introverted loudmouth,nice guy.

KIDS.

2009-12-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

Love this picture.

JENNIFER THOMAS AND HER STOLEN PORTABLE MACHINE.

2009-12-10T11:23:00.000-08:00

A few evenings ago, someone broke into the Double Negative practice space. Anyways, they stole a portable sixteen track (I believe) Korg machine that belonged to Jennifer Thomas. Jennifer had been helping DN record their second album at the time.
This stinks on many levels. First off, we (DN) feel badly that her machine was stolen on our watch, so to speak. Jennifer is a sweetheart and has done a lot for plenty of local bands in Raleigh with her help and time in recording these bands. And of course we also feel badly that our new record is more or less gone, as the entire project was on her machine. So after months of work, we are back to square one yet again. Even worse, we were almost done.
We just feel that she has done enough for other people in bands that we could easily put together a benefit show for her and try to get some bands to play it. So even though I don’t have any details that are concrete, we are determined to make it happen. We will have more details in a little while.
Anyways, thanks.

ALL.

2009-12-08T15:37:00.000-08:00

Even though they have been ignored a good deal of the time they have been together, and even though most adults usually smirk at me when I profess a great admiration for this band, I still say that the band All is really good, and a very unique sounding band that has been playing together in one form or another since the late eighties.

The band has always mysteriously had the curse of not being the Descendents, even though it has been the same three people playing the instruments since 1987, minus Milo Aukerman. For whatever reason, no matter how good All’s material can be, they will always be seen as somewhat of a lesser band. Not to say that I have loved every single ALL release, but I couldn’t say the same thing about the Descendents, either. So this is sort of an essay about why I actually prefer All these days to the Descendents:
1. They all write songs. Tons of songs. Songs songs and more songs. I seem to prefer in most cases the songs that come from drummer and guiding light Bill Stevenson. I always wonder why he hasn’t compiled a record of all of his songs. Almost all of them have been very good. And the fact that his songwriting has matured lyrically as his life has gone on is very refreshing. The last Descendents album “Cool To Be You” just didn’t cut it for me at all-except for Bill’s songs in most cases. Lyrically and musically they were (as in most occasions) ahead of his bandmates. Who else can tackle the subject matter of losing most of the freedom that you have when you become a parent, and how the relationship can suffer as a result? Who else has written songs about raising your wife’s little girl from a previous relationship? I can’t think of any. And some of Bill’s “break up” songs are uniquely his own, like “Scary Sad” of the heartbreaking (and way too relatable) “Make Believe”. I don’t want to slight the contributions of bassist Karl Alvarez in the process of praising Stevenson. A lot of his songs have too been very good. All’s latest singer Chad Price as well as previous singer Scott Reynolds have both also contributed great songs to the All cannon too; I just seem to always enjoy Stevenson’s songs a little bit more.
2. Musically, these three men have created a distinctive sound that is more or less theirs and has always been, no matter what trends have come and gone. And no matter what has happened since they all started playing together. Just like bands like Voi Vod , King’s X, AC/DC or Black Flag, I can tell that who it is instantly. I can’t say that about a huge number of other bands still working. Karl Alvarez is an extremely amazing bassist who can sing all over the whole thing. Guitarist Stephen Egerton is a criminally underrated guitarist. He plays sort of like someone who can successfully fuse the fury and solos of Greg Ginn with the oddball chords and tone of the late Denis D’Amour of Voi Vod. If you listen to almost any of All’s more experimental material his power chords are always strange and odd. Some people have even compared some of it to Van Halen, which in the context of what they call “pop punk” is a pretty neat thing. He knows what he is doing. Both Alvarez and Egerton seem so overlooked that I just don’t get it. Drummer Bill Stevenson isn’t. He is regarded as one of the most influential drummers to ever come out of punk rock. Mechanically tight and all over the place, his playing is for sure one of my biggest influences. He is always being referenced by plenty of other good drummers, from Dale Crover to Dave Grohl. He was (I think) eighteen years old when the first Descendents album was released on Mike Watt’s New Alliance label in 1982. It is nuts to think that his playing and style were so well defined even at that point. Fuse all of this together amongst the three members and you have a unique sound that is still unique to this very day. They don’t get the credit they should.
3. No matter who sings for them, it is good. From original All frontman Dave Smalley to fan favorite Scott Reynolds (who has returned for a spell with some upcoming shows) to Chad Price, I have enjoyed each of these singers and their contributions.
So that is three off the top of my head reasons. I couldn’t say that you should run out and buy every single record. Maybe you should, though. I did. Some of their records are better than others in my opinion and I think everyone who likes All has their faves, but to me the essential ones are the following:
ALLROY’S REVENGE: This was the first record they released with Scott Reynolds, and by far the best one. It is the most cohesive and is packed full of songs that are every bit as good as any Descendents album. There isn’t a dud in the bunch, from the cartoony opening instrumental all the way through “No Traffic”, this is the album that still to me best defines All. But wait a minute..
PROBLEMATIC: The third one with third singer Chad Price, this is a very close second. As the members of the band get older, the lyrical range expands way beyond fart jokes and obsessions with having sex with girls and delves into different territory. Musically, everyone contributes and the playing and production is razor sharp and white hot. Really good.
I would get these two above all of the others. Every release has stuff that I like, though. ALLROY SAVES should be my favorite, as I prefer the band when they go into oddball mode over thrashing out another punk rock song. But for some reason some of it leaves me sort of cold. Still has some great stuff. You can say the same for PERCOLATER. Not that you should stay away from anything but you could maybe pass on MASS NERDER, which is a favorite of the “warped fest” crowd and their debut album, ALLROY SEZ.. It is the only album they did with Smalley but better things were around the corner.
Band activity is hampered by reality: relationships, kids, distance and other projects. Every one is involved in other projects and doing other things. For at least six years, there has been a proposed release of mainly the instrumental oddball side of the band. I am REALLY interested in that, but for whatever reason, nothing has happened. I wouldn’t hold my breath for a new release any time soon but maybe one day it’ll happen. I’d like to hear one more All record, in one form or another.
In the meantime, check out some of All’s records.

JANICE AND FLOYD: MY GIRLFRIEND'S PARENTS.

2009-12-06T16:03:00.000-08:00

This might be in the top five of anything I have ever drawn. It reminded me of the realization when children become the parents and vice versa.

DREAMS.

2009-12-01T15:47:00.000-08:00

WHY BRIAN ENO QUIT ROXY MUSIC!

2009-11-28T16:02:00.000-08:00

true story!

BIG BOYS.

2009-11-19T18:35:00.001-08:00

i miss this band.

CANADA AND ME.

2009-11-19T00:37:00.000-08:00

APRIL WINE: "Our drummer used to work at Bob Evans..he can put the sugar in your coffee!"

When I was a little kid, I remember not having too much of an opinion about Canada. Except I sure liked the way the country looked on a map. It was huge! Look at all of those islands! Plus it seemed weird enough and isolated enough to enter my consciousness of odd places I would like to go to, right up there with Australia, New Zealand, Iceland or the Soviet Union. So that is pretty much what I thought of when I thought of Canada as a little kid. By the time I was bitten by the rock and roll bug things were a little bit different. I still wasn’t aware of anything being Canadian but a few things stood out and slowly started to make sense. And it was virtually two things: The band Rush and the comedy show SCTV.

As maybe two of you reading this know, I think SCTV is still the best comedy show that ever was. Most of the cast members were Canadian, except for Joe Flaherty and Andrea Martin. These are still some of the funniest people ever gathered under one roof: John Candy, Catherine O Hara, Rick Moranis, Eugene Levy, Martin Short and Dave Thomas. Oh how I laughed and laughed and the funny thing is, I still laugh. A lot of the humor seemed more cerebral and slightly less “yahoo” based, if you know what I mean. Was there a comedic Canadian sensibility going on that I didn’t know about? Looking back, I don’t think so. The show never really did a whole lot of Canadian content as far as what I can remember. There was a parody of a Canadian movie about a kid who played hockey (John Candy in the prime role, a funny performance I might add). It was a pretty dry parody about something that I knew nothing about and yet I still thought it was hilarious.

What SCTV is most famous for is the dumbest thing that they did and the one thing that caught on in the states in 1982 or so. it was Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas doing their Bob and Doug Mackenzie “Great White North” characters, and the thing was huge. I clearly remember that. It was just a stereotypical view of Canada and it for better or for worse is what most people thought about when they thought about Canada.

The band Rush was the other thing that introduced me to Canada. Again, there was nothing really “Canadian” about the music they were doing: impeccably played proggish hard rock with wailing banshee vocals. And yet still..Canadians playing some really kick ass music! They seemed really serious. The rock press always hated them. Creem magazine, a influential and important rock magazine from the seventies REALLY hated them. I admit that they were a hard sell and seemed devoid of all the humor and sex that rock music often has, but if you have heard Geddy Lee sing “In The Mood”, you’d understand why it was best that they stuck to singing about Passages to Bankok and Cinderella Men. Years later, I saw some interview footage of all three of the members of Rush and was delighted to learn what I had suspected all along: These guys are a bunch of goofy nerds! Even Neil Peart! Thanks to SCTV and Rush, a few other things started to slip on by as far as my understanding a little of Canada.

So in the early eighties I started to realize who was Canadian and who wasn’t. I thought that Anne Murray was kind of hot in a manly sort of way when I spied those early seventies album covers back when I was a little kid. Turns out she is Canadian. Neil Young is one of my favorite songwriters on earth. Figured out he is Canadian. Bachman Turner Overdrive were some of the ugliest dudes I had ever seen, and they were Canadian. I already figured out that Triumph was Canadian due to the fact that they were always being called “a poor man’s Rush” and I thought that they really stunk. April Wine was a band that I also remember liking and lo and behold they were also Canadian, boasting a three guitar lineup and a huge bulky bald drummer named Jerry. A lot of the cover art of these earlier Canadian hard rock bands also seemed to be done really badly, like the bands had maybe a day to get it all together.

Eventually punk rock happened, and so my awareness of Canada expanded. I had lots of Canadian pen pals in the mid to late eighties and a lot of real kick ass bands came out of Canada. Yes, there was DOA. They are the band that everyone probably thinks of first but by the time I was aware of them the still living even now Chuck Biscuits was already in the Circle Jerks and DOA’s best days were behind them. The Neos from Victoria British Columbia were this weird little secret. I had a few Teenage Head records and liked them, especially “Frantic City”. Beyond Possession stayed at my house once, liked hockey and seemed baffled by gay people. The Stretch Marks were a great live band who put out a great seven inch and a shitty album. The band SNFU put on some of the best shows I have ever seen and even let me tag along with them for a week on one of their tours in 1985.

SNFU were quite popular in the states. My favorite lineup was when they had their big hulking death rock bass player Buck and the drummer Jon Card. They seemed to play in Raleigh on three occasions. We cooked them a big spaghetti dinner for then once back when it snowed a lot in the South when I lived with Mike Dean. They were real cool. Some of the locals were baffled by them. You’d ask singer Chi Pig or the Belke Brothers a question and you would get an answer, but it would be like talking to a Rubiks Cube that you are trying to understand. I know that doesn’t make sense, but still; why were we baffled by these Canadians and their straight forward nature? What is it about Canada that seems so pleasantly odd to me? Is there perhaps a small tweak in the program that has Canadians looking at things a little bit different then us stupid Americans? Well, I have a theory. It is probably full of shit, and not true at all, and I am sure somebody will let me know this, but hear me out:

My theory about Canada is that they have slipped by everyone. By seeming to be really benign and unassuming, they are left alone by EVERYONE! Not only that, I get this romantic impression that there just might be a wee bit more common sense up there, like “of course you wouldn’t hate a person because of their skin color..that just doesn’t make sense, you know eh?” Common sense and appearing to be benign so that you could be left alone..it seems like a great combination.

I also didn’t mention the band Voi Vod, who of course as everyone with any intelligence knows, is one of the best bands to ever exist. And the Band is also one of the greatest bands to walk the earth. So Canada alone is tops in my book for giving the world Voi Vod, SCTV, The Band and Neil Young. I f you told me I had to live the rest of my life with only these four things as music or entertainment I could easily do it, no problem.

Anyways, I finally had my chance to visit Canada a few years ago when Double Negative was invited by the Toronto band Fucked Up to play a festival that some friends of theirs were putting on. So I was excited needless to say. I would be going to the fatherland!

We were there for four days and I wasn’t let down at all. Toronto was a majestic big city that was real clean. Everyone seemed real nice. It was seemingly asshole-free. The donuts were good. The food was great. They put sugar in your coffee for you, which was an interesting concept for me to grab on to. The rest of the band was convinced I soon would be moving to Canada. Our host was a friendly yet cantankerous fellow named Gabby who was really cool and just let us stay at his house for no reason at all. He was very opinionated and funny and pulled no punches at all with what he thought.Luckily he showed his sensitive side to me when we went to a Asian supermarket by the water and we sat outside talking about all of the “sissy” music that we enjoyed. All of the punk rock types we met were all real sweethearts. We were treated very nice and were paid extremely well. I want to go back there. Hopefully one day I will.

Obviously my theories and thoughts on Canada, especially based on a big handful of records and some old comedy show from years ago and a four day visit isn’t a whole lot to go on, but if you Canadians out there reading this know how wrong I am, please don’t let me know. Some fantasies are good ones.

Anne Murray: hubba hubba

DAYDREAM NATION...a work in progress...

2009-11-18T06:58:00.000-08:00

Double Negative is currently working on our follow up album to our first one right now. I feel really excited. Everybody is really excited and in good spirits. We did basic tracks with Jennifer Thomas and everything went so well that these proposed "demos" are now going to be our actual album. Jennifer really did an amazing job and I think from what I have heard, it is her best sounding stuff that she has done. Justin our bass player ended up doing some mixing and he is also doing a real kick ass job. Kevin stepped up to the plate and seemingly at the very last minute laid it all down vocal wise. And Scott is doing some really neat guitar stuff, sort of like Chuck Berry meeting Piggy from Voi Vod filtered through Greg Ginn's tone on "Jealous Again". Kudos to everyone.

You know that feeling when, if you play music, you finally hear what you are doing after you record it? And you like it as a fan? It is kind of like that, kind of a teenage feeling. You are impressed with yourself..not that any of us are like that, it is more like.."man..I can't believe that is us!"

That is what has been going on, and it is really cool I have to say. i had chills listening to a few of these songs and that is not something that has happened to me in years. Let me stress...YEARS.

So you know..that is a good thing.

So anyways, "Daydream Nation" will be released on Sorry State Records next year.

NEW SLAYER, NEW KATATONIA.

2009-11-12T14:27:00.000-08:00

Hey I actually had a tiny bit of money left over from living in these modern times, so I actually went to a store and bought a couple of cds!
I bought the new Katatonia release and the new Slayer release as well.

The new Katatonia is certainly their most advanced sounding release yet, the most varied and takes the most chances. Normally I would be really excited but after spending a little bit of time with it it still hasn’t hooked me the way I had wanted it to. Sure, it sounds great in the car, especially since it has been raining here almost non stop for a week or so but sometimes you don’t want to be reminded musically of being a little depressed so that could be the main reason why “Night is The New Day” hasn’t quite done it for me yet. The other reason is that it seems like the further away from “Last Good Deal Gone Down” they get, the more of a different direction they seem to be going in. Hey, it is still really good stuff but that release was great, a perfect blend of pound and melancholy that seemed to be all of their own. It doesn’t surprise me to see the leader of Opeth raving about this because in places they finally sound like Opeth. I am not sure I like that too much to be honest, but hey to each their own. Katatonia should finally be able to break out worldwide with this but I think that they are still too smart, too cerebral for dumbass mass consumption. I don’t think the kids who watch the fuse network are going to get this. Most metal people won’t either.

Speaking of metal, Slayer’s newest one “World Painted Blood” proved to be far more enjoyable. I don’t know what it is, but I hope to always be able to appreciate Slayer even when I am sixty years old. As long as people get angry and pissed off, Slayer will always have a future. Plus, most of this new one is really very high quality, perhaps the best they have done since “South Of Heaven”. Everyone sounds lethal and pissed off, Tom Araya’s bark is still highly appealing, and Dave Lombardo plays as well as he ever has. The real plus side is that Jeff Hannemen is the dominant force songwriting wise, and he has always been the better of the two guitar players in this band. So that also means a better Slayer record.
The topics are the usual pissed off and shocking in a high school kind of way type of thing. The cover is stupid, the lyrics are stupid and the playing is angry and vicious. It is Slayer. They even have tried a few tricky time signature things in some of these songs, making this the most “advanced” sounding Slayer record yet. When I listen to this in my car I naturally squinch up my eyebrows and purse my lips in an evil way. It is Slayer, and they are as brilliant and stupid as ever.
I give Slayer the crown for this one. Katatonia would benefit from putting away the goth records for a little while and maybe try to rip off Scott Walker’s “Tilt” instead.

MALE ROCK NERDFEST PART TWO.

2009-11-12T13:37:00.000-08:00

a cartoon I had spent a few years living, sad to say.

MY FIRST EVER LIVE SHOW!

2009-11-12T12:56:00.001-08:00

Here is the proof. The year was 1984 and it was in December I think. I had just joined Scared Straight and this was a show in Oxnard. I think it went good. I didn't know too much about playing out. Sometimes the other guys would set up thier amps waaay in front of me and of course I couldn't hear anything. This happened a couple of times before it finally dawned on me what to do. It must have looked funny watching the drummer in back trying to keep up and not knowing why things seemed to sound so horrible.

Oddly enough, not much has changed!

TODAY'S BLOG.

2009-11-12T12:07:00.001-08:00

Double Negative is going to finally play in Charlotte again this Friday..here is the flyer.

Taking my old high school chum who created Happy and Bally and taking him into Aerosmith's future (one of his favorite bands) was a good enough premise. What would a 1979 era hesher say about what happened? Here is the result.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE SHOWS PLUS ME SELLING MY STUFF.

2009-11-05T14:14:00.000-08:00

Like I have said earlier, DN will be heading out of town tommorow for the weekend to play a couple of shows, one in Philadelphia and one the next night in New York City. Here are the flyers for each of the shows:

PHILADELPHIA.

NEW YORK CITY.

We will have t-shirts and records and singles to sell and I will be selling them becuae I personally am also going to set up shop and sell all four of my MANCHILD books as well as bringing paper and markers to draw caricatures and whatever else I am requested during the night. Come up and say hello. I won't bite.

WHAT A WEIRD PLACE: THE SALTON SEA.

2009-10-26T15:44:00.000-07:00

The Salton Sea is a saline based lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault. The lake occupies the lowest elevations of the Salton Sink in the Colorado Desert of Riverside and Imperial Counties in Southern California. Like Death Valley, it is located below sea level. And like Death Valley or the Mojave Desert or Mono Lake or even the Great Salt Lake, it is a kind of place that I find sort of attractive, but for the life of me I don’t know why. I have never been there at all (had plenty of chances when I grew up in Southern California, except for maybe that two plus hour drive that no one in thier right mind ever would have wanted to make) and I have been to all of the other places I have mentioned.

My father took his family to Mono Lake, which is in Northern California and is a whole other ballgame of stink. Look up the place on your computer and marvel at what I saw when my dad (playing the nature explorer that he never was) lost his shoe when his foot sunk in stinky quicksand twenty feet near the shore. I have been to the Great Salt Lake and that place is also gross, smells horrible and might as well be placed on the moon. The Mojave Desert is etched permanently in my mind thanks to countless trips to Vegas. So even though I have never been to the Salton Sea, I have still managed to be obsessed with it. It is FAR weirder then any of the other locales I have brought up. But before I get carried away, here is a little history about the place:

The creation of the Salton Sea of today started in 1905, when heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused the Colorado River to swell and breach an Imperial Valley dike..oops! It took nearly two years to control the Colorado River’s flow into the formerly dry Salton Sink and stop the flooding. As the basin filled, the town of Salton, a Southern Pacific Railroad siding and Torres-Martinez Indian land were submerged. The sudden influx of water and the lack of any drainage from the basin resulted in the formation of the Salton Sea. The lake is huge. Imagine a gigantic almost empty pool, one that is almost drained and you have some idea of what this instant lake’s future could be.

After the 1920s, the Salton Sea developed into a tourist attraction, because of its water recreation, and waterfowl attracted to the area. The Salton Sea remains a major resource for migrating and wading birds. This was crucial due to the fact that it eventually became the only wetlands in the entire state of California. It has also had some success as a fishery in the past, with species such as mullet, corvina, sargo, and tilapia being introduced to the Sea from the 1930s to the 1950s. The sixties were Salton Sea’s heyday. During this time, the place was hopping. An instant city and resort was planned akin somewhat to nieghboring town Palm Springs. The Salton Sea has had some success as a resort area, with Salton City, Salton Sea Beach, and Desert Shores on the western shore and Desert Beach, North Shore, and Bombay Beach built on the eastern shore during these times. Today these places are like ghost towns engulfed in a stench and are surrounded by tons of burnt up shacks. Meth is popular down here apparently. At least the making of it is, hence explosions and no police around to patrol anyone who is left.

Around the end of the sixites the tone was set for the next decade, where everything about the Salton Sea went down the friggin toilet; increased salinity, pollution, and weather events have caused most of the residents to flee, sell thier property and get the hell out of there. These events also killed off most fish species other than the hardy tilapia. There are an estimated 10 million tilapia in the Salton Sea. No shit.

The lack of an outflow means that the Salton Sea is a system of accelerated change. Variations in agricultural runoff cause fluctuations in water level (and flooding of surrounding communities in the 1950s and 1960s), and the relatively high salinity of the inflow feeding the Sea has resulted in ever increasing salinity. By the 1960s it was apparent that the salinity of the Salton Sea was rising, jeopardizing some of the species in it. The Salton Sea currently has a salinity exceeding 4.0% w/v (saltier than seawater) and many species of fish are no longer able to survive in the Salton. It is believed that once the salinity surpasses 4.4% w/v, only the tilapia will survive. But that doesn’t stop the fish from having the interesting massive die-offs once in awhile, especially during the summer when the water gets too warm and there just isn’t enough oxygen for millions of fish to survive.

Imagine what a million dead fish must smell like in the summertime in the desert. Even better, fertilizer runoff, combined with the increasing salinity and the highly polluted water from the New River have resulted in large algal blooms and elevated bacteria levels. The New River, which flows upward from Mexico via Baja California, is considered to be the single most polluted river in America. It gets nicer and nicer all of the time. But wait: there is more!

The high level of bacteria resulting from fish die-offs are a major threat to the birds that visit the wetlands of the Salton Sea, and are thought to contribute to mortality and birth defects in the bird populations. Many governmental and grassroot efforts have arisen to find a solution for the pollution and salinity problems of the Sea, but no one seems to care too much about it. Most people don’t even know where it is or have even heard of it, but if you open any map of California, it is obviously clear that this biggest and most noticeable body of water in the entire state is this weird kidney shaped lake placed innocently in the very Southern part of the state somewhere in the middle of it. It is hard to miss.

Much of the current interest in the sea was spearheaded in the 1990s by the late Congressman Sonny Bono. Unfortunately he died in a skiing accident. His widow, Mary, was elected to fill his seat and has continued the fight, as has Representative Jerry Lewis of Redlands. The future of this weird place seems very unclear.

All I know is that this place has more then interested me. A weird almost dead lake that is enormous, and has a weird and interesting story that even involved the late Sonny Bono. Every picture I have ever seen of it is bizzare and spooky. Everything is abandoned and creepy.

So obviously the next question I always had was: who the hell would live in a place like this? Think about it: A accidental lake that stinks all of the time where the weather is beyond hot and seems inhospitable. What kind of weirdo would voluntarily live in a place like this?

I wanted to see some kind of movie or documentary about the Salton Sea. Yes, there was that little movie that was called The Salton Sea. It starred Val Kilmer, and it was actually alright, a nice little slice of film noir with a really fucked up locale. But I wondered how long I would have to wait to see something that was really about this place?

Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long for an answer.

Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea is a documentary by filmmakers Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, with narration by John Waters and music by Friends of Dean Martinez.

The film shares people's stories and their difficulties in keeping their unique community alive, as the nearby cities of Los Angeles and San Diego attempt to take the agricultural water run-off that barely sustains the Salton Sea. The film ultimately explores the historical, economic, political, and environmental issues that face the Salton Sea, but does so in a personal manner where you get to know the people who have chosen to live in what they see as a surreal paradise.

And what a cast of characters!

There is the ever drinking walrus mustached fellow. With mug in hand, he talks about the recent influx of low income mainly black residents of his little slice of paradise, Bombay Beach. Bombay Beach is the closest thing to a community the Salton Sea has. But there is nothing to do, which is probably why some of these people drink forty ouncers and smoke weed each and every day when they aren’t breaking shit and causing a ruckus. No cops would ever come around, he says. “what are they going to do? Give them a lollipop?”

The bulk of the remainder of its residents are retired people who can’t afford to move anywhere else and are (in the words of one of the more sane people in the movie) here to die. Everyone rides around in golf carts because the closest gas station is at least twenty miles away. And this place, more than the other spots around the sea, is beyond gross. And yet there is something oddly appealing about it to me. It is like the last frontier of sanity or something.

Then there is who I like to call “Cancer Lady”, the ever smoking elderly women who beat cancer years ago and was probably quite a pistol in her day. She attributes her health to living in such a fucked up place like the Salton Sea. In one great scene, she is riding around in her golf cart around the half submerged sinkhole of a community and touched briefly on the low income population by saying the unforgettable line” some of the black kids are just delightful, but..” and then pointing out a windmill themed house by laughing at it. People in Bombay Beach have dropped dead, some of old age. Others of gunshots. Who is up for a road trip?

We also meet a eccentric Hungarian freedom fighter, a elderly smiling waving nudist, a friendly man who through the vessel of God, has constructed nearby “Salvation Mountain”. This place has to be seen to be believed. There are a few sane people here, and more than a few dreamers, real estate savvy hopefuls and other people who think it is just a matter of time (and apparently millions of dollars) before the fifties promise of the Salton Sea will one day be realized. But time is running out. In some weird way, this movie tells all of these people’s stories in a very personal way so that you are almost rooting for all of them somehow. It is a great movie that I would recommend to everyone and anyone. You can get it on Netflix.

One day I really want to visit this place. But no, not in the summertime. I also can’t help but think about the idea of maybe one day I am going to end up living in a place like this. If I am alive in thirty years, will I be looked upon as an eccentric grey haired Russian Jewish looking bearded freak who wears a winter cap in one hundred and ten degree weather, being filmed by the edge of the barely furnished shack by the decaying cesspool of what is left of the Salton Sea? Will I be snickering about all of the alkaline dust storms whipping thier way into the rich and powerful town of nearby Palm Springs, destroying all of thier plantlife and really bumming out all of those folks who want to play a real good game of golf?

I just might..after all, this is America. Dreams come true.

CARTOON OF THE DAY.

2009-10-22T13:26:00.001-07:00

For any fan of the Rolling Stones.

NEW 2 BY 4 SIZED ROCK DRAWINGS.

2009-10-21T13:55:00.000-07:00

these were all suggested by a friend of mine and I drew these almost a year ago and then colored all of them the other night, which was fun. These will more than likely be popping up again sometime soon. See and guess who is who.

TODAY'S DRAWING.

2009-10-18T16:08:00.000-07:00

Why, it is the legendary band, Cheap Trick.

DOUBLE NEGATIVE IN PHILLY AND NEW YORK IN EARLY NOVEMBER.

2009-10-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

Double Negative will be driving in a vehicle to play two shows with the New York band Pollution and using thier gear. Here are the dates:

Nov 6 2009:
Terrordome-Double Negative, Pollution, Wormeaters, Blackslide Philly, Pennsylvania.

Nov 7 2009:
The Charleston..Double Negative, Pollution and more New York..brooklyn, New York.

We also heard of a mystery second show that someone had booked for us at ABC No Rio the very same night of our other New York show. Although it is thrilling for me to think that someone would set up a second show for us, we can't do two shows in two seperate boroughs of New York City but it is flattering nontheless.

We will then play a show in Charlotte afterwards and do some demos for the record, then after that we will do a proper recording of the record. So stay tuned.

richard manuel part two.

2009-10-14T11:46:00.000-07:00

and here is part two..enjoy the happy story of a sad great motherfucking singer.

richard manuel part one.

2009-10-14T11:28:00.000-07:00

one of my favorite singers meets new watercolor based pencils brings nice results..this was a huge four part scan..part two coming soon!

TODAY'S HARVEST OF DRAWINGS...

2009-10-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Here is a bunch of cartoony art stuff..some old, some new:

This one didnt make the last comic book...I thought it was kind of funny.

TWO BROTHERS: didnt make the last comic. hmm..

NEW COLORED PENCILS, OLD "i HATE MY JOB" CARTOON!

2009-10-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

I got some nice colored crayons for my birthday, so I thought I would try em out...fun!

and here is a three page cartoon about my tenure at Whole Foods and what a bad attitude I seemed to have cultivated there. Jeez, I sure am negative. It was all true, though. I didn't print this in any of my books because I thought I could have gotten terminated as a result. I will never know now.

www.brianwalsby.com rip..

2009-10-07T06:01:00.001-07:00

It is with more relief than sadness that my old and outdated barely used website WWW.BRIANWALSBY.COM has finally bit the dust due to boredom and mainly a lack of money to pay for it.

there might be another one eventually but who knows...so this will be the only place to go to see my stuff and that is fine with me. Toodles.

DONT QUIT YOUR DAY JOB.

2009-10-04T14:27:00.000-07:00

OH, IRONY.

I would like to share my financial adventures that I have been having this year with you readers. Keep in mind that most of this was self inflicted, and if there is anything you can come away with from reading this, I would hope it would be some sort of example of a lesson in what not to do. Here it goes:

As some of you people know, I made a big deal about quitting my last held longstanding job. I waxed on and on about following thy dream, and it was rather amusing and dramatic when I look back at it. Certainly, good things happened afterwards. A Melvins tour to go on, one that was fun and extremely profitable for me. Some early on freelancing endeavors that made me think that I could continuously pull rabbits out of my hat at the last moment. A year ago, the world seemed like it was my oyster, and I was rich in pearls.

This year was different. It was almost as if I was testing the limitations of both being broke and possible mental illness. I never had any money and was barely scrapping by. I posted begging bulletins and messages almost pleading with people to buy my comic books and stuff. Not only that, but no one had any money anyways…damn economy. Rolling Stone magazine wasn’t calling me up to hire me as a cartoonist, and neither was the New Yorker. The timing of my freelance career and the extension of it was pretty neat. I just bought a house and now had a mortgage to think about, so there was no better time than now to “go for it, dude”. I put the freeze on three credit cards during the summer and now they take out minimal payments each month. I have had a couple of collection agencies hound me to the ends of my cell phone on a daily basis, and even got to exchange in a wonderful “good cop/bad cop” scenario over the phone with some swell folks from one of them. I am afraid to find out what my credit is like at this moment. Let me tell you, it has been a thrill. And it has done wonders for my brain.

So I got a good job now and it is almost worse! No, not the job. I am grateful to have one and it will pay off big time in the long run, but now the feeling I have is when you have probably stopped fighting some massive battle. The war is over and you are at the bottom of a hill of fallen soldiers who are all now corpses, and you can finally see how far up you got to climb over them to get back on top where you were. That is where I am at now. I will probably be climbing for the rest of the year to get back to some sense of normalcy. After that comes some serious budgeting plans, and a way to live as cheaply as possible for the next five thousand years, with no money to spend extra on pleasurable things, except envelopes, stamps, paper, pens and smokes, which I can no longer afford or justify right now.

The extra cool bonus of my publisher’s distro company going bankrupt earlier in the year (attention: LUMBERJACK/MORDAM!) and the vanishing act of thousands of dollars that was mine to spend will not be forgotten anytime soon, but at least accepted. Let’s just say that between my own stubborn idiocy and the idea of putting my financial eggs into one big broken basket, I think I learned a big lesson BIG TIME. And it is a lesson that will take quite awhile to turn around. At least it is nice to know that one day shy of my forty fourth birthday I am learning important lessons and building more character.

Don’t get me wrong; on the bright side, I learned how to put myself out there in many different ways, and did things to make money that I would never have thought of even two years ago. I drew at Shakori Hills and endured as well as listened to drum circles at night. I sent out hundreds of e-mails to anybody that I thought could give me work. I make these “e-mail sweeps” (as I like to call them) twice a week. Some of my more successful events were drawing and holding court at punk rock festivals. Drawing Pig Champion sure came in handy on those days. I learned how to hustle and will no doubt utilize that in the future when the opportunity strikes. People do drop a line more often now then any time before to hire me for freelance work, maybe not enough to not have a real job but still..extra income. So you know…that is pretty cool. Who knows what will happen a year from now?

But for right now, I feel like one of those fathers who just took his rock and roll musician bound son who is going to “make it” aside and told him that he needed something to fall back on. All I need now is a tie and a pipe to thoughtfully wave in the air as I talk, speaking from wise and knowing experience. So what I am ending this with is the following:

If you need any freelance work, let me know..but don’t quit your day job unless Charles Schultz comes back from the grave and offers you a cut.