Grinderman

The myth of aging has been dispelled by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. I am looking forward to the next 20 years. I swear for a brief glimpse from the light and the shadow, I saw a young Nick Cave singing on stage, with his silhouette burned into my mind.

As Warren Ellis swung and kicked and hammered away with his maracas and bowed his violin onto his fuzz wahed toy bass, the gods have thundered and conquered.

I wanna be in a band. I want to sweat blood.

Go see them if you can. You won't be disappointed.

One night in Los Angeles

San Diego

San Diego Love

Raising Arizona - 1987

GAWD I love this movie. Just rewatched this tonight, its been over 10 years since I last saw it, and I love it even more now.

Birthday Party - Junkyard

This is probably one of the best LIVE videos I've ever seen. Check out the bass player (Tracy Pew) towards the 2nd half of the video. It gets intense. Rowland S. Howard is my guitar hero.

Photo by Mike Lau, taken in NYC, 2010.

Hua Ji Fried Chicken / Baohaus in NYC

Hua Ji took up 25% of my diet during my stay in NYC, Taiwanese fried chicken and pork chop on a bed of rice with tea leaf eggs (marinated in tea leaves and spices) thanks to Josh Frank for the Taiwanese connection tips. Baohaus' Gua bao also feature cilantro with red cooked pork belly with pork fat that melted in your mouth. God bless New York. Shame on you, Montreal.

Almodovar - Broken Embraces

Just watched this tonight, Penelope Cruz is amazing in this, fuck hollywood for trying to typecast her as just another sultry latino lady in romcoms, Cruz is an amazing actress that has crazy range and charisma, and it shows in her recent collaborations with Almodovar. The story is tight and well woven together and is probably one of my favorites of Almodovar's stellar back catalog of films. Been really into films that have a plain look without any of that fancy cinematography LOOK lately. Been mostly intrigued by the process of storytelling and its execution, and I find aesthetics get in the way a lot of the times. Good storytelling well always make a great film.

I'm a hard worker when it comes to music, but film is a whole other beast altogether. Thanks to a crazy busy summer of music releases, I've successfully managed to procrastinate all this summer and fall, and had not touched or shot any additional scenes with Bernardino for my short film, and its still sitting in my hard drive like a duck that's being slowly burnt on roast. I felt my script was weak, and depended solely on the aesthetics hoping to make it abstract. But its just all bullshit if you look at yourself in the mirror. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to regroup after this self inflicted defeat and come back stronger. Like the last line of Broken Embraces said, "Films have to be finished, even if you do it blindly."

YESSIR

Juke Magazine Article

Recently guest penned an article in the UK based music magazine JUKE, about traveling, along with some travel photos I took while on the road. Pick up a free copy of Juke Magazine if you live in the UK, yo.

If your interested in reading the article, You can download the words here:http://www.mediafire.com/?okmbzcyclecyk65 in its ass whopping file size of 3 kb. Which takes less than 0.01 sec to download, I think.

J A V I E R . . P I Ñ Ó N

Check this guy's collage out, he's got a really mean style full of movements. Javierpinon.com

New York - California in 45hrs

Info on Badlands LP

Currently in portland now at a roadside motel called The Palms, on N interstate. It has a giant flashing neon palm tree as their sign. Like something out of a movie, $50/night with Wi-fi. I'm in a smoking room and it doesn't smell like ass. Highly recommend it to those on the road passing thru portland.

In terms of the up and coming full length "Badlands" LP, I have already submitted all 8 tracks to Zoo music last month, the cover art is almost finished, and we will need to get it mastered and the whole 9 yards but we are shooting for march 2011 as the current release date. I'm very excited and can't wait until it comes out because I worked my fuckin ass off for this LP. I have enough b-sides from this album to make another album. (Some, which you will hear in the upcoming split 12" with Ela Orleans)

A brief background on the LP:
The concept behind Badlands, is about a man who is possessed by the road. My mother used to say to me, "you walk at night often enough, sooner or later you'll run into a ghost." I think its very true, as the devil comes in all forms. Just here to fuck your shit up.

Side A will be all bangers, with songs about leaving, and being chased on the road, and driving a burning car into oblivion. Side B will be ballads, and dirges laced with murder and lament. Expect similar fidelity as golden desert sun and night city recordings. I am looking into upgrading my recording gear as soon as them paychecks come in, so to deliver a better quality product to the listeners. But as of now, its budget home recordings.

In the meantime, I'll be making my way north, up to vancouver after this weekend. It has been a long journey since I left montreal last month. Highlight being driving from NY to san diego in 45 hrs with 3/5 of the crocodiles. we drove non stop other than gas/peepee/shit and food. 4 drivers on shifts. Everyone was amazing, no one bitched or complained. We just drove that motherfuckin van all the way across the USA. I was the only night owl of the group so I had the 3am to 9am shift. Driving across the desert at night until the sun came up is a memory I will always cherish and remember forever.

to good health, and safe driving.

love
alex