Archive for April, 2008

Wildcard regular in the new expansion part of the gym

April at Wildcard was lively. The usual mixture of pros and amateurs share the facility while Freddie looks on. Constant flows of visitors, friends, and curious on-lookers stream by throughout the day. Many people come for Freddie Roach, the (in)famous hall of fame boxing trainer coach. His light-hearted good nature never turns down a chance for some good jokes brought by good companies. His soft spoken voice, inhibited by his slight Parkinson’s becomes unnoticeable after just a few minutes of talking to him. Even when I find him hard to understand at times, his openness to answer my various random questions had me adoring him, (although with a constant “WATCH IT FREDDIE”s), ranking him into one of my favorite people of all time.

I found anything Freddie or Wildcard related I may link to, are from what I found online. Freddie, brushing it all off, saying he doesn’t even know who made any of that. The only times he hears or see things from the internet were from people telling him or bringing him print outs. Dominantly were these outlandish rumors, mixing with open call practical jokes – on his expense, he just laughs at all of it. It seems that he find all this amusing, and probably even enjoys the attention. He shared some of the stories about De Lahoya’s strange diet he’s supposedly subjected him to, and unrelated open dating calls on his behalf. Himself – being horrified by his own spelling skills, barely just bought a personal computer last month. I pressed him for his email address, (since it’s my preference of communication), he conditioned the releasing of his email address – onlyif I would send him my nude pictures.

This mixture of March/April Saturdays at Wildcard I continue to watch Roger “Speedy” Gonzalez, one of Freddie’s trainees. With specific instructions, a handler that makes sure all the training are customized and balanced. “I’m not a baby sitter”, Freddie answered sharply to me with a chuckle, when I asked him of how close does he watch his boxers. Silly me.
 

Paulo Tocha chatting with Freddie

the Rascally Pep Roach

Freddie's friend

a practitioner taking a break

boxer

Speedy

Speedy getting ready for shadow boxing

Speedy shadow boxing

Speedy on target bag

Speedy at the target ball

Sam Soloman and trainee

Sam takes a bite

Sam shares a piece

This was a special event being held starting in the afternoon. Both Nels and Watt were playing. Richie Hass passed away a month prior. He was a good friend of theirs – and many many others who also showed up.

Dos - Mike Watt and Kira Roessler

Kira Roessler

Watt and Kira before show

Mike

Nels

Dos on stage

Dos on stage

Mike, Nels, and Bob Lee - Black Gang on stage

bass knobs

Former Israeli military, currently Krav Maga head instructor Sam Sade stayed after class to passionately discuss Middle East conflicts and his solution with my classmate Ben. Ben, half Australian, and half Egyptian scholar, was in for a fierce debate. Regretfully, in my view, Ben was not well equipped to get into “this” – namely he was not bull-headed enough about the issue to be getting into it with someone like Sam. Since Sam could always and did cite his personal experience of having lived in Haifa, and fought in the (first) Lebanon War, he will inevitably be more than emotionally attached to his side of argument.

Ben remained extremely polite, carefully listening to Sam’s point without disqualifying it directly.  It was difficult to watch as I was certainly in support of Ben. But just as Ben, I was not equipped with the point by point historic opposition against Sam’s. I mostly restrained my expression, and decided to just watch. Though I occasionally chimed in to disagree with Sam, but stepped back as soon as I know I was looking at a … brick wall. I’d quickly step the hell back and rooted for Ben to cover it. And in his best manner, Ben did. (Can’t say the same for Sam’s)

What I did learn that day was that, for sure – one can NOT begin to discuss politics with a known opposition by accusing them of being ‘wrong’. One can certainly be too close or too far from the issue. The best thing to hope for is for those of us who care to shift the world’s direction, to affect anything positive, one must win argument by learning to listen, acknowledge emotions, and plant perspective seeds in your opponent’s mind. Then continue to question the origin plus the goals of your opponent. This is the point of dialoging, is to bridge understanding. With the difference in style of discussion, I was clear on who stood the chance to a better and positive solution.

Sam and Ben

Watt talking

You can listen to the show from here.

I guess I’m becoming a regular guest here at the show. Most of the time I like it. Brother Matt’s place is right next to the water and near a bikers’ hang. We often have the rumbling motorcycle exhaust pipe going by, bleed into the recording of the show. But this is Watt’s style, he sets the show’s vibe to be .. “as it happened”.

Brother Matt talking

Thalia listening

Mike Watt & the Black Gang Recording
  

Another recording session! This one is Watt’s project. He written these songs, but all got stewed after everyone is set up in place and ready for Jimmy to hit the Button. This recording studio tucked in a corner of a giant rehearsal space building near Downtown LA, constantly got interrupted by various band noises in all around. It all got done early, with Nels coming in for an over dub on the last day. 

Mike Watt & the Black Gang recording

Mike

Nels

Jimmy, Bob, and Mike

Mike and Nels on the over dub session

Mike and Jimmy

Mike listening

Nels waiting for the queue

Nels doing overdub

Jimmy .... this is what it's like to work with Watt

Mike taking a picture of Nels

My neighbor Anthony Wilson is an established jazz guitarist. He lives just a few doors down from me, but I hardly ever see him. He’s always on tour! I finally caught up with him for a couple of songs at Cafe Metropol. This venue is a great, but funny one with their strict schedule – pulling the plug at exactly 10 pm. This, as I was told, is due to the establishment being underneath residential lofts.

Anthony

Nels recording

I barely made it!!! Nels had been in the studios daily since the 15th. Am I getting jaded, or starting to take Nels for granted? I heard about this concept of Coward, the solo album since January. I honestly can’t really keep up with What Nels is up to at all time. Only later I’d find out that this was his first solo project (right?). I dragged myself there at Catasonic Studios in Echo Park and barely keeping myself awake (as usual.) I had a lot of ‘cuties’, the California’s version of clementines. What’s the story with clementines anyway? Aren’t they oranges? But I digress.

Again, regretfully, this night was the only time I made it to see Nels’s recording. I usually am more diligent than this in following his projects. I was running low on energy and budget. I did my best at what’s I had. 

Nels's corner

Nels showing me the toys

Nels listening to playback

Nels recording

Nels

Nels at the board with Mark Wheaton

Nels and Mark Wheaton of Catasonic

Nels with the drum buddy

Mike before show

Banyan, founded by Stephen Perkins, is a trippy band. I’ve seen them play so many times over the past few years. I honestly admit that I still can’t get the picture that portray this band correctly. I think I go to these shows just to hang with Mike and Nels. I like watching them together.

Nels

Perkins

Watt at The Mint

Nels

Mike

Nels dropping me off to my car a block away

I trekked down to San Pedro to do another installment of The Watt From Pedro Show, the internet radio that Mike Watt runs a few times a month. This time I was down for sharing my point of view specifically from being at the Black Gang recording. In my hasty ways, I shared my thoughts.

Mike doing the show

I only heard of this band Xiu Xiu because my dearest bassist friend Devin Hoff had joined them last year. They finally were in town for a show, I was looking forward, as always, to hang with Devin.I wanted to see this group purely in the context of the Devin’s world. So far my view was only limited to his involvement with Nels Cline Singers. On drums/percussion was Ches Smith, the drummer Devin has the Good for Cows band with were also in the band. I met Ches on a couple of occasion but never really acquainted with him personally. Only by associations and word of mouth, I know that Ches and Devin are definitely a force.

The Echo venue has never been an ideal photo location for me. There’s no way for me to get a good angle without bringing a ladder. Even that, the lighting is poor – even at my standard. The most I could do was to only focus on the person with the most lights, usually it’s the leader of the group. Drummers never get any lighting love in this place.

Xiu Xiu - Jamie

Multi instrumentalist Caralee

Xiu Xiu Jamie

Devin Hoff working the merchandise table

sudden duty of watching the merchandises