Category: Culture

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RIP Ron Asheton of the Stooges

stoogesstooges1

From Rolling Stone Magazine today:
“Ron Asheton, guitarist and founding member of the Stooges, was reportedly found dead at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan this morning. He was 60.”

“As the guitarist for the Stooges, Asheton crafted some of rock’s most memorable riffs, including “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” “No Fun” and “TV Eye.” Guitarist Asheton, along with his brother Scott, Iggy Pop and original bassist Dave Alexander formed the Stooges in Detroit in 1967. The original lineup released two albums, The Stooges and Fun House, before Ron Asheton shifted over to bass guitar for 1973’s Raw Power. All three LPs made Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, ranking at Number 185, 191 and 125 respectively. Asheton was also Number 29 on Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time.”

In the late 80s, when I played guitar with friends, my favorite songs to play were frequently Stooges longs. The Stooges were also probably the biggest influence of one of my all time fave bands, The Ramones.

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Farewell Manny

Manny Santana

Manuel Santana passed away last week. He was a vibrant Santa Cruz renaissance man that was a voracious painter, helped create the Cabrillo Music Festival a political activist and founded Manuel’s restaurant in Seacliff. I only met him a couple times. Sometimes I saw him during lunch time at his Manuel’s restaurant. The waitress would tell me that Manny is serving up some special soup he just concocted and if I would like some – like an oversized amuse bouche as only the big guy could make it. Over the years I came to realize that Manuel’s was not only my all time favorite restaurant, but the one I’ve dined at more than often any other in my lifetime.

My early remembrances are going there in the early Seventies. Then, the tab for my family of four with a couple of beers for mom and dad, came under twenty bucks. Through out time, they eventually came about to accepting credit cards and were open to midnight on most nights!

The Food? Still, in my opinion probably still the best Mexican American style food I can find. The refried beans are still the bar that all others are measured. The Chile Relleno is sublime, fluffy batter surrounding a large chile liberally stuffed with cheese. The chips? Still the best served with a zippy salsa that I can’t stop eating!

A toast to Manny and his everlasting imprint on Santa Cruz life!

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The Humans!

Human 'Play' EP

Going to high school late seventies Santa Cruz, my favorite local band was The Humans. They were a mix of the then emerging New Wave scene with a mix of surf, punk and avant garde theatrics. The first time I saw them was after Devo played a show at the Santa Cruz Civic in 1979. I hung out after the show and got to meetup with Devo so I could show them some pics from their previous Santa Cruz show when they played earlier that year.. While talking to them, they got an invite note from a local band called The Humans that said they were inspired by Devo and that they should come check out their show later that night at JJ’s Pizza over in the East Cliff neighborhood. The guys from Devo and their brother/manager said come on let’s all go!

So me and my younger brother booked out to JJ’s in my Datsun 510 to go hang with Devo and finally get to see The Humans which were getting some considerable buzz at the time. Half an hour later, I’m sitting at a little table with a couple guys from Devo, their manager and a pitcher of beer! I guess those times were a little different.

The Humans came on stage and did a blistering set of punk/new wave music with great surfy guitar licks. I became a big fan of them that night and went to almost every performance they did around the Monterey Bay area. The band was always so cool and friendly to this dorky teenager with his ever present camera around his neck.

Recently I’ve been going through and digitizing some of my favorite old cassette tapes and I found this aircheck tape of Eric Gies and Sterling Storm of The Humans being interviewed on KLRB – the ‘alternative’ progressive FM rock station that broadcasted from the Barnyard in Carmel Valley. Because of this station I was exposed to the Punk revolution, New Wave as well as artists like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and anything else weird the DJs felt like playing.




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Photo Finishing?

violet_censored
What do you know – just as I upgrade my Flickr photo account to ‘Pro‘, it’s come to my attention that they are censoring users photos.

Blogger, Violet Blue, had her pics ‘snowed over’ to the regular viewer of her account page. What’s strange is there seems to be no rhyme or reason to what gets snowed. The sexytime pictures of her on the floor that my friend Seventeenstars composed? Or maybe the pics of her with some SRL machinery Worldess Workshop Style?

This is all adding up to some bad publicity for Flickr. Maybe theres some room for an edgier, freer (more in the spirit of the Internet) photo sharing site?

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Buzz Buzz

mamaz_buzz

Being a Java Junkie always in pursuit of quality coffee has led me to a few places to mention. One that is very good and closest to home is Mama Buzz on Telegraph and 23rd. An adjoing room has a gallery and 50s style kitchen furniture to kick back. Free Wifi is available and the coffee is dark and rich! They also have some quality beers including Boont Ale. If you order a snack you will be surprised at the quality. Tomatoes on your sandwich are fresh ripe and tasty. An extra bonus is that they usually play a lot of old school spooky music (Virgin Prunes, Bauahus, Joy Division).

Mama Buzz is in an emerging little boho Booze, Art and Coffee zone. Being neighbors to The Stork Club and Rock, Paper, Scissors art collective. FYI, there’s still plenty of crack activity on the corner and nearby Valley St.

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Dark Sparkle

Michelle, Dave & Dru
Michelle, Dave & Dru

I miss going to Dark Sparkle. This is my favorite Darkwave/Goth club event since I’ve moved up to the SF Bay Area. It’s usually held at either the elegantl Café Du Nord or the DNA Lounge. Lately they’ve been moving around other SOMA locations. It’s the spooky music with out the VNV synth gop that’s permeated the goth scene the last five or so years.

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Selia

Selia - Tokyo, Japan

When I was in Japan back in April, I went to an evening of Tokyo Dark Castle in the Shibuya district. One unforgettable performance was by a group called Selia with an amazing altino countertenor.

I just extracted this little video clip from one of my DV tapes. It’s in encoded in H.264 and formatted the new iPod (video).

View QuickTime Movie

Download iPod Video 38.1MB