I first learned about Stephen Kalinich from a bootleg Brian Wilson CD that Bobb Bruno loaned to me years ago. I never imagined that the unknown man behind this strange, disembodied, beautiful voice would someday be a friend. This is a guy who writes poetry that feels like warm sunshine coming into your kitchen window […]
Category: The Beach Boys
Emily Maya Mills at A Rrose in a Prose
Emily Maya Mills, and how she’ll never let her brother take over her band.
the second Rrose Is a Rrose event is August 19
It’s going to be Ogden Nash’s birthday, and you know what that means: wacky witticisms will abound, like poached eggs nicely brown’d.
Elvis is still the King!
I know, I know, the Beatles were better at the music, the Beach Boys were better at major sevenths, Chuck Berry was better at the lyrics, and Little Richard was better at falsetto. Carl Perkins was better at being down-home, Billy Lee Riley was better at crazed-cat rockabilly, Buddy Holly was better at bringing pop into […]
Galveston
I’m so sad to hear what Texas and the Gulf have gone through in the wake of Hurricane Ike. True, it’s not nearly as bad in terms of human loss as what happened with Katrina–and I’m glad to hear the population of Galveston has undergone only four reported deaths, a far cry from the 8,000 […]
Van Dyke Parks
I’ve been commissioned to write a review of Inara George and Van Dyke Parks, and I’m pretty stoked. This dude worked on Smile, which is one of my favorite albums of all time (and I own thousands). Most people put Pet Sounds in that category, but in my opinion, while Pet Sounds was a pioneering […]
Shampoo
Over the holiday weekend, I revisited the movie Shampoo with my gal-pal. I’d watched this years ago, probably during my college years and probably drunk enough that I thought the thing was set and filmed in roughly 1971 or so. Turns out it was filmed in ’75 and set in ’68, making it a period […]
I am going to miss the T.A.M.I. show tonight! But Riot on Sunset Strip is alright.
I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. I’ve had a sore throat now for seven days or so and it has been one bad trip all the way through, especially now that I’ve run out of Naproxen. I wish someone would bash my brains out and put an end to the shreeeking, […]
Brian Wilson is back at Capitol Records! Now there’s hope for Smile!
Ryan at losanjealous.com reports that Brian Wilson is putting out a studio release at Capitol Records on Sept 2 (and will be following up with some shows at the Hollywood Bowl). This news is getting me all hot and bothered, not necessarily because Brian is being active again, but because I’m such a huge fan […]
Marcel Duchamp Redux at the Norton Simon
The Marcel Duchamp Redux exhibit is showing at the Norton Simon right now, the museum that once was the Pasadena Art Museum and which hosted Duchamp’s spectacular first retrospective in 1963. And this Sunday at 4 there’ll be lectures and fun to be had, so I’m definitely going. They’re showing a dozen pieces from Duchamp’s history, including […]
The Beach Boys’ Smile – “Fire”
Speaking of little ditties that paint pictures, I’ve been obsessed with the Beach Boys’ Smile album for years. Note I did not say “Brian Wilson’s Smile.” While Brian was definitely a great songwriter and a musical genius, there was so much more to this project than just him. The Wrecking Crew, Van Dyke Parks’s contributions, […]