I met Boyd Rice

and he was very nice...

Best text ever...

From Sam Jayne
"Hey love as laughter alumni and heavy hitters there is a show in portland sep 20. Isaac is flying us out its the gp showcase for northwest music fest at crystal ballsroom and its gonna be huge. We can use MM double drums and percussion. We just have to find places to tay, i can help with that. Whos in?"

Translation:
Isaac Brock is flying a bunch of us out for the Glacial Pace showcase for the Northwest Music Fest at the Crystal Ballroom. We can use Modest Mouse's gear.

The line-up is:
Modest Mouse
Love as Laughter
Mimicking Birds
Morning Teleportation

I'll be singing back-up and playing tambo/cowbell. It will be an all-star Love as Laughter show I'm sure, since the group has some seriously awesome alumni. I'm stoked. Individual tickets for the show are already SOLD OUT but people with wrist bands will be able to come in until it's at capacity (which is 1000.) SCARY!

Sam recently let me join in for a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. It was free and the afterparty for the Mission of Burma show earlier that afternoon. We played with The Nasties and Violent Bullshit and it was a real good time. The Nasties are fucking awesome and we hope to have them play at the shop real soon.

Anyway, this means I'll be in Portland for a couple of days in September. My broke ass can't afford any more vacations (my most recent ones have been on someone else's dime or paid for by DJing gigs) so this is grand great news! I'm so excited...and this is gonna be way easier than tour.

Gotta practice my harmonies!

Highway Kind

Watched Be Here to Love Me for the first time last night. The doc was so-so, still heartbreaking, but not the greatest film. But the quality of the storytelling doesn't really matter, I love Townes Van Zandt so much that any further glimpses into his story bring me joy. Nothing beats his scenes in Heartworn Highway, though. However, getting to see that much Guy Clark made me so happy. In my circle it seems like everyone knows Townes (and with good cause, he is one of the greatest songwriters of all time) but no one pays much mind to his contemporaries. Guy Clark, Joe Ely, Steve Earle, all great and all I'm going to be listening to in the shop today.

There are two great recordings that I believe are bootlegs. I'll post them on an update soon. There is the "Afternoon Workshop" which was recorded in 1983 at the Vic Theater as part of a songwriter's workshop with John Prine, John Hiatt, Guy Clark, and Joe Ely featuring storytelling and an amazing version of Joe Ely playing Butch Hancock's Boxcars.



Here is Guy Clark playing Rita Ballou on the Texan Connection



And live in Austin, LA Freeway...this one kills me. If you go to the YouTube page there are some crazy comments...



The other record is Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark - Together at the Bluebird Cafe. It's a superb live album that has amazing story-telling and a great vibe between the three (at least deserving to be called) legends. I highly suggest it. It's funny, heartbreaking, and beautiful.

Here's Steve Earle on David Letterman playing his Celtic Appalachian fusion country hit...Copperhead Road...1988


Here's a cool interview with Steve Earle. Can't find a good embeddable video of "I Ain't Ever Satisfied:


And here is the a crazy Desperados Waiting for a Train All-Stars performance:

Paging Val Kilmer

Wow, Donatella, who knew...

Bare assed but not embarassed...

So not only did I get naked in Vice, I wrote about it. And I wrote about being air-brushed and I showed the world my non-airbrushed ass. What am I crazy? Maybe...but what the hell...

Check it out

More than just a couple of dicks

Two days after reading this article about residents' frustrations about the recent rash of filming in Greenpoint the new Kevin Smith movie, A Couple of Dicks started shooting on my boyfriend's block. After walking 8 miles to and from the Lower East Side the last thing I wanted to deal with was the cameras and the lights right outside the window, so I was relieved to see they were shooting around the corner a couple of blocks away down Nassau. Unfortunately even though the shots were being done with stunt doubles enclosed in cars, it prompted a crowd that extended all the up to our quiet street. Maybe they are hoping to catch a glimpse of Bruce Willis or Tracy Morgan (I thought I saw him from the window last night but from my aerial view it could have just been a black guy in a baseball cap) but honestly I don't think they are even on set tonight.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe Tracy Morgan will do come out in a star-spangled unitard and start doing backflips, but have you ever been a bystander on a film set? It's the most boring of boring. I remember being in D.C. when I was 12 where they were filming the Pelican Brief. Basically we spent 30 minutes watching Julia Roberts running in and out of a building over and over again until she finally rewarded us with a brief turn and wave. This case is far more hopeless. They are filming two blocks down yet for some reason there is a crowd assembled on Sean's roof (he lives on the top floor of a three family building and I can guarantee you none of the people on the roof live in the building, unfortunately all the roofs on the block are attached.) They've been up there for the past hour gazing at a whole lot of nothing, unless you count floodlights. Holy hell.

Micki Pellerano post on the Vice Blog

Check it out, Micki and His Minions

Micki asked me to be in his performance and I was so proud to participate. The photos my editor Liz took turned out amazing too.

Also the photo issue is out. The pics from the Angela Boatwright shoot are up on the site.