The Purple One at the Fillmore!
Prince's newest protege, Tamar, is playing
a show at the Fillmore on Monday 1/30/06 at midnight, with PRINCE on the bill as well. Aa-oo-ah! Tix go on sale tomorrow, Friday, at 10am, so don't sleep on it!
Update (4:30pm Thursday): Presales are available right now via the members-only website.
Tamar, aka Ashley Ta'Mar Davis, has been all over Prince's email list lately - announcements about shows, her new album, etc. Prince is definitely pushing her hard. A member of
Angaza, an all-female group, she's also the newest member of the NPG, will be featured on Prince's next album, "3121," and is slated to open all of the dates on the 3121 tour as a solo act. (Tickets for Monday's show, in typical Princey cleverness, are $31.21).
Here's a review of the Tamar show at the Roxy in L.A. last Tuesday, from the
prince.org discussion boards:
the set was very similar to the one they played on thursday night... tamar doing lead vocals, twins mya and mandy on backup, cora on drums, joshua on bass, mr. hayes on keys and of course, prince on guitar...
it started with "beat of my heart", followed with another original (don't know the name) that merged with "no, no, no (you don't love me)"... then "sunday in the park" followed by a really catchy tune called "milk & honey"... i think that was it for tamar's original material...
there was a little break, in which prince handed out four or five cookies... i almost got one but some tall guy snatched it mid-air... bummer... they looked good...
then they did a bunch of covers... i don't remember the names of every one... what stood out from the last show was the mini jam session at the end... the back-up singers brought up two dancers on the stage for their rendition of "what have you done for me lately?"... after they finished, they left the stage, leaving the two dancers up there to groove to the band... the girl then made a B-line straight to prince, trying to grind him from behind while he picked his guitar clean... he was cool about it, smiling and making faces to the crowd...
[...]
when the show ended, the crowd was begging for more... clapping and chanting "it ain't over"... the band stayed on stage, knowing it wouldn't be fair to leave us like this, but prince did... he's such a tease that way...
Hehehe - just like Prince to hand out cookies during a show.
FYI, the Purple One will also be the musical guest on SNL on February 4th, with Steve Martin hosting for the 14th time.
Monkey skate sofa king great!
You know what rules? This
picture of a monkey ice skating. I love the nonchalant look on his face, and his sassy outfit. Not to mention the high cuteness factor of the little girl with the giant pink coat and huge shoulder bag skating behind the monkey. Be sure to check out the other pics too - there's nine pics total in the slideshow of the Animal Academy Show. Thanks to Tung for teh link.
You know what else rules?
This:
A cracker by any other name
Get this: I'm riding my bike home from BART yesterday evening, and there's three little girls playing in their yard on the street I ride down every day. I've seen them before, sometimes they like to race my bike in the summertime. One of them, about four years old, is off by herself, basically sitting in the dirt, and when I ride by, she looks up and smiles and says, "hi whitey!"
I just had to laugh (actually I snorted), cuz it was so unexpected and audacious for such a little girl. But I have to admit that I also thought it was a little fucked up too. It's just kind of sad to see a kid that young already drawing racial lines. I'm sure she was just mimicking something she heard, but that doesn't mean she shouldn't be aware of what it means, right? Maybe I'll just say "hi brownie!" next time I see her, and let her ruminate on that for a while.
Somewhat on the topic of racial stereotyping, here's a game called
Bin Laden Liquors that Zaxxon sent me this morning. Turns out that pretending to shoot Bin Laden is a pretty good way to blow off some steam, and when you get a little thirsty, well, just watch what happens after you blow through half a round on your 9mm.
Also kinda sorta on the topic of racial stereotyping, here's a movie that is making a concerted effort
not to stereotype or otherwise belittle Mexican culture:
Nacho Libre. Currently in post-production, it's a flick about Mexican wrestling, aka
lucha libre, starring none other than Jack Black and directed by
Jared Hess of Napoleon Dynamite fame. Even though the movie isn't finished yet, I'm gonna go ahead and declare it to be...
AWESOME! (Thanks to Dr. Otto for the heads up on Nacho Libre).
Pie in the Sky
Hot damn, today is
National Pie Day! Seriously! Just ask the
American Pie Council if you don't believe me. The site features several ways in which to celebrate National Pie Day. My favorite? "
Do pie stuff. Sing pie songs, read pie books, quote pie poems, make pie charts." To help you with your Pie Day celebrations, here are lyrics to some pie songs:
Pie in the Sky, which claims to be "the most comprehensive song ever written about pie."
Slice of Your Pie by Motley Crue
American PieCherry Pie by Warrant
Wild Honey Pie by the Beatles
Some pie poems for you to enjoy:
Alligator PiePoetry PieMake the Pie Higher! by none other than Dubya.
And finally, a pie chart for you to study while you enjoy a delicious slice of pie. Or, as my mother would say, "Cuppa coffee and a piece-a pah."
I'm sure Jess will be heading to House of Pies, our favorite LA institution, for dinner tonight if she knows what's good for her (and she does). The rest of you, get thee to your
local bakery asap and bring a pie home for dessert tonight. Or better yet, get two - one for dinner and one for dessert.
(Big ups to Ding Dong for the heads up on National Pie Day).
Once it hits your lips, it's so good!
Oh sweet mystery of life, at last I've found you. Right before lunch today, Pablo IM'ed me
this, and told me to scroll down to the last picture, which I advise you to do as well. Yes folks, it's true. Budweiser gelato. Fuck lemon, lime, all that shit. Budweiser gelato is the future.
We found it at the
Yoogo Gelato store on Grant & Broadway (near Columbus). It's not listed as one of their regular
flavors, so some gelato mastermind at Yoogo must have dreamed it up. Is it good? Hell yeah it's good, it tastes like Budweiser! Well, more like a delicious semi-sweet frozen Budweiser dessert. I highly recommend that you drop whatever the hell you're doing and get your ass over to Yoogo to get some. It's Friday!
Oh, and I almost forgot the best part. Right when we were ordering at the gelato counter, in walks a short bus full of excitable special folk, one of whom got
really excited when he found out I was ordering the Budweiser gelato, and did a very animated rendition of what was going to happen to me after I ate it.
Score one for the King of Beers
The town of Westerville, Ohio just lifted its 131-year ban on the sale of alcohol last week, and a local pizza joint auctioned off the first beer that would be legally sold in the town. Winning bid was $150. And what did the winner choose for this landmark beer-drinking occasion? Tha's right, bitches -
a Bud.
Speaking of the King of Beers, the Lord of Beechwood Aging, the Prince of Drinkability, Tung recently informed me that you can get your very own whatever@budweiser.com email address. I snagged stefanie@bud and robot@bud. Get yours
here.
And since we're on the subject of beer, check out the
Molecular Expressions BeerShots website, where a bunch of beer-lovin' geeks have posted photographs of various beers taken with an optical microscope. I have no idea what that
means, but I've only ever seen Budweiser look like
this on the playa. Also,
Red Stripe is pretty. So fucking pretty. And what the hell are those Japanese putting in
their beer? You can even buy a poster of your favorite beershot on the site.
Or, if you're like DingDong and you don't dig on beer, check out their
Cocktail site, especially the
vodka cran,
Tequila (that counts as a cocktail now?),
rum (pretty!), and everyone's favorite Tahoe drink, the
White Russian.
Cousin Elias
So I'm grabbing a bite with my friend Brian a couple of nights ago, and as he was filling me in on some highlights of his trip home to Dublin for the holidays he mentioned hanging out with these fellas and hearing them jam- and being blown away. Now, in the time that I've known Brian I've come to understand that he has trustworthy taste in music, so when he says something's good I tend to pay attention. He was kind enough to slip me their EP later that night so I could see for myself. Frankly, I can't stop listening to it. These guys are like Bright Eyes but with less early twenty-something angst. They are a bit more mature, Dylanesque. Elias has a unique voice that at first listen seems like it might be annoying, but you quickly find yourself hooked. I remember having a similar reaction the first time I heard Nick Cave or Tom Waits. Kind of like, what the fuck? Oh, I get it...
The production also adds a lot. It has a kind of hollow, echoey quality like maybe it was recorded in a church, or the foyer of city hall or something. And from reading their website it seems like they spent some time in San Fran, so some of you may have crossed paths with them at one point or another (Irish folk in San Francisco? STFU!!). Anyway, if you're interested you can check out their
website and sample some songs.
And just because I felt this post could use a bit of color, here's a picture of a lovely day in Dublin. Here's hoping yours is just as good...
Da Beards
Jess and I were having an IM conversation today about various friends' overactive beard growth (big ups to Zaxxon for taming the beast!), and gradually the conversation turned to "
beards," i.e. the women gay men date in an effort to hide their gayness. If you've never heard the term in use before, here's an example: "Katie Holmes is totally Tom Cruise's beard."
We started wondering, if a gay man's fake girlfriend/wife is a beard, what are their children called? It's a tough call. So I'm throwing it out there to our readership (of 3? 4?):
Gay man's fake wife is to beard as gay man's fake child is to __________.
Someone's got to come up with a term soon, cuz Tomkat's kid is gonna pop out not long from now. Hmmm.... What comes out of a beard, is small, and makes guys look more macho?
Here's my entry: Spit. Or
loogies. Yeah, loogies.
You're so pretty when you're faithful to me...
Ok, so while GTG doesn't make a habit of announcing every time some dumb ass celebrity makes a sex tape that "accidentally" gets released on the internet right before they have a big movie opening, I just had to point and laugh at Colin Farrell a bit. I mean, this guy is supposed to be one of the best (if not brightest) playboys (can't bring myself to use the word playa- sorry) in a town known for it's legendary lotharios. Supposedly even the most tight-laced lasses swoon when they hear this man speak.
Which is why I was a tad befuddled when I saw this little excerpt from Colin's latest straight-to-video release:
"if a fucking camera could blush it would be fucking red because you are so fucking pretty."
Really, Colin? Pretty? You are so fucking....pretty? You silver tongued devil, you. I mean, c'mon... unless you're schtupping Polly the parrot, I don't think pretty is gonna cut it.
But Colin apparently knows how to pick his women... right off the short bus. Her response?
"Really pretty."
Dur. Mama always said, pretty is as pretty does.
(see the whole transcript on
Defamer)
God it's a slow day. If that wasn't inane enough for you, here's a
cinnabon shaped like Larry Harvey's head. (via Boingboing)
I'll leave you alone now.
Ashes and Snow
January is a month for visitors. Our good man Jeffro and his magic bus graced us this week, causing at least one hangover in week 2 of work. Ah, well, best not to set unrealistic expectations for my performance here anyway.
And to follow that, we have Alicat Magenta and Nastily Makesh-- uh, make that Smith--storming our little village by the sea this weekend. Our first order of business will be to jet over to the
Nomadic Museum in Santa Monica Saturday to see
Ashes and Snow, the Gregory Colbert exhibit. I spent some time in his website this morning going through his portfolio. Do yourself a favor- check it out. Trust me, it will change your outlook on the whole day- if not more.
Colbert says about his work:
In exploring the shared language and poetic sensibilities of all animals, I am working towards rediscovering the common ground that once existed when people lived in harmony with animals. The images depict a world that is without beginning or end, here or there, past or present.
Where better to experience a world without here or there, past or present than the Nomadic Museum- the construct of Japanese architect Shigeru Ban. The museum is made of 152 steel cargo containers that will be deconstructed and resurrected at other sites yet to be named in later years. It's here in Santa Monica until May 14, so book your accommodation at the Casa de Jess while there are still vacancies.
Iron Chef Korean?
Holy crap, I think I know why Bradley agrees with me about Chen Kenichi being the hottest chef on Food Network!
Observe:
Iron Chef Chen Kenichi
Freddie
Iron Chef Fred Funk
(Props to Pablo for the photoshop work and image hosting, despite his abhorrence of blogging.)
With friends like that, who needs frozen mice?
In keeping with GTG's tradition of keeping you abreast of all cute and/or bizarre interspecies friendships, allow me to introduce you to
Gohan and Aochan, a hamster and a snake who have become best buddies at a zoo in Tokyo.
While we're on the subject, here's a bunch of adorable pics of interspecies love and harmony, via
Let's be friends.
"And the lion shall lie down with the lamb and the snake shall drink beers with the meatball, and a giant milkshake shall lead them."
XXX Food Network action
For those of you who watch
Food Network (and I know that's most of you, don't try to deny it),
TVgasm has some great Food Network
commentary, accompanied by some great screen shots, that you need to check out. Some of my favorites:
Giada Watch 2005 - all about that giant-toothed, enormous-headed, tiny-bodied Italian chef, Giada DeLaurentiis. Be sure to read on to the fight between "Matt H" and "Matt H's girlfriend" at the end of the comments section for the XXX-action referred to in the title of this post.
Paula Deen Coronary Watch - hey, if you're gonna die, you might as well be full of butter when you go.
Suggestive Barefoot Contessa Moment of the Day - dirty!
Who's the Sexiest Food Channel Woman? - I'd have to go with Rachel Ray myself. Someone told me recently that there's a "Is it porn or Rachel Ray?" bit on that radio station that used to be non-stop dance music (97.5? The Party? Anyone?), where they play clips of either porn movies or Rachel Ray tasting her food and you have to guess which it is. Haven't caught it yet but apparently it's on in the mornings.
IMHO, the hottest Food Network
Man would be the chairman from Iron Chef America except that he's not a chef (he's a martial artist), so he doesn't count.
Jamie Oliver is kinda cute in that drunken-pasty-British-boy kind of way, so he could be a runner-up. I know Bradley has a secret crush on Marc Summers from
Unwrapped, or is it that guffawing, all-American doofus
Jim O'Connor from "The Secret Life of dot-dot-dot"? I just want to strangle both of those dudes by the end of each episode. And not in an erotic asphyxiation kind of way. In a killing kind of way.
Bobby Flay is a pot-bellied, shameful twit, especially ever since he jumped on the counter and stood on his cutting board in the first episode of Iron Chef America, so he's out.
Tyler Florence needs to be punched in the face a few times.
Alton Brown, though I love his kooky antics, is simply Not Hot...too much like a little brother. And
Michael Chiarello is the gayest chef to ever bake a quiche in gaytown.
So who does that leave us with? Who could be the hottest dude on Food Network?
Surprise, surprise, it's
Chen Kenichi, Iron Chef Chinese, for his cute chubby cheeks, deft knife handling and miraculous culinary skillz!
Boards don't hit back.
Doooood... I so want this. A freaking
life-size Bruce Lee statue. And it can be yours for a mere $610, plus $100 shipping. Can you imagine how much that would scare the shit out of burglars, houseguests, and even yourself when you stumble drunkenly to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Hell, my dad has a life-size cardboard cutout of Pamela Anderson hiding behind the guest bathroom door and that thing scares the crap out of everybody. And she only has boobs! Bruce has nunchuks (and he knows how to use them)! Sweet.
It's like an alarm clock.
Ok, so I know
Bubb Rubb is ancient history in the world of teh interweb, but even now it's still bringing joy to people, namely my bro out in D.C., who just discovered it and sent me a link this week. I watched the original KRON-4
video again for old time's sake, and sure enough, the shit is still funny as hell. In case you didn't know, dude has his own
website now (or, more likely, someone is running a website in his name), complete with a Cafe Press store.
Whistle tips must have gone out of style right quick, cuz by the time I moved to West Oakland, nobody had them. I've never heard one in our neighborhood in the year and a half I've lived there. Still lots of spinners though, the best of which is on a crappy old van...I guess the owner of the van couldn't afford to get spinners for all of their wheels, so they only got one and put it on the spare tire on the back of the car where, duh, it doesn't spin.
And in totally unrelated news, I was sitting on Fritz's & Chad's stoop last Saturday afternoon when out of the blue, a couple of Tung's old friends from New Orleans, Michelle and her son Jack, walked by. I met them a couple years ago, and if you were at the BTx vs. FnF campout in Willits two summers ago, you probably met them too. They lost everything thanks to Katrina, and have moved to SF permanently.
Michelle an incredible photographer (you can see a small sample of her work
here as well as her awesome self-portrait
here), so I'm going to try to hook her up with Eiming at 111 Minna so maybe she could do a show and sell some work. We all have so many resources here and she has nothing but Jack (which is a pretty big score, admittedly) - I figure the least I can do is use my connections to try & help her out.
Jack is 7 years old, and is one of the coolest kids I've ever met. On the way to the Willits campout, he came up with this cute little thought, which happens to be a perfect haiku:
I wish I was a
Shark, so I could swim up to
The moon and eat it.
Local boy meets Aquateen
In case you've been under a rock and weren't yet aware, LA producer Danger Mouse (producer of The Gray Album as well as the the Gorillaz' Demon Days) has teamed up with Atlanta rapper MF Doom and those goofy bastards at Adult Swim (also of Atlanta) to create
DANGER DOOM, an album featuring the characters from
ATHF. I haven't heard it yet, but there's a video clip on the website and it sounds promising so far. Also the first single is called "Sofa King," which is sure to be an instant classic. I'll try to post a review at some time in the near future after I get my hands on a copy.
We are
sofa king
we tod id.
Animal lovers: get thee pet insurance
So, while the blogger in me is truly ashamed, I am just not going to be able to post very much this month, if at all. January sees me working 2 jobs, the new one (which includes a nifty hour's commute each way) and the old one (yes, that's right, they missed me and came crawling back). Add to that the fact that I am searching for the holy grail of LA apartments-- a huge loft space in a decent neighborhood downtown, and I predict little blogging time to be had for the foreseeable future.
Now we have another, greater complication. My beloved Sadie Mae, who is one of the cutest cats in the known universe (no lie) has been struck with leprosy. As near as anyone can tell anyway. She's been to 2 vets- one of whom called her lesions "spectacular" and then called her dermatologist friend to brag- and neither of them have any clue what the problem is. As we speak she is lying on a table in Pasadena being biopsied. They don't think that the condition is life threatening, thank God, but at the very least her treatment will require weekly vet visits for the next month and a half. Lesson to all of you who are fortunate enough to currently have healthy pets: get pet insurance. Sadie had never been sick a day in her life, and I always said I was going to get pet insurance, just in case. Well, I didn't. Now I'm paying for it, big time. Seriously. Go do it right now. It will cost you like $6 a month, and will save you a world of hurt if this happens to you.
So, here's a post I was working on before the plague struck my house. Until next time, here's hoping the new year brings you health, happiness, and lots of beats, bacon, and beer:
I'm more of a
Times New Roman girl, myself, but these
Helvetica hoodies are tres dorkie and, therefore, very appealing.
The same designer* also makes
Battle Royale costumes that would be perfect for the next Halloween Renegade, especially since Tung looks so fetching in a skirt, and since we all enjoy pretending to kill each other so much (if you haven't seen
the movie yet, add it to your queue. It's really good stuff for a cracked out Sunday. If you're into sadistic Japanese films about teenagers offing each other, that is. And, really, who isn't?).
Speaking of sadistic things, keep an eye out on eBay for
these. I always found talking toys a bit creepy. Now I know why. (via
Boingboing)
* Unfortunately,
Cool Hunting also reports that she was
killed recently when struck by a car. I'm sure she'll be missed.
