Category Archives: Music

Best Weekend Ever

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Get comfortable. A lot happened this weekend.

Friday & The Saturday Photo-shoot
On Friday, I ran around getting ready for my two big shoots. I had coffee with JCS and went to bed later than I would have liked, but I was ready to go. Saturday morning, I awoke at 6am, made coffee, showered and waited for everyone to show up. The clients and 3 out of the 6 models were on time. We decided to wait for the remaining models. One called and was hopelessly lost on the other side of town. From the 710 FWY, there are signs that say “Pasadena”, but you can’t actually get to Pasadena unless you know your way through the streets of Alhambra; which most people don’t. He’d meet us at the location later. Once there, we set up in a side alley about a block from Old Town Pasadena. I’d warned everyone that we might encounter conscientious objectors, but no one bothered us the entire shoot. Pasadena has very strict photography permit rules and we hadn’t followed any of them.

The entire shoot ran about 3 hours and couldn’t have gone smoother. The models I’d brought in were all wonderful, fun, and easy to work with. I love them all. As for the other two that didn’t show, nary a peep from either of them. We made due and made it work. The clients were amazing and so totally easy to get along with. They trusted my judgment, let me make creative decisions, paid me, and thought I was brilliant. My kind of clients. I really hope I get to work with them again.

I spent most of the shoot in the sun and even got a little tan. I can’t remember the last time I had this much color in my skin. We all parted ways and I collapsed on the bed for four hours hard.

GLOW
I’d heard about an exciting art experience in Santa Monica called GLOW. I told AJB about it and we’d decided we shouldn’t miss it. The idea was that large light installations were going to be set up around Santa Monica, on the beach, and on the pier. It would run from 7pm to dawn. Neat idea, right? We picked up Dave, Jason, and their friend Matt. When we got there, the entire city was jam-packed with tourists and people who don’t generally get out to art shows. I mean, packed! We checked out a few of the installations and to be honest, they weren’t all that great. I expected something that made me go “WOOOOOW“, but most everything made me go, “Yeah, I guess that’s cool“. The best part of the night was hanging out with the 3 bears. They’re all so hilarious and cuddly, I can’t stand it. As for Dave, I love hanging out with him because he’s a pretty amazing guy. Smart, sweet, adorable, the gay version of my boyfriend. Seriously. They even dress the same. LOL.

After several hours of gazing upon mediocre art, we were all starving. Except, we’d spend the next 45 minutes in the parking garage trying to get out. As Jason put it, “volume and ineptitude” were the cause. By the time we got out, we were all REALLY starving. It was after midnight, maybe even 1am. We ate at Mel’s Diner, stuffed our faces, and went home. Home by 2am. I still had to get ready for the shoot on Sunday. In bed by 3:30am. Memories of great conversation and humorous anecdotes filled my head.

Blue Light Art
Light Art
Glow Crowd
Glow Disaster

Sunday Shoot
Exhausted from yesterday, I woke up and downed a 5-Hour Energy Drink. They work like a charm, by the way. We started a little later and had only a fraction of Saturday’s items to shoot. T-Shirts again, only this time designed by an architecture student and much more artistic. I met him at the Southern California Institute for Architecture in the heart of the Arts District of Downtown. We couldn’t get into the school, so we drove around the streets of Downtown looking for a place. We found one about a block away. It was ghetto, but quiet. Sunday always is.

The client brought in his friends for models. I’d asked a great model I know to show up, but he didn’t. I wouldn’t find out what happened until later. The shoot went well. All the client’s model/friends were great and easy to work with. I’m also so much better at lighting than I ever have been. I love it. I love knowing what I’m doing and doing it well. We were done in a few hours, but still had to do some flat shots of some glow-in-the-dark shirts. We couldn’t find a dark enough place, nor an outlet to plug the black light into. So I left with the shirts and will do them at home. And I got paid. A great day by all accounts. I came home again and crashed.

The Download Festival
AJB’s delightful British cousin is married to a rock star from a band that AJB calls “A connoisseur’s band”. They’re not hugely popular in the states, but any band worth it’s salt knows who they are and has been influenced by them. What’s strange is that I know who they are and have loved their music since high school; so it’s weird that we have one of the band members in the family. Right? Very strange, but so unbelievably cool. We try to see him when he comes to town on tour. The band was here for The Download Festival, which may as well been called “The Down Low Festival”…no one knew about it and it hardly sold out. About 20 bands, most of which were small-time or unknown. A few name brands, but nothing of note.

Gang of Four and The Jesus and Mary Chain were headlining – which made me very happy. By the time they came on, the crowd had dwindled down and the amphitheater was half empty. Regardless, Gang of Four, with what seemed like an undying amount of energy, rocked the house and swept the remaining crowd off their feet. You could tell at first, the kids there didn’t know what to do with them. However, by the middle half of their set, the kids were romanced by the rock and jumping for joy. It was pretty amazing. Most concerts I go to, the people in attendance already know the band. Here we had a bunch of curious kids who, at first, didn’t know what to think, until finally, they flowed into full concert mode. Great. I’ve never quite seen a crowd won-over by a band.

AJB went backstage to meet his cousin-in-law-rockstar and I stayed behind to see The Jesus and Mary Chain. It was alright. Not quite as good as when I saw them at The Wiltern a few months back, but JAMC are never a bad idea, even if the sound was bad and they had to stop and re-start one of their songs. It was a short set. Afterward, AJB came back for me and took me backstage. You’d think that sort of thing is really exciting, but it’s just sort of normal. I mean, it’s cool as fuck, but I didn’t really see any huge stars or anything. Miscellaneous family members were there. We all hung out, talked and decided to go eat. We ended up at Bubba Gump’s at City Walk- which is a Forrest Gump themed restaurant that serves seafood and…you guessed it, shrimp. I had a salad. Cousin-in-law-rockstar was in good form, we all gabbed and had a great time. I still think it’s weird to hang out with someone who’s music I’ve listened to since I was a teen. Very surreal. Fucking fantastic, but surreal. We drove AG back to his hotel and dragged our tired asses home. Sleep. Sleep. Sleep.

Probably the busiest weekend ever. The most exciting, jam-packed, weekend. Two paid photo-shoots, a mediocre art show, a rock concert, and hanging out with rock-stars. Yeah. Good times. Sometimes I step outside my life and think, how did I get here?

I finally heard from the MIA models. If you guessed they’d overslept, you’d be right. One, however, told me he wasn’t aware that Pasadena was so far and didn’t have a ride. I mean, seriously. He’d known about the location for several days. And even though the location wasn’t finalized until Thursday, I told everyone it would most likely be Los Angeles or Pasadena. Anyway. Oh well. Everything went great. I’d decided to chide my Sunday model for being unreliable when I’d talked him up as being reliable, but it took a lot out of me, so I’ve waited to chide the other two until today. It’s hard being a hard ass. My first instincts are to say, “Oh, that’s alright, don’t worry about it“, but the truth is, not showing up to a shoot really puts a kink in the day’s planning and it’s just not cool to say you’re gonna be there and then not. None of the models got paid, but even so, these shoots are great for networking and gaining real world experience. If you’re a model, in the beginning, you have to do unpaid gigs. You get paid with your images and use them for your portfolio. It’s a trade and a pretty good one, if I do say so. I’ve done my fair share of free work for portfolio filler. It’s how things work. Anyway, enough of that.

I’m still pretty beat up from this weekend, but it was filled with so many wonderful moments. It feeds my soul. Friends, family, boyfriend, music, art, paid work. Ah. Life is good. As I drove home from the Sunday shoot, I thought about the weekend at hand and all of a sudden, a thought flashed in, “You’d better be grateful“. I am. I really am.

I’m gonna loaf for most of the day. Maybe watch Muriel’s Wedding on DVD. I have about a billion images to go through.

Harold and Maude

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I love Los Angeles for so many reasons. One of those reasons is: Every Summer, a group called Cinespia puts on movies in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Last year, my boyfriend and I saw Breakfast at Tiffany’s. This event is, needless to say, spectacular. Imagine, hundreds of movie fans sprawled out on the lawn, surrounded by the gravesites of Hollywood royalty. Blue light flickers on a mausoleum wall. Comfy blankets and picnic baskets. It brings one a sense of solidarity. Here you are amongst people who love something you love and enjoy something you love. As the movie plays, a hush forms over the crowd.

Tonight a friend and I are attending the screening of Harold and Maude. What can I say? Harold and Maude is a most beautiful film and unbelievably poignant.  I remember when I saw it for the first time. I was 15. A friend recommended it to me boasting about Harold’s converted jaguar into a hearse. Enough said. I rented it and was hooked. To this day, I still want that car.

I’m expecting a larger than normal crowd tonight. My friend and I are arriving early to get into the entrance line.

In happy celebration of tonight’s festivities, I’ve put together a compilation of the songs from the soundtrack; which was done entirely by Cat Stevens. There is no official soundtrack available, except on vinyl and in Japan. Good luck finding that.  The complilation is done as the songs appear in the film:

  1. “Don’t Be Shy”
  2. “On The Road To Find Out”
  3. “I Wish, I Wish”
  4. “Miles From Nowhere”
  5. “Tea For The Tillerman”
  6. “I Think I See The Light”
  7. “Where Do The Children Play?”
  8. “If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out”
  9. “Trouble”

 Download the .zip file.

*This is a temporary download location. If you stumble upon this post and the file is no longer available, email me cinka((at))darkculture((dot))net and I’ll be happy to send you a new link.

Where The Wild Music Grows

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By some random stroke of luck, I checked in on my subscribed blogs on MySpace Friday morning. It just so happened that a really great band from San Fransisco, The Holy Kiss, was playing a gig that night. I was excited and pumped myself up about going and taking some photos. During the day, I invited several co-workers to attend with me. Both said they might go. I got home, curled my hair, grabbed my camera and made my way to a place called Pehr’s Space in Historic Filipinotown; a place I’d never heard of in a section of town I’d never heard of.

The directions to Pehr’s Space were sketchy and a little vague. I wasn’t sure where I was going and when I got there, I was circling the streets of a pretty bad neighborhood. I finally found the place. A darkly lit storefront, obscured by a stairwell and a large trash bin, located in the very back of a junky old strip mall. The place was practically empty, but it was early yet. I paid my five dollars and went in. I sat down. I looked around. It was an art gallery, not a venue, which meant no bar. I was bummed. I called the friends I’d invited and tried in vain to convince them to show. They were both separately, but equally, tired. They weren’t coming. I’d make the best of the night anyway.

As the hours closed in towards eleven o’clock, the bands started playing. Four very different bands performed in a cramped corner of the art gallery. The work of local artists hung in the background. The sound was good and bad, more importantly it was loud. The audience was no more than 50 people at any given time and not all at once. People came and went, but the die hards stuck it out. The level of drunkenness increased as each band went on. At one point during the show, I was filled with a sense of “this is it“. All my life I’ve flipped through magazines and read music retrospectives about bands I love. I’d see black and white photos of artists performing in basements and dumpy venues. I always wondered what it was like…to be there. At those moments when the big bands were small and when only a handful of people knew who they were. Friday night, I had a small taste of that. The entire night was a pledge to DIY and punk rock. While the music itself wasn’t particularly punk rock, the attitude, the smells, the sounds, the cozy group of insiders…it’s what it’s all about. There was this magic about “being there”, being one of the few people who were smart enough to attend. I felt like one cool mother-fucker.

At one point, the room smelled of vomit and pot. It was that time of the night where everyone was just drunk enough to be friendly. I made friends, I took pictures, I discovered some great bands, and I had the best time ever. This really is what it’s all about. This is why I take pictures, this is why I love music, and it’s why I’m lucky enough to combine the two.

Last Kind Words

Grand Elegance

Anavan

The Holy Kiss

Anavan

Holy Kiss

Grand Elegance

The Best Mail Ever!

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After several hours waiting at a doctor’s office this morning, I was feeling a little glum at the news of something that may or may not be nothing. It’s nothing I want to talk about in a public forum. It’s a little gross and it’s a grim reminder that I am a delicate flower. No, no. It’s not that gross and it’s not life threatening. It’s nothing. It’s just a minor annoyance. Still, I’d rather not have to deal with yet another problem in my life.

So afterwards, feeling glum, I decided to check my mail. Yay! My new eBay shoes showed up. They’re awesome and so goddamn Deathrock I could die. After that, I made my way to the post office box. I hadn’t been in about two months and was sure it would be overflowing. It was. I still haven’t gone through everything, but most importantly what arrived was a packag chock full of goodies! All the way from Australia, a parcel filled with CD’s and a pack of Double Dip TimTam. Holy crap! Talk about the best fucking package I’ve ever received in my life!

Several months ago, a young lass named Larissa contacted me and asked me to start playing more Aussie Goth on the podcast. Grrr. All I had was the Dogs in Space soundtrack and a lot of Nick Cave. She told me about all these awesome bands I’d never heard of and offered to burn me a CD. You know how these things go. I didn’t expect she actually would and after several months without a word, I stopped thinking about it. I later came upon one of her emails and asked her about that CD again. She explained she was busy, but that she hadn’t forgotten about me.

What she finally sent was a virtual cornucopia of Australian Goth music. A handful of CD’s, the aforementioned TimTam and a lovely letter explaining what each CD contained. I’ve started the task of listening to my new treasure trove and I am filled with the one thing that’s kept me a part of the Gothic subculture all these years…the thrill of music.

Overwhelmed with life and body, I’ve mostly wanted to crawl under a rock lately. Then again, my passion for music is always being reaffirmed. It is the one constant in my life and no matter what, it’s always been there for me. It hardly ever lets me down and it’s always surprising me. I haven’t been excited about doing a podcast in a while. Thanks to this new collection, I can’t wait to start recording.

Larissa, if you read this before I send you a proper email…I can’t thank you enough. You absolutely made my day. This really is the best thing that’s happened to me in a while. Maybe I won’t send a proper email. I feel inclined to send some old fashioned snail mail. I just might.

A new podcast is coming. It’ll be a rainy weekend and my boyfriend is off once again to Hong Kong. I’ll have some time.

Angelyne “Beauty and the Pink”

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I don’t often consciencely seek out music. Most times, music finds me. One of my greatest joys is stumbling onto music, rare finds, a good band hidden in the pile. 98% of my music collection comes from used CD bins or second hand stores. I also don’t often approach bands for press kits. The Dark Culture stock-pile is filled with submissions by people who send music unprovoked (of which, I am forever thankful).

On that note, yesterday I came across a great discovery. My brother and I had just come from the Pasadena Farmers Market where I’d purchased white necartines and homemade humus. Knowing that I would only find disappointment, we decided to visit a local thrift store. I never find anything there, I’m not sure why I keep going back. Since 1992 and the outbreak of grunge, thrift store shopping just isn’t what it used to be. Still, you never know. I casually flipped through racks of old lady dresses, my brother and I made jokes about ugly frocks. I started to realize I wasn’t going to hit pay dirt, so we started walking to the door. Oh wait! The CD shelves! I came across a couple of CD’s I already owned and one I’d gone on a mad search to find several years prior…and there it was for $2.00! I ended up buying it on eBay for far more than it’s worth. I kept looking. I came across a spine that read “Angelyne – Beauty and the Pink”. Could it really be THE Angelyne? No way. I grabbed it. No front cover, just the back. Sure enough, it was THE Angelyne. I had to buy it.

If you live in Southern California, chances are you know THE Angelyne. She’s a Hollywood staple and placed 29th out of 135 candidates for California Governor in 2003. Around the early to mid 80′s, these larger than life billboards of a heavy breasted blonde with sunglasses and tight pants started popping up all over Hollywood. She’s the original “famous for doing nothing” celebrity. She’s famous for her billboards, which according to rumor, were funded Anna Nicole style, by a wealthy, but elderly, husband. She’s appeared in several low budget films, but not a lot is known about her. Despite her fame, she is somewhat elusive. At this point, I gage she is somewhere in her 50′s. Rare photos of how she looks today are akin to the horror of Joan Rivers in plastic surgery nightmares. She’s a favorite amongst drag queens, freaks, and is good friends with Nina Hagen. An old website that catalogues “Angelyne Sightings” is one of the scant locations with any information. She has a MySpace page, but I suspect it’s yet another celeb-fakery. I recently read an article that said “There is a sad, desperate quality to [her], like a clown still performing long after the circus has closed“. Sources say she is sweet as pie. Sweet or not, she is undoubtedly a true Hollywood freak, with all that implies, good and bad.

Finding her CD was pure luck. You can’t just buy them anywhere. They’re rare and are a must have for any music collector of the obscure. I’m a little disappointed that the CD insert didn’t come with it, but I imagine the previous owner still retains it held in a place of honor above his single-style bed which exists in his proverbial “parent’s basement”. I imagine for most men, Angelyne is the perfect woman. She’s silly and has GINORMOUS boobs. She’s been known to say “Barbie wishes she were me”…probably not Doctor Barbie or Astronaut Barbie, but most definitely Party Barbie. She is the enemy of feminists, and the friend of anyone who can see she is nothing more than a fixture…something I’m sure garners much self pride. She is the Paris Hilton blue-print, despite obvious differences, she has attained true stardom without true talent or artistic skill.

With that, I present for your listening enjoyment, Beauty and the Pink. You’ll be surprised to hear that it’s not that bad; in a Dale Bozzio meets Rose McDowall meets Kazu Makino (Blonde Redhead) meets Ali Shaw (Cranes) sort of way. As an added bonus, the beats per minute have been included next to the song title…just in case. Despite lyrics like “Pink is the color of an angel’s tongue”, this CD manages to fall into the “weird, but good, strangely cool” category.

Beauty and the Pink

DOWNLOAD BEAUTY AND THE PINK + back cover

The Shop on the Corner

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I’m old enough to remember when Music Plus, The Wherehouse, Virgin Megastore, and Tower Records took over the world. Smaller record shops began closing their doors like falling dominoes. Big record stores offered a better selection and you could usually find what you were looking for. Still, I missed the smaller joints with their poster covered walls and purple-haired clerks reading music magazines, ignoring you when you asked a question. The big boys offered better service and a bigger selection.

A few small-time record stores held their own and continued to fight the battle of convenience and abundance. Slowly, even the toughest fighters fell. Vinyl Fetish on Melrose, Aron’s Records, and countless others suddenly disappeared. Poobah’s in Pasadena was forced out of their 20 year location and found a new home. I’m not exact on how well their business is, but the place is never packed. Even though I try to support them, they never have what I’m looking for and I end up buying online.

Buying online has made giants tumble. Music Plus and The Wherehouse merged, but couldn’t cut it. They finally closed for good. Tower Records has recently filed for bankruptcy, which is only the beginning of the end. Sure, they might hold on for a while, white knuckles, clenching for dear life. The end is near. Buying online is quicker and music listeners are often more than willing to give up the (now) superfluous CD jacket for a $9.99 sale price. I do. I have tons of burnt CD’s from music I’ve purchased on iTunes. It’s just easier. The small fries can’t keep up. Holding on to integrity, feet planted in the soil of 20 years ago, they’ve become a novelty. 

I feel no real loss where Tower is concerned. I want to support the smaller businesses. I love spending hours in a dusty record shop, skimming though old records, finding a gem, and coming home satisfied…but if I need something right away, I shop online. Online music stores are now, more than ever, even carrying obscure, hard to find, stuff. Online trading, sharing, and finally MySpace, make life simple, the way, once upon a time, microwaves left the conventional oven in the dust. 

There will always be people who prefer conventional ovens to cancer causing mircowaves. Just as there will always be people who prefer dusty record shops to online music super-stores. Will it be enough? If the past several years are any indication, than no. No it won’t be enough. Soon they’ll all be gone. Soon the giants that took over the first time will all be gone, swallowed whole by the Monstros of online shopping. Those that survive, must adapt. Survival of the fittest. The small shops that remain must grow webbing between their toes and learn to swim; or face the fate of being eaten alive. This time for good.

PodCast Dark Culture 04.25.06

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Show Notes

My grandmother is in the hospital and en route to the next life. I’ve been sad and tired and constantly on the phone with family members. This week’s show was mostly done by Tuesday evening, but I just couldn’t finish it. I got a request for a song by Metric – the person requesting it wondered whether or not it wasn’t too mainstream for the show. I added it, but later took it out because…yeah, it was a little too mainstream. It’s a decent song, it just didn’t fit in with the rest of the set.

I didn’t have a chance to check on the post office box, but I managed to find some goodies through my various, super-secret sources. In particular: Basking Sharks, Shy Child, Malaria!, and Finish the Story. I think everything else comes from my own collection. I’d like to start transfering my vinyl into digital format, but I need to buy a plug or something for my stereo amp. I’ll head out to Radio Shack whenever I remember to. It’s one of those “back-burner” projects. I’ve got a lot of rare and interesting stuff on vinyl…which will eventually act as my backup when the internet well runs dry…if ever.

Bands looking for air play, reviews, and promotion, should send their press kits and/or CD’s to:

Dark Culture Magazine
P.O. Box 70112
Pasadena, CA 91107

or if you have music online, email: Cinka

  • Playlist online at http://www.darkculture.net/podcast
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    • Review: Carnival of Dreams ‘My Heart So White’

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    My review of the un-delightful Carnival of Dreams “My Heart So White” is now online at Virus Magazine. It took them a while to get it up…I was worried that it was a little too harsh for a fledgling magazine making it’s way in the world. Lo, there it is, unchanged and feeling dandy. I’m proud they’re not one of those magazines that wants everything peachy keen and ass-kissy. There’s some good zingers in this review. Check it out. Or don’t, whatever.