Category: CKB

…And Back

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Despite being born with ocean-deficient genes (itself a further irony because I was born about 200 meters from the Pacific), I managed to get myself down to the beach at Ka’anapali and into the ocean. Twice. I know I know – I can hear the peanut gallery already, but we’re talking baby steps here. Thankfully we’re a very long way away from shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

Honestly, there’s pretty much no way not to have a brilliant time on Maui and even with the Holiday invasion, things are distributed around enough that you never feel like you’re part of a mob. Some notes:

  • Wailea is the place to go if you want to feel like you’re on the Las Vegas strip. The Grand Wailea Hotel is architectually neat to check out, but is also the only place where we encountered rude staff and hollering kids.
  • Save $$$ on rental car extortion and take the Maui Bus. It’s only a buck per ride and you can spend more time looking out the window (trust me, you’ll do this a lot). Skip the car until you absolutely, positively need it.
  • Grady from ILX suggested that we check out Colleen’s in Haiku. We did, and holy crap was it good. Haiku itself is a great little town and felt most like the Maui that I was picturing to myself (jungle, farm, damp air) before arriving. When it’s time for a return visit I’d see about finding a weekly rental or B&B type of place there.
  • Kona coffee is indeed all that it’s cracked up to be.

Obligatory Flickr set.

The Small Victories That Get You Through Life

Holding down the high score on Tempest at Ground Kontrol in Portland.

Tempest high score

I’m vaguely ashamed by my rather weak 109,526 high score. Back In The Day my average score would be around 200-220K after twenty minutes or so. Still, I’ll take what I can get. Ground Kontrol’s machine is in terrific shape (along with their Robotron machine which gave me a quite a workover)

ExDetectives’ first show at the Echo Curio this Saturday

exdetect_airways_cover.jpgTime to fulfill one of the rules of having a blog: self-promotion!

It’s been awhile since I last played guitar in any kind of public context, but after seven months of work it’s time for this one particular Manhattan Project to finally make an appearance. More to the point we’ve put a hell of a lot of work into this and we’re terrifically happy with the album finally being able to play some shows: starting with our first show this Saturday night at the Echo Curio in Echo Park.

We’ll have some CD-R copies of the album (titled Airways. that’s the cover over there) to hand out to everyone (we don’t quite yet have real CDs done), but the entire album (it’s a full album too: 11 songs) will be available to download shortly. Until then, there’s four tracks up on our MySpace page.

If you’re in town, I hope to see you there!



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Ex-Detectives update

Short Ex-Detectives update. We finished up all the recording for the album and we’re on the last go-round of letting the making sure the angles are straight, letting the paint dry, and sweeping up the dust. Some of this will show up on the MySpace page and a new website that is still undisclosed.

In the meantime here’s some overdubbed ambience courtesy of Yours Truly…

Feed a cold, feed a fever, feed whatever ails you

I’m not much of a hamburger eater these days, but when I have a cold all I want to eat are hamburgers. Full-on king hell gravity-well craving. Specifically I’m looking for a burger from an extra hot grill that has a nice crispy char to the outside of the beef with a thick zone of medium rare inside. The bun only needs to be sufficient enough to sop up the juice. Anything else is unnecessary (cheese, bacon, and onions are OK. Pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and dressing are not). As much as I love the Apple Pan, Pie And Burger, and Tommy’s (which really belongs in its own category) they don’t really satisfy the I’m-sick-want-burger crave. Sorry In-N-Out fans, but you’re just not on the radar.

If I was anywhere near Portland I’d be on my way to Burgerville right now as it’s dead on what I want. The bacon burger at Sidewalk Cafe on Glenoaks gets about 70% of the way there. Still looking…

Wednesday Bleh: Coffee, Coyotes, and Downtown

Obvious observation of the day: A technical book cannot be considered to be broken in unless you have spilled coffee on at least five different pages.

Following up on my coyote sighting a couple days ago: Fred notes a picture he took of a coyote near Beverly & Formosa. The Larchmont Chronicle has more information and notes:

City officials believe the animals may be migrating through an aquaduct under Pan Pacific Park from Runyon Canyon, said Shondell.

…

Coyotes have also been spotted on Las Palmas, June St. and Alta Vista Blvd.

This last sentence blows my mind:

Coyote bites in L.A. on humans number 67 in 30 years, largely resulting from feeding them.

Bloody hell people. It’s 2007! Do we STILL have to tell people to not feed wild animals?

A couple weeks ago, I had to go to downtown LA during the midday. Big deal, right? What’s notable about it is just how routine and uneventful it was. Used to be that you had to stifle anxiety, hassle with transportation, and adopt a get-the-hell-in-and-get-the-hell-out mentality. This time was absolutely pleasant and with the added bonus of stumbling across a terrific restaurant (thanks Pete’s Cafe & Bar).

Not to get all Gladwell at you here, but that downtown critical mass seems to have finally happened.