The Cinefamily Theatre has been running double-bills of Michelangelo Antonioni's first four colour films all weekend and this week, to celebrate a brand-new restored print of Antonioni's first colour film, 1964's "Red Desert". Sunday night I went to see "Red Desert" (w/ Monica Vitti and Richard Harris) and "The Passenger" (w/ Jack Nicholson and Maria Schneider). It's always hilarious to see how these trailers try to "sell" a movie to an American audience...like it's just your everyday Hollywood "action" movie...hahaha. I couldn't even use the official trailer for "Red Desert" because it was too hokey, too awful, too misleading. Tuesday night, I will go see two of my favourite Antonioni films: "Blow-Up"(w/ the famous Yardbirds sequence) and "Zabriskie Point", which has one of the best soundtracks of the period: Rolling Stones, Kaleidoscope, Grateful Dead and an amazing sequence with Pink Floyd set to an exploding house in super slo-mo).

Sleeping in til 6pm. Had an exhausting past four days, only getting a few hours sleep, so after getting to bed around 1am last night, I slept...and slept...and slept...then almost got up around 4pm, only to sleep some more, haha. Man, it felt GOOOOOOOD!!! But, hoky smokes, the dreams I had...some weird ones, for sure.

March 16, 1973 Wiener Stadthalle, Vienna, Austria "A Night at the Opera" 2cd; audience tape on the Electric Magic label. You really can't go wrong with any Spring 1973 Europan show, in my opinion. This Vienna concert was one of the few from that tour I didn't have until I picked it up yesterday. Pretty decent sound and the performance is killer, as usual...I LOVE these early TSRTSs because Jimmy is playing it so clean and fast on the 12-string. The late-1972 to Spring 1973 TSRTSs are the closest ones to the studio version Jimmy played. I understand why they eliminated "Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp" but I wish Zep had kept "Dancing Days" for the 73 US tour. Still on disc one, as Rain Song is last song on disc.

My dear friend, I never said we had the "best autumn" of the world. I merely said it was my one of my favourite time of the year in L.A. As for the cable knit, I don't care about wearing one...it's YOU that I want to see wearing one. On my way to the 25th Aniversary show at La Luz de Jesus Gallery in Hollywood. It has been raining fairly steadily since late last night. Until about a half-hour ago, it stopped and you could see the sun trying to break through low in the Western sky. I snapped a couple pics at the intersection of Hollywood and Vermont, looking west down Hollywood Blvd. The time was 5:50pm PST.

^^^Okay, that was a pretty good Summer of 1969 show...not as great as Texas Pop though. And I wished they would've kept As Long As I Have You in the set longer than they did...I miss it, as well as Jimmy's telecaster tone from the shows earlier in the year. Robert seems a bit testy, even rude, at times during the Newport Jazz Festival show...frequently telling the crowd to "shut up". It's also amusing to think that Zeppelin were booked to play a "Jazz" festival. The Allman Brothers I could see...even the Grateful Dead or Frank Zappa. But Led Zeppelin was a bit of a stretch. A blues festival yes, but a jazz festival? I don't think so. But I'm sure the promoters LOVED the extra ticket sales booking Zeppelin delivered. As for the Graf Zeppelin version of this show, it's the first time I've ever heard the July 6, 1969 Newport show, so I have nothing to compare it to. It seems to be complete, or as near complete as possible...Train, ICQY, D & C, You Shook Me, HMMT, CB, and Long Tall Sally. The packaging is terrible though...the photos and text are difficult to make out, due to the dark blue and black colour scheme. I had to look really close just to decipher what date and location the show was. The sticker on the cover says Classic Led Zeppelin Archives Limited Edition Copy Number 0073. All in all, if you like 1969 Zeppelin, it's a worthwhile concert to add to your collection.

^^^Because of last-minute schedule changes and logistical issues, I ended up choosing the Wild Flag show @ the Troubadour. Nov. 5: PINK MOUNTAINTOPS @ One-Eyed Gypsy.

"Newport Jazz Festival1969" July 6, 1969. From the Graf Zeppelin label. I got this years ago, but for some reason never got around to listening to it until now. So far(I'm on the second track "I Can't Quit You"), it's a fairly decent sounding 1969 show...Jimmy's guitar is very clear, with Plant's vocals more distant in the mix. Let you know more after I finish listening.

Pretty good soundtrack, too, by Eddie Vedder...and I say that as someone who is not a big Pearl Jam fan. I saw this on the big screen when it was released, so I was always curious as to whether it loses something seeing it on a tv screen; like watching 2001 or Lawrence of Arabia on tv. I guess the fact that you liked it suggests it doesn't. Regarding Tuxedo: WTF WERE you thinking, indeed! As for Pirates, I saw the first two, didn't bother with the third, and only saw this latest one because of my godson...thank god for Penelope Cruz, or I would have fallen asleep. And the whole 'Keef as pirate' metaphor has been beaten to death...yawn.

Nov. 1: MASTODON, those heavy dudes from Georgia, at the Wiltern Theatre tonight! With The Dillinger Escape Plan and Red Fang. Nov. 2: Another logjam...I have a choice to make among these shows...I'm open to suggestions: 1) Architecture in Helsinki @ The El Rey Theatre, w/ Dom & the Sandwitches 2) tUnE-YarDs @ The Music Box w/ Cut Chemist 3) Lydia Loveless @ Bootleg Bar w/ Olentangy John and Last American Buffalo 4) Wild Flag @ Troubadour Club w/ Drew Grow and the Pastors' Wives ( Wild Flag is the new band featuring Carrie and Janet from Sleater-Kinney, and Mary of Helium ) Decisions, decisions.

As I said in my rant about Halloween earlier, there is one thing I do look forward to doing every year at this time: taking my godson to the Dusk-to-Dawn Halloween Horrorthon at the American Cinematheque. An entire night of movies, food, drinks, candy, pillows, blankets, contests and just random craziness...you should see us the next day, haha. Walking zombies. I took him to his first one 5 years ago and he's been hooked ever since...we've never missed one yet. In fact, one year he won a Free Lifetime Pass to every Horrorthon. Here's the line-up of films that we saw this year. 6th Annual Dusk-To-Dawn Horrorthon Saturday, October 29, 2011 7:30pm - 6:30am Spend all night at the Aero Theatre’s sixth annual Horrorthon! Complete with between-film free food, giveaways, trailers, crazy shorts and surprises! PET SEMATARY, 1989, Paramount Pictures, 103 min. Dir. Mary Lambert. Devoted family man Louis Creed is devastated when his son is killed in a horrible accident - but he soon learns that bringing his son back to life has some terrifying side effects in this Stephen King classic. TOURIST TRAP, 1979, Compass International Pictures, 90 min. Dir. David Schmoeller. A group of friends enters a mysterious remote museum, only to discover that it’s owned by a murderous stalker. With Chuck Connors. THE PIT, 1981, New World Pictures, 97 min. Dir. Lew Lehman. Lonely Jamie Benjamin is the butt of jokes and harassment - until he makes a discovery deep in the forest that enables him to exact violent revenge against those who have wronged him. One of the strangest horror films of the '80s. VIDEODROME, 1983, Universal, 87 min. One of director David Cronenberg’s most disturbing, subversive thrillers. While searching for programs to boost ratings on his small cable station, jaded Max Renn (James Woods) becomes hooked on an underground TV show, “Videodrome,” that may be a genuine snuff video. But tracking down its source proves dangerous as lifelike hallucinations kick in - skewing Max’s very concept of reality, and his new girlfriend, talk-show host,Nikki Brand (Blondie's Deborah Harry), goes missing. "Long live the new flesh!" ALICE SWEET ALICE (aka COMMUNION), 1976, Warner Bros., 98 min. Dir. Alfred Sole. Karen (a very young Brooke Shields) is strangled on the day of her first communion, and her older sister Alice becomes the prime suspect. Beautiful U.K. Print! 8 Extra Minutes! JUST BEFORE DAWN, 1981, Picturmedia, 90 min. Dir. Jeff Lieberman. The director of SQUIRM brings us this entry in the Woodsploitation subgenre made famous by DELIVERANCE, SOUTHERN COMFORT, and HUNTER'S BLOOD. This time, a group of young campers find themselves face to face with a murderous mountain man and angry hillbillies. The California Edison people tried to shut us down around midnight...apparently there was a mix-up with the city and the Edison people about dates and shit...but after a half-hour of arguing, they agreed to keep the theatre's power on while blacking out the rest of the block. So, with that delay, it actually didn't end until around 8:00am Sunday morning. A few hours sleep and a little football later(watched the replay of the previous night's USC-Stanford triple-OT thriller), I was at LACMA's "Price-a-thon", a Vincent Price movie marathon in honour of his centennial at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Tim Burton's exhibit is also closing at midnight tonight. I missed the first two movies in the marathon, but they were ones I have seen endless times before, so no big deal. Here was the line-up of the Vincent Price marathon last night: Series: Price-a-thon 100! Just in time for Halloween, LACMA will screen six ghoulish classics back-to-back, all starring Burton idol Vincent Price in honor of his centenary. Heir to a candy fortune, educated at Yale on art history and trained on the London stage, Price found his métier in fright features playing tormented masterminds and menacing lords. Starting with Andre de Doth’s House of Wax, in which Price plays an anguished sculptor with a ghastly secret, Price cemented his stature as a fixture of the macabre with Kurt Neumann’s still chilling The Fly. But, as David Thomson writes, Price “surveyed the horror genre as if it were a tray of eclairs.” Among Price’s gothic delicacies are several iconic Edgar Alan Poe adaptations directed by Roger Corman in lollipop colors and eye-filing CinemaScope and William Castle’s campy entertainment The Tingler. But there’s nothing funny about Price’s cold-blooded ruthlessness in cult film Witchfinder General, in which he stars as a small-town tyrant in 17th-century rural England. In addition to his nearly 200 film and television credits, Price was an avid art collector and connoisseur who launched The Vincent Price Art Collection with Sears Roebuck and in 1951 began donating items from his personal collection to the East Los Angeles Community College, where much of it hangs in the newly-redesigned Vincent Price Art Museum. All Screenings | Free, no reservations The Pit and the Pendulum October 30, 2011 | 1:00pm The Masque of Red Death October 30, 2011 | 2:30pm House of Wax October 30, 2011 | 4:10pm The Tingler October 30, 2011 | 6:00pm The Fly October 30, 2011 | 7:30pm Witchfinder General (aka Conqueror Worm) October 30, 2011 | 9:15pm

I'm 6'7", and my nephew just turned 5 and he's 4' tall already...his dad is 6'3".

I'm not buying it. Pieced together from three or four takes? Yes, that's probable. BUT 10 takes?!? While the band was touring non-stop in 1969 and trying to fit in studio time on the fly? Sorry, I just don't see how they had the time, and were in one place long enough to splice together 10 different takes. As Jack would say... http://youtu.be/Tgz5-8chSlk

There's a freaking logjam heading my way later this month. First, the week of Thanksgiving, the Cure are playing the Pantages Theatre Nov. 21-23 while Lucinda Williams is playing the El Rey Theatre Nov. 22-23. Then, on December 1, I either go to Iggy and the Stooges at the Hollywood Palladium or My Morning jacket w/ Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings at Universal Amphitheatre. Arrrrgghhhhh...this is when I need CLONING!

Luv the pic of Leo, Kate...what a handsome cutie! Just like a Leo.

OMG! I mean... OH. MY. GOD. Holy effing shit! How in the world did I miss this announcement?!? http://www.broadwayla.org/production/show.info.asp?ID=69 Here's more from the OC Register: The Cure to play first three albums at the Pantages By Ben Wener, Orange County Register I heard about a few local fanatics who flew to the other end of the world to see this seemingly one-time-only show at the Sydney Opera House in spring. I’m sure for them it was money well spent, but I can’t help wondering if they feel a bit foolish now. For, as it turns out, the Cure have decided to repeat the Reflections retrospectives that Robert Smith & Co. staged Down Under, where they played their first three albums in full. Due to clamor from fans, a limited run of seven encore performances will take place in November — one night at London’s Royal Albert Hall (on Nov. 15), three gigs at NYC’s Beacon Theatre just after Thanksgiving (Nov. 25-27) and, lucky us, three nights at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood just before the holiday, Nov. 21-23. Yet, though they’re playing a trio of dates, they aren’t spreading their earliest material across that stand. Each show will feature all three albums in their entirety: the wiry, kinetic post-punk of Three Imaginary Boys (1979), the shift toward atmospherics that came with Seventeen Seconds (1980) and the much moodier Faith (1981). Each set, separated by brief intervals, will add on an increasing number of members, with dutiful bassist Simon Gallup standing by Smith’s side throughout the night and estranged keyboardist Laurence “Lol” Tolhurst rejoining for Faith. (His appearance at the Australia gig was his first in 22 years with the Cure, the group he co-founded with Smith but left in 1989. Five years later he unsuccessfully sued Smith over royalties and rights to the band’s name.) As if that weren’t enough, the triptych of album sets will be followed by an encore of era-appropriate material — perhaps “Jumping Someone Else’s Train,” “Killing an Arab” and others that were introduced to stateside audiences when much of Three Imaginary Boys was repackaged as Boys Don’t Cry in February 1980. You have time to gather your pennies for this one, however. Tickets, $65-$105, don’t go on sale until Halloween at 10 a.m. (That’s a Monday if your calendar isn’t handy.) There is a strict two-tickets-per-person limit. ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Well, at least I found out in the nick of time...but this is going to be nuts. Tickets to this will be tighter than...well, I'll leave it to you to supply your own analogy. The Cure are still a BIG DEAL in this town...Los Angeles is one of the first places where they became popular. They, along with Depeche Mode, pretty much ruled influential radio station K-ROQ in the 80s. In fact, it got to be so ridiculous that we started calling the radio station Cure-Mode. They've played Dodger Stadium and the Rose Bowl. To see them in a tiny venue like the Pantages Theatre, playing all of the first three albums is going to create pandemonium. Every star and starlet and their bikini waxer is going to want in to these shows. Add in that these are the ONLY West Coast dates, and you're going to have every goth and gothette from Vancouver to Mexico City clamoring for tix...as well as the usual ticket brokers/scalpers. Oh well, this is going to test my concert karma...I got in to see the Rolling Stones at the Wiltern in 2002 for the face value of $50...I scored tix at the B.O. for the Them Crooked Vultures secret show at the Roxy...I got in to see Bruce Springsteen at the Pantages on his Devils and Dust tour...I made it in to two of the Bob Dylan & Merle Haggard shows at the Pantages. Hell, I even got tix for the secret show Guns and Roses did at the Pantages back in 1991...the last good show they performed before the bloated Use Your Illusion tour...waited all day in the freaking hot sun for those tix. Yep...this is going to be B-I-G big! It was 30 years ago that I first saw the Cure in concert at the Whisky A Go-Go...two days before my birthday in 1981. It was just a trio then; Robert Smith on guitar and vocals, Simon Gallup on bass, and Laurence Tolhurst(or Lol) on drums. The "Faith" album had just been out for a few months, so the setlist was heavy with songs from "Faith", as well as the first two records. So, in a way, these will be MY 30th anniversary shows. IF I get tix, that is.

Bea-YOOOO-tiful!!! The Autumn/Winter is one of my favourite times in Southern California...while the rest of the country gets chilly, it is still warm here, but never in the 100's like it can get in the summer.

Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock and Jack DeJohnette Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 8:00 PM Royce Hall, UCLA Enough said.