Thursday, July 30, 2009

THE Mighty Boosh

Existential poem 'Pies' by the Cap'n of cool- Howard C. Moon with his muse Vince Noir @ The Roxy 7/28/09

Amanda and I started our day @ 3 pm by hitting the Roxy to get our armbands for our free Mighty Boosh tix courtesy of MySpace. The hitch is you gotta have Mighty Boosh in your top friends and prove it. There was some stress as my iphone moved like molasses. Like clockwork, we set off for Amoeba where they were appearing for a Q&A and swag signing. My friend Shannon did a smash up job introducing them. Witty banter ensued as a monkey bear egged them on. I learned that everyone on the show are either family or friends. I was hipped to Sweet Pete, an early project of theirs which is equally as charming. I bought all 3 seasons of Mighty Boosh on DVD and I am now marveling @ the butchery of the episodes by Adult Swim. During the signing, Noel Fielding (Vince Noir and 1000 other characters) took my hand in both of his as all of the funny things I wanted to tell him turned into a stunned silence. I gave Julian Barrett (Howard C. Moon and another 1000 characters) Sam McPheeters zine 'Clog' and told him it was some funny stories my husband wrote that I thought he would enjoy. He seemed genuinely delighted. I asked Rich Fulcher (the sole American that plays quite a few roles) if he had ever been told that he resembles Har Mar Superstar. He said quizzically that he had. Note Michael Fielding(Naboo) has a mustache. People heckled and razzed him about it all night.
Next to me in line is the winner of Amoeba's costume contest, I give you Rudy Van Disarzio and his lovely assistant Ol Gregg.

Here's another Ol Gregg taking a pic of the Moon and the guy looking at me is Sam from Freaks and Geeks (John Francis Daily). I didn't know til later and he musta thought I was trying to photograph him. Smile, fool.
Scene cut and we are @ the Roxy, the line stretches around two city blocks, past the Whisky. This is like the US Mighty Boosh victory lap tour. They let wrist banders in first and we meet some other girls by the stage. All 5 of us start coordinating a crimping dance troupe which we plan to do during the show. Little do we know, once the show would begin, we would be so enthralled the routine would be forgotten.
Neil Fielding as Vince Noir-
Julian Barrett as Howard C. Moon-
Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil-
Dave Brown as Bollo the ape-
Before the show they had a video montage of great moments from the show and between each costume change, they had new clips of the Moon.
Look at deer Noel doing the mating song of the elk.
Ol Gregg is singing his sea shanty of love-
People lost their minds trying to catch the handmade posters. This one says Fruit Boots and has a picture of legs w/ bananas for feet. I wanted it so bad I could taste the bananas. It coulda been that I was on my 6th day of fasting.
Is this the Hitcher or Albino Wizard?
This is Dave Brown who plays Bollo the ape (and others) and helps Julian write the show's tunes. All of the musicianship was great. Everyone played and played well. He also compiled their book.
Enter Rich Fulcher as Eleanor the predator-
Attack of the killer Nanas-
Noel's nightie kept flying up in our faces. My word, I do say.
That was literally one of the best shows I've ever seen. Oddly, I ran into Har Mar Superstar later that night as he was heading backstage and he told me that he goes way back with Rich Fulcher. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I may never know. We met 'Mike the Bike' after the show. He says he plays piano in front of the Bank of America everyday. He was cool and reminded me of Donny the hobo in Crack Fox episode.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Summer Daze

Last summer I fasted for 4 days, this year I did 6 days. There is light euphoria, mental lucidity a kinda acidic, toxic feel. I drink fresh fruit and veggie juices before, during and after the fast and they become very filling as the days wear on. My main problem is the insomnia. I have way too much energy.
Summer '09 thus far- Here are Magnus and Nightstalker, defenders of the cats from butcher birds (blue jays), and defenders of our ears from mockingbirds at night-
Microdot dons the ceremonial socks-
Microdot and Destroyer are showing some brotherly love...

Upset the Rhythm Showcase at the Smell. The wonderful Lucky Dragons are on-
Flames engulfed 2 craftsman houses down the street. It was started by someone w/ illegal fireworks in the garage of an apartment building. The fire spread to 4 houses via the trees.
This house used to sell plants and garden fixtures. I loved these houses.

At Family Bookstore, I saw Golden Hits set up more patch cords than I've ever seen-
They were followed by SF's Bulbs-
The night's music was very ambient and soundtracky. A Bulbs member is playing in the display window.
On July 11th, my band Auto Da Fe played at the Lotus Festival on the Echo Park lake and it was so fun and easy breezy lakeside. Literally and figuratively. After, we went to Brie's BBQ and she told us the story about seeing the Beastie Boys play at Diva Zappa's 5th birthday party on the diving board as they threw watermelons in the pool for the kids to dive for. Wha? We later went back to the festival to see the most colorful fireworks ever.
On the 4th of July, my fellow 1st grade teacher Lesley married our PE teacher Jason in a beautiful Catholic church.
We saw fireworks just outside their reception at the LA Fairgrounds and a group of little kids were screaming "Mich-ael Jack-son!" everytime they boomed. He hadn't even had a hit in their lifetimes.
Summer '08 never really was posted due to my cat RayRay passing away. I just had to keep moving, not reflecting. This year, as last year, we went to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna. It's where paintings are peopled and vice versa. It's always an amazing spectacle.
I remember Summer '08 as being crazy hot and the Cali wildfires starting early.
The heat was one of the reasons this guy was so incredibly inspiring. I was walking up to Trader Joe's from the Claremont village (maybe a 1/2 mile) w/ my ipod, damning the heat when this guy passes me up. He was almost to Santa Monica and had taken a detour into Claremont to use the internet. He had gone through like 50 pairs of shoes and had been walking for a year!!! I gave him $10 for his travels, as he was relying on donations, although he never asked for it. He had received some media attention at that point but his website is now down. Hope he made it, it sure was a hot summer.

Bet he wished he could jump into my friend Kara's lagoon/jacuzzi.
At the Scripps secret garden, my friends Kimmy and Laszlo got married in 114 degree weather. I played my yangqin and read Rilke. A few people jumped in the fountain afterward. It was part traditional Vietnamese Buddhist and part Western. She and I were Art majors together there. It's an insanely beautiful women's college of art and humanities in the Claremont College community. We both now teach Kindergarten and/or 1st grade 2 blocks from each other in Pomona.

I went to see Yaz w/ pals (Faye, Jamii, Stacey, Tisha, me and Glennda in front).
In August, Sam and I toured the West Coast. He read short, funny stories from his zine 'Clog' and I played Chinese classical pieces on my hammered dulcimer (yangqin) and showed my documentary about music in China. I had filmed it from 1998-99 when I was there on a grant doing music research traveling to every nook, cranny and corner of that country interviewing and filming. It took me 10 yrs. to get around to editing the 60 hours of footage. I guess I was inspired to do it by the outta control Chinese Olympic debutante ball of that summer. Here's some snaps of the tour. Here Sam and I celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary in San Francisco-
The Palace of Fine Arts-
Bus stop-
Golden Gate Bridge in fog-
Klamath Falls, Oregon if you ever need to shoot your piano-
Beware of the giant that guards the township of Grant, Oregon. He steals 8-tracks and sells them at the swap meet.
Having a fine time in Olympia, Washington. This is Sarah Utter, she's a fine artist.
Meet her dog, Otis, as he digs a hole in the mud and naps in it. He can emit time from his eyes.
She and Justin put us up in their hideway in Kamilche. He can emit time, too, he just chose not to here on a full stomach.
Sitting on their porch-
We played at Phantom City Records and Dumpster Values. I am drumming up some sales. Hey, that's shoe business! Yuk Yuk!Sam read from Sarah's art studio above. He'd make a crummy Repunzel with that hair.
Who have we here? These little softies were made by Coco Howard at the Anne Bonny store we played at. Wow, such a great shop o' curios. She gave me a blue fuzzy guy. I love it so.
Here's Coco and her lovely daughter. Congrats! Coco just got married to Spencer the shop owner!
She has many great fluffy wall pieces on her site Softlife.
For my birthday we went to see the Chinese acrobats at the Hollywood Bowl-
And who should be lurking there, waiting to take our money, but David Leibe Hart of the Tim & Eric Show. He drew our portrait which oddly resembled every other drawing he had. He wants me to tell you that he needs a girlfriend and to contact him thru me, if interested.