i wish god were alive to see this

Return Of The Rat.

Issei came to town and picked up their tour mates from the airport, Deracine. Deracine flew in from Japan and came directly to Echo Park, their first time in America, standing on the corner of Sunset and Alvarado. They told me they wanted a pizza, a burrito, and to see a ghost town.

They just called me from Vegas and have officially sold out of the record. Hooray for snarky teenagers with weekly allowances!

Hopscotch, I'm In Your Corner.

Mikey's movie premiered at the LA film fest.

It's always good to see Dana.

Betsy and I officially adopted Lil' Nate. We are going to toughen him up and make him sleep out on the deck.

Mikey was a little nervous. It was a sold out theater though, lots of excitement, lots of old friends.

Hello, Fever.

There were these party girls on the street telling us that we HAD to go to the after party because Steve Aoki was DJing. Roach, who has known Steve for 10 years said "Well who is Steve Aoki?". They looked at him like he was from Mars and said "He's only the hottest hipster DJ in LA!".

So yeah, we went home.

You Took The Blue Out Of The Sky.

It's been that weird muggy earthquake weather. Hot, cloudy, lightning and thunder but no rain. Windy at night but still hot. I feel like I should write my last will and testament just in case one of the giant eucalyptus trees that surround our house comes down and sends me off to the big sleep. So, if you want any of my stuff, pipe up now.

In the meantime, check out Manny's form on the tee. He sticks his butt right out doesn't he?

Street Life.

The test press tour edition of the Issei singles are here! You can buy one of the 50 copies from the band on tour, or you can bid on my copy on ebay!

Hooray For Humans.

Polar Bear is back in town, but the real reason we went to Pho was to say goodbye to Walter, who is moving to Oakland to become a lawyer, and to meet his girlfriend Janie.

Janie is an awesome lady. Her favorite band is Burzum.

Guess which fortune was mine.

Love's young bananas!

Have fun in Oakland Walter! Be the lawyer who saves the world! Free all the druggies! Jail all the rapists! Make your ne'er do well friends proud!

When I got home I was finally able to settle down underneath my new dream catcher. Betsy ordered the kit from some hippy named Aslan Heart and I was looking forward to the stress free shut eye of the pleasant sleeper. The weird thing is I had nightmares all night for the first time in months BUT instead of being scary they were fun. I woke up thinking how NICE the nightmares were! The dreamcatcher doesn't keep the bad dreams out, it just makes them seem like a party.

Thank you Betsy, for fixing it so there won't ever be bad dreams about murderous cheeseburgers!

Show Me.

Gelato!

Why is that 'contact us' link up in upper left corner? I didn't put it there. It goes to someone who I don't know, and that someone won't answer my "Who the fuck are you?" emails.

Who will help me solve this mystery?

Please Excuse Me From Gym.

This weekend at the Smell, Issei Saggawa will play their first LA show. It will also be their record release, as United Record Plant is supposed to be shipping the finished singles to me by Saturday. There are only 350 copies, so bring 5 bucks to get your very own copy! We at Teardrops Records are way pumped for our first release, and are equally pumped that it is a split release with Youth Attack.

There Grew A Desert In My Mind.

Anton and Apple's engagement party was Sunday.

Betsy and Ingrid held court by the snack table.

Tommy, in the white seer sucker, Tommy wrote 'Cool Runnings' AND 'Snow Dogs'! Holy crap!

There was a gay there.

Big Carter Albee was in the house.

I wonder if I will ever stop feeling like i'm 14 years old at these adult functions?

Two of my best friends are getting married.

It's a family affair.

I'll Be Back In The Summertime.

It's been so hot. We can hardly go on walks, just make it home and lay on the bed with the fan. Betsy's car stalled on the 101 in traffic in the center lane, poor thing.

Lizards everywhere!

It's been a crazy busy work week. A weak week. A working for the weekend week. Of course, our house is incredible, and the nights and mornings are so nice. And you know, when one of your friends gets out of the County Hospital after almost losing his life or arm, whichever comes first, it helps put the good times in your own life into greater focus.

All stiched up and tight like a sausage.

DeLaRosa's got a bum wing now.

But he seems to be on the mend.

Ready To Fight.

It's official. Negative Approach is re-uniting for the Touch and Go anniversary in Chicago.

OH MY GOD.

When You Hear A Voice Say Come, Where You Gonna Run To?

Bryan and I arrived at the 6/6/06 seance just as the cellist was warming up. All light was supplied by black candles.

Pentagram cupcakes.

Mark and Lauren's place is incredible. Everyone was in black and it felt like a real 'Rosemary's Baby', New York in the 70's thing.

This guy was over from Spain. He told me that when the Medium arrived he would be hiding in the other room, and that a ghost once made him cry in terror, and he wasn't interested in revisiting that scene.

Aviram was there.

When the woman showed up the intensity began. We lost a third of the group to a rear bedroom as they were just too bugged out. She talked to Mark for a good hour before things got under way, and managed to scare off at least two more people with her talk of partying with Anton Lavey, and of cohorts who sleep with corpses.

I couldn't take pictures during the seance. Everyone put some special oil on their hands and we sat in a circle while the medium conjured up some ghosts..She said "This is my house tonight, and God is not here.", and generally made people feel awkward. I had my eyes closed and was trying my best to be overcome with some kind of otherworldly freakout, but nothing was happening. Suddenly a very strong hyper-ventilating sound came from the other side of the room and I opened my eyes. Some dude was in a trance, eyes closed, head back, possessed!

He was one of the non-believers, and there was definitely something going on with him. He drifted in and out of this spell over the next hour, couldn't stand, couldn't talk. I was jealous! The rest of the seance was pretty silly. I almost lost it when she played The Doors 'Break On Through'..Real hokey. She was flitting around the table whispering stuff about the Manson Family in everyone's ears..I think she thought we were all going to get up and do some pagan dance off or something, but no. Just stare uncomfortably and wonder if possessed guy was really possessed.

That's him with Bryan. He kept talking about how the numbers don't add up, and even though he lost control he wasn't sure what he believes, and that the paranormal doesn't jibe with his scientific mind.

If you live in NYC and want her to come and kick God out of your house for the night, It'll cost you 400 bucks.

Cheap!

The Neighbor Of The Beast.

Be careful opening that door! You wouldn't want to wind up covered in wet pain.

I Drink A Thousand Shipwrecks.

We got a little office on the 12th floor on 27th street. I am particularly fond of the roof, and the view of the Empire State Building from that roof. I climbed the water tower ladder and almost puked when I looked down.

This lady called herself the 'Rock Shamen'.

It's wee David Ransone!

There was some dread screaming at me from a window..It turned out to be Sean!

And while I waited for Sean to come downstairs Syd walked up eating dumplings.

Sean met Bryan for the first time. It was awesome because when he realised Bryan made 'Fucked Up And Photocopied' he almost had a heart attack. He said he cried at the book release party at CBGB's, that it contains his entire youth. He went on to tell us two full hours of funny stories about his childhood.

Tonight is 6/6/6! We are headed over to our friend Mark's house. It's his birthday and to celebrate he has hired a cellist and a medium. It's seance time tonight...

It Ain't No Good, Until It Hurts A Little Bit.

I had to take a red eye to New York on Saturday. Before hand though, I had to see my Baby Brother.

And I had to see Betsy and Emma. We're thinking of stealing Emma. She is so gangster.

And to the airport.

We slept maybe an hour each on the plane, got to Dave's house at 7am only to find that he gave us a bogus key. By the time we got a good key 4 hours later Bryan and I were really weird and punchy. Just tried to chillax until night fell because we were going to the Brooklyn Film Fest to see Aza and Sara's movie, 'The Goodtimes Kid.'

It was happening at the Brooklyn Museum.

Wow!

I was pumped. I flew to Brooklyn from Echo Park and was going to watch a movie set in Echo Park. I hadn't seen it yet, and I play a tough guy in a bar who beat's up Aza!

Sara.

Aza was nervous.

Baby C was there. I didn't tell anyone I was coming to New York. She was suitably shocked in her gold rope.

The movie was great. It was cool to finally see it and I swelled with pride at what my friends can make with film stolen from the set of 'Troy'.

Because I Am Now Free.

Read all about it!

Yesterday was D-Day for Aron. I gave him a June 1st deadline to deliver me the finished Sads record. He turned the goods over and got me pumped on the artwork, the label, the music and everything in between. Putting the packaging on our first four releases together is going to make for a hell of a month.

Teardrops 1-4. They won't be cheap.

Summer Babe.

Moving Betsy's stuff in, all of it, took about 45 minutes. She is NOT the pack rat and crap collector that I am. It's just a little pile of paper bags and boxes over by the bookcase.

And though she stays over most every night anyway, making it official feels great and natural and free. She always talks about living in a treehouse, and now she does.

Summertime!