Not Doing So Hot

I just want to relay this tid bit of information, and I quote:

"The Natural Resource Defense Council notes that the Model T (pictured above) got about 25 miles to the gallon when it started out [in 1908!]; in 2002, the fleet of American-made cars averaged 24.6 miles to the gallon"

Holy shit. That's the progress we have made ay? It's been about 100 years and it's still at the status quo. This is only one of the many annoying factors about car companies in the US. Electric Cars have existed since 1897 when the Pope Manufacturing Company made the Columbia Electric Phaeton, Mark III. In the 90s California forced car manufacturers to make electric cars. When car manufacturers were able to get around this they effectively took back all the Electric Cars they made and destroyed them. And don't get me started on the Pacific Electric Railway which was electric powered trolleys in the greater Los Angeles area that went from Downtown to Newport to Riverside to San Bernadino to Mount Wilson to Pacific Palisades and everything in between. GM along with the tire and oil companies created a front company that bought and subsequently dismantled the line. This was kind of what Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is based on, which is sort of the Chinatown of live action, cartoon, film noir, kids movies..

I mention this because we are either ignoring our history and our abilities to reap from past information or stifling progress. Almost every country in the world has higher MPG standards than ours, but we are supposed to be the best! That means that all the companies that make cars have the ability to raise the gas mileage, they just don't want to. That coupled with the fact that we are lagging scientifically, mainly because we have a President who isn't all that interested in science, and as a nation there is a distrust to science in the face of "magic" (religion).

The other viable option they are touting is Hydrogen, which anyone who knows anything about the technology knows that it is at least 15 years down the road as well as being more expensive and not very probable solution. It should be developed but it is being used as a distraction to things like electric cars or at least meeting the MPG standards of China or other developing nations and not be 100 years in the past might help me feel a little bit better about what is going on.

Wigwam Motel - Rialto, CA

Located in Rialto, CA off of the famous Route 66, this motel is one of three Tee-Pee motels that is operating today. One is in Holbrook, Arizona near the Petrified Forest and the other in Cave City, Kentucky (woo wee). I got these pics on the way to AZ but I really want to stay here for a night even though it isn't the most exciting of areas and isn't that far from home. That being said I wish they still had this lovely catch phrase on their sign, "Do it in a Tee-Pee." YES! Okay. You can still do it but they just don't encourage it anymore.

There is also an amazing Bowling sign next door which I am saving for my huge "Blowing Vernacular" post. The doors are slightly suggestive in my opinion which is maybe why they took down the old sign because maybe people where actually doing it with the Tee-Pee as oppossed to in.

Wigwam Motel Website - all kinds of info on the history and rates and reservations.

Top 40 Albums of the 90s (and the Top 11(?) EPs)

Every time a list for the best albums of a certain decade or an end of the year “best of” list, I am always up in arms over the results. There is generally always something I agree with but the rest of the time I am picking things apart and thinking about how many other records, films, or sandwiches would be better on the list than the ones picked. I seem to think I have such discerning and discretionary taste that I could make a list that is Holier than Thou. That being said there is one thing I noticed is that it isn’t as broad as I thought it would be. The 90s, unlike other periods of music was dominated strongly by what was then called “Alternative” music. Under this banner bands like Collective Soul, Ween, Nirvana, and Better than Ezra are considered part of a singular movement in a general sense. Although I grew up and my interest in music was formed during this period , as well as the fact many of my favorite albums ever come from this time, I realized my list does lack, to a certain degree, a broad sense of diversity and may be fairly redundant in some of the choices. Is it perfect? Well, no. For me this is the best I could do as I learned that list are almost impossible for me to make as I feel such a wide range of things for so many different records.

One thing this list is not is unbiased. These are the albums I feel are the best to my listening ear over that 10 year period. Are these the most defining records? Some unequivocally are that. Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, and Slint’s Spiderland each single handedly brought to fruition entire movements of music; Lo-Fi 4 track recordings, Shoegaze, and Post-Rock, respectively. Are these all the defining albums according to a broad spectrum of music? Absolutely not. Nirvana’s Nevermind, Radiohead’s OK Computer, Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet among others are examples of albums that define this period but do I listen to them? Eh.

The 90s was the decade of Alternative Rock, and it’s respective genres, and Rap and its. It’s easy to tell what camp I am in but my bias comes from a stronger interest in music in it’s production as opposed to lyric based songwriting. There is an interesting drop of point in 97-98 most of the great bands of the time had died out, sans the ones that were just getting their bearings, and a new form musical abomination was taking over the airwaves and dumbing down an entire generation of youths. Rap-rock and Boy-Band style pop music became the dominant sound and with it came a new generation of a music that was a reaction to what was the dark ages of music. This list I hope is something that you can at least understand, I am sad about the collateral damage that occured in the act of making a list like this (Bjork, Aerial M, Beastie Boys, Beck, For Carnation, Sam Prekop, Weezer Blue Album, Giant Sand, Heavy Vegetable and Thingy, David Grubbs, Lovechild, Mogwai, Boards of Canada, John Zorn, Pixies, Talk Talk, Notwist, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Ween, Fly Ashtray, Don Caballero, etc) but it came down to what I really listen to and respond to as a whole album. Most of these choices are deeply personal, some in ways, especially with Gastr Del Sol and Tortoise, are where they are at because of new sense of enlightenment they brought me to musically. Some of these like Polvo’s Today’s Active Lifestyles or Jim O’Rourke’s solo work, are criminally overlooked and I feel as though time will finally catch up with these albums if it hasn’t already. Hopefully…

That being said I will be making other list for the 80s, 70s, 60s, and from 2000-06 as I get to them. For now I give you my Top 40 Albums of the 90s and as well as the Top 11(?) EPs of the 90s. Enjoy.


1. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
2. Tortoise - Millions Now Living Will Never Die
3. Boredoms - Super Are
4. Flaming Lips - Zaireeka
5. Gastr Del Sol - Upgrade & Afterlife
6. DJ Shadow - …Entroducing
7. Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand
8. Polvo - Today’s Active Lifestyles
9. Slint - Spiderland
10. Modest Mouse - This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About
11. Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted
12. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
13. Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
14. Built to Spill - Ultimate Alternative Wavers
15. Jim O’Rourke - Bad Timing
16. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
17. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - F# A# Infinity
18. Sun City Girls - Torch of the Mystics
19. The KLF - Chill Out
20. Sonic Youth - Goo
21. Squarepusher - Music is Rotted One Note
22. Grifters - Crappin’ You Negative
23. Neutral Milk Hotel - In an Aeroplane Over the Sea
24. Tortoise - TNT
25. Pavement - Wowee Zowee
26. Gastr Del Sol - Camofleur
27. Faust - You Know Faust
28. Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle
29. Chavez - Ride the Fader
30. Bugskull - Phantasies and Sensations
31. Mercury Rev - Yerself is Steam
32. Guided by Voices - Alien Lanes
33. Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R.
34. Halo Benders - God Don’t Make No Junk
35. Silver Jews - American Water
36. Storm & Stress - S/T
37. Modest Mouse - Lonesome Crowded West
38. Built to Spill - Perfect From Now On
39. Brainiac - Hissing Prigs in Static Couture
40. Barry Black - Tragic Animal Kingdom


EPs:

1. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada
2. Gastr Del Sol - Mirror Repair
3. Jim O’Rourke - Halfway to a Threeway
4. Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 - Admonishing the Bishops
5. Polvo - Celebrate the New Dark Age
6. Brainiac - Electro-Shock for President
7. The Sweet Things - Deliver
8. Pavement - Watery, Domestic
9. Helium - Pirate Prude
10. Slint - S/T
11. Modest Mouse - The Fruit That Ate Itself

Watts Tower

Los Angeles is home to an innumerable amount of monuments. Although not neglected this is probably the most rarely visited because of it's location, Watts home of the 1965's Watts Riots. Built by Simon Rodia, working solo, this Gaudi like piece of folk art was constructed with nothing but found objects. It is truly stunning in person even though it was fenced off (only open on the weekend, who knew).

Watts Tower is located on 1765 East 107th St. Los Angeles, CA

More info can be found here.

Phoenix Trotting Park: A Photo Essay

Since leaving Arizona in July of 2003 I have made the trek back and forth for holidays and various reasons. Every time I have made the drive I also notice, off the I-10 near Goodyear an amazing horse track about 20 miles on the outskirts of Phoenix. It's the first building other than Snyder's Pretzel's that tells me I am almost done with the drive. Last time I took the drive, after three years of driving by the thing, I finally decided to pull over and see it for myself. I always thought it was interesting as a piece of abandoned architecture but over the years as my palate for architecture has developed I realized what a stunning piece of Mid-Century Modernism it really was.

I pulled up on a No Tresspassing dirt road and hopped the fence. The first structure I came across was the building with the folded plate roof. It overlooked where the track must have been but now a grouping of abandoned trailers. My thoery was this was for the press or for private members. The track itself, which I was later to learn as called Phoenix Trotting Park, was a wonder in poured concrete and space age design. I entered the building and began walking up a long flight of stairs, I think I went up about six stories before I got too freaked out for my safety being alone as I was. With all the really tough Cypress Hill graffiti I didn't want to encounter some gang initiation or a scene out of The Birds. Many of the structual elements remain intact but almost everything apart from that is either destroyed or covered in bird shit.

I did some research and this is a compilation of the the information (word) I have found:

"The Phoenix Trotting Park, a horse racing track, was originally built in 1964 in Goodyear, Arizona. It opened in 1965 and was run for about two and a half seasons. The large, futuristically designed structure gave an optimistic look for the 1960s. It was originally supposed to be built for $3 million, but after Italian architects and contractors were brought in it wound up closer to $10 million, essentially bankrupting its builder, James Dunnigan, who had operated Buffalo Raceway. It was built of reinforced concrete, and could have withstood a direct hit by a hydrogen bomb... It is still standing, and some future travelers from space probably will regard it in the same way Stonehenge in Britain is regarded today... a monument built in the desert by sun worshipers. Sad story from start to finish." -Stan Bergstein

In 1998, movie crews chose the site to film an explosion for the movie "No Code of Conduct." No Code of Conduct is an action film involving cops and drug dealers. American Humane Association had been informed by production that there were no animals being used in the filming. Therefore, AHA was not on set and was not involved in the monitoring of any animals involved in the production.

The script called for the explosion of a drug warehouse at the end of the film and production chose to use an abandoned building at Phoenix Trotting Park in Goodyear, AZ. During the filming of the special effects explosion, hundreds of birds that were indigenous to the location were injured and killed. Although AHA was told by a production spokesperson that the company had attempted to clear the area and the building of the birds, there were several hundred birds still in the building at the time the explosives were detonated. According to a media source at the time of the incident, a representative from Arizona Department of Fish and Game approved the explosion. -ahafilm.info

Burbank Through a Hole in the Poll

Took this while hiking through Griffith Park

John Stossel's Freeloaders: Creating a Dependency System 20/20

Save your change. There will always be exceptions to the rule, as is shown by the guy who shows up for work, but this is the reality of it. Living in Los Angeles, it's easy to see how the dependency system helps enable an area like the Skid Row to thrive in the most negative ways possible.