Street Scene 2009 Set Times, Picks & Tips

Friday, August 28th
I hope there will be hot chicks at Donald Glaude like these ones!

Casbah Stage
Donald Glaude : 9:20 - 10:00: If you haven't heard the DJ stylings of electronica music legend Donald Glaude then boy are you missing out! He really "rocks the party" as the kids say. Don't miss him at Street Scene 2009!


Zarabanda Stage
Shooter Jennings : 5:45 - 6:30: Do I even need to say more then "Shooter Jennings"? THE Shooter Jennings! He is the man, he is a legend...OMG OMG I can't believe he's playing the Street Scene 2009 Festival


Dirty Sweet!


Fulana Stage
Dirty Sweet : 4:20 - 5:00: A local band that does not get enough respect for their solid craftmanship & enthusiastic fan base.

"It's Fergie, bitches!

Fulano Stage
Black Eyed Peas : 10:45 - 12:00: BLACK...EYED>...PEAS!!!! If I had to pick my favorite band at the Street Scene 2009 it would be Fergie. She is "fergie-licious" as they say. The Black Eyed Peas have two number one jams right now: "BOOM BOOM BOOM" which is amazing! And that "TONIGHT" which is even more amazing! I party down to that song ALL THE TIME. Oh so. excited.

Saturday August 29th

Green Stage
Delta Spirit : 10:30 - 11:15: A local San Diego band that has really done good for itself, they will be bringing the "blues influence rock w/ a little bit of indie kookiness" BACK to San Diego for the Street Scene 2009 Festival. I hope that singer Matt Vasquez will do some of his solo material because I missed his recent headlining show at the Casbah.

Casbah Stage
Crocodiles : 4:30 - 5:15: This is ANOTHER local San Diego band that is also making a name for itself in the old blog-o-sphere, even though some bloggers say they are bad and others say they are good! It's all very complicated, and I don't understand any of it, but all I know is that their song SUMMER OF HATE reminds me of Jesus and Mary Chain and I LOVVVEEEE Jesus and Mary Chain. At Coachella? C'mon.

Zarabanda Stage
Busta Rhymes : 6:15 - 7:00: I don't usually listen to rap music because I don't like it: There I said it. But I remember listening to Busta Rhymes in my college dormitory because our next door neighbor was from New Jersey. His songs often sound different then other rap songs, and he has an unusual style of rapping that makes him very recognizable! I've never been to a hip-hop concert, so I'm excited to see Busta Rhymes at Street Scene 2009.

Jack White of the Dead Weather: Such a charmer!

Fulana Stage
Silversun Pickups : 7:30 - 8:30
The Dead Weather : 8:35 - 9:35

How do you pick one band between the Silversun Pickups and The Dead Weather? You Don't!!! My butt will be glued here at this stage back-to-back (like the beers I'm going to drink there)! I think my head may explode!!!

m.I.A: sHE'S kooky

Fulano Stage
M.I.A. : 10:45 - 11:45: I'll be the first to admit that I didn't "get" MIA first: I mean she is from India or something like that. But she's also British? And she is always saying crazy things about this and that in all capital letters. But then I went to see Pineapple Express? Basically because it had her song in the trailer. And then the song wasn't IN the MOVIE????!!!! So I then figured out who sang the song- and from there, well, I do want to see her, even if I don't really buy into the politics.

AFTER PARTY: The Tilted Kilt in the East Village is the place to be!!!

2009 Official Street Scene After Party Poster: No Age, Crocodiles, Wavves, PENS, Grafitti Island

2009 Official Street Scene After Party

2009 Official Street Scene After Party
@ the Casbah
Saturday, August 29th
with
No Age
Crocodiles
Wavves
PENS
Grafitti Island
& DJ Mario Orduno

Tickets are $15 @ Casbah website.

Vollmann Diaries 7: No Reds in Imperial County

The Road Between El Centro and Brawley


Vollmann Diaries 1: Border Crossing//Desert Tower
Vollmann Diaries 2: New River//\Salton Sea
Vollmann Diaries 3: Into Mexico
Vollmann Diaries 4: Progress, Always, Progress
Vollmann Diaries 5: The Chinese Tunnels of Mexicali
Vollmann Diaries 6: To El Centro and Return


Let me ask you reader: What do you THINK happened when labor organizers tried to get involved with Imperial valley labor conditions? Oh, it was a bloody mess I can assure you. Well, maybe not so troubling if you are a fan of right-wing police state tactics like: American legionaires kidnapping an ACLU lawyer from his hotel room and leaving him to die, naked, in the desert. Like: The brutal beating of a lawyer on the steps of the court house by county employees. This is not to say what happened to the Mexicans. I think you can guess.

In parts 7 & 8 of Imperial, Vollmann gets into the "What happened here?" question by means of statistics. What is the average size of a farm in Imperial over time? What are the prices of crops in Imperial over time? He uses graphs a-plenty. I suppose this is what he warned readers back on page 3, but for me this is central to what makes this book great. Vollmann is saying things not said. Things not said by Mike Davis, famed author of City of Quartz, who looked at me blankly when I asked him if there were any books "like his" about the Imperial Valley.

Vollmann concludes that the story of Imperial is the story of smaller "family" farmers giving way to large, absentee corporate farmers. So what else is new? But Vollmann links that story to individual's whose lives he traces using public records. One rancher who killed himself, another who left a bitter memoir at the local museum depository.

After his discussions of labor politics he practically apologizes for the absence of material related to Native Americans. I find this understandable, but almost inexcusable. It's hard for me to believe that he didn't have money to do the work, but that's what the Vollmann-as-narrator. The paucity of the chapter on Native American inhabitants of Imperial is my only significant criticism of Imperial to this date.

Sad Hobo Clown Billy Corgan is Playing the Che Cafe 08 30

Hobo Clown

...he'll tour with Corgan on a short tour of six small California venues later this month. On this brief trek, Corgan will be backed by Spirits in the Sky, the band he formed to pay tribute to Sky Saxon, the Seeds frontman and garage rock icon who died earlier this year. Spirits in the Sky also includes Mark Tulin of the Electric Prunes.

Billy Corgan and Spirits in the Sky:

08-30 San Diego, CA - Che Café
(PITCHFORK)

Vollmann Diaries 6: To El Centro and Return

The sun setting over San Diego Bay, August 16th 2009.

Vollmann Diaries 1: Border Crossing//Desert Tower
Vollmann Diaries 2: New River//\Salton Sea
Vollmann Diaries 3: Into Mexico
Vollmann Diaries 4: Progress, Always, Progress
Vollmann Diaries 5: The Chinese Tunnels of Mexicali

I didn't read much further in Imperial yesterday because I had to drive to the Imperial County jail in El Centro, CA. to see some new clients of mine. Above is a photograph of the sun setting over the San Diego harbor. The sun doesn't care whether humans live or die- no matter how much we worship it as a deity. 75 degrees, 150 degrees, it really just doesn't matter to the sun.

Imperial Rothko

I was flipping through the 100+ pages of source notes at the end of Imperial and I noticed that Vollmann included a book about the American painter Mark Rothko. I thought that was funny, because I've often thought the landscape "out there" resembled a Rothko painting. The same could likely be said for any flat midwestern or western landscape.


Signal Mountain(?), Carrizo Mountain(?), Imperial County CA

After my jail visits I drove west through the farm land. The road twisted and turned based on no discernible relationship to the flat, featureless landscape. I found myself in front of a mid-century designed house/office which had "Brock Asparagus" on a sign written out front. Finally, rising out of the desert, what I believe to be Signal Mountain, as described by Vollmann, rose out of the desert in front of me. On Google Maps, this mountain has no name, although it appears to have a small town at its top called "el centinela"- "The Sentinel?" Maybe Google Maps interpolated the spanish name of the mountain and made it the name of a town they believe exists on top of the mountain. I don't know. (I turn Google Maps to "Satellite" and zoom in on Centinela- there is no town up there.)