So Long Asshat!

It will be a great day tomorrow, fuckin' W will be gone. I'll miss the idiot and I hope Obama doesn't turn out to be another one of those politicians. Barack, I hope you are sincere and not pulling our hats over our eyes.

One last laugh:



Yes, sir, you have been the biggest disgrace to our country. EVER!!!

I'm Bored, So Bored!!!

That's all!

Sorry I missed the IJA fest. I miss you guys!

Big Conference Call In The Morning

Somehow, I am involved in the call regarding "Joy." WTF?

The film is going to premiere October 18, 2008. I can't wait!

The whole knee brace fitting was a cluster fuck! I'm still in a splint.

Why do they keep showing commercials for that damn movie, "Mama Mia?" STOP IT! Tracy Jones on WLW dropped the ending of the new Batman movie today! Yup, Batman and the Joker die...haha!

I'm missing you guys at the IJA; guess I'm not going to make it to Lexington tomorrow. Oh, well...

Made A Huge Decision Tonight...

I'm done with freakin' stupid West Chester, Fairfield, Hamilton, or whatever!

My heart belongs in Northside! Home of my scooter friends and rock friends. I am working there (very cheaply) as a bookkeeper for my good friend, Leslie. I plan on finding more work as a server, bartender, or something! Shit, I am even on the C&Ds softball team.

Northside is where I want to be!

I've raised two awesome kids; Nick is turning 29 today. I have the greatest granddaughter in the world. I watched Mom die. It's my turn now to live my dream...the ROCK STAR dream. There are so many great bands in Northside. I am writing my ass off (which Mom would have adored, and I'm sure she does.) I have at least 10 songs I'm writing now...meow.

I still love you folks up north, but I want to follow my dream!

I want music and more music...scooters and more scooters!

My buddies up north, I want to say, once again, I love you...especially, Rox, Rick, Tim, Judy, Mark, Tom, Carrol, Becky, Doug, Christi, Tara, Treena, Tricky Ricky, Gina, Brenda (I'll be calling you for a ride), Kat, Jim, Gary, Chris, Shelley, Chris, Jen, Jamie (sorry about that shit a couple years ago), Brad, Alicia, Gary, Jeff, Nick, Angie, The Bradys, Diane, Randy and so many others I can't think of...especially the hostess chick & husband who's been gone for a couple of months with a new grandchild!

Oh, Mady, "Girl Power."

Yah, too much to drink tonight. Just trying to send out thanks to those I can remember, but there are so many others I haven't named! Suffering from "old timers"?

Just saying, this isn't an actual goodbye, but I have finally discovered myself and know where I want to be...I love you all and will certainly still see you...just not as much!

Humping The Dude's Road Rash

Not really road rash...big, fat bummer. It was from sliding into second base!

Whatever, German Michael, "Fight Attendant" and I are going to make a "porno." Ha ha.

More SXSW Memories

http://www.crackle.com/c/SXSW_2008/Liam_Finn_-_Better_to_Be/2227302/#ml=o%3D9%26fc%3D53%26fp%3D-2%26fx%3D
Liam Finn. I had him highlighted to see, but just could never make it...too much other stuff going on. I caught his performance on DirecTV and I am so bummed I didn't get to see him.

Also, didn't get to see X, but they're at Bogarts May 16. And, The Duke Spirt, but they are in Covington next Friday, opening for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club! April 18th is going to be a bitch since I have to figure out how to see The Duke Spirit/BRMC and then get to the Gypsy Hut (Tipsy Slut) to see Culture Queer and Wussy. The Covington gig begins at 8:00 and the Northside shit starts at 10:00. I suppose it is possible?

On the Austin trip we had two vehicles...a mini van and a truck so we were split up 4 in the van and 2 in the truck and alternated driving chores. We were around Dallas and had to get gas (so over the walkie talkie after the van takes an exit and we are driving down the street) Dawn announces that we are getting gas at the place that had a "big red K with a red circle around it." Leslie's reply is, "That would be a Circle K."

But here is what was even stupider, directly across the street was another Circle K?

The other things I just remembered from Leslie. She was running down 6th St. to get to a show and literally ran into Billy Bragg. I mean she freakin' knocked into him...she just looked up and said, "Sorry Billy."

The other Leslie story. Walking down the street, she hears a band playing that song by Fastball; "The Way." And she is kind of screaming, "Why in the fuck would anybody play that stupid song, it is SO 10 years ago!" Then to her amusement, she realizes it is Fastball playing Fastball!

Oh, another one...Morrisey bought her a beer in Dublin.

That's it for now...just remembered some stuff and needed to document it.

Todd Santos Is On My TV, Right Now!!

And, yes, his eyebrows are still hideous! I haven't seen him lately; perhaps because I have stayed up all night in a long time. I was starting to think that MSNBC fired his obnoxious eyebrows.

Meg came over tonight to Doug and Dorothy's since I am bunny sitting Tinky. We played Rock Band for four or five hours. It was a blast, although, I have a stinkin' blister on my thumb again.

Later...

Sons & Daughters

I am sooooo loving this band! And, I just found a whole concert by them which was basically the same set I saw in Austin. What a bunch of hotties...all of them!

The video even has "Taste the Last Girl." That tune was one of a couple I knew before seeing them live. THEY ROCK!

Riding With The Lesbos And Kevin

That's me in the photo playing with Keef's rock-solid pecs. OMG, he is such an awesome gay guy...yeah, I wanna do him and it scares the shit out of him (kidding).

It was a beautiful day and we had a blast! Keef said we went over 100 miles (not per hour) total. We saw a freakin' big-ass vulture or something flying above us...Laurie said it was a dog with wings.

We never made it to Maysville and stopped in Augusta. After much confusion and not finding beer anywhere, we decided to bail and go across on the ferry. All was good until I decided, while waiting in line for the ferry, to sit on Kevin's Ducati. Oops. Keef, you looked horrified as I watched myself (in slow motion) fall over into you. I was lucky I didn't roll down the hill with a Ducati, Keef and a Burgman on top of me into the river.

Sorry guys! I should get the "jackass of the ride" trophey.

Good times. We found a cute little place called, "AJs Roadhouse" to have food and beer between Riverbend and downtown. It would be a great place for a meetup this summer. Riding season is here and I'm stoked!

WKRP Put Up Or Shut Up

This is a video of the 200+ scooters arriving at the Gypsy Hut after our rally ride last Saturday. What a great time. Kudos to us XYLs for making this the best rally ever!

Added: this video happened a couple of hours before jackass Doc Bob decided to crash my scooter in the gravel lot. Thanks, dude! I own your soul now.

Does Life Get Any Better Than This?

I doubt it!

OMG! Our rally was the best ever! What an awesome event...kudos to you Anita for stepping into Leslie's shoes. You did good girl, even if I kicked your ass at wii bowling Friday night.

Thanks kiddo & roomie for letting me crash with you and, thanks, even more, for getting my ass back Saturday after the Jawa meeting, Don and Carrie's crazy shit with moonshine and absinth and who knows what else? I tried to walk, but you basically carried me and I crashed on your couch with one shoe on and the other shoe off.

Good times! Long live XYLs. Oh, I actually sold the winning scooter raffle ticket! Yay me!

See you on a scoot soon, Brenda.

My SXSW Favorites!

None were disappointing. I had already posted this stuff...it took me 5-6 hours and somehow it got all phucked up. So now, I'm going to try it again, with a fresh start. The problem is I have to go find all of those videos! Hey, I'm taking one for the team! GO TEAM!!!

The Austin performers at the Thursday Day Party were amazing, Austin cranks out some good shit! There were NO disappointments! This is John Blythe, my friend Tim is in the middle playing bass. He let me crash at his place while I was in Austin. Oh, after their set, Amanda Lepre came on and rocked the house. Good shit!

And now, the bands that absolutely turned me on blissfuly!

Wussy, of course. It's been a year or two since I've seen them and they fuckin' ROCK! Can't wait to see them at The Comet, Friday, April 4th. They are a blast and I had so much fun with them on that excruciating road trip. I experienced some of the craziest conversations ever. For instance, how many times a day does the average person fart? We guessed 11.3, but the actual answer is 14 (after Googling it on my cell phone). Too much fun annoying Leslie and Chuck over the walkie talkies (we had two vehicles). Chuck's joke, "What's worse than finding a worm in your burger?" Answer, "The Holocost." Their second CD is spectacular and they are a truly awesome entertaining band live.

Photo is Lisa Walker, Dawn Burman and myself having a beer before their set at Jovita's for Twangfest. Photo from Wussy's blog. Wussy MySpace.

The Raveonettes. Holy shit! I had to stay up very late Thursday to see them, definately worth it. Sleep is overrated at SXSW.

Blitzen Trapper. I had never heard of them and they were great. A very creative band...tons of weird instruments. Two cowbells, some weird little mouth keyboard, a tiny Casio keyboard, marracas and so much more. Fun, fun, fun!

The Watson Twins. An amazing, slow cover of The Cure's, "Just Like Heaven." Very hot!

Tilly and the Wall. I'd never heard of them, but Leslie convinced me I had to go. A chick tap dancing is the percussion. It was like "Lord of the Dance" on steroids! This video is not from SXSW. I could only find one that was 42 seconds long and you can't hear the tap dancing. Awesome fucking awesome! That's all I can say...thank you Leslie, my sister of ROCK!

Sons & Daughters. I've always loved them. I took Tim (my previous computer consultant, ten or so years ago) and asked during the show if he liked them. His answer, "Hell, yeah, I wanna fuck half of them." I guess he was speaking of the two females and not the two males. I caught that same performance on DirecTV this past weekend...simply wonderful. This isn't the performance I saw, but I hung out at The Mohawk most of Friday for the woxy.com sponsored party...saw tons of bands there.

Edited to add: After watching this video, over and over and over again, I think I want to fuck all of them!

Roky Erickson. This dude was arrested on marijuana charges for a single joint in the sixties and institutionalized where they performed electroshock treatment on him. He was fried and is finally getting back to playing again. He won Artist of the Year at the Austin Music Awards Wednesday. The best part of the show was watching Chuck Cleaver dancing around like a happy little kid in a candy store. Very amusing.

The Sountrack of Our Lives. Leslie and I were standing in the impossible line to see The Donnas at Emo's, for some reason; I looked at my schedule and saw I could see Soundtrack at Esther's Follies. I showed Leslie the map for help with the venue location.

She said, "It's across the street."

I responded with, "Where?"

"Across the street, you dumbass."

"I don't see it!"

Leslie: "Can't you see the big, neon letters on the building directly across the street that says, Esther's Follies?"

I couldn't find any videos of them from SXSW. This one is a bit old, but one of my favorite tunes from them.

Another great performance. I hung out with the lead singer for awhile after the show. A perfect way to end this inspiring trip!

Well, that's what I remember. There were plenty of others where I was walking down the street and would peek in for a few minutes. It was an amazing trip and dream come true!

BTW, I wrote my first lyrics last night. Yup, Grandma's on Shrooms, are coming to terrorize you!

The Raveonettes...

...are on Letterman tonight. Definitely one of the best shows I saw at SXSW!

I think I Just Wrote My First Lyrics, Ever!

I need Paul to help and put a tune to it, personally, I think the words are pretty good. I got straight A's in creative writing at Miami University (and UC)!

I'm ready for some music...my own music; no cover tunes allowed here. SXSW inspired me so much and I'm ready to try it! Have to get some new strings for my guitars; or, perhaps, I'll learn the drums?

Yeah, that's the ticket.

Wussy At SXSW

I will be writing soon about the trip with Wussy, but I'm still exhausted and trying to figure out what I saw.

Here is a link to their blog which lists quite a few reviews and photos of the trip.

In the meantime, I found this video from KEXP with Wussy playing possibly one of the greatest rock songs ever. Enjoy, please?

Made It Back From SXSW Austin In One Piece - An Hour Ago

And my "death-shirt" is offically uncursed! At the 2006 Northside Rock-N-Roll Fourth of July Carnival, I helped out and received a staff t-shirt to wear while working in the beer booth. I enjoyed Wussy's set that night, even though they didn't play "Shunt" my favorite tune at that moment. On the way home, I crashed my scooter and broke my hand. This past Thursday, I was standing in an alley with Lisa and Chuck as they were talking about the set list for their SXSW Showcase -- happening in 15 minutes. I asked if they were going to play, "What's His Name" my favorite from their newest disc. They explained it sounds like "ass" live because they can't figure out the tempo that worked in the studio. Well, that broke my heart and asked if they were going to play "Shunt" and they said they hadn't planned on it because they rarely play it. I responded with my "Napolean Dynamite" GOSH.

I went on to jokingly tell them that I crashed because of them skipping my song. Lisa calls Mark and tells him that they have to play "Shunt". Strangely enough, Mark was trying to figure out one more song for their list. Long story short...they played it and dedicated it to me. Rock on!

Here's a link to a short review on the Thursday show from "Spin."

And another link from a Philly reviewer (scroll down close to the bottom).

While packing for this long-ass 18 fuckin' hour each way road trip, I found that dreaded shirt. I bravely took it with me. This morning, er, yesterday morning, while filling the two vehicle's tanks (with much cheaper than Ohio gas, BTW, fuck you Dubbya) I announced to Dawn and Mark that I was wearing the death shirt. Mark's response, "Well that's just great Rochelle, why in the hell do you tell us that when we are starting an 18 hour drive? Couldn't you have saved that info for, oh, I don't know, a trip to the library?" I assured them that it couldn't be cursed anymore since they played "Shunt" at both of their shows...and the curse is over!

On My Way To SXSW!

We are trying to leave by 1:30 pm tomorrow...sure!

So many obstacles before we leave, not to mention 20 hours of straight driving each way.

But, I'll help out and do the driving shit while I'll support one of the greatest bands in the world..."Wussy.)

Gonna be a long, long trip, but I'll also be seeing my computer guru, Tim!!!

Can't wait to hang out!

MSNBC Todd Santos Eyebrows Take Two

So, nobody reads this stupid little blog! But I've had a couple of comments over Todd Santos eyebrows. I guess it was up to me, since I'm on the top of google searches over his hideous eyebrows!

Dude, I'm serious, you were on my tv this morning and I had to laugh my ass off! Do something about them. Hopefully you're not a cancer survivor or something, but if you are, I apologize for making fun of you! Umkay???

Here's a photo of him, apparently before the accident or whatever. They kind of look normal here, but watch him in the early mornings, and I guarantee, they will weird you out!

More TSA Stupid Rules

Apparently, it just started today.

We were catching our flight out of San Francisco this morning and one of the agents announced, "There are new regulations since the last time you flew." Really? We flew in six days ago. What could have changed this morning?

Here it is...not only do you still have to remove your shoes, laptop and have 3 oz. bottles of liquids in a plastic bag, but get this. Now you have to put in other bins all electronics, cords and charging devices. Are you fucking kidding me?

With all of my shit, I needed four freakin' bins! Here's what I had to unload: my coat, the light jacket I was wearing over my shirt, shoes (which were double tied because if only single tied, a disaster is waiting to happen since they untie and I get dangerously close to doing a face plant), purse, backpack, laptop, cell phone, camera, laptop charger, cell phone charger, camera charger and headphones. I had one item remaining, my Tweeze (battery powered tweezers) which I could hear buzzing in my backpack sounding like I was carrying a vibrator!

I dug around trying to find my Tweeze to turn it off, when the agent said, "That's good enough, move on." So, I had to send my buzzing backpack through the x-ray machine!

Everything came out of the conveyor belt ok (surpisingly.) Then I spent another ten minutes trying to find that damn buzzing thing and repacking all of my crap.

So this speeds up security? Who are you kidding! It took me a good 15-20 minutes to complete this stupid, assinine shit.

Flying sure does suck these days!

That Was Strange

At Pier 39, we wandered into a little gift shop. Jim found state license plates. In the Ohio bin there were two from Butler County and one from Hamilton County. Apparently, Japanese tourists love these plates.

It reminded me of the time at Santa Monica pier, there was a Fairfield Lanes jacket hanging on the door.

Freakin' weird!