Jane's Return

Somehow the fact that Jane's Addiction has reunited with the original lineup totally slipped past me. Jane's Addiction is one of two band's that really did the most to shape my musical tastes(R.E.M. being the other). I can't find any information on tour dates but they've been playing around L.A. a little and Shepard is doing posters for them, Dave Navarro is keeping everyone in the loop over at 6767. Phil is gonna shit a brick when I tell him.

Chinese Klosterman

Chuck Klosterman has a hilariously sincere review of Chinese Democracy here.
Yes, I chose that picture because of the shoes.

Art a choke

Mike Giant is back in SF(I'm not stalking him, it's on the Rebel 8 blog) and getting stuff done. The Rebel 8 blog as a nice post on drunk tattooing, this is why it's probably good that i'm not good friends with any tattoo artists or even people with tattoo equipment.
Fecal Face does a studio visit with Faile, the woodwork pieces are insane. I'd like to see how they did those columns.
Andrea has some sweet new pieces up(The Frida obsession continues) on her site Owl My Love. Congrats on the Etsy love.
Shepard goes off on Ebay resellers on the Obey site.
Scot has added a couple more letters to his most excellent ABC project. Obviously S is my favorite so far, check it out on the Loser Goes 1st site.

One day as a Lion

I've been listening to the Ep form One Day as a Lion which is Zack from Rage Against the Machine on vocals and keyboards and Jon Theodore formerly of The Mars Volta on drums. I really like it, the first song, Wild International, is probably my least favorite while If You Fear Dying is by far my favorite. A couple of the songs sound kinda the same which isn't a terrible thing on an ep. This has also sparked a frenzy of Rage Against the Machine listening and video watching on my part, damn those guys were amazing.

Giant news

I'm not going to pretend that i don't have a slight Mike Giant/Rebel 8 obsession. With that having been said the new Rebel 8 collection is out at Giant Peach these are my favorites.
Several pieces from the last collection are on sale at Karmaloop, i've got my eye on those socks and you can't go wrong with any of those shirts.
This one might be my favorite(Phil you feelin it?).

Awesomeness

If you check in to BME on a regular basis for tattoo, piercing, scarification inspiration then you've seen this already. If not then check out this article about eagle tattoos. Obviously this guy is taking the piss out of the practice but i really like the classic eagle design. The one above is from Mike Giant's current show at White Walls in San Francisco. The picture at the top is a Mike Giant t shirt design from the rebel 8 website (if anyone needs a last minute birthday idea i wear an XL).

Round One: All smiles

Warning: The majority of the French in this post is wrong.
The first trip to the prefecture was a success. A good 90% of stories involving the prefecture are laced with a healthy dose of horrors, hours wasted, documents rejected, flaming hoops jumped through, but we had a smooth first encounter. We were in and out in an hour and a half, one hour of that time was spent waiting for the one clerk who supposedly spoke decent English to return from lunch. One of my biggest concerns was the wait, it seems that most people are there for a minimum of three hours, Gretchen was there for almost five. I was mainly worried about how to keep the troops from revolting so we came laden with books, video ipods and gameboys, ready to set up camp. We weren't there long enough for me to stop sweating from the 30 degree temperature between the inside and outside before my number was called, literally five minutes.
I got through the first two or three questions; she asked for my passport, i gave it to her, she asked if the kids were there i said "oui" and pointed behind me, she asked me where i lived, "J'habite en onzeme arondissment", then she flipped to my visa and let fly with two or three paragraphs worth of unknown words while pointing to the date. I knew it had expired two days ago. I fell back on the old "Je ne parle pas francais bon". Still smiling plesently my lady went for backup and founda co worker that possesed a good knowledge of at least two dozen english words(more then the number of french words i know if you subtract the curse words). I think i managed to explain that the rest of the families visa's expired in another week and i had been perating with that date in mind(it could have been that i opened chloe's passport and pointed to the date on her visa). Somehow they, quite pleasently, tagteamed an explination that the English speaking clerk was at lunch and i would have to wait for an hour, either that or they were dumpingme(the nonfrench speaking ass hat) on the new girl. I gathered up my novels worth of documents and took a seat.
Almost exactly an hour later i was called back to the window where the very cute, miniuly english speaking clerk greeted mein French and then asked for several things all in french. After a few minutes of typing she asked for my picture, in english, and then disappeared. A few minutes later she returned with my three month visa extention(if the internet is to be believed this is the way it works, you get an extension every three months for a year and then you get a real long term visa). She then set up an appointment for me in french and explained to me what i would have to bring(everything i had with me right then). I then asked in my half English half French patois if the kids had to be there and she said NO!! This is good news, i hope she really understood my question. I then thanked her profusely and wished her a bon semane and she told me "good by, have a nice day" in perfect English!!


p.s. It took me three tries to find out how much money was in my account at the bank. The try that worked was in spanish; Combien euros(point to account number raise eyebrows questioningly).
I'm on a roll.

Everythings better with...

Yesssss, i want this.

Herman Dune in the 11eme

I've blogged about this cool French duo Herman Dune before but i just found these videos. If you step out my front door, take a right and walk 30 steps that's where this video starts.



This video is on the same street, it ends in our bakery.

Ryan Adam and the Cardinals - Cardinology

Wow, it seems like all i blog about anymore is Ryan Adams. Well I heard the new album tonight. I was so excited that i emailed Andrea while i listened to it, here is the email, unedited.

Born into a light is the first track. Nice acoustic riff. This sounds gooood.
track 2 Go easy. I like it.
track 3 Fix it. Wow this is alot more laid back then the live version we've been hearing. It has a little slinky feel to it.
track 4 Magick. A rocker! Is this political? Weird but me like the rock. Sweet a lyric about zombies. I like this song. Is it the halloweenhead of this album?
track 5 Cobwebs. Solid, mid tempo heartbreaker.
track 6 Let us down easy. This is a good song. I'm not sure how to categorize it. I hear a country guitar sound in there but it's not a country song. Maybe a little sixties do wop feel to it. I like what he's doing vocally in the chorus.
track 7 Crossed out names. He's just so sad.
track 8 Natural Ghost. Classic Ryan Adams alt country sound. Pretty chorus. Man his voice sounds good.
track 9 Sink ships. Sounds good. He's doing that thing where he cams a lot of words in some versus. There are some nice lines in here "blackbirds inside a bell". He is hitting his notes, nice. Tempo change. What a perfect ending.
track 10 Evergreen. This is pretty. How many times have i said that? Who is singing backup?
track 11 Like Yesterday. A classic laid back song. It's so comftrable sounding.
track 12. Stop. I was praying it was a Jane's Addiction cover for a millisecond. This is like September sad, but in a great way.
That is one hell of an album.

Wayne's house

Check out this great article in the New York Times about Wayne Coyne's house(s). As any Oklahoma based Flaming Lips fan can attest Wayne is a great, warm, accomidating man. I think we've probably all cruised around OKC hoping to find him in his yard and be invited in for dinner.

Roundup

There are a lot of cool things on the web.
Of all the ridiculous ways to spend money this library makes the most sense to me.

Due to some cool posters in the metro i've been listening to a French band called Herman Dune(don't worry they sing in English). Check out their website, they have a cool thing going on.

Wooster Collective have the latest by everyone's favorite street artist BANKSY.

Scot has one lucky kid.

Somehow, this makes me feel better.

I wish I were in San Francisco.

Ordering Blues

The new not-yet-released Ryan Adams book Infinity Blues is available for preorder from Akashic books in New York City. The book is 50$ with a 10$ shipping fee in the states and a 20$ fee outside the states. The book is a hand signed hardback edition with a book of poetry titled Sad American Mythology thrown in. I guess i've paid more for books but i guess i better ask the boss before i order. Needless to say i'm super psyched about this release and it's always great to get a package in the mail.
I noticed while perusing their website that Akashic publishes one of my favorite beat poets Amiri Baraka. I caught one of his poetry readings about 12 years ago and actually got to speak to the man and get some books signed. If you get a chance to hear him read, jump on it. He has an awesome style and presence.

Infinity Blues by Ryan Adams

Preorders for Ryan Adams first novel will start on October 6th on the Akashic Books web site. Here is some info from their site:
Preorders for the forthcoming Ryan Adams book titled Infinity Blues will be available on this page starting Monday, October 6, 2008. Preorders will include a signed HARDCOVER copy of Infinity Blues, with a bonus poetry chapbook by Ryan Adams titled Sad American Mythology. The chapbooks will all be signed and numbered; it will be a limited edition available only through the Akashic Books website as part of this preorder. The official publication date of Infinity Blues is March 16, 2009, but preorders will be sent out before then, in December or January.

No price but who cares, i'm buying this book.
Big thanks to Andrea for the heads up!!

Go drinking bear

Flite #1

Scot has a great new print about to go on sale, get the detail at Loser Goes 1st.

Mad Max for Muscles over motors

Chloe and I watched The Road Warrior, the second movie in the Mad Max trilogy a couple of nights ago. It sparked some talk about the oil crisis, i'm impressed by how much she knows about the current energy crisis. She pointed out that instead of battling ass chap wearing mohawked punk rockers for gas in the post apocalyptic future she is going to ride her bike. Thank you Mad Max, you've created another biker.
Last night we watched Beyond Thunderdome... we couldn't figure out what it was about.

Stuff Parisians like

Modeled on Stuff White People Like this blog Stuff Parisians like is just as funny and just as true.

Kings of Leon Only by the night

The Kings of Leon have a new album coming out next week that i am completely in love with. Only by the Night is a huge step forward for the band this album really sounds like they've found their sound. It seems like a lot of their obvious influences have been so integrated into their music that they are left with a true unique voice. There are so many high points on the album that i don't know where to begin. One of the most striking things is the way Caleb sings on this album, he isn't holdin anything back on these tracks. The first single Sex on Fire has a pretty awesome video and for some reason it sounds particularly excellent on the Metro. The album opener is titled Closer and right away it's obvious that the Followill boys are doing something different. Crawl has one of my favorite lines from the album "you better learn to crawl/before i walk away" sang over a perfectly fuzzy rhythm part. Manhattan slows things down in an absolutely perfect way with Caleb taping into that elated feeling you get at the end of a great night. All in all a great album and destined to wind up in my top 10 of the year.

Tour Dates: Because these guys can put on a show.
10/11/08 Las Vegas
10/12/08 San Diego
10/15/08 L.A. (Get on it Scot)
10/17/08 San Fran
10/18/08 San Fran
10/20/08 Seattle, Wa
10/21/08 Portland, Or (Luke i'm looking at you)
10/23/08 Denver, Co (Phil have a Fat Tire for me)
10/25/08 Austin,Tx
10/26/08 Oklahoma City (Practically a home town Crowd)
10/28/08 Houston, Tx
10/29/08 Dallas, Tx

The man who fell to Earth

French tv is a pretty mixed bag. There is a football match on every single night(yeah) and they often show entire sets from big festivals in and arounf Paris(Clap Your Hands last week) but the rest is crazy French produced hings and then American stuff that has been dubbed. They show a lot of recent movies which is cool, i've found it pretty easy to follow the plot of most action films and of coarse they don't take out the nudity.
Last week they showed the David Bowie gem, The Man who fell to Earth. This was cool in and of itself. If you hven't seen it it's a pretty weid film but just to make it even odder it started out dubbed for the first twenty minutes then it switched to English and then it just randomly went back and forth, five minutes of French here, ten minutes of English there. All of the music was in English which is what i expected and why i was watching(and i knew there were boobs and that crazy shot of Bowi as a naked alien). Gotta love the french tv.

Oklahoma in the news

Check this out, a tattoo shop in Moore, Oklahoma giving away free Obama tattoos.