“Wonderful Disguise” – Mike Scott of the Waterboys
–
Bring the unforgiven
Bring the unredeemed
Bring the lost, the nameless
Let ‘em all be seen
Bring ‘em out of exile
Bring ‘em out of sleep
Bring ‘em to the portal
Lay them at my feet
Bring ‘em all in, bring ‘em all into my heart
–
Mike Scott. My favorite songwriter.
P.S. Another “name these tunes” is up over at Kulturblog.com.
This weekend I took Nathaniel and Dillon to Hollywood and LA. We went to a photo store in Hollywood called Freestyle. I mainly wanted to see what kind of Polaroid film they had and how much it was. But I picked up a bunch of cool attachments, including a fisheye, for my Holga camera. Happy birthday to me!
Then the boys went off to browse Amoeba Records, while I took Flat Liberace to dance on his sidewalk star. Yes I got a picture, in spite of the many people all over the sidewalks on a Saturday afternoon in late May. Look for it to appear on the Flat Liberace blog soon.
Here are some other pictures I took in Hollywood. This is a vintage clothing store on Hollywood Blvd:
A mural on a building, forget exactly where (Hollywood’s not full of itself, or anything):
I met the boys back up at Amoeba and Dillon had found a Converge vinyl record, used, on colored vinyl. Great find. I picked up a David Sylvian double album really cheaply, myself. He’s the singer from Japan. The band, Japan, not the country.
Dillon and Nathaniel with their vinyl, outside Amoeba, and through the fisheye attachment on my Holga:
Then we swung by the Hollywood Forever cemetery. I figured we’d just drive through really quick and the boys could see Johnny Ramone’s grave. Of course I couldn’t resist getting a picture of Flat Liberace with Johnny Ramone. I’ve posted about this cemetery before—it’s got some really rich people buried there. The boys were as blown away as I was at some of the graves.
Then on the way home we decided to pull off near downtown where we always see these cool old bridges. We ended up parking at one end of the 4th Street bridge, where there was a bunch of graffiti on some buildings. The boys took off on their own, back over the bridge to get pictures of the largest graffiti tag in Los Angeles, which you can see from the bridge. It’s down in the river bed and it’s like, a half-mile long. It took something like 400 gallons of paint to do. The city says it will cost almost $4 million to remove it (because the toxic runoff has to be caught and removed from the riverbed), so it’s not going anywhere soon. Here’s a quick video view of it (we didn’t take this):
I wandered around on my own. Near where we parked:
A garage sale I stumbled upon (through the fisheye):
That was kind of surreal. The area I was in was deserted, by LA standards. Very industrial. I stumbled on this garage sale in the middle of nothing with all these people there. One drunk guy on a Harley wanted me to take a picture of his bike but I had just snapped my last frame.
They had a few boxes of vinyl, but the only record I was considering getting was a Stray Cats album—until I turned it over and saw there was dried blood smeared all over the back.
It was just weird.
A building right next to where the garage sale was:
I figured if I went up on the bridge I’d see the boys heading back from whatever direction they’d gone. I tried out some split-lens filters I got for the Holga while up there. This is looking straight down the road on the bridge:
The bridge has these benches built into each side, and this one a homeless person had taken up residence in. Their belongings were all piled on it:
I won’t mention the stairwell I came across that someone had used as a toilet. OK, so I did mention it. It was incredibly stinky, and that’s putting it mildly. More gross than I can say.
Found out after we got home that we were basically on the edge of Skid Row.
I loved it though and now want to go exploring all over downtown LA.
Elijah mentioned the other day that his friends at school asked him to windmill, and so he went up in front of the classroom where there was space and windmilled. He was complaining that now everyone always hassles him to do it again.
I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by windmilling. Here’s what I imagined:
But I knew Elijah is not the type to start break dancing in front of his class, even if he knew how. So I thought, maybe he meant this?
But why would his friends be impressed with that? It’s not like he had a guitar on hand to rock out with.
Oh, I thought. He must mean this:
(Warning: There’s swearing in that song.)
But no. I had failed to consider another type of windmilling. This is what he meant:
My kid’s got skillz.
P.S. Yesterday was Elijah’s 15th birthday. I got him a white cake with a stripe of dark red frosting around the bottom. I had them take off the colored ribbons they had
along the sides and put on black ribbons. I had them write “ROCK ON ELIJAH” in black icing and then they offered to put on some black sprinkles.
I told Daniel I couldn’t think of anything more metal to put on the cake. Both he and Elijah said “rock on” was cool enough. Elijah said, “Or you could have put, DISEMBOWELMENT…” in a death metal voice. I told him I had been trying to think of a way to work “entrails” into it but I didn’t have much time to brainstorm so just went with “ROCK ON.”
Daniel said I was the coolest mom ever.
Cat’s t-shirt says BITE ME. Doesn’t her pose look just like Madhousewife’s?
What we all look like from Nathaniel’s height:
His presents: A videocamera, a wah pedal, and a Megadeth concert DVD.
I never watch late night TV shows, which I realized lately is a real shame, because there are good bands performing on some of those shows. I started wishing there was a site that just had late night band performances collected on it.
Then Daniel went camping at Pismo Beach last weekend. And I stayed up till 2am, creating a blog where I’m archiving late night band performances.
Yes, yet another blog. But it’s fun. I’m gonna post one performance a day. I’m taking them from the TV show’s actual website, where available. Otherwise it’s all from youtube.
Here’s the blog:
http://latenight.strangepulse.com
Check it out.
Left to right: My brother Darryl, holding my little brother Dan, my sister Jenny, my brother William in plaid, hiding behind me. (Not pictured in this photo is my oldest sister, Barb.) I’m guessing this was taken in the fall of 1974, because Dan was born in June of that year. Which would make me 4 years old, William around 6, Darryl about 18, and Jenny about 17.
Darryl passed away in December of 1990, when he was 34, of cancer. Jenny passed away unexpectedly seven months later, in July of 1991, when she was 33.
Darryl used to bring his records over to play them on my mom’s stereo when I was small. I remember lying on the carpet under the upright piano, with my head right next to the speaker, listening to Pink Floyd.
Jenny used to paint my nails, and I’d go out into the front yard and spin in circles with my arms stretched out to get them to dry. I remember sneaking into her room when she was gone to try on her platform shoes.
They’re both buried in a cemetery in Washington, and I used to go visit their graves on Memorial Day weekend when we lived in Seattle. Mainly because Jenny’s birthday always lands near it. She was born on May 28, and she’d have turned 51 this year.
“…and it’s always good when you can involve macaroni art.”
— Elijah, on evolution
“Popeye’s is awesome, it just gives you diarrhea.”
— Elijah, on Popeye’s Chicken and the nature of awesomeness
“Progressive songs aren’t linear. Most songs follow a pattern of verse, chorus, verse, chorus. But progressive songs don’t do that…They put you on a path and take you somewhere. They don’t go in a circle.”
— Elijah, on progressive rock
“My math teacher was going to explain how to do a problem, and she called it an Elijah-problem. She said I always figure things out way ahead of everyone else, and it was an advanced problem. I had it done before she finished explaining it.”
–Elijah, on how great he is
The one thing that is never supposed to move is the earth beneath your feet. It’s very unsettling when it decides to start shaking.
We’ve had two minor ones in the last two days. Do you think the earth is mad at us?
So gorgeous.
That’s Opeth at the show we saw last weekend. (I didn’t take the video, just found it on youtube.)
His voice at 6:58 = knee-weakening!
And I didn’t say a word to them.
I’m such a dork.
So I took my son Nathaniel, his friend Dillon, and my son Elijah, and his friend Kris to see Opeth and Enslaved at the Glasshouse in Pomona. It’s a pretty small venue for a band like Opeth and it’s in a college town. It’s one of my favorite venues. All ages, good sound, great lighting.
We wanted to get there early enough to grab some dinner before getting in line, but we also wanted to get in line early enough to get stage spots. Doors opened at 7, so we wanted to get there by 5:30. But traffic made us arrive at 6:00, and a big line had already formed. So we go to get in line, and who’s right in front of us? A friend of Elijah’s from school, who just happens to be there with another kid the boys know from church. It’s weird how this will happen in California—when we went to see Iron Maiden, at a huge arena show, with hundreds of people getting in line, we just happened to get in line right behind some other kids we know from church.
Anyway, I was starving and my blood sugar was dropping, so I left the kids in line and went walking around the block to see if I could find a restaurant I could order food to go that we could eat in line. I went past the Mexican place we had been planning to eating at (it’s a sit down place) and who do I see walking towards me down the sidewalk? Opeth. The entire band. The singer in the lead. I’m so bad at approaching people or even talking to people I know…but a band I really admire? Impossible for me to say a word. I did look at them as they walked by, but they didn’t even glance at me. Why should they notice an old lady on the sidewalk? After they passed by I stopped and pulled out the film camera I had on me. I took this shot as they were crossing the street:
Yes, that’s a couple of the band members in silhouette, way down the street. Haha.
Then I got curious about where they were going. There was a whole line of their fans around the corner—were they going to walk right past them all? So I followed them. They turned down the alley and entered the venue from the back, though. I went back to the line and told the kids I’d just been that close to Opeth. They were all bummed I hadn’t talked to them. But what could I have said? I wish Elijah had been with me—he would have had all kinds of things to say and would not have been shy about saying any of them. (I know this for a fact. I’ve seen him meet the guitarist of 3 Inches of Blood before.) The next day I asked Elijah what he would have said to them. His response was immediate: “I would have asked them what Malmrose means in Swedish.” (We like to think it means “iron rose” but we don’t know for sure.)
Man! I could have asked Opeth what my name means! I’m such an idiot. I should prepare beforehand for these types of situations and have a list of things to say to a band if I chance to pass by them on the street.
Anyway, on to the show. I managed to snag me and Elijah stage spots, way off to one side, even with the big line of people who got in ahead of us. I tried to save one for Kris, too, but some guy snaked him. I was happy to discover only two bands were on the bill, Enslaved and Opeth. Enslaved are a Norwegian black metal band—at least, I think they started out as black metal, way back in the 90s. Not sure they’re really black metal now…they have progressive elements to their songs. They don’t do the corpse paint makeup, anyway. I know they’re pretty popular among metal fans but I’d never really gotten into them. I loved them live, though.
(All pictures are film.)
The singer tried to get the crowd riled up and there were lots of Enslaved fans there, so it wasn’t too hard. He mentioned they’d be back as headliners soon. If it’s not too expensive and at a decent venue I might try to see them again. After seeing them live I think I’ll appreciate their albums a lot more. I know I have at least one, I’ll be listening to it again now.
Then came Opeth. The crowd went wild during the very first song and I was so smashed against the stage barrier, I couldn’t move, and sort of had a panic attack. I really started freaking out. I had to leave. But I couldn’t move. It was horrible. I guess I’m getting too old for being up front at these metal shows. As soon as there was a tiny break in the being-smooshed, I started plowing through people to get to the side of the barrier where there was an open space. It’s where the security guards were and one told me I couldn’t stand there. All I could say was, “I want to get out! I need to get out!” So he had another guard help me get to the back of the crowd, where there was room to move and breathe. It took me about the whole first song to calm down again. I found a spot on a riser against the wall where I could just see the singer.
Opeth are so talented. Really impressive. I can’t believe how easily the singer can switch between the cookie monster growling and normal singing. He is hands down the best cookie monster growler I have ever heard. Most of the time I think that style of vocal is just silly. But when he does it it’s awesome. Even when he’s singing something silly about his bride dying.
Mikael’s also very entertaining live. He likes to talk in between songs. This is the third time I’ve seen Opeth live, and he definitely talked more this time than any other. Maybe because it was a smaller venue and more intimate, I don’t know. Previous times I’ve seen them, he’s always been rather boastful, but in a very joking manner. He didn’t do much boasting this time. But he talked about how he misses Sweden, where all the ladies are beautiful and walk around naked all day long and don’t care about how the men look, they’ll sleep with anyone. Which was good news for us, he said.
At one point, someone called out for a song called “Eaten.” He said he didn’t play on that song but had sang it live before, I think. He asked if we knew what it was about, and then explained it to us. It’s about the cannibal who was in the news a couple years ago who advertised in the newspaper for someone who would be willing to be eaten. He went into some detail about the whole thing that I won’t repeat here. It’s a disturbing (and true) story. At that point, I was heading toward the snack bar to get a water and missed a lot of what he was saying. I ended up finding a spot on the other side of the stage, right behind the sound board, there was a little riser there that a security guard was blocking off the entrance to, but when he saw (short little) me wandering around trying to find a spot I could see from, he waved me up there. It was heaven up there. Lots of space, with a huge fan blowing right on me. There were only a few people up there, one was in a wheelchair. Apparently, they save that spot for the handicapped and the old infirm ladies.
Mikael also talked about how back in the 80s Sylvester Stallone called him up to get his advice about a movie he was about to make with Dolph Rundgren, a Swede who is really buff. Sly wanted to know how Mikael maintained his muscular build. Mikael told him the secret was drinking lots of beers.
Then he asked us if we believed that story.
Mikael’s not exactly Mr. Ripped.
I don’t know the exact setlist they played, although I could see it on the stage before the show. They did three of my favorite songs—”Ghost Reveries,” “Closure,” and “Godhead’s Lament.” They did a song from almost every album, if not all. They did one song he said they’d never done live before, off of My Arms, Your Hearse. He said they’d been practicing it and it was difficult to get it right. He said they’d had a few trainwrecks in their career, and if we were lucky, we’d see them screw it up so bad, they’d have to stop playing, which is always fun. I had to laugh at that. This is a band I once saw do a three hour show without stopping. They have many songs that are at least 10 minutes long. Three hours of 10+ minute songs. No stopping. Of course they played it perfectly. The song was “Karma.” I wondered later if he meant they’d never ever done it live, or if they’d just never done it live with this line up (the band’s members have changed recently).
He likes to introduce songs and say what album they’re from. He introduced “Wreath” as “some of the fastest stuff we’ve ever recorded.” At one point he said they were going to do a song that was very old, that dates back to the album that had “Bridge” on it. “Bridge Over Troubled Water, do you want to hear it?” People yelled no. Then he said, “I can’t play it, let alone sing it. I don’t agree with the lyrics.” He did play a few bars of it on his guitar though. His guitar has such a nice tone to it, it sounded lovely. The song they actually played was “The Night and the Silent Water,” from Morningrise.
I couldn’t see the mosh pit really from any of my various vantage points, but after moving to behind the sound guy I could see crowd surfers getting plucked from the crowd by the security in front of the stage. Nathaniel and Dillon were in the pit and both managed to knock heads with someone at different times. Nathaniel told me he was kind of dazed from it and tried to move out of the pit but people on the sides kept shoving him back in.
Introducing their last song (before the encore), “Harvest,” from Blackwater Park, Mikael said his voice was too messed up to sing it, and he wanted the audience to sing part of it. He said we’d do the first verse, and if we messed up, he’d kill us. Everyone sang the first verse and the chorus, I think—a really quiet, mellow part of the song, and then the band stopped playing. I kind of missed what was happening because at this point I was wandering out to the merch area to try to cool off a bit. Then the band kicked back in with the growling vocals and I got my spot behind the sound guy.
Before the encore the crowd was chanting “O-PETH! O-PETH! O-PETH!” and then it changed to, “O…PETH, O…PETH! OPETH-OPETH-OPETH-OPETH!” in a singsong way.
They played one song as an encore when they came back out. But Mikael chatted a bit first while waiting for his guitar to be tuned. He mentioned that the next night they’d be playing in LA, but he couldn’t remember the name of the venue, so the crowd filled him in. It’s called the Avalon. He said, “That’s right,” and then sang, “Avalon…” You know, the Bryan Ferry song. Then he introduced the band. He started with the bassist, and someone in the crowd called out for a bass solo, so the bassist played a brief, rather funky bit of bass. I couldn’t see, but it sounded like he was plucking and slapping strings.
Mikael talked about English being their second language and how some English words they think just sound really cool, like the word snake. He said the drummer has another cool word in his name, axe. His name is Martin Axenrot, nickname Axe. He told a story about when Axe was in a band called Witchery and the singer for that band was looking for a cool title, and Axe suggested “snake” because it’s just a cool-sounding word.
He asked if we wanted the guitarist to do a solo, which we did. He played a pretty sick solo.
Then Mikael sang a note into the microphone, just an “ahhhhhh.” He may have played a note on the guitar, too, I don’t remember. He said that was the tuning the song they were about to play was in, a drop D tuning. He mentioned a guy who’s in the band Machinehead now, but used to be in a great thrash metal band called Violence. He said one time he was drunk, and he asked the guy in Machinehead if it was true that they tuned their guitars up in Violence, for a clearer sound. (Most metal bands tune down, it makes for a darker, heavy sound. Black Sabbath’s influence.) He said the guy was offended by the question. “Maybe he hates me now because I asked him if he tuned up.”
Then he asked us to go a little bit insane for the last song, and thanked us for the hospitality. They played “Demon of the Fall” from My Arms, Your Hearse.
Then they took their final bow.
My parents recently sent me a box of cheap film cameras they picked up at thrift stores. Like half a dozen or so! I’m excited to try them all out. I don’t have pictures of them yet to post, but I do have some pictures of some other cameras I’ve been given recently.
A contact on Flickr gave me these:
A TLR! I’m really excited about this camera. I don’t have many 120 film cameras, and this is a *really* nice one.
AND a Fed 3:
This is a Russian 35mm camera. I have an older version already called a Fed 5B, and it’s one of my best cameras—but I rarely use it because it’s rather heavy to carry around and the lens isn’t very wide. Well the Fed 3 should be just as nice (if not nicer) and it’s a lot lighter and smaller. Can’t wait to try it out!
The same person also gave me a 3-D/stereo camera, but I haven’t taken a picture of it yet. Nathaniel was excited about it so he’s trying it out.
In other camera news, I decided to try an experiment with my Holga. A Holga is a 120 film camera, which means it takes film that is really wide. Like, more than twice as wide as 35mm. A Holga is also a toy camera. There’s very little focus control or aperture control (just two settings: sunny and cloudy).
It’s known for it’s vignetting, like this:
(Vignetting = the dark corners.)
Anyway, I took my Holga, and put a mask in it. Here’s what the mask looked like inside the camera:
The mask is the cardboard with the “2″ on it. I put a roll of film through the camera with the mask in it. Then I flipped the mask over, so the opposite two corners would be masked, and ran the same roll of film through it a second time. Fun, huh? Here’s how some of the pics came out.
The pic of Catherine (top right) was taken in the same exposure with Elijah (lower left), and the pic of Daniel (top left) and Nathaniel (lower right) is the same shot.
This is my car, front and back:
Front of my car = lower left, top right. Back of my car = top left, lower right.
This is my feet at a cat’s grave, and some trees:
This one I screwed up on:
I’d forgot which way the mask was positioned. On the bottom right is a statue, and I meant to have the head of the statue in the frame.
This one is a power plant and a house:
It was fun. I want to try a different mask next time, and make notes about what I’ve taken on each frame, and keep better track of which way the mask is positioned!
BTW, we’re going to see Opeth tonight. No, not the opera, and not Oprah, and not even Qfclk. It’s Opeth, people!