Cure Waits, Arizona Disney. or something like that

wow. end of june already. summer is here, and a couple of spins, and it’ll be next year.

so – to fill in the gaps, a little pre and post boston updates.

May 29th – Black Kites played at the Scene – our last show until July 15th – which is coming up soon. It’s been crazy with band members alternating out of town times, but we manage to get a practice in here & there – working on some new material – possibly to be performed in the next couple of months, but more than likely it’ll be saved and perfected and placed on the upcoming album.

speaking of albums – somewhere out there is the Black Nite Crash album. look for it. get it. on vinyl, no less, though there is a CD included (so I hear). I’m so happy it’s finally done…. called “Array”. Yours truly hitting the drums. On Custom Made Music.

“Black Nite Crash is one of [Seattle’s] finest offerings, featuring impenetrable layers of guitar effects, bombastic drumming and vocals that sound as if they were screamed down through the communication system of the faulty Mars rover. This gives the band a gritty edge and frightening intensity, unlike some of their more melodious and dreamy peers… ” The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

So yeah – Black Nite Crash – find it hear it love it.

now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

May 31st, Shelley and I hit the Hollywood Bowl for the Cure. Now, I’ve been a fan for decades, but have never seen them live. It seemed like the Bowl would be a good place to see them, and yeah – we had good seats, and it was a nice night, and they played their songs, and played them from all over their catalog… but something was missing…

the audience! where were all the old goths, punks, all the death puppies and shadowy rockers. why was everyone all kinda middle aged and hawaiian shirted? But yeah – i am glad i went….

It’s just kindof a shame that i was expecting to see something like out of the film -The Cure In Orange- and ended up feeling like i was at some gothic jimmy buffet show. but still, that’s an experience in itself.

Then, it’s June…. and Massachusetts (see previous post).

we get back to LA, crash, and then get up – as i gotsta get to the practice space for a little photoshoot / interview with scenestar – it went well, i think (still hasn’t been posted on their scenestar website yet – but hopefully before our next show….

And then on june 16th it’s off to Phoenix to see Mister Tom Waits.

my first time in Arizona, my third time seeing Mr. Waits – and while Phoenix was hot and heated and hotter than here, Tom Waits was fantastic. we had fantastic seats – 2nd row – and we had a great time. another artist i’ve loved for decades  – and here the crowd was as expected. from the part-time punks to the hippie stained hipsters. from the eclectic artists to the birkenstocked college kids (who all just want to hear “Goin’ Out West” for some reason –

but yeah – he wasn’t coming any closer to us this time around, so we had to head to him…

other than that – we had 2 days to hang out, find arizona graveyards, take pictures, and find some great thrift / antique stores.

and then – back home…

with a couple of dinners with friends – Paul and Laura one night – at Buddha’s Belly, Amy & Ben at Solley’s, and a Pasadena Animal League party/gathering at Karen & RJ’s… Throw in a work related seminar at the House of Blues, a lot of “end of quarter” work to get done, and a trip to Disneyland at 7 in the morning on Sunday the 22nd to get some “collectibles” for the Tiki Room’s 45th anniversary, and it’s been a full month.

(yeah – disneyland – 8 am – really – who woulda thunk i’d be doing something like that…. we got up before 6 am – on a sunday – drove there – got there around 8 am – and stood in line for 5 hours, because by 8 am there was already about 400 people ahead of us… can i just say  CRAZY.)

we did make friends with the people in line around us, so we could all take turns wandering off – corn dogs, drinks, and we actually managed to go on the Pirates ride… but by the time we got in to the disney store, got some nifty tiki items, and got out again – all we could do was go back home –

 

now…. on to July. 

Boston By Telephone

So there are other things to mention between last post and next post – but for now, just so i can get this out of my head before it all fades away – i’m just gonna talk about our recent Boston Trip. Wicked Awesome.

We start out June 4th heading from LAX to Boston. Early everywhere, since they aren’t making it easy to travel these days. High gas prices, high ticket prices, extra charges for bags, no liquids, no nothing. it’s like someone said “War on Terrorism!” but the airlines heard it as “War On Tourism!” – pretty soon our vacations will be a bike ride to the park, and that’s about it. Anyhows, I rant – on with the tour…

we get to Boston – after not being able to watch episodes of Lost on Shelley’s computer due to lack of battery power – around 1 AM Massachusetts time. Then – about 2 hours later we finally get our rental car… hundreds of people flying in, one person working. Just our luck we are flying in at the same time the Celtics are Playing the Lakers. That’s some kinda sports thing… a legendary rivalry. I kinda get it, but still – those Boston Fans are… Dedicated!

So – car got, and off to our late night short motel stay at the Rodeway Inn.

(just so you know – there will be a bunch o’ better pictures coming to the Flickr Page – just have to do some editing – but for this – it’s just a little cellphone diary – )

Thursday morning. Checkout. Dunkin’ Donuts. There’s barely any Starbucks here – compared to like, LA, Vancouver, Seattle, The Rest of the World… But there are Hundreds of Dunkin’ Donuts. Bostonians and their fanatacisims extend to donuts as well as basketball… oh yeah – and the same weekend we were there, along with the Celtics and the Lakers – the Red Sox were playin’ as well. That city was wicked overflowin’.

We dropped our stuff off at Jamie & Angie’s house – who were gracious enough to let us stay with them for a few days. Beautiful house… wonderful people…. fun and crazy kids.

Oh yeah – this is Wakefield… Not Boston. we didn’t spend a lot of time in the city… just a bit. Before we hit the town, to check out Newbury Street and thereabouts, we stumbled across the first of many Cemeteries. So – photo time!

Then, after wandering thru the headstones, we found ourselves in Cambridge, and found a funky cool little cafe called River Gods. and we ate. The food was really good – and the waitress was nice – she wasn’t too sure about us at first, but warmed up to us quickly.

– I’m already a little iffy on the dates, as there were a few days just filled with Thriftstores and graveyards and driving around the counfusing MA streets… Shelley did an amazing job of navigating though – we did rely on a GPS, but still – those Mass. Drivers are a bit wacky. We hit Newbury Comics, Fluevog, Johnny Cupcakes, and ate at the Parish Cafe on Boylston. We saw lots of old houses and old statues and everyone wandering around looking like crazed versions of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon wearing way too much green. and saw some Hollywood style filming going on in front of one of the old old buildings. We found a cute little cupcake shop – Sweet – and brought cupcakes back to the house for everyone – and we found our way to the Warren Anatomical Museum – at the Harvard Medical School – no pictures allowed, but this was amazing. A room full of display cases – showing old ancient disfigurements – conjoined twins skeletons, skulls with strange growths, fetus bones, civil war surgical kits… like an Addams Family Playground.

We had dinner with Jamie and the boys at Kelly’s World Famous Roast Beef – but we just had Chowder… so i’m not sure how good the famous beef was. I was impressed with the huge fish tank – the five of us sat and ate and stared at li’l fish and hermit crabs. Also impressive was the Huge Scary Clown Face on the wall. Nightmare style.

Saturday (i think) we went off to Yarmouth Port, MA – because that’s where the wonderful house of Edward Gorey stands. It’s now a museum and gallery that holds the life and the art of Mister Gorey, and it’s kind of quaint, kind of creepy, and kind of fantastical. We both were kind of childlike giddy happy, getting a little tour and listening to stories about the man, his art, his life, his eccentricities. If you’re at all interested in Edward Gorey – this house is a place to be. The surrounding area is also so wonderful and quiet and old-timey – we had such a great time even finding the place.

Traffic back to Wakefield was pretty bad – Highway construction, rush hour, boston drivers – it all adds up to a lot of time spent sitting on the freeway. It was nice scenery on the sides of the road, though – a nice kinda lush west coast feel, but hotter. Oh yeah – much hotter. High heat, high humidity – heatwave. Coming back to LA where it was only 80 degrees was very refreshing. So – on the way back, we stopped in Saugus to have dinner at Kowloons – a sort of Chinese / Polynesian / American Tiki bar restaurant – with full on tiki stylin’ decor inside – pools and palm trees and statues and the obligatory wall of celebrities… (like Phyllis Diller and Sha Na Na, to name a couple). This place was pretty fantastic. Had some cocktails and finger foods and watched kids throw pennies into the fountains.

Saturday night – was our last night vacationing in the Sciarappa Household – so we sat around talking, chatting, watching James and Mike get all over-excited about showing us their home movies of when they were kids… i mean – they are kids – but time moves different in your youth – things that happened 2 years ago are a lifetime away – so we watched a couple of birthdays and of course – hilarity ensued. Then the kids begrudgingly wandered off to bed, and the four “adults” sat at the kitchen table and discovered the joys of combining Mike’s Hard Lemonade with Vodka (Absolut New Orleans) and… (well – just me for this one)… Banana Schnapps (or liquer, or something… Banana alcohol, regardless). All was great, until morning hit us…

the only cure for a banana alcohol hangover? Dunkin’ Donuts! Now i understand!

Then – Sunday to Fall River. Driving through places like Sandwich, MA – all around the Cape Cod area – such intense scenery – from the strange juxtaposition of the slightly low-income families and shops against the beautiful victorian houses and east coast greenery. Picture a lavish 1800’s mansion with overflowing gardens and a bunch of white gangsta wanna-be’s cooking hot dogs on the front lawn.

But – Fall River – to our home for the evening… The Lizzie Borden Bed & Breakfast. The first reason for our trip was to hang out with the Sciarappa fam. The second reason – was to spend the night here. The house where Lizzie Borden and family lived – where her father and step-mother were murdered – fairly brutally for the times – not quite 40 whacks – but there was an awful lot of axe-play for 1892. The current owners of the house did an amazing job of restoring every room to as close as possible to the original layout – all antiquey and victorian – and we weren’t sure how many people would be staying there, but it turned out it was just us.

We got our stuff into the room we were going to be staying in, and then drove around Fall River – checking out the neighbourhood. We found the old Fall River Cemetery, and paid our respects to the (hopefully) resting Borden family – we figured if we were going to be staying at their house we should at least say hello… no need to be rude, even to dead people.

We got back to the house in time for our own private tour – where we were shown every room, told of it’s history, and stories about the people involved and the house and the area. Very cool, and definitely worth doing. I think we were both kind of freaking ourselves out about being there, and then before we went to bed – we watched “The Legend of Lizzie Borden” starring Elizabeth Montgomery… I’m sure that didn’t help put us at ease.

So we tried to sleep, locking all the doors around us – and hearing strange sounds every few minutes… it could’ve been the house, it could’ve been something else, all i know is that sleep did not come easily that night.

Monday morning – we were up at 6 am – in order to get ready to leave, and for our 8 am breakfast – cooked just like it was in olden times. Melon balls and Johnny cakes. A wonderful, filling, huge breakfast cooked by Dave – who has been the Lizzie B. B&B cook for 12 years – and he was great. Good food, good stories, then a stop at the gift shop (of course) and off to Salem. This was one Gothy Holiday…

We even managed a quick stop at Plymouth Rock. All Pilgrims and Mayflowers and 1620 and all that. I kept thinking about Fraggle Rock for some reason. We couldn’t even see the actual rock, but we saw a big Mayflower boat. The rock was actually under some Under Construction monument… we did see a whole bunch of crazy cars and young hipster types mingling with the tourists and the old East Coast rednecks. not what you would expect from Ye Olde Plymouth… it actually does rock.

Evidently causing a little controversy – the Salemites and the Witch fans not sure how to feel about a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha the witch on proud display in the center of Salem, i found it a little charming… The whole town is overflowing with both a solid and real history, as well as a cheezy and quite possibly thriving tourism industry – all based around the image of the witch – both in fantasy and reality, spooky scary and new agey (also – some Pirates too).

we wandered around the town – checking out the places and people. Getting a few gifts, for ourselves and others, and of course – little salem shirts for the li’l dogs back home. We were going to meet up with Jamie after he got done with some classes – must be strange doing the school thing in Salem… it’s almost like living at disneyland, but with more witches and less rides. But before we met up with him – we had to make one quick stop… at the Bunghole. I have to say, hearing the GPS voice say “You Have Arrived At The Bunghole” is really quite amusing.

So we did that, met up with Jamie for a little late lunch – and then we were off to our last night – staying at the Rodeway Inn again before our early morning flight home. Dinner at Legal Seafoods in Boston, which was vey nice. A slightly fancy and fun way to end our trip.

I think i’ve skipped over some details here – but that about covers our Massachusetts Journey… we woke up early – flew back home, and passed out in bed with three very happy dogs.