crawfest 2011

craw fest 2011 last weekend was an amazing success! serious rock, country, psychedelia, prog, ska, punk, garage, metal, grunge – so many genres collided into a massive two day party on a ranch in powell butte. $15, 13 bands, free camping, free beer and i got to thrash out, yell obscenities at the bands & have them revel in it. yeah, that was as good as a party gets. there was a pony espresso stand on site with the nicest lady running it, and a hot dog stand with many varieties (including a louisiana fire ball that i prolly shoulda done without). apparently the cops came on friday night, but i was passed out. and someone also apparently smashed an electric guitar in the campfire. day two, after i woke up in less than ideal circumstances, they pulled in an old ford tempo and people took turns smashing it with a sledgehammer and pick ax. smashed to hell by the end of the day, even the engine was pretty much in pieces thanks to brian ward. saturday night, some underage kids made off with a keg and a tap. ballsy, i'd say. 8 times out 10, they would’ve been caught and had their skulls shattered. and, of course, it wouldn’t have been a true party without me losing something, namely my keys. i woke up on sunday morning and couldn’t go anywhere. one of the hosts (hostess, to be technically correct i suppose) found them in a field that i am not sure i ever went to, though she said she had seen me over there. she also said i then passed out in a ball next to the fire. i believe it. don’t remember it, but i believe it. anyway, that was all the side attractions, the muzik wtf! ninjas with syringes and mrs. esterhouse were m.i.a., but otherwise you couldn't ask for much better.






day 1
blue babies
jake and his host ranch is the reason craw fest exists. in the blue babies, he plays guitar with his sister on drums. they started the music both days with a couple early afternoon sets. they played a new song called gypsy girl about a girl that suckered him for $50 on magazine subscriptions last week. i can relate, it happened to me the day before craw fest! maybe that has happened to you too? the last time I “bought” magazines from swindlers, my friends house got broken into a week later…watch out! there is no recorded version of that song, but it’ll go on my summer soundtrack once it does get recorded! and he sang a song about "getting shit from animals" twice and i already forgot the word for it. someone help me out here. they gave me a free tshirt too! a t-shirt with a donkey. but don't ask about the donkey. lol.


faithless saints
standard fare, good show as usual from these pdx punks. kind of strange seeing them play in the daylight, they are typically late niters. still waiting for their new cd. robert rios is so much of a perfectionist that i am not sure we’ll ever get to hear it, but as soon as we do i will try my hardest to get them to la grande!

the vacillators
i gotta be honest. i am not sure how i even got a pic of the vacillators. i don’t remember seeing them play at all. i wasn't drunk yet, so i dunno what happened. i get really torn up when this happens. especially with such a thrashing bunch as the camille led rockers from portland. i will surely be on the look out to see them again soon! at least i did end up with their stickers, so they are one of only two bands that were added to my car.

high desert hooligans
two girls and two boys that i prolly looked forward to more than anyone, and the hooligans did not disappoint. straight ahead, motorhead-style rock. but i was near the end of my capacity for handling the ferocity by the point they came on. i worked the graveyard shift the night before and then drove five hours to powell butte only to fritter a lot of time away in redmond as well at cascade lakes. with only a two hour nap, it was hard to keep up the energy late into the night. i’ll drink monster next time instead of the riverside red! if you ever see the hooligans touring around oregon, check them out! or if ever in redmond, go to their strip club. forget what it's called, but i am sure if you just stop and ask someone to point you to the high desert hooligan guuitarist's strip club, you'll get there.

the royal tees
sadly, i missed all of the royal tees for being passed out by the fire or somewhere. but the reports i heard is that they were loved by all. a ska band from everywhere, mostly portland, not to be missed next time!

matt borden and the mfb
i wish i hadn’t been so torn up by that point in the night. it was just too late after too long of a day. from what 20 minutes i managed to see before somehow getting to bed, he really ripped it up. i went there ready for his country, but country leaning more to the hank III side of things. will be sure to see him again.

day 2
necktie killer
another ska band, these guys are from redmond. pretty decent, a little off my tastes, but maybe that was cuz of the oregon ducks support that the git and bass players showed off. their “love song” about cigarettes was a crowd pleaser for sure. the night before they had just won “last band standing” in bend, so a few props should be given for them making the quick turn around to get out to powell butte for still more rockin.

open defiance
these guys may be more memorable cuz of the guy who parked next to me. he had jut spent 10 years in federal prison for crimes that you don’t wanna know about. even the things that he never got caught doing, you don’t wanna know about. this was his first chance to see open defiance in at least 10 years and he certainly got every minute of it, epecially the ace of spades cover. open defiance are solid veterans of the redmond scene, but the drummer just didn't get it done when it came to the car sledgehammering activity. sorry.

couch

this is really when saturday got started. somewhat of a revivalist, a throwback to pnw rock 20 years ago. straight head dropping grunge. three hillsboro lads do a good representation of what was. in fact, they represent as good as anyone back then did, kind of similar to tad maybe. what makes couch sweet is that they were fired up and having a good time. it was infectious on the people near the stage. a good time for all.

secnd best
their drummer destroyed most of the car in the car sledgehammering activity. and when he gets a lot of aggression out early, it is a secnd best show that can’t be topped. i’ve seen these guys 20 or 30 times, and this one was as good as any other. i will do what it takes to get them to la grande soon! they have a new cd being pressed as i type. be prepared, it will prolly be better than world communicators of worship even.

lowfront
these thugs and hoodlums are the godfathers of craw fest. they have appeared all four years and the fest was purportedly started to feature them. serious straight ahead garage rock from oregon city. a great treat to follow secnd best and couch. it doesn't get much better than to see three bands like this back to back to back. i would prolly go back next year just to see lowfront again.

spatia
after getting 3 rippin rock bands back to back to back, i was pretty wiped out. and maybe that helped to have a groovin prog rock, ala pink floyd, band to roll with. not sure how they pulled extended jams, cuz i was pretty well gone to be that into it, but they were still fun to watch and kick it with. awesome way to close out the festivities for sure.

next year? more crawfest? let's hope!

annoyagonian

it’s a small thing, but the oregonian often pulls this crap.
in the arts section of the sunday o! there is an article called “street corner symphony.” (oregon live version of the story here). this could be a really cute article if it wasn’t so condescending to the reader. it is less of an article about this cool kid’s attempts to raise money to get a music education and more about the oregonian talking down to its audience about the meaning of busking. the term busk or busking is used at least 16 times in the article. the meaning of the word is explained three times, including once with an insert about the history of the word. a little explanation is fine, but that was complete overkill. i realize that not everyone is keen on the music world and would necessarily be familiar with the term busk, but just mention it once and get on with the point of the article.

further, the above article about the new gillian welch cd says, “she could be found on records from tom jones and bright eyes and old crow medicine show and robyn hitchcock.”

ok, first of all, the oregonian doesn’t need to try and sound so hip by acknowledging that they listen to records. but, more importantly, don’t name drop artists like that in one article and then go into a long-winded lesson about busking in the next. now, sure, i may know who all those above named musicians are, but it’s not your average person that listens to robyn hitchcock. i am guessing that people that listen to “records” are likely to know what busking is, but i’m even more certain that anyone who knows who robyn hitchcock is also knows what busking is.

so, to the oregonian, i say next time you feel like giving a sesame street lesson about a word we could just as easily derive from one little caption, why not be consistent and give us a full page biography on robyn hitchcock. we could all use a little soft boys flashback, as a refresher.

i should give at least one obligatory nice comment about the oregonian. the article about american idol concert at the rose garden was pretty spot on and humorous. not that i would’ve gone to such an event, but it was described well enough that one need not actually attend.

anyway, anyway, anyway, continue having a great day!

happy bithday mom!

me and my mother, five years ago, on a road trip just before i moved to oregon!
happy birthday to my mother today! and as usual tonight's show will rock with people who had birthdays. if you can't guess who these people below are, then maybe you just have to listen! coming on in about 20 minutes, 6:30 to midnight:30. so get your beer and stuff and get with it!




























...and more from the awesome bands that will be at crawfest next weekend!!

"kid" yoshida: ready for the damn fourth of july!!

"kid" yoshida: ready for the damn fourth of july!!: "so, you know how you make plans to do stuff and then forget about it because you made so many plans to do so many things that you can't pos..."

ready for the damn fourth of july!!

so, you know how you make plans to do stuff and then forget about it because you made so many plans to do so many things that you can't possibly accomplish them all? for the last couple of years, i have been saying i wanted to go to ketchum on the 50th
anniversary of ernest hemingway's death.

well, now it's here. and i am approximately 351 miles away. all things considered, i am pretty close. i was really close to ketchum about a month ago when i went to ranchfest, 45 or so miles from ketchum. i coulda stayed, but honestly i kept forgetting about it. but i am not forgetting about willie's 4th of july picnic next year! i have been putting that off for years and years and years. next year is it for sure.

so, i am in here, in la grande celebrating hemingway in my own fourth of july way. glad to be off work, like never before. let me just drop for a sec about how bad work sucked last week.
monday was a fairly draining day and i wasn’t exactly feeling like walking home. it's a constant internal dilemma. do i hate driving to work more than a hate walking home from work? i often try for the best of both worlds, walk to work and then beg for a ride home. graciously, a co worker gave me a ride home monday, fortunate because there was no way i coulda made the walk. or could’ve i? i get to my front door and realize i left my keys at work! check the sky to make sure rapture is not happening... then i start hoofing it to retrieve my keys. got keys, walked back, an hour later passed out hard! when I woke up, i looked in my wallet and saw my spare key. shut up!!!!!!!!!!!!! needless to say, i drove to work the rest of the week.
tuesday, thanks heavens i already forgot everything about tuesday.
wednesday, hmm. got spit on, screamed at and whatever else I have to take all in stride for 8 damn hours and ended the day by (and i'm not kidding here) wading through days old piss with a mop. needless to say, i was really happy to go home on wednesday. got a nice shower, head to the refrigerator and notice it was open a couple of inches. apparently it was that way all night. my beer was warm. bloody hell! kick, ouch! crap! went to bed.
thursday, don’t even get me started! let’s just praise hail that my beer was cold.
friday was not a bad day, until the part where i got mandated for overtime, and then got assaulted and screamed at for a couple extra hours. and then got a reprimand for being late to a shift at the beginning of march! and because i got off work while our timekeeper was out of the office, i don't get my paycheck until next tuesday because like hell i was gonna wait around a second longer.

needless to say, the weekend is well welcomed. started out hiking and going to walla walla with panda. and now, get to la grande for your weekly entertainment. live it up with the fourth of july special! a few patriotic songs, a few not so patriotic songs and a few songs by these american legends, among others!!! let’s rock!!!! and i love playing requests!

crime of the century

if any drummer in pendleton needs a band to play in, here's a lead.
you'll be in the news by morning. not necessarily the kind most people would want, but go on! make the crime of the century!

and speaking of the crime of the century, tune into the rabble rouser show tonight 6-9 pm on keol for a lesson about this woman and more...

driving a car (part 2)

expenses with owning a car: overview, summary at end...

gasoline:
it cost americans an average of $368.09 to purchase gasoline during april 2011, compared to just $174.80 during april 2009. the same article reporting that figure also stated that, "nationally, about 8.87 percent of the average household income was spent on fuel purchases." and that was considering that the median household income is $49,777. shout out, everyone who makes less than 49g per year say "hey!" i make less than half of that, which would mean if i drove an average amount to the tune of $368, i would be spending more like 19% of my total income just on gas. in fact, i spent $320 on gas in april, pretty close to the average. and i only spend that much now that i live in the middle of nowhere. last year i probably spent $368 for the entire year. figure this: over the course of a year, $368 comes to $4416! and this is only for gasoline, of course, just but one factor of an auto expense.

insurance:
according to carinsurance.com, here in oregon, the average cost of car insurace is $1185.35 per year, which is 8% lower than the national average somewhat lower than the national average of $1440.34 (unless you live in portland where it is $1518.19). so, if you make that rosy $49g per year, then you would be paying 2.4% of your money to car insurance. now, in human terms, i drive a bucket which is worth about a nickel and carry the bare minimum required by law, which basically means i am paying money but am not really covered. i still pay 2.2% of my salary on auto insurance.

registration:
here in oregon, if you are just renewing tags, basic cars and trucks cost $86 for two years (except multinomah county where the cost is $105). of course if you are just registering your car for the first time, there is the $77 fee to get the license plates. just don't buy a special kind because that is more money everytime you register/renew. the simple cost of registration would then be $43 per year.

property taxes:
don't go buying any car which would save the environment! the article i just read shows that oregon residents would be adding an extra cent and half per mile by driving electric vehicles, if the proposed house bill 2328 is successful. now if we take away the gas tax and start charging per mile instead of the "ev tax", this might be a bit more fair to electric car owners. of course, there would probably be charges per mile in addition to "ev tax" but that is an entirely different debate. oregonians are already lucky in that automobiles are not considered "real property," which means we don't pay property tax on them. i wouldn't anyway because i drive a bucket with no value. and we are lucky in that we don't have inspection or emissions requirements to add to taxes and repair costs. potential such taxes would be dependent on the state and county in which you live. so, to make things simple, this blog is based on union county, oregon.

car payment:
except for a short time in the late 90s, i have never had a car payment. but a quick survey of my friends (none of whom make 49k per year), showed an average payment of$300.60 per month. the guru dave ramsey said last year that the average american pays $475.

maintenace:
a quote on this docstoc page covering the hidden costs of car ownership, says that an average car costs $650 per year in upkeep. i would guess higher, but that's because i drive a jalopy that is break down prone, my car required a little more than $1500 last year. for the sake of a nice round number, i will assume the "average" person pays $650.

parking:
more fees that are heavily dependent on how much you want to pay, where you are going, where you live work, etcetera. i don't pay for parking ever. of course this means that i sometimes get tickets, which cost me a total of $85 last year. still that is cheap when considering that a parking pass at the university of oregon costs$300 or more per quarter. at that rate, i'll just continue to pay parking tickets. i did probably pay about $20 or so to feed meters. average numbers on this category were tough to find. across america, the average person paid $153.19 per month back in 2006, acoording to this msn article. $887 per month in manhattan? no thanks, i wouldn't even pay $20 per month in memphis. so, even this dated information tells me the average american spends $1838.29 per year to park their car. rediculous. that's more than i net in the month, after taxes!!


.....................average person / cheapskate yoshida

annual wage................$49,777* / $23,000

gasoline......................$4416 / $3840
insurance.....................$1185 / $500
registration....................$43 / $43
property taxes.................. $0 / yeah right
maintenace.....................$650 / $1500
loan payments..................$475 / never
parking.......................$1838 / $105

total per year................$8607 / $5988

percent of total income..........17 / 26

* i am not sure i know one person who makes $49,777 per year, so my peeps really get screwed on this. and, for a lot of people, my own wage is a lot of money. but it's hard to have less car expense than i pay. so, if someone works at walmart and has to drive a car to get there, that would be literally paying with their life.

go figure! the average person spends 17% of their income on their car? that is, supposing the average person makes so much bank. if someone works for $8 per hour and has the normal car expense, they pay 52% of total income. worse yet, i spend 26%? that is unfathomable. just think about this way... the average "making bank" person, at 17%, could afford to take 62 extra days off work per year - two months! if a person works at walmart, they could take a half year off work per year! and me, i am considering putting in for 93 days of unpaid leave next year. sorry, boss, i am just gonna take the summer off.

and if all of this isn't enough, things like travel time, citations and accidents are other factors not even considered here. like how much in psychiatrist fees i have to pay to deal with traffic.
and how much does being out of shape cost? ever consider how much time does a person have to take off work because they get sick easily for being out of shape? get rid of your car, get exercise, save money, go to work less, live longer, feel better, save the environment. i mean, it makes so much sense, i am not really sure why everyone has a freaking car.

here are a couple other interesting sites related to life sans car:

living large without a car, link seems somewhat dead to me, but you can search the site it takes you to for "living large without a car"...

calculator for how much it costs to drive a car

aaa stats at pierce transit, which i used to ride a ton

visual economics: shows a breakdown of how much we spend on what, including 17.6% on transportation