Last Friday at the glorious Hollywood Forever cemetery, home to the remains of Rudy Valentino, Alfalfa and Bugsy Siegel, a new memorial was set up in honor of one of our favorite kids with a bowl cut, Johnny Ramone. (Dee Dee is also buried there.) The place swarmed with close to a thousand people, listening to tributes from friends and family. Among the attendees, former son-in-law of Elvis and fan of the rock-n-roll, Nicholas Cage. Said ex wife was there too, but they were soooooo not together.
Hollywood rabblerouser and country punk Soda (without his Million Piece band) was hanging out at the lovely Hotel Cafe last week with his pal, friendly local resident and rock star since the age of 13, Tommy Stinson. Although folks at Hotel tried to get Tommy to play a tune for them, he nicely did a little thanks but no thanks. Tommy's last album, Village Gorilla Head, was recorded at Frank Black's studio here in Los Ang-E-lees (as Frank would say) just as the Pixies took off on their year long re-conquest of the globe.
Since we're having absolutely glorious weather (perhaps to make up for the beating the rain gods just gave us?) , there was alot of outdoor activity this weekend. Even yours truly - who has owned the same pair of Reeboks since 1984 (you know those "classic" models Mary J. Blige hawks on TV? I've got the real thing, baby! And they're white without a speck of dirt on 'em!) took a walk on the wild side. Who else was out there? Well, in Runyon Canyon (where every dog in Los Angeles has taken a piss) my best friend got to spy on Orlando Bloom and Kate Bosworth. He looked great, and in typical cute girl movie star fashion, she was really little with a big head.
Spotted at the over-sold out Arcade Fire shows this weekend? Spike Jonez and Beck. And a million industry types just standing there because they are expected to.
And since I have to mention my girl whenever I can, Kristin Hersh's band 50 Foot Wave is getting ready to put out their first full length CD this March. The icky thing is... well, their name. Technically, it refers to a sound wave. 50 Foot Wave has existed for about a year and a half, but now the name has new reverberations in the wake of the recent tsunami. But they're hangin' tough, keeping the name, and rocking on another day.
Ok, just a comment? The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" has an awful lot of similarities musically to "Born Slippy" by Underworld, don't you think? And it seems even more appropriate that the soundtrack which brought that song to the consciousness of a bunch of folks was for Trainspotting, and singer Brandon Flowers looks more than a little like Jonny Lee Miller as Sickboy (without the sexy bleach job of course).
So, have a look: Brandon Flowers:
Sickboy:
Well, whaddya think? And play those songs right next to each other and let me know if I have a point.
