Portishead was in Downtown LA and Nobody Told Me About It

One of my favorite genres of music is 1990's music from Bristol, England. I am talking about Tricky, Massive Attack, and Portishead (often referred to as "trip hop", but some people do not think it should be called that for reasons that are not clear to me.) After not being active for nearly a decade, I have heard that Portishead is making a come back and is working on a new album. I haven't kept tabs on their activity, but I was skeptical yet hopeful... and then I noticed this post on LAist!! Excerpt:

With the Mayan Theater about half-full and slowly being filled with puffs of pot smoke, Portishead took the stage last night for their super-secret-show, and welcomed the crowd by announcing that it was a rehearsal for Coachella, and that this whole event is just so they can test their instruments.

The crowd was immediately awestruck, as the band started off with two new songs from their album Third, even the security guards.

To think..
Portishead..
was only... a more few blocks away from where I live..
putting on a secret show...
that I did not know about...
(but if I did, I would have dropped everything for two hours and have gone!)

!!Oh the mixture of excitement and dissapointment!!


I will end this post with links to Portishead on you tube:

Portishead, performing "Only You"




The video to "All Mine"


(And a live performance of "All Mine", which has been disabled for embedding.)


People who do not recognize Portishead may have heard their song "Sour Times" via cultural osmosis (of various contexts):

Interactive Urban Environment: Sharing Your Music with the Neighborhood

I have been seeing more and more people walking around with radios and stereos on their shoulder playing music. I wonder what the cultural origins of this is.

The Trumpet Player of 4th and Spring

I often hear this guy playing his trumpet.



Often the same song "have yourself a merry little christmas" even when its not christmas time. Nice personable guy. I always nod my head whenever I walk passed him.

Errands

I had to do a few errands around downtown the other day, (i)go to a Japanese market in Little Tokyo to get some dried seaweed and (ii) go to Grand Central Market to get some nopales and plantains.

As I was walking to Little Tokyo from the Historic Core, I made the decision to get a bike. I have safety concerns about riding a bike in LA, but fuck it I'll just ride on the sidewalk. It would have saved me a considerable amount of travel time. I didn't want to take my scooter because I didn't want to schlep it around inside the stores, and the chain that I use to chain it to bike posts was accidently left at work.

I don't have a place to put it in my place (yet). I wish we had more bike racks in my neighborhood. -Heck, all over the city for that matter.

Anyway, so I was walking up Main St on my way to the office depot in Little Tokyo. I passed by this man standing by a phone booth. He asked me if I can take a picture of him with City Hall in the background. He looks as though he may have been standing there for a while looking for somebody to take a picture of him. I told him I will do it only if he would let me take a picture of him.

So he let me take a picture of him:



I have been wanting to take pictures of people I see in the streets for YEARS. I just never had the audacity to just do it without asking, or to ask them and then do it. Its just so awkward. At most I have just been taking pictures of people's feet and legs in the subway:






Or the backs of unsuspecting people from the back of the bus:




Or their refection (in addition to the backs of their heads):




Or unsuspecting people waiting for the subway:




Or photos of people I intentionally take while I am pretending to fiddle with my camera:




But for now on, whenever somebody asks me for something when I am out and about, whether it be for change, directions, the time, etc. They will have to let me take a picture of them otherwise they get jack shit from me.

On my way to that Japanese market in that pedestrian walk way between 1st and 2nd street, I came across a musician named Greg Walsh playing the shamisen



He had a gathering of women over the age of 70 around him sort of dancing their upper torso while sitting and he was just simply awesome. I bought his CD for a reasonable $5.

On my way back to the historic core I saw some guy on 3rd St riding a rather unusual bike:



It looks uncomfortable. I would have asked if I could try it if I wasn't wearing a skirt. That is simply the worse way to travel on wheels if you are wearing a skirt.

I ran into Ricky The Pirate and he let me take several photos of him. I'll do a post later of all the pictures that I took. I think he is quite photogenic.



I then went to grand central market to buy some nopales and plantains.





Then I went home to make cooked plantains, nopales with tomato and wild mushrooms.

A future post will be on how to make this favorite nopales dish of mine.

Michel Gondry Music Videos

I recently got a hold of a DVD that is a collection of the creative works of Michel Gondry. He is the director of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind and several music videos.

I saw two particular music videos that are set in Los Angeles. One is "Let Forever Be" by The Chemical Brothers which is about a red head waking up from her bed at The Barclay on 4th and Main and then she dances all over the place and it quickly gets surreal after that. The bearded drummer looks like he is drumming right in front of where Warung is now. Its a gorgeous video. Too bad the low resolution on youtube does not do it any justice.

The other one is "Deadweight" by our local surrealist in Silverlake, Beck. You see him lounging in a beach chair in an office building with downtown LA outside the window, and him at the Nuart by the 405 fwy watching his own video.




"Let Forever Be" by The Chemical Brothers




"Deadweight" by Beck

Laptopist

I always see this laptop musician playing beaaaaaaautiful electronic music at every art walk on 5th St. Who is this guy and how can I get a hold of him? Does he do weddings, funerals, house warming parties and bar/bat mitzvahs? I really freak'n love the music.

Carlos

A few weeks ago, word in the neighborhood had it that Carlos Santana was playing his guitar on the rooftop of the Rosslyn. This is a classic example of of how my neighborhood can be so random and surreal. I am not much of a fan of Santana, but I do like more than dislike his music and I just had to check it out for the shits 'n giggles. Actually, one of the most stunning guitar performances I have ever seen (not in person) is his Soul Sacrifice at Woodstock, 1969. He looks like he is having one big long orgasm. I admire his intensity.

So I went up to the rooftop and it turns out that he was filming a video.

One of my favorite kinds of pictures to take are of people taking photos of people. In between takes, the film crew and extras were eating snacks, lounging, and taking photos.

I was able to sneak in a shot of him before I left...