Punk show last night

Last night I went to a pretty sick show at the Sugar Mill Saloon. The show was sponsored by Demon Candy Promotions. I was around for three bands. All great. 

The first band was Kittenhead. They're a female-led group consisting of a white chick frontwoman singer, a black chick guitarist, an Asian chick bassist, and a white dude on drums. Talk about diversity! I actually haven't seen a band like that live before. The guitarist and bassist kept switching off instruments. They were proficient at guitar and bass, both of them. However, the Asian chick was the better guitarist. But the black chick was funkier. 

They reminded me of the 90s bands fronted by women like The Cars. But they had a more punk rock edge. The three girls sang vocals and sometimes they switched off between lead vocals. The black chick even had songs where she rapped. And she was good. And funky with her guitar playing. They weren't terrific or remarkable in any particular way. Rather, they were the perfect rock band. Perfect in the sense that you know that these musicians aren't remarkable on their own. However, when they come together as a band they are greater than the sum of their parts. Wowie zowie! 

The second band was called Rosemary Reyes. Loudest band I've ever heard in my life. The guitarist even told me outside the bar that he couldn't hear himself. "Did it sound good?" Sure did, buddy. Okay, first of all, this band is one of a kind and I will never see another band quite like it. For starters, the band is fronted by a 72-year-old woman! 

The guitarist was quite good. He was playing an old 1950s guitar, possibly a Silvertone from the looks of it. He had a Vox half stack setup. He had a great fuzzed-out guitar tone emanating throughout the place. Honestly, his guitar playing was carrying the whole band from start to finish. The old lady singing was doing a punk rock snarl throughout every song. I couldn't understand a word. It was all gibberish. So much for punk rock. BUT...the fact that she's fronting a punk band at that age is freaking inspiring. She's a true inspiration. Even though I wasn't a fan of her vocals she looked cool and even sounded cool. 

I was very impressed with the guitar player. He was playing punk rock so his guitar playing was limited to just hardcore rhythms, power chords, and open chords. He did do one solo but it was like maybe ten seconds long. But he made it sound so good. His guitar was an old 1950s model. It's quite fascinating how those old guitars from the 50s actually look futuristic like they could've been made in 2020. Those were the days. They were so loud. I've never seen a band play there that sounded so loud. It was quite good. The young drummer killed it with a lot of hardcore fills. The bassist was very good as well. Talk about fuzz tone.

The last band was Swords of Fatima. The group consists of a girl singing and playing guitar with just a drummer. Because it's just a duo it sounds more rock and roll, more visceral, more raw, more punk rock, maybe even more blues. I didn't stay for the whole set but the drummer was on point. And her guitar playing was great, especially her rhythms. 

It was late and I called it a night. A good show indeed. You can listen to these bands on YouTube but those videos aren't as good as the real, live, thing. Women in rock and roll are pretty damn cool. 

Feelin' Alright

Ahoy shipmates, and welcome aboard. Lately, I've been writing vlog-style [lifestyle] posts so let's keep up in that fashion. The last two weeks I've been ranting a lot, a lot about hard work at the retail gig, Marxist theory, the stompin' upon the proletariat...blah blah blah. The truth is that within the last couple of weeks I've been feeling that work was becoming overwhelming. That the proletariat is being used and abused. Or something like that. 

I almost became a Marxist. That's one of my best jokes I've come up with recently. I was so fed up with working that I wanted to become a Marxist. Going so far as to consider spending my time reading more Marx and Engels, and Adorno, my music mentor's hero. I would say that I have a lot of Leftist influences and that my general political ideology is more aligned with that, rather than say, a pure form of straight capitalism, which we have seen now in 2019, no longer works. But that's an op-ed column for another day, wouldn't you say? 

So today rolls on by. I chilled with some friends and we did the same usual stuff. We played Smash Ultimate in three-player free for all, ate lunch, talked, and listened to some music on YouTube. I didn't take a Lyft from my friends' to work. Rather, I took the bus. The bus took about forty minutes because it was a slow bus on a Sunday, the laziest of all bus days. 

During the wait, I stood the entire time. I was mostly surveying the image of the valley canyons. I saw a customer who happened to be taking the bus and I told him how great the weather was, and how beautiful the valleys looked, and that we were lucky to live here. "Yeah, man, we're blessed." Being able to just stand around, enjoy the weather, and take in the scenery really calmed me down. It brought it all to me right there: dasein, time and being, the worldhood of the world. The important stuff I learned from Heidegger's Being and Time. Which one might say has to be experienced first before you even try to explain.

Long story short. Sometimes all it takes is a moment of self-reflection to realize how great life is, and how your impact on your world, community, etc, makes the world a better place if you will it, allow it, and make it so. "When you smile, the whole world smiles with you." It's actually true. The more upbeat and happy I am at work, the more people want to talk to me, and find out more about me. Likewise, the more gloomy I am, the fewer people want to talk to me. This goes back to a post I wrote some six months ago about how I had an epiphany about happiness, changing the way you think to attain this more often, regularly, etc. I'm no guru or anything. Rather, I am just a young grasshopper trying to attain enlightenment. 

One of the most liberating feelings in the world is being happy amongst others: family, friends, coworkers, customers, and managers. The other is being happy with yourself. Find the balance between the two and the universe seems to open up, engulfing you in a sea of happiness [or something like that lol].  "They call me mellow yellow...quite right."

It can be something simple like standing around, contemplating the canyons. Or it could be something more complicated like meditation. Whatever way you find it, when you find it, try not to lose it. However, if you do, remember you can always pick up where you last left off.  Even life has a pause button.

"When you smile, the whole world smiles with you."

Post Chicago Blues

I came back from Chicago a few days ago. I was only gone five days but it was the best five days I've had in a year, since I was there in 2017. Coming back home, being here a couple days, I'm really feeling that post Chicago blues. Let me explain. 

1) Food
The food in Chicago is way better than the food out here in LA, or in my case, the Valley. Chicago seems to have less chains, the food is cheaper, and the food just tastes way better. I'm actually pretty depressed about this because I've realized all the places I eat at here with my friends are either fast food, or way overpriced decent food. Its a lose-lose! 

2) Music venues
LA has its share of great music venues, that's true. However, they are all overpriced in comparison to the gigs I went to in Chicago. The jazz gig cost me $12. The blues gig only $7. Not only would a bar in LA charge that much (probably more actually) but they would also have a one or two drink minimum. At both clubs/bars I went to in Chicago none of them had drink minimums. Music events are better over there. Not only that but I think for the kind of music that I like and play, Chicago would be a much better city. Jazz, classical, modern classical, etc.

3) Weather 
The weather in Chicago is cold, that's for sure. However, sometimes the cold is good. The always summer weather of LA gets tiring, and you lose a certain movement of the Earth here in the Valley. Like every year is the same, every day is the same, every hour is the same, its a sort of labored continuity, driven by the fact that everyday is completely identical. This almost made me lose my grounding when I first moved here, when I didn't write or play music, instead I became absorbed into the 'bio-mass' of California culture-video games, technology, movies, rock and roll, night life, and a retail job.

4) People 
People in LA are fake. Like really, really, really fake. Not only that but they can be real stuck-up assholes, guys and gals, I've met them personally on musically levels or when I help out customers at work. The thing about Chicago is that its hard to be fake and a cunt. Everyone can spot you out a mile away and call you out on your bullshit. In LA everyone preens themselves as an artist, musician, businessman, manger, etc but when it comes to their actual jobs its often not what we expect (usually lame, boring, or they don't get enough respect, etc), or they turn out to have a shitty personality. Not saying everyone in LA is like this but a lot of them are. Hell, even my brother's academic roommates were nicer, more intelligent, and interesting than most of the college students I've come to meet in LA. There's something about the Midwest, the people are a lot more wholesome, and they'll take time out of their day to help you or speak with you. Midwestern hospitality! 

5) Cost of living
The cost of living in Chicago is much cheaper than LA. You can rent a room for as low as $500. Sure it won't be a palace and you might have to share with roommates but it beats the $1500 one room apartment price here in the Valley. At one point I was thinking about moving out of my dad's place but it ended up not working out because it was still too expensive between three people. I think my cost would've been something like $800, which is too much. 

6) Scenic Historical City
We spent two or three days downtown Chicago just checking places out. You can spend a lot of time just walking down the streets and enjoying the scenic historical city. Its one of the most well known cities in the world, and for good reason.

7) Trains and buses 
The trains and buses in Chicago are great. Sure, the buses might be extremely full at times, and the trains too in the morning commute, but they are reliable, so reliable in fact that you don't even need a car. This is perfect for me because I don't drive and don't own a car. The trains are fast, even the buses are fast. Its great. 

Jotting all this down is a little depressing because I see all that I'm missing now that I'm back in the Valley. However, the good news is that I'm planning on moving to Chicago in about a year or so, when I can go back to visit, and find a place. In the meantime I'm going to continue with creative pursuits and working, as well as further my education in the classics and philosophy. In the end it will be very sad because I'll be leaving behind my vast network that I've created here since 2013. I have a lot of very good friends and although my job is a lowly retail job, it has also helped me to make friends, musical associates, and afford to buy things. It will be sad when I leave but I will also be glad in a way, to start a new life in the windy city. 

Fire and Dice, A Refuge for Nerds in the Valley

I've been on vacation for a week. I'm just hanging out at home away from work, laying low for a while. It's an unpaid vacation so I'm going to be working for free for a week but its fine. I wanted to talk about my favorite hangout place with my friends-Fire and Dice!

Fire and Dice is a hobby shop that I've been going to for over a year now. You can find old blog posts where I wrote about my sm4sh tournaments there and how I did and stuff. It used to be located on Ventura and De Soto but it moved to a bigger space and is now located at on Vanowen and Winnetka. It didn't move far and I can always catch a ride there with friends if I provide a bit of gas money. The place is known for its board games, Magic the Gathering tournaments, and Smash 4 tournaments which occur every Thursday.

I used to be obsessed with attending every sm4sh weekly and getting better and better. As I started working more I never got Thursdays off so I haven't been able to attend for a super long time. However, I've been getting lots of Mondays off, which are Magic the Gathering tournament nights. Since I started playing Magic there I've met many new friends, one of which even made me a really good deck. I've become pretty good at the game and gained a much better understanding of the tactics than from when I used to play as a middle schooler.

I actually go there to play Magic often now. I wish I could go to more Sm4sh tournaments there but honestly I'm so rusty in Sm4sh that I'm sure some high school Sm4sh junkie that plays 24/7 would crush me. That wouldn't stop me from attending though. I'd still be down, and I might even go tomorrow. But that's the topic for another post. Here I wanted to talk about how great fad (Fire and Dice) is.

Fad is the most fun place I can go to with my more nerdy friends. I have another set of friends who wouldn't set foot at fad because they hate smelly nerds crowded in a small space (we experienced this when I took them to a big sm4sh tournament) and also they aren't into magic or board games. However, my more nerdy friends and I love going to fad because its like a refuge, a safe haven for people like us-nerds.

The fact that tournaments are cheap ($5 commander league magic the gathering, which I enter every Monday that I can attend if I'm off work, and $10 sm4sh singles entry) and that you can hang out there until 10 pm is just icing on the cake. If you don't want to play magic, or participate in their Dungeons and Dragon event (every Wednesday) you can relax and play one of their many board games that they have out in the open on display. I really want to play their Mario chess game sometime, that would be sick.

Fad has improved my social life a lot. I've met so many cool people and new friends just by hanging out there. I'm probably never going to meet a girl friend there or anything but I always have a good time every time I go. I've actually come to find video gaming to be a bore because I'm so used to going to fad and playing magic with friends. I find hanging out in a social environment much more fun and better than sitting in my room on my computer and playing games.

All in all fad is a hip and happening place when it comes to hobby shop fun and gaming in the valley. There's other hobby shops but fad is the best one I've been to. Game Ogre was another great place in the valley (used to be in Northridge) but I heard today that they moved to Agoura Hills. Guess fad really is the best place for nerds in the valley.

There's so much more stuff to do there that I haven't done too. I was thinking about eventually getting into the Dungeons and Dragons scene on Wednesdays. Maybe one day. I wanted to write about how cool fad is because I've been really enjoying hanging out there on my vacation. Its a great store and its run by a bunch of super cool Asian guys. If you enjoy sm4sh, magic the gathering, dungeons and dragons, and board games you should definitely check this place out!