The Dollyrots and The Action Design
Introduction. Let’s start this off by talking about books. I am currently reading a book titled “House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street” by William D. Cohan. This book describes the events surrounding the collapse of Bear Stearns – a Wall Street firm. It is 450 pages long and I am currently on page 131. I’m slowly reading through the book and hopefully as soon as the Lakers-Magic Championship Series ends, I’ll speed through the rest of the book rather quickly because it has grabbed my attention. I recently read a book titled “Bad Money: Reckless Finance, Failed Politics, and the Global Crisis of American Capitalism” by Kevin Phillips. This book also looks at our financial system. Kevin Phillips looks at the beginnings of our current economic crisis from a high level perspective while William D. Cohan focuses squarely on a specific Wall Street bank. Now why would I find reading books about our economic collapse so interesting? If you read my bio, you’ll notice I have a degree in economics so I rather enjoy reading about financial collapses and such. I can’t possibly spend all my reading time; however, reading about how depressing our current economic state is so I recently squeezed in Michael Crichton’s “Airframe,” a quick to read techno-thriller that he was so well known for – he also wrote books such as “Jurassic Park,” “Timeline.” (I use “was,” as Michael Crichton recently passed away.)
The Knitting Factory. The Knitting Factory holds a special place in my heart. I first got introduced to a number of cool local Los Angeles bands at this location: Bang Sugar Bang, Underwater City People, The Randies, Midway and Silver Needle to name just a few. (more…)
Queen Kwong
A Friday night at Echo Curio.
I headed over to Echo Curio recently to check out three bands. This was only my second time going over to Echo Curio. The first time was to see Spider Problem and Underground Railroad to Candyland. That was an interesting night that involved some art destruction. You see, Echo Curio is an art gallery on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park. The location is just east of The Echo and Barragan’s, walking distance.
Regarding parking. The first time I went to Echo Curio, I tried to find parking on the neighborhood streets that surround the area. I found parking, but it took me awhile. This time around I just parked in the parking lot that people use for The Echo.
I arrived at Echo Curio in the middle of Go West Young Man’s set. The band includes a trumpeter, which gives their set a big band jazz, rock feel. Does that make any sense? It doesn’t matter if you agree with me, because I’m sticking to that description! It was a fun set. The band’s name just keeps on reminding me of that newspaper editor Horace Greeley – for obvious reasons.