Trying for LA FAP Weekend of May 15th...

So basically, Jetblue can only take me to Vermont, New York, Florida, or Puerto Rico. (Admittedly, this is now tempting me to take a last minute flight to elsewhere other than L.A. now)

"Airport smackdown vs. Customer Comfort: C/D?"

(xpost)

Do you have a ring modulator or an echoplex and a joystick?

h, there are plenty of substitutes for juleps. And a month is a long period of time to get over dejulepization.

h, you have a point there... although, I'm not sure I want to do another 40 hour ground trip again... (I'm done the Seattle-to-LA train ride before, and while it was fun, it was really really exhausting.. and to do that twice = ugh... good idea though)

Otherwise, try http://www.qixo.com (Another cheap flights site.)

Keeping fingers crossed.....

see also: Rat Bastard/Monotract/To Live and Shave in LA/Harry Pussy.

Well, damn! Taking "Pong" a bit too literally.

I have questions.

May 14 Fri SEA-SMF-LAX
1619
Depart Seattle (SEA) at 9:55 AM
Arrive in Sacramento (SMF) at 11:40 AM
933
Change planes in Sacramento (SMF) departing at 12:45 PM
Arrive in Los Angeles (LAX) at 2:05 PM

..then...

May 16 Sun LAX-OAK-SEA
1210
Depart Los Angeles (LAX) at 8:30 AM
Arrive in Oakland (OAK) at 9:40 AM
1053
Change planes in Oakland (OAK) departing at 10:45 AM
Arrive in Seattle (SEA) at 12:45 PM

Thank you, Southwest airlines, gygax, and dean. I paid the price gygax quoted above. Ah well. I really want to see my family and those goshdarn lil' great dane puppies. This is will my last chance to see puppies that small. And I can see George Raggett's art!!! and FAP in LA on the 15th!

And possibly have an Oakland airport breakfast FAP on Sunday! @d@m, don't forget to bring MARMALADE!

(Sorry, it's the Minnie Riperton that's doing it to me right now, as far as my current marmalade fetish goes)

(The subtitle for this thead should be : "How To Defeat The Airline Price Nazis")

My apologies. That's what I get for trying to be helpful. I hope you got the FUN FARE.

Meanwhile, SPECIAL SECRET EXTRA GUEST!

George told me the other night that in fact his brother and my other paternal cousin Mark will be in town -- this is the feller I'm staying with up in Portland for the first night or two, at least. So you'll have a chance to meet THREE RAGGETTS IN ONE PLACE, can ya stand it? I'm half tempted to try and persuade my sister to fly down as well.

One of my roommates is actually an ILXOR! TAKE THAT DONUT BITCHES!

Bill, you shouldn't show your face around here with DB threatening your private starfish.

Good Hurt: As long as I can get home early enough for my hideously early flight back to seattle on Sunday morning, I'm down with Chaki party accion Saturday night. Chaki, please tell me you will go on at a decent hour.

Yeah, Kaycee mentioned that Venice thing to me as well. Depending on what the day's plans are, I will more than likely be wanting to hang around with George and Mark for the evening, but again I need to see what Stripey wants to do also. At the very least, I'll talk to George and see if we can plan for the Armand Hammer thing for the afternoon, maybe followed by dinner instead of aiming for lunch?

The Soft Peat Truth

Maybe I'm confusing this band with Softer Than Pete.

Oh, and btw, is Arthur going to be around? Will I finally meet the man, possibly?

Meet at the Armand Hammer museum (off Wilshire in Westwood I believe) at 2:30pm!!!

We will meet, hang out, see George Raggett's cool exhibition, say hi to each other, plot from there. I will be there. I might want to go to Amoeba in Hollywood afterwards (since I've yet to go to the LA Amoeba) or after an art exhibition late lunch FAP of some sort, but it's not urgent.

Okee?

I'm so sorry for missing Chakifest, I was having a bummer of a weekend. And now I can't make it to Chaki's show cause I'm DJing at the gay bar that night. Don't hate me, Chaki.

If anyone want to drop by after the Chaki show I'll put you on the list, but it hasn't been so hot lately. I'm having to pander to the wrong crowd. Although they still go apeshit every time I play "Don't You Want My Big Head", DB!

It's at Akbar, on Sunset and Fountain in Silverlake.

I will be bearing audio gifts for (at least a fair amount of) LA FAPpers on Saturday too, keep in mind.

(insert VengaDangWang comments here)

Maybe I should try to show up for this one.

(and I've finally got a sac of packages to send out next week to other ilmers and ilxors... huge apologies to l custos and his patience).

wasn't able to have time to dub "d*g!" for you... so I won't have it this weekend. but I will mail a copy to you instead, maybe for your 1973 CDR GO!

Had a great conversation about the upcoming Prince shows with two older women on the bus to SeaTac early this morning. ("I don't care what kind of music Prince will play, I just want to see that boy dance.") Afterwards, they kept on talking about all these shows they saw in Seattle... Mary J. Blige, Ludacris, Busta Rhymes... one of them talked about D'Angelo and how "then he took some clothes off.. i saw his thing. yes i did." They then commenced making barbs against Timbalake. Just when you think you've overheard the best bus conversation ever, along comes the BEST FUCKING OVERHEAD BUS CONVERSATION EVER!

Sacramento Airport was, well, an airport. Except their Home Turf sports bar/restaurant is far better than SeaTac's. They have a full four-screen wall blasting nu-metal videos and actually is filled with nu-metal ultra beef broheem dudes drinking beer and punching each other's shoulders really hard.

Their warning about unattended luggage is far more boring than SeaTac's, though. SeaTac's announcement goes, said in full joy, "Unattended bags or luggage can and/or will be confiscated and destroyed! :-D"

OK, now i now the reason this weekend was an expensive weekend to fly to Los Angeles. E3. (I saw "E3" shuttles) Fuck. I shoulda known. My slightly haunting past comes back, kinda.

I have taken some Great Dane puppy pics already and more will come. Most importantly, I took a mini-AVI movie of the puppies playing with each other. I can't host it. If someone can host a megabyte of space for a small amount of time, get back to me by Sunday or something.

Preparing for LA FAP Saturday!

Do you have any of CDs for me? I have to trade in my Ipod and I'm gonna lose all the stuff I'd gotten from the sock drawer, darn.

Well, see ya tomorrow, DB!

Spencer: I'm not driving. I'm bussin' yo. Although there might be a plot to have me driven to Amoeba records right after the Armand Hammer... we'll see about that. I also have that same CD for you as Arthur.

Nick: I have your CDR Go!s for you that I promised. And I partially answered your post-Armand pre-Chaki FAP activities. I'd be up for food thing after Amoeba if that was desired. But I'm restricted to either a) bus or b) whoever's willing to give me a ride somewhere convenient for me to get to Club Good Hurt, although I will not impose.

if anyone (donut?) need a ride in reasonable distance, just hit me at my email address for my phone number.

Actually, I won't be around for ChakiShow, alas -- pretty much I'm only up there for the afternoon with friend/sometime ILX lurker Stripey. But as last week was ChakiFAP, merriment was had. :-)

I'm off to catch a bus pretty soon, so hopefully those of you who have my Seattle phone number know it and will use it. If not, there are certain ilxors in L.A. and, of course, Seattle that know it. and you can contact them virtually (oooh, haven't used that word since 1996, I feel all warm and retro now) if they are not incredibly busy as well

Chaki, I'm gonna be the Rick James to your Eddie Murphy tonight... Soul corn rows, bootsy glasses, and that "right on" nod as you rock the skills tonight.

1900-MIXALOT?

My 7-year old nephew has slowly been dying of cancer for the past month (the malignant tumor was removed in January, and he was given "3-6 months"), so everything is a wreck. But of course it's no excuse for further erratic behavior or rudeness on my part. I just try to compartmentalize my mind even more now ("DON'T THINK ABOUT IT, ...DON'T"), to mixed results. Hope you guys have fun today, see you around.

Not received, alas, but don't fret -- and now that I know what's up, I don't blame you at all for having to leave last week. My best for you all.

in any case, thank you all for the FAP fun/love today... Ned and the Raggetts, Stripey, Arthur, Spencer, and Rob G (thank you for the rides!). .. and later Chaki, who is absolutely a blast to see perform live (nooooooow I know). It's been a great day and a half here in L.A.. very action packed.

The only slightly disappointing thing was actually Amoeba records in L.A... I had a pretty extensive and broad mental list of things I wanted and searched for, and the store had none of them, new or used... and nothing I wanted was exactly really hip or rare either. I found the first Pointer Sisters CD from 1973 -- my only successful find, but I wasn't in the mood to wait 30 minutes in a humongous cowherd of a line to buy one budget CD. LA Amoeba may be the single greatest record store in the country as far as massiveness, but it certainly isn't the most comfortable record store at all. I felt like I was in everyone's way all the time. That's not a very conducive record shopping setting for me. It makes the Berkeley Amoeba feel like a hole in a wall your-friend-owns-it independent record store in comparison, as far as personal space and tension. In comparison to Amoeba in LA, I found several amazing used deals at -- of all places -- Penny Lane around the block from the museum in Westwood Village, that neighborhood of which is now half deserted and up for lease.

But the photos.. this is a landmark weekend for photos, that's all I'll say. I hope they cheer everyone up once I post them tomorrow or Monday. :)

Congrats to Rob for his first ILX FAP too. Hope we didn't outgeek you or anything :)

I got to Amoeba at about 6:30 and never saw any of the FAPers, but I figure you were there earlier. It wasn't so crowded then, but the bins are overstuffed so that made browsing hard. I ended spending a bit over $100 anyway (including a Lollies CD for $5) At the end I felt too wiped out to try and go back to Good Hurt for Chaki. Hope you had a good show.

Penny Lane was always a standby in my undergrad days, glad to see it's still good for that. :-) I will say that shortly after DB had expressed his desire not to wait in line, Stripey and I went up to purchase and we only had to wait about a minute, so the line looked MUCH worse than it did -- there's a reason they have all those registers open! I agree, though, that it's a pretty overwhelming experience, and while you can browse (especially in the less crowded sections -- Stripey concentrated on world music and the crush was far less of a problem), it's almost better just to go in with a specific shopping list in your head, check on those, and then move on.

Anyway, yes indeed, rah for the FAP! Pity about missing Chaki but I admit I was pretty tired towards the end of the day. The early photos were hilarious so I can only guess what the Chaki ones are like!

i feel like i've entered some secret club. thankfully the initiation ritual is pretty gentle. you are all a joy to be around and i'm sorry i could only spend a short time! props to donut for putting up with my poor navigation choices on the way to amoeba and entertaining me with stories of this mysterious "seattle." amoeba itself, as donut noted, was a little overcrowded and i didn't find anything i particularly needed either, but i can think of worse things to do than poke around a record store for an hour or two.

so sad i completely hit the wall around 6 and had to skip the show. i went home and crashed almost immediately. but in any case everyone was lovely and i only regret that we didn't get more time to geek out about music, seriously!

The first one involved me and this "homey" who stretched his arms across three aisles of vinyl (which were, of all things, bootleg remix 12"s) behind him, probably so he can "hold" the section for his other "homey". I kinda gestured very gently "um, I want to look here, get the fuck out please k bye?". Then he did this "psssss"/*laugh* gesture like I was the most anal person on the planet, jumped off, lifted his hands, and sarcastically offered me to look there and left. End of confrontation. OK, that wasn't really a confrontation, but more like an awkward moment.

The real confrontation involved four people trying to vie for the last copy of the latest Pinback CD-EP "Offcell". Long slim hipster dude w/ attached wispy girltoy vs. two short Shellac & Bellini T-shirt wearing milquetoasts guys. They argued about how ridiculous each other were for trying to covet this CD, and the most hilarious part was when the girltoy detached herself from longslimhipsterdude and said "OK, LIKE, if you're soooooooo into Pinback, why don't, like, go home and order it on Amazon Dot Com, instead of arguing with us like a bunch of dickwads!" It's the most unnecessarily tense moment I've ever witnessed at a record store. It was pretty much the deciding factor that I don't think an Amoeba sized store is really my kind of record store.. Either that, or L.A. indie dudes have become FAR more prattish since I left.

i've generally found the hip hop, electronic and reggae-bleeding-into-world sections of amoeba to be friendly and polite, though i think the overall weekend crowding overrides this sometimes.

and of course the back room (jazz and classical) is like me and the occasional cool old guy.

MT RAINIER REPRAZENT!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/a_mtrainier.jpg

MT HOOD REPRAZENT!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/a_mthood.jpg

[later that friday]
PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
AND GREAT DANES!
AND PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
PUPPIES!
COMING TO ITS OWN THREAD SOON!

[meetup circa Armand Hammer at Noodle Planet in Westwood Village, Saturday]
Becker and Fagen plot their next Steely Dan album over mee krob, pho, and fresh satay rolls...
(joke copyright (c) Ned Raggett 2004)
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/m_steely.jpg

You don't fuck with L.A. parking enforcement and related towing companies. Not even little Billy can leave his Tonka trunk unattended for over five minutes without having to bail it out for $100+... Thems the shits, little man.
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/m_tonka.jpg

Spencer and myself argue with our investors so we can help bankroll the sure cinematic splash of summer 2005: Deuce Bigalow 2 : Electric Gigaloo
(joke copyright (c) Stripey 2004)
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/m_dbspenc_3.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/m_dbspenc_1.jpg

[after Amoeba and Rob Geary graciously dropping me off at a place I could conveniently bus over on Venice Blvd. to Mar Vista circa 7pm...]
Welcome to Mar Vista, Los Angeles!!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_09.jpg

Don't forget...
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_08.jpg

The locals are really friendly. Kinda still, but friendly.
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_01.jpg

Oh yes, dahling... the ONLY reason for coming down to Los Angeleez!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_02.jpg

Saché.. Chanté... Satay... Flambé
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_05.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_04.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_03.jpg

"We are also.... naughty"
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_06.jpg

"Lllllllllock us up... please"
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/t_marv_07.jpg

[Later at Club Good Hurt across the street...]
Pretty colors inside..
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_colors_3.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_colors_2.jpg

Goth candy stripers. The medicine was good.
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_bartender_2.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_bartender_1.jpg

Allast and certainly not Allizeast!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_16.jpghttp://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_13.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_11.jpghttp://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_10.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_09.jpg

(these pics are dedicated to nickalicious)
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_08.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_07.jpg

http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_06.jpghttp://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_03.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_04.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/x_chaki_02.jpg

That, my friend, is a Chaki performance.. through and through. You can't miss this, son.

[after finally landing in Seattle earlier this afternoon, I got on the bus back to downtown]
The following compact disc edge sticker and back-end bus window is brought to you by... Crunk. The Kings of, in fact!
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/z_crunk_3.jpg
http://www.kuci.org/~brianm/ile/latrip/z_crunk_2.jpg

Shamelessly, I have to say I'm incredibly proud of myself for the Steely Dan joke, I made it literally five seconds after we first saw the photo.

Is that All American Hero? I think so. If so, too bad it was closed because that store is pretty enjoyable and they have some nice super 8 and 16 cameras and old musical instruments and such.

those action shots will teach me to miss another chaki show. i would have honestly died if i tried to go, though!