Just Wandering, er... Wondering

Seen Monday at La Cienaga and Manchester. I've on occasion wondered how Jesus' name became a swear. I mean, to Christians it always has been when used in vain, but how did it get to the point where people for whom JC - well I was going to say no significance, but let me rephrase - is given ne'er a thought are using it to express emotion? Can you say it on TV (I know I've heard it but that was probably cable and I think you can even see old George Carlin clips on there now)? Is there there analogous vocabulary phenomena from other religions?

Laundry Fail.

Ten. 10. X. Diez. Two hands. However you want to phrase it, that is how many unmatched socks I had after finishing my laundry. All white. I didn't even know I had 10 different kinds of socks. I've never had this much trouble with missing socks before. Or laundry in general for that matter. Weeeeellll... There was that one time. When someone My-Name-Is-Earl-ed me and took that (wet) load from the laundr-o-mat. I'm going to blame it on the fact that I was only wearing one sock until the last couple weeks on account of my lingering ankle injury. Anybody buying that?... Anyone?... Bueller?... Anyone?...

The Right Place At the Right Time

OK, OK. So ever since my post on the Todd Snider concert, my phone has been ringing off the hook, my beeper has been blowing up, the deluge of e-mails have crashed my ISP's servers twice, etc., etc., and on and on... Everyone has been wanting to know exactly how Todd became the lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band. And I quote:

"Ryan, you have got to tell us how Todd became the lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band!"
-Guy I made up #1

"What!? How can you leave us this otherwise entertaining and insightful post without relating the story of how Todd became the lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band?!?!?!?!?!"
-Guy I made up #2

"Ryan... although you are a perfect gentlemen and astonishingly handsome, I just feel like you can't be open with me. Where is the communication? More importantly, how did Todd become the lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band?"
-Girl I made up*

*note: girl was INCREDIBLY good looking

OK, so my phone is usually on vibrate, I don't have a beeper (yet - remember technology is cyclical), and most of my e-mail is related to male enhancement or Nigerian princes. The real story is that I've been spending an inordinate amount of time on YouTube watching Todd Snider concert clips. And I came across this relation of how Todd became the lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band.

That One Looks Like a Possum With a Hat

I've been really excited the past several days because we have clouds in LA! We seldom have clouds here, and when we do, they are never the nice fluffy ones that are around now. (I know, I know. Such a pity that the weather is always sunny there, Ryan.) The truth of the matter is it's really not as nice as it sounds. While it is rarely cloudy, there is normally a smoggy film over the horizon (imagine looking at the world through a pair of dingy glasses). So it has been a real treat to have a sky that is actually, you know, BLUE, and these big white, puffy clouds.

So I've been running around taking pictures as much as I can. The first set is from Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Park which overlooks the city. I think its real purpose is to hide the neighboring colony of oil well pumps and accompanying machinery. In any case, it's a really nice park with an exceptional view of downtown and the Hollywood hills.

Kenneth Hahn SRP

The second set is from the first outing of the South Bay Photographers group. Justin, Peter, JR, and I went to the Redondo Beach Pier to eat Hot Dogs On a Stick (most of you will know these as corndogs), play with the pelicans, and shoot some photos.

Redondo Pier

And if you get tired of mine and want to look at some good ones, just pop over to some of Justin's. He got skillz.

Pic1 Pic2 Pic3

18 Minutes

"Good evening, for those of you who don't know, my name's Todd Snider,and I've been drivin' around for 15 years, makin' this [stuff] up, singin' it for anybody who'll listen to it. Some of it's sad, some of it's funny, some of it's short, some of it's longer than others, and sometimes I'll go on for as many as 18 minutes in between the songs.

These days my friends will tell me that my songs are getting more and more opinionated. And that may be, but they are just that. Opinions. And though I may express some of my opinions tonight, I won't do that becaus I think they're right or important... I sing them because... they rhyme. I don't sing to try and change anyone's mind about anything. I sing to ease my own my mind... about everything."

At some point during a Todd Snider set you will undoubtedly hear some variant of the lines above, and each of the stanzas will generally be uttered in a single breath. I heard those words Friday night at the El Rey Theatre. And let me just state right now, I love, love love Todd Snider. Easily my favorite musician right now. And though I may not agree with Todd on everything, on those items that don't I still like hearing about it. After all... it rhymes.

Todd is one of the most unique live peroformers around. You are guaranteed every night to get some mix of songs you love, songs you've never heard, funny stories, ramblings, interesting covers, whatever you want (half the show is often by request), and sometimes you get all of those things in the same song. Friday (after Dinah's) Matt and I got all of this in more. A new song about Todd's lucky day when he found a four-leaf clover (with only one leaf missing, close enough - slim chance... still a chance). Matt got to hear the Ballad of the Devil's Backbone Tavern. Extra verses of Talking Seattle Grunge Rock Blues (specifically for Bob Dylan and Woody Guthrie). Todd picking through a 15-minute story of how he became lead singer for the K. K. Rider Band.

Todd is the main reason I've only ever bought one song on iTunes or any other system built entirely of streams of electrons and light. See, Todd used to sit around and listen to music and read the liner notes to the albums, and now I do that with Todd's. A lot of present-day artists don't write anything other than long thank you lists in there, which aren't much fun to read. You know... unless they were to rhyme. (They never do.) But Todd does. And so do a few others. And maybe I get to learn a little about the inspiration for that song, or who wrote it (if not him), or who was the guest vocalist or guitarist. And then maybe I go out and get their album and get turned on to a lot of other great music.

Well anyway, that's Todd. He's just a guy up there with a guitar and a harmonica. No fancy light show. His jeans aren't tight. And you just set there and listen and maybe sing along, and maybe talk to someone next to you about another Todd show you saw. Maybe that person is twice your age, or maybe its a handful of surprisingly young kids in skinny jeans and crooked hats.

Great show. As the song goes, "the crowd was cool and the band was prime..."

The One Where We Go To Joshua Tree - UPDATE

UPDATE: Picasa album with more pics!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Ryan.e.Tuttle/JoshuaTree20090109#

Finger-Lickin' Friday

Friday night I met up with Matt before the Todd Snider show (post to come). Last time we saw a show we ended up at the time warp that is Pann's Diner. We had big 'ol breakfast platters and milkshakes. For the life of me I can't remember if this was before or after the show (coincidentally also a Todd Snider show). Since that worked out so well, I proposed that we go to Dinah's before the show this time.

I pass Dinah's all the time, but with so many restaurants in L.A., that establishment is not unique in that respect. I never thought much about it until I saw a bucket of their chicken in "Little Miss Sunshine." I enjoyed the movie, and the Hoover's seemed to enjoy Dinah's chicken, so why not? The transitive property did indeed hold true, and as a corrollary, Matt also enjoyed Dinah's "World Famous" chicken (even though he ordered the "World Famous" burger).

The entire interior looked vintage.
The last remodel must have been decades ago. Dinah's has the
distinction of having L.A.'s first "bucket sign." And I do like buckets.
And the antique radios all along the shelf high on the walls was a nice touch.