Favorite Albums of 2008

“Cardinology,” Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Adams hands over the reins to his great backing band, who help the ADD-prone songwriter to focus and produce his most consistent and satisfying album yet.

“Tell Tale Signs,” Bob Dylan
Bobby Z’s left-overs (this CD of outtakes and live versions) are better than your “A” material…but then again, you didn’t have Daniel Lanois producing your stuff.

“Mudcrutch,” Mudcrutch
Tom Petty gets his old band back together for an album and tour. The result? Top-notch psychedelic country-rock, ala Gram Parsons and vintage Neil Young.

“Gift of Screws,” Lindsay Buckingham
Hook-y tunes and Pro Tools twiddling from pop’s genius guitarist. Great.

“Viva La Vida,” Coldplay
Get the repackaged set that includes Prospekt’s March, a disk of remixes, etc.

“Live in Gdansk,” David Gilmour.
Gilmour’s endless repackaging of Pink Floyd highlights—great as they are—is thankfully augmented here with the entire “On an Island” song list. Still the best Strat player out there.

“Where the Light Is,” John Mayer
Would have preferred an another studio album like the briliant 2006 “Continum,” if only to prove to us that he’s finally forsaken the sensitive acoustic guitarist/pretty-faced pop singer shtick in favor of wicked good blues hooks. Time will tell.

“Seeing Things,” Jakob Dylan
While we wait for a new Wallflowers CD, we’ll settle for Jake’s acoustic set here, covering some of Dylan Sr.’s ground with protest songs.

“Snakes & Arrows Live,” Rush
Cool-hunters' "best-of" lists found in all the newsstand rags would never dare include a 30 year-old prog rock band, but the jaw-dropping musicianship here is matched by a fan-challenging set list of new material coupled with more obscure catalogue cuts. Check out the stage props in the DVD version.

Happy Day-After-Christmas

Got a medical call at 4 a.m. this morning.

The patient's chief complaint?

She couldn't sleep.

Now my crew has it...

Waiting for Rain

Outside my window, it’s overcast and cool.

Not yet Christmas, but I’m already looking back on 2008—I was going to write one last snarky post for Switch 2 Plan B in the form of a year-end review. We’ll see.

It’s been a difficult year…

But it’s quiet this morning.

I’m taking most of the week off, but have to work on Christmas day. Until then, I’ll be doing a little more of this: sitting by the fire with my laptop.

I wrote about 146 blog postings this past year. Not bad. This past month, I got over 500 hits in a single week, but for a blog, that’s not really saying much at all. Every week I ask myself the same question: Should I keep blogging, or just shut it down? Is there are point to all this?

I’m waiting for the rain. It never rains here on Christmas…

But sooner or later, everything must go...

Last Strike Team of 2008

There are two seasons here in So Cal: fire season and mud slide season. I finished up the former on our department’s new OES rigs.

For a couple of days, we drove up and down Topanga Canyon and Mulholland highway to recon the area in case the red flag winds stoked one last major fire for the year.

The engine is a brand new International model 34, four-wheel-drive. It’s designed for off-road driving—and let me tell you, it’s a blast.

I put a lot of miles on the rig during those two days: Fernwood, Malibou Lake, and even a quick stop on PCH to snap a picture of the crew, using the Pacific Ocean as a backdrop.

Do I look fat in these pictures?

I think I know what my New Years resolution is going to be this year...

New OES Rigs

They give us introductory training (mandatory) on these new OES (California Office of Emergency Services) rigs on Monday. On Monday night they tell me I'll be assigned to it the next day--and with the unpredictability of staffing policy, that means I'm either in the middle of a 36-hour shift, or starting a 21-day stint out-of-county...

Classic...

Wish I'd paid attention in class...

Take Back the Season

No, wait…this isn’t one of those blog postings about the over-commercialization of Christmas, and that whole “reason for the season” rant. I mean, let’s get real: Retailers do most of their business during these next few weeks. Sometimes it seems like the Lord created Christmas just to keep our economy afloat. So Happy Holidays, Best Buy!

No, this post is about something far more important…

The weather.

Every year here in Cali, we’re subjected to miles and miles of front yard tableaux, replete with cheap plastic statues of carrot-nosed snowmen and prancing reindeer. In the malls, an unending soundtrack of cheery winter songs like “Let it Snow!”

Here, sing it with me: “Oh, the weather outside is frightful…”

You want frightful weather? How about a snappy melody extolling temperatures in the 80s and 90s? Relative humidity dropping into single digits? Santa Ana winds out of the northeast at 60 miles an hour? Now that’s frightening Christmas weather! It’s called “Red Flag,” jolly St. Nick!

When will the rest of this country stop those on the East Coast from dictating the mood for the holidays, with their depressing motifs of snow and cold?

It was probably 72 and sunny in Bethlehem that day, for cryin’ out loud! If the baby Jesus wanted to become God incarnate in snow pack, he would’ve picked Oslo, Norway.

Jesus wants you to celebrate his birthday as it really happened: Hot and cloudless. He doesn’t even like the East Coast. Ever read a Bible story that depicts the Son of Man ice-skating? “Blessed are the snowboarders?”

No!

Take back the season…

Instead of heading up to the local mountain resorts, drive out to the desert and come back with your pick-up truck bed full of sand and creosote bushes. Decorate your front yard with plastic camels and sweaty Bedouins. For that big holiday meal, serve up roasted roadrunner and cactus. “Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow!”

That’s what Jesus would do for the holidays.

Ryan Adam's "Fix It" (my new favorite song)

When It Absolutely, Positively Must Get There Overnight

So get this:

Some lady apparently has been boxing up toddlers and shipping 'em out to random, unsuspecting recipients.

The tots seem to enjoy it, but I hear it's freaking out folks when they open up the box.

Strange...

Sylmar Fire Oakridge Mobile Home Park

On Wednesday, our engine toured the burned-out Oakridge Mobile Home Park, which lost about 477 homes on the night of the Sylmar fire last weekend. These were not small single-wides, but rather, large modular homes complete with brick foundations and manicured front lawns.


With us was Captain David Yonan, who has been credited with helping save the remaining 131 homes there. LA County units returned to make an incredible stand that morning. You can read his story here.

I know that after firestorms, phrases like "war zone" get thrown around a lot, but I really can't think of any other force on earth that could cause such vast destruction. Acres and acres of rubble and burned out cars sitting in driveways of now-nonexistent homes. I could only shake my head.

As we walked around, I tried to draw our boot fireman into an existential discussion of theodicy, God, and the notions of fate and luck.

But as I've said before, in the end, everything must go...

Structure Protection Sylmar Fire 2008

Guy on the left? Three months on the department...

Guy on the right? A year or two left until retirement...

What do they have in common?

Sharing a few minutes of sleep on a citizen's backyard swing before the fire front reaches our position...

Lessons learned? Sleep with one eye open, so the snarky engineer doesn't pull out his camera and blackmail you...

The Next 48

Oh man, I am so not looking forward to this weekend. High winds, high temps, and low humidity all predicted...

And after my usual 24 hour engine shift, they're making me drive this piece of junk on Saturday:

Great...

Hope & Change 2008

The End of Happiness

So…what ever happened to “Get Happy” month over at Switch 2 Plan B?

Fair enough question.

I mean, let’s face it—after promising 30 days of giddy postings, did I follow up with even a single “happy” essay?

I started the month out by explaining why I didn’t walk around with a smile on my face all day long (like some creepy people I know!). Then I publicly sorted through my various anxiety disorders for your personal entertainment...

Then I left town...

Sorry. Lost interest. Come on! Who are we kidding? That proposition was a loser from the start, and you knew it!

The truth is I write whatever the hell I want.

I’m a rebel, baby! No good!

And that’s why you keep coming back!

Everything must go…

Weird Tales

This ever happen to you?

You're driving down the street and suddenly you get this creepy feeling that Mr. Death is following you?

Literally...

Weird.

Songs About Fire

When the wind picked up

And the fire spread

And the grapevines scene left for dead.

And the northern sky, like the end of day,

The end of days.

A wake up call to a rancid room

Sounded like an alarm of impending doom.

To warn us it's only a matter of time.

Before we all burn

I brought some wine and some papercups

Near your daughter's school when we picked her up

And drove to the cemetary on a hill

On a hill.

And we watched the plumes paint the sky gray

And she laughed and dance through the field of graves

There i knew it would be alright

That everything would be alright,

And the news reports on the radio

Said it was getting worse

Cause the ocean air fanned the flame.

But i couldn't think there was anywhere i would have rather been

To watch it all burn away.

To burn away.

("Grapevine Fire" by Death Cab for Cutie)

Indecision 2008

The polls have closed, and America YOU have decided:

Winning 44% of the vote, the Rickenbacker 360 12-string beat out both the Gretsch G6128 and Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster in the “Which Guitar Should Brian Buy” race over at Switch 2 Plan B.

I strongly suspect that the Epic Beat stuffed the ballot box so that he’d get to hear that classic Rickenbacker chime next time I played the Grove.

And I’m guessing that Stew—a strong Fender partisan—may be crestfallen over the results.

But I’d love to know who voted for what, and why.

(And of course, if you guys think I’m going to let an informal survey like this sway my decision, you’re all nuts. I’m still undecided…)

Backstage, Madame Wongs, 1984

One more True Confessions picture: Bassist John Warner with vocalist, um...wait a minute...it will come to me...Erin! Yeah, that's it!

Just kidding Erin...

D-Rave says his kid looks like me; you be the judge:

Me, 1984

Calvin, 2008...

Pleasant Valley Sunday (part 2)

The local rock group down the street
Is trying hard to learn their song
Serenade the weekend squire,
who just came out to mow his lawn

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Charcoal burning everywhere
Rows of houses that are all the same
And no one seems to care


See Mrs. Gray she's proud today
because her roses are in bloom
Mr. Green he's so serene,
He's got a t.v. in every room


Creature comfort goals
They only numb my soul

and make it hard for me to see
My thoughts all seem to stray

to places far away
I need a change of scenery

Another Pleasant Valley Sunday
Here in status symbol land
Mothers complain about how hard life is
And the kids just don't understand

Played

Skulls
Tats
Skull tats
Full sleeve
Harleys
Baggy pants past your ass, boxers showin’
Nose piercing
Eyebrow piercing
Gangsta rap with angry lyrics about shit you never had to endure
Black clothes
Mohawks
Goatees
Shaved heads
Doc Martins
Hi tops
Hard core metal with angry lyrics about shit you never had to endure
Age-ism
The N word
Arguing about who can and cannot say the N word
Clintons
Bushes
Red v. Blue
Cynicism
Christian-bashing
Fox News
The Daily Show
Smugness
Hypocrisy
Accusing others of hypocrisy
14 miles to the gallon
Bumper stickers about your faith/lack of faith
Illiteracy
Short attention spans
Texting
Self-aggrandizement
YourBook
MyFace
Hookin’ up
Kids having kids
Leaving your wife & kids
Binge
Ingratitude
Bling
Virtual
Viral
Reality shows
American Idol
Dawg
Ho
Ennui
Disaffection
Affecting disaffection
Taking offense
Aggression
Your bad-ass stance…

All of this junk is PLAYED!

It’s all, what?—ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty years old now? It’s over…

Do you really need a 40-something to point this out to you?

Everything must go…

Timber!

This call came in on the morning of Labor Day: An old and very tall pine tree toppled onto this single story home, crashing right through the master bedroom, where the sole occupant was sleeping.

See if you can find the bed in this picture...Hint: It's right there under the ceiling fan!

Miraculously, she self-extricated, with only a few minor lacerations and abrasions.

An hour later, when I made a quick search of her room to recover her laptop and cell phone, the huge tree was still creaking and groaning.

But I noticed that her house now had a wonderful pine-fresh scent to it.

Get Serious!

That idiot over at Switch 2 Plan B has pledged to post nothing but "happy thoughts" for the next 30 days! Can you believe that?

He'll never make it...

Until he comes back down to reality, his readers are going to need some comic relief, so we here at EMG (Everything Must Go) are going to serve it up!

Enjoy!

Benefit Concert for VHL Family Alliance Cancer Research Fund a Success!

On the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, my 17 year-old nephew Calvin plugged in his guitar and took the stage at VHL-stock, an event he helped arranged to raise awareness of Von Hippel-Lindau disease, and garner donations for the VHL Family Alliance Cancer Research Fund.

Calvin has the rare genetic disease that leaves him vulnerable to tumors on his eyes, spinal cord, and adrenal glands, and has already had three surgeries to remove such growths.

The event raised over $11,300 for the cancer fund.

I think the ghost of Hendrix would have approved of our appropriating the Woodstock moniker, as the Fender Stratocaster-wielding Calvin opened the night’s set of music with cover tunes by Ryan Adam, Elvis Costello and Tom Petty.

Calvin was backed by his dad, D-Rave on drums, his uncle Brian (Switch2PlanB) on guitar, and his cousin Joe on keyboards, with a band that also featured Nick of the Pink Floyd tribute band, “Which One’s Pink?” on keyboards and guitar:

The show turned into a reunion of sorts, as D-Rave and Brian (below) played together again for the first time since they shared the stage in L.A. rock bands True Confessions and Painted Horses.

The VHL-stock band rocked the house with some original tunes by Calvin…

And Joe sat in, playing a song written in tribute to his dad—our brother Gary…

(sorry for the blurry photo, Joe!)

Rocky Peak's Wes, was awesome on bass...

And Lauren sang lead and backing vocals...

Thanks to Joel Lifter for all the photos--and awesome brownies!

After the show, rumors of a VHL-stock II were already in the air...

Thanks to everyone who attended, and all who donated so generously!

(For more pix, go here...)