So what’s been going on since I could last be bothered to throw something up on here? I played another gig in town which went over pretty well. The kiddo has gone to two camps, each which ended in a very cute performance. I was most excited about Rock Camp, where they all got to try out different instruments, learned how to do power slides, and performed an original song about buying a time machine at Best Buy to go look at dinosaurs. Their band was called The Smudgies, which was changed from Smokey House Hot Bread which I thought was a much better name.

And speaking of rock and instruments and such… this Saturday I went on one of my usual weekend trips to Guitar Center. I’ve been hearing good things about some of the newer stuff that Squire has been putting out, and I thought I’d check out some of their basses. I’ve been really wanting a Jazz or Precision Special (Precision body, Jazz neck, both pickups) for a while. I played a few of the Jazzes, but didn’t really feel that it would be an upgrade from my heavily modified Fender Musicmaster. And then I saw a Fender Standard Jazz in the used area for about a third of what they go for new. I played it and loved the sound, versatility and feel. And it would definitely be an upgrade!

I ran back home and went digging through my closet for my dad’s old Ovation acoustic/electric. He gave it to me after he discovered Taylor guitars. I don’t play much guitar, but for a while it was nice to have an acoustic around just in case. But I hadn’t played it in several years and the strings and frets were rather crusty. I brought it to a friend who buys beat up guitars to clean up and sell for a lot more, and he helped me get this one all nice. We crowned the frets, oiled the fingerboard, tightened up the strap pegs and made it look beautiful. I brought it back to Guitar Center and they traded it for the bass, a case and a new set of string!

But here’s the hard part… because the bass was brought to them used, they have to wait 30 days before letting it out of the store. They call that the pawn shop law, so in case it’s reported stolen, they can return it to the rightful owner. So I have to wait until the middle of August before I can bring it home, giving me only two rehearsals with it before I play a gig with it. Barely 10 minutes goes by without me daydreaming about playing it!

The first round of asshats are of course the people who want to put this thing up there. I mean seriously, what are you thinking? Yeah, sure, I realize you mean it as some sort of peace thing, but if people aren’t taking it that way, you don’t do it. While most rational people don’t see what happened on 9/11 as being an attack from all of Islam, it was still Islam (sure, it was the most fundamental extreme wingnut variety, but still Islam) that inspired this attack, it’s not unreasonable to view putting a mosque there as an act akin to planting the flag of an invading army on freshly conquered ground. And despite any good intentions, if it could be taken that way it’s not the right thing to do.

So instead of coming out with a reasonable argument against it like I just did, the other asshats in this story (and let’s face it, they’re pretty much asshats in every story they make their way into) are the right wing teabagger crowd who have to make everything about intolerance and racism and say mind numbingly dumb shit like this…

“We feel it would be more appropriate maybe to build a center dedicated to expunging the Quranic texts of the violent ideology that inspired jihad, or perhaps a center to the victims of hundreds of millions of years of jihadi wars, land enslavements, cultural annihilations and mass slaughter,” Geller said. [full article]

It takes special skill to cram that much idiocy into one little sentence. Hundreds of millions of years, huh? I’m no fan of Islam at all, but don’t even get me started on all the violence committed for Jesus, too. Who could possibly take that kind of talk seriously? Asshats, that’s who. The same asshats who protest our current administration doing the same things that they didn’t have a problem with when the white guy was doing them. The the same asshats who whine about their oppressive taxes while enjoying the lowest tax rates ever. The same asshats who defend the Christianization of every last thing in our society. The same asshats who have an awful lot going for them but still always whine about being the victim of something.

There’s a part of me who almost wishes they’d build the biggest mosque in the world at ground zero just to piss these people off. But two wrongs don’t make a right (while infinite wrongs do make a right wing). So the first group of asshats, please reconsider this. I realize you want peace love and understanding, but please don’t do it at the cost of alienating a lot of people who might not be as lame about it as your more vocal critics. And the second group of asshats, please consider mass suicide. You’re never going to be happy in a world with diversity of ideas and races and religions. Perhaps things might be better for you on the other side.

UPDATE: That second group of asshats  are so racist… (how racist are they?) They’re so racist that they almost beat up a couple of Egyptian Coptic Christians who flew 9 hours to join their protest. Nice job, people. Way to represent America.

And for everyone who slogged through this miserable post, here’s your reward. I lied about there not being any more Dino Jr. in this post. Enjoy!

So Scratchy is a total stalker. He’s got a really annoying and grating meow. Whenever I come out of the apartment, he’ll dart out from somewhere and give me that whiny meow. I love cats but I will not reach down and pet this one. Last night he tried getting into our apartment, whining at our screen door for a really long time. My wife asked me to go water the plants outside and I didn’t want to because psycho kitty was out there. I was walking by the laundry room the other day and one of my other neighbors was loading the washer with Scratchy rubbing up on his legs to the point where if he moved he was going to trip. Another time I was sitting in the courtyard when Scratchy just got up in my lap and demanded petting. At that point I was a little bit frightened to get him off my lap, but I gently got him down and he quickly reached up with his claws on my legs like he was trying to sharpen them on a couch. He did the same thing to my wife yesterday.

What does one do with a kitty who is a bit off? These neighbors totally keep to themselves and don’t really talk to anyone. Should we be worried that they’re experimenting, breeding a new feline-based weapon of mass annoyance? It’s always those quiet types who are up to no good.

She is a natural performer, and we are encouraging this with theater camp, rock and roll camp, and possibly circus arts camp this summer. I figure in a year or two, she’ll be ready to tackle more serious theatrical roles like this one…

So, what’s been going on, you ask? Oh who am I kidding? Nobody is asking. The only comments I seem to get around here are spam. And the comment spammers seem to have gotten a bit more advanced since my last forray into the blogosphere. I do get a little chuckle every time I get these vague comments about how intriguing my subject matter is and how they would like to know more about it. But it’s my own damn fault for taking such a long hiatus from blogging and not really doing a whole lot to let people know I’m back.

So where was I? Oh right, general life updates and whatnot. So last Sunday there was a going away party for a friend of mine who is on a plane bound for Boston O’Hare as I type. It was an open jam session on the back deck of a restaurant in town and it was a great deal of fun. I brought Stella (my 4 year old daughter for those who don’t know) and a bunch of my other friends brought their kids too. The kids played their kid games while we played rock and roll for a solid six hours! We had a great group of players, many of us dropping out sometimes mid-song to tend to the little ones and many songs drummed softly with a child in the lap. At one point, Stella picked up a harmonica and played right in tune and on time. Did I mention she’s only 4?

After a long cold rainy winter, spring has definitely sprung and there’s a lot of music happening! Besides this fun jam, I now have 3 gigs lined up! The first two are only a couple of days apart. On April 16th, we’re going to be doing a loose, stripped down set at the Pacific Alternative Health Center in Point Richmond. Then that following Tuesday, we’re playing at an as of yet to be determined venue in San Rafael. Why a Tuesday night gig? because that Tuesday is 4/20. What St. Patrick’s Day is to drinkers, 4/20 is to pot smokers, and both of these gigs are being put on by medical marijuana dispensaries. Since we are purveyors of heavy progressive and psychedelic rock, it’s the perfect audience! The third gig is at the historic Toot’s Tavern in Crocket on Fri, May 7th.  For all info on my band, I’ve got a page with dates, clips and a way for you to join our mailing list here.

And last but not least, I’d like to make a quick shout out to some friends of mine who have blogs. I haven’t seen Karen since a few Christmases ago. We were friends in DC and she produced my first film. She was halfway across the country, and now she’s halfway across the world and blogging about being an expat mom. And my old buddy Sam has a great blog which covers the full spectrum of pop culture that you should really check out. OK, that’s it. Comment spammers, have at it!

So off we went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. I ran ahead to get the tickets. First thing I noticed was the theater was being picketed. I HATE crossing picket lines. People don’t leave their jobs and stand out in the elements over unimportant issues, and I do not like supporting any business that can’t do right by their employees. But I also don’t like disappointing my wife on one of our all-too-rare dates, so I apologized to the picketers, bought tickets, and then went back to the parking lot for a new and exciting opportunity to disappoint my wife. She was circling the lot and I saw one open, so I did what any man would do, I stepped into it to hold it for her. But some woman in some urban assault vehicle decided that I was not allowed to do that and appeared ready to ram me with her gas guzzling tank to prove her point. I shared some choice words with her as I left the space and got into the car.

After driving around fighting about what an asshole I am for saying such mean things to a lady who was willing to kill me for a parking space (though for what it’s worth I probably would not have exploded on a stranger had I not already been a bit stressed and cranky), we finally calmed down, scored an even better parking space, and walked into the theater. But at that point, any decent seat had been taken and we were smack dab in the middle of the second row.

I thought perhaps that since it was a 3-D movie that it would be like we were in the middle of everything, but it was just like being in the second row at a regular movie. You have to crane your neck and the whole frame is bigger than your field of view.

The movie itself was great. The visuals were amazing, and incredibly detailed. Every tree in this Wonderland (or “Underland” as it’s known in this telling) has unearthly twisted and textured branches, and the card suits are hidden everywhere, even making up the chain of the Bandersnatch’s  collar. The acting was your standard Tim Burton over-the-top quirky with his usual players. Crispin Glover definitely fits in well with Depp and Bonham Carter’s oddball styles. The computer generated characters were equally fun to watch, particularly the even-madder-than-the-Hatter March Hare.

The 3-D was pretty cool too, though I think that after this and Avatar, the novelty is starting to wear off with me. The one funny thing I noticed though was how in medium and farther away shots, Anne Hathaway was a gorgeous White Queen. But close up, she looked like a linebacker. I’m not sure if it was a quirk of the 3-D, or just that our eyeballs were inches from the screen, or that I’m just a wackjob, but it was like that episode of Seinfeld with the man-hands. Oh no, she’s cracking open the lobster tail!

Afterwords we went to pick up our little gymnast. There did not appear to be any kind of checking out procedure and the staff did not seem ready to talk to the parents about anything. We felt kind of weird about leaving her someplace with such minimal attention given to the parents who would like to just basically know how it went and who these people are who are looking after our kids. But she did come home in one piece without any new bad habits, so this could be a good way for mommy and daddy to get out on a Friday night every now and then!