"they tried to make me go to rehab..."

it must have been about 6am today when i was awoke out of my early morning slumber to a sound that reminded me of flying lawnmowers. needless to say i did what any sensible person would do: i rolled over and dreamed about the winged gardeners and airplane-like leaf blowers that would obviously accompany the airborne lawnmowers. judging from jane's tossing back and forth, she was doing the same.

after fully waking up and taking a look out the window, there were 4 helicopters hovering over santa monica near the police station. jane's reasonable explanation was a search and rescue at the nearby beach. closer inspection though showed that the helicopters belonged to the news stations rather than the police or coast guard. so what was going down near the civic center?

turns out it was lindsay lohan, fresh outta 45 day rehab, chasing her personal assistant in her car. apparently, her assistant had quit and was running away from her. lindsay was so distraught by this she decided to give chase and convince her assistant to stay in his/her post. this is the type of thinking that only makes sense when you're high:

ok, my assistant just left me. not good. this would mean i'm picking up my own starbucks for at least a few days while i replace her. i can deal with this, dammit, i'm lindsay lohan. what will really convince my assistant they should stay with me is if i chase her across town in my car. let's see... car keys? check. handbag? check. gram of coke? hmmmm... i really shouldn't but it *is* easier than getting my own coffee for a little pick-me-up. check!

so here's our lovely starlet following her little chase through town. not a bad shot considering some of the mugshots i've seen of other handcuffed stars (remember mel gibson's?) unless there is some grave travesty of justice, lindsay will end up in jail somewhere in LA for at least a short period of time, a la paris hilton. should be good celeb gossip and stupid news fodder for months to come. since i don't watch tv, i'm really fine with this if people find this interesting. the only thing i ask is just keep the helicopters somewhere else so that i can go back to dreaming about extinguishing california wildfires with vats of tapioca pudding and an army of horse-sized gophers.

getty & the bowl

summer in los angeles bring back with it some of the finest things in life. namely...

- green corn tamales at el cholo
- evening bike rides on the sta monica strand
- strawberries and (later) persimmons at the farmer's mkt on main street (sun) and 3rd street (sat)
- free summer concerts at the getty
- free summer concerts in marina del rey, overlooking the harbor
- and lastly, the always fantastic world music series at the hollywood bowl (not even close to free, but completely worth it)

the shot above is of the getty, all lit up, while los amigos invisibles tear it down during their evening performance on opening nite. not bad at all.


nonetheless, the shot to the upper left was of the far better performance by brazil's dj dolores who killed it on the lower stage with his band 'alparelgahem". if you look closely, you can see him playing on the decks while smoking a cigarette out of the corner of his mouth. maybe a smattering of unnecessary cool, but forgiveable given how great their performance was. all the better, they played during sunset, so you could see the sun descend over the ocean while taking in the brazilectro.

the other shots here were from the equally memorable opening of the series we subscribed to this year at the 'bowl. the show featured cafe tacuba with groove armada as the opener. i'd bet this is one of the few times GA has opened for anyone, but given the latino population in LA it makes sense.

GA put on a great show, trotting out a fairly full band and several vocalists including MAD (SuperStylin', Lightsonic) and Skush. there was another performer as well but that was after 2 bottles of vino and i'll be damned if i can remember who it was. they balanced between old faves like "chicago" and "my friend" as well as some of the better stuff from soundboy rock. they didn't play "out of control (song for mutya)" which is arguably the best track from their latest album.

to the right is long lost pal danny, who out of some stroke of luck sat down across from us. great seeing you my man.

current playlist

burst generator - chemical brothers - we are the night
carbon kid - alpinestars (feat brian molko) - white noise
rick rubin - spank rock - yoyoyoyoyo
cold brains - beck - mutations
keep the car running - arcade fire - neon bible
back to black - amy winehouse - back to black
don't hide it - alexkid - mint
big wednesday - adam freeland - free*land
may day - UNKLE - nights temper
a portrait of autumn - jon kennedy - take my drum to england
supermoves (animatrix edit) - overseer - the animatrix o.s.t.

true colors concert

last weekend my pal te'o offered me up a ticket to the last leg of the true colors concert, an 80s gig that benefits the "erase hate" (read: gay rights) cause. the headliner and brains behind it all was cyndi lauper, now 54 and with something like 9 albums under her belt. there she is to the right, as rendered by the Q on the video screen at the greek theatre, which survived the recent fires without so much a scratch.

we showed up in time to catch debby harry's set (former blondie front woman), which was about 5 songs too long (probably 10 total). debby, you're in your 60s now sweetheart. your voice isn't bad, but pseudo punk just doesn't sound the same from a paunchy lady whose face is criss-crossed with more lines than an indiana jones travel map. "french kissin' in the usa" was the highlight, and she unfortunately steered clear of a bunch of blondie faves like "heart of glass".

cyndi may have scored the headline position since she had organized the tour but the legions of gay boys at the event were there to see one act: erasure. i remember buying their top hits album about 15 years ago and listening to it almost nonstop for a couple months. yes, it follows a steady formula but it's really well-done and andy bell still sounds great. the only time they missed during their 10 song set was with one of their new tracks which sounded a little bit like synthed-up polka. for the rest of the songs the entire crowd was on their feet singing: savannah song, sometimes, chains of love, oh l'amour, etc.

we had pretty low expectations for cyndi lauper but i'll have to admit she was nearly as good as erasure. she's got a great stage presence (very relaxed, fun) and her quirky voice is surprisingly strong. i don't know whether they blessed her with a little extra volume in her mic but cyndi belted out tracks like "i drove all night", "good enough", "she bop" and of course "girls just wanna have fun". in contrast to debby harry, she looks pretty damn good for her age too, in spite of her purple hair. they wrapped it all up with "true colors" and with everyone on the stage for "a little respect" and all the colored balls you see in the shot above being pumped out into the crowd.