I don't know why this bothers me so much...

From MTV.com "On August 17 Nine Inch Nails fans will have an opportunity to score the ultimate collector's item — the ownership rights to Trent Reznor's groundbreaking debut, Pretty Hate Machine. Yes, kids — you could own tracks like "Down in It," "Something I Can Never Have" and, of course, "Head Like a Hole," but it's going to cost you millions. The disc is one of several TVT Records titles on the auction block, compliments of Prudential Securities Financial Services. Pretty Hate Machine and numerous other recordings from the likes of KMFDM, Sister Machine Gun and Gravity Kills were presented as collateral in 1999 against a $32 million loan the label was approved for. TVT managed to pay back $10 million of that amount, but Prudential took the label to court three years ago, claiming the current home of the Ying Yang Twins defaulted on the loan. Pretty Hate Machine is part of an overall biddable package that also includes the rights to the Television's Greatest Hits compilations and the "Mortal Kombat" movie soundtracks. In addition, the highest bidder will be able to collect a percentage on future sales of Nine Inch Nails' other TVT-related releases, including Broken, Fixed, The Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral."

Live From New York...

This photo was probably me at my most relaxed during my whole journey (with the exception maybe being my first night in San Francisco thanks to Baby Ano). It's all I need: Powerbook, tons of tea, some Junior Mints, and a hotel room with a fucking sweet ass view of downtown Tokyo. Very little can compare. Honestly, I could lock myself in there for weeks and not complain one bit. I was very productive during the off hours in Tokyo, creating what I think could be some of my finest music yet. Sadly (or happily), I was sober for very little of this...

Is this quite possibly the longest gap in which I have written to you? Some of you ACTUALLY complained. This made me happy. One of you, known to some as my younger sibling said "Don't Go Away Anymore", though I think this is less about me than it is having home cooked meals from my other half every Monday night. So be it.

Here's the round up:

Tokyo: Amazing.
L.A. (Round 1): Vague
San Diego: Overload
L.A. (Round 2): Semi-Coherent
San Francisco: Quite simply the second best city in the US bar none.
L.A. (Round 3): Exhaustion

I'm back, I'm buried in shit that I brought back, boxes, toys, comics, you name it, including the new topic of abuse, my PURPLE multi-region DVD player. It was that or pink, of course now I'm in the doghouse for not picking the latter. Anyhow, there are TONS of DVD's to be watched that I have never seen on my TV screen (only my Powerbook), so I'm very excited.

While I have been blessed with many things, I am not blessed with time for the moment. As of Friday, I'll be on Uncle duty for the rest of the Summer, which I am extremely excited about. We have to travel to Montreal (yes again) to grab the little guy. He's six, he's handsome and brillaint and quite smart and funny, so I think we're going to have some fun during his first trip to the Big Apple. This could be cool and is a very exciting responsiblity that I'm very much looking forward to. I'm taking some serious time off from work just to be an uncle and musician until I'm 33, which is much sooner than later at this point, so start shopping.

Anyhow slumber awaits, stay beautiful.

F

Conning

Since I last wrote you, it's all been one hurried haze. I woke up Wednesday morning in Tokyo, went to some meetings, and then in the afternoon boarded a plane. I then suddenly woke up and it was Wednesday morning again, but this time in LA. I vaguley remember being somewhere on the Fox lot eating a grilled cheese with Bradley J. Fox, eating dinner with Irene's mom and then falling asleep again watching TV pilots again with my lawyer/agent/advisor. Somehow, next thing I know, I'm in San Diego for the big Comic Con and GodDAMN its big. Today is my fourth day here and I have barely seen anything. However, I can easily tell you the best thing I have seen here is without a doubt the first ever footage from SUPERMAN RETURNS, which Bryan Singer presented yesterday morning. It's of, what I call "the holy shit variety". Obviously, I've always been a Bat-Fan more than a Super-Fan, but 12 minutes of new footage, new EXCELLENT looking footage, really makes me think they could make a SUPERMAN movie that reaches the genius level of BATMAN BEGINS (again, the best comic book based movie ever made). It looks like a cross between the Max Fleischer cartoons from the 40's and the Richard Donner films. This felt like an absolute winner to me and the kid playing Superman seems to have been cloned from Christopher Reeve's DNA. Bryan Singer is a brilliant filmmaker and I cannot wait for this film.

Sadly the annual STAR WARS spectacular was less than stellar since they basically, for the first time since I have been coming to this Con, no movie to promote. It was basically: Yes, there's going to be a TV series, yes there's an animated series coming, but in 2007, so here's some footage of our new digital facility. Eh. Plus having the guy who did General Grevious' voice as the special guest compared to having Hayden and Carrie Fisher last year, is a bit of a let down. To their credit, they DID show a deleted Ep3 scene, the "Birth Of The Rebellion" scene featuring Jimmy Smits doing more than he has in the whole series, so I was somewhat happy. It all felt a bit Star Trek to me...know what I mean? However, as the new catch phrase says, STAR WARS IS FOREVER, but hey, I kinda knew that already, guy.

Announced here was the ULTIMATE DIRECTOR'S CUT of THE WARRIORS, which could change my life and I actually WON the Mattell BATMAN con exclusive after my huge defeat last year. Spent some time with some old faces, some new faces, some famous faces. I got everything I was looking to pick up this year, and found some things I didn't know existed. Once again the infamous "F.J. meets Stephen Chow at the Con" story made the rounds to much embarassment, but at least now with KUNG FU HUSTLE having permeated the public conscious, I look a bit ahead of time again.

Supposedly, I leave from here for LA for a DAY, then I am off to San Fran for a few, back to LA and then home. Then, for the entire month of August, I fully intend to never leave the City of New York unless I'm forced.

What time is it?

F

Big Japan All Star

Tokyo is the most DANGEROUS city I have ever been to in my life.

Why? Not because of crime or anything physically threatening, but because they have so much cool shit that I'm going to be broke by the time today is out (I'ts Monday morning here, but Sunday afternoon for you guys back in NYC). The city is beautiful, moreso than I remember, the people are very nice, and the food, my God, the food. I literally cannot stop eating and drinking something very strong called Sho-Chu. Rolling First Class is budget compared to the way these guys do it up here. Our hosts are insanely nice, even going so far as to take me to THIS just moments after I mentioned it:

http://www.starwarsjapan.com/museum/topics/topics0505/tokyo_exhibition.html

Can you believe this? A fucking Star Wars exhibit opens the weekend I'm here? The fates are kind to this young man. Kudos to my dad for the IM letting me know about this! I literally almost ran out the door until our host was like "relax, we'll take you right now". They had the actual Jedi Starfighters from Episodes 2 and 3 at this thing. I mean the real ships they built for the movie. Its the first and only exhibit of it's kind to cover the entire spectrum of both trilogies. Anyhow...you can guess what my reaction was to all this.

Did some sightseeing and of course, more shopping. Come on, how could I say no to buying a an action figure based on wrestling legend Keiji Mutoh? How can I deny buying Crossbeats all-Oasis issue of the "Ultimate Version" of the Kasabian album? Why do I feel like Saintface would be huge here? Note to Mattagement: I think the first ever HF gig should be here.

The Japanese love all the crazy stuff I love. Music. Film. Technology. Toys. I in turn love the Japanese. I hope this is the first of many trips here (though I need some of those aggression royalty checks first to spend or Irene and I are going to to have to move into a log cabin so I can afford spending on shit here!).

I love you, but I'm never coming home. Send Irene and my Thunderbird and I'm good to go. Oh I didn't even mention the super sweet fucking Tea Maker in my room. COME ON!

F

Return of the Dick

So...Live 8. Did you watch? Did you go? Well, I watched a lot of it, mostly thanks to the magic of DVR (so I could go read the NME, work on some tunes, and get my hair "done"), and it was very, well, BIG, as in grand. I'm gonna just run through the stuff i actually DID see that I liked. First off, the original was better in terms of organization because this thing was so huge that you couldn't see everyone (did you even KNOW Pet Shop Boys were headlining the Moscow portion of the show? Did you even know there WAS a Moscow event? I sure didn't till Mattagement told me, which is his job of course). So basically, I didn't get to see acts I very much wanted to see like The Cure, Bjork, Placebo, Muse, Robbie, the Durans (I saw one song on the web and they were great), and who the hell else knows. Fucking MTV and VH1 are so stupid, they showed the same thing on each channel when they could have shown different things through the day. Stupid.

Anyhow, here are my ten random musings on Live 8:

1. U2 with Macca doing Sgt Peppers. I did enjoy this geezer shit. Solid.

2. U2. Biggest band in the world on the biggest stage in the world. It's good to see the Bono match the music to his mouth cause they are the one band that seem to get better with each larger crowd they play to. You know how you want to see big bands in small venues? I would never want to see u2 at Irving Plaza. I want to see them play to billions and own it like they do.

3. I don't like Green Day all that much. However, after seeing them on the Berlin show, I understand now why they are so huge. They are true stadium punk. Incredible energy.

4. Have you seen these "One.Org" commercials where a lot of famous people wear white and snap their fingers every three seconds cause someone dies every three seconds? Powerful, important stuff and while I understand that its for a good cause, seeing Damon the anus from Blur back to back with Susan Sarandon in the commercial is a bit too surreal for me. But to top it off, before showing the handsome Brad Pitt to end the commercial on a strong note, they show a NON white clad Mister Noel Gallagher, snapping his fingers in the most unbelievably unconvincing way. Noel was so obviously guilted into doing this by Lord Bono Himself after saying "Well, sorry mate we can't play your little show to billions of people cause we have a gig in Manchester that night" and being told by Bono "well so do we pal, in fucking Vienna and we're still doing the gig WITH Macca no less" that a defeated Chief probably said, in pure father of Thompson Blake style, "FINE" and did whatever the Lord Bono Himself asked. I'm sure they tried to get Liam, but I doubt he could snap his fingers, let alone count the three seconds. Anyhow, look for this commerical.

5. Madonna, supposedly British, supposedly "done", came on, didn't lip sync and quite honestly tore the place down. I couldn't believe it. She looks like someone's hot mom who works out too much and then occasionally busted out a dance move that informed us that yeah this is the Material Girl who we all have secretly lusted after at some point or another. Yeah that last album kinda blew, but the woman can kick it. Stop acting (British), start performing again, Madge.

6. Floyd was awesome but Roger Waters, seemingly wearing my dad's regulation weekend denim ensemble, just seemed too happy to be there. It was a stark contrast to the bleak and excellent music. It's a shame their music gets so associated with stoners and all that stupid 70's shit cause these songs sound sick even now. Waters shoulda sang more, but I don't think Gilmour is ready to give everything up just yet. It was an excellent reunion, if just a tad too happy. However, I would see a tour with these guys for sure.

7. George Michael came up to do some Beatles with Macca and frankly George shoulda gotten his own set. He should have grabbed Andy and done some WHAM! Seriously. I know the day was for a good cause and all that shit, but George should have taken advantage of this platform to re-establish himself as one of the best songwriter/performers of his generation. He is.

8. Will Smith has the potential in 20 years time to be the first black president of the United States. I'm serious.

9. I missed Elton and Pete Doherty as the US just doesn't know or give a shit about such a collaboration. Not sure I do either. I watched Babyshambles ast Glasto and boy was I undewhlemed. Hope Peter has Carl's # in his speedial still. He might need it.

10. It was awesome seeing Mr. William Rieflin performing at Live 8. Still handsome, still an excellent drummer, but man do I miss his old blog, which in fact inspired the creation of the blog you are reading right now.

Ok so those are my ten thoughts on Live 8. HOWEVER, the single greatest moment of the day and quite possibly the single greatest musical moment of the YEAR was when Coldplay brought out the legendary RICHARD ASHCROFT out to perform his greatest hit, BITTERSWEET SYMPHONY and my god tears flowed down my face as I watched this lunatic/genius show these bedwetters how it's fucking DONE. It was like literally seeing someone you love come back from the dead as Dickie, as we lovingly call him, destroyed everyone and everything in his path just based on sheer emotion. Sure, we have given him some shit in his post-Verve years and have probably unfairly compared his music to his previous bands, but if yesterday proved one thing, that this man is a very special performer who deserves the spotlight yet again. He made Chris Martin look like a fucking amateur. And I loved it. And as I mentioned above with George Michael, I hope Dickie can ride this wave so he can remain an important part of our musical lives. I love this man. I hope his new album can live up to the high expectations I now have for it.

Sure, yesterday will be remembered for a lot of things, but I'll always remember it, even if it was just for one day, as the day Dickie rocked it like the Legend he deserves to be known as.

F