I tried to stay out of the politics while I was on council at UCSD and instead, just focus on my job of putting on shows for the campus & generally just supporting a chance to have some fun.
This, however, can’t be ignored. Absolutely sickening. Make your voices heard ASUCD.
UCSD’s Sun God
All Hail To Thee.
Officially heading down again this year on May 13th - be there be there be thereeeeeeee.
Some folks have been requesting more details on my day on Wednesday, thus rather than individually repeat…
Okay, I’ll admit it, I fan-boyed out on Wednesday. Definitely not a kosher move while running, but the band and I were getting along well on a few earlier runs so I decided to go for it.
I drove Paul, Daniel, & Pajo twice, once from RIMAC Arena to the hotel after their soundcheck, then picked them up from the hotel to take them back to the venue. Sam & Brandon must have just stayed in their tour bus/green room at the venue. We chatted about a bunch of topics including La Jolla (Paul asked whether or not it was a “college town” - which it is far from being), Dan’s man-crush on Blake Griffin, the Black Angels album I had playing in the van at one point (Paul approves), what they all had for dinner, and the new Ricky Gervais show that I must now start watching.
Anywho, it went something like this just before dropping them off before they were about to go on stage…
Me: “So do you all care if I do something completely unprofessional and ask for an autograph…or is that no bueno?”
Paul (in the passenger seat next to me): “No, it’s no problemo. Just give us something to sign…”
(I pull out the ready-to-go vinyl & sharpie)
Paul: “…well that was easy.” (lols, signs, hands it to Daniel, thanks me for everything & gets out of van)
Daniel (in the second row of my van, signs it, then looks up): “uhh so should I give it…” (looks towards Pajo, the new bassist who technically didn’t play on TOTBL, who is in the third row).
Me: “Well, up to you two…whatever you want to do.”
Daniel hands it to Pajo. Pajo signs it. I could have gone either way at the time, but now I’m glad he did; Pajo has his own impressive back history prior to joining up with Interpol, and I’ve respected his bass skills since the Zwan days…despite the awesome drama regarding the breakup of Zwan & Billy Corgan’s accusations of Pajo & other band members. Who knows who to fully believe, ultimately; all I know is that the dude was very kind & appreciative throughout the experience to me.
Dan’s signature is on the left, Paul’s on the top, Pajo’s on the bottom right. Quite an amazing day when you meet a band you’ve loved for 8 or 9 years, it turns out they’re super nice guys, and you get paid for doing it. Granted there were the typical runner annoyances/stress, but I’ve been used to working the 15 hour show days for free for the past 4 years…and I would have done it for free once more to spend a few minutes in the car with those guys. Watching Paul & their TM shoot some hoops in the arena afterwards wasn’t all bad either :).
My 200th post, yay!
Interpol - Hands Away - Live 2/2/11
I drove these guys around La Jolla in my van last night. Yupppp. All very nice dudes, and a blast to meet one of my favorite bands as well as see them perform again.
Great performance right here. That fohawk on the other hand…
Down in San Diego running for Interpol today at UCSD. A cool ocean breeze blowing in the air.
Quiet overall - a mellow crew just taking care of business. A few drop offs & pickups is all so far (and a catering breakfast & lunch..). Looking forward to the set tonight.
In 1963, famed photographer Ansel Adams was commissioned by the University of California to photograph each UC campus for the university’s centennial celebrations. Although Adams shot more than 70 images of the fledgling UC San Diego campus, only 10 images of UCSD appeared in Fiat Lux, the book of photographs produced to commemorate the University of California’s centennial.
Thanks to an arrangement with the UC Riverside/California Museum of Photography, which holds the negatives of Adams’ Fiat Lux photography, UCSD’s Mandeville Special Collections Library is presenting an exhibit, “Ansel Adams at UCSD,” in honor of UCSD’s 50th anniversary. The exhibit showcases more than 25 of Adams’ best photographs of the campus, including the iconic shot of the Scripps Pier, the breezeway between Bonner and Mayer halls, and portraits of early UCSD faculty such as Harold Urey, John Stewart, Walter Munk, and Margaret and Geoffrey Burbidge.
AH! I want to go see these.
While miserable at the time, I semi-miss these long nights studying down in SD. This room really was tough to beat in terms of its views. Nightly gorgeous sunsets over the Pacific are easy to get used to.
For any folks still enrolled and who are reading this, enjoy it while it lasts.
There’s been lots of Girl Talk talk in the past few days with this new album coming out (surely you’ve seen that site that has gone up where you can stream it, and it shows in real-time what the samples are..pretty cool). My initial reaction is just like anything else he’s done - no desire to listen to it on record, but surely would be awesome live. My second reaction was that he pulled a pretty gutsy move to sample Lennon on this album - the closest thing to The Beatles he’s sampled (at least on ‘record’) to date. Remember that other time someone sampled the Beatles in a mash up & the drama that ensued?
Anywho - anytime there is talk about GT, I instantly think back to this glorious moment on stage. There is a brief shot of my hair at the :15 second mark in this video (and actually in the still before you push play, the curly brown blob on the right side is me). Good times indeed at “Sun Godchella”, as Gregg himself put it.
You kind of have to give the dude some credit though. Maybe he doesn’t “create” the music himself…but really, he does. Take a gander at this video where he describes/shows making one of his tracks cutting up an Elvis Costello song (side-note: why is a Yo-landi Vi$$er look-a-like taking a nap on his bed throughout this thing?). I’ll admit it’s pretty impressive stuff really when you look at just how many songs are sampled in any given song.
