Taix Friday nights live on their own…….at The Plate Tectonic Social Club.

Taix Friday nights are an old fashioned social experience, something tactile.  Somehow you don’t feel like whipping out the phone and checking social networking sites.  You sit at a round table, no corners. Just people. Close.  People move between people. Having cocktails, smiling.  No snob vibe here.  There’s food we don’t deserve so beautiful and epicuran.  It’s a place where ‘cultured punk’ meets the studious sound of up and comers. The room is traditional lounge- bohemia with room for discovery.  There is a vibe here, a rumbling.  Come check it out on any given Friday night. Taix 321 Club, with Friday nights deemed, “The Plate Tectonic Social Club” The night is always booked by Echo Park local Greg Franco of L.A. Band Rough Church and past seminal L.A. punk outfits galore (ala Ferdinand, Blasphemous Yellow, & New Zealand solo project known “The Wandering Bear “)..Taix’s Friday night “Plate Tectonic Social Club” is Smooth all the way…they valet park your car  too for a mere pittance.  It’s about time.

Christina Long ~The Trouble With Milk

Greg Franco of Rough Church

Bikos - Recently at Taix

RS seems to have started this love affair with the F-Bomb a few years back and in the last year or so, this love affair has gotten hot & heavy.  RS, nowadays usually locked and loaded, spews the expletives ad nauseum.   Personally. I won’t read RS any more, and I’ve been an avid reader for the last 22 years!  I was too young to read early Hunter Thompson, aware enough to read later Hunter & all the greats of the late 70′s to current. Through their gonzo hey day & eclectic reporting of the 80′s & 90′s I was always enthralled practically cover to cover.  I later accepted their descent into Hollywood adoration, but soldiered on. I kept reading.  I can’t help but wonder now, about this literary F-bomb thing. Is it purely to look cool & rebellious? Good writing accomplished this in the past!

The all too common RS F-Bomb phenomenon smacks of a  totally tired &  transparent attempt 2 relate to 20 somethings whom it has been proven use one “F-Bomb” for every 2 minutes of speech. 

 Jann Werner, the publisher / owner of Rolling Stone  did order a re-vamp of the publication in the 1990′s   in order to speak to younger readership. 

Did a memo go out?…”Attention writers:  were looking more “grandpa” & more “woosie” by the minute (even with our late 90′s revamp that cut out U2 & you know, “Old people’s music” like R.E.M & the like)…Isn’t working…  So let’s leave anything older than 1999 in the dust &  oh! Hey!!!! anywhere u can work in more F-Bomb’s  drop away! “

So the virus spreads… I guess Hollywood’s “A” list has latched onto this cool new marketing tactic too!  Case in point, tonight’s Academy Awards! 

Marketers say its a way to affiliate with the young. guard against a slow and sure landslide into dullness & mediocrity.  Is a transparent move toward “bruiserish under-thought coarse  language” a way to impress or win over the youth of today? Rolling Stone, the youth of today are smarter than the parts of their language and they should be up in arms over how you have decided to communicate with them.  Rolling Stone, you may well have  collected lexicological data on your target market, but they want you to be better than that. Its the classic do as I say, not as I do, that will keep you elevated in their eyes.  Not some thinly shrouded attempt at expletive affiliation. 

Chrissylong

It is a call for a level playing field for all people, or at least a demand for a government that works for ALL and endeavors to take care of all of the classes.   The disproportionate wealth in Egypt is obvious and the people will take no more of Mubarak’s policies.

All governments should be reminded that they work for ALL of the people and that they are in power to lead as is a representative entity of the people. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.  The greatest power that a people can have is the power to choose, and this is now what the Egyptians are asserting.  Their power to choose. They choose for Mubarak to step down.

Why Egypt’s progressives win – Opinion – Al Jazeera English.

http://8tracks.com/mixes/213282/player_v3

After enjoying my scalding dip (which lasted approximately an hour), I dried off and took a seat next to my husband at our local Mexican food eatery, “The Whole Enchilada.”  I consumed “Street tacos.”

It did, in fact, cross my mind that i just paid $10.00 for a plate of ‘street tacos’ not on the ‘STREET but ‘in THE ‘KITCHEN’ of a corporate restaurant.  I probably should’ve  mosied back down the boulevard and bought some those tacos for about $2.00!   Yes, I did get a tiny bowl of frijoles de la hoya with a ‘pift’ of cacique cheese floating in it, but even that didn’t make it a moderate economic gain.  After whooshing the corporate cloaked ‘street tacos’ down my gullet,  Steve and I decided we would see the latest Coen Brothers’ movie, “True Grit.”  but with an hour to kill before our flick,  we decided to first go to our local bookstore use it like a library (as usual.)  Usually we purchase a coffee and cookie reading books in their entirety and taking pictures of weird titles.  We’d wait until the movie started or they kicked us out.  Whatever came first.

I hung in Cultural studies / social issues because I can’t get enough controversy, stories of intervention and political unrest.  I must say that I do have a ‘highbrow literary fantasy’ so sometimes I break character and skulk over to the literary fiction looking for affecting coming of age tales with political overtones set in middle America.  Ahem Thomas Pynchon..Ahem…

Steve dallied in Tech, computing, cooking or building.  But I was hoping to find something different in my usual domain, running my finger along several spines, the  new P.J. O’Rourke, the new Amy Goodman, 

some blasted books blasting Obama, some social book applauding Oprah, what it feels like to be half black and half white, how it feels to be transgender.  Partisan stuff, union stuff, struggles of women with eating disorders and how to talk to your child if he’s in a gang.  I noticed some opinion stuff on Kabul and then… there I spotted it.  ”PostSecrets.” Intrigued in general with ‘secrets,’ I opened the book.  ”PostSecrets” is a book created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard.

The simple concept of the project was that completely anonymous people decorate a postcard and portray a secret that they had never previously revealed. No restrictions are made on the content of the secret; only that it must be completely truthful and must never have been spoken before.

Entries range from admissions of sexual misconduct and criminal activity to confessions of secret desires, embarrassing habits, hopes and dreams.  I was intrigued to say the least.  I flipped through the book dazzled by the humor, the honesty and yes the sadness.

The sadness was striking and hard to digest at the same time since it was expressed with such artistic beauty.

Some of the revelations sworn to secrecy were familiar.  Yes, at times I do hate people who display some of the same traits that I do hate within myself.  But I read on.  I found people who felt ignored, unloved, bound and angry.  Some were flippant, using the platform / art piece / literary work as a context to simply goof on the idea of a secret through the use of exaggeration or minimalism.  There were ‘matter of fact secrets’ and then there were ones that we only have had inklings were occurring in some of our family friends and neighbors.

As I perused the expanse of artwork, now with Steve looking over my shoulder, I was turning the pages and found this!  It said, “I cheated on my husban with a woman and i’ll do it again.”  In a way I felt honored to be the unlikely and completely unexpected

recipient of one woman’s “secret.”  I felt sad that she (whomever she was), was obviously torn in her relationship, and that she was burdened with something she seemed to feel ashamed of.  I felt sorry for the unknowing party, the deceived, the husband.  This unknown woman had seen the book, gone into the bathroom which was only 10 steps from the end of the aisle where the section was located, and tore a sheet from the towel dispenser, authored her admission and left it for discovery.

I felt as though the sadness and beauty of this book had just reached out and touched me in reality, there on that shelf in that bookstore while killing time waiting for a Coen Brothers’ movie.

"I only ever played sports to feel like my father loved me."

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,000 times in 2010. That’s about 7 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 53 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 81 posts. There were 257 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 84mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was December 9th with 66 views. The most popular post that day was “SOUNDS-WEST” The best music in Los Angeles .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, facebook.com, webmail.aol.com, en.wordpress.com, and WordPress Dashboard.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for the trouble with milk, birth defects pictures, disney female characters, deadmau5, and disney male characters.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

“SOUNDS-WEST” The best music in Los Angeles October 2009
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NCLB and it’s effects on school ‘truancy.’ or…Pearls of Wisdom: “If our American life fails the child, it fails us all.” ~ Pearl S. Buck writer and sometime sha-woman.. March 2010
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Kettleman City – We need another Cesar Chavez. February 2010

Micachu and the Shapes: Bite your lip, get up and Dance. January 2010

How the Amelia Bedelia Books SHOULD be titled! October 2009

Note: Although Gil Franco passed away in 2006, it is obvious that we as a country are still dealing with the ‘fascism’ that we were during the reign of ‘King George.’  Read this and ‘remember how we felt.’

Now… think about our current struggle for ‘freedom of speech‘, (Assange, Jeremy Marks, so many others), ‘truth’, (Assange, our war engagement), and ‘transparency.‘ (there are too many examples to place in parenth!)

The ‘slowly, but surely ‘part,  of this essay…was so prescient.

Read on…

Find Gil’s (My dad’s) writing still posted on http://progressivewritersbloc.com

On Sunday March 5 while watching CNN a story appeared that certainly got my attention. It was about a high school teacher in Aurora, Colorado who was suspended (lucky for him, with pay) when he asked his students if they thought there were any similarities between President George W. Bush and Adolph Hitler. (By the way, just Google “Bush Hitler Similarities” and you will find several lengthy lists of similarities various people have compiled.) One of his students, a fifteen year old boy, “just happened” to record this question on his hand held recorder. The teacher, Jay Bennish, did not deny that he asked the question, but he emphasized that he posed his remark as a question, not a statement, in order to stimulate a dialog with his students.

I agree with Mr. Bennish because grappling with controversial issues is supposed to be part of the educational process. A teacher is supposed to get his students to think, isn’t he? Though this incident has been a mere blip on the radar screen, thus far, I find it disturbing (to put it mildly) in the sense that the teacher’s first amendment right (the freedom of speech provision) was violated. Quite frankly this doesn’t surprise me at all. Why? Because this administration has slowly but surely squelched, put down, denied, pressured, or humiliated anyone who disagrees with them. (Hey! That’s a similarity with Hitler right there, isn’t it?) They’re denying us, Americans, our constitutional rights slowly but surely.

What’s almost laughable is that Bush and his partners in crime have the audacity, temerity and unmitigated gall to state (ad nauseam) that they want to spread freedom and democracy around the world while at the same time they’re taking our freedoms away here at home! They must think we’re all just a bunch of brainless morons. Well, I have news for the Bush regime’s boot-lickers and hangers on. There are some of us in this great country of ours who are waking up to the grim reality that confronts us here in the United States of America. There are many of us who do not fall for Bush’s lies, and double talk. We are not part of his so-called base; huge and powerful corporations (foreign and domestic), the oil industry, pharmaceutical firms, the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Halliburton, etc. Yes, it’s incumbent on those of us who know a con artist when we see one to do everything in our power to stop the theft of our constitutional rights. No one is going to do it for us; it’s up to us. The future is now. Tomorrow will be too late. So let’s stop complaining and start rolling NOW!

http://player.vimeo.com/video/10149605Logorama from Marc Altshuler – Human Music on Vimeo.

Easton, driven westward both geographically and musically since his college days in Akron Ohio, finally settled one hundred and forty  miles east of  Los Angeles in the sweet little outpost known as Joshua Tree.  A place where the work of contemporary artists can be found among cactus and creosote, where eclectic and soulful music  is made among the  Ocotillo and the yucca.  Though his  home base is admittedly Joshua Tree honky tonk watering hole Pappy and Harriets, Tim’s toured extensively in support of his four albums to date, landing in Europe and Asia in addition to a myriad of cities in the United States.  A 2006 tour opening for Lucinda Williams landed him at the Pabst theate in Milwaukee, the Ginger Rogers Theater in Medford Oregon, and the Paramount Theater in Austin Texas expousing revealing his soulful influences of Muddy Waters, Woody Guthrie.

Easton’s Folk Americana vacillates between the low down bluesey  growl of “Burgundy Red” from his 2009 release “Porcupine” to the  gospel meme hootenanny of “carry me” featured on 2001′s “The Truth about us” ”Get What I got” also off Porcupine, offers a post punk downtempo vibe, with a slight nod to CCR  hiding quietly in plain view.  ”Porcupine” combines Easton’s exploratory past while welcoming an edginess,that compounds all the elements digested by Easton over the years.

As if making  cathartic blues Americana wasn’t enough, Tim creates inspired folk art paintings that are currently centered on the motif of ‘the guitar.’  Certainly the god’s cannot be so indulgent! as to afford an already great musician an outstanding talent in a second craft,  But oh yes the god’s gluttony exposes them.  Easton’s paintings turn out not to be sophomoric indulgences by any means, in other words, they are not musings stretching weakly into another creative genre. They are  inspired and informed.  True pieces of mature art.  If you ventured out to SXSW in 2009  Tim’s visual representations were on display at the YARD DOG  gallery, as will several pieces from the 500 Individually painted vinyl jackets supporting”Porcupine.”  The vinyl jackets for this album were  paintings combining wood stain and designs of guitars and porcupines.  Tim’s other folk art uses found wood, oils and acrylics, chalk and pastels, and mostly features the guitar as it’s main subject.    If Musician, visual artist, aren’t enough to fill one’s creative palate, the “creatively-voracious” Easton also writes and is the founder and publisher of a community newsletter and ‘zine called The Joshua Tree Republic.”

A Video snippet of Tim Live in Bucyrus, Ohio exposes Easton telling the crowd that ‘the song he’s going to play next is called, ‘Carry Me’ at which time  very drunk woman whom has apparently been very disruptive during the show with a raspy voice finally yells, “SLAYER!!!, SLAYER!!!”  Tim isn’t caught vulnerable, instead he capitalizes on the situation with a deadpan and swift response by saying, ‘the day I play a Slayer song, is the day you get married.”   Easton comically takes interruptions, hecklers in stride.  and with humor, marches on, no bother and begins picking.

This is Real Folk music, an undeniable a romp  through the desert. It’s music about relationships – both coveted and lost.  The beauty and the tragic things too.  This is Americana,  This is the real Hootenanny, this is some kind of rave up, this is Tim Easton.

Find Tim Easton at: http://timeaston.com

~Chrissylong