A Big But and an Even Bigger Dinosaur

  

A big But? Yeah. I know. I spelled it wrong. If that’s what you were thinking.  I’m thinking of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure. He had been dropped off at a roadside diner by Large Marge – a spectral truck driver.  He was giving Simone, a waitress, some advice, and she said, “I know you’re right, Pee-wee, but…” He cuts her off with, “Everyone I know has a big 'But'. C’mon, Simone, let’s talk about your big 'But'”. Now, while they were chatting, they were looking out at the night sky – through the mouth of a large  dinosaur. They were IN the dinosaur. A T-Rex, to be exact. To be even more exact – this one.

Over the last five years, I kept meaning to stop by this thing. I mean, it’s not out on some Hollywood tour. It’s just down the road about 30 minutes. Just out the 10 East at the far edge of Cabazon.  So maybe we were placating a 4-year old. She got to see some big dinosaurs. Maybe we were slipping into a juvenile curiosity about “that place from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure”!  I know I was.

The T-Rex (named Mr. Rex) is actually one of two large (redundant?) dinosaurs on the premises. In 1964, Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell, began work on “Dinny” (seen above), using metal salvaged from the construction of the nearby I-10. From Wikipedia’s entry on the subject:

           

Bell was quoted in 1970 as saying the 45-foot (14 m) high, 150-foot (46 m) long Dinny was "the first dinosaur in history, so far as I know, to be used as a building." His original vision for Dinny was for the dinosaur's eyes to glow and mouth to spit fire at night, predicting, "It'll scare the dickens out of a lot of people driving up over the pass." These two features, however, were not added. With the help of ironworker Gerald Hufstetler, Bell worked on the project independently; no construction companies or contractors were involved in the fabrication. The task of painting Dinny was completed by a friend of Bell's in exchange for one dollar and a case of Dr Pepper.

Now – Dinny was constructed to call attention to his café…as if a big sign saying EAT in the middle of the desert wasn’t attention-calling enough.

Bell was right, to the best of MY knowledge, that Dinny is indeed the only dinosaur in history to be used as a building. You don’t know this walking up. You generally assume that any dinosaur you see – if you were to see one – wouldn’t be used for a building. But then you see a door near the beginning of the tail…

...and then a staircase going up...

...turns out...it's a gift shop. Smile. Your(e) on camera.

Now is the time to mention that the current owners seeeeeeeeeem to be of a Young Earth Creationist stance. A cursory glance at their website will show this. I only mention this because what you have now, in the middle of the gift shop, is a collection of items from various stages in the Earth’s evolutionary process – side by side with signs, and various forms of literature by leading Young Earth Creationists, explaining how the evolutionary process is completely impossible and un-provable. With all due respect. I truly find it a fascinating display to see these things side by side, and it’s well worth a look. 

The same kind of fun continues if you pay the nominal fee to go into the Robotic Dinosaur area. The fun of having 4 or 5 mechanical dinosaurs tell you – actually say to you - with their little mechanical speaker-box, that evolutionary origin of life is impossible, and yudduh yudduh, yudduh…(I paraphrase). But again – truly – all due respect. No matter what literature you find at this little roadside attraction, no matter what their website says and points to, I don’t want to use this as a forum in which to compare anyone’s personal beliefs with that of something much more plausible. My purpose is to point out something kind of cool, about a minute off the highway.

Stop by. Give it a look. Buy something in the gift shop. It really is a kind of a cool experience. Really. It’s of a rather grand scale. Just in case you never saw Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, the person you see next to next to Mr. Rex's foot stands about 6'2". The little pink spot (we call her Lola) normally stands around 3 feet. If you're even SLIGHTLY into roadside kitsch - stop off for a few minutes.

And if you go in the Café…

...Tell ‘em Large Marge sent ya...

...I’m sure that this couldn’t possibly get old.

(((and take the 3 minutes to enjoy the link to "The Terrifying Tale of Large Marge)))

Steel Panther

                                     This is Spinal Tap.

                                                        
                                        This is…not.

                                  (But we’ll get back to that)

So – in between cataloguing my jazz LPs, sorting through my ambient and classical discs, and listening to something really reflective by Eric Satie…it was a trip to a local grocer, where a friend offered up some tickets for something a bit different…Heavy frackin' Metal! Well, one band was. Two other bands were just good, hard, edgy rock. Refreshing. Then there was the headliner – Steel Panther!

On the surface, these guys seem like a spandexed hair-band stuck in the 80’s.
(((and believe me – those stuck in the '80's, spandexed hair-bands are still out there. As soon as I MySpace friended Nikki Sixx, I started hearing from a bunch of ‘em. But back to Steel Panther.)))

Check ‘em out though. Dig just a bit. Dig below the stereotypes of the rock n’ roll lifestyle of fast music, loud parties and beautiful women. These guys are a parody band, and they push these stereotypes to the nth degree. They’ll have you mixing the rock with fast parties and loud women. Ralph Saenz provides lead vocals under the name of Michael Starr. The (phenomenal) lead guitarist, Russ Parrish, goes simply by the name of Satchel. These two had played together previously in Atomic Punks – a David Lee Roth era Van Halen tribute band. At this point, Ralph Saenz had the look, sound and mannerisms down so well that he held the nickname of David Lee Ralph. True enough. It’s been said that he looks and sounds more like David Lee Roth than, well, David Lee Roth. Having seen them – I’d have to agree. Oh. And did I mention? Saenz holds a PhD in English literature from Berkley, and was an Assistant Professor before turning to the world of glam. Rounding out the group - bassist Travis Haley as “Lexxi Foxxx” and Darren Leader on the drums as “Stix Zadinia” (say this one out loud a few times). All four have their shtick (and mascara) down to a “T”, and clown, mimic, and pay homage to ‘80’s rock, while throwing in a few originals to boot. And conTINually riffing on each other. A fantastic show that’ll keep you laughing. And singing. And occasionally cringing.

Another highlight of a Steel Panther show is the appearance of celebrities – getting called from the crowd to the stage. I mean…it’s LA. The Sunset Strip. They’re there. Past shows have anywhere from Steve Stevens, Kelly Clarkson, Pink, or even Billy Ray Cyrus showing up. The night I was there was no exception. The first to be called from the audience was bassist and songwriter Billy Sheehan, who used to play with post-Van Halen David Lee Roth, and later, Mr. Big. Another bass player to get called from his table that night was Jeff Pilson, formerly of Dokken. Ray Luzier, drummer for Korn for the last few years, joined in on stage, as did Shannon, lead vocalist from “Dia” – an all-female Ronnie James Dio cover band. I really shoulda been wiped out by much earlier in the evening, but these guys kept it going until near 1:30. At this point, ya wander the crowd and find out that all of the previous bands have stuck around for the rest of the show, and are easily accessible.  Steel Panther does this every week.

This has gone on too long, but I must include: The lineup started with Yolanda and the Stolen Boys, a band out of Australia touring for a few weeks in the US. I hadn’t heard of them before, but they were a great to see live, and it’s unfortunate that not a lot of people had made it to the venue yet. Kinda surprising, in that online pics of the Key Club on the Sunset Strip show lines of people going around the block. The next band was XNO (pronounced, ZEE-noh). This was the Metal band to which I referred, and the energy level stayed high as the place slowly filled. The group to follow, again, was one that I’d not heard of, but glad to have caught…Honeysmash. These guys – and XNO are locally based and I’ll definitely be seeing them again.

Go to Steel Panther’s official website. Check out their videos. Go YouTubing and watch some of their interviews, and surprise celebrity cameos.

You may be highly offended.  

But then again…you may just laugh your ass off. Give it a shot.

The Human Canvas, part 2 - The Bra Strap

A few months later...the story continues. We had just finished making costumes for a short film by Lydia Hicks. It was a cool mix of some tie-dye and some paint. Thankfully, there were no set "rules" on what the designs had to look like...

...and they turned out well. Also, due to a last minute cancellation, my garage got cleaned (well, half anyway), and some of my art ended up being used for an "art gallery" scene.

Done painting costumes, we turned our attention to the human canvas. We had talked about a shoulder piece, something around the belly button...or this:

The original idea was to have a woman, shirtless, covering her breasts with her hands. I would then draw the straps back in - including something going over one finger...as if the finger were just under the strap.

This was the third or fourth layer of color...

...and zoomed out, for effect.

Tired and (more importantly) out of ink, this is where we stopped.

I'll have another go at this...next time I find a willing (or asleep) participant. For a project like this though, I may have to graduate to body-paint. We'll see.

(the continuing adventure is being chronicled. Go to "The Human Canvas" tab near the top of the page, and scroll down)

Paul Rodgers and The Human Canvas

Wow. I recently posted a blog about my interview and concert experience with Paul Rodgers. You know...Free. Bad Company. The Firm. QPR. Paul Rodgers.

                                                                                 ( photo taken from his website )

On the same day, I updated the  "The Human Canvas" section of this page - a spot dedicated to me drawing on people. I suddenly saw a HUGE amount of traffic coming to my site. Some 7 - 10 visits to the Paul Rodgers blog...Close to 100 checking out this human canvas thing...in less than one day. Wow.

There's no section for visitors' comments on that tab, so now this is available.  More importantly  - The Human Canvas page will be getting updates, as the adventures do continue, so please...check back.

And thanks for stopping by.

Paul Rodgers

One quiet afternoon, not too terribly long ago, I had the opportunity to interview Paul Rodgers.  Many know his name.  For others, the name oughta ring a bell. It really oughta.

Beyond his many solo projects, he was the front man for (in order) Free, Bad Company, & The Firm.  He recently (circa 2006) toured with Queen providing lead vocals.  Mind you, they made a point of labeling it as Queen WITH Paul Rodgers, as opposed to trying to replace Freddy Mercury.  It was a concert of classic Queen, along with big songs from Rodgers' previous bands.  Nobody but the audience sang We Are the Champions – giving us one of those Freebird type "nobody else sings this one" kinda moments.  In 2008, Queen and Rodgers finished wrote and recorded all original material for a follow-up QPR (Queen + Paul Rodgers). We broadcast the first concert at KVCR. I have yet to see or hear any of the follow-up stuff.

Paul appeared Saturday at the Fender Center in Corona, CA for a very special concert.  It was to honor the 10^th anniversary of the Kids Rock Free program.  This is a musical mentoring/tutoring program implemented to help counter the fact that SO MANY middle and high schools have lost funding for music and arts.  A similar project is the Rodgers Rock Pack, which includes Queen's Brian May, and many others.  There were many honors exchanged that day and night, including a Congressman's official thank you presentation to Paul, and, what I thought was really cool, a framed, really large F (shaped like the F in Fender).  The F was made up of an incredible number of guitar picks – all signed by folks like Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, Steve Miller, etc etc etc.

The concert opened with a performance by the (at the time) current version of The Fender Benders.  This is a group representing some of the young men and women going through, or who have gone through, the Kids Rock Free program.  They performed several 80's rock covers, and one original.  When Rodgers hit the stage, the song lineup included, of course, Bad Company tunes, a killer take on Little Wing, and closed with Free's, Alright Now.  There were also plenty of Rodgers originals, an acoustic set, some hardcore blues, and even a Coasters cover – Youngblood.

I interviewed Paul a couple hours before the concert.  One of primary things I got out this was what a down to earth, REAL person he is.  Someone I was able to joke with – and crack up. In addition to some info about current projects, I asked him about some advice he had gotten some time in his 35 plus year career - something from someone who influenced him, or that he looked up to.  Paul told me of Joe Bradley, who helped to manage a group he was in "...in the early days..." in his home town of Middlesbourgh.  The man gave Paul, what he said were, the four basic tenets of surviving in the business.  These were:

                        (1) Get there early.

                        (2) Do a good show.

                        (3) Get Paid.

                        (4) Try to get home safely.

I was expecting (and so was he) something more akin to Taoist philosophy.  In a way, it is.  This is what Paul has lived by.  Whatever we do for a living, we should all follow this.

Much and many thanks to Deb - at the Fender, Paul's Manager – Chris Crawford, and his publicist – Paki Newell...  Many thanks also to KVCR's Peter Park, running cameras, driving to the event (I still owe him gas money), getting set up quickly, and then hanging out while we played hurry up and wait.