Tech droppin' science on ubiquitous white-kids-with-digital-cameras 

Workin' Day and Night

O.k. it's official- Immortal Technique and Sizzla's Lean Back remix is ill.

Yeah, the mix quality is about as good as something me and my roommate could put together on Cubase or Fruity Loops (seriously guys, why the 1 minute instrumental after the rhymes?...even a lame whiteboy bedroom DJ doesn't need that long to beatmatch and cue up another track) but the 1-2 punch of Jamaican FIIYYAH and Tech's vitriolic bombs about 9-11 take the Boriqua beat somewhere it's never been. And if you're still not convinced, look at the saddlebags Tech is sporting in the pic. Homie works hard for the money, so you better treat 'im right.

Look at all of these geezers 

Up In Herre, Up In Herre

Yup, the reclusive and slippery Van Morrison will stop by our metro area to (hopefully) represent to the fullest @ the Wiltern Theatre on Sat. and Sun.. I've heard mixed reviews about his ability to kick out the jams in a live setting these days, but either way I'm gonna try to stop by...he plays in America about as frequently as G Dub political contributors visit France. I'll get back to y'all about the results of this experiment...I'm hoping it's at the level of the Rolling Stones, Toots and the Maytals, or Paul McCartney (meaning a crunktastik time) instead of *making sign of the cross* Bob Dylan or Willie. Van the Man only has to do one of about ten songs of his at a decent performance level to pull this off. If you see a curlie-haired boy outside looking for tickets, hook him up, will ya?

Camping on the banks of the Nantahala River in the fall 

Student Wine Review #1

Castillo de Jumilla

Monastrell/Tempranillo 50-50 mix

12 buxx -Trader Joe's

Well, I ended up not going to sleep last night (post-trial brief due @ 9:15 this morning and I had to grind it out) so I'm reviewing this as a lunchtime wine...even though it's 9:30 pm here in tha OC, I've only been up for a few hours.

Nose/bouquet/first impressions: wow, it's really reserved for a Monastrell blend. Monastrell for those who don't know is the same thing as Mourvedre (sorry frenchies i'm too lazy to type la accent grave over the e) which to me is a very overt grape. Mourvedre/Monastrell used to be real big in the Chateneuf-de-Pape area before the phyloxxera (sp?) insects feasted on mad amounts of French vines hundreds of years ago. The Monastrell/Mourvedre grape had no phyloxerra (sp?) resistant-strains available at the time, so most areas in CdeP got replanted with Grenache.

I love Mourvedre----get as much yellow label Garretson Paso Robles Mourvedre as you can find/afford---so i was looking forward to lots of leathery/chocolatee flava in this wine.

It's there, but not in the nose and initial palate attack---the Tempranillo really takes charge at the front of the mouth and in the bouquet. If I was trying to sound all cool I would call the initial experience 'elegant' or 'structured.' In other words: balanced, and with no off flavors, but subtle, which it is. The finish is where you get the hints of Monastrell- the plummy Tempranillo flavazz mix witht the chocolate and leathery action of the Monastrell.

It's sort of like going out to a club with one really crazy dude and two guys who have to work at 8 am: The early-to-rise cats provide good conversation at the bar but the one really crunk dude keeps things interesting.

Doesn't change or 'open up' as much as I'd expected, but it's only been an hour and I hadn't decanted the wine.

Good wine- would pair with milder (read not spicy) dishes as to not piss off the tempranillo in the blend or drown it out wit too much paprika or red pepper. The back of the label says 'pair with garlic.' IMO that may be a little much.

Painted sign on the back of the Echo, Echo Park. Taken during Everybody Else/Army Navy show last Sunday. 

Walking With The Ghost -2.24-2.25

Friday i work on legal research until 10pm.
met up with buddy @ bar. friend is out here starting up a pr firm/record label/t shirt co/band/party promo co. (whew!) band just got signed and is recording/tshirts just got distribution/parties are starting to take off so we had much to talk about. i love it out here how everybody is trying to do amazing stuff. after (free) sips of likkah and patron i was whisked away from the bar by my homies anna and thomas at one-30.> we ended up running to the hollywood 7-11 for champagne and heineken to drink while we played music at an upstairs loft across the street from the bar. the first words out of the kid's mouth who let us into the building were 'dude, the guy who owns this rehearsal space went home to the valley at midnight, so we can play all night!'I've got blisters on my hands from the drumstixx.

Woke up sat. on my friend thomas' couch-remember vaguely talking to some strange characters and having a smoke before going to bed. thom is at work, but it's noon, 70 and cloudless outside. Have to go to the beach. It's a bitch getting my car out of thomas' garage because some tool parked right behind me, meaning i had to get my car out through the 45-degree angle behind me on my right. after some austin-powers type shit i get out of there.the pacific is cold but i go in anyway. lots of sailboats out and i see at least five girls I wish I knew. On the way to the beach there's a crazy guy on the sidewalk just screaming at the top of his lungs to everybody about Bush and the war and Black Helicopters and the New World Order etc.

I wish I had his energy. when i come back after being on the beach for a few hours he's still there. meth must be some powerful shit.after walking on the beach for a bit i decide to walk into the Fairmont Santa Monica hotel and sit in the hot tub. it's so easy to sneak into hotels like the st. regis/four seasons/fairmont etc. for their amenities--used to do it in ATL all the time. You just gotta walk around like you own the damn place.

sit in the hot tub, get a massage, little kids are running around the pool area making shitloads of noise. glad i got the ipod. i hear iron and wine instead of the rugrats. genius. Leave the fairmont after some sauna time. eat thai food in thai town and start to make my way back downtown---the los angeles philharmonic is doing mozart's 'requiem' and damned if i'm missing it. Almost did. Took streets instead of the highway 'cause i wanted to stop at this rad thrift store first but it was closed by the time i got there.Got to the music center 5 min before show- (gehry designed it, look at it online, its beautiful) it's sold out. dammit. the phil. never sells out. old lady gives me 65 dollar ticket for free! wouldn't take my money.

I buy her champagne. talk to this other lady who doen't have a ticket- she tells me she's going backstage...i said 'huh?'

i asked her if she was related to someone who is in the orchestra...she told me SHE was in the orchestra, but just wasn't playing tonite. i meet up with her when we get inside. we sit in the 4th row in two unoccupied seats. show was amazing. 100 person choir singing in Latin. Orchestra goes OFF, as normal. really old man two seats away from me is rocking a 50K gold Patek like it's nothing. i love the la phil. exchange info later @ the afterparty with the violinist lady and some peeps on the board of the phil . lady promises to holler when she performs again.

Afterwards I go to meet up with some friends at this club i'd never been to...it has no sign outside but when i walked up there were maybe 150 people crowded around police barriers trying to get in. my name is on the dim mak records list but the place is a mob scene. took ten minutes just to worm up to the front of the barriers. only dudes i see get in are in good charlotte (that guy benji is playing records inside.)I lost my phone on friday so i can't even call my homies to get me past this shit (maybe left in the law library???i never lose anything!!! GRRR!!!!!)

finally after 15 min outside i hear one of the doorguys say to the crowd 'hey- let these three guys through, they're on steve's list!' I say 'SHIT! I'm on that same list! CROSBY, KELLEN, PLUS 1! The guy looks at his clipboard, finds me, and opens the rope. Cover is something obscene like 20 bucks- i get a compticket from the doorguy so i don't have to pay.inside the dancefloor is alive like in the 1992 ONYX mtv video for the song 'slam.' i run into my austin TX friends and the crunk-a-thon begins. place is insane.i decline latenight as i have much work on a trial brief to do today. get back to my house at 230. crash....

struggleville shrimp and the full effect

struggleville shrimp and the full effect

-news for the day-

Bike found! Cell Phone Lost!

Best song I've heard in a week- 'Chiron,' the second track on the Four Tet album entitled Dialogue.
These guys somehow mix electronic squeaks, trancy bumps and other turntable-and-laptop stuff with amazing jazz...

The song somehow sounds like a soundtrack to some undersea journey undertaken by a couple Let It Be-era gurus...
and Gene Krupa, trading his trademark marihuana cigarettes in for some quality Kerouac speed for the duration of the trip.

At Big Sur on Thanskgiving with my old roommate Tom. 

some punk stole my bike!!!!!

It woulda been worth him doin' it, just so I coulda caught him doin' it"

- john travolta in pulp fiction


Dammit. I leave my bike downstairs at the bottom of the landing in my apartment complex for 30 MINUTES- right under my open window-on it's kickstand, chain lock looped around the wheel so if you wanted to steal it you'd have to carry it off- and somebody stole it. my dumb ass was too busy whompin' up risotto to notice.

A quick look around the apartment complex revealed tons of unlocked mountain bikes and beach cruisers that were tons newer and nicer than mine. WTF???????

I had that bike for four years- reclaimed it from a half-burial in a sand dune on sullivans island many moons ago. It's first ride was to the lovely bar called Off The Hook for fish tacos and copious amounts of beer. I carefully sanded that thing down behind my old house on Virginia Avenue in Athens- painted it a proper british racing green with white wheels to match the whitewall tires. it was from the fifties, and i loved it. rode it so many times to record stores, coffee shops, and latenight parties in my former town of residence...

only yesterday (literally) i bought a new handlebar for it to replace its rusted, bent one. Maybe that's why it was stolen. I was hoping one of the little punk kids that live in my (gated, 1400-dollar-a month!!) complex took it so I can just regulate when i see the little shit riding on it one day, but i don't think i'll ever see it again.