Social Diseases

"I have Social Disease. I have to go out every night. If I stay home one night I start spreading rumors to my dogs." - Andy Warhol.

Well, my cats are getting sick of me, so I'm heading out. This evening, the entertainment would be some good ole honky tonk with Mr. Mike Stinson. You may not know him, but you might know some of his songs, as Dwight Yoakam has had some success with them lately. Sometimes famous people show up at his gigs, so maybe I can dork out and do a little celebrity spotting. And damnit, I didn't wash my hair!

It seems I have some addendums to some of my previous posts.

There has been further development in the Elliott Smith saga, sort of. The mysterious girlfriend, who pulled out the knife, reappeared - to MTV. She had some things to say on behalf of the family, only the family didn't ask her to say anything. Of course, Elliott's legend will continue to grow, as will his musical influence, hopefully.

A couple cool radio stations which are truly independent and filled with character: KEXP, Seattle. Formerly KCMU, the University of Washington's station, till they linked up with the Experience Music Project and continue to provide creative and hip programming to their community. And my old KALX pal Poptart DJs there on Friday nights. Hi Poptart! She rules; check her out.

And if you like the country music, AND western, and more sorta rootsy kinda stuff, I cannot reccomend highly enough a little station located in Freedom, California called The Pig. It's 2,850 watts of down home goodness and independent - yet commercial - programming that allows the DJs to more or less choose the music themselves, KPIG is a refreshing and always interesting change of pace. And hey, they are usually ranked #1 in their market of 25-54 year olds. Where is Freedom? Well, it's out by Santa Cruz and San Jose, so hitting #1 with that small of a signal says alot.

And how in the HELL could I have forgotten one of the most wonderful stations ever, especially in the wee morning hours? KPOO in San Francisco, the only African American owned and operated non-commercial radio station west of the Mississippi, mixing up the soul and blues and hip hop and reggae and loads of other cool things. A total gem. We honkys can learn from them.

Speakin' of rootsy stuff... I have to thank my pal Kerry for this one. There's this guy here in LA who likes to tell us all what to with our bad selves, and sometimes he gets a hold of some interesting shit. Check out the entry for January 5th, cuz it's hilarious. It's Jim Derogatis vs. Ryan Adams . A critic for the Chicago Sun Times writes about how Ryan Adams is a diva, and a actual voicemail message Mr. Adams left for Jim telling him where to stick it. Why do I never tire of this?

I was also told, following my bachelor party rant (see the entry from January 11th for that), that I was supposed to have actually been invited to one of those early parties that passed me by! I was living in the Bay Area at the time, and I'm going to guess there was just a slipup, because I learned there were indeed CHICKS at this party, and they weren't paid to be there and be naked! Ah, I feel much better.

And last but not least, let's all have a little peace and love this long weekend. It's been a lovely, consistent 72 degrees here in So Cal. I plan to sleep, as well as babble on the blog...