SIGHTHOUND PLAYDATES APR.1,8, 2018

Playdates on Apr.1 + 8, 2018 with Scottish Deerhounds Gia, Eroica, Fain and Borzois Livia, Diego, Quinn,  Dixie and Mila with Golden Retriever Sarabelle supervising, plus humans Mr. Twister, Sherry, Ian, Paul and Mary, Katrina and yours truly. Beautiful spring weather still cool enough for running hounds to enjoy going their 35mph top speed with every run. Above, Ian risks life and limb photographing charging sighthounds, as do we all. Below, sighthounds running every which way in different pursuits, then representative pics, the two bottom shots with yours truly in them by guest photographer © 2018 Kurt Ingham ...

                                                            

~~FLASH~~

 An impromptu portrait of all the critters: equine Indy, canines Gia, Sarabelle and Livia

then... a few more addenda from April 15th playdate,

 

 with the last two photos of iguana tag betwixt Livia and Fain © 2018 Kurt Ingham.

STARCRAWLER LIVE AND "INSANELY GOOD" at the Lodge Room 3.31.18

You want the best young band currently hailing from Los Angeles? Go no further  than STARCRAWLER. You've read the hype, now grok the reality.  Strange teenagers from another planet come to entertain and enthrall us all...STARCRAWLER perform like seasoned rockers, don't imitate anyone (these days a rarity within itself,) and despite most of the attention falling on their unusual lead singer, they have an up and coming major guitarist in their ranks. Fun, loud, memorable punkesque whatnot replete with humorous ironies.

  The band has been alive as such for only one year, with seventeen-year old hardcore adept guitarist Henri Cash, 19-year-old lead vocalist Arrow de Wilde whose 6 ft.plus svelte frame brings to mind Classic depictions of famine, drummer Austin Smith and bassist Tim Franco. Claimed FOXES Magazine editor Tina de la Celle, one who is always in the know, "I have seen them many times, but they were insanely good at this show..."

...this show being March 31, 2018 at (Northeast L.A.) Highland Park's packed the Lodge Room. Too bad there was NO light on the performers. My pics were taken when the revolving spotlights shone on them indirectly a bit. (And double too bad, because it's a cool Art Deco ballroom venue with good sound in a neighborhood with copious free nighttime parking...)

 

(Above and below): in her theatrical blood-spattered "Carrie" ballgown trussed with vintage girdle, singer Arrow de Wilde invited a somewhat puzzled fan (who was nonetheless sufficiently hip to wear a t-shirt with one their song titles on it) onstage to "participate" in their song "Pussy Tower" with it's rousing chorus of "...she gives me head." The devilish smirk on Arrow's face below betrays whether it was or whether it was not all in good fun. You be the judge. Guitarist Henri Cash responded by playfully handing his still plugged in guitar to a stage invader, presumably to serenade in his place. Private, unintentional humor came when at least two concert-goers separately asked if I were the singer's mother. We both are music photographers, but the latter is a good twenty years younger and blessed with obvious genetics capable of spawning the beauteous if weird young Arrow.

PHOTO OPS:

 Colleague, photographer Michael Eivaz, far right, cavorts with gig promoter of Sid the Cat Presents Brandon Gonzalez and Christina Gonzalez

'VINYL' RECONSIDERED

 

 Above, fair use screen captures of the HBO cable television series 'Vinyl,' produced by Martin Scorsese who also directed the pilot, created by Mick Jagger and Martin Scorsese, written by thirteen screenwriters throughout its 2016 ten episode story arc, including personal fave Terence Winter who authored The Wolf of Wall Street* for Scorsese and The Sopranos for the rest of the world.

Despite this pedigree, most viewers seem to have loathed it. My subjective tally includes: 

Phyllis who was right there among the major players; Anita and Wendy who knew the subject matters backwards and forwards;  Mark, who like me, worked for a major record company in the mid-1970s which had all the stereotypes depicted (but a different company than the one for which I worked.  'Didn't matter, same stereotypes come to life.)

And add the factor that Martin Scorsese has always liked the challenge of tentpole-ing his films with profoundly unlikable protagonists. That said, who else has tried to make a well-funded fictional series about our youth amidst the music biz? They usually get it ALL wrong, instead of somewhat wrong with lots of juicy insider jokes. For instance, the aspect I loved about the film The Runaways was that this was the first depiction of the SoCal '70s music scene with OUR music, not whatever chart hits they could license (and the premiere featured our locals cheering Michael Shannon's dead-on depiction of Kim Fowley.) 

So taking on the flexibility of the writers' apologia in the DVD Special Features that they knew they were taking a chance to bend facts and factors to fit their stories, I find myself enjoying the well-researched ambience the second time around rather than just sputtering "wwwhhhaaattt?!?!" at every scene. 

Also commendable on second glance were excellent parts for female actors in a difficult to depict era: Olivia Wilde as the trophy wife who had given up her own wild child/party girl life to provide stability for the protagonist and their family but finds herself missing her proactive pop culture participation as well; Juno Temple as an ambitious, cute young adept in a Troglodyte era of kneejerk-dismissing of talents by those with XX chromosomes by those with XY; and Annie Parisse as the executive with more music biz know-how than anyone else in any room. 

There might be partisan differences of opinion depending on viewers' ages too. This is all new terrain for younger ones interested in pop music history left undocumented, whereas those "who were there" might be held back by nitpicking all the real life references. One depicted legend of this exact era, however, indisputably hits a home run with uncharacteristically poignant emotion. 

Episode 7 finds the Vinyl record company execs courting Elvis Presley to lure him away from RCA. The series record company president eloquently touchs his heart with pleas to hear the original rebel rocker again, now so deeply buried in showbiz kitsch due to his manager's career arc preferences. The pain is palpable, and well played as a once powerful figure from humble origins tries like mad to cover it up.  Not the humble origins but the pain of career disappointment disabling all his passions...

And lastly, I wrote my second (now long out of print) book "Punk Rock 'N' Roll" for a major record company as the same battle cry of the few Vinyl characters who really loved music per se: let real talent rip! And sure enough, Vinyl featured a Greek chorus of this--
ghosts of past (dead) rockers haunting the Richie Finestra character, with each episode depicting lookalikes of well known R&B and Rock'n'Roll legends performing, who in essence mocked his once genuine love of quality music. If viewers, like most of Richie's adversaries, aren't passionate about music, this will go sailing right over their heads...



*The Wolf of Wall Street has the most genuinely ROTFLMAO scene of any drug flick or even any modern flick whatsoever (for those with appropriately twisted senses of humor.) 
Go to LINK** and then imagine writing this! 

***https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7btKdFOs5w

DAVE DAVIES TRIUMPH LIVE at the ROXY, Valentine's Day 2018

♥Valentine's Day at the Roxy, West Hollywood CA with the Dave Davies band triumphant gig for its rabidly appreciative audience. From his first "hallo!" they remained right there squarely in the palm of his hand. ♥

Above, acoustic guitar for pensive ballads like "Young And Innocent Days," "See My Friends"

Below, backup singer/Dave's inamorata Rebecca G. Wilson gets the singalongs rolling...

 

 Above, the start of another tale by a master raconteur

 

 

Above left: Dennis Diken on drums, right: David Nolte on bass. 

 Dave led a power trio of former Smithereens' drummer Dennis Diken and nimble bassist David Nolte because, well, because he could, with  his chops and charisma solidly in place. Those familiar with his history know that tiffs with his fellow Kink brother Ray weren't the only battles in his life. Recovering from a stroke in the '90s, Dave's first career steps back to professional normalcy were solo album releases, then touring 2013 - 15 with acclaimed group The Jigsaw Seen as his backing band. On Valentine's Day night , a completely packed, appreciative Roxy Theatre crowd cheered this first night of Davies' first 2018 American Tour...

 Below, happy, enraptured Kinks fans

Anyone familiar with the set list below knows that the canon of Dave Davies' solo work coupled with Kinks' material dating from the mid-1960s onward guarantees a full evening of ridiculously memorial songs and ear worms.  Dave after all is one of hard rock's actual progenitors who, along with James Williamson in the early 1970s, insured the very persistence of the genre by giving it its initial form and fun in from the first five notes blasted on 1965's "You Really Got Me."

SET LIST:
1. I Need You   2. She's Got Everything  3. Creeping Jean   4. Tired Of Waiting For You  
5. Susannah's Still Alive  6. Love Me 'Til The Sun Shines  7. See My Friends  8. Path Is Long
9. Strangers  10. Too Much On My Mind  11. Young And Innocent Days  12. This Man He Weeps Tonight  13. I Am Free 14. Death Of A Clown  15. Dead End Street  16. Living On A Thin Line  17. Wicked Annabella  18. Where Have All The Good Times Gone  19. All Day And All Of The Night  (encore) 20. I'm Not Like Everybody Else  21.  You Really Got Me

 PHOTO OPS:

Yours truly meeting up with Rebecca G. Wilson for coffee, 

photo taken by one her sons, Desmond (a young working actor with Martin Scorsese films to his credit...)