leftovers

On August 15, 1998, after convincing my brother and our friend Randy to drive with me from Hays to Chicago, I saw The Human League live for the first time. It was the first time I had been to Chicago, the first time I saw one of my favorite bands live, and the first time I went to a concert by myself. It was one of those life changing experiences. Before that, I had just bought records, tapes and CD's of my favorite bands and hoped that I might catch their videos on MTV or see photos of them in Rolling Stone or some other magazine. With the Internet came the ability to find out even more about these bands, and when I found out that The Human League, a band I had been collecting records of since I was about 10, was going to be touring the US I just had to go. I've blogged about this journey previously so I won't go into details about it again. Before the past weekend, I had seen the band five times since then. August 17, 2003 at House of Blues in West Hollywood, CA (al...

There have been a lot of random things happening and unfortunately I haven't been good about blogging this year so let's play catch-up! These photos are not at all in the right order but I'm too lazy to rearrange them so I'll just discuss the events out-of-0rder. These first two pictures are from an afternoon at MEAT Clown Studios in North Hollywood. This is me as the "Meat Magician." This is Dylan as the British "Meat Clown." MEAT Clown is sort of the mascot for The Stranger Page , a website and "outsider art" studio ran by my friend Shawn, who directed my music video for "Alien Nation." He and his team have been making these YouTube videos that parody local television commercials, for "discount meat products" featuring their spokesperson, Meat Clown. Several different people have participated now, portraying different Meat Clowns. They film them in front of a green screen and are, for the most par...

Last night, I performed with the Traitors at the Amp Organization 's "Qore: A night of Queercore/Homocore Music" which took place at Que Sera in Long Beach. For this show, Elene was not able to make it since she has school on most weeknights, so it was just Brandon, Angela and myself. That meant I played the keyboard parts on most songs which made it more difficult for me, and I wasn't able to move around as much, but it's a trade off as it also shows my keyboard playing abilities. I was so happy with the turnout of all my friends who came out to see me, I was very surprised that on a Tuesday night in Long Beach we actually had a decent showing. Back when I was with Shitting Glitter, I always dreaded Long Beach shows because I think we had a few good ones and then I remember one horrible one where tons of people came to see the opening act, a solo acoustic "girl with a guitar," and then proceeded to quickly file out as soon as we started setting up, a...

We had our staff holiday lunch today at Larchmont Grill which was really nice. It's an old house that they have converted to a restaurant, right on Melrose near Larchmont, which I've walked by tons of times but never been in before. We sat right in the front room by the fireplace. We brought our gifts to exchange, which was fun; I had Sarah in the 'secret santa' and got her this cool book, The Illustrated World of Mad Men, that Dylan told me about. Sarah is a huge fan of "Mad Men" so I thought it was perfect, and she seemed tickled by it. Kerry had me and she got me a very 'zen' rock water fall fountain for my office (we were supposed to by things for each other's offices). I set mine up as soon as we got back. Kerry gave me my year-end review and I was very thrilled to get a holiday bonus! Since it was my first year here I didn't know if they gave bonuses, and she said they don't always, so I should be thankful that I got one, which...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I'm being a little dramatic about today's happenings, but it was definitely a day with a high and a low. The Chamber of Commerce had it's annual holiday toy drive and holiday mixer at the Music Box, where earlier in the day, old ladies had been lined up (apparently since the night before) to see Adam Lambert. I was lucky enough to have tickets to the show but was getting a little worried about being able to get anywhere near the stage since there was already a line of crazed fans. So after the mixer, I was blessed that I am friends with people in high places so my friends and I were let in the side door so we didn't have to wait in the line. The concert was great, Adam was in top form and very entertaining. I'm proud to say I've never watched a full episode of American Idol so the only time I've ever seen Adam sing before is in his music videos and his appearance at the AMA's or whatever it was whe...

It was quite the big day for me, again, in a year filled with big days! To start off, I did some holiday shopping to take my mind of things and to get ready for the holidays, something I hadn't been doing much of yet. I went to 99 cents store and got some little things and drove around to a few other places, finally getting to Guitar Center so I could pick up some percussion instruments for the show and guitar picks for Brandon. I ended up getting these little black maracas and a cool small jingly tambourine thing, that looks like a ninja star and can also be mounted on a high-hat cymbal, which will be cool for Invisible Material I think. Dylan and I then got ready and were the first of our crew to arrive at Cafe Muse, closely followed by Rick and Melodie, then Brandon and Angie, Elene, Marc, Kalil and his crew, and Rafael. I'm trying to not leave anyone out but I'm sure I did; needless to say, I was so happy with everyone that came out. The Ukulady and the Evil Sandwic...

There was an event today for Michael’s Village, a new permanent supportive housing facility in Hollywood which is going to be for chronically homeless, mentally ill people. It’s a great project and the celebration was really nice. My boss was one of the speakers and she did a great job, and we even got to hear from Michael, for who the place is named after, and his mother who flew in from New Mexico for the event. It’s definitely a step in the right direction for ending homelessness in Hollywood. After we got back from the event, I went out and took photos and did my “What do you Think” survey for the Sunset/Vine newsletter, which is turning into one of my favorite things that I get to do at work. I went to Golden Bridge Yoga, K & L Wine Merchants, and The Waffle to interview people for it. Then I went back to the office and finished the Sunset newsletter. Then I went home and very quickly arranged synth-string parts for Elene to play on “Winnipeg Beach” and “...

It was a rainy day. We got up and had brunch, and then Dylan left to take Robbie home so I tried to do some housework. I really wanted to put the holiday decorations up, but I couldn't find the key to the storage closet that we have down the hall in the laundry room. Robbie had even helped me go through our junk drawer in the kitchen and we couldn't could locate it anywhere. I was doing some other housework when suddenly I had this vision of the key being in the hat I wore for Halloween when I was Boy George. It must have been a memory, because I went to the hall closet, opened it up, found the hat, and voila! There was the key! I brought all the big green and red plastic tubs (we have three of them now) filled with holiday decorations, plus the tree and another bag of decorations, back to the apartment and started going through everything. Eventually, I had to stop and get ready for the Invisible Material show we were having at the Viper Room. I was a little worried abo...

The Traitors had a show tonight at The Palms, for Club Strapped, which is produced by my friend Kalil and his wife Karen. When Kalil first asked if we would play, I was a little weary of performing again at the Palms since we had just played there last month, knowing that we would have to bring all of our PA equipment and everything again, and taking the risk that the Palms might have something booked before us which would prevent us from doing a soundcheck. However, I'm so glad the other band members convinced me to take the chance because it ended up being a really amazing show! Karen dressed up as a Superhero (it was a superhero theme) and there were so many people there!! We did managed to set up and do a sound check, which was great because we were doing a new set up utilizing the Palms' house PA as well as ours, and it took awhile to figure out how to get it all to work. As we were getting set up, Uncle Ronnie and Hoagie showed up, and there were already some people ...

Today was the annual dinner for the HED Board, so after our board meeting, we all walked over to Cleo, a restaurant inside the new Redbury Hotel just up Vine Street from our office. I had been wanting to check it out since it opened, but this was the perfect way to do it. We had cocktails in the bar first and then once everyone was ready, we were seated at our table and treated to many different hors d'oeuvres and entrees. The food was really good and it was a great atmosphere. I definitely want to go back soon with friends. We finished dinner and took a group photo outside and then walked further up the street to AMDA, the American Music and Dramatic Academy. One of our board members is the president of the school so she had arranged for a special presentation where the students sang for us, from the 100 years of American Music AMDA Songbook. It was a great and powerful experience, and it's so amazing to see such talent just up the street from us.

In an attempt to turn over a new leaf and preemptively fight holiday weight-gain, I decided to start a diet and exercise program today, so I had a real healthy lunch. Amoeba was having Fred Schnieder DJ'ing and signing copies of his new band's album, The Superion's "Destination Christmas." I was really looking forward to buying the album on vinyl and having him sign it, but stupidly Amoeba only had it on CD. There were people there with the vinyl copy but they must have gotten it online and brought it in. I reluctantly bought it on CD and got in line to meet him. He didn't recognize me so I reminded him that I was in Shitting Glitter and that he had sent me a Minnie Pearl postcard for New Year's. He asked how the band was going and I told him that I had moved on, and he said it was probably for the best as Shitting Glitter wasn't a "very commercial name." Then he said "nice meeting you" so I guess he forgot that we had actual...

We got up early and went to pick up my co-worker, Sarah, to head downtown for Homewalk. This is the 2nd year Dylan and I have done the Homewalk, but the first time we've raised money for it. We both had a fundraising goal of $500 and although he was a little short of his personal goal, together we did raise over $1000, with very generous assistance from friends, families, coworkers, and in particular, Aileen Getty, who is simply an angel. It was a really sunny day and I regretted not wearing sunscreen or bringing a hat - I couldn't believe how sunny it was at 9am! The walk itself was pretty easy, but it was great seeing so many people out that early on a Saturday working to end homelessness. Later at home, I finished mixes on a couple songs for my album, "Ventriloquist" and "A Modern Life," which is a new version from the one I did with Mary White a couple years ago. My friends Mark and Aaron picked me up to go with them and Aaron's cousin Tig to Casi...

I slept in until 12:08 which was bad because I was supposed to be rehearsing with Melissa, aka Skates, at 1pm. Luckily, she had left a voice mail asking if we could push it back until 2pm, so I got ready and loaded up the car but still didn’t make it to her place until a quarter after two. It took longer to get to west LA than I thought, even though all I had to do was take Santa Monica Blvd. about 6 miles, it took nearly 40 minutes. I used to sort of perform with Melissa (also aka MQ) back in maybe 2003 or 2004 when she was performing under the name MQ. I first saw her opening for Nina Hagen at the Key Club when she had a dancer named Mickey and her boyfriend at the time, Sean, doing visuals. I thought she was very interesting and we ended up becoming friends and for a few shows I stood behind her laptop and would start the songs, pretending to do something during them when in reality I was just standing there. I did a remix of her song “Catfood” in a sort of Fisch...

Halloween weekend has officially begun! I didn't wear a costume to work since Halloween isn't actually until Sunday and I knew no one else would wear one, although I did want to. Brandon and Angie came and picked us up after work and we went to the Hammer Museum over by Westwood for this event they were having called Tranimal Workshop. These local cutting-edge drag queens like Squeeky Blonde and Phaedra (sp?) were doing this thing where they would make people over in their style, which is really a freaky style of drag with like fishnets over the faces and lots of scary/weird accessories. Then, the amazing photographer Austin Young would take photos of those who got madeover. Dylan was really excited for that and he ended up being the only one of us who got a makeover because when he went to sign up, they told him he was the last one. Kristahn was there - she was actually the person who told us about the event. She was dressed up like Dolly Parton and she looked really good...

I slept in so late I couldn’t believe it! I meant to get up early, go shopping for fabric for my alien costume for tomorrow’s video shoot, and make brunch, all before Dylan woke up... but seeing as Dylan woke me up at 1pm, obviously none of that happened. I went out and my first stop was the Goodwill on Beverly, since I’ve always had pretty good luck there. I had a few different ideas when I spotted this dark green body suit, maybe it’s for snowboarding or something - it’s not really particularly heavy, though. It’s got lots of cool pockets and zippers and I thought I could make it into some sort of alien-looking costume. I tried it on and it was really tight - I couldn’t zip it up all the way - bought I thought it could work. Then I went to the 99 cents store on Wilshire and got a metallic windshield sun visor thing, and a few other items. My last stop was the shopping center on 3rd and Fairfax. I went into the K-Mart hoping they would have the alien antenna ball ...

It’s that time of year again. No, I’m not talking about Halloween (although it’s also that time of year) - it’s Electric Six time! I first heard of the E6 from this dumbass guy who managed a bar somewhere near the beach where I was trying to score a DJ gig after Gold 9 closed. I don’t remember anything else about that whole experience other than him asking me if I knew who Electric Six was. At the time, I felt like it was a test - and that I failed - because I had never heard of them. So of course I had to look them up, discovered their song “Danger! High Voltage!” and that supposedly it was Jack White singing the guest vocals. Since Dylan is a huge White Stripes / Jack White fan, I played it for him and he loved it. Some weeks later, we found out White Stripes were playing some show that we tried to get tickets for and it was sold out. I found out that Electric Six happened to be playing the same night, so we bought tickets for that instead. At some point, Dylan...

I woke up as early as I could since I had so many things I wanted to get done. I didn’t have anything for my costume yet except the pants. First I went to rite-aid and got a pink and purple wig, fingernail polish, and stuff to make breakfast (milk and eggs). I went back home and we had breakfast and then I went back out shopping. Drove to Hollywood, starting at the Giant Dollar and the special store where I got some accessories for my outfit including a necklace, scarf, kittie cat ears, and the little animal collars to wear on my arms and leg. Then I went to Out of the Closet on Sunset but couldn’t find anything there. I parked on Selma and went to Hollywood Toy & Costume - they didn’t have anything I needed so i walked up and down the Blvd. and found a little wig shop which had the purple and pink extensions I had found the other day, and also picked up some yellow and red cat-eye contacts lenses there and a tube of purple lipstick. Went to Iguana but couldn...

I've written about the TG&Y (originally I had typed  KG&Y, apparently for a short time in the aughts I thought that was the name of it) tapes before. Back when I was just a music-obsessed kid growing up on a farm in rural Kansas, I didn't have much money and I certainly didn't have access to seeing live bands or having a cutting edge radio station, although I did have MTV before almost any of my friends. I loved music, and there was a variety store in Russell Kansas called TG&Y (it may have been called McCrory's at this point). According to Wikipedia, people used to call TG&Y "Turtles, Girdles, and Yo-Yo's" although I don't remember anyone I know ever calling it that. Anyhow, they had a small selection of cut-out records and tapes. Cut-out bins are where albums end up that don't sell well, and the record company needs to get rid of the overage. Also, sometimes with really big albums, they end up in the cut-out bin because they...

It was a rainy day in LA but I was excited because it was the first ever show for Devin Tait & the Traitors! We actually weren't all ready to perform, since we had only had one rehearsal, so Elene just came to watch and support rather than joining us on stage. Marc came with me and we got their first, but Brandon and Angie drove up right after we had parked. The club was called the Airliner and it was in Lincoln Heights, which is a BID that I'm familiar with because I know Misty who runs it from the LA BID Consortium meetings. It's kind of a run-down looking place and there weren't too many people there. The promoter was working the door and he didn't really want to commit to telling me whether I would be performing upstairs or on the main floor, asking me how many people were coming to see me rather than answering the question. I told him I didn't know, so he said we'd play it by ear. Besides the main area and the upstairs, there is also a big open a...