Once More Into The Breach!

Logorama

2010-02-10T10:01:00.001-05:00

2009-04-01T11:06:00.001-04:00

Test.

RIP Rocky Mountain News

2009-02-27T15:23:00.001-05:00

Final Edition from Matthew Roberts on Vimeo.

Very well done doc about the closing of the Rocky Mountain News. After 149 years they published its final edition today. Sign of the times.

SNAP is Online!

2008-10-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

This is a movie I acted in back in 2003. It's really a good little film. The director Andy Muto has called it "Home Alone meets Apocalypse Now." I play a hit man named Orson.

SNAP from Andrew Muto on Vimeo.

Weird Lightbulb Ad from Thailand

2008-05-19T11:07:00.000-04:00

heartbreaker

2008-04-05T14:14:00.001-04:00

My Pal Robert (Eloise) of Lord T & Eloise at the Grammy's

2008-02-20T09:50:00.000-05:00

Beyond: INDIA

2008-02-08T17:26:00.000-05:00

Here is a quick teaser from Beyond:INDIA

Yacht Rock 11 is Here!!!! Footloose!

2008-01-30T12:56:00.001-05:00

The Bottom

2008-01-21T17:07:00.000-05:00

Last year I was the Production Designer on a film called The Bottom directed by Winn Coslick (who is now producing Let It Be starring The Black Lips). While the film has made it's rounds in the short film universe and even picked up a few awards - it's not so easy to see. Here is the trailer for the film.

express elevator off the eiger

2008-01-19T13:19:00.000-05:00

Say No to the Man!

2008-01-18T12:23:00.000-05:00

Sir Edmund Hillary - Mountaineer (1919-2008) has taken his last "Hillary Step"

2008-01-10T20:43:00.000-05:00

Sir Edmund Hillary has been a HUGE inspiration to me in my life and I ALWAYS thought of him and Tenzing Norgay everytime I thought the going was getting hard on any of my climbs.

He said it best in the title of his autobiography: Nothing Venture, Nothing Win

He

Alpinista featured on compilation CD

2008-01-09T12:09:00.000-05:00

The Agency I work for put out a cool compilation CD of bands/DJs from across the US called Take 12 and Alpinista's song "She Laugh's, She's Crazy" is on it. It's official! Alpinista now lives out there in the world - a hard copy as it were - and not only on MySpace.

Here is Alpinsta's page in the CD booklet

3000 barrells!

2008-01-03T15:16:00.001-05:00

Fun at home: Bristlebot!

2008-01-03T15:08:00.000-05:00

Hello 2008

2008-01-01T10:13:00.000-05:00

2008.

Once again a "New Year" has arrived and once again I look back over the last year and take some stock as to what the next one might have to offer.

Here's a short breakdown.

The first, and most important, change in my life over the last year is that I fell in love and that I am engaged to be married in 2008 to an incredible woman - Christina.

I dove headlong into my writing career this year (having essentially "dabbled" with it for years). I began by writing a series of cool features for The South magazine. I got a job with summer where I write about bands/pop culture, etc. and now I can confidently say that I make a good "living" writing.

As usual, I traveled: India being the most exotic of lands I visited last January. Incredible place and I can't wait to go back one day - I hope I do. My job also affords some wonderful travel opportunities and I look forward to what the next year holds. We are planning an Africa trip for the summer. I believe a person should leave the country to every year. I have not done it every year but I have trod many lands in the last twenty years and I hope to quadruple that number in the next 20.

I turned the big Four-Zero this last year. It's not such a big deal really - accept that I am no fan of getting physically older. Still, I did it right (walked in healthy and clear headed) and it looks like my 40s are off to an incredible start. I am still just as excited, thrilled and full of the same crazy gumption and wonder as I was when I was 20. I see many people around me essentially "get old" when they turn 40 (i believe those same people were going gray in their hearts when they were 20) and I can confidently say that my heart produces the same amount of pulsating, wild wonder as it did when I first strode out of the nest at 17 - maybe even more. This puts the smile on my face each day.

I made some good music this past year

Anyway, no way to predict the future - so I won't. We've got a presidential election cranking up to warp speed - no idea where that's going to go - so I won't even begin to forecast. President Obama? Clinton? Huckabee? McCain?

Happy Festivus!

2007-12-23T11:14:00.000-05:00

Love this band Datarock

2007-12-20T16:42:00.000-05:00

I interviewed Fredrik (guitar/vocals) last week in Cincinnati. Cool guy, big Scott Walker fan (who I also totally dig), great show.

Datarock

Hey, this was our idea!

2007-12-20T09:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, no idea is original, but with a little sprinkling of venture capital, they can seem original. A few years back, over beers and bbq, a dude I know (Jason) came out and said, "we should have a whole channel on TV with nothing but commercials." I nodded and thought, mmm, good idea. We spent the rest of the day and night hashing it out, figuring out how to do it, and then we realized that it cost real money (connections, etc.) to start an entire TV channel.

Tada! It was bound to happen. Why waste all that content that costs so much to make. Here it is!

This should turn up in a Bond film

2007-12-20T09:16:00.001-05:00

Remember the time...(fall of 2003)?

2007-12-19T11:27:00.000-05:00

This picture was taken when I was a true blue believer in Democratic politics (still am - because once it's in the blood, it's in the blood, but now I truly understand how twisted, rotten, evil, and inherently self-serving the whole suck ass game really is).

Case in point: I was really down with Howard Dean's trip and I worked hard to help him out. I met him (the picture looks like I am freaking him out with my words of wisdom - and maybe I am - but he needed them) in Charleston, SC at a bar called L.J.'s after he gave a speech at the campus of the College of Charleston. As we all know, he would freak out a few months later on stage (the scream) after getting his ass handed to him in Iowa. Now he runs the DNC. Anyway, I just came across this shot on the web and I have no idea who took it but as I watch this new crop running around the country (though primarily Iowa and New Hampshire) I can't help but be reminded of my own time in the trenches as it were. A lot of lessons can be learned from Dean's campaign (Ron Paul's kids are now ripping a few pages out the old Dean playbook, but I know it's not going to help him, just like it did not help Dean).

When I met him, Dean was the friggin' man, on the cover of the all the national news mags, THE FRONT RUNNER and the man to beat. Paul is out there still on the masturbating fringe - fueled by late night tweakers who have nothing to do but give their money away to a campaign so they can set one day "records" for fundraising. Oh, and don't get me wrong, we (the Dean kids) did the same delusional thing. We to were out on that same masturbating fringe - completely convinced that we were going all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania avenue with the good doctor. We set Dean's sights so high - but in the end - those 3000 tattooed, pierced, orange beany bedecked freaks from NYC, LA and SF who descended upon Iowa freaked out those farmers so bad that old Howard came in a distant 3rd on caucus night and hence the scream heard round the world. Farmers don't read blogs or sit up at night hitting the "send $50 dollars" button on their candidates Paypal accounts.

It's going be very interesting to see whose screaming after the Iowa caucuses in a few weeks.

Kashmir! Led Zep Live in 2007! Tour please.

2007-12-13T01:55:00.000-05:00

Internet vs. Reality

2007-12-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

Crank Dat Kidz!

2007-12-04T16:39:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving America!

2007-11-21T19:32:00.000-05:00

Kids with Guns!

2007-11-21T09:40:00.000-05:00

Do You Remember "the Net" in '94?

2007-11-11T14:46:00.000-05:00

Hollywood South

2007-10-29T08:00:00.001-04:00

The 2007 Savannah Film Festival - the 10th year of the fest - got off to a start the other night. Here I am with a very cool & very gentlemanly (007 - '87-'89) and the lovely and talented Christina.

This shot was in the local paper - Christina and I are in the lower left corner. In fact, I am Talking to Robert Ross who is in "the Bottom" with me. In the center is Rhyann Taylor (center, on left with drink in hand, talking) who beautifully shot and produced "the Bottom".

Crowd shot - Note Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The Bottom

2007-10-18T08:31:00.000-04:00

Here is a story in today's Savannah Morning News about a film that I was the production designer on (and also acted in). The film will show at the Savannah Film Festival at the end of the month.

The Bottom

Running the Voodoo Down: Searching for Minerva

2007-10-07T13:20:00.001-04:00

Here is one of my latest articles.
In this piece I go deep into low country voodoo territory of South Carolina and in the process of looking for an authentic "root doctor" I manage to talk to John Berendt, who wrote the bestselling book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and a fascinating cast of other characters . Enjoy.

Do not swim where Alligators live

2007-09-18T08:59:00.000-04:00

Here's a story about another dumb ass who thought it perfectly acceptable to swim where 12 foot prehistoric reptiles live (who see everything that moves as a potential snack). I live in the low country of Georgia and I look at every single body of fresh or brackish water down here as definite GATOR habitat and I do not swim in these places. Why? Well look closely at the picture - I want to keep my arm.

The Night He Burned Ye Olde Burning Man Down (four days early)

2007-08-30T08:50:00.001-04:00

"Look at me ma, I torched the man!"

You got to love the merry prankster aspect of this story. A bunch of supposed "freaks" go out to the black rock desert in Nevada for what is now a super organized, money making counter/rave/fringe culture"freak-out" and then one of the freaks, well, gets it in his freaky head to "freak out" and goes and burns down the Burning Man four days early. Some attendees screamed "let it burn" while others yelled "save the man".

Best booking photo I've seen in a while.

Battle Hymn of the Confederacy & Get Your 'roo on

2007-08-04T09:17:00.000-04:00

I have two pieces in the new August/September issue of The South Magazine: one called "Battle Hymn of the Confederacy" and the other called "Get Your 'Roo On"

Go here to read my feature article on neo-confederate Southern nationalists and their "quest" for Southern independence.

Go here for my article on attending Bonnaroo 2007.

Key West Adventure!

2007-07-26T10:50:00.001-04:00

I hit the Key's for my first time last week and I loved it! My pal Anthony Vizzari is getting married in a few weeks and instead of one "best man" he has three best men. David Quinn of El Paso Texas, Jay Paulson of Los Angeles & Moi. Anthony flew in from Chicago and the two of us drove down to Miami where we picked up David and Jay and then it was on to the Keys - a magnificent drive - right up there with the highway 1 run in California for sheer beauty. The weather was perfect. We roamed Papa Hemingway's & Tennessee Williams tropical streets of the fabled Conch Republic - a sort of American Tangiers for sheer "what the fuck" weirdness . We fished for shark - caught three - in the Gulf of Mexico - ate tons of food and just plain enjoyed ourselves. T'was a great trip and one I intend to make again.

The best men (L to R)- Rob, David & Jay with the groom Anthony Vizzari (seated)

At Hemingway's House

With a Goliath Grouper on the line!

Jay Paulson boats the first Goliath Grouper (we released all the fish except for the bait fish - these guys are protected)

My first shark!

he's small but he's a bad ass!

2007-07-09T15:26:00.000-04:00

forwarded by my pal josh - a connoisseur of the absurd

pulp: help the aged

2007-07-09T14:22:00.000-04:00

love this song

Blood, Sweat & Gears: recent article I wrote for the South magazine june/july '07 issue

2007-07-06T20:09:00.000-04:00

I have been meaning to link to this though I forgot. Sadly, you can only read the first two paragraphs of my piece "Blood, Sweat & Gears" here which is about the hickory smoked world of dirt track stock car racing down here in coastal Georgia. I wish they'd put the whole thing online but its not my mag - so not my call. I will eventually put it on my own website - which I have yet to build - so you may be waiting a while.

I have a piece coming out on Southern neo-confederate nationalists coming out in the August/September issue of South magazine - maybe, just maybe, they'll put the whole thing online - i hope so. I interviewed Pulitzer prize winning author Tony Horwitz (Confederates in the Attic) for this piece and it's solid.

These were cool to work on

2007-07-06T17:40:00.000-04:00

Joe Pytka directed these spots for Nike - this was '93 or '94, not sure - it was just a very simple gig shot in a barbershop in the outer Mission in San Francisco. I remember Pytka as just this huge, long haired (think: old Thor) crazy ass freak who liked to yell at people a lot. Some of the biggest guys in the NBA were in these spots though. Barkley, Hardaway, Sprewell, Gervin, Rodman, Webber and a bunch more. They cut a ton of spots out this shoot. Pytka had a crack navy seal team of Los Angeles based PA's who traveled with him and some actually got put in his commercials (thus making residual money but they were not put in these). The camera loader was famous amongst the crew for apparently getting with Madonna when Pytka did her famous Pepsi spot (aired only once).

MC Hammer: pumps in a bump 1 & 2!!!

2007-07-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

this is the "dirty" version (MTV would not play it)- it was directed by the dude named Scott Kalvert who would go make The Basketball Diaries with Leo Dicaprio. Needless to say, these were two weird ass videos to work on (they just cut two videos out and did a reshoot at a stage for the clean version). We shot this at Hammer's 20 million dollar house in Fremont California; think "black Graceland" - the daytime stuff around the pool with the ladies was insane. I met Evander Holyfield on this shoot. Hammer's career was going into the shitter and he was trying to "refashion" his image as a bad-ass (dig the obvious Dr. Dre ripoff riff in the background of the song). Needless to say, this did not help Hammer's career and he soon filed for bankruptcy and lost the house. This was another Terry Power's gig and there were just a zillion "pimps and hos" getting their groove on.

clean version:

stuff i worked on - del tha funky homosapien video

2007-07-05T12:04:00.000-04:00

in 1993 i had just moved back to San Francisco from LA and was picking up work as a PA on a bunch of music videos (and moving on up into the art department) and this del tha funky homosapien is one of the first videos i worked on there. i just found it - i have never seen it until now - but looking at it, i remember every shot and what was going on (for instance there is a scene of a bunch of middle aged uniformed gay dudes. I pulled them out a mission district gay bar called the Eagle - asked if they'd like to be in a music video and they were thrilled with the idea - we were shooting next door to the Paradise Lounge which is down the street from the Eagle).

We also shot at the funky ass Albion (bar scenes) on the then still rather crusty 16th street (not so crusty anymore) and also up the street in the Castro district in front of the classic Castro theater. All I remember was that Del tha funky homosapien was so stoned during most of the shoot that he would literally fall asleep on the sidewalk after each camera set-up (at one point one of the production's uniformed cops tried to shoo him down the road him until he was informed that the "sleeping dude" was not some wasted bum but was in fact the star of the video - and Del was tripping on acid one day). Anyhow, the tune is the soundtrack to some dumb ass Whoopy Goldberg movie, but it brought back a lot of fun memories. It's funny that how I never saw so many of the videos/commercials I worked on - they just slipped away - I was just happy that the checks cleared - but thanks to all this whizbang gimcrackery now at our itchy fingertips, that is remedied forever. I'll try to find more of the videos I worked on and post them.

the ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please

2007-07-05T03:22:00.000-04:00

perhaps the best "music video" ever?

Enjoy Every Sandwich

2007-07-04T13:41:00.001-04:00

I just finished reading I'll Sleep When I'm Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon. Zevon telling David Letterman, when he was asked if he knew any more about life and death than other people since his diagnosis said, "enjoy every sandwich."

Good advice (and that taps into my earlier 'close call with the ferryman' post below).

It's a nice trip through Zevon's wild career which I only knew a small bit. My pal Roger Smith toured with Zevon when he was playing bass in Phil Cody's band. They opened for Zevon on many nights and it was Roger that got me thinking about him (he was telling me some Zevon story's at Bonnaroo) and so I went and got the book - which was written by Crystal Zevon - Warren's only ex-wife - to learn some more - and I am glad I did.

Zevon died of cancer in 2003.

interesting conversation about Iraq & private contractors

2007-07-04T10:16:00.000-04:00

I met a gentleman last night, who appears to be in his early 50's, and who is missing his nose (it's covered with a bandage and he is preparing for re-constructive surgery). His nose was blown off his face north of Basra, Iraq when an IED tore through his vehicle as he was driving in a convoy toward the Baghdad airport last year. He is former military, with 20 years service, and was over there working as a private contractor training Iraqi medical personnel (he holds a masters degree and is working on a PhD in International Relations with his focus on U.S./Japan relations). He was working for what he says was "very good money" but in retrospect - it's "bottom money" compared to the amount of money being bandied about by contractors and whomever else has their hands out over there. He says it was a huge mistake to go there. He took a shit load of shrapnel in his body and two men in his vehicle were killed. He said he was conscious the entire time and that the British were "Johnny on the spot" when they came in to extract him and the other wounded men in the convoy.

What struck me was his take that the situation in Iraq is so absolutely hopeless - a churning sea sectarian hopeless chaos. He said he realized that soon after he got there he was not part of any real solution but part of a very real problem, and that as a private contractor, his being there was one of the reasons for the very real animosity felt by the Iraqi people. "If you want to see what I am talking about concerning our problems there with contractors you have got to look first at Blackwater (our "private army") - the ex-military, special forces/special ops types, arrogant, un-checked, and who follow no rules of engagement and who strut around Iraq caring not a lick for the local population."

One of the things he said he witnessed was that he personally helped escort large amounts of cash money - suitcases full of U.S. dollars - taken from Iraq and flown down to Dubai and deposited in Dubai banks - with no paper trails, no receipts. Where did this money come from and where was it going - a mystery - but he said it was routine.

Anyway, here are some clips about Blackwater.

one second and everything changes

2007-07-02T21:12:00.000-04:00

Something big happened (or didn't happen) to me the other day.

It was one of those "sliding door" moments that I have tried not to think about to much, lest it twist and tweak my fragile psyche. In fact I consciously put IT in my mental outbox immediately after IT happened (or, as I said, almost happened) so as not to confront the big heavy questions IT conjures up - but then IT keeps popping back to my inbox like unwanted spam.

So, I just thought I would write it down and chew on it here.

What happened?

Well, I came within an inch, maybe less, of being seriously pummeled by a moving car while I was running the other day. And yes it was my fault - I did something stupid.

The car in question was a fast moving BMW. I have no recollection of seeing the driver's face. I do recall seeing a woman sitting in the passenger seat and she reacted to me - she saw me - she got all bug-eyed behind the silent glass. The visual connection was instant and strong but I can't say what she looked like - no recollection - only saw the whites of her eyes. The driver of the BMW pounded the brakes hard - SCREECH!! as I stupidly darted across one of the busiest streets of my city and directly into his path.

Why did I do this?

Well, I thought I had judged (mis-judged is the operative word here) a slight break in the traffic pattern. I was moving at a nice clip - deep in the pocket - grooving to the runner's rhythm where you don't want to stop to long for traffic lights; eyes darting & deciphering the stimuli - picking out my line. I believed I could squeeze/weave through this particular traffic pattern - ala the old video game FROGGER - with no problem. I do it all the time: I was "in the zone" of my run.

Though this particular BMW was "hidden" to me behind another moving car - the one I believed was the last car passing (the BMW was truly in my blind spot) and as soon as the other car passed me by I went for it and leaped right into the BMW's oncoming path. SHIT! It's the one you don't see that kills you.

But I saw it, oh fuck yeah did I see it, about a fast millisecond after making my move, and I knew I had badly miscalculated this maneuver. So, in mid-air, my survival instincts kicked in and I re-calibrated the move: my adrenaline pump fired into action pumping life juice through my fast beating heart and the deep primordial instinct to LIVE kicked into gear.

I twisted my body, throwing my shoulder sideways and swivelled my hip, just as a quick thinking football player might do when avoiding a hard tackle; my left foot came down sideways, acting as a sort of brake and I heard the rubber on my soles actually make that squeaky rubber-meets-the-asphalt sound and I could FEEL the steel of the driver side door whoosh past my bare leg. I pushed off my left foot and danced back to my right foot and by this time I had cleared the mass of the BMW. Though the equation had changed since I started a few seconds before: new traffic registered across my neural pathway, coming at me fast - in fact the entire traffic picture had changed as the BMW's added presence created a million new mathematical dimensions to this Fischer/Spassky chess problem - a problem that I had to work out FAST or else (I was in the middle of a four lane). So, like a dumb ass deer or a scared dog, I just continued to react to the FEAR - much like a darting squirrel might do and bolted for the other side of the street and hoped like hell no one hit me.

I made it. I jumped the curb and I just kept running - fast - without looking back (mostly out of embarrassment for being so fucking stupid).

My heart was POUNDING from the insta-power-surge-jolt of pure adrenaline that had literally just saved my life (or kept me from being seriously injured: I remembered I had just that very day changed my health insurance plan to a lower rate with a higher deductible - so I am quite glad that I did not have to test out the new plan). I was also quite literally pumped from the close shave, and I ran harder and faster until I just had to stop and take a breath.

All I know is that this was the closest personal near death experience I have experienced for a very long time.

What does it mean? Was I spared for a reason? Was I just damn lucky? Or was I just quick on the draw? All of the above? Who knows? All I do know is that I am still here: breathing and healthy.

But as I was running yesterday - I just thought - "wow, I might be DEAD now or paralyzed or on life support in some ICU - these last two days would have been two days where I no longer even exist!" And life - the rhythm of the world - would still go on without skipping a beat - just a tiny grain of sand flicked unceremoniously out of the cosmatomic sandbox. Then, I thought - there really is no escaping it - we're all fucked - it's going to come and it might just come in a dumb ass millisecond - on a nice sunny day - while running.

the moral? Am I who I wish to be when it comes? Not yet. Not by a long shot.

great song - cool vid

2007-07-02T01:15:00.000-04:00

nobody's hero!!!!

2007-06-30T21:34:00.000-04:00

stiff little fingers

Take it away Mika Brzezinski!

2007-06-29T14:44:00.000-04:00

Mika says FUCK PARIS HILTON - it's about time someone at big media did. They could easily make this "story" go away by ignoring it.

1997 misses you and wants to come over and play

2007-06-28T09:45:00.000-04:00

Fuckit...bring em on! After 6 years of TERROR, BUSH, IRAQ and a thousand other psychic atrocities - I say bring back the ludicrous Spice Girls! and fuckit, throw in the Verve while you're at it. Both "reunions" announced this week. You know the Verve never made a penny off of "Bittersweet Symphony" - let that be a lesson to you samplers' out there and if you are going to sample - make sure you get your clearances in order before you sell (Mick Jagger & Kieth Richards make ALL the money from that song since it uses an old symphonic loop of their song "the last time"). Maybe the Spice Girls will play Bonnaroo next year? Maybe they'll join forces with the Flaming Lips?

Spice World 1997 + Our World 2007 = ?

The Verve sing Bittersweet Manchurian Urban Hymns (one of Manchester's lesser exports but they had some cool songs and that video of Ashcroft rudely bumping into people while walking down the street singiong Bittersweet Symphony was cool).

...because it's just so damn sweet!

2007-06-23T08:51:00.000-04:00

Moonlight Mile

2007-06-22T18:58:00.001-04:00

The Flaming Lips ended their Bonnaroo 2007 set with this Rolling Stones classic, "Moonlight Mile" and I caught about half of it on my camera.

River-roo with Earth, Wind & fire

2007-06-21T22:28:00.001-04:00

before hitting bonnaroo, i stopped in chattanooga and hit "Riverbend" (big 10 day music fest) and Earth, Wind & Fire was kicking out one big '70's hit after another - big fun. but the coolest part was this spontaneous electric slide freakout which took place in the middle of the street.

back from Bonnaroo!

2007-06-18T23:35:00.000-04:00

Flaming Lips show at Midnight!

Raj, chuck & moi

wilco up on the "what" stage

Here I am with Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother

in the media tent with wayne coyne of the flaming lips & bob weir of the grateful dead.

Sasha & Digweed push the trance till the wee, wee hours.

Lopomo (Low Power Mode) is still sucking your blood! TURN THAT SHIT OFF!

2007-06-14T17:57:00.000-04:00

Recently over the last year I started to do something to save energy in my house. I know this sounds crazy, revolutionary in fact, but here it is:

I started turning shit off when I was not using it (and when I go to bed).

far out! that's crazy - think of all the effort that goes into that?!

Yes! All those little green lights and LCD displays that barely seem to burn when I power down my computer, TV, stereo, etc., (the ONLY things left running in my house at night are the fridge and one clock radio). Does the Microwave clock NEED to be on 24/7? NO, it's never RIGHT anyway, so why the hell is it on? It's not on - it's unplugged. I plug it in when I need to USE it. WOW - revolutionary!

You would be amazed at how much power all these combined machines suck (now add this up by ALL HOUSEHOLDS - not pretty) when they are in "sleep" mode or whatever it is that keeps them "on" when you turn them off. I turn these things off in two simple ways, I turn off the power strip or I just unplug them. simple as that. I have also installed the kick ass energy saver bulbs - bottom line is that it helps my bottom line AND the planet. Two for one deal. So TURN YOUR SHIT OFF - ALL THE WAY OFF and spend your money on better things.

Click here for a good article about this in today's New York Times online:

Martin Amis on Tony Blair

2007-06-13T10:45:00.000-04:00

1997-2007
Remember Cool Britannia?

It's not so cool anymore.

Martin Amis on Tony Blair's last days as PM. Martin Amis follows Prime Minister Tony Blair from Downing Street to Belfast, to D.C. to Baghdad on his farewell tour for The Guardian.

...but he couldn't help me either.

2007-06-12T13:52:00.001-04:00

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

2007-06-12T01:16:00.000-04:00

30 Century Man

2007-06-08T09:15:00.000-04:00

If you haven't heard it - go and immediately grab/download/buy The Drift - the latest album by Scott Walker - it's been on heavy rotation on my ipod ever since. It is perhaps one of the most interesting, wild, soaring, freaky, luminous albums I have heard in a long time. I am a big fan - his sounds definitely influence alpinista - and I can't wait to see this film Scott Walker: 30 Century Man

SW30 - UK Theatrical Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

40

2007-06-03T15:51:00.000-04:00

well, today is the big day.

I am 40 years old. I was born at 10:37pm on June 3, 1967. The Summer of Love.

There are a lot of emotions wrapped up in "turning" 40. Far to many to wrap my brain around and comment on here. As I was writing this, my ipod just shuffled over to this song by the Flaming Lips, Do You Realize? and the lyrics seemed rather apropos.

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize - we're floating in space -
Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun don'-go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do You Realize - Oh - Oh - Oh
Do You Realize - that everyone you know
Someday will die -

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun don'-go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize

Happy 30th Star Wars

2007-05-26T01:54:00.000-04:00

Actually I have a lot to write about concerning that week 30 years ago in 1977 when I was about to turn 10 years old and I first came into contact with the Star Wars universe while on a summer camp movie outing. Though I'll probably come back and write more about it later, for now I'll just mark it with what for me is one of the most iconic stills from that incredible movie - that of Luke Skywalker staring off toward the two setting suns of Tatooine and wondering if he was ever going to escape from that rock and his dull life. Well, he did, and what an adventure. 30 years - hard to fathom.

Take a Tour of Hell with Meeno!

2007-05-22T13:40:00.000-04:00

Peter Bjorn and John on Heavy Rotation

2007-05-21T22:30:00.000-04:00

loving this band lately.

Places I have been as of TODAY

2007-05-15T15:26:00.001-04:00

My endless search for the Perfect Moment

2007-05-13T22:12:00.000-04:00

Spalding Gray talked about searching for a perfect moment on a beach in Thailand in the film Swimming to Cambodia and well, one of the places I look for the "perfect moment" is at live music shows - sometimes you find it, sometimes you don't, but I keep looking. Tonight I enjoyed one of those moments: pure joyful exuberance - brought on by good music, a wild house party atmosphere and a lot of giddy enthusiasm for the night's musical proceedings.

I caught the Brooklyn based Matt and Kim tonight and they were a blast - as advertised. I am quite positive that I was the oldest person in the room. The show was originally scheduled for a little hipster art gallery that puts on the occasional show here in Savannah GA but was moved for whatever reason to the "Pink Palace" - which from quick inspection seems to be an art school freakout party house. I love shows that go down in these kind of "unofficial" venues: the energy level is always crazier at a house party than one would find at a bar or club. Before the show I had the pleasure of yacking with Kim (drummer for Matt and Kim) and I told her how I came to hear about her band via a shoutout link on myspace (they were one of myspace's coveted "featured artists" a few weeks back which as you can imagine - with the unlimited potential audience out there - is perhaps the best instant advertising that any band could ever wish for). She said they were touring in Europe when the "featured band" thing hit and when they got back they had a zillion hits on their myspace site - she said she spent hours "adding" all the new friends. I asked them how this shoutout came to fruition and she said they know some folks over at SNOCAP who like them (a middleman outfit for selling tunes on myspace started by Shawn Fanning - the brain behind the old skool Napster) and they are in cahoots with some folks over at myspace and well, you know, this is how you get your name out...so see kids, it's all about who (and not what) you know out in the real world!)

Anyway, here is a Matt and Kim YouTube posted video for their incredibly infectious song "Yea Yeah" and from it you can see just how much fun this act would be in a living room party full of youth addled energy - and so it was (see my pix for proof) - a living room full of sweaty college kids jumping up and down, yelling, the floor juking-and-a-shaking underfoot - YEA YEAH!:

and here are my pix from tonight's show:

The Hammer of the Godz Levels Atlanta Rock Freakout and Leaves Good Taste in Mouth! Rain & Rock = Transcendent Experience

2007-05-12T11:35:00.000-04:00

My pal Justin and I drove up to Atlanta to catch Wolfmother at the Soco Music Experience - a 2nd annual freebie put on by a booze company (last year was Big Star & The Flaming Lips). Anyway, perfect day, no traffic cluster fucks coming into Atlanta, BLUE SKY, a little hot, typical May day in the South. We got there a little early as the gates were opening (I left early in case we hit what is usually the nightmare of Atlanta traffic on a Friday at rush hour) and the people started coming in. The first band was Rose Hill Drive - who I had never heard before (though I see on their website that they are off to Europe to support THE WHO) so Pete Townshend & I highly recommend them - they were the full package! We caught about Half of their show because as they were ripping into Black Sabbath's "Fairies Wear Boots" the heavens literally opened up and the rain came down - first just a few drops - no big deal, i looked up and saw what seemed to be ONE black cloud and then the drops got bigger, and bigger and bigger and the wind began to HOWL! It was an awesome rock n roll experience - the energy level of the band and crowd was totally amped by the arrival of the wind and the rain. The roadies were scampering about like wet cats to cover amps, instruments, etc. though the band just kept right on playing, even harder and with more gusto. By the time they neared the end of the Sabbath song, the rain & wind were WHIPPING and things were blowing all over the place! We were getting soaked, the band was getting soaked and the music was the perfect soundtrack to this incredible burst of mother natures fury! LOUD, FAST and IMMENSE! It was only when massive bursts of Lightning began to crack all around us that they decided it might be best to continue this freakout at a later time. The last time I had a weather related Rock N' Roll religious experience was when it rained all over Jason & The Scorchers at Riverbend in Chattanooga in the mid-80's: they just unplugged & sat on the front of the stage and rocked out thier hits accoustically and the rain soaked and mud splattered crowed just ate it up, even more so than when they were plugged in. In fact, it is one of those epic gigs still gets brought up by those who were there - t'was pure magic & made of the stuff I am ALWAYS seeking and well, for a brief, perfect, shining moment, I found it with a band (ROSE HILL DRIVE) I'd never heard of before, being lashed by the rain, in Atlanta, during a WICKED southern storm (they eventually cancelled the entire night). So at the end of the ride, no Wolfmother, oh well, I got what I went there for and that's the point isn't it?

a perfect Atlanta Day at this point - a great day for an OUTDOOR concert!

ROSE HILL DRIVE crank it into OVERDRIVE!

Here comes the wind & rain - dig the Southern Comfort backdrop blowing all over the place!

It got so fierce that the guitar player was rocking out while using his Marshall amps as a wind break!

No outdoor free concert is complete without the requisite crazy old freak SMASHING A GUITAR IN THE RAIN!

MICRO-LENDING

2007-05-10T13:12:00.000-04:00

Great Piece on Kiva.org - which is in the biz of MICRO-LENDING to Poor people to help give people a leg up

In honor of HST on Derby Day

2007-05-05T14:41:00.000-04:00

The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved by Hunter S. Thompson

Before Bush, there was CREEP and Rove was there.

2007-05-02T18:58:00.000-04:00

You've got to wade through four minutes of this dated, but interesting (if you are into computers and politics) CBS News piece on the '72 campaign. Keep an eye out for a 21 year old Karl Rove talking about grabbing the GOP youth vote for Nixon in '72 at the CREEP HQ (committee to re-elect the President). He must have done a bang up job, as Nixon won in a landslide. What better place to learn the evil tricks of the trade than as a young whippersnapper at CREEP. My oh my, how our world has benefited from the unbridled ideological ambitions of young men like Karl.

It keeps going, and going, and going...

2007-04-28T01:13:00.000-04:00

four years ago - it does seem like a long time ago now that I think about it - I remember throwing my hands up in the air and saying to myself (and just about anyone who would listen), "Iraq is in cahoots with Al-Qaeda - WTF?" and "Where are the skeptics in the national press? Why are they buying this crap spoon fed to them by the usual suspects?"

I remember thinking in 2002 as we geared up: How can Iraq have WMD? The whole country of Iraq had been under the most intense aerial scrutiny ever since Gulf War One ended: there were "no fly" zones, spy satellites & spy planes snapping endless pictures & video and intelligence analysts were pouring over the data - and finding nothing out of the ordinary. (Now, I had been lead to believe, as we all have - via Hollywood and bad pulp fiction no doubt, that we have spy satellites that can zoom in on you while you take a piss in the woods and tell you what brand of underwear you are sporting - so shouldn't we be able to see little old things like URANIUM ENRICHMENT PLANTS being constructed in a place with very little tree cover like a friggin' desert? etc. etc.)

Just when and where was Saddam building all these WMD's? Underground in a volcano like Dr. Evil? I remember hearing credible people like Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector who personally combed through a great deal of Saddam's trash, trumpeting the horn and saying over and over again that there are no WMD's in Iraq.

Still, no one really cared about that (except the hundreds of thousands - if not millions - of war protesters who did, but they are of course the lunatic fringe so pay them no mind). As I said, no one cared, much less our press (who were all chomping at the bit to get "embedded" and win their Emmy or Pulitzers) or our elected Democratic officials (Senators Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards to name a vocal few) who voted for war out of political expediency: they rolled the dice as it were and said, "hey, if it goes well, great, I supported it and I'll be golden and if it all goes to shit I can just say "I'm sorry" and that will be that." Many of the 2008 Democratic Presidential candidates did just that in the first South Carolina debate.

I remember that SMART people, EDUCATED people were buying into this load of horse shit concerning the administrations trumped up connection between Saddam and the 9/11 horsemen of the apocalypse with as much gusto as the "my country, right or wrong" right wing beef-wits who see any and all dissent, or any questioning for that matter, of the administration as treasonous and grounds for a firing squad.

I am utterly convinced that many Americans just wanted to go to war again, and could not have given a hoot if there were any WMD's over there at all. Now, they did not want to go to war PERSONALLY - or send their own sons and daughters - they just wanted to watch it on TV after Timmy's soccer practice and feel good about A'Merika because war is, you know, "exciting". It is no secret that we love our wars in this country. There is not a town or city anywhere that does not have some or many monuments deifying war. How many monuments to peace do you ever run into? and the people who fight initially like it (it was after all an "adventure" and boy howdy, we're ass kicking America, it'll be over in a few easy weeks, right?! sadly: wrong). Now, I'm not so sure how many of them feel about it now as thousands embark on their THIRD 15 month tour of hospitable Mesopotamia, but I'd betcha the grape is souring fast on the vine & those yellow ribbon magnets are starting to fade.

If I remember all the way back to 2002, Afghanistan was not playing out (and still isn't) as a very winnable endeavor and it didn't really "look good" on TV either and, oh yeah, it's lacking in real dollar natural resources and let's face it; until they start trading opium futures on the NASDAQ, it'll continue to remain an uninviting backwater & hotbed of the sort of moral idealism favored by the Spanish Inquisition.

I remember writing a piece that I emailed to friends about the war in Afghanistan in October 2001: I literally lost an old friend over this email - we've never spoken since. I said the "wily Afghans" had nailed the coffins shut on a long and impressive line of imperial minded adventurers and I believed we were not doing ourselves any favors by swatting at the hornets nest. He said it was the kind of thing a "pussy" would say. Well, SIX years later, ask a scared shitless of the reemerging Taliban Afghan woman how well the war there is going these days and listen to what she says.

Anyway, there were very few major media "journalists" (if you can call most of the hacks on TV "journalists" because press release journalism is what they practice) out there who took a good look at what the Administration was pushing. I was against the Iraq war and I knew I could easily go to any number of anti-war fringe media sites and find all sorts of sources and accounts about how this administration was ginning up a truck load of sketchy evidence to go to war (though let me say, I was, and am, just as skeptical about a lot of the wisdom that comes from the left as well - where conspiracy seems to lurk around every corner - and who have their own weird agenda as well: extremists, on either side, just plain scare me).

Though four years ago, during the lead up to the war the "big show" was on TV and most people suck what little information they get from its bellowing echo chamber - and worse - they tend to believe that most of what is peddled by men in suits is somehow "official" and is be seen as "the truth".

So, I've posted a link to a piece that ran online and on public television from Bill Moyers, who has done a good job looking at journalistic complicity during the buildup to the war. Is it a cautionary tale? Sadly, I don't think so. I don't think it will change the pack mentality of mainstream media coverage one iota. Bill's piece is actually old news if you were paying the least bit of attention to the buildup. I could SEE and READ about the lies being pushed every day in 2002 and 2003 and it never escaped my thinking that far above the editorial desk, way up in the gilded tower, were people with very different concerns on their minds. Concerns that had a lot more to do with the bottom line and stock holders than mining for the "truth".

I believe it can and will happen again. we are a nation of dupes: P.T. Barnum & Willy Randolph Hearst proved that a long time ago. Oh, and one of the initial architects of the whole fiasco, George Tenet is the first of the main players to come out with his book & the requisite tour of big media outlets that goes with it, trying to absolve himself, place blame on Cheney (who deserves it) and try to explain his "slam dunk" quote which he is fretful will define his career (it will). Put this in some perspective: There are thousands of dead and wounded American's and Iraqi's out there who had everything taken from them by this war. George Tenet walked away from the whole affair (rememeber that two of the worst intelligence blunders in history - this war and 9/11 - happened on his watch) with a bruised ego from Bob Woodward (the Slam Dunk quote that he hates so much) and a four million dollar advance for his whiney tell all. The whole evil lot of them will all make millions down the road - they'll all get massive book deals - washing in the blood of others. Food for thought. Don't buy these books.

Bill Moyers

the secret night life of clouds

2007-04-26T13:45:00.000-04:00

this is a little film i made last year. most of the images come from my camera phone (hence the low res quality - but i think that adds to it) and were shot around the world. it's just a film poem about movement, seen and unseen, like the secret night life of clouds.

Air show

2007-04-21T23:48:00.000-04:00

Earth Day in the park across the street - my original plan this morning was to drive over to the Beaufort Air Show but I got caught up watching another air show with these Frisbee dogs and as the time passed, I decided to go to the air show tomorrow. Well, if you saw the news then you know what I missed over in Beaufort as one of the Blue Angels crashed today into a neighborhood near the airbase, killing the pilot.

I really had a weird feeling this morning that something bad was going to happen over there. I'm not kidding, I really did, and maybe this is why I decided to stay home. I'm no seer, but I just associate "air shows" with crashes and imminent danger (there is just something about "performing" super dangerous air stunts for the gathered masses that just seems to invite tragedy - as if it's part of the "act"). I don't know why I think this, as there are many "air shows" every year and I would assume accidents rarely happen, though today one did and a man was killed.

I enjoyed the Frisbee dog air force.

Ok, the Flaming Lips seem to be a continuing THEME on this blog. Yes, I like em, but they just seem to be around a lot lately

2007-04-21T11:46:00.000-04:00

...like here for instance, when they played FREE last week in Gainesville, Florida at the University of Florida's Flavet Field. This is the first 8 minutes of the show, with Wayne Coyne's magic surf bubble ride (right over my head) and "Race for the Prize". The opening of a Lips show has got to be one of the most joyous and raucous experiences in music. In fact (and this was my third time) I would posit that feeling of hearing those first few notes of "Race" and feeling and seeing the crowd go apeshit, as being as close to a bonified "religious" experience as I can personally think of (I'm not traditionally "religious"). I'd say it is a feeling right up there with the first time I saw Iggy Pop come spinning out on a stage to "I Got A Right" in 1986 (when he was opening up for the Pretenders on his Blah Blah Blah tour), or whenever I hear the James Bond theme and the gun barrel logo opening a NEW Bond film, one that I have yet to see and well, a lot of other moments of "joy" that I have experienced in my life, which have nothing to do with music or pop culture. Anyway, enjoy this clip:

dream ticket?

2007-04-10T13:05:00.000-04:00

The Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne (who I am sure about) for President with Illinois' own Sen. Barak Obama (who I'm still sussing out) as VP! Take that America.

nature's whimsical side

2007-03-19T17:07:00.000-04:00

heard about this very cool and rare natural phenomenon on NPR today - a example of nature's whimsy.

support the cause

2007-03-02T12:45:00.000-05:00

you can now, for a little less than five dollars (@ 69 little cents per song! at the moment there are only 7 songs up) own the best-of-so-far of alpinista

support independent music!

what is really cool is that you can also spread the word and paste the alpinista music store on your own website, blog, myspace page, whatever - i'd really appreciate it if we can get these songs out there. i really like these songs, and i think you will to.

cheers,

rob

The Envelope, Please...

2007-02-25T11:50:00.000-05:00

Mark Streeter is the political cartoonist for the Savannah Morning News and I met him the other night when he was seated across the table from me at a wine/food gathering with a musical theme at Hangfire here in Savannah, GA. That night's theme was Cuba and the music was from the Buena Vista Social Club album. I told him that I have hung some of his wonderful cartoons on my fridge over the years and he said that hearing that is one of the rewards of his job. We were also all discussing the Oscars while we ate Cuban delectables and drank fine wine and so maybe our passionate discussion influenced today's cartoon (seen above), which is dead on and excellent.

The Oscars are tonight, "and the winner is..."

breaking news: the terrorists win

2007-02-01T10:40:00.000-05:00

I did it!

2006-12-09T17:57:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. I recieved my bachelors degree today from AASU. Summa Cum Laude! To all who helped me & encouraged me, I want to thank you. I could not have done it alone.
So enjoy this little slice of my continuing story. Peace.
YES!

Tennessee Homeboy Kicks Ass on Millionaire!

2006-11-26T15:14:00.000-05:00

THE $100 Dollar Question - making Tennessee proud.

What? You still haven't heard...

2006-09-04T12:11:00.000-04:00

...the cool post-postmodern/pre-futurist/fear-fighting anarchic fellowship of sonic soulfulness that makes up the uber-smooth aural shapeshifting luminositized musical unit known as ALPINISTA? What are you waiting for - a push? Go forward and climb the mystic heights with ALPINISTA!

"Hey Kenny...Loggins, Loggins, if we don't go all out smooth with this song we are gonna write, Hall & Oates have already won.."

2006-08-26T14:48:00.000-04:00

My pal Brian turned me on to Yacht Rock the other day and I am obsessed...go HERE TO WATCH ALL 10 EPISODES

"Thou hath once again inspired a tillage revolution!"

I Love this guy's Spirit - here is the Best Commencement Speech I've Ever Heard

2006-06-24T20:11:00.000-04:00

Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips was asked to give the commencement speech at his old High School in Oklahoma about a month ago. I read the transcript and loved it but here is the actual video that the kids of Classen High School enjoyed. Words of Wisdom.

Part One:

Part Two:

Cracker rocks the American Legion Post 135

2006-06-23T15:13:00.000-04:00

Went and caught Cracker at the American Legion last night, which is literally a block and a half from my front door, which is nice. Anyhoo, the last time I caught Cracker was either in Chattanooga or Atlanta back in 2000. I saw them twice that summer - once at the Mid Town Music fest (where the headliner was Oasis) and the second time was at this doomed experiment in live music that went down at a joint called the Cricket Pavillion (that's what it was called then - not sure about now). Anyway, David Lowery was in fine form last night - rolling through old classics like "Low" & "Eurotrash Girl" and many more, plus some new songs off their new album, which were excellent. The American Legion has a magnificent ballroom that is perfect for something like this so I hope to see more shows come through there.

The Spirit of '76! Happy 6/6/06 Damien! (the new "creepy kid" circa 2006 ain't got nothing on you Harvey Stephens)

2006-06-06T17:21:00.000-04:00

some thoughts on turning 39

2006-06-03T19:59:00.000-04:00

Birthdays are times for celebration & reflection. T'was on this very
day back in the year of our lord 1967 aka THE SUMMER OF LOVE - that
yours truly came stomping onto the world's stage. 39 years and
counting. As I reflect back on the good times, the bad times, the
strange times and the mad times I see a life of moments; the
individual scales that compose the body of the great fish.
I have been
taking a lot of photos recently - I get a camera and I never turn it
off it seems - I am a documenting fiend - and this is cool, because
those tiny, individual moments which comprise MY life are in some way
"captured" for as long as the pics remain. Then I think of all those
moments when there were no camera's around, moments that have wisped
into the wind tunnel of time never to be repeated again, memories that
live only in snippets and even most of them are lost forever. That is
the beauty of youth of course, as the young rarely take a larger view
of what is happening in the "right now" of their lives - only to wake
up one day, at 39 perhaps, and just begin to see how all those little
pieces fit together on the grid.

This last year has been one of many changes for me. When I turned 38
last year I had just come out of a very serious 5 year relationship
and was dealing with the pain of that loss. The year which followed
saw many high states and low states though it also became one of the
most creative periods in my artistic life. As I began to reexamine who
I was and what it was that I want, need, seek, enjoy & love in this
life I exploded musically (creating my alter ego - alpinista - see
link to myspace site to the right). I dove back into my love of film
that perhaps had escaped me over the years - the passion reignited for
the power of the image and the majesty of the moving image. I opened
my mind to old ideas that I had perhaps brushed off, revisiting them
and on many occasions reevaluating my stance on them. I also dealt
with regrets, lamented the loss of messed up relationships that ended
in falling out or apart, the loss of dead friends and reexamined my
ideas of what it was that I was looking for in a friend in the first
place. In many ways the year that just passed was a time I am apt to
call the opening salvo of the great awakening for myself. Not that I
was asleep for all the years previously, on the contrary, I was
collecting the raw materials in order to present to my muse.

This was also a year that I had to come to terms with how I am going
to set about living the rest of my life. For, as your life is yours,
this is MY life and how I live it is not drawn out in some how-to
manual. There is no right or wrong way to go about living and it is OK
to fail, to fall flat on the face but if there is one thing I have
always done is get up, buck up, get in the low crouch and begin
marching toward the enemy trench again - for they haven't killed me
YET. So, as I contemplate the future with one eye on the triumphs &
missteps of my past (I don't really believe in missteps actually, all
steps are valid and add to the whole - ask Thomas Edison for instance
- a master of the missteppers).

As some of you know, I returned to college 3 years ago to complete a
task (obtaining a bachelors degree) that I had danced around and put
off for many, many years. Well, I will complete this task in December
and I will proudly hang the deed on my wall. For many ways doing this
was perhaps easier than it would have been had I gone when I was 18
and fresh out of high school - as life experience and the natural
sponge like nature of my mind brought a great deal to my academic
party. Though in many ways it has been quite tough - on a psychic
level more than anything - and as many of you know who have been down
this pike, there were many days when I thought it was a huge waste of
my time and that it would never end. Well, it, as all things do, will
end come December and I am already looking at the experience with a
great deal of pride. It is the highest mountain I have ever climbed
(and I've been on some big hills) and I did learn a great deal - I
used to think I knew everything and what I did not know was not in the
least bit important - well, I think differently now.

So, the furies willing of course, if I see 40 next year I will enter
my fifth decade with a wealth of amazing experiences under my belt, a
mind & soul massaged with recent learning & an openess to new ideas
and the steely gaze I wear whenever I stand under a big mountain and
take that first step toward a distant summit. I look forward to this
new year of 39 and see it as the year that so many of my dreams will
begin to come true. I am making a film (ostensibly for school though
it may grow into something with more heft if it is any good) and I am
going to continue to make the music that makes my heart soar. Let me
say something about this music I make and then I'll sign off. I had
put music down for many years - last standing on a stage performing in
San Francisco in 1994. I dabbled occasionally, strummed my guitar and
did a little bit of recording from time to time (the last strong set
of recordings was while living with my best pal Meeno in Los Angeles
in 1999). My output was always hampered by my rudimentary skills and
the low rent technology I was saddled with. Well, technology finally
caught up with me, I have been waiting my whole life for it to get
here. I once heard orchestra's in my head as I strummed out my chords
and sadly that is where they stayed - in my head - and let's face it,
I wasn't going to get an orchestra to come hang around the living room
while I worked up a new musical idea. Well, now the orchestra is here,
for with this fantastic technology, I (and you too by the way) can
bring to fruition those ideas that previously only lived in my head. I
have only just begun to bring this work to light.

So with that said I hope to see all of you soon.

Once More Into The Breach!

Rob

The Unknown Hinson descends upon The Garden of Good & Evil

2006-05-28T03:40:00.000-04:00

I caught Unknown Hinson the other night at The Jinx here in Savannah and he came as advertised. Unknown Hinson is another freakshow that could only come straight out of dixie, but jeezus, can this pistol packin' & telecaster ripping rockabilly vampire PLAY that damn guitar! A fantastic show from start to finish - from wicked rockabilly freakouts complete with Pete Townsend like powerchords to some Jimi Hendrix songs that really exploded. Unknown Hinson is a show to catch if he rolls into your town. Good clean fun.

Snake!

2006-05-25T12:23:00.000-04:00

Occasionally I roll over to the Savannah Wildlife Refuge to check out the prehistoric residents who call it home, namely alligators, and on some days there is an extra treat in store for the intrepid explorer. Found this fella swallowing a bird (I think) in the middle of the gravel road (never a good place for a snake to be lounging around) and after he finished swallowing his dinner I shooed him into the bush in order to digest and chill out. It was about 4-5 feet in length - georgious creature - they get a bad rap.

The Fearless Freaks rock the ATL

2006-05-22T17:42:00.000-04:00

When I found out The Flaming Lips were playing a free show in Centenial Olympic Park in Atlanta - I knew this was an opportunity to not be missed. The Lips are one of the most completely original (on record & live) bands working today (they've been around since the mid-80's - but it was more punk rock and they finally got some MTV action in the mid-90's with "she don't use jelly". Thier last three albums, The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and At War With the Mystics are some of the most beautiful, magnificent, epic, fullfilling slices of sonic sweep that this writer has heard in years. I had never seen them though, so when I found out that they were playing for free (a booze company picked up the tab - it was a two festival with something like 20 bands) I knew I had to go see them. Also, and here is the bonus, a rare live gig from Big Star (with Alex Chilton) and they sounded awesome.

The Agony of Defeat

2006-05-21T02:33:00.000-04:00

I watched this live with my parents yesterday...it was truly shocking and awful and really put what can happen to an animal in a split second, in perspective...I also watched this beautiful & magnificent animal, Barbaro, win the Kentucky Derby two weeks ago...I just hope they don't have to put him down.

Before Drugstore Cowboy there was...Dusty & Sweets

2006-05-19T01:51:00.000-04:00

Saw this the other night at the Psychotronic Film Festival (a weekly freakout of hard to find cinematic gems here in Savannah) and I really enjoyed it. If you are an afficianado of "junkie" movies then your collection is not complete without checking out the world of Dusty & Sweets. Essentially, this is a film that is quasi-documentary (the junkies shoot junk for real) with a story wrapped around the junkie stuff concerning scoring and dealers in LA circa 1970 that was shot later to fill out the documentary footage. It is a real time capsule vividly shot by Lazlo Kovacs and I was just mesmerized by it - it was just a very free & creative time for filmmakers and it shows - it's a real experiment (that did not work) but looking back at it now, it's a wonderful document and a piece of art. It has no real linear plot: just people driving around, shooting dope, laying around on beds talking shit & scoring. Anyway, it showed for maybe a week at some grind house in 1971 and then was sucked off the planet to God knows where (it was directed by Floyd Mutrix who also made one of my old guilty pleasures, The Hollywood Knights and also American Hot Wax and Freebie and the Bean - which was directed by Richard Rush who made Psych-Out with Jack Nicholson (LSD man! Turn On!) and The Stunt Man with Peter O'Toole ("how tall is King Kong?") - it's all circular in the land of the freaks). As someone said, more people talk about Dusty & Sweets McGee in almost mythic tones but few have ever seen it (I remember the Stones movie Cocksucker Blues carrying alot of the same mythic weight - it's too HEAVY to be seen man! I own it and there are many scenes that would be right at home in Dusty and Sweets. I betcha Tarantino saw it - Reservoir Dogs cops the whole solid gold 70's weekend soundtrack - and I have no doubt that Gus Van Sant did not see it - there are a lot of elements that wound up in Drugstore Cowboy.

Savannah Art Kids make FIREFOX commercial and Turn Heads - it's called "Whee!"

2006-05-11T21:32:00.000-04:00

This video was made by some SCAD kids (the local "non-profit" art college/quasi-cult) here in Savannah. Anyway, it's a commerical for the FIREFOX browser (I am stil partial to my Safari - just seems to work better on my machine) - but, I thought this piece was funny and so did others - it came in 2nd in a national competion.

no bother, just a liddle 'ole in the old 'ead

2006-05-11T14:26:00.000-04:00

If you didn't know...Keef Richards (62) fell 15 feet out of a coconut tree in Fiji a week or so ago and scambled his eggs but good. The vodka and rum mix probably kept him stable - he tried to go jet skiing after the tumble but couldn't find his sea legs - until the good doctors of New Zealand could poke a small hole in his skull to relieve the pressure. Keef checked out and is chilling somewhere private. Arggh!

above photo taken by my San Francisco pal Michael "Z-Man" Zagaris - here's some more of his kick ass rock shots.

The Blunt Instrument

2006-05-04T17:09:00.000-04:00

Well, they cut a trailer for the next Bond movie, Casino Royale and so far, I'm all about it, it looks cool to me, check it out:

CASINO ROYALE TRAILERS

Mammatus!

2006-04-10T15:12:00.000-04:00

A friend sent these pics to me - very cool:

new ALPINISTA song up!

2006-04-02T23:45:00.000-04:00

New song up - if you haven't heard it, go to HERE and check out the new song and please feel free to download it and put it on your ipod.

A walk down memory lane

2006-04-01T21:01:00.000-05:00

Where it all began

if you are a fan of the mac and I am, then this is a fun little run through Apple's 30 year history.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

FIVE YEARS...

2006-03-15T16:23:00.000-05:00

...four days and counting.

I celebrated an anniversary the other day. I have been off the chokes, smoke free that is, for FIVE YEARS and FOUR DAYS now. On March 11, 2001 around 4:30 in the afternoon I inhaled my last cigarette. I was living in Chicago then and I just reached the end of my rope as far as smoking was concerned. I KNEW it was STUPID and that if I did not quit that there was the grand possibility that the fucking things would end up killing me.

Like most people, I started in my teens because smoking was seen as cool and rebellious, etc. etc. blah, blah, blah...meaning, I fell right into the trap set up by the tobacco industry. I smoked for 18 years and I was seriously addicted. I based my entire persona around smoking. I even wrote a column for a weekly paper in Tennessee that I titled "Smoke & Whiskey" (I still like my whiskey - but in perspective, I don't drink 20-25 shots a day - in fact I only drink the stuff on occasion). All my heroes smoked (most are dead) and all my friends seemed to smoke (far too many still do - if you read this and you know who you are - please quit that shit!). Somehow I got up the gumption to just fucking STOP. No patches or gums or hypnosis or electro-shock therapy, nothing, just good old fashioned COLD TURKEY. I am so happy I quit. I do not miss them. I am around smokers all the time still and I just think to myself, "Did I SMELL that bad for 18 years?" I did and now I don't.

So I am patting myself on the back.

FUCK YOU TOBACCO INDUSTRY

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

2006-03-05T14:27:00.000-05:00

There is a joint in Chattanooga Tennessee called the Northshore Grill on Frazier avenue that does this deal where you go in, buy a pint glass full of ice & vodka and then you can make your own Bloody Mary. They've got a long table full of Bloody fix'ins (hot sauces, asparagus, celery of course, horseradish, etc.) and it's a great way to loll around on a Sunday afternoon with your pals and at the same time get a fat dose of veggies, vitamin C and get your swerve on too! That's my very good friend Tish in the picture and she's the Coolest! I wish some joint did this in MY town (Savannah Georgia - and if you own a restaurant - DO THIS). Oh yeah, it's a rather inexpensive deal too, I think they are charging 3 bucks a pop per glass, which is totally reasonable.

If you haven't noticed (and looking at the hits here, you probably have not)...

2006-03-03T02:40:00.000-05:00

...I have been on "Blog" hiatus.

This is OK. I'm OK. Just been busy.

blog on bloggers

Once More Into The Breach!

Logorama

RIP Rocky Mountain News

SNAP is Online!

Weird Lightbulb Ad from Thailand

heartbreaker

My Pal Robert (Eloise) of Lord T & Eloise at the Grammy's

Beyond: INDIA

Yacht Rock 11 is Here!!!! Footloose!

The Bottom

express elevator off the eiger

Say No to the Man!

Sir Edmund Hillary - Mountaineer (1919-2008) has taken his last "Hillary Step"

Alpinista featured on compilation CD

3000 barrells!

Fun at home: Bristlebot!

Hello 2008

Happy Festivus!

Love this band Datarock

Hey, this was our idea!

This should turn up in a Bond film

Remember the time...(fall of 2003)?

Kashmir! Led Zep Live in 2007! Tour please.

Internet vs. Reality

Crank Dat Kidz!

Happy Thanksgiving America!

Kids with Guns!

Do You Remember "the Net" in '94?

Hollywood South

The Bottom

Running the Voodoo Down: Searching for Minerva

Do not swim where Alligators live

The Night He Burned Ye Olde Burning Man Down (four days early)

Battle Hymn of the Confederacy & Get Your 'roo on

Key West Adventure!

he's small but he's a bad ass!

pulp: help the aged

Blood, Sweat & Gears: recent article I wrote for the South magazine june/july '07 issue

These were cool to work on

MC Hammer: pumps in a bump 1 & 2!!!

More music video's - Deion Sanders: My life has been friggin' weird

stuff i worked on - del tha funky homosapien video

the ones who love us least are the ones we'll die to please

Enjoy Every Sandwich

interesting conversation about Iraq & private contractors

one second and everything changes

great song - cool vid

nobody's hero!!!!

Take it away Mika Brzezinski!

1997 misses you and wants to come over and play

...because it's just so damn sweet!

Moonlight Mile

River-roo with Earth, Wind & fire

back from Bonnaroo!

Lopomo (Low Power Mode) is still sucking your blood! TURN THAT SHIT OFF!

Martin Amis on Tony Blair

...but he couldn't help me either.

Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine

30 Century Man

40

Happy 30th Star Wars

Take a Tour of Hell with Meeno!

Peter Bjorn and John on Heavy Rotation

Places I have been as of TODAY

My endless search for the Perfect Moment

The Hammer of the Godz Levels Atlanta Rock Freakout and Leaves Good Taste in Mouth! Rain & Rock = Transcendent Experience

MICRO-LENDING

In honor of HST on Derby Day

Before Bush, there was CREEP and Rove was there.

It keeps going, and going, and going...

the secret night life of clouds

Air show

Ok, the Flaming Lips seem to be a continuing THEME on this blog. Yes, I like em, but they just seem to be around a lot lately

dream ticket?

nature's whimsical side

support the cause

The Envelope, Please...

breaking news: the terrorists win

I did it!

Tennessee Homeboy Kicks Ass on Millionaire!