Evan

the black watch,

Under Chartreuse Skies

I swear there is no filter. Such is the sickly haze and pollution from fires that have burned two million acres in California. The fact that the first fire started as the result of a gender reveal party [https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/08/us/el-dorado-fire-gender-reveal-update-trnd/index.html] stunt

clan of xymox

I like food, food tastes good.

It's also good for civilization and culture. I wrote about that for Splice Today [https://www.splicetoday.com/consume/the-decline-of-western-culinary-civilization] . The weather is hot as shit in L.A. right now. This is a surprise to anyone who doesn't pay attention to the seasons or doesn&

goth

Rosetta Stone

I have always hated the word "goth" to define a genre of music that is essentially dance with (usually) minor key undertones. It's so limiting a name. And within that genre there is a synesthesia spectrum ranging from dark purple to shimmering gold. I remember being

guided by voices

Guided By Voices "Mirrored Aztec"

Robert Pollard has released so many albums at this point, it is impossible to keep up. I am certainly guilty of missing some of the most recent ones, or only giving them one cursory listen before forgetting about them. It's not that they are bad; far from it.

Skinshape "Life and Love"

Nice music for a Sunday morning. The second song "Inside," is so good.

Heat wave

SoCal's in a heat wave. Death Valley recorded (maybe) the highest temperature since the 1930s. Closer to shore it's also sticky, and the ocean smells like fish that has been left out too long. I've reached a mental state in the pandemic where I&

The Ocean Greys,

Sailing on a queasy sea with The Ocean Greys

Whether it's music, visual art or writing [https://www.amazon.com/Evan-Brown/e/B076KTGR2N?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1597510363&sr=8-1] , the only thing harder than making art is finding an audience for it, especially if you are going about it independently. I&

I wrote about defiance in L.A. for Splice Today

I wrote about this, and viewing the red tide at night for Splice Today [https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/l-a-s-defiant-light-brigade]. I have never been more proud of Los Angeles than this year of all years.

I am sorry for this earworm

But I forgot about this song for a moment and now that I remembered it, it has to be in your head now, too. Them's the rules. Also the video is off kilter and I like that.

Big ifs and other whats

It's six in the morning, time when the marina seals are asleep and their barking doesn't echo in the neighborhood. It's weirdest at night, because I never anticipate it. At least the dogs downstairs ignore it. Since March sixth when we decided as a

Camper Van Beethoven

Predicting the future

Can artists, authors and musicians do it? Should they do it more often? Yes and yes. Or at least that's my pov in Spectator [https://spectator.us/camper-van-beethoven-saw-future/] today.

grateful dead,

Happy Birthday Jerry Garcia

The Grateful Dead were never a part of my listening repertoire growing up. This was all due to the fact I was being judgmental. Not on the band or the music. I judged the rich yuppie kids who went to my high school, who wore their tie-dyed shirts and could

The Republic of Maskafornia

I'm starting to think the pandemic is getting to people.Then again, the same thing happened in 1918. As usual, the media has differing opinions about it. Emphasis on the word "opinion." Because these are opinion pieces. Not journalism. Take for instance, this Wasington Post article

Titans of Disgrace

When it comes out at all, the sun rises over an amphibious parking lot. So many boats in the marina are empty. Unlike summers past, there's no sight of fishing poles or teetering girls in heels and a miniskirts, clutching half drunk champagne bottles. Blaring Persian music is

Covid story arcs

Last night we went to dinner to celebrate fur monster's life one more time and dine on chicken, her favorite food. Sitting outside on the restaurant's newly created patio, being served by cheerful people wearing masks and plastic face guards is still unsettling and dystopian. I

R.I.P. Bowie Cat

My cat Bowie died this evening suddenly. Our local vet was closed due to Covid, so I had to drive an extra half hour to the nearest emergency vet. By the time I got there, it was already too late and the doctor sympathetically explained that it would be cruel

walter kirn

Lies we call memoirs

My July reading/listening has thus far been memoirs. Walter Kirn's Blood Will Out [https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Will-Out-Mystery-Masquerade/dp/0871404516] and Remain in Love [https://www.amazon.com/Remain-Love-Talking-Heads-Club/dp/1250209226] by Chris Frantz. Other than well-written detective fiction, memoirs are my favorite genre, especially in relation

emitt rhodes

R.I.P. Emitt Rhodes

Fantastic singer and musician. Our criminally unsung McCartney.

guided by voices

Guided by Voices 2020

Just finished watching a Guided by Voices concert recorded recently. It wasn't live (as evidenced by Uncle Bob's change of shirts, and the trippy footage interspersed) but it more than fulfilled the promise of what GbV is all about: marathon setlists, camaraderie and songs to pump

death

Elegy to one of my childhood homes

On certain days I can still recall the smell of faint mildew on a linoleum-lined sun room in my grandfather’s house. He pulled himself out of the Pittsburgh ghetto where he was born, went to Carnegie tech, now called Carnegie Mellon University, became an draftsman at US Steel and

grateful dead

Americana on a timeline

Such a long long time to be gone And a short time to be there... I was never a Grateful Dead fan although I appreciated the concept. I love the idea of a continuing Americana. Not cowboys so much as troubadours. Wide open landscapes and the security and safety of

lou reed

Happy 4th

Covid Hotel

Between September of 2019 and March of 2020 I spent roughly 110 days in hotel rooms because of a weekly commute from L.A. to San Francisco. It says a lot about the price of rent San Francisco that spending that many days in hotel rooms was cheaper than renting

poem

Three poems about the beach

1. Mornings spent on sand Under endless June Gloom. Grey skies far and wide, Far as eyes can see, Grey, the color I always wished my eyes were. It's 62 degrees at six-thirty And the sun never comes until Well after one. Groundhog Day and Waiting For Godot

Covid claims an L.A. restaurant

Pacific Dining Car (The Santa Monica location) is closing because of the Covid lockdown made it impossible for them to survive. I know they aren't the only ones who will suffer this fate. The downtown outpost is an institution founded in 1921. the Santa Monica one came later