Squeeze for the Glitter Punk Set - Miss Lily Allen Rocks LA town

"I am L.A.," Miss Allen giggled into the mike. "Lily Allen!"

Squeeze for glitter girls and ska-wannaboys, rocking Lily Allen, the latest pop chickette from across the pond, played Saturday night, October 14th, at the Troubador. Her sound is ska-influenced pop, but like our other new fave band from Blighty, Hot Chip, her lyrics are more bite than bubblegum.

The bulging wallet, big-wig types from Capital Record had reserved the entire balcony and VIP section, so we had to see the short seven song set over the heads of pasty, bald, fat men who were nodding their heads in time just to show they care about music. The celebrity sightings made up for the biggie-wiggies who shoulda stayed home 'stead of heading to market. We spotted Orlando Bloom, Geoffrey Rush, Sean Lennon, Gavin Rossdale & Gwen Stefani and other members of No Doubt.

Sean Lennon's dad, John Lennon, once invited the back balcony to scream at the top of their lungs at the song "Twist and Shout" when the Beatles first played The Royal Albert Hall and invited those with money, sitting in the front, to "rattle their jewelry" to the beat. Nowadays it seems the back balcony is reserved for the mucky-mucks and jewelry rattlin' has been upgraded to crackberryin'.

When the front section knew all the words, Miss Allen chided them for illegally downloading her songs. We all know that those who didn't get it at amazon.com, bought it at Amoeba or Hear Music on the promenade. Miss Allen herself announced that her record won't be available in the States for four months with a sarcastic "thanks Capitol Records," to which the whole balcony boo'd. Booing your own star. Now that's a way to keep the irony real.

"Smile," is a chart topper in England and it's easy to see how sarcastic lyrics such as "At first when I see you cry/ yeah it makes me smile, " served up with Miss Allen's coy delivery make for smiley faced listening. Oh Bliss! We first heard the song "LDN" caught in traffic on the 405 and bless us if we didn't shake our shoulders and wonder who was that track by? Our all time fave though, is "Littlest Things," because Miss Allen is insouciant enough to carry off a lyric "I know it sounds lame but it's true," without having to follow it up with a Putney, Nenah Cherry-esque "Ya know what I mean?!"

Rags and blogs report that Miss Allen will tee off on her fellow celebs, but in the same way some actors appear shorter in person, Miss Allen appeared genuinely sweeter and even dedicated a song to her mother who flew all the way over from England just to surprise her. Miss Allen's prom dress style was updated by what we who shop the Slauson South Central Swap Meet refer to as "shrimps," those big hunky, hoops favored by Missy Elliot and TLC circa 1988. Like all white, upper class sorts who favor black music, Miss Allen also gets flack for stepping outta bounds, since she didn't grow up on the east side of London town, ya know what I mean? Lucky those of us on this side of the pond, post Sir Elton John and Eminem duet and all, can handle a little muddle of genres every now and then. Not to mention that the last song of the encore,"Alfie," sung in classic ska dance hall style, sounded a lot like the beer barrel polka, and until someone gives the Poles and Germans some credit for their role in Jamaican music (not to mention Mariachi), we say let the ingénue sing about London town in any trashy putney-cockney mish-mash accent she likes. Besides, she may be the only pop princess bringing Polka to the glitter-punks, so power to the polka. It sounds lame, but it's true.


For more info go to:
www.lilyallen.com

Playlist:

• ldn
• nan, you're a window shopper
• shame for you
• knock em out
• littlest things
• not big
• friday night
• smile
• everything's just wonderful
• alfie

more good info on the show at http://popbytes.com/archive/2006/10/

Mac Arthur Park - Where I Live!

This is my friend's French Bulldog, Bacon. She's a real love. He bought her for his Dad after his mom died of cancer, but his Dad didn't want her, so now she lives with him on a boat in San Pedro. He also has an English Bulldog named Sparkles. He's a good dog namer. Sparkles already lives with his Dad, so maybe that's why his Dad didn't want Bacon. Or maybe his Dad was just too sad to think. How could you not want a mug like this?

I'm watching Bacon while my friend is on VAKAY. I take her to MacArthur Park in the morning which is only two blocks from my house. Do you know MacArthur Park? If you do, then you know it's a haven for crack heads and junkies and that guys selling fake IDs and SS#s hang out on the corner. They know Bacon and like her so they let me pass. There are crayfish and ducks and Canadian geese in the "lake" in the middle of the park and this morning I watched a man sitting back with two fishing poles and a beer (8am!) suddenly jump to his feet and reel in a hefty catfish. Bacon had walked on ahead while I was watching the guy fish and when I caught up with her, three Pochos were asking me about my pit bull puppy and how much she cost. I explained that she wasn't a pit bull or my dog and we chatted a bit more. One of the guys had a cap in his lap that I only noticed when he said "Now that I've pet your pet, do you want to pet mine?" I thought he was going to show me his prick and I was getting ready to move it and say something nasty, but the guy had a snake, a baby hog nose rattler and I reeled back. He told me it was okay, it was a domesticated rattler (no such thing, I thought!) and that he never knew snakes could be so nice. I told him I love snakes and have one at home (I do; a king snake) but that I wasn't ready to pet a rattler yet. Bacon spotted the snake the same time the snake spotted her and it whirred it's tiny tail to let her know it meant business. I called Bacon off and leashed her immediately and thanked the kids and hurried home. As I was nearing my apartment, it dawned on me that in all the time I used to hike dogs in the canyons of LA, I never saw a rattler. One canyon in particular was infamous for a group of coppers that are a beautiful breed and I had always wanted to see them, but never got the chance. It made me laugh to think that of course the first rattler I see in LA doesn't come from the canyons, but from underneath a Pocho's hat in Mac Arthur park. I live in a wild place. I love it here and when I'm not bogged down with too much work and I get a chance to hang out on the street here, I remember how much.

Manny said Yes!!!!

Since this blog was her idea, I don't mind announcing that Manny is engaged! Her Monk asked her last night at dinner and then walked her to the end of the pier where we (her fine friends) waited with sparklers in hand to surprise the hell out of her! And that we did.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

Infamous Duets-part one

Trancendental Music Moments

There are a couple of duets/mixes that don't exist, but that I'm longing to hear, the latest inspired by a little trip to the Troubador.

Sunday, May 14th 2006 The Red Hot Chili Peppers played a secret show at the Troubador. As part of the encore set, John Frusciante--a rock god--sang a riff of the Donna Summer song "I Feel Love," with Flea--also a rock god--holding tempo on bass. Remember kids punk and disco used to diametrically opposed schools of music. Hearing the disco classic drummed up to the beat of Flea's thrumming bass backed by the tightly coiled tension of of how deep Frusciante must've had to reach down to hit the high notes was excruciatingly (fruciantingly) pleasurable. In the split second that the sound of Fruciante's inhalation registered through the speakers, Frusciante transformed from a rock god singing about love to a rock god who was love in all its ecstatic harmonic bliss. The song, in that moment, transcended all the bubbly haze of party people disco and became a Frusciante anthem.

Every performance was rock solid. Anthony moved and swayed in hottie boy sweats, the word MARS stitched in pink fuzzy letters across his ass. His voice, as longtime fans know, keeps getting better, in part because that ache of longing that appears during the ballads is becoming more pronounced. Chad is simply one tight drummer and it was his throbbing beat (and I only use the music cliche because the Peppers preoccupation with their members is well documented...) that made me think that Erol Alkin would be the man to mix Frusciante.

Flash back two years and I'm at Alkin's club T*R*A*S*H in London (and mind you I'm not rich or a music writer or anything like that, I just have a spouse who is a big time music fiend/whore). It's a great place to stay happy. The cover is low and the drinks are cheap and even though some kids get super dressed up (four guys showed up in versions of the admiral jackets the Beatles wear on the cover of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) most wear top shop threads and sport casual looks. The emphasis is on the music not on attitude or scene, something people seem to miss the point of in LA, which may be why the best DJs like Tiga, DJ Hell, Alkin and Ellen Aileen don't come by that often. Alkin came on late and by that time, so much sweet music had played that I was ready for almost anything, except what came next, the surprisingly deliciously unpredicatable Fly Like an Eagle by the Steve Miller Band. It was mixed into the set but wasn't a mash (something Alkin had been doing the summer before) and was played straight without irony. The kids in the crowd, Miller Band virgins that they were, loved the airy misty melody all over again.

What I'm dying for is an Alkin mix of Frusciante. It doesn't have to be the Donna Summer cover. That might be, as it were, a little too obvious. But could you imagine what Alkin would do with Frusciante's vocals on something like the song Carvel? Touched again, like the very first time.

[photos of Frusciante courtesy of http://www.jameskocsis.com/troubadour/troubadour.html]

Thirteen Doll Photos

These are photos I took of a doll that appeared by my office after a heavy rain. The blue around her neck is actually the box she came in. Apparently it was ripped off of her and left around her neck. The playing card was on the ground. I placed it in her hand (an artistic choice I later regretted) and I moved her eyes (like a TV coroner closing the eyes of the dead). I took thirteen pics in all.

Gayshine online

Allow me to introduce myself and don't bother taking notes because I'm not really ever gonna say that much about me per se, just what I think. I'm 37ish and tall and in a monogamous, long term relationship. This blog wasn't my idea, but that of a friend--a girl we'll call Manny. And the term 'Gayshine' was coined by her beau (a Japanese speaking Buddhist monk no less) who thought it would be a useful term to desribe how "gay" someone seems, by talking about how much gay shine he or she has. Being a fairly open minded sort, this monk wasn't being derogative. He simply meant that certain people have an aura, a shine if you will about them that might indicate a sexual preference that in fact isn't true. The word differs from 'metrosexual' in that metrosexual conotes a type of aspiration on the part of straight guys who want to be stylish. In other words, metrosexuals are consumer whores, people with gay shine just have a natural, happy, albeit misleading, glow.

Of course my only question now is, should gay shine be one word or two?