Amanda Lear's "Alphabet"

I have a particular sensitivity to the letter "G."



Martiniano showed me this video tonight. It's fantastically campy. Amanda Lear, once romantically linked to David Bowie, Bryan Ferry, Brian Jones and Salvador Dali(!) was the disco queen of Europe in the 80s.  Watch the video and you can't help but smile.

Feeling fine but it must be the wine cuz' it's April 27th...

Frederic Edwin Church
Rainy Season in the Tropics (1866)
Oil on canvas
56 1/4 x 84 3/16 in. (142.9 x 213.8 cm)
M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco
While on a NW tour to support the last record in 2006, Tom and I looked at this painting for a good while. Rainy Season in the Tropics was symbolic of many a great things for us --- our love of wanderlust, discovery and treasure --- but most famously amongst our friends, the different usages of the painter's last name which Tom cleverly and absurdly came up with...

And on this same tour, we both discovered Destroyer. We listened Destroyer's Rubies everyday on the road. It changed my life. I think it did for Tom as well.

I can't listen to this album without thinking about that time now. I still can't believe what has just happened. You didn't know it Tom but you were my most loyal friend.

And miraculously this song popped up this evening --- Destroyer's The Music Lovers.

Farewell Sir Thomas.

ATP

The crowd during the Pastels at the MBV curated ATP 'Nightmare Before Xmas,' Dec 2009

I told myself that last year's Coachella was going to be the last music festival I would ever go to (but I had said that the year before as well...) Well, at last year's Coachella, I left early (again) because it just became too painful. As much as I love going to see bands play live, I like quality, not quantity. My spirit was slowing breaking after the 99th band and I was feeling a bit claustrophobic...

Lately, going to see a band is more about the intimate experience and less about being with the general public. Yes this doesn't sound right but all I care about is seeing what the band sounds like live, how well they play their instruments, and whether or not they are dripping with charisma. The best place for this is not in the front or amongst the folk, it's leaning against the back wall or the preferable corner.

But when my band was invited by MBV to play this past December's ATP at Butlins, how was I suppose to refuse this ultimate honor? What's one more show right? Especially as something as special as this... MBV did an excellent job curating the festival. Best music festival experience ever...

I've never been to ATP but it's the kind of festival made for someone like me: it was relatively clean and not muddy whatsoever, all three stages were within one minute of each other, the on-site accommodation was not too shabby, and most importantly, I only saw one drunkard being taken away from the venue the whole weekend... Absolutely civilized. ATP is really about the music, well the kind of music I like and grew up liking. It felt intimate enough and being amongst the folk, who were just as into it as I was, there was no other feeling like it. Kindred spirits.

Do you know how fulfilling it was to have gotten the chance to finally see Television Personalities and The Pastels at last, two of my all-time favorite bands?

TVP's Painted Word is pure genius.



Pastels' Comin' Through is pure pop.

El Perro del Mar

These ladies really did it for me this year... First there was Camera Obscura's My Maudlin Career, then Taken by Trees' East of Eden. Now it's El Perro del Mar's Love is Not Pop. 

I'm a sucker for sad songs sung by sweet voices... and Sarah from El Perro del Mar can make even the worst song sound heavenly. When I first heard her new album, "Gotta Get Smart" was it for me.




Then I found comfort in "A Better Love." These two songs absolutely encapsulate the last couple of months for me.

I think the last time I cried during a show was at Acoustic Mainlines.

Seeing El Perro del Mar play tonight nicely rounded off this year for me. Don't you love it when the music you love listening to at home comes alive right in front of your eyes... complete with the best musicians with the most beautiful guitars, backing up a beautiful singer with the best outfit on, singing like there's no tomorrow? Things have changed since I last saw her a few years ago. She's in a different place now. So am I. Our timing is great.

A civilized kind of tour

It's been three years since I quit touring. I was beat up at the end of the North American tour and when I finally got home, I canceled the European tour due to "exhaustion." I had it with playing live. Had it with sound check. Had it with looking at the band. Had it with eating shitty random food on the side of freeways (though I did love the truck stops). Had it with sitting at the merch table... Had it with waiting around 23 hours of each day for that one hour we would play. I was done. I was bored.

And then somehow this tour materialized out of nowhere. Last month, I decided to plan a little mini European solo tour for First Husband, Mr. Bickerson, erm Darren Rademaker! This is an "inspirational" tour, greatest hits mixed with new "soon to be recorded" hits! It will mainly be Darren and his electric (in his short shorts) but I think I'll be accompanying him on some Tyde tunes... only if it feels right. The London show will be a special one. We have lovely friends from Fujiya and Miyagi, The Loves and Comet Gain joining in that night. Very loosey-goosey... Part tour, part holiday, I think this might be the best way to go from now on... I'm genuinely excited about playing again... See you out there somewhere Owley fans? And this time, no merch whatsoever...

***

The Short Shorts Euro Tour 2009

30 Oct > Paris @ Panic Room + DJs Magickrew

31 Oct > Paris @ Ground Zero Records
31 Oct > Paris @ Tigre + Deejettes Magickrew

01 Nov > Paris @ La Maroquinerie

03 Nov > Stockholm @ Last Waltz, Bonden Bar

04 Nov > Göteborg @ Woody West, Pusterviksbare 

05 Nov > London @ The Lexington

Negative, Negative, Positive

My first post on first husband's blog!

His duet with Yasmine warranted this first post. J'approve! She has a lot of raw talent + charisma which I'll gladly help refine! New band as yet unnamed!

Step out of the lightness and into the dark... And I mean this in a good way...

Bonfires on the Heath

I can't wait to hear Bonfires on the Heath... Two years ago, I requested Al to play "Isn't Life Strange" from their last record which isn't normally on their setlist but he granted my wish. It was almost unbearable to hear live. 2007 was a tough year. But now looking back, it was one of my best years, simultaneously redefining and reassuring all those bits that were totally in chaos in my life. I called my folks tonite and they picked up.

Show + Tell

Someone told me yesterday that I act like an 8th grader when I'm with my girlfriends. Well, that's debatable but since it was my birthday week, I was thinking it was acceptable to act as troublesome and adorable more than ever. Afterall, I'm at a tender age now. I didn't have any plans this year; I was just too busy playing with my new toy* to bother. But as it turned out, it was rather awesome. I would rate this week a 9.75 out of 10. (Striving for perfection is motivating, not demoralizing).

There were so many amazing things that made it almost perfect: having the pleasure of working all week with a fellow NY LOS; having another fellow NY LOS surprise me with her elegant presence; gorging on the delicious cakes and cupcakes; the massive golden letter balloons spelling out my name; and dancing with other 8th graders.



This was my week.



There were the last few rehearsals with the band before the show with those Scots.



My beloved Wurly. One of its legs broke. It's been too settled at home these past couple of years and has lost its strength (but not its muscle tone). All fixed (for now).



C'est moi. Roland, the preferred sound for my instruments.



Pre-show Shambhala mediation led by Tsering Rangjung. The only follower: Mr. Bickerson.



His expression, "oy vey."

And THE GIFT. The best gift that could of happened right now.

His show was the same night as mine. I have come to accept that I will never get to see Destroyer live. But by some random chance, there was this most special encounter with this lyrical genius. Mr. Bickerson was there too! He said to him that he was partly responsible for our divorce. I continued with the fan attack by adding that we had listened to Destroyer's Rubies every day on that Last Tour. Then when we got home, we broke up. He was impressed. I spasmodically announced that I would come out of retirement only if his band and mine are to do an European only tour. He agreed. So there you have it. And now I'm listening to Strawberry Wine for the 131st time.



And the festivities ended with a trio birthday POTluck dinner party avec Hannah + Alex...



From the one who inspired this blog. Third year in a row. The best arrangement so far. I hope it never ends.


*All these pics are taken from my new Leica D-Lux 4 camera which my dear sister and lovely friends generously gave me. What a wonderful gift, what a perfect gift. I guess they really want my blog to improve...

More Pano fun

Former roommate (fellow, erm "current" bandmate / dear old mate), future textile queen, Mr. Bickerson + his lovely gf, the couch surfing Anarchist and the J Motors back from tour... it was an unexpected night of (Pano) fun.

The Four Cs

The kind of guy who could be my kind of guy wouldn't know about the Famous Four Cs. (I'm kinda ruining it for myself with this post but who cares, that's not my point right now.) Here's a quick primer... the Four Cs (which are color, clarity, cut, and carat weight) are basic factors when considering a diamond (as in a diamond ring, an engagement ring, duh!) But there is a lesser known fifth "C". Its cost which shouldn't even be verbally acknowledged (as to sound cheap and vile) is actually the most important factor these days. One has to be reasonable in this economy.

But I absolutely know that the kind of guy who remotely embodies any of these other Fours Cs is not my kind guy: creeps, cheaters, con men and clowns. Let's have a look shall we?

1. Creep: An obsessive with perverted tendencies who is always trying way too hard.
2. Cheater: Are you kidding me? Revolting. Weak. Total disregard. Just plain bad. Why does it (and I am including both genders here) even exist? (Though I have to admit that I was once highly addicted to that really awful cheesy reality show of the same name but it got old after 4 episodes.)
3. Con Man: A trickster, a one trick pony, a cult personality, one with a hidden agenda who speaks in self-help language and lacks any sense of real humor, who can't even laugh at himself and is utterly insecure yet proud (presumptuous much?)
4. Clown: A joker is the vilest and scariest brute ever to be placed on this filthy miserable world. (I believe that sitting on the lap of a clown when I was 9 at Raging Waters is the cause of this scorn.)

But my fifth "C" is something of a positive, something very dear to me and I welcome it with open arms as it's given me so much pleasure all these years. In some countries (though not of mine), this is a fun word, an easy word, a whimsical word. Perceived by some as a heavily tabooed word of all English words, it once was not obscene, not to Chaucer anyways. I'm reclaiming this word now, using it openly amongst friends. A long time ago, I once created a whole secret language with Mr. Bickerson based on this word but replacing the "c" with "b" (it's just a good letter) and thus rhyming everything with the word bunt. The possibilities were infinite. I mean I was endearingly referred to as "Bunty."

If this is anything as it usually tends to be nothing, it's the accommodating aid of alliteration.

Put a ring on it...

Trimming the Tree

What was supposed to be just a simple tree turned out lovelier than expected! Color Scribble & Shades came over for a 3.5-course dinner last night and started putting the nicknacks from my living room onto my tree! Finally, they've come to some use! It was all good last night; so many good compliments, erm... wow... "you're so domestic," "you're a good egg, definitely not a scrambled one," and my favorite, "you should be a housewife!" Yes I was once (albeit brief)! I've had some proper practice though I'm a bit rusty these days being single and all (always A+ still you know, that's the A in me)... And 3 bottles of wine later, I handsomely won Scrabble!


The Muslim prayer clock TED got for me last year from Morocco.


Clockwise (from the bottom left): the Japanese bird Jenny got for me for my bday this past year, the man in a white dishdasha with his national symbol, the falcon which I got when I was in Dubai a few years ago (unfortunately you can barely see this), the Catalina Island horse YP gave me when we went there last year, the fat red-suited man bearing gifts the first Ex gave me when he returned from Columbia and of course, the beloved golden Lucky Cat from Little Saigon. Isn't this a handsome tree?


And how appropriate is this? The wooden Buddha Witty got for me from Thailand and my lucky egg from Romania!

The Silent Ceremony

I had the privilege of attending Jonas + Katherine's wedding. It was a silent ceremony. The sweet smell of sage lingered throughout that windy night in the hills of Echo Park and captured everyone's hearts. Such tenderness, such fire, I was overcome with emotion, how could I deny something so pure even in my current state... as the Gay Divorcée?


A Silent Ceremony but not a Quaker Ceremony. C'mon now, we are in California, not Pennsylvania.


Michael made the gorgeous flower arrangements of course. He never fails to amaze me.


It was pleasant catching up with former colleagues of mine. It's been an entire month now!


Kids just don't get it these days (as lovely as they are). Alex & Andrew, a bit bewildered with the setup but they got it together just in time...


Jane, my favorite actress. Me, as her adoring fan bordering on the obsessive (though I'm really her "unofficial" manager). She's gonna be massive I tell you. Just massive. A natural talent, a superstar!


The gay toast!

1 yr anniversary

In the last year, I've been duplicitous when djing; I've been using my iTunes periodically instead of straight up using the turntables cuz' I couldn't be bothered to find certain records from my collection. You see, last year when I moved, during the Break Up, what once was a near-perfect complete collection of records, in alphabetical order, from two music zealots, became a scene similar to Ghostbusters, records flying all over the place; it was a ghastly muddle. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit here, it was almost civilized, almost... we tried to keep collections intact and they went to who loved it more but for a lot of titles, it was a tragic split.)

My records have become a burden. I don't have time to put them in alphabetical order again; I just can't. They've been just sitting there on the shelves, who knows in what kind of order; the thought of trying to find a record has become too imposing, cumbersome. I have a small stack which I hold dear to and that's about it. They've become boring now.

Sometimes, I just want to get rid of all my records like I did with my CDs last year. I'm slowly trying to simplify my life. I've been really into Dave Bruno's 100 thing challenge. I don't think I can reduce my life to a mere "100 thing" and I don't want to. I fancy the notion of feeling light and free and the ability to just move anywhere in the world at a moment's notice (well, you know in my own time really). This is what I'm trying to achieve these days... But I think the idea is not to be owned by material possessions; I want to own things I truly need and truly hold dear to... which when it comes down to, aren't many.

Alex, a burgeoning music pupil, offered to sort my records for me a couple of weeks ago. I didn't take him seriously at first. I mean, who would want to do that kind of drudgery? Well, the offer was offered again and again and so yesterday, he arrived right on time and meticulously sorted my records for me. It was enlightening to see how many "B" and "S" records I have. I guess I could go into the deep-rooted reasons why there are so many of these BS records but I'll save that for another time when I'm dry on words... But back to the amount of records... Daunting was the word! Alex kept his cool which made me keep my cool and I joined in on the "fun" and to my surprise, I found some records unopened, not realizing I had them in the first place. Record after record was played, and now I have a new Dublab set ready to go and they're all records! Yes!


Dear Alex had a lovely efficient system and in no time, we were finished and watched the Olympics wondering why gymnastics were created in the first place and admiring all the dolphin-like swimmers in the Water Cube.


My instructions: classical has its own section, so do comps and soundtracks and please sort by Last Name, from left to right, no need to sort by album title within artist name :)


And my cactus plant (the same one that bloomed its magnificent fuschia flowers back in May) bloomed again last night. This time it was pure white. Pretty magical. It's dead now though. Oh well.... nothing lasts forever as the Bunnymen says but the love for my records which I'm just rediscovering again. Merci beaucoup Alex.

The best things in life are free...

Teenage Fanclub's "Free Again.mp3"
Felt's "Free.mp3"
D. Wilson's "Sound of Free.mp3"

A man told me to beware of 33...

He said, "It was not an easy time for me."

And he's right. It's been a pretty tough (more like relentless) year but six months later, I'm getting through it. Lost the plot a few times but the one thing that did save me have been the awe-inspiring acoustic-gospel-strings versions of Spiritualized songs. And last night I got to see J Spaceman in his full Acoustic Mainlines glory. And it was glorious. When he sang "Stop Your Crying" and "Ladies and Gentleman...," I believed him.

The eyes are finally drying now and I am feeling happy to be alive. Feels like the New Year has started early for me.

At the Vista last night... definitely in the Top 10 of my all-time bestest shows.

Numbing shots

I got some cosmetic dental work done today. My second cousin who acts as my dentist recommended I get this done cuz' a happy smile is a happy face (and life) right? Though not a fan of needles, I asked her to make sure the shots were in long enough so that I wouldn't feel any pain whatsoever during the procedure. She would even numb my tongue she offered. Yes please, numb me...

The anaesthesia was supposed to wear off in a couple of hours. So I thought it was safe enough to go have a quick bite with my parents since I was already in Little Saigon. We went to get some Northern Vietnamese food but I quickly realized that I couldn't eat what I had been wanting all day. What I wanted was too solid and still being a dribbling idiot, there was no way I could safely swallow something like that. Seriously, I could scarcely talk (I can barely move my mouth right now as I'm composing this post many hours later; that's why my blog is my only friend tonight).

During dinner, my mom kept asking if I had gotten a root canal and to my irritation, I snapped saying that "we're not in Vietnam anymore, you get shots for little things here, it's no big deal. And do you really thing I would get a root canal after you spent so much money on braces, etc. when I was a child? Geez, I wouldn't dare waste such a thing." After dinner, she asked again if I had gotten a root canal. I give up...

So I ended getting chicken pho with the works... Not knowing if I was chewing properly or not, I mostly stuck to the broth and the youtiao. I love dipping it in the broth and then eating it half soggy. One of the best feelings...

The works for me would include small hen eggs (more like premature yolk, and unfertilized), beef balls, bull pudendum (please, no lame dick jokes here), liver and gizzards, and oh yeah,. chicken skin. It all sounds delicious right? It is...

And on a random note, I just read this interesting article in the NY Times. Click here to read it. The last word has a nice tone to it...