#27 Acrylix Buttons
#25 Marcus Dinsmore
#24 1978. Back when everyone had to be reminded that Blondie wasn't just Debbie Harry. As brilliant as Chris Stein, Clem Burke, etc. were, however, it was easy to forget this fact.
#23 I guess Deep Purple started the highbrow rock/classical thing in 1969 with the London Symphony Orchestra. Maybe everyone was having flashbacks to Day in the Life, I don't know. I actually don't remember that much about this concert, but through the wonders of the internet, I found this review:
"Lousy sound systems and poor concerts are not a rarity these days, even for big name attractions like Neil Young or America, but when the show is good and the audio is bad – that's when it hurts. And it was painful at the Bowl for Procol Harum. The first thing one noticed visually if not aurally was the massive bank of speakers at stage left and the absence of its twin at stage right. So, it seemed, people in the box section (first third of the Bowl) got only part of the story since Gary Brooker's vocals and much of the impact of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Roger Wagner Chorale were lost in the mud and imbalance. Customers in the upper reaches of the bowl, those in the rafters, apparently did better, according to several persons who took the hike, willing to sacrifice view for vocals."
I was a lucky one in the nosebleed section. I just remember what a remarkable voice Gary Brooker had, still has. Conquistador, Simple Sister, A Salty Dog all great tunes and they didn't play Whiter Shade of Pale.
#22 Playbill from the 1969 performance of Hair at the Aquarius Theatre on Sunset Blvd. Good Morning Starshine. Easy to be Hard. Hair. Air. Let the Sunshine in.
Oh, and everyone gets naked at the end.
#19 My friends and I saw so many great, intimate shows at the Ash Grove, especially Johnny Otis and his band (featuring his son Shuggie, Big Joe Turner, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Esther Phillips, and Marie Adams and the Three Tons of Joy), Albert King (seen in small Instamatic photo with local LA guitarist Hollywood Fats - Michael Leonard Mann), Doc Watson, and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee. The Ash Grove was exceptional for the quality and range of artists and musical genres. Dave Alvin’s 2004 album Ashgrove captures the mood of the club very well.
#20 Alice Cooper, 1972 at the Hollywood Bowl. Snakes! Camel! Gallows! Diploma! Introduced onstage by radio legend Wolfman Jack.
#21 Cream and I had a difficult relationship. I so loved their records, but for one sad sad reason after another I was never actually able to see them live until their reunion in 2005 in New York. A friend I went with was grumbling about Ginger Baker being a shell of his former self, but I was too busy weeping with joy at the opportunity to be in the same room when he played. Jack Bruce, the barrel chested Scotsman wailing on We're Going Wrong, was breaktaking. I am ashamed to admit that it was only after seeing this concert that I fully realized that Eric Clapton would be, and is, nowhere without Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker kicking his little You Look Wonderful Tonight ass.
#18
February 22, 2021. Remember that feeling when you got your second shot? Makes the Delta variant thing that much more painful. Like tying the game with a buzzer-beater only to lose in overtime.
#13
Tyler Lloyd, a colleague at US Environmental Protection Agency, took these great photos at two shows: a January 2017 tribute to Urban Verbs guitarist Robert Goldstein at the 9:30 club (note 930 sticker on my jeans) and a February 2020 tribute to David Bowie at the Pie Shop on H St., NE in DC). For each, we performed songs that weren't our own, of course. Covers are harder than originals because people know and love the originals. It was great to share the stage with Martha Hull - a powerhouse - for the Goldstein show. At the Pie Shop Bowie gig, I was very proud of our version of Bowie's Width of a Circle, which I was not familiar with before the gig. I was able to really strrrreetch out on the A G D solo at the end of the song. A great feeling to be in total command.
#15
Right up there with grappling with the idea of death is the first moment you think about the universe. "Turtles all the way down" is an expression that alludes to the mythological idea of a World Turtle that supports a flat Earth on its back. It suggests that this turtle rests on the back of an even larger turtle, which itself is part of a column of increasingly large turtles that continues indefinitely.
#10
News. If I were true to the period, I would be wearing what was called a newsboy or gatsby cap. Circa 1969/1970 I saw a band called Cat Mother and the All-Night Newsboys. The band was notable for its rock medley "Good Old Rock 'n' Roll", a Top 40 hit in the summer of 1969, AND that Jimi Hendrix produced their first album, as they shared the same manager at the time. So, I must have seen them open for Hendrix one of the two times I saw him perform at the LA Forum.
#11
Clothing worn during the pandemic. Due to the Covid pandemic, Monday, March 16, 2020 was the last day I was physically in my office at the US Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC. From that point on I rotated through the same 2 sweatshirts, and 3 pairs of jeans (black ones are folded up neatly, waiting for that extra special walk around the neighborhood). Clothes make the man, but in this particular case simply keep him from disappearing completely.
#12
Religion. Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), in the sky with the right photo filter to enhance its otherworldliness, vividly captures the true spirit of America. A religion all its own. A big bucket of mass-produced comfort food waiting in the great beyond for you. Colonel Sanders died for your sins.
#7
February 29, 2020. This is a picture of Josh Singer, Glenn Kowalski, myself and Norman van der Sluys of 7 Door Sedan on the very last day we rehearsed in our basement in Silver Spring, MD after about 10 or 11 years. We also recorded music down there - a la Exile on Mainstreet (vocal "booth" in one room, guitar amp in bathroom, etc). My wife Patty was so supportive and understanding, as we were pretty loud and, well, rehearsal means repeating a tune over and over again. So, this was our very last practice for our very last gig, the following weekend at the Silver Spring's American Legion Hall. Then everything went dark with Covid and we moved to LA.
#8
When the sun goes down in Los Angeles, the sky takes over.
#9
I like the art and the gaze and the zen sentiment. This could be from 1884, not 1984. A hand painted (electrical? phone?) box on the sidewalk in Highland Park, CA. Jesse Jackson (born October 8, 1941 in Greenville, SC) is an American political activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988. Jackson founded nonprofit organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH: Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity) and the National Rainbow Coalition. The organizations pursue social justice, civil rights, and political activism.
#4
I like scrolling back and forth between these photos. My granddaughter is a good sport about the whole thing, but is not exactly clear about what's expected of her in the moment. And who is this guy anyway?
#5
My daughter made these T shirts for me and I really like them. One uses an old photo of me from the early 1980s in Acrylix and the second one has a spray bottle - something to do with chemicals and EPA - with KME written on it.
#6
#1
I bought this Peavey tube amp circa 1982 with Acrylix, and used it until 2007/8, when Glenn Kowalski registered me in the Holy Church of Our Lady of the Reverend Amp. Tom Lyle replaced the Peavey logo with an old Univox badge. I gave the amp away to ProTech in Silver Spring, MD when I left town, but I kept the Univox badge.
#2
Look out, I'm Emma Peel of TV's Avengers and those aren't just fingers; that's a real gun! And I'm not simply safe at home in Maryland.
#3
I'm really indebted to Jad and David Fair of Half Japanese, Skizz Cyzyk, Barbara (B.A.D.) Cesare, and Steve Shaw. I don't consider myself to be hip at all and I'm not a good self-promoter. They gave me a chance at their "outsider" Shakemore Festivals. I performed a number of times there, with 7 Door Sedan and my own KME.