Ash Cobra.

The photo says it all. Last night, we brought Ash back his roots and got him to use some old school gear to lay down some beats. Ash arrived with his working sandals on and delivered. We put him on new song DON'T DREAM JUST SCHEDULE as well as the album opener THE MORNING AFTER THE LIFE BEFORE and he came through like Dusty Rhodes at Starrcade 1986. I always love working with Ash. He's a mindreader. I tell him what I think and he gets it immediately. These songs both took a huge step forward thanks to this ass cobra!

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HF06

Here's the first "official" HF picture of 2006. Sorta. Not really. Plus, Ash, Charles and Robin are missing, but hey. It's a start. More soon.

As Long As Lurch is Happy

I'm slow recovering from the weekend and for that I apologize. Friday night was kid's night as we babysat the The Kidd's godson, Thomas, while his mother worked on a photoshoot. Whenever there's a cool kid at MOGworld, the pac comes out. The Godfather himself made a cameo, and then we proceed to teach the small boy how to prank call Dan Hamill claiming to be "Dan Hamill calling from the past" which got a huge pop and was a great act that never got stale. This actually brought Dan Hamill to our house to see the boy also (though I think his real intention was to go to Burger Joint). Irene made mac and cheese and then when Danny left, Lurch showed and the four of us saw CARS together. It's not the best PIxar movie, but even a mediocre Pixar movie is better than most great animated movies, plus you had Owen Wilson and Paul Newman, I mean come on. Good stuff.

Saturday saw me finally get back to the studio to work on music. Thank God. DON'T DREAM JUST SCHEDULE begins to take shape. I even got some bass in there which Brandt futzed around with and made something weird and sweet out of. We're one song away from being ready for overdubs and vocals. Exciting. This was a productive day. We were so productive that we didn't even go record shopping.

That night saw Irene, Lynell and I have dinner at the new mac and cheese place S'Mac (which is awesome) before heading to the alcoholic playground (aka wack ass lower east side) to toast Lurch for his birthday. We had a good crew, lots of drinks, lots of citizens to make fun of, and and a happy lurch, and that my friends is all that matters. This was one of the best times I have had in ages, despite the citizens. Afterwards, in the very wee hours, myself and the girls took the party to an already closing Heathers. Supposedly i was not the most well behaved on the way there and the ladies were in fear. However, at Heathers, where we had a nightcap, I was fine. I then went on a 4;30am hot dog binge in which I ate a hot dog and then a block later supposedly forgot I just had one and wanted another. You know, todd.

There are pictures of all this, and Ill add them when I get them. Busy week ahead, but I'll keep your ass in the loop.

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LETS FIGHT. PART 2

Lurch and I are fighting.

I claim X2 is better than SPIDERMAN 2

He claims SPIDERMAN 2 is better than X2.

What do you, the masses, have to say?

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Finally, A Comic Book Movie that Doesn't Start At the Beginning...

So, thanks to the ever awesome Byalick, Irene and I were lucky enough to see SUPERMAN RETURNS last night. While waiting to get in, we ran into Evan, who had seen the earlier press screening. The movie made him cry, twice no less, which already made me somewhat suspicious. But anyhow. Once we got our seats through the larger than usual clusterfuck, we sat down, popcorn and Junior Mints in hand, and checked out probably one of the most anticipated movies of the year (for me at least).

Now, I knew this was going to directly reference the first two Christopher Reeves movies, but I didn't realize how much it would! This movie really is the third Superman movie as it references the first two films quite a bit. Even the credit sequence is an updated version of the earlier films. Anyhow, you don't have to be well-versed in the Superman mythology to enjoy this film. Let me also add that I think Bryan Singer is a genius and while I wish he had done X3 (and he might have had Fox waited for him to do this, but what do they care, theyre laughing all the way to the bank thanks to Ratner's half ass movie), I'm really glad he directed this film because I don't think anyone could have done a better job.

I'm not going to give much away, but it's a REALLY good film. I loved it less for the story but because it hit all the right beats, emotional moments and stayed more than respectful to the comics and mythology that came before. To me, it's less a movie than it is a love letter to an iconic character and his world. And while the movie isn't perfect by any means, it works well and is a lot of fun. Brandon Routh who plays Superman is awesome and carries the whole thing perfectly. After watching this, I can see why the ladies would want to mouth the Routh. Serial. He plays Superman and Clark Kent perfectly. Spacey of course is awesome and Kate Bosworth is good as well, not great, but I was expecting Katie Holmes BATMAN BEGINS level of wackness and she is way above that here. Also the little kid who plays her son is directed to be a real kid as opposed to some whiny little snot kid like so many other movies do and that helps tremendously, especially in the most dramatic situations this kid finds himself in.

Irene would kill me if I didn't mention her idol, Parker Posey, who plays Lex Luthor's moll, and does really well here. Normally, I would find this kind of character annoying as fuck, but she's funny, handled it well and kudos to the writers and director for actually giving her a REASON for being in the movie. Which is key here. Also, Cyclops is in it, once again being the guy who has the girl, but doesn't, and he kinda doesn't suck here either cause like Parker's character, he has a reason for being here and is not played to type (he's in fact quite heroic as opposed to being the dick boyfriend of Lois Lane).

Oh and stop worrying, the costume is fine. It works well in the design and lighting of the film. It makes perfect sense and totally fits and tone and the actor (who is in great shape for the role and came across more heroic than the photos would suggest)

And Singer directs this all like the superstar he is. Again, this is more about re-establishing this world and these characters than it is telling something new. But the FX, especially the fyling, are great and it's a lot of fun. In the same way I feel about the next Bat-Movie, and as Singer proved with X2, future Superman installments will be superior films because we've been taken through the process of bringing Superman and his friends back. This echo's something my nephew said recently when he wondered why every comic movie has to start "at the beginning" (meaning the origin) and told me "why do we have to see Peter Parker become Spider-Man? Why can't the movie just start with him as Spider-Man?" So, I think he's gonna like SUPERMAN RETURNS a lot!

Anyhow, the movie has plenty of flaws, the biggest being the lack of scenes between Superman and Lex. You wait basically the whole movie to get them onscreen together and while the confrontation is good, it's hard to believe that Superman (who has full knowledge that Luthor is out there) would not confront him earlier. It's a big lost opportunity. Superman is smarter than that. But these are minor complaints as the movie as a whole is a great time. The movie is fun, there's a lot of laughs, a lot of fun, and the movie has good action and isn't some somber or new dark approach to the character. These are very wise decisions! Oh, and while the movie didn't make me cry like the little bitch Evan obviously is, there were a few moments where choking up and tearing up a bit were certainly acceptable (not that this happened to me).

In the pantheon of recent great Super-Hero movies, i would list this under what I consider to be perfect movies: X2 and BATMAN BEGINS, but put it on the level of SPIDER-MAN 2 and certainly above the first Spidey, which I think is half good movie. But Superman is a fucking TASK and these guys have delivered big time. As long as Singer remains involved, I think we're going to see a lot of great Superman adventures in the future!

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LETS FIGHT.

Your Hero.

I Eat Brains.

Greetings from New York. I think I'm adjusted to the time difference, but it's weird being on a plane leaving at 11:3am on Saturday in Tokyo and landing noon on Saturday in New York. Luckily, I was able to get a direct flight back again on Japan Airlines, which as mentioned previously, is the hot shit (even though my Japanese colleagues tell me it's sub-par, but god knows how they roll, cause these guys roll first class plus).



I have little to report from Tokyo, simply because it was all work and no play. However, again the food was insane, and I must report to you Iron Chef fans that I was fortunate to be taken to the legendary Morimoto's, and it was quite possibly one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Part of this meal included me eating crab brains and it was simply delicious. I also had the most insane Shabu Shabu meal. Our hosts took very good care of us. There was lots of drinking, occasional singing, and believe it or not, mutual bonding over our love of 24 (though they haven't seen season 5 yet and it was very difficult for me to refrain from telling them what was going to happen).



Spending Friday night just walking through Shibuya, and then just staring at the city from the 40th floor bar in the hotel made realize how much I love it there. Tokyo is now officially on my "places I can live" list. Also on the list is Paris, London, and San Francisco.

I came back hope to find a food poisioned girlfriend and lots of wrestling DVD's and by god, thats how I spent Saturday. Just out of it, catching up on my great sport. I haven't watched that much wrestling since the day's of Mikie's basement. With Irene's stomach out of whack and my body clock askew, that meant a 1am trip to Mcdonalds. It must be a sign of either being a grown up or being very tired when I miss NIN/Bauhaus and the Pig gig all in the same night and not be upset about it.

Today was the lazy day. some record shopping, so clothes shopping and then some Father's Day celebrating. Then we caught up with the lads to check out NACHO LIBRE, which came highly reccommended by two reliable sources: Mr. Kruger and Young Nephew, who both loved it. And I did too. It's more of a kid's movie than I thought and that's not a bad thing. Jack Black is hilarious and of course it involves wrestling, so it won me over. There are some really funny bits here and it's pretty funny for a PG movie, something that's rare these days.

Honestly, all this rest is necessary and nice, but goddammit i want to work on some music....it's in the blood. And remember always....



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Tokyo. 5am.

Greetings from Tokyo. I have just watched the sunrise from my hotel room. The Jet Lag's not so bad, mostly cause the trip was very comfortable and without any delay. I gotta tell you, Japan Arlines is the business. I'm serial. The seats are comfortable, the service is great and they keep it all top notch. The food was also good. One of the best international flights I have ever been on. I usually never sleep on flights, but I slept for 4 hours of this 10 and a half hour flight and that's gotta be some kinda record. the awake time was spent working on tunes, reading, and watching some flicks. I saw MATCH POINT finally, which I liked but didn't accept at all. Why? Simply because any smart man would not cheat on something as hot as Emily Mortimer, especially with current hollywood Scarlett (Lost In Translation Scarlett is different). It's not realistic. Anyhow, then I watched MEMORIES OF TOMORROW, which is a new Japanese film starring Ken Watanabe as a man dealing with Alzheimers. It was an ok movie but he is such a fucking powerhouse onscreen that you get caught up in it. He is the awesome.

Anyhow, i was able to enjoy the long drive to Tokyo from the airport this time (last time I passed out immediately). I could go on about how awesome it is, but just driving into the city listening to HF demos is something just out of this world. It's a lot cooler here than last time, which is nice, cause last time I was a sweaty mess the whole time. You are probably reading this on Tuesday, but it's Wed here. After checking in at the hotel and watching some World Cup, we went out to grab some noodles at some hole in the wall. I could live on beer, Gyoza and noodles from this tiny cheap place for the rest of my life. Just walking out in the city is a buzz. Again, everything is insanely expensive, but totally worth it. Its all first class.

And then bed at 10pm. Slept till 3, clowned around for a bit, then slept till 5. Not bad. Same Hotel as last year by the way, which means the teamaker in full effect.

More soon.

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In the Mood For Lurch

Things get busier and busier as I write to you from what will be a very brief day and a half stopover in LA before I head over to Tokyo again. I’m too tired to be excited, but the idea of the flight to Tokyo only being 9 hours from here is more appealing than the 12-14 hours it would be from NY. Because it is the weekend, I am under no pressure to be at meetings or rush to anything, so I am keeping a casual pace, which means a late flight (which gave me time to have a quick lunch with Irene). Me being me, I found myself at JFK ahead of schedule and thus with plenty of time to work on music, of which I have lots of new stuff to work with courtesy of Brandt. Also, wireless service at the airports now rocks it.

My flight itself was uneventful. I finished the unauthorized History of ECW book HARDCORE HISTORY, which will serve me well while watching the PPV tonight and I hope on one of my next flights this week to finish the authorized History of ECW book and compare notes. In between reading, I finally got down to watching 2046 on DVD, which is the pseudo-sequel to IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE. It was overblown and could have been great if like 45 minutes where cut from it. Instead, its more like IN THE MOOD FOR LURCH, which is sort of a backhanded compliment to the man in question and confusing to anyone who doesn’t know him. For this I apologize.

I decided to try something new and fly into Burbank as opposed to Long Beach or LAX. Anything called the Bob Hope Airport is fine by me and it’s tiny and very convenient. Even movie stars like Scott Speedman fly there on the same flights as myself. Immediately upon landing I found myself in Hollywood douche mode. I’m riding in a white jeep driving through Burbank, listening to Phoenix (whom I never listen to except when I know I am going to Japan which might have something to do with LOST IN TRANSLATION), and my first stop is of course In and Out Burger on Sunset. This might have been my first trip to In and Out in a year and man was it worth it. It just put me in a good mood. Feeling fine, I stopped at my favourite magazine store, Centerfold, and scored not only the new NME (The Queen is Dead 20th Anniversary special), but some local music mag with Dulli on the cover. LA is kind to me this week.

Then I found myself on my BAE’s (Business Affairs Exec) couch watching upcoming TV pilots which is now a yearly tradition here. Oh, BAE is the former Agent/Lawyer/Advisor, as she is really not an agent, has her own lawyer, but still advises when needed. Now she is BAE. OK.

Today should be a promising day full of surprises and fine food and hopefully some sweet ass wrestling. More soon.

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Two Goths Out In the Moonlight (Except Good)

When Brandt first pointed out to me that current tourmates Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy were going to do some radio shows performing together, I was very interested in hearing what would come out of it. These first of these shows went live yesterday and honestly, it was fucking brilliant. Peter Murphy always works well with others and Trent needs to do come collaborative things of this nature cause usually it ends up being more interesting than his own material. At the first show, they performed awesome stripped down versions of Trent's HEAD LIKE A HOLE and HURT as well as the Bauhaus classic SANITY ASSASSIN. It's just the two of them, a laptop, and some keyboards and it works like a charm. Can't wait to hear more from these two.

My future postings will be sporadic for the next week to ten days. LA beckons for a day tomorrow and then it's off to Tokyo again. Brandt is arming me with new ideas, song parts, etc to mess with in Live as all that time on the plane is prime music work time. You have any loops? Find me ;-)

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Pictures of Children

My nephew has a dog

The Rest of the Week...

My recollection of Friday was a haze. I truly have no idea what I did that day. If anyone can remind me, that would be appreciated, and I can be reached via the usual methods. Oh wait, I went record shopping with Brandt. I recall that.

I do know I spent a fun day Saturday working on the tunes with Brandt. We are chipping and chisiling away and finally beginning to make a small but necessary dent in CREATION PHASE. We just sat with guitars and bass and some beats and began the re-writing process. It's going to be a very different yet more impressive song than what it started out as. I'm excited. We also did more work on DONT DREAM JUST SCHEDULE, which I really want Ash and Charles to take a crack at as well. It's at that point. Anyhow, it was awesome playing the original T-bird again. Love it.

In the middle of all this, B took me here: http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/41828729/ and I demand you go NOW for an awesome burger.

Then I ran back to the city for even more record shopping and then ran back to Brooklyn for The Ash BBQ. I was late, I apologize, but the tunes needed me. He knows this. It was a nice relaxed evening of lawnchairs, beers, pesto and some familiar faces, Matt and Jax being the highlight (though I was sad I missed Robin and Damon). I had a very good time, it was just the kind of night I needed after the recent chaos. And even though things were winding down by the time my late ass got there, Ash let me make a few music selections and DJ for a bit. From what I remember, I "spun" (read that as "chose off my Ipod") some Spiritualized, Ian Brown, Tubeway Army, Tears For Fears, Leandro Fresco, a few others, and of course some new Hypefactor (prompting the customary recent music discussion). All in all it was a fun evening.

Post BBQ, G and I kept it old school and went to Ray's for some slices, which was a good way to cap off the night. Then I found myself back at home listening to Kasabian's Rock In Rio gig, which had just happened and was posted online. Lotta new tracks, lotta awesome. The album is out 9/4. Can't wait.

Then Irene came home in the wee hours of the morning and we stole as much sleep as we could (3 hrs and less) to prepare for the arrival of the Baby Cute Madness, which meant we had Kruger and Link babies all in the same place at the same time. Unprecedented. And HIlarious. These kids are awesome. So smart, cute, and well behaved (I'll get the pix up soon). We had fun. Parents impress me with their ability to handle all of this stuff. it was a fun few days of museums, carousels, playgrounds and other kid friendly things. We spent a lot of time in Central Park and luckily the weather held out. We also had an epic dinner with my folks. The final night of the Kruger stay saw Irene and I on babysitting duty while they had a date night in midtown (I made them a reservation at Osteria Al Doge and they were quite pleased with that, but i think they could have gone to McDonalds and been happy to have a night to themselves). The kids were well behaved, we ate and watched Dora. Fun. Then Irene and I slept. And havent left the apartment since. But I'm going to have to again as there are vocal lessons to attend, screenings to see, blogs to write, and planes to catch as your hero is off to Tokyo again next Monday for a few days. Score.

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Twilight as Played By a Bunch of Drunk Douches

I'm sorry for the delay in writing. I had what I thought was a cool idea in which I would post an IM chat between G and I, and then later G, Lurch and I where we reviewed the evening of June 1st, which was the event known as the Twilight Singers at Irving Plaza. Sadly, I felt these IM chats didn't measure of the to the quality of You-Mer found on this blog, so I scrapped it. Also, it contained a lot of incriminating shit that could get my friends in trouble (though the talk about 80's era Ellen Barkin was kinda priceless). I blame the lack of success on hangovers and fatigue, but I will give you some of the details.

Drinks started early. The weather was shit so we were forced to stay indoors. MOGpac AND PAUL and Kevin drank at Whiskey Ward because "The Last Days Of Disco" (as I called the Lurch, G, Kidd weeknight social life) have some thing for a bartender there (a girl). Anyway, if they have beer and peanuts I'm happy and happy I was drinking at a rapid rate.

it was our intention to see Afterhours open up for Dulli, but a certain someone who is MOGpac (Not Paul), wanted Pizza. I won't say who that person is...



Anyway, of course he picks that shit Pizza place on the corner of St. Marks and Second. You know, the kind of Pizza place you intentionally avoid cause you know after living in the city for close to 15 years you know is just shit. But he lives in queens and he's had some drinks so there we were. Crap Pizza. But there was three bitches in there, obviously tourists who did not take kindly to us (and seemed defeated by the fact that they were at Crap Piza and not nearly having as much fun as us. They were probably Jersey or students). Of course we thrive in that situation, sarcasm is hurled, and eventually win the heart of the Pizza Man (who used to ply his trade in the Gold Street area). Also, there was a solitary man who laughed at all the right things (meaning anything I said) and I declared him "the Judge" Meanwhile the counter girl took a liking to non MOG-Paul, despite her knowing he was not MOGpac. He could have taken home the prize, but he is no Sweet Valley High bitch as his Dulli Virginity needed to be taken.

And boy was it taken. While this was not the level of stupidity of the 2003 Warsaw gig, I am sure there are a few people who still do not like the Mogpac AND PAUL at Dulli's gigs. Joined by Irene, and for a second Brandt and Al (I think), we popped at the start of every song, no matter what it was, and sang at the top of our lungs like true fans. He played the Whigs' 66 and that was more than enough for me. The new songs were great live, the man was on and the band was fierce. I wish I could remember more.

I went to the bathroom at the end of the main set before the encore. As I went in, the kidd was coming out. We exchanged 'see you upstairs pal" and a hug and well, we never saw him again. Seriously.

Dulli came back and played an encore that included another Whigs song and then that was it. Awesome set, right? Not for Dan Hamill! An hour and 20 minute set is UNACCEPTABLE and my friend of 27 years lost his fucking shit and went insane screaming because the set was under 2 hours. We literally had to drag him out of Irving. He then proceeded to Ric Flair chop Paul in the sickest way known to man. When I tried to stop him, he then chopped me. the God of War returned for that one moment. I have not seen this level of violence from this man outside of a backyard in my life.

After sedating him, we finally got the Kidd on the phone, who proceeded to tell me "I'm in Astoria" and was in bed. Undaunted but after much arguing we ended up somewhere in the Alcholoic Playground for a short drink. I think it was called Annex. Paul talked to a girl that he liked and Lurch held hands with a girl who had STD's. Luckily, Paul clued him in on that (not sure how he knows) and earned Irene's respect at the same time.

Then we passed out. I think. I literally remember nothing from Friday. This is the short version of the events. Possibly not all accurate and I'm sure I am missing some. OH! Mighty Fine, that fucking cocksucker, came on for a few numbers. I hate him so much, but I love seeing him with Dulli because I need something to yell at. I also failed to mention that Dulli is LARGE. that is all.

FYI, this man, as told to me by the Kidd, is NOT MOGpac: