rogue tonight

last night, i was able enjoy some great live music as eva scow opened up rogue jazz at tower mosaic. tonight's thing to see: abagail nolte at spectrum gallery. the show is @ 10, the dice riff raff will be there, and i think bumbling brothers winery is providing
wine. after the show, the riff raff will congregate at the landmark. you're welcome to join for some or all.

lunch review of taqueria gaudalajara

i had seen that a new taqueria had opened on the fulton mall, just a few doors down from cafe corazon. i'm always up for mexican food, so i knew that i would visit sometime. today was the day.

mike and i came in the door, and my first thought was, "it's kinda dirty in there. maybe real dirty." yep, it was dirty. tables weren't wiped down, floor was a little sticky. and, i leaned against a wall and even it was dirty. the tables hadn't been bussed recently, and i actually had to clear a table so we could sit down.

the lady working the counter was helpful, and she was doing her best to manage, but she wasn't very proficient in english which made ordering a bit difficult. it doesn't bother me that she wasn't good @ the language, and honestly, most of the clientele probably speak spanish. it just made ordering tougher on my, and probably her.

we ordered our food, and noticed that they had a little serve yourself tortilla chip set up. so, we got a basket and some salsa. the chips were fine, but they'd been just sitting under a warmer so nothing special. the salsa was weak. and by weak, i mean it was super watery. they did have a strong oniony taste, which wasn't good in my opinion.

the restaurant is a converted smorgasbord, and so there is a big area in the back of the restaurant where the buffet was. as currently set up, the place seats 32 or so.
mike's asada plate came out first. he didn't want his grilled green onion, so i ate it. it was so flavorful. honestly, i was thrilled with how nicely this grilled onion tasted, and it made me anticipate my meal to come. sadly, this was the last good thing i ate. my friend said the asada was okay, and i tried a small piece. the grilled taste was decent, but there wasn't much spice to it. the plate came with rice & beans, but i'll tell you about those in a second.

my chile verde plate come out shortly after my friends. it looked nice. the taste? mediocre at best. honestly, the chile verde was moist, which is good, but the meat and sauce lacked flavor. i think i need to go in search of good chile verde, because the last two places i tried for it were a let down. the refried beans sucked. how do you make beans taste watery? they managed. the rice was cold, mushy and bland. just like most of the meal.

the final bad: store bought corn tortillas.

taqueria guadalajara
1139 fulton mall

radiohead rumors

radiohead may be playing @ a festival in sf on august 23.

they're also playing dates (unrevealed) in los angeles and santa barbara.


good lord. i need to be at one or more. and really, the santa barbara would ideal, if it's @ the santa barbara bowl.

yeah, i farted. jealous?

snl returned this week, and they brought back one of my favorite characters...amber.

"i can do the worm, i've served jail time, i've got mad skin tags, and i'm rockin one leg, bro."



"yeah, i farted. jealous?"

rogue advisory

new post over @ artbyedwardstewart.

and, this week rogue starts. the rogue hop is this thursday night. you can drop by ashtree studio between like 5-8 and see my stuff live and in person. i will be there part of the time. i'm doing set up over @ tower mosaic, and i think i'll also be catching eva scow's first show there.

live rademacher cut

rademacher is on a new, live recording. you can buy it somewhere. and, you can download it, too, for free.

(jeesh, i'm turning into a fanboy.)

back in business

yes sir. phone & internet restored. and, it looks like this week of grading isn't quite as heavy as last week. so, expect to see a little more from me blogwise than last week. and, i only had to miss an hour and a half of my schedule today. i also got the business card of the repairman, and he said if i had any problems to give him a call.

it seems that there was some squirrel had done a little chewing on the line, and then some water got in the line. so, pulled me a new line. bang!

phone service woes

so, our phone is out. our DSL is out. how do you call in your phone being out? well I called on my cell phone of course. for customer service, they say to call 611. or 661. I can't remember now which it was. but, since the call was from a cell phone, they couldn't access my house account. ive got to call that number from the house number. which doesn't work. so they give me an 800 number thats not in the bill. so tomorrow I'll have a repair guy out. lame.

dropping vegas

so, i was getting off my bike today, and thought i had put down the kickstand. turns out i hadn't. so, i did a nice little roll on the ground, fortunately without injuring myself or the laptop in my bag. even better, i don't even think i scratched my bike. the mirror was loose, but I think that will tighten back up.

adam's first time...getting tattoo'd

so, here's a little video we put together of adam getting his tattoo done by monica pasillas @ tower tattoo. she's the same artist that did this.

yes we can - mc cain mix

(as seen on boing boing)

how to behave on an internet forum

here's some netiquette lessons if you need 'em


How To Behave On An Internet Forum

i love the lo-tech look of it all.

lunar eclipse

a little video clip from last night's lunar eclipse (3rd try @ posting it)

full face helmet bandit

so, be careful out there. you may be mistaken for a suspect in a crime while doing the simplest of things.

this morning, i left a little early for work because i knew i needed to fill up my motorcycle. i stopped @ a little arco not too far from home, and went in w/my cash to prepay. however, since i was trying to rush, i didn't take off my helmet.

i went back outside, gassed up, and then went into the cashier to get my change. he gave me my changed, and seemed very relieved when i was heading out the door. he caught my attention by saying, "hey buddy, i thought i was going to get shot."

i was like, "huh?"

"didn't you hear about that robbery?"

"nope."

the cashier then grabbed a newspaper, flipped open to the local section and showed me the story. here's a quote:
"According to witnesses, a male suspect entered the store while wearing a motorcycle helmet and asked for change. The suspect then revealed a gun and shot the store clerk and the security guard.

The suspect took money from the cash register and then left the store on a motorcycle heading west."

uhh, oops. one dead, one wounded. didn't hear that on my morning news, although i did hear about cuba. guess it was just timing.

so, i told the cashier i was sorry to scare him. and went to work. driving north on my motorcycle, though. he was relieved.

but, since i'm thinking about morning news, heather and i saw one of the most ricockulous ads last night. one of the channels is advertising their morning show in a very odd way. the commercial starts out with a guy watching his morning news and they're giving some story about how some one died. then the announcer voice comes on talking about, "why start your day like that? start your day with a blast!" or some other nonsense like that. because, of course, no one actually wants to start their day with news. i want b.s.! (if i can, i'll update this with video of the commercial.)

castro resigns!

fidel has stepped down in cuba. well, he said he won't run again for election, but the times article doesn't say when it actually take effect. this could prove interesting. i wonder if one of the parties will take credit.

we've been tough all these years. it worked!"

probably both will tout this as a triumph of diplomacy. of course, our current guy has said he wants to see a democratic cuba. you know, like the one we helped establish in kuwait. or saudia arabia. or iraq.

hey jude

so, rademacher played this song the other night and it was fabulous. much better than this kid. but, he is only three. give him time.

happy cows come from california

no they don't. if you want to watch some stomach turning video that might make you rethink eating meat, click on the story and watch the video.

rademacher valentine's day show

so tonight i was able to go see rademacher @ club fred, or audy's olympic tavern as it's now being called (before it was fred's it was the olympic tavern). here's rademacher:



the show was pretty cool. it seemed like the worked in some more subtle changes into some songs. and, the sound @ fred's is really good. part of it is the system, part of it is that they have a sound guy that runs the shows, as opposed to tokyo garden where rademacher sets up their sound and there's nobody on the boards after that. with the better sound you could also hear the different parts of the music much better. i've seen rademacher @ fred's before (once, i think), but this was overall a better show & time than then.

the bass was very fat tonight, which was cool. here's greer:


she's great on the tiny tot's piano as well as bass. and the flute/recorder dealy she plays, too.



brad had a lot to say tonight. which is good. very funny banter in between songs or when mike was tuning.



this is mike (malcom/hot mess magic/etc) playing solo. i've been pestering him to play the song "arguments" for a while, because they never play it live anymore and i love that song. so, he did it for me and adam. very nice.

overall, the show was fun. rademacher did two sets tonight. they did a good part of their normal set, and then took a break and a dj spun. then they came back on, did more of their set and a few cover tunes. the covers? whitney houston's "i wanna dance with somebody," and the beatle's "hey jude." both were nice arrangements of the tunes, very indi sounding, but "hey jude" was a highlight of the night with a little crowd sing-along. it was a cool arrangement, with some little flubs, but still great.

after the show, adam and i chatted with mike about blogging. nerdy, but nice.

more punk than me

it's a hard life, drinking starbucks, at riverpark. really demonstrates the struggle.

\

starbucks punk has to be the antithesis of gutterpunk.

illegal waterboarding

it's official. maybe. sort of. now.

"There has been no determination by the Justice Department that the use of waterboarding under any circumstances would be lawful under current law."

barely

"The prohibition was contained in a bill authorizing intelligence activities for the current year, which the Senate approved on a 51-45 vote."

"CIA Director Hayden acknowledged for the first time publicly that the CIA has used waterboarding against three prisoners."

only three? oh, that they admit to. how many more are there out there? i mean, because, you know, we did have those "secret" prisons in other countries.

but have no fear, "Waterboarding is still officially in the CIA tool kit but using that technique requires the consent of the attorney general and president on a case-by-case basis."

so, that pretty much means it's approved.

rademacher valentine

lonely? don't have a valentine's date? tired of the internet? still waiting for new tv shows? slightly insomniac?


well, rademacher has the answer for you!


they're playing a free show @ club fred on valentine's day. starts @ 10. free! and, malcom will be spinning tunes after their set is over.

spending time in your craft

i like to think i'm a good painter. then sometimes i see some work that just humbles me. the other night i was stunned by the quality of some work. unfortunately, the painter's name is escaping me. perhaps i'll update this later or put his name in the comments when i know it.

but it was a good kick in the rear. spend more time painting. so, as much as i want to watch reruns on tv, i need to paint. not right now, of course. i painted earlier this evening, as well as prepped another canvas for paint. but i do need to make better use of my time.

jesus cosmetics

"jesus made me preeeeettty!"

so, i saw a story about a jesus related line of cosmetics in singapore. i'm not actually sure how they're trying to relate them to jesus. beause nothing says jesus to me like virtuous vanilla. although, "get tight with Christ" hand and body cream does have a certain ring to it.

and yes, the line is being pulled because some people felt it offensive and trivializing. me, i take it with a grain of salt. i wouldn't buy the stuff, but i'm also not going to get all crazy. unless God tells me to.

what i know

two quick hits:
-just posted an update over @ my art blog.
-just downloaded an album by brother ali and am excited to listen to it. nick, of dice riffraff/bumbling brothers winery/fresno fuego/etc was telling me about his latest album, and then today i saw super journalist & local blogger extraordinaire mike oz mention him, so that was enough buzz for me. emusic only had one of his albums, i'm guessing his first. (and, i just found out that he's on @ least one other album i own, pigeon john and the summertime pool party).

love like fire, paleo, rademacher post art hop show

i wasn't sure if i was going to the post art show @ tokyo, but i'm really glad i did. what i'm sad is that i didn't take my camera or anyone else along.

before the show, i had tried to find some of the other bands playing online, at least to try and get a feel for tonight's show. i really enjoyed paleo's songs on myspace, so i messaged rademacher to try and find out the order of the bands. i'll be honest, i didn't want to miss the set, but i wasn't leaving my place until lost was finished.

i got over to tokyo just a few minutes after ten, and somebody was finishing up. i was worried that i had missed paleo since rademacher had told me that he was going on first. but, there was actually another band that was unbilled that i guess started @ 9:30 or 9:45. so, i was alright. the place was packed, and it seemed already like it would be an interesting night because one of the bands had an actual tour bus/winnebago thing. that's big time, in my thoughts. you're not just rolling in a rented van. it was also a good night because i saw several people that i hadn't seen in quite some time, got to hand out some flyers, talk art, tattoos and etc. i even saw my latest tat artist and showed how everything was healing nicely.

paleo went on, and i wish i had moved closer to the stage. i was standing about midway @ the bar, and a lot of the sound was getting lost in conversations around me. paleo was a nice, somewhat quiet set that reminded me a bit of bob dylan. he did a good job of capturing the crowd all by himself. and, he captured me enough to buy one of his cd's. he even played an encore number! the crowd was that into him. first billed band of the night did an encore. i'm curious to hear more of his stuff because he seems like a really adventurous and productive songwriters. seriously, he was selling a cd/dvd combo for $20 that was his project of 2007. he wrote a song a day. 365 songs! but, it was $20 and i was also picking up love like fire's cd so i went with a cheaper one of his. for $5 i got what is essentially a sampler for that effort. and, apparently he's played here in fresno before, or the date on that cd is wrong because the liner notes were written in fresno on feb 17, 2007. you can find his music here.

second on the stage was love like fire, who has two myspace pages, one that hasn't been updated since april of last year and one that is current. but, they do have a website that has been updated more recently. anyway, enough on websites. their music rocked. honestly, i don't think i stopped tapping my foot the whole time. i know there are lots of rock bands out there with female singers, but i don't think i get to see them all that often. definitely don't get to hear them on the radio much. this band should be seen live, and heard on the radio. (currently i'm going nuts because i'm listening to the cd, it reminds me of another band and i can't remember who it is to properly make a comparison.) the band played with a ton of energy, and plenty of volume so it didn't matter where i was in the place, it still rocked. i saw mike from rademacher while i was exiting the restroom and told him, "holy cow, these guys rock." too much info? so, like two songs into the set i knew i was buying an album. i went with the newer of their two albums for $7. totally worth it. i considered buying both, but only went with one because i was also wanting to pick up a paleo one. justin, if you're reading this, they will be playing in seattle on march 29. put it on your calendar and go. they make really well constructed music. tight vocal harmonies with words that stick in your head, throbbing bass, shredding guitar. this cd is totally going to be stuck on my ipod list of recently played for some time.

so, during love like fire, i wondered if they were going to steal the show. and maybe they did. but, would rademacher step up? they delivered. i think i said this last time i blogged about them, but they are getting musically tighter and better each time i see them. i missed the first song because the door into tokyo got stuck and we had to wait for someone from inside push it open. rademacher played a short set, partially to allow the dj's they brought in for the night to spin more, and partially for whatever reasons. but this short set kicked tail. rademacher is sort of like my local spinal tap. the drummers don't die, but they sure seem to have had a lot. i know i've seen them play with 5 different drummers. their current one, eli, plays in some other fresno bands. from what i've seen of him before, i knew that he was loud and fast. and good. these things are true, and he really fits in well with the eclectic rademacher sound. his drumming gives so much life to rademacher. not like they're dead or sad music, but it's just there is so much snap to his drumming, and he's banging his head back there like animal from the muppets. i'll stop gushing over eli for a minute and tell you that the rest of the band was good, too. they're ready to take it to the next level. if you don't have their full length album, get it. sadly, it's not being carried @ rasputin's yet, which apparently doesn't have a local section yet and rademacher may not have a big distribution deal.

so rademacher finished and the dj's started spinning indie dance tracks. which was cool, too, but i was ready to go home. it's sort of odd, i used to love to go dancing, and now i haven't done it in years.

willard "quit" romney

just a quick thought, glad to see willard dropped out. won't have to hear more yack from his supporters. but, i also won't get the chance to see some Christian coalition types squirm about voting for a mormon, so that's unfortunate.

now if ron paul will just drop out, those guys could simmer down, too.

post art hop w/rademacher

that's right folks, it's art hop tonight, so that means that there is a post art hop show @ tokyo garden. local favs rademacher continue to make waves as well as bring great acts to fresno and give other local bands a shot.

tonight, a band named love like fire will be playing. if you search myspace for 'em, you find a band from denmark. not sure if that's who will be there tonight, but we'll see.

as for paleo, check out the songs over @ their myspace. i dig it, especially in the morning linda dies.

art hop & fresno filmworks

today's the first thursday of the month, so it's art hop time. i'm not sure if i'm going though. i'd like to get out a bit, but heather has also been under the weather so i'm doubting she wants to. we'll see. i kind of want to get out so i can hand out promo materials for my rogue show. i'm also not too sure if i'll hit up the post art hop show @ tokyo. good chance i'll be there though. and there's a good chance i'll post the flyer here later.

tomorrow night, fresno filmworks is putting on their monthly movie @ the tower theater. i'd go, but i'll be unavailble. anyway, if you're in fresno, you should check it out. the movie is called the price of sugar. here's a little plot synopsis i nicked from the internet:

"Just a few miles inland from the tourist-filled beaches of theDominican Republic, hidden from view, thousands of dispossessedHaitians have toiled under armed-guard harvesting sugarcane, much ofwhich ends up in U.S. kitchens. They work grueling hours and frequentlylack decent housing, clean water, electricity, education or healthcare."The Price of Sugar" follows Father Christopher Hartley, a charismaticSpanish priest, as he organizes some of this hemisphere's poorestpeople, challenging powerful interests profiting from their work. TheVicini family which owns some of the sugar plantations on which thefilm was shot has filed a lawsuit against the filmmakers in an attemptto block the film's release. This film raises key questions about wherethe products we consume originate and at what human cost they areproduced."

shows @ 5:30 and 8, $10. totally worth it.

muppet presidential candiates

you see, many of the candidates that are/were running have muppet dopplegangers.

o-boy obama

diggiddy dang! okay, i'll stop with all that sort of talk. but i'm so excited to see how close everything is running so far tonight in the primaries. and not only on the democratic side that i currently belong in. we're a little past an hour since the polls closed in california, so we'll see how it all trickles down here, but i'm hoping for another close run.

i'm not sure how i feel about how the democrats apportion the votes. the repubs go winner take all. dems divy it up, which seems a little more like the electoral college mess. anyone know exactly how it all works?

what the huckabee? that guy is accomplishing a lot more than people thought he could. and romney, who has all that experience running companies + big pockets, seems to be taking it on the chin. i'm sure he won't bow out yet, and neither will huckabee, but it sure looks like mc cain has it wrapped up. yeah, it ain't over, but the points may be insurmountable.

this leads me to my first gripe about the media tonight: i've repeatedly heard that the hard core republicans don't like mc cain. these hard core republicans vote rain or shine, blah blah blah. but, mc cain is whooping the others in most races. who's voting then? are the hard core conservatives not voting?

next gripe: the polls in california closed an hour ago. actually, in some parts, the democratic polls were still open until 15 minutes ago because they ran out of ballots. so, with only 15% of california in, the networks started declaring a winner. huh? the percentage has been the same from 1-15%, so maybe that gives you some inclination, but still. and yes, i'm bitching because they called it for clinton. but also, they just called it for the repubs, too. seems little early for me. but i often think this.

final gripe: umm, one minute you talk about how the republican states are all winner take all. then you tell me exceptions to that. well which one is it? all or some? numbskulls.

u.s. soccer vs mexico

things i'm excited for this week: a friendly match between the united states and mexico. wednesday night, 6 pm, i know what i'm watching. maybe i'll even eat tacos.

blog advisory

warning, blogging could be a little slow this week. i'm adjusting to going back to work (2 morning classes, track in the afternoon). throw in a little lack of sleep, and the brain is a bit of mush.

of course, this probably means i'll post 4 more times over the next three hours.

yes we can

will.i.am actually made something good. okay, that's not fair, i liked the first black eyed peas album and thought the second was decent. really, i just dislike fergie. but, here will.i.am has teamed up with bob dylan's son, jesse. this video is sweeping teh internets right now, and my buddy brian told me about it on friday. so, sit back, enjoy, and go vote on tuesday.



and really, the obama buzz is amazing right now. i was wholeheartedly supporting edwards, but have shifted to obama. he really gives me the feeling that something special is happening, that he might really be a candidate of change.

a giant win

eli manning, i'm impressed. honestly, i didn't think the giants had a chance to win the superbowl. and, the patriots drive in the final minutes was classic. so, when eli and the giants countered with their own clock killing, winning drive i was amazed.

in my opinion, i think it would have been great to see a team go 19-0. but, congrats to the giants. they showed up, fought hard, and pulled off what may be one of the greatest upsets in history.