INGER LORRE LIVE at Pop Obscure Records 11.18.16

 

Despite trepidation whether or not the artist would appear despite a bone break that very day, she came, she sang, she conquered. Inger Lorre performed an acoustic live set of her intriguing, distinctive Nymphs' and solo release songs in the manner of VH1's Storytellers series, explaining, say, her reasons for writing "Imitating Angels" about her teen BFF who killed herself. The gig took place Nov. 18th at the well lit gallery at Pop Obscure Records, the best locale for treasured vinyl finds in downtown Los Angeles to date.

This instore appearance with Eric James Contreres (normally her Nymphs drummer) on second guitar and percussion found Lorre's stage manner and performance as passionate as always and quite friendly

to her very appreciative audience,

human and canine alike (below right: Sherry Lee [co-owner with husband Dustin Lane of Pop Obscure] filming, and Fioni the attentive dog with owner Sean.)

 

Votive candles for optimum ambience onstage...                  

...meeting with fans after the show...    

 Job well done!

PETER LEWIS AND ARWEN LEWIS ENLIVEN L.A. ROCK SCENE TWICE! 11.14.16 and 12.11.16

 Arwen Lewis and her father Peter Lewis (hotshot singer/songwriter/guitarist of the amazing frontline of legendary '60s/70s San Francisco band Moby Grape) blazed through twin local gigs in the last two months, Nov.11, 2016 at Skinny's Lounge in Noho and Dec. 11, 2016 at Cafe NELA, Cypress Park (with the cool stage lighting.) They now perform a great mix of new original material and classic Moby Grape rockers with a full band inclusive of Nick Nabishoff and George Adrian.

 

 

RODNEY BINGENHEIMER'S BIRTHDAY PARTY 12.15.16 at Canter's Deli

Birthday party for Rodney on the ROQ's longtime. influential and innovation-liking DJ Rodney Bingenheimer (also star of the documentary film Mayor of the Sunset Strip) on 12.15.16 at his favorite 24-hour eatery Canter's Deli in West Hollywood. Lotsa fun people there to wish him well, for instance left to right: The Pandoras-- Karen Basset, Hillary Burton, Melanie Vammen and Kim Shattuck-- next to Rodney and girlfriend Kansas Bowling.

 Above, Rock and Roll Hall of Famer for Blondie, drummer Clem Burke hands Rodney Bingenheimer a secret CD present for the latter's birthday celebration at Canter's Deli, 12.15.16 as The Pandoras gape in admiration even as Karen's selfie is compromised. Kansas Bowling plus Beck Black to Rodney's left (stage right) and the back of Tony Valentino's head. Note David Bowie theme.
 The Pandoras, 2016: Kim, Hillary, Melanie and Karen.
 Below, jollity abounds and smiles all around.

Rodney resplendent in glam yellow; to his right, Violet Paley, film director daughter of Bambi Conway, of the original 1983 Pandoras. 

Below, left to right, Rik Collins and Christa Collins of the Woolly Bandits, photographer Dawn Laureen, bassist and guitarist of Blondie Frank Infante, Rodney, Beck Black.

Below: Woolly Bandits' singer Christa Collins with India Duprè; revelers with Rodney; Amy McRory and Michelle Gearhead; Palaye Royale brothers Emerson and Remington Keith, india Duprè; photography via Navarone Garibaldi (Elvis Presley's handsome step-son, singer of the band Them Guns) with his watchful friends; selfies galore from Kansas Bowling.

 

DR. BOOGIE BACK IN ACTION!

 Dr. Boogie, back in action with new bassist Pat Salway, all seen at their video production at Swing House for newest single "Peanut Butter Blues," ably directed by Berto Mendoza. At least 2017 will be starting out right!

THE DIRTY KNOBS, MARC FORD 12.1.16 live at the Canyon Club

Nobody rocks the pinstripes like Mike Campbell of The Dirty Knobs (and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.)  Below, Campbell and reflections in the shades of his own guitar playing, and soulful Knob guitarist Jason Sinay.

 

Double the fun sets and fun playing 12.1.16 at Agoura Hills, Calif.'s Canyon Club.  Campbell's hoodlum virtuoso band The Dirty Knobs is indeed a lot "dirtier," swampier and prone to fascinating cover song choices than the classic Heartbreaker format. I quite like them! Their leader does too: during one of co-guitarist Jason Sinay's sizzling solos, Campbell kept pointing to him and reminding the audience, "and this guy plays for me?!"

 Unmistakable highlights: Campbell's proactive engagement with his appreciative audience; his properly desperate-but-resolute cover of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero;" and the Knobs' instrumental of Jimi Hendrix' "1983 A Merman I Should Turn to Be." Yes, you have to be this good to make a Hendrix song sound this powerful, building from great to supernova just like the late maestro, with typical left field seguing into something similar, "Hey Joe" and back again to build to "1983's..."s intense finale. And they claimed this was an impromptu, non-set-list choice!

Left: tasty jams betwixt Campbell and Sinay;

right, Big Hendrix Finish!

Opener was guitar champ Marc Ford (of Burning Tree back in the Coconut Teazser daze, a band who impressed me mightily.) This proved a slightly bouncier, less jazz fusiony set than the last time I admired and photographed these two acts. To remind me of that gig (LINK) I played The Blessings on my drive to and from the venue.

 

SOCIAL CALENDAR October and November 2016: EVENTS DOCUMENTED AND UN-

Above, three photographers who have photographed Iggy and The Stooges live, taken by a fourth, yours truly. Left to right: Robert Matheu, Ron Sobol and Kurt Ingham at the book signing event for Jeff Gold's Total Chaos, Nov. 19, 2016. What distinguishes this tome on the history of The Stooges and Iggy and The Stooges are Jeff's extensive interviews with Iggy Pop who lets loose his inimitable wry wit, and a never before seen array of pertinent Stoogiania.

The event was held at Leigh Kaplan's art book store ARCANA in Culver City CA. Both Jeff and Leigh are friends of ours from the very distant past of our UCLA days. 

Below, guest photographer © 2016 Kurt Ingham shot of yours truly and the author signing his book for me. Right: Mr. Twister finds his own exceptional live shot of the Ig which graced the cover of an early edition of Creem Magazine. Lots of Stooge memorabilia from Jeff's own collection and perhaps items of his music collector clients via Gold's business RecordMecca.com were to be found in glass display cases.

 

 

 Guest photographer © 2016 Michael Eivas took this nice shot below of Mr. Twister 
and yours truly at the San Fernando Valley Arts & Culture Center's October 4th opening of Rock Image-ination, a composite show of rock photographers Michael Eivaz, Kevin Goff, Scott Mitchell, Jimmy Steinfeldt and Richard Upper.  (Eivaz' work was demonstrably among the best.) 

I shot assorted ambience commemoration of exhibit goers, interesting faces and the great School of Rock kids performing at the event...however...all of my smartcard's images' immediate demise when downloaded presaged a wretched turn of events.

Astute readers* may note that I proffered a single blog post in October. That's when Microsoft™ chose secretly to install Windows 10™ in my computer overnight without warning. And overnight all of my photo processing programs and photography archives disappeared; i.e., my life's work and its manufacture. It took topflight professional data recovery experts even to locate the buried files much less to restore them, an expensive endeavor. The kindly computer repairfolk tried to comfort me saying that their business was swamped with similar victims, and mine wasn't even the worst. They told the tale of an accountancy firm wherein all of its multi-thousand dollar business-specific programs disappeared into the WIndows 10 ethers, never, ever, ever to be returned...

*Astute readers also may notice I wore the same necklace to both events.

BEAUTIFUL DOG and HORSE PAINTINGS BY BROTHER GUISEPPE CASTIGLIONE in the 1700s...

 

Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian Jesuit friar in the Chinese Emperors' courts in the 1700s, painted a beautiful mashup of European and Chinese styles. Selections from three favorite series: Ten Prized Dogs and Ten Prized Steeds. At the bottom, a portion of 100 Horses which is 26.7 feet long painted 1723-5. All were painted with tempera on silk.