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LA Fairgrounds in Pomona seems to hold a Tattoo Convention every 6 months and I've always been curious about it. I decided to go, half hoping to run into an old friend from high school, Corey Miller, who is now on the cable show "LA Ink". He's kinda the "Schneider" of the show (since he is surrounded by females). We sat next to each other in Photography class and one day he came to class with these amazing fingernail tattoos of skulls that would just grow out naturally. When Kristen decided to be Upland High's first punk rock homecoming queen in 1985, I partly attributed her success to Corey's masterly Olde-English/spiderwebbed picket signs. After High School in like '88, an ex-boyfriend got a tattoo in Corey's living room, back before Corey had a shop of his own. When we went over there, Kristen and her punk rock friends looked like they belonged in a secretary pool (down to the acrylic nails) and were like, "You're still into that stuff?" At the time, it was a surprise to me that they were not eternally punky. Corey still has his shop Six Feet Under in the old Upland town square. It's funny, whenever they show Upland on the show, it's implied it is some rural podunk. They even have montaged images of tractors in there. I can't even imagine where there would be a tractor in all of Upland- the citrus industry died there in the early 80's as it became a serious bedroom community. The Inland Empire is an insane, sprawling extension of LA, buttressed by mountains that are unreal in stature and catch on fire often. I expected the Himalayan mountains to make Mt. Baldy look like a knuckle, but quite the opposite. Anyway, I always regretted not having Corey do my first tattoo as he had offered way back when. So, I was wondering what the likelihood of getting on his show would be and was going to ask him if my story was compelling enough to plunk down $100 for the chance. Somehow, I doubt the idea Sam and I had (of getting inner lip tattoos that both say "Zip it" so we could silently argue) would sit well next to firemen getting 9-11 memorial tattoos. I am refraining from commentary on the Tattoo Convention, only to say I was sorry not to see anyone get the dyn-o-mite J.J. tattoo.
Today Sam and I went to see the Rose Parade Floats. They are covered entirely in flowers, leaves, bark and seeds. 
Now I know people in other parts of the world think that LA is all this...
and this...
But you are just as likely to see...
the crush of humanity or a bomb squad with dogs
Now who would ever want to destroy such an amazing float with a coked out King Kong and octopus and a box of good candy?
Some assume that these guys would want to...
But look at all these people, it could be anyone...
I suspect these wierdos...
or this guy...
or the crazy float driver.
Wouldn't it be rad if Bootsy Collins had been riding in this float?
I would only want to see flower elephants doing tricks.
Michaelangelo was such an overachieving jerk.
Down the rabbit hole-
I feel this rabbit can read my mind somehow. ThunderSnail below!
Sometimes when I explain that I am in a band, this is how I imagine they see it and it is so embarrassing.
One of the things I love about the "Why so serious?" sweatshirt that I bought on the boardwalk in Ocean City, MD is that it is so hastily done that they left the silkscreen registration mark (on my right shoulder). 
OK already with the flowers, I get the point.
Lucky for us local yocals, every time Savage Republic go on a European tour, they do a precursor set in Claremont or Pomona, since this is where they originated. They have been one of my favorite bands since the mid-80's. I was honored to play Chinese hammered dulcimer on the last track "Peking" of their last album, "1938". Greg Grunke, the bassist, was unable to tour this time, so Kerry sat in and kept it solid sounding. I apologize in advance for any audio distortion.
Here's some stills-
This is the last day of the "amoxicillin fashion" portion of my blog. It takes a lot of effort to do this daily and my hat is off to those who can keep it up. I am really a dirtbag at heart. I still like to wear things for multiple days. I just caught a segment on "Tim and Eric's Awesome Show Great Job!" called 'Kitty Cat Man' with Michael Cera and Don and Pat Jankiewicz as his brothers. When I went to Upland High School they were known as "The Jankiewicz Brothers" because there were 4 of them there. All four are friendly giants. If they had started a band it would have been terrrifying. Steve worked at Rhino for awhile and wore these baby blue dolphin shorts. 'Nuff said on a public forum. Pat acted in K-Pax, Beethoven 2 and may be the tallest. Don was a Klingon on Star Trek and Tom wrote the original screenplay to "Grosse Pointe Blank" which John Cusack changed a few words on and tried to claim as his own screenplay. That didn't fly in court. That movie is about an assassin sent back to his 10 year High School Reunion and judging from the screenplay it is directly based on Upland High. All the Upland High stereotypes are in there and the local college station would have been KSPC 88.7 in Claremont. Arguably, the best station on the planet. Props to Erica Tyron for keeping it truly independent, diverse and awesome.
