Last Night's Dinner

For some reason, this email from Julia today cracks me up every time I read it:

This morning when I was gathering up my bags, I was wondering how dirt from repotting the plant managed to get all over the table. Then I realized it was the fallout from the Oreos.

We are a staggeringly health-conscious family up in here. I'm still kind of in pain from the indulgence. When that package opened, it was like a couple sharks swarming over a compromised sea cow.



Oh, and in case you are wondering, the plant-potting she refers to occurred about 8 feet away and about 3 feet lower in elevation from the top of the table.

Feasting with Satan's Minions

I had to travel to Eugene, OR, for work this week. I was lame and didn't take any pictures, though. Especially because I happened to be seated directly behind two of the hottest Betties there are, Lael and Aimee (of Betty's Divine, of course), on the leg from Missoula to Seattle: I would have liked to get photographic proof of that. The last time I saw them, I think, I was standing on their little stage at their Christmas fashion show, singing Christmas songs while holding a little dog (I wonder if anyone has photographic evidence of that?). Anyway, they were headed to Vegas and LA on a buying trip. Suppose there are any more death-defying rides in their future this time around?

Aimee was packing one of Julia's purses. I thought that was awesome. I managed to stay comfortable even in the presence of such hotties because the pages of the fashion magazines they were reading were turning so fast it kept a nice, cool breeze flowing. I often get overheated on planes, I was pleased they were looking out for my best interests.

OBEY -- Sign of the Devil?

After work Tuesday night, I drove up to the home of Mike and Angela Davis. Julia has been friends with Angela "since we were practically teenagers", as Angela says, though I had never met her before. They moved up to Eugene from LA this past year. Angela is the "Svengirly" behind Svengirly Music, Inc. She manages bands, licenses merch, sells it, etc. Mike is the bass player for one of the greatest, and certainly one of the most influential, American rock and roll bands ever: the MC5. In addition to playing with the Motor City 5, Mike also played in Destroy All Monsters with Stooges guitarist, Ron Asheton. Mike wrote a moving piece about Ron when Ron passed away last month; dig it.

I had a fantastic time. It was great to meet Angela, Mike and their three boys. We had a big spaghetti dinner, then drank a little wine and just hung out a while. Angela had told me right out of the gate that they were expecting a washing machine repairman to stop by and fix their machine; when he arrived, Mike got up and was away for a while to take care of business. He returned, and announced, "I have to tell you all what just happened; I can't keep this one to myself." He then proceeded to relay his interaction with the repairman in most animated fashion. I will let him tell the story himself, since he blogged about it; here as an exerpt to lure you in:

In the dark I saw a wiry little man with gnome-like features. He was wearing a baseball cap. He looked to be around fifty years of age or so, and carried his toolbox over his shoulder. As we entered the garage in the light, he gestured toward my hoodie and made a curious remark. "You know what that symbol is, dontcha?" "Which?" I replied. "That one there, on yer shirt". I looked down at the yellow icon printed on my black Obey hoodie, a gear with a five-pointed star depicting the face of Andre the Giant in its center. " Yes, All City Posse", I told him, "It's a brand, you know, the name of the line, a brand". "It's the sign of the devil", he said, with utter conviction. "It's a pentagram, the sign of the devil!"

Really, you need to check it out.

We got a heck of a laugh out of the whole thing. Knowing now that this quiet, wholesome-seeming family are really instruments of the Lord of Lies further proves that you can't make judgments based on appearances. Especially since they own a couple goats. Now, pygmy goats may not be the most evil-looking of critters, but believe me: where there's goats, there's got to be E-V-I-L.

It does make sense, when you think about it. The OBEY logo was created by a good friend of the Davis clan (coven?), Shepard Fairey. Now if that name sounds familiar, it should -- he's the guy who designed the iconic Obama "HOPE" image. Of course he "stole" the original image so he's in hot water, which, according to Angela, is something he often finds himself in. So his latest run-in with Johnny Law probably isn't that big of a deal to him.

My point here is that it shouldn't surprise anyone that a guy throwing his creative support behind our new President, who some believe is the anti-christ, is also part of a plot to hand the world over to Lucifer. I mean, if this guy in the following picture doesn't look like he runs through the city every night, spray paint in hand, screaming, "It's all for you, Damian!" then I don't know who does:

In all seriousness, these folks made me feel right at home. Angela was great to talk to; it was cool to hear stories of Julia in the days before I knew her ("Y'know, Chris," said Mike, "Julia was really kind of an icon in Tucson!"). It was weird because, in addition to talking about her, a number of pieces of furniture in their home were pieces built by Julia in her days as a furniture builder. So it seemed like in a way she was there too. As awesome as the picture they painted of Julia was, it makes me wonder if they weren't asking each other after I left, "How did she end up with that dork?!" I better delete all my posts about my comic book geekery and stuff like that, pronto.

Mike and me went downstairs so he could play me a track he just recorded in Seattle of a cover of "Helter Skelter," the Beatles classic, that is going to appear on a Beatles tribute disc, with him on lead vocal. It sounded great. We then proceeded to surf eBay for gear, YouTube for band clips, and talk a little rock. It was fun. Mike is also a painter; Angela took this picture of us with a portrait of Lemmy that he is working on:

Note the satanic symbol on Mike's chest.

I enjoyed my time there; I'm looking forward to imposing on them again some time.

Those are Some Swell Betties!

Not only do the hot ladies over at Betty's Divine do cool stuff for the community, but they buy stuff that Julia makes . . . and then they post about how awesome it is! Dig THIS POST from the Betty's Blog.

They are talking about Julia's new line of bags she's been making, called "LeatherAss." She even has names for them; this one is called The Commanche:

She does all the design work, the sewing, makes the silhouettes, learned how to silkscreen so she could do her own screens, all that. It's pretty cool, really. And has totally turned our dining room table into a work bench.

I once got an email from Aimee in the middle of the day saying, "I just saw Sid walking across Higgins Bridge carrying a plastic snow sled!" Thing was, it was like 200 degrees outside. That was back in the day when he and his doofus friends would ride sleds down the stairs by Caras Park. It's a wonder he never broke anything.

Anyway, thanks Betty's!

A Quandary Resolved

A couple weeks ago I rearranged my office, which has so far been a success. The problem is I have a large space just above my desk that is currently blank. None of the art/posters I have will really fit there, so I wasn't sure what was going to fill the space. Until now . . . dig this!

This piece is an 36 x 24, 8-color screen called "The Sighting" by Arik Roper. This is what the man says it is all about:

"The Sighting illustrates a metaphor of gaining insight and perspective from a new position. The Ice Age-era hunter and his Wolf companion represent the Mind in its unadvanced stages, wandering and laboriously ascending the mountain in search of nourishment. The floating Apparition represents the Revelation flash of the advanced Mind, gained from the new point of view and progress on the mountain. The encounter initially appears as a meeting of two separate entities but is ultimately a meeting with the self.”

Is that not cool or what? Arik Roper is awesome; I get a thrill out of much of his art like I do that of people like Frank Frazetta, and that is saying something. It plays to my imagination, and I love it. He has done a lot of art for the music I am most fond of these days; in particular, he has worked with High on Fire. Here is the cover of their most recent album, Death is This Communion.

We played with High on Fire something like a week before this record came out. They were fantastic. They are a magnificent band; loud, and just punishing.

I was going to write more, but it's getting late. Now comes one of my favorite parts of the day; there are two cats sleeping peacefully right where I intend to crash, and I get to move their lazy, bring-nothing-to-the-table asses out of the way. It is all about the simple pleasures, people -- trust me.

Damn It!

Back to the friggin' drawing board.

These Eye-talians Might Be Onto Something

Check this out, from an Italian outfit called nobody&co.

This is from this review site, NewEmotion, who has the following great disclaimer: "English is not our mother tongue - We apologize for any errors." I love that!

Bibliochaise is an armchairlibrary by Nobody & Co.

Thought for lovers of reading, Bibliochaise is an arm-chair-library, created by Italian company Nobody & Co.

The seat can contain until five meters of books and thank to a special fitting structure is easly disassembled.
Bibliochaise is born from a simple idea: its structure has been thought to accommodate a great number of books in appropriate fissures, for having always the possibility to read preferred books.

The seat is pleasant and soft, and is presented in a showy red colour that contrasts with a black line on all the edges.
Bibliochaise is an ideal complement for lovers of books, music and films: it is possible to accommodate also own DVD and Compact Disc.
If the space is your problem, if you are a love reader and if you need a comfortable seat, Bibliochaise is your ideal solution.

With the same system of pegs, Nobody & Co. produces also bookcases named Piola in a lot of colours: Flesh, Pop, Kitchen and Wood

I'd plant my ass in one of these; I certainly have the material to fill it with. Books, I mean, wisacre. Not ass.

Encore

I wrote the feature article in this week's Independent, a piece called Encore. It's about my friend Hank's obsession with Travis Bean Guitars. It turned out pretty well, but it was a lot of work.

He and a couple other folks -- Bruce and Toni from Salty Snack Studios -- are filming a documentary. All in all there was just a ton of info, and a multitude of directions it could have gone. I'm hoping to move some of these other elements into pieces at some of the guitar mags; Vintage Guitar in particular. It's just a great story.

Had some great input from some people. Steve Albini was gracious with his time, as was Tim Midgett (formerly of Silkworm and now with Bottomless Pit). Kevin Burkett of Electrical Guitar Company was also a great resource. In fact, my plan was to use the money I was paid for the story as a down payment on having Kevin build me an aluminum bass. As the universe tends to work against me, however, my truck required some work yesterday that amounted to about double what the Indy gig paid. Oh well, some day I'll be able to have nice things; one of these babies would sure look cool hanging off my belly, you have to admit:

The Cramps still causing a disturbance almost 30 years later

What follows is an article written by Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times of Maryville, Tenn, with Poison Ivy from the Cramps. There was a quote from it in a book I referenced as part of my nod to Lux and Ivy yesterday; Steve commented the original post with a correction to the text, then followed up with the interview in its entirety. It's a good one; Cramps fans would do well to check it out. I figured it deserved a post all on its own. Thanks, Steve!

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The Cramps still causing a disturbance almost 30 years later
Published: September 24, 2004
IF YOU GO

The Cramps with The American Plague and the Chesterfield Kings

WHEN: 9 p.m. Tuesday

WHERE: Blue Cat's, 125 E. Jackson Ave., Knoxville's Old City

HOW MUCH: $18

CALL: 544-4300

ON THE WEB: www.thecramps.com

By Steve Wildsmith

of The Daily Times Staff

The phone rings for a late-night interview, and the voice on the other end of the line is instantly apologizing for being late.

She hasn't slept in two days, she explains, and had just gotten to sleep when her band's tour manager rang, rousting her for an unscheduled interview. The words ``I'm sorry'' drift over a crackling connection from Tempe, Ariz., at least three times.

She comes across as warm, friendly and personable -- more like a church receptionist than the legendary Poison Ivy, co-founder of The Cramps with her husband, Lux Interior ... former dominatrix and quintessential rock 'n' roll bad girl/vixen ... godmother to such neo-horror rockers as Kittie, the Gore Gore Girls and Jack Off Jill.

What gives?

"We're very well-rounded people, so when we're sweet, we're very sweet,'' she explains simply. ``But when we're dangerous, we're very dangerous. We have many facets -- sweet, deadly and in-between.

``I don't think that's unusual. I am who I am -- I don't do it for the fans, and it certainly ain't easy being me. How I dress, how I behave -- it's my form of self-expression.''

Ivy and Interior have been expressing themselves in their own unique way since the mid-1970s, when the girl formerly known as Kristy Wallace thumbed a ride from LSD enthusiast and Alice Cooper fan Erick Purkhiser. From that fateful ride, The Cramps were born.

Wallace and Purkhiser discovered a mutual attraction to the quirky and unusual -- vintage monster movies, lurid sex, greasy '60s garage rock and the rockabilly of the 1950s that seemed so perverse and immoral to the conservative mindset of that time. They decided to form a band, with Wallace christening herself Poison Ivy Rorschach and Purkhiser settling on Lux Interior.

From Sacramento, they made their way to New York City (after a brief stay in Ohio), where day jobs put them in touch with other musicians, mainly guitarist Bryan Beckerleg (stage name: Bryan Gregory) and Miriam Linna on drums. They began playing around the legendary punk scene of 1970s New York, earning questioning looks and puzzled expressions from fans at such famous venues as Max's Kansas City and CBGB's.

``Looking back, it just seems unreal,'' Ivy said. ``There was such an incredible scene at CBGB's at that time, and it was like Mecca to us -- everyone just kind of migrated there. I don't know if we'd gotten the same attention if there wasn't a scene like that. We were incredibly lucky, and there hasn't been anything like it since.''

The Cramps struck up a fast friendship with The Ramones, one that endured beyond the punk explosion of the day. Ivy and Interior, in fact, were close friends with the late Johnny Ramone, who died recently.

``We were very close, and we saw a lot of each other over the past year,'' she said. ``Watching his deterioration was just gut-wrenching.

``It's still hard to process it all, because it seems so mythologically weird -- first Joey, then DeeDee, and now Johnny. They left such a mark, and knowing them personally, it's still really hard. Even talking about it, I'm having trouble. It's just too recent and too much.''

She prefers to remember The Ramones in their glory days -- fast, furious, sneering punks wearing ripped jeans and leather jackets roaring through one 3-minute song after another from the famous CBGB's stage.

``I just remember taking Bryan, who hadn't seen The Ramones yet, to a show,'' she said. ``He'd had less than half a glass of wine and a hit off somebody's joint, but when The Ramones came out, this energy was so overwhelming, he threw up in the gutter outside.

``He just got so overwhelmed by them, it was too much. He couldn't deal with it. They were like white light and white heat, like a nuclear blast or an explosion. When The Ramones came out on stage, it was like a magnesium flare -- you didn't see anything else.''

In 1979, The Cramps released ``Gravest Hits,'' a compilation of all the singles and 7-inch demos they'd put out in the preceding years. They opened for The Police in Europe and recorded their first full-length album in 1980, ``Songs the Lord Taught Us.''

After line-up shuffles, Interior and Ivy moved to Hollywood, Calif., where they were soon embroiled in a lawsuit with I.R.S. Records that prevented them from recording new material for several years. When they did, a string of albums followed -- 1986's ``A Date With Elvis,'' 1990's ``Stay Sick,'' 1991's ``Look Mom No Head!'' and 1994's major-label debut, ``Flamejob.'' The band even appeared on ``Beverly Hills 90210'' in 1995, and two years later the band released ``Big Beat from Badsville.''

Three years ago, the band began dipping into its overwhelming vault of rare recordings, releasing several discs worth this year on the album ``How to Make a Monster.'' According to Poison Ivy, releasing those blasts from the past was both cathartic and troubling.

``We picked through a lot of material that meant a lot to us,'' she said. ``It was thrilling, but it was also reliving the past, which is a mixed bag. You need to move on in life, but we did say we were going to write a booklet for `How to Make a Monster,' and once we decided that, there was no turning back.

``We recalled some stuff that was best left forgotten, but also a lot of really good times that we truly appreciated.''

Tuesday, The Cramps will throw down at Blue Cat's in Knoxville's Old City. It's Poison Ivy's first visit to Knoxville, ironic considering her father -- Dudley Ross Wallace -- was born there.

As usual, she'll appear on stage looking like the ghost of Bettie Page, strutting her stuff and playing guitar while Lux Interior snarls and postures for the crowd's delight. They'll enthrall the fans with tales of madness and gore, all the while amping up the atmosphere like steamy heat in a car at a late-night B-movie right before a teenage make-out session.

It's what they know. It's what they do. And if Poison Ivy could have a face-to-face conversation with her younger self, the impressionable Kristy Wallace, as she's about to get into a wide-eyed Erick Purkhiser's car along some dusty highway relegated to punk rock legend, she'd urge her onward.

``I'd tell her to take that ride, to not miss that ride,'' she said. ``I'm still on a ride with Lux, and we're still so much in love with the music and each other.

``We've been accused of not growing over the years, of staying the same, but we're just a spin-off of what we loved. To us, it's a continuum that had been going on for decades, and we were just a part of it. When we discovered our mutual love for it, we just had to play.''

A Candle for Lux, a Kiss for Ivy

When it comes to music, my influences are legion, but I don't intentionally swipe from too many people. Yet if you listen to "Garbageman" by the Cramps, the opening track off their Bad Music For Bad People record, you'll hear singer Lux Interior croon, "Well if you can't dig me then you can't dig nothin'!" I love that line so much that I basically stole it for the chorus of the lyrics I wrote for the opening track on the La Bruja album from Lazerwolfs, a song called "All Together Now."

I love the Cramps, and it bums me out that Lux died the other day. He was 62.

Hugely influential, the Cramps were never huge. I love everything about them. When I think of bands with a great image that they stuck to, I think of the Cramps. They knew what they wanted to do and they did it, regardless of what was fashionable. They weren't great musicians and they didn't sound that great in the sense that gearheads quibbling over the tone of every note would recognize, but they captured a level of energy and intensity that most bands can only dream of. In the liner notes to their 2004 retrospective release How to Make a Monster, it reads:

"When the two of us started the group, we were attempting to jumpstart the evolution of an original pure rock n' roll/rhythm and blues tradition -- a tradition that seemed to be all but forgotten at that time. The term 'rock n' roll', a term which describes a lifestyle and sex act, as well as a type of music, had become 'rock music' in an apparent effort by squares to legitimize it. We knew damn well the original sow's ear was way better. We wanted to be as shocking, sexy and original as the great culture changing rock n' roll pioneers were during the fifties and sixties -- not imitators, but the same kind of rebels that they were in their time."

The reference to "the two of us" mean Lux and his wife, Poison Ivy Rorschach. Their relationship is what makes me so dreadfully sad about Lux dying. When I told Julia, the first thing she said was, "Oh, poor Ivy."

The book The Cramps -- A Short History of Rock n' Roll Psychosis, by Dick Porter, tells the story of the band and Lux and Ivy's relationship. That relationship started near Sacramento State University in 1972 when Lux (who hailed from Akron, OH) picked up a hitchhiker dressed in skintight hot pants, a young woman who would become the legendary Bikini Girl with Machine Gun. This is really one of the greatest rock n' roll love stories ever, frankly. The two met when they were young, discovered all these great shared interests, and made their dream happen. It tells of cross country road trips to buy record collections, the weird hobbies they shared, their longtime commitment to vegetarianism, everything. This excerpt from the book tells of the passion Lux developed for vintage photography, for example:

"Between 1999 and 2002, Ivy and Lux once again retreated to their private world, to enjoy each other and their host of shared interests, only emerging for short runs of concerts when Halloween came around. It was a lifestyle that suited Lux. 'It's great. I can't think of any way to improve upon it. We have a huge record collection of 78s and 45s, and we play that stuff all the time. We have a huge collection of sexploitation videotapes, like the stuff Something Weird is putting out . . . I do a lot of 3D photography. That's a passion of mine. I watch Ivy prance around the house in fabulous sexy outfits.'

'That evolved with Lux getting into the photography and shooting me,' explained Ivy. 'He requested it, really. It started with Smell of Female [a Cramps album] and at that time a friend had a 3D camera that he borrowed and then later Lux bought the camera from the guy. He has like 150 3D cameras or something now. He spends all day mounting slides and he's just obsessive with his photography, but his main love is pin-up photography. And he mainly likes shooting me.'"

What a dream, I get all verklempt thinking about it, and it is what makes me sad because Lux was still pretty young. The book basically closes with this quote from 2004:

Asked by Steve Wildsmith of The Daily Times of Maryville, Tenn what the modern Ivy would advise her younger self, if she could meet her in some temporal twilight zone just before Lux picked her up on the highway, all those years ago, Ivy replied, 'I'd tell her to take that ride, to not miss that ride. I'm still on a ride with Lux, and we're still so much in love with the music and with each other.'

I'm sorry for Lux. I hope Ivy will be okay.

I Know How He Feels

It's hard enough managing my little empire surrounded by philistines who just don't "get it." Imagine ruling the Free World! THIS ARTICLE sums it up in ways I hadn't even thought about; I might have to rethink my position on President Obama. Case in point:

"How am I supposed to effectively lead this nation when [attorney general nominee Eric] Holder has to stop the meeting and ask what the story of Taurus using the black lotus powder to kill the five guard lions has to do with increasing broadband Internet connections nationwide?" Obama said while vigorously rubbing his temples.

Added the president, "For the love of Crom, am I the only one here who wants to keep the U.S. technologically competitive?"

And this:

When asked by the press corps if this week's hiccup has caused him to rethink any of his appointments, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton interrupted the president to assert that she and her colleagues have already begun educating themselves about comic books, and will soon be "an invincible team of Supermen and Wonder Women working to save America."

"Wonder Woman? That's not even Marvel," Obama responded before storming out of the press room. "Who are you people?"

Some people just don't understand. As for me, I have more work to get done today.