Flaired

Phew, I know. The promise to update more regularly has already been broken. Sorry. Screw you.

Engaged life. Not very different than the last few years in some ways, but certainly a more positive and happy place to be. The reactions were positive all around. The nephew response: "are you pulling my leg?". Around the house, I watch wrestling, she dances around the apt seeing how the sunlight hits the ring from every angle. It's easy. Plans are discussed and intentions are to make this as stress free as possible. So far so good. The families are great and helpful so far and because it's supposedly been a long time coming, everyones having fun so far. The plan is simple so far, get married some time in 09, no rush, do it in a foreign country with just the family and a few close friends, and then come back to NYC and have some party/reception thing for folks to enjoy. That's the plan, so don't give us any shit. The rules and traditions do not apply. I'm telling you this now.

This week I finally had some work fun, and that involved talking and being a part of the Making Of Book for the movie. The writer, Mark, is a good guy, and has written many books that can be found on the MOGworld bookshelf, so I get to yap on on and on and then get all these cool Star Wars stories from the writer. More of that this week. Yes, thats probably the only bright spot at work right now other than some friends in Japan sending some amazing kick ass toys and books that will occupy my office.

I have to show off the cuteness of ZOE, our friend Jess' niece, she knows we are her big fans and she gave us a shout out on her blog:



Musically, B trapped me in a box for countless hours, forcing me against my will to sing into a microphone for the opening track of the album. ok, well, I had beer and water and wrestling newsletters, so it wasn't so bad. We're still learning the methods of modern HF, which is why this album is taking so long. Now that process is being applied to the vocals. How do we work, how do we work best, and how do we get things to a level that matches the music? That was yesterday's lesson for me at least, just as we know how to best work on bass, guitars, drums, etc, we're working out how we can get what we need from this (limited) voice of mine. So we're not just working on recording it, we're working on the melodies I've written and how they best fit my voice. Patience will get us there.

Now it is Wrestlemania weekend. I envy my younger sibling who is in Orlando on someone else's dime and got to see Ric Flair inducted into the Hall Of Fame in person. Then he will bear witness to Naitch's final match. Live. That is some cruel shit (unless he comes home with presents). Now I know how Saintface felt when we had better seats than him at Morrissey's Apollo show. Because it is WM weekend, I treat today like an event. I do very little other than read wrestling news, go to websites, speculate with G as to what will happen, and shoot Katz random predictions on facebook. Today is gonna be a tearjerker with this Flair thing. It's one of the few days where I truly turn my brain off and love my chosen sport like it is dear life.

Now leave me alone!

F

GRENDELISM.

http://mattgentile.com/

"Are you Engaged yet?"

Dulli said the above line the night before to the crowd at Webster and man if you only fucking knew....So Irene and I got engaged. You know this already, but to save the trouble, let me explain how it went down (I originally wrote this for Karen Kruger who is in China at the moment):

Simple version:

I wanted to do this at brunch at the place we went to on our first date, LES HALLES. She gave me a hard time about this brunch all week cause it was her morning off. I even used her meeting my work friend (Thank you Emily) as an excuse. I tried to wake her up this morning, she gave me a hard time. I bought her coffee, she gave me a hard time, and she was cranky and nasty. So around 11am she gets her workout gear on, and then EXPLODES on me about how selfish I am about how I am pushing this this brunch on her, how I don't give a shit about her having to work cause all I care about is eating etc (Bandmates will confirm that). She lost it. So she's walking out the door to work out and I'm like "COME HERE!" and she's yelling "fuck off with your brunch" and I'm getting tough saying "GET BACK IN HERE NOW" and she's screaming "FUCK OFF" and then I'm like "I got you a little something" and hand her the box. Now she is all kinda bitch nasty like "WHAT IS THIS LIKE THIS IS GONNA HELP?" and then she opens it...

There has never been a moment in my life when I wish I had a vid cam on. She went from raging fucking angry to OH SHIT IS THIS REAL? in about a second and closed the box, totally not getting it. PRICELESS. Then she melted cause now I am the single most awesome person on the planet and she was like PUT THE RING ON ME, so I did and I was like "so I guess thats a yes". Thus I proposed in my pajamas and she in her workout gear in our apartment. ah, romance.

Then of course she took me to Les Halles for brunch and I ate escargots and filet mignon and drank stellas while she stared at the ring. Her treat. I act this whole story out much better than it reads. the whole thing was romantic, funny and pure us.

Anyway, the kudos go out to my folks and aunt who were very supportive through all this, Deanie, who put the whole ring together for me and saved me from the world of tiffanys and all that, Vikki who said the line "there's never a good time for anything" not knowing what she had triggered, Ms. Jenni T for the therapy, consultation and inspiration during my more insane moments and to G who kept his mouth shut (but probably forgot) over a few bowls of noodles. Everyone has been massively helpful and supportive of this movie and I truly appreciate it.

Pix of the bling later.

OH and Dulli/Gutter Twins at Webster was fucking SO much better than the first gig. Thats my short review. Too tired and have to work on music.

xox

F

Our New Niece Arrives

Random.

Aftereffects...

Chill weekend. Watched the TEN which was mildly mediocre except when Justin Theroux was onscreen. Been cranking out the Screen Vinyl Image remix which I just finished the first big round of and sent along to B. However, after weeks of being MIA I made it back to B's to throw down some HF. I went with the idea that I would be crooning, but B had other intentions. He wanted me to strap it on...the bass that is...and help him crack the last remaining piece of music to be written, the chorus to what is called Creation Phase. And dammit, what happens when two men strap on their guitars and jam? The magic, my friends. It's a corker. It's New Order's REGRET if Geordie from Killing Joke played guitars on it. Think on that, wanklad. I'm blasting it nonstop and feeling we got it down. We're gonna have to do more with it, but we got the demo parts down and have finally, after years, made this song happen. I'm over the fucking moon. oh it's rock n roll. You have may have heard of it. We do that here in MOGworld.

Then we grabbed Al, took it to PT and ate the real shiz pasta. Venison is the new rock.

Bite me, I gotta go keep it Bourdain now.

F

http://walkenstares.ytmnd.com/

The Shoegaze Kegger

I'm going to try and get back to this blogging business on a more regular basis, but don't count on it. Shit is crazy and it will get crazier. But that's life and that's why you read my egomaniacal self centered rantings, right Bob?

Anyhow, nephew was here last week, as mentioned, and man I have a lotta fun with this kid. He's just a good boy and very smart and charming. Sorry, I'm bragging, but he's my nephew so screw you.

Friday night we took him to see the new Stephen Chow movie, CJ7. As with all things Stephen Chow, this is highly anticipated, and Cam and I recalled the time when we saw KUNG FU HUSTLE in LA years ago when he was a wee thing. Anyhow, CJ7 is a fucking mess, but it's a lovable mess. The little girl playing Stephen Chow's son (yes that is correct) is a super talented kid. Amazing. Chow picked a great actor for the role. In fact, all the kids in this are awesome, especially the lead bad guy kid. There is some truly funny laugh out loud stuff in this movie. You have to have some balls to play homage to your own movies, though it was more, as some would say here, parody (For the right reasons). But the movie has huge holes in it, often goes off on tangents that never gel, and the biggest crime of all is Stephen Chow is barely in it and when he is, he's not really the Chow we love till the very end. I think he might have made a better movie if he hadn't cast himself as the father, but then, without him in it, the movie doesn't play here. Makes sense? Danny said it best: "I enjoyed it, and there were parts I really liked but that doesn't make it a good movie"

We were in bed by 10 on Friday night right after the movie cause nephew had a 6:40am flight back to Montreal. So, up at 4am and off to LGA. The weather was massively shit and flights to the Canadia were being killed left and right, but we got lucky as that 6:40am flight I was dreading to get to ended up being the only flight to make it through. Now with an unaccompanied minor, the guardian (your hero), has to wait until the flight actually "pushes back" (meaning take off to you citizens), so I was there till after 7 eating freshly made Auntie Annie pretzels and listening to beats. Then I went home and tried to sleep, but that didn't work, so Irene and I, in the screaming angry rain, went to the Bo to have lunch with Carol and Frank who were in town. After we downed our sizzling rice, Irene went to work and took our umbrella with her. Thus, the HOP was put to the test and it came through with flying colours. Soaked on the outside but dry as the Kidd on a Thursday on the inside. But man it fucking sucked out.

I went home, dried the hop for a bit, but then found myself surprising Irene at her store with her phone, which she had forgotten. I felt I was doing a nice noble thing, but again the weather hugged a ball and made this into a long drawn out experience. I think karma will reward me for this, probably with a good Irene home cooked meal later.

I just couldn't get any momentum, and since our evening plans were in the city, B brought his ass my way to work on the latest remix. We spent maybe 8 minutes on the remix and the rest watching Cerati videos. It was just one of those fucking days. His girl couldn't get back to Bklyn so she joined us for a sushi meal. Then she tried again to go to Bklyn while Brandt and I took the train to midtown for a gig...

And there we were, in Hell's Kitchen entering a strange office building literally up the block from my old friend Frank's place. Why were we there? Well, I recently made contact with a cool band called Screen Vinyl Image who I think are from the DC area. Back in the day I would network all the industrial bands at gigs and clubs. Now in the myspace era, if I like someone, I just shoot them a line. Sometimes a band will respond, other times, they won't. But in the last few years, I have met some cool people. Jake from SVI is one of them, and HF will be doing a remix for them. So I was excited to see them play and to meet them for the first time.

We entered a loft filled with adults. Not hipsters. Which was the first positive. Second, it was $20 to get in. What the fuck you ask? Well, it gets you in and then you can drink all you want. Yuengling, no less. from a KEG. Thus, the shoegaze kegger is born. Believe you me, B and I drank more than $40 worth of that. And food. This was kinda classy and unpretentious. The DJ was also fucking awesome. At one point, he played Kasabian's STUNTMAN, so this guy knew his shit. The vibe was good.

Going early paid off as we saw two other bands play who we both felt were awesome. The first one, THE DECEMBER SOUND, was the revelation of the night for me. Brit inspired. Walls of sweeping guitars, electronics, Girl bassist (every band this night had a girl and every band had a couple in it), JAMC rocky MBV stuff. Extremely well done. Tight players. Great vibe. They rocked. CD obtained. If you saw them, you'd get why I liked them. Check it: http://thedecembersound.com/

After that was SOUNDPOOL. Poppier, talented, professional. Well rehearsed. Great visuals. Girl singer. Amazing drummer. Good tunes, great guitar playing. B fucking marked out for them, and he should, they have what it takes. They even release albums in Japan. It was their loft and their release party. CD Obtained. Observe: http://soundpoolmusic.com/

It's interesting, I liked December Sound better live, but on CD Soundpool is produced better. Both are going to be a lot of fun to follow. More on both in the future. Oh my GOD, let me mention now that the guitarists have more foot pedals than a roster of a major record label combined. Ash would fucking FREAK and all those aggression shows where we waited and waited for him and his fucking pedals mean dick compared to the sheer amount of pedals these people have. Dude from Soundpool has two fucking suitcases of pedals. Seriously. However, unlike Ash, they come prepared and with everything working so there are no "OH I KNOW" moments. Ash, take note.

SVI came on and it was like watching a pop version of Suicide. That's a compliment. Jake and his girl really have some good songs. Tons of gear. Again, something Ash would love to see. They only have an Ep and a single (the song CHASER, which we are remixing) so to hear the newer material was very interesting and exciting, because they are taking steps forward. I loved their set and loved meeting them after.

It's so funny, all those years ago, when we had drum machines and later drums with backing tracks, clubs and bands looked at us like we were from another planet. Now it's great to see young bands trying different approaches to music, using technology in a smart and exciting way without forgetting good writing, and coming up with fresh ideas and good songs. It's rare when it happens but it's always great finding something new to like. All Hail the Shoegaze Kegger!

But the night was not over as then it was Hell's Kitchen back to HF HQ area in Brooklyn to go to the bar I only know as "the place we went to for Matt's birthday" where Irene was with her crew celebrating young Nick's birthday. Nick is quality and knows his food like a champ so he is worth bringing it to BK for. And now at this point, I was pretty tipsy, so I kept it real hiding in the corner with Roger, Meggs and B and occasionally popping out to discuss the awesomeness of Jess' infant niece Zoe (aka Zozo). Then we reached the late evening, the bar was closing, we were out of it, and I realized I had been up for 24 hours straight.

Back to the city and passed out till Sunday afternoon. The rest is lazy ass history.

Things are crazy. They are about to get fucking crazier. I'll keep you posted, asshole.

F

My New Niece (aka The CouncilWoman's Dog)

My new LA baby:

Items

Uncle Duty is on, hence the lack of updates. Quickly.

*B's birthday was fun. I drank starting at 5 in the afternoon and then suddenly was home around 1 or so. I saw Bob at one point. I drank more sake then you will ever see in your life. Kathie was there but she didn't take my picture. There was a rude waiter at Fiore, but the food is good. I learned about expensive ham from the worlds foremost fake straight man. And there was someone's dumbfuck boyfriend who I had to lecture on the finer points of CLASS. B or Al have told me most of what I am telling you now.

*We've been working on music. About to start two remixes that I am very excited about. I did some more singing, but it needs work. We've started some album art and have pulled the talented Mrs. Brown in for that shiz.

*The Oscars, phew, boring as fuck.

*Peka's new album, SUGAR FREE, is my first album of the year candidate. http://www.myspace.com/pekaproject

*We went to Montreal. Driving up and back were the two best trips I have ever had going there. No traffic, just a little border delay, and that was it. It snowed like such a motherfucker. New discovery: Canadian BUTTER. Amazing as fuck. Irene brought like a shitload of it back, even gave some to my moms.

*My nephew is here and he is a constant source of fun and entertainment. He is also hilarious. He and I were in a cab this morning and they have these TV's now. We have an ongoing gimmick where I turn it off and then he turns it on, etc etc. OK, so...They added a new "Zagats" function to the touchscreen. Cam notices...His eyes pop and he says "IMAGINE IF ASH WAS IN THE CAB WITH US RIGHT NOW? JESUS!"

*I am excited for this new Nine Inch Nails. Forget that it's actually pretty good music and wise for someone at his age to stop singing about his Ice Cream. It's about the business, the use of the net, etc. The idea is great and the way he has made it available is super as it covers every kind of fan that is interested. The entire launch has been an exercise in frustration, for them, for the fans, etc. cause they didn't prepare for the sheer volume of people who would come to the site to get it. After 3 days I still couldn't get it. I had to get a copy of a download fan site just to hear the fucking thing, which I don't mind doing, because, I fucking paid for it. Their shit could not handle it. I'm sure this will be worked out next time. However, he sold out of the 2500 copies of the $300 version, so do the math and this fucking can go pay for the bandwidth to do this right next time. This is a good read: http://www.newsweek.com/id/118786

*Danny is back from Argentina. These are his new friends: http://www.myspace.com/skurkaraskilordi

*I'm finally writing a comic book, a manga actually. Just a short story for an anthology based on a well known property. It's been a blast to do and the script has been received well by editors and peers. I am waiting on notes (and contract) now. Once I sign, I'll tell you. Yes, it's small but fun.

*Last night, we went to the Plug Awards. I have no idea what that is, really, so I showed up at the right moment...the second Nick Cave came on. and Jesus Christ, Nick Cave is a possessed man. Possessed with genius, charisma and talent. He was sick awsome, and while it was only 45 min, we got to see him for the first time in like 6 or 7 years in his only US appearance. And for $10 bucks. He did the best version you will ever hear of STAGGER LEE. It was THAT good, the shit your pants open.

OK, i have to put this kid on a plane at 6:45am.....

xoxo

F