bot, ja.net, photographer, filmmaker, and student of too many things to count (below)… That's their daughter in between. Cutie! Below in stripes is Charlos, who used to contribute to the cars and Dodgers threads quite a bit and would show up at art shows on his motorcycle. I haven't seen him in a while. Yes, he is married and has a little girl, too. Nice. No, they didn't ride up on a cycle with a sidecart. I haven't seen him in ages! Wendy and Eloise decide what to order. Eloise decides to get the excellent sweet potato pancakes and let me eat them for her. After brunch at Canele (which was amazing), Wendy and I crossed the street to buy some produce and local honey at the Atwater Farmer's Market. There, we ran into GR's old ad dude/lifetime family member/Drunken Master, zine maestro, and printmaker, Kiyoshi. He's the one who used to kick my ass every issue, and I miss that. So great to run into him. Did I mention that we spent time with another GR Bot the night before? We used to see Shammy at GR2 art show openings now and then (or Pogues concerts) and she came to town for the Theo Ellsworth's art opening. Here she is afterward at Beard Papa with my brother Greg (and GR contributor) as well as budding artist Saoirse Wong. All the way from San Diego! I'm name-dropping people who aren't usually name-dropped, and maybe that's the point. While the GR mag and site features a lot of semi-famous artists, musicians, and filmmakers, we've also built up a real community of family and friends. Sometimes it's easy to lose sight of that while cranking in front of the computer monitor all day, and this weekend was an awesome reminder of a something special that's evolved outside the pages, walls, and sites of GR…
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