Goodbye Fonda?!

Word passed heavy today about the fate of the Fonda MusicBox Theater, with rumor having it closing soon, if only temporarily. The picture became somewhat clearer, thanks to quick reportage from LA Weekly and the LA Times.

It took me years to deal with going all the way to LA for shows, (with day traffic a six hour round trip), but a crucial part of what turned the tide for me was the 1300 seat oasis on the corner of Hollywood and Gower.  Many a night I would hang out on the roof between sets, eyeballing the Capitol Records building, gazing up the street towards the Roosevelt. 

With proximity to Amoeba Records and Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles, it is/was the epicenter of my LA Bermuda Triangle, and will be very hard to replace.

Some favorite memories from the venue include: 

-the last LA show of Stereolab in 2008 

-a stunning Superchunk show done to a half filled house, not to mention a comet-like appearance from The Vaselines as openers

-a transcendent Beach House gig last February when the crowd became one, 

-the Gang of Four returning to LA for the first time in too many years

-an electric solo performance from the Dresden Dolls' Amanda Palmer, introduced by none other than Neil Gaiman. What little did we know that down the road they would be married!

Not to mention the ones that got away: 

-Nine Inch Nails did a spot as part of their 'Wave Goodbye' tour.  I never got close to getting tickets...

-Radiohead picked the Music Box to put on their relief benefit for Haiti.  I dropped out of the ticket bidding at $350, no harm done.  Still regret that! 

Got an email tonight from Goldenvoice, who are going ahead with putting tickets on sale for the Cults gig in March.  I'm sure they'll have a backup in place, but if anyone can help leverage out this mess, it would be GV, (who just celebrated their 30th anniversary).

One of the biggest unanswered questions will be the fate of the adjoining restaurant, The Blue Palms, which has managed to carve a fine little niche among craft beer lovers.

Hopefully new ownership will be kind in renovations and not destroy the loving recreations of Bosch's 'Garden Of Earthly Delights'.  It might be that that I miss the most...

Tear Down The Wall, Indeed...

So, not to churn up any more badly needed publicity for Roger Water's 'newest' endeavor...(recreating The Wall in concert sans Pink Floyd), but i would be remiss if i didn't at least mention this interesting intersection of art & commerce.

Mr. Waters, when last we saw him, was bringing his vision of Dark Side of the Moon to the masses at Coachella, and since this marks 30 years since the epic NY/LA only performances of The Wall, it was certainly time to do it again, with the added benefit of new technology, promising much more in the way of entertainment.

So far, so good...until an ill-fated location choice by a promotional street team engaged to plug his project. The work is a collection of anti.war murals strategically placed around town, (featuring a quote from Ike, no less), one of which happened to end up on the wall of Solutions in LA, better known as the mural on the cover of Elliot Smith's Figure 8...sigh. Since Smith's demise, the wall has become a memorial, LA's take on Pere Lachaise, as it were...

And the crap, (thanks to the LA Weekly), proceeded to hit the fan. Aside from the sensationalized slant of the Weekly, it is a damn shame that the wall has been maligned for years, having been repainted upwards of ten times. Water's team's wheat paste concoction certainly doesn't measure up to the random tagging, but it was a sad oversight.

Waters was kind enough to provide a rebuttal in the LA Times, viewable here, in which he claimed ignorance of both Smith and the memorial, and on his own website, pledged to remove it immediately. His disingenious attempt at spin notwithstanding, (we'll never know if Elliot would have approved of that message, will we?!), a quick response was nice to see, especially from someone who could have easily hid behind PR machinery, and let, what was essentially a local story, blow over.

The amount of control Waters did or didn't have over marketing actions will continue to be debated, but the 'Wall' Waters has built between himself and his fans over the last 30 years, as well as between him and his former band is perhaps the saddest thing of all. Resorting to a Banksy style street art campaign may be someone's fine idea of promotion, but it smacks of the same thinking that has driven labels into their current ditch, and ironically, the biggest noise the campaign might hope to make has only come from its placement fiasco.

A thought for Mr. Waters, both personally and professionally...take a little time to approach the Smith catalogue, pick out three or four songs, do an online covers EP to benefit war vet's charity, and kick back the songwriting royalties to the Smith family...serious win/win. Surely one poet of alienation would recognize another...Nothing to lose but the studio time, quite frankly, and a nice reminder that Water's greatest work was really about Everyman, coping...

i pity the Fool...or, rockin' the breadbox...

Minutes after the April Fool's missive was posted, i was served up w/a $1500 bill for car repairs, on my hithereto impregnable Prius...bye bye warranty, we hardly knew ye...
or, d'ohhhhhhhhhhhh!

I waited in vain for his visage to crack, an eyebrow to raise...something, anything, but no, he was not joking. wah!

So i do this one from behind the wheel of a Toyota Scion, which for those of you who are not hip, is just what the subtitle implies, a rolling freakin' breadbox, which handles just like that...it seemed to randomly decide to be in 2nd or 3rd gear, depending on impending precipitation, or God. Tooling down 101, listening to the engine scream into the red as i hit 69 mph, pure joy...Only the Pixies 'Doolittle' at 42 on the comfy Pioneer sound system could put it out of my misery...

My history with rental cars is checkered...last fall i had a hideous all night party at LAX, locked out of the terminal until 6am, waiting for a flight to NY...laptop battery dies w/15 minutes to go in 'The Godfather', and Every Single Outlet is occupied by floor waxers...I do not begrudge a working man his gig, (not i!!), so i eat it and smile...and doze and fly all day, and when i arrive, the bro at the rental car desk says nothing, and i get out to the space and find a bright new Mustang waiting for me. I dashed back in to throw money, say thank you, buy him a bottle, but he had checked out for the day, good deed having been done. He could probably see it on my face...
I'm calling this Karmic payback for the previous rental escapade, involving a Chevy Malibu that was instantly and unlovingly named: 'The Flounder'. In a rare feat of double duty, it not only profanes the city of Malibu, CA, but manages to single.handedly sum up the decline of the American auto industry. (2007 model, apparently chastened executives ordered an overhaul during 2008.
Days of fishtailing around NY & Pennsylvania left me longing for the comparative rest of bouncing around a cockpit during brutal turbulence. Mysterious lights came on with no warning, and when i mentioned it to the rental folks, i was met with, 'yes, that's a problem with this model...'
Ok, and...?
Which brings us back to the Mustang...oh how i miss thee politically incorrect gas guzzling monster that you are...On a whim, (badly in need of headspace), i drove pretty much across Pennsylvania one morning, ending up at the Zippo factory out in western PA, before i turned back. Fun isn't the word for that machine, and whatever the hype is, it's twice that. This is mushrooming tangent time, lest i get completely out of control, it is worth mentioning for historical sake that upon this day, i unknowingly passed by not one, but two Sarah Palin rallies!
I was crushed when i saw CNN in a Chinese restaurant that night...of all the times to be in my little bubble...
But back to cars and stuff...just to bring it on home and tie up some loose ends...when it comes to cars, I'm certainly no Dan Neil, (whom i'd strongly advise checking out if you have any interest in the written word...he so thoroughly transcends the 'automotive writer' ghetto he's stuck in, one of the best pure writers on the paper), but I've driven in enough of These Great States to know what time it is...so there!

POSTSCRIPT:
The Prius is back, and all is well. Bless you if you make it through this screed; I feel better...