Los Feliz...

July 7, 2009

Photos courtesy of Frank Lee Frennen

I was talking to my Frank Lee Drennen last night on the phone for a few hours. I never had a brother, but I consider Frank one of my three brothers I've adopted later in my twisted life. I used to visit him up in Los Feliz, it's an area of Los Angeles and where old Hollywood used to reside after the cameras were turned off. The times I've had with him and the neighborhood became an inspiration for my little drum machine EP "Los Feliz". He is an amazing photographer/song-writer/artist and he just sent me a few photos he took on his iPhone of ol' L.F. Already I'm getting ideas of the next and final song of the series. The song will be called "Cul-De-Sac". I'll post a link to it when it's finished. Until then here are the photos that Frank shared with me.

Photos courtesy of Frank Lee Frennen

Friends Fur Life...

July 6, 2009

I finished a new song for my "Los Feliz" EP today. It's called "Friends Fur Life", a story about a guy who wants to be more than friends with his girl friend, and they both happen to be into Furry Fandom. If you don't know what that is, I heartily encourage you to do some research. It's quite fascinating.

The music was inspired by 70's television like the "Rockford Files", "Charlie's Angels", and "Starsky and Hutch" with some contemporary twists. Having fun is the name of the game!

This also reminds me of when my Mom and Step-dad went out of town for the weekend and my stepbrother and me had found their porn and marijuana stash underneath our parents bathroom sink behind the tampons...or was the marijuana inside the tampon box...hmmm....something like that. Well that afternoon scarred me for life. I watched one of the worst porn's in porn history and it was my first porn. I can't tell you the title of it, but unfortunately I can tell you the plot. I only saw it the one time and it was when I was 13.

The plot goes like this...a Latin Dictator who looked an awful lot like Fidel Castro decided to poison the world's water supply that would make all men impotent. His evil plot to take over the world was succeeding, when the Alien Federation of the Universe finds out, and sends their most powerful agent, a hot momma with a laser inside her vagina. Needles to say, her, some midgets and snake, a giant frozen blue dong laser cannon and some battles and she saves the day. Please do not search out this film! You will be scarred for life! Especially is you smoked your parents stash of skunk weed. They never said anything about their missing supply...

*laughing*

Here's the link to the song if you wanna hear it. [soundcloud url="http://soundcloud.com/user1812704/friends-fur-life" params="show_comments=true&auto_play=false&color=ff7700" width="100%" height="81" ]

Here are the lyrics too:

Friends Fur Life

"No, no, no we're just friends!"

She laughed and pushed me away.

D-D-D-Don't call me sweet dear, don't call me nice

I don't have the nerve to say, to say that

I wanna be your lover.

I don't wanna be your friend.

"No, no, no!" You keep saying.

I'm tired of this game.

I'll put on this furry head for you honey,

I'll be your bear and you'll be my bunny.

I wanna be your lover.

I don't wanna be your friend.

I am weird...I know this. *grin*

July 4th, 1976...

July 4, 2009

It was July 4th, 1976. "Silly Love Songs" by Wings was all over the radio. I lived in Pensacola, Florida. I was a cub scout. I was in the city parade. I was informed I would be the one to carry the American flag for our troop. I was told not to let the flag touch the ground, or it would be a sacrilege. I was proud of the honor. It was hot, in the 90's, very humid. It was Pensacola after all. We started walking...and walking...and walking. The music keeping our pace. After an hour, the weight of the flag was starting to get unbearable. I suddenly realized, I was not being honored to carry the flag, but punished. "Don't let the flag touch the ground...it will be a sacrilege." The phrase kept echoing through my mind. Sweat oozing out of every pore, and dizzy I mumbled, "This heat is killing me and the flag is gonna touch the ground. No. I'll pass out first." I winced...

Well I did it! I made it! No American sacrilege was made by our troop! George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Spencer Tracy, and John Wayne we're not disappointed in me. I imagined them all silently nodding in approval with wearing slight smiles. Yes!!!

I promptly drank as many cups of lemonade as my stomach could hold and promptly threw it up. I would not learn from this mishap for a few more years. I had to repeat it a few more times. I needed scientific verification by repeating said procedure to get true results! *laughing*

At the end of the parade were all going to be given our rewards for our candy sales we made during the Spring. I was to receive a leather wallet for my efforts. I was the lead seller. Our Den Mother passed out the rewards, except mine. Matter-of-factly she said, "Your wallet never came in. Sorry." I was speechless. What do you say to that? *sigh* That's how the cookie crumbles. A while later, drinking Kool-Aid with the rest of my troop, our Den Mother's son had a brand new leather wallet sticking out from his back pocket. Coincidence? I never said anything. Though I quit going to cub scouts after that day.

All Aboard! Beauty Queens and Vaseline...

July 1, 2009

I had no idea. Beauty Queens putting Vaseline on their teeth to keep those smiles bright and shiny through the whole night. Who knew? Apparently...everyone but me. When I think of beauty queens, I think of baton twirling. And when I think of baton twirling, I think of Lee Remick in "A Face in the Crowd". When I think of "A Face in the Crowd", I think of Andy Griffith, which makes me think of the Andy Griffith Show, which then makes me think of whistling, that reminds me of this obscure whistling 45 of a Danish whistler I have, which makes me think of Amsterdam and that brings to mind the "coffee shop" Dampkring, which looked like a hobbit house, so Froddo comes to mind, which makes me think of Greg Freidman (Ott Truckee) because he looks like the actor Elijah Wood, which then makes me think of Sin City the movie, which then makes me think of Shilah from the Sin City Social Club. I love you Shilah, you rock!

Ahhh...the train of thought and the tracks to where they lead. *smile*

Persona Obscura...

June 30, 2009

Oh the web we weave. Or rather the weaving the web makes. I'm constantly inundated with Viagra, Cialis, Acai, Getting my Bachelor's Degree, and Rolex watches in my inbox. My anti-spam catches most of this, thankfully. But it makes me wonder..."Is that what we want? A hard penis that lasts for hours, losing weight by Amazonian berries, a paper degree for a hope of a better job, and a really expensive watch that isn't really expensive? Is that our culture in an email-nut-shell?"

I sometimes wish I could not be found. To be left alone in obscurity. Sometimes. *laughing* I certainly don't want to be left alone if I write blogs, participate in Facebook, Twitter, (MySpace is Dead), and whatever other thing I can do to connect with people. But sometimes...mmmmm.

In this same internet can be found precious jewels of insanity or boxes of just plain Coo-Coo For Cocoa Puffs!

The wonderful crazies that I love and that make this world a better place. Captain Beefheart, Daniel Johnston, Brian Wilson, Wild Man Fischer and my new favorites Elton and Betty White come to mind. There are obvious many more and more who would argue about my short-top-of-my-head list. So be it. My point is that, if I really have one, is that "going it alone" in the dark edges of our minds is dangerous, and many have fallen of the the edge, but there can be a beauty and fire of a billion hearth fires, of a thousand holocausts that can shine on the rest for us and remind us how breath-taking our lives and this world is.

Long live the weirdos, crazies and delusionals. I'd much rather have them than the heartless, greedy, and selfish.