Monday, June 30, 2008

Virginville Film Fest 08

The 4th Annual Virginville Film Fest went off without a hitch (at least any that I could see) this past Saturday (June 28) up in the LV... I rolled up solo, gorgeous drive up with knee high corn on either side for a lot of it, hazy summer, but not awful... listening to the new Malkmus, Phish, Lil Wayne and Antiseen. Gorgeous sundown drive with no traffic. Noticed a Vermont plated minivan taking all the same turns as me, when I finally parked, it WAS Charles and Sharon and their basketball team in the making rolling down. Most awesome. Oh yeah, full disclosure, Prophase music was a sponsor of this deal.

The fest is at some farm, screen set up at the bottom of a hill in front of a pond. Things were already up and running when I got there, Mexican food, beer, pottery table and Eric and Beth and Wayne running around/working the tables. I enjoyed a bit of an awes brownie and blabbed with them for a bit before plopping down for the flicks. About 300 folks gathered for this one at the peak, at least to Wayne and I's estimate at the end of the deal. Lots of kids and families, it was more of the mellow arty/hippie wing of the LV weirdos, opposed to the noisy crew from Muscle Beach and such... Met Bart from Sloow Tapes and was under the impression he was an American, so I did a double take when his answer to my "So where you from?" was an accented reply about somewhere near "Antwerp." Was fun to blab with him and such after my Ugly American embarrassment; spread the word about the new We Have Heaven on his label. As the sun went down, my vision got wiggly and the screen started to stretch a little as the darkness behind the screen grew. Add some lightning and fireflys, it was rural psychedelia at its best... The flicks themselves are a bit of a blur as I was almost astral traveling at points, but all were fun and cool to some degree and none were awful. The fear of rain/thunderstorm kept up throughout the evening, but held off for the most part, occasional drops not withstanding.

A great time, really incredible. If I can figure out how to get my pics off of my phone, I will post them. Great to see the crew and so happy to see all of Eric, Beth and Wayne's good vibes and hard work pay off. Seriously, the jam of the summer/your own private Woodstock, whatever you wanna go with it. Only bummer? No Simon flick! Argh! Definitely already making plans for next year and will be bugging everyone to really go and mark their calenders and all that jazz, esp the Byrnsies! So perfect for them! Oh, and keeping with my usual LV deal, yep, I got lost on the way home.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Lil Wayne goes Platinum (maybe?)

So it looks like Tha Carter III is set to go platinum in the first week. Yay. Really, that was just an excuse to post this awesome photoshop courtesy of Jimmy Rollins:




UPDATE: Willie Randolph just got the boot too.

UPDATE II: A milli a milli a milli.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks @ Knitting Factory NYC 6.13.08

Friday the 13th! Lydia Lunch! Ahh!

We rolled up a little early and met Kurt from Atavistic Records and Ms. Lunch herself. Had some dinner with them at that Spanish joint around the corner and such. Also, no crazy tales of Lydia, she was friendly and awesome and all that, but of course I am quite biased. She did have a strangeish fan stop in and give her flowers and take some pics, it was an odd moment. Luckily I had beer. It must be a drag.

Knitting Factory was absolutely mobbed and insane, totally crowded. Both shows sold out (I was only hitting the early one, alas; with Mike Prophase in tow). Baked goods were consumed and beers were had (along with a roasted pork burrito). Missed any/all opening acts because I was watching Kurt hold court at the merch table and got to see thee most amazing exchange that went something like this:

Youngish Gent in Flipper Shirt: You should press up some of this stuff on vinyl.
Kurt: uh...
Youngish Gent in Flipper Shirt: Vinyl sounds better.
Kurt: Yeah.. and anal is tighter, but sometimes you take what you can get.
Me: Bahhhhhhahaha!!!

The kid took it the right way and we all wondered aloud at Kurt's impeccable analogy and timing. Flipper kid agreed with my buzzed ass that the show was worth it already. Of course, the show was made me for much earlier when I got light one of Lydia's cigarettes.

Teenage Jesus & the Jerks' lineup was Lydia, Thurston Moore on bass and Jim Sclavunos on percussion. Preset some loudmouth tried to start a "hey ho, let's go" chant and it did not catch on. In fact, I think it got booed. My ECW chant at Magnetic Fields in Swathmore went over better. Short, perfect screech noisy burnt set, it was exactly like it was supposed to be in my head. That said, it was fuckin' crowded and as a short guy, in the back (thanks to too much beer and babble, so I know it is my fault), I couldn't see much besides Thurston's mug. Alas, no pics of the show. Sorry dear, Nice Pooperites. Set was probably about 25 minutes long maximum, again perfect. It was odd hearing these songs get cheered for, even though I was clapping as well. Lydia was great at bashing the hecklers, of course. I figure at least 80% of the audience had to have jerked off to her at some point in their lives (if not at the actual show), hell I think I did on d-pe once! After rotating back to the merch table we watched the celebs come and go, the shirts go flyin' off the table and some wonderful hot pants. After that, I collected Mr. Prophase up and we skeedaddled our burnt way back to the Keystone State with magical texts of 20-2 Phillies victory over the Cards.
Here are some photos from the show that I did not take.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Latarian Milton speaks to his fans...

"...and I love you, and I hope you be..." what does he say after that? In Preg? Impressed? Oh, Latarian, we are all impressed.

He really is the best. God bless this lil cherub.

Monday, June 2, 2008

some live Howlin Rain, quick wrap up

Sorry for lack of posting, the job has been a bit of a grind lately. Anyway, here is a link a 3 song live in the studio session from Howlin Rain. Sound is fantastic, as are the jams...

In bummer news, it seems there will be no more shows at Muscle Beach in Allentown. I can't find the blog post at the moment, but the cops shut it down or something. I don't think there was much drama, but a drag nonetheless.

My good pal Rusty has moved his blog to the spot (not to be confused with The Spot). Check him out here.

And don't forget the Virginville Film Fest coming up on June 28 2008. Wooo!