"Dumb It Down"

Lupe Fiasco
"Dumb It Down"

You've been shedding too much light Lu
(Dumb it down)
You make'em wanna do right Lu
(Dumb it down)
They're getting self-esteem Lu
(Dumb it down)
These girls are trying to be queens Lu
(Dumb it down)
They're trying to graduate from school Lu
(Dumb it down)
They're starting to think that smart is cool Lu
(Dumb it down)
They're trying to get up out the hood Lu
(Dumb it down)
I'll tell you what you should do
(Dumb it down)

Frame Of Mind

In 1987 I was in 8th grade in Sandy, UT. For the school's talent show, my thrash metal band, Frame Of Mind, decided to play. The band actually auditioned and was accepted prior to my joining. It wasn't expected that the school would allow a change in an already tepidly received thrash performance after auditions, but I was allowed to perform at a practice and then was allowed to join my band in the actual talent show.

The talent show consisted of the usual shit. A lot of piano and dance numbers all performed by good Mormon kids. The school administration already didn't like me for my rebellious tendencies as we took to the stage. Before we began, I grabbed the mic and announced that our song was dedicated to a douchebag jock who was notorious for eating live goldfish. Then we launched into "Stop The Pain" our (or just my) anti-animal cruelty anthem. I wish I could remember the lyrics. The chorus was something along the lines of "Stop The Pain! End The Cruelty!" I "moshed" all over stage and we shocked the entire school. I remember half-way thru the song we injected the Anthrax song "I'm the Man."

When it was over, the student audience erupted. They loved us! We got 100x more applause than any other performance. As the roar died down, the aforementioned jock's distinctive voice shouted, "You're dead!!"

I wish I had any photos of the event. I know a video existed but I never got to even view it.
_____

On the Post-Punk Kitchen website, they recently had a contest for most amazing school talent show story. My girlfriend entered the story I just recounted and we won (or won a sorta 2nd place conciliatory prize)!!
(Some of the details in the PPK version are off because my memory was dusty when I tried to give the details.)

Wonder Woman cast

The supposed Justice League movie reportedly has cast Wonder Woman.
It is 21 yr old Teresa Palmer.

I am not sure if the film is going to be live-action or animated a la Beowulf.

Che's hair

A CIA pig who helped kill Ernesto "Che" Guevara has auctioned off a lock of Che's hair for $119,500.
Bill Butler, owner of a Houston-based bookstore, won the auction amid threats from Argentina. Also included in the auction were unpublished photos of Che's corpse.

Want medical treatment? Be a snitch.

Palestinians living in Palestinian Territories are nothing less than prisoners of a giant apartheid prison controlled by fuckin' Israel.

For medical treatment, Palestinians must leave the Territories. Of course, IDF gestapo then hold them at checkpoints for indefinite amounts of time.
It is now evident that in order to gain access to medical care, Israel is insisting that you become a snitch. If you refuse, they deny you passage for health care.

"To prey on the most vulnerable is not only unlawful, it's also despicable"

These delays and denials are literally killing Palestinians.

skate til you die

SF Chronicle did an interesting piece on men in their 30's/40's/50's continuing to skate.

The main dude they profile sounds kinda lame but the article rightfully recounts San Francisco's place in skateboard lore.

RIP Lance Hahn

Lance Hahn died Sunday (October 21) due to complications from his lengthy battle with kidney disease.

If you were involved with Bay Area punk in the 80's or 90's, Hahn was inescapable as part of Cringer and the force behind J Church. He ran Honey Bear Records and was a frequent contributor to Maximum Rock'n'Roll.

At the time of his death, Lance was working on a book on anarchist punk history. He was 40.

Mac Danzig: TUF

As you may know, Mac Danzig is a fighter on the current sixth season of Spike TV's The Ultimate Fighter. He kicks ass on the show. Danzig is also vegan.

His blog contains links to his episode-by-episode review of the show. It contains gems such as how the other fighters all wanted to eat his vegan food or how his coach (lame ass right-wing Christian fundamentalist and military supporter) Matt Hughes asked the team to read the bible and Danzig refused.

With so much interest in his diet, Danzig is going to post a comprehensive example of his diet, both during training and in the 'off-season'.

Vega Bars

I had been wanting to try out Vega products because I know they aim for the vegan consumer and they are endorsed by Robert Cheeke.

I found the (raw) Vega bars. They have 10g of protein so I grabbed some. I can't recommend them. They remind me of what the average person probably thinks vegan food tastes like.
The chocolate didn't taste very chocolate and had a strong sour taste. It wasn't awful.
The "natural flavor" bar was straight up hamster food. Bad idea to go with a natural flavor.
I haven't tasted the berry bar yet but I imagine berry to go along with these bars more.

(Dustin, you will love these.)

Star Trek

The entire main cast has been announced for the upcoming re-envisioned Star Trek film. I am a huge Trek fan and am very curious to see the direction this film franchise goes.

KIRK


SPOCK


"BONES"


UHURA


"SCOTTY"


SULU


CHEKOV


(that took some work)

Thrash "Super"group

Members of Bleeding Through, The Distillers, Bad Religion, and No Use For A Name have joined the thrash revival bandwagon and formed a band.

You can here them HERE.

Sounds less like 80's thrash and more like a mix of slow Metallica, Tool, and Bleeding Through to me.
Plus, they list Moz as an influence and have a song about zombies... as if that shit isn't beyond tired by now.
Their MySpace page also makes sure to list very prominently their management (Ryan Downey) and all their sponsors.

Wacovia SB tortures animals and beats children

On Friday, Oct. 12, young people protesting Santa Barbara's Wachovia Securities LLC for their investment in Huntingdon Life Sciences (responsible for torturing animals) were apparently assaulted by the Complex Manager, Tobias Bateson.
Tobias seemed to find it reasonable to slam a 15-year-old girl into a wall and push her to the floor, damaging a ligament in her knee. When a 14-year-old boy saw that she was crying on the ground, bleeding from her knee, and sought to help her up, Mr. Bateson quite literally beat him back with an umbrella. Mr. Bateson then moved on to others in the group, eventually breaking his umbrella over the back of a 16-year-old girl.
Tobias seemed to target young girls for his brutality.

Contact Wachovia Corp and Wachovia Securities Santa Barbara and demand that Tobias Bateson be made to resign and that they divest from HLS!

800-326-3686 (toll-free)
805-564-3208 (fax)
WACHOVIA SECURITIES NATIONAL NUMBER
1-877-879-2495


(thanx Allan)

"Halloween" weekend

Travis Barker hip hop

First, playing along with programmed beats made Travis Barker think he was a part of hip hop.
(see Transplants and more specifically Expensive Taste)

Now, Barker seems to think playing live drums along with a rap song constitutes a remix.

Roadtrip: SouthWest. Pt. 7

On the evening of our 9th day of vacation, Mel and I got back to LA.
We went to Pure Luck for some dinner with some cool folks Mel met via The PPK forums. Pure Luck is like some former Korean restaraunt that is now a vegan Mexican joint apparently run by bike punx on a block dominated by bike punx. The food was amazing. I had a side order of fries and fried pickle slices with a "carnitas" torta. The "carnitas" at Pure Luck is jackfruit that is put through some unimaginable process to end up looking HELLA like chicken and tasting the part as well.

After this insane meal and talk of Motorhead and working for AVN, Mel and I headed across the street to Scoop again.

Then, it was back to casa de Ben Edge. We got to meet Ben's roommate who used to be in Undertow. I displayed my Undertow stickers and fliers for his amusement.
Before bed we engaged in discussions of politics and deep music snobbery. I ruin everything for Ben by claiming (rightfully so) that everything is right-wing and racist.
_____

The next morning we had to hit up M Cafe again. I stuffed myself sick.
I do highly recommend M Cafe for the (pricey) food even if the crowd represents all that I hate about LA.
_____

What a fuckin highly deserved holiday! What a fuckin wonderful time!
I have realized that my life (and my relationship with Mel) would be greatly improved if I don't stick so strictly to my regimented schedule as some form of desire denying and gratification delaying 'waiting.' As if something supposedly worthwhile will come.

Now back to the grind.

check my Flickr account for more photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanedanger/

Roadtrip: SouthWest. Pt.6

After Mel and I woke up, my eyes in bad shape from days of dry ass climates and a night of cigarette smoke, we got some infamous (vegan) donuts from Ronald's. Yum!

I finally played the $10 my dad gave me to gamble with. In about 60secs, my $10 was eaten by an electronic slot machine.
I cannot understand people pouring money into these machines. At least with card games, there is some element of skill. With slot machines it is essentially throwing money at a casino in hopes that you will be electronically chosen to be the one the casino computer determines should win some money.
Fat Americans love these machines especially combined with cigarettes and alcohol. haha

For lunch, we hit Rainbow's End Health Food Store. It was kinda odd and my raw tacos (not the kind found between women's legs!) took hella long to make because apparently food made with love takes longer than food made with indifference. Nonetheless, these "tacos" were pretty good. It was essentially like eating a salad with my hands.
The other clientele were pretty awesome. That store has got to be near a retirement home!! We saw an old lady irate that her clothes had to be labeled with her name and an old couple resembling some sea Skipper and the pill-taking SNL character. The lady informed us all when ordering that she was constipated.

After a nap and a walk to The Bellagio, we decided to hit our favorite spot Spearmint Rhino again. Knowing what to expect, we aimed to not spend our entire night and morning there again.

My plan was to get several lapdances with at least one of them involving fake boobs. I had never felt implants before and was naturally curious to touch 'em... Even though fake boobs are disgusting.
When my jam, 50 Cent's "Ayo Technology," came on, I jumped up to get near the main stage. I must say I was surprised at getting pulled up into her odd bossom for a dollar bill. haha
Later on as Mel and I were chilling on a couch, that same dancer approached us with another dancer. They did the usual fawning over Mel and asking her if she liked girls routine. They enthusiastically told us how they wanted to dance with each of us. I kinda looked at Mel making her decide and we went for it. They both ended up having fake boobs and gave pretty enthusiastic and hot lapdances. As we handed our fuckin grip of cash to them, they offered to go to the VIP room with us but we informed then of how they broke us. haha
Before the night dragged on too far, I wanted one more lapdance. The hot woman we wanted stayed in some VIP section with an old dude so we gave up on her. This cute dancer approached me and started talking... big mistake. This woman was so fuckin dumb it was painful. She dropped gems such as saying that Chinese women all have long hair and that I looked "mixed." I got the dance anyway (her dancing skills were top notch!)and we bounced.
_____

For our last day in Vegas, Mel and I started it off at Ronald's to pick out over 2 dozen fuckin (vegan) donuts to leave Las Vegas with!

We picked up some music for our soundtrack home (I highly recommend Common's "Finding Forever!").

Then we hit another highlight of the trip: The Gun Store Las Vegas!
This place lets you rent an assortment of weapons including automatic weapons for use on their range. Mel chose the AK-47 and I went with an Uzi and an AK-47 as well.
The place is totally set up for tourists to shoot and get a photo. It was so fast and the range masters did so much for us that it was kinda unreal. We did get to shoot fuckin automatic weapons though!! whoo hooo!




After the full 15 minutes that took, we looked for food.

We went to what has got to be one of the largest Whole Foods Markets in the world!!
This place blew my mind and the salad bar area was amazing. I had one of the best salads that included Gardein some Whole Foods (vegan) fake chicken that rules. When will Berkeley Whole Foods get that shit.
I also don't think I have seen so many cosmetic surgery victims in one place! whoa!

Roadtrip: SouthWest. Pt. 5

Our drive to Las Vegas was less taxing than I expected. Still when we reached The Luxor, I was exhausted and hungry. On top of that, we found out LAX, the club we had banked on going to, was not open on the nights we would be in town. I also had some clothing issues. All of that combined made for a pissy shane.

Mel had never been to Vegas so we headed out onto the nighttime strip. It is beyond overwhelming and quite insane. It is very much like a Disney Land for adults.

Fat Americans ADORE Vegas!!!!! And there were more foreigners than I expected.
We walked from The Luxor to Caesar's Palace and back. I think Mel calculated it to be 6+ miles.

It was basically amazingly designed casino/hotel after amazing designed casino/hotel with plenty of shopping in between.

I made the mistake of rocking my new shoes and ended up unhappy and in pain as I made Mel race back to The Luxor to find food.
As big and fancy as Vegas is one would expect vegan eating options to be quite available. They are not.

With no set plans, Mel and I decided to hit the gentleman's club: Spearmint Rhino.

(I did not take that photo)
Spearmint Rhino had been recommended to us by Lauren and I fully expected it to just be White women straight outta Rock Of Love with big bleached hair and big fake boobs. Instead we found a really packed club with a somewhat diverse selection of women dancing on stages and laps all around a pretty comfortable/plush and very dark club.
One aspect that was pretty damn uniform with all the dancers was fake boobs.

Mel and I settled down and I ordered a $8 Red Bull. We really just kinda watched and took it all in. I was pretty excited in the beginning as a lot of the women were pretty damn attractive (especially the drink servers who are more dressed and do not dance or strip). We really weren't spending any money aside from the $30 cover and $8 Red Bull.
It was pretty hot and I/we were looking to get some lap dance action... and then some uninteresting dancer sat down and started chatting with me. I was trying to ignore her as a hint to beat it but she just kept giving me lame ass sob stories about losing money. Finally she asked if I wanted a dance. I said no and she finally left. whew! What a fuckin boner killer. haha

It was getting late. The crowd had thinned and the staff (aka dancers) began to really thin too.
In the end, we asked a dancer for a dance. She was thick and attractive and had big real boobies. It was maybe a little short but she paid attention to the both of us. Lap dances were actually cheaper ($20/song) than I anticipated after that $8 Red Bull.

As we exited Spearmint Rhino, the fuckin sun was coming up! It was 6am and we had been in that smoke filled den of flesh since like 1am! whoa!

Roadtrip: SouthWest. Pt. 4

Mel and I spent 2 days and 3 nights with my parents and their 4 crazy cats.

To say my parents overly cater to their pets would be an understatement. The cats are given a veritable buffet of catfood in 4 different locations throughout the house/garage. The 3 "indoor" cats also have a massive pen in a side yard with lattice and chicken wire creating a prison-style fence to keep the cats from wandering out.
The cats are also, unfortunately, highly unsocialized. Only one of the cats was friendly, 2 would rather not be bothered, and a fourth cat went virtually unseen.
It did make me miss having cats.

On the morning of our first full day in Albuquerque, we all went to an outdoor shooting range to shoot rifles. I wish I could remember all the specifics but we shot an 'elk hunting' rifle and a 'deer hunting' rifle. It has been a long long time since I fired a rifle like either of these and I was shocked at the kick. They left us with sore shoulders for days!
We also fired a .40 and .357 handguns. The .357 spit out "shrapnel" that cut both me and my dad. I had small cuts on both arms for the remainder of the trip.



It is fun to practice shooting. I was pretty happy with my aim too.
I think Mel really enjoyed trying out the different guns too (aside from the sore shoulder).
_____

My parents drove us to Santa Fe to check out some gallery openings.
I wish I could remember the artists' names because I saw some really nice pieces.
A gallery that recently began representing my mother was having a not-too-exciting show but it was very nice to see my mom's work hung in a gallery (again).

After the galleries, we went to eat at Body in Santa Fe. It is a hippy restaurant attached to a yoga center. The food was not too exciting (although the portions were giant). We did have a really wonderful raw berry "cheesecake."
My dad was very confused by the notion of raw foods. haha It was very nice that my parents went to such a place since it is pretty fuckin far out of there usual faire.
_____

On the last full day in New Mexico, we headed to one of my favorite Albuquerque spots; Sportsman's Warehouse.

It is a massive hunting supply store. Upon entering the store, one is confronted with a big board displaying people's photos of recent kills they are so proud of.

We saw pics of children and adults posing with all kinds of dead animals ranging from zebras to orix to elk etc. The store is full of taxidermied animals as well. I had hoped to find some interesting camo gear but nothing was available in anything close to my size (as Mel speculated a Small, or Medium for that matter, would probably be too gay).
They do carry Anti-Monkey Butt Powder though.

That store is quite an experience.

Mel and I explored some of Burque and went to Stay Gold.

It is a tattoo shop that Mike Giant used to be associated with. I had hoped to find the awesome shirts he designed for them but they had none.

The rest of my time in Albuquerque was essentially spent going through TONS of stuff my parents have been storing for me for over 10 years.
I found all my old art, every note/letter/gift my high school girlfriend ever gave me, photos, more comix than I expected, a lot of cool toys, hardcore zines and fliers, etc etc. I threw out so much and still couldn't bring it all to CA.
(I also found stuff I aim to sell such as Master P's autograph, Smurfs, Bay Area graff trading cards, and Garbage Pail Kids cards. Want em??)
It sure was a trip going through so much old shit. It reminded me of who I was and how much I have remained the same. I can't wait to share my findings with friends.

Roadtrip: SouthWest. Pt.3

Before Mel and I began the big drive from Phoenix to Albuquerque, NM, we stopped in Scottsdale for food.
We hit up Mandala. It was a fabulously decorated cafe attached to a yoga place (a common thing with vegan eateries in the Southwest apparently). I didn't have any tea but the place seemed to cater to tea with a massive selection. The food was only ok.

Scottsdale is an odd/interesting place. It looked a lot like a tourist spot but no one was outside. I am guessing that was due to the heat.

Then began the worst leg of our drive.
Nothing much of interest in between Scottsdale and Albuquerque except some Jesus billboards, more dinosaur "statues" than I ever expected to see, and A LOT of supposed Indian shops.



I never would imagine to encounter that much construction on one fuckin freeway. It got real old especially at night with tons of truckers sharing the road. We actually attempted to make a sign to show truckers that read "10-4 Good Buddy."

I was happy to reach our destination: my parents' house in Albuquerque.