So it was a busy weekend, but best of all there was GOOD ART for once!

Friday we went to the opening party for Track 16’s new show, which is Tom Patchett’s five favorite artists: Georgeanne Deen, Raymond Pettibon, Alan Rath, Manuel Ocampo and Llyn Foulkes. Tom Patchett owns the gallery so that probably helped get this show put together. Four great painters - this one is mandatory viewing for an example of great painting, great content and original approaches to picturemaking.

Then there was a show of painting opening Saturday night here at the Brewery at The Brewery Project Gallery, which is only open on the weekends. I liked three of the artists in the show, i will write more if I find any of the literature, but it was great great painting by three of them and then bleh by a few others.

Anyway, there is a picture of the artists and Mister Patchett at the Track 16 show behind the Clicking Link:

Track 16 Exhibit Opening Party (L-R) Artists Georgeanne Deen, Raymond Pettibon, Alan Rath, Manuel Ocampo, Llyn Foulkes, Patron Tom Patchett.

Oh and those books in the picture were actually a cake. Pettibon tasted the best.

One thing that bugs me is when someone corrects grammar. I can see doing to a kid in the ideal of socialization, but for an adult to correct an adult – it is irritating to me beyond belief – I almost do not understand why it tears me up – the discussion of proper grammar when someone has already been clearly understood almost angers me. When I am the one being corrected, I always mock the person doing the correcting, borderline scorn if they persist.

Until now I have never seen an articulation of this point of view.

GREATEST Quote I have read in a long long time:

I have a very special problem with copy editors, which is that I am very strongly opposed to consistency in use of the language. I understand that this is unusual. I understand that I am a minority, and that most people think (actually, most people simply ASSUME, without thinking about it) that consistency in use of the language is preferable to inconsistency. It isn’t. Inconsistency is vastly preferable to consistency, for many reasons. This is not a casual observation; it is a strongly held philosophy, central to my career. When confronted with a question of “how should I write this,” very often I will resolve the issue by simply doing it the opposite of however I did it last time.

I understand that this is unusual; I understand that copy editors are assigned to search out inconsistency and get rid of it. But you need to understand:
1. I have very good reasons for doing things the way I do them._2. My name is on the book; the copy editor’s name isn’t._3. I know vastly more about the effective use of the English language than the copy editor does.
So … I don’t want any bleeping policies.

- - Bill James

I found this quote on a great site, Matt Welch’s Warblog.

So yeah, I never heard back from Heidi Fleiss about working in her brothel - guess they want the patrons to take whoever is available instead of lining up for the best.

Anyway, here is a serious dream job for me but I just won’t be applying for it, I know I could do it, but I have too much on my plate… JOB LINK.

So a friend says, Remember last week when you asked me if I had any art world gossip and I didn’t? Yeah, sure, okay… Well, I got some now. Guess who about? Hmmm, uh, who? YOU!

Seems this friend was at a party and someone said that oh, Mat, he doesn’t live at the Brewery, he just has his writing studio there, he lives in a two story industrial building, he has the top floor and he rents the bottom floor out to a ball bearing company. He is totally rich, inherited it all from his dad.

I just had to laugh. My friend knew that I lived at the Brewery because this person is my neighbor. I used to live in a ball bearing factory, for 8 years when I was dropdown drunk. Free rent because my brother ran the shop for my dad. You wouldn’t believe the shit i got for crashing on a mattress in the office (but drunks prefere social stigmatization to having to pay money for stuff besides booze)

When I turned 21, my dad handed me a hundred dollar bill and said it better tide me over until the inheritance. He hasn’t loaned me a dime since.

No trust fund, no 2nd floor (the factory I did live at – in squalor - did make balls for bearings, but it was a one story building). And my 77-year old father is healthier than me - it is more likely he will inherit my empire than vice versa (and I amusing the term “empire” ironically in both cases here).

Funny shit, and having published a gossip item or two in my day, I can handle it, should have to handle it, right?

EXCEPT…

Except that the implication in all of this is that my success is not earned, that it was easy, that it was paid for, that it does not succeed on its own merits and generate revenue in which to perpetuate itself. So that makes me a little angry, because sure, there would be perks with people thinking oooo he is reeech, but everything I have I earned with my mind (would be broke if physical labor were required) or my personality, and none NONE of it was given to me, not by family, not by some grant, not by some committee or government or school. It was earned by creating something of value to advertising customers and approved of by distributors.

I won’t go so far as to crucify those kids who did get a leg up in this world from their folks – my old man paid for college tuition and I pissed that away. Some people want class warfare, want to deny talent or excellence to anyone who didn’t sweat every morning all day for their keep. I won’t go that far. Plenty of people who have had it easy have used that advantage and done great things. But a lot have not and people see a correlation.

So I don’t know about you, how you pay the rent, and I don’t care, but I hate for it to be implied that I got out easy in all of this, because for me, it is Meritocracy or Bust, motherfuckers.

So what else is there to do?
Ya see, putting together a magazine is like putting totgether a big puzzle.
And it is 3:30 in the morning and I know what pieces still have to be fit into the right spots but I have to wait for other pieces to arrive in order to see where they are all going after they get put together.

Bedtime!

I worked on the next issue of the magazine today.
It was cold and rainy and the space heater here was working great and so it was kind of toasty in here.
Things are okay, we are driving down to San Diego tomorrow for the day.
Then back here to work on the magazine.
Lotta work, lotta projects, but what is weird is that i still feel lazy.

I don’t know what show was on television tonight, but the freeways were empty at 8:30 pm. we made it to the HOB in 25 minutes from Lincoln Heights. Had time for a good HOB dinner (basically it is a decorated Dennys), and of course, watch plenty of highlights from The Blues Brothers prior to the show.

Like their debut album, X opened their 90 minute set with Your Phone’s off the Hook (but you’re Not). They (very wisely) only played songs from their first four albums and played almost every track of Los Angeles. Exene looks healthier and happier than she ever did back in the day. My girlfriend was gushing about John Doe’s good looks. DJ Bonebrake was the least changed, physical appearance-wise (save for the shaved head belying a hint of silver) and was of course great as always. The only thing different about Billy Zoom was he doesn’t wear a silver jacket anymore and his hairline has receded. He still smiles at individual audience members and is a master of making a Chuck Berry riff ring epic like opera.

Seeing as I saw X perform many times during the Jimmy Carter administration, the teleporting to nostalgiaville effect that their show had on me prohibits an objective review, but the band was tight, they have maintained the same sound, they sing a little free form on some of the songs but stick close to home. White Girl is still a moving anti-romantic ode, Nausea rang like a hard hangover, Year One was energetic, I don’t know if she hit every lyric, but I thought that they could add “CELLPHONES” to the song’s list of things that didn’t exist in Year 1.

When they did Sugarlight, I flashed back to dating this girl in Hokah, Minnesota in 1983 and her 5-year old sister listening to the record I gave my girlfriend and dancing around singing My arm is tired of waiting… he’s open throated. Hope the kid didn’t become Hokah’s first junkie. Yikes!

Their rousing chorus on New World - the lines: It was better before/before they voted for what’s his name was a vindication for all of the punks who kept their lyrics wide open. It was sad to see Dead Kennedys become dated by political policy shifts obliviating the specific references of their lyrics.

Their encore was Comin’ Over and World’s a Mess (its in My Kiss) and their still awesome Doors cover, Soul Kitchen.

After the show, since we were on the guest list we got to go up to the House of Blues Lounge Foundation room, but that place was like -uh why are we here with the squares before I even finished my Pelegrino, but it beat waiting in the long line for the valet. A couple waiting for their car were talking about seeing Jerry Rice at the show. I was like, excuse me, Jerry Rice? At an X show?!?!?. And they were like YEAH! with an excited confusion too, but the guy quickly adds, I think he was here with his family for dinner, but he checked out the show… And I’m like, Dude, he would have made a killing in the frickin Pit!. I wish i had seen Jerry myself, but these folks were pretty pumped about having seen a living legend groovin’ to the sound of a living legend quartet.

Here is the info on the BIG BENEFIT FOR ALFREDO DE BATUC this weekend.

So it was great to be on the radio, thanks to people who emailed me who were istening - It is kinda like therapy - yapping on and on about myself for a half hour.

Me and my lovely girlfriend are going out of town for two days to celebrate the romantic thingy in style.

I’ve been trying to find the email someone sent about the benefit for Alfredo De Batuc that is going on I think this Saturday, I want to publicize the thing, someone out there find out and get the word out, there is going to be a BIG art sale this weekend for him and this is a talented artist who is ill and this is about as good a cause as there is, okay? Agian, great art for cheap prices!