breakdancing godzilla is my new friend + honey is awesome.

i'm a blog-monster now. i can't fucking stop. is there a support group for people addicted to blogging? ok yes, the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery. well, I hope it won't get to this point. i think i like nature too much for that.

but in the meantime. i started a new group-blog for all things anyone wants to post. everyone should join it or check it out at breakdancinggodzilla.blogspot.com. you will be entertained.

speaking of nature: i went apple picking with conner & ben & dave this weekend and it was great. a gorgeous day on a hill-top orchard. you too can visit this hill top orchard - Hartland Orchard. I bought honey with a comb in it (even thou i have 3 different kinds of honey from 3 different countries already). The 10-year-old girl selling the honey was amazing and probably is the only reason I bought the honey. She showed us the best way to look at the comb in the jar and she noticed that the monster on Dave's shirt matched almost exactly the monster she'd drawn on a pumpkin on her stand. She will grow up to be fabulous & weird, and that is how a girl should be. Way to go little lass!

the mysterious theremin

The most amazing thing happened today. A man in a too-tight button up shirt was playing the theremin at 10am on the sidewalk in front of Red Lobster in downtown silver spring. Of course, I had to talk to him. Arthur Harrison was playing the prototype for his newest model - it'll be available soon on his website - Harrison Instruments.

I didn't have the courage to ask him if i can play it, but if by some magical luck, he's still there when i go out for lunch, you'd better believe i'll be rockin it out. Sadly, i've left my camera-phone at home today, so i don't have any documentation of this rare strange occurance in The 'Sprung.

For those that don't know what a theremin is, think about the common sound between old horror movies & the Beach Boys. Of course the sound of the theremin will spring instantly to your mind. You may also listen to it's sounds at Harrison Instruments. It's one of the first electronic instruments and is played without your hands actually touching the instrument. I have no idea how this works, but Dave, you'd better build one pronto! (my new friend Arthur can sell you the kit & provides free customer service!)

Apparently creepy old ladies love to play theremin, too, and one of the best (apparently) is named Clara Rockmore, which is fitting for any self-respecting rock chick. she's pictured above. or left. or whatver.

dis·gust·ing (adj.)

: causing marked aversion aroused by something highly distasteful
: having your dentist tell you the reason your face hurts is not because you are not healing properly from the removal of your wisdom teeth but because you have flesh pockets filled with food. Food that is irritating your jaw bone. Apparently bones aren't down with mac n' cheese.

then she flushed them out & showed me all the food in there.

enjoy your lunch!

art tie

ok, check it out, do you want:



records + headphones? monkies? pirates? tattoo flash? or space girls?


this page looks like crap.

needs more cowbell.

I rock harder than joan jett

it's big talk I know, but having seen her perform last night, i think it's true. Even with wisdom-teeth-extraction jaw pain, having worked all day (more or less), and the out too late on a school night feeling, I am more RnR that she is. Granted, I'm not wearing skin-tight leather pants, but i was still lookin' hot.

i mean, come on Joan, are you the same girl from the Runaways? I can see it's still in you but you've got to let it shine. Rock it out at least a little! You claim to love rock n roll, but I think i love it more than you. and I don't even tour! I'm pretty glad you're out & happy about your queer-itude, and good for you, you should be! but you've gotta do one of two things:
if you're going to tour as the Black Hearts, with boys in tight tight pants and all the punk posturing, you've got to bring it. You've got to not even imply that you might be using a recording to back up your own vocals (yep) and your new album should at least try to have the same raw energy as the early stuff. and YOU should have some raw energy. I know you're probably pushing 40, but old folks can rock, too. 40 could be the new 16 if you're drunk & limber enough!
OR - and this is a valid option, too -
you've got to be Joan Jett and the Helicopters, JJ & the Bear, Fancy Joan and the Pants or something, and embrace your new softer side. you can still have the tight-pantsed boys, the vinyl top and still play the old songs YOU want to play, but the new moniker allows you to have a new identity, which you clearly want, that involves songs about feelings, the trans community, and a little less ass-kicking.

My final gripe - don't rush thru 'I Love Rock N Roll.' im sorry you don't want to play it anymore, but thats what I (& everyone else) came to see.

So that's my plea. Don't coast on the dreams of the old punks like me with the BlackHearts name. If i had paid for this show, this rant would be twice as long....

Pear Tart

photo: (c) 2006 Dave Gustine

I've been lusting after my neighbor's pear tree since I moved to the area about two years ago. I finally got the courage to leave a note:

'dear neighbor, i'm in love with your tree. im happy to clean your yard in exchange for pears. I'll even pick them myself.'

she called right away & dave & I went over the next weekend. He climbed the tree & we knocked pears out with a rake. We hauled away about 10lbs for free. yay neighbors! I made a pear tart that had a recipe something like this:

MY NEIGHBOR'S PEAR TART
-pull pre-made pie-crust out of fridge.
-make a paste by creaming butter & sugar, add eggs, almond extract, some flour (but not much) and some almonds dave pounded the shit out of in the mortar.
-spread almond paste on the pie crust (in the pie pan, silly!).
-Layer thinly sliced pears evenly and beautifully across the paste until you're satisfied you've used enough.
-stick it in the oven til it's done.
-eat the hell out of it! it's good!
If you feel like getting fancy(ier) serve it with half+half or whipped cream.

XAmerican HardcoreX

Saw a sneak preview of the new punk docu AMERICAN HARDCORE this week. A fitting premiere in DC - the east coast birthplace of hardcore. The hardcore scene seems to be pretty much non-existent in DC these days, and I was surprised at the diversity of the audience. Way more old folks and business-types than I expected, thou still a good number of boys in tight pants, hand-sewn pants patches and even a mohawk or two. it always warms my crusty heart to see punk kids with a disgruntled parent in tow, too.

Unfortunately, the movie wasn't as good as I'd hoped, it lacks what many music docus do - a story. It has great music, and interviews all the perrenial punk experts - Ian Mackaye, Henry Rollins, but doesn't really share anything new. Attempting to distinguish itself from the flood of other punk documentaries out in the last two years, AmHx focuses only on, well, hardcore, and the major cities that spawned it - from LA to DC to Boston then NY, the midwest & beyond. It's a testosterone filled movie, like the scene is. It speaks a lot to the extreme violence of hardcore - merciless pits, gang-like rivalries between bands and neighborhoods, broken bones, trashed houses, and copious drug consumption. Sadly, despite the current reputation of some of the hardcore fathers as pacifists and feminists no one says there's anything wrong with the out of control nature of the violence.
Women are also largely excluded from this story, The only interviews with women are token pretty girls, girlfriends and ex-wives. Kira Roessler, Black Flag's only female member, was interviewed, but her place in the story was more as Rollins' ex-gf than a female force in a hyper-masculine scene.

AmHx is, overall, too long, and though the music is good, there's no real investigation into the scene that would make the film appealing for anyone who isn't already into hardcore.

the Science of Sleep

Dave & I went to see THE SCIENCE OF SLEEP last week. I LOVE!!! It. I think you would like it too...
You can check out the trailer, but I don't think it even begins to represent how artful, reflective, romantic, unusual and compelling it is. The story is of a Mexican - Stefane (Gael Garcia Bernal) staying in his mother's apartment in France who falls in love with his next door neighbor - Stefanie (Charlotte Gainsbourgh). Stefane has trouble distinguishing between dreams & reality. Stefanie is a somewhat mousey artist who creates warm & fragile seeming sculpture/toys out of cloth. The film is in English French & Spanish and the sets often include collage & animation made with cardboard & cellophane. I love it SOOOOO much. Oh my god. It's definitely not for people who don't appreciate art, but no one likes them anyway.
I think I spent so much time thinking about dreaming last night/this morning that I'm still not really awake. I'm so impressed by the director, frenchman Michele Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND) - how does he see in that way that creates beautiful, dreamlike, and strange sets yet they are totally believable??