scribble on a post it

(found this, from this season)

A rendering from the friend I was giving a lesson to...

I'm the one in the goofy beanie and no pants...pretty true to life likeness, I must say

It's the end of my car as I know it...and I feel fine

So my general bitching about my car on here is not to warrant the “oh, poor Mel” boo hoo pity party, or a “save my ass” fundraiser, as the ex suggested; but more along the lines of: sparing my friends from yet another needless rambling bitchfest about the woes of being a paycheck to paycheck human like most Americans now of days and the unfortunate event of your 02 Mazda wagon deciding to shit all over itself at once…

So the Friday of said incident begins like this: just finished swimming at the gym and emerge from the parking structure to cold rain-in fucking June; and oh did I mention 7 inches of snow at the local tip-IN JUNE?!- Anywho…the oil light pops on, and before any of you fuckers say “why’d you drive it with no oil?!” fuck you. I am not a car retard female with no concept of a seized up motor…mmm-kay? This particular oil light wouldn’t have mattered if I drove straight to the store to put some in-for I got one mere block from the gym before my car decided to shut itself off in mid flight. After coasting into a construction sight I tried to start it. The starter turns, but the motor doesn’t crank; and to add another pleasantry…my car is dumping all of its oil.

So fast forward to Tuesday this week; as my car made it to a shop at closing on Friday and sat until then…I learn that yes, my car decided to in fact have a nervous breakdown and go into a temper tantrum. The conversation goes like this:
Shop: your car had no oil in the motor
Me: I understand that, because as I had mentioned, it dumped it all in the lot where it died
S: here’s the run down
Me: I’ve got the lube and I’m ready, bring on the hurt
S: oil leaked out of a bad seal on the filter; we replaced the oil and there was no compression. We checked the valves, they’re fine; we checked the timing, the belt was lose and jumped 6 teeth. We fixed the belt and put on a new tensioner. However, we’re not getting any spark to the plugs so we have to run an electrical diagnostic. Basically you’re extremely lucky, normally I’d be making the ‘you need a new motor’ call here with these conditions, but not you.
Me: sweet merciful weirdoes wearing their grannies panties and rubbing themselves in peanut butter and Nutella for small favors (relaxes butt cheeks)
Shop: Your car needs a new computer, its dead
Me: beg pardon? It’s a 02 and a Mazda for that matter, shouldn't these things last forever?
Shop: it happens…$1046 for the new computer and install
Me: ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! I HAD A 17YR MUSTANG whose COMPUTER NEVER SHIT ON ME?!

I remember when I got my sweet little wagon…(cue harps and fuzzy fluffy edges around my memory) I had an 89 5.0, highly supped up; it was my baby, it hauled ass, took corners, made itself known for miles, rocked a sweet system and basically ate shitty rice rockets in So Cal for breakfast. Alas, with all that power and torque, came the wonderful 8-12mpg stat. So enter my wagon…a cute little mom mobile that I could toss all my gear into and still have plenty of room for my friends. With good gas mileage, AC, reliability and most of all, no modifications. (Other than me lowering it, rims and a DVD/Monitor system) I kept the stang and my wagon became my daily driver; and I didn’t even mind so much that it was a 4cylinder when the thing got me home from Vegas in 2.5hours.

Yep, she’s been good to me, and the end is in sight on my payments and I’ll probably keep her when paid off…but I’m realizing, I miss the simplicity of an old car. No computer, no fancy doo-dads, easy electrical, carburetors and when they break they're not requiring of a expensive mechanic's bill

(hit and run victim; story for another day)

Damn you Staley

It's Pledge drive time on good ol KEXP! So I turn to other avenues of music fulfilment...My Pandora radio station just played 'Nutshell' and now I must go on a tangent!

Nutshell (Alice in Chains)

"We chase misprinted lies

We face the path of time

And yet I fight

And yet I fight
This battle all alone

No one to cry to

No place to call home

Oooh...oooh...

Oooh...oooh...

My gift of self is raped

My privacy is raked

And yet I find

And yet I find

Repeating in my head

If I cant be my own

Id feel better dead

Oooh...oooh...

Oooh...oooh..."

Wake Up (Mad Season)

"Wake up young man, it's time to wake up

Your love affair has got to go

For 10 long years, for 10 long years

The leaves to rake up

Slow suicide's no way to go, oh

Blue, clouded grey

You're not a crack up

Dizzy and weakened by the haze

Moving onward

So an infection not a phase

Yeah, oh

The cracks and lines from where you gave up

They make an easy man to read, oh

For all the times you let them bleed you

For little peace from

God you plead, and beg

For little peace from

God you plead Ahhaahh, Yeah, Ahhaahh, Yeah, Ahhaahh, Yeah

Wake up young man, wake up, wake up

Wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up Oh, yeah

Wake up young man, it's time to wake up

Your love affair has got to go, yeah

For 10 long years, for 10 long years,

The leaves to rake up

Slow suicide's no way to go, oh

Slow suicide's no way to go

Wake up, wake up, wake up

Wake up, wake up, wake up"

Very few deaths of musicians leaves me melancholy.

John Lennon was one; although I was too young to remember his murder in Dec 1980, I do remember the first anniversary of it; and having grown up in a house of Beatles, I still mourn the loss of a great artist.

Having been unfortunately too close in my life situations to view and live amongst addiction to heavy drugs; I've seen the unfortunate side affects to one self and those that surrounded. Even with that fact, I CANNOT understand how anyone can let themselves continue on with a losing battle, without help, when they can acknowledge their problem; yet let it consume them till death. I understand depression and addiction can be a debilitating problem, but suicide is the easy way out. When Layne Staley died, I was literally pissed. He was robbing not only everyone, but mostly my selfish ass, of his distinctive voice and home hitting lyrics.

Alice in Chains' Jar of Flies was one of earliest CD's purchased (Pearl Jam's Ten, was the first). I may not have been a crazy huge fan learning every tidbit about them, but I could fully appreciate the scale of their talents and the strong core shaking music they produced. I found them vastly better on all fronts than Nirvana (spare your knife slinging to my head Cobain fans, he too left an amazing short libbed mark on the world). Jerry Cantrell is also an incredible musician, but without Staley he's kinda a peanut butter sammy without the perfectly matched jelly.

le sigh

Oregon Coast 5/25

So when I hear surfing, I think tanned bodies in board shorts and the occasional shorty wet suit . I knew there were die hard lovers of surf that would don some thick 5/3mm heavy duty wet suits with booties and gloves to hit the waves on the NW coast; read: fucking COLD enough to make your nuts creep up inside ya or your nipples shoot off and take an eye out. But apparently the surf up here is so fantastic that people will drive hours to the coast to catch a great wave.

Memorial weekend I found myself in Portland, and subsequently on the coast, just south of Cannon Beach, to hang out while a friend surfed. Beaches in So Cal are beautiful due to the lovely eye candy and warmth, but other than that, they're polluted and in some spots lined with big ass homes; read: not much nature left(at least in the majority of the southern region). Due to the sadness of pollution and my own frustrations of not being able to get in the water some days cause of the danger level, or walking away with tar on my feet other days; I am a member of Surfrider Foundation. However, the scenery up here is beautiful, and I can deal with the cold by layering up, building a camp fire or drinking.

The waters were crowded and the waves were on the small side; a few of the better riders had a challenging time getting any good riding out.

I enjoyed my peaceful surroundings with some music and my camera. It was nice; it reminded me of being younger back home and ditching school after morning swim practice to go to the beach, watching the local rippers and reading a book, before having to dash back for afternoon practice.

I listened to CKY, which brings back strong memories of my friends in the OC, and being in that environment. They put on a fun show with drunken debauchery, and every once and awhile we'd see one of the douches from Jackass at a show getting hounded for autographs.



(road trip music iPod radio adapter MUCH needed)

Upcoming Concerts...

holy fuck balls deep fried in your Granny's kitchen, there are so many shows coming up!!!

some I'm definitely going to and some are a maybe but these are all the ones I'm interested in seeing:

5/31 Los Campesinos - Neumos
6/7 Crystal Castles - Chop Suey (if I pull off tickets before they sell out lest I have to buy them at an inflated cost from Shane-evil evil boy)
6/13 Grand Hallway - High Dive
6/17 Detroit Cobras - Neumos
6/19 The Fratellis - Neumos
6/24 The Blakes - Neumos
6/27 Reverend Horton Heat - Showbox Sodo (never miss a chance to see him)
7/9 We Are Scientists - Neumos
7/12-7/13 - Sub Pop 20th - Marymoor Park
7/25-7/26- The Cap Hill Block Party
9/24 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Showbox Sodo (already sold out, but I'll be trying to weasel my way onto the guest list)

Holy shit, Neumos has got a lotta bands going on. That's a lot of shows and a lot of money to spend. Thank goodness I have priorities with my money...like booze and music tickets

Arcade Fire-a love story

Arcade fire was my theme music, when I hit that moment in my life where I decided to throw caution to the wind, pack up my house and get the fuck out of Riverside.

I get a lot of people who ask ‘why Seattle?’…My answer ‘why not? Have you seen this place?!’ Growing up my grandparents had a vacation house on the Hood Canal, around the Sea beck area, and we would vacation in Washington during the summers and escape the brown Hell’s inferno of So Cal. I always loved it here and there were a few times we almost moved up here. So needless to say, I always wanted to be here. New Years 06, I had made the resolution that I would move out of state, my choices were London or Seattle (both similar climates). As I started the immigration process, I realized it was going to be too costly and I would have to sell my house, my possessions and quarantine my cats for 6months. In March of 06, my friend Bernie and I decided to take a weekend trip to Seattle for some snowboarding. I can tell you that I felt like I was home. Before the weekend was even done I had made the decision that Seattle was where I was going and post haste.

(Alpental ebow drop) (en route to Baker) (I worked that SUV)

That decision came while I was sitting in Pioneer Saloon, Arcade Fire’s Funeral was playing, I was sitting with my future boyfriend and my future roommate Bernie (she decided to move with me) and it just clicked; and this album became my strength and soundtrack for what would be a HUGE fucking change in my life.

All I can say is, when I get an idea in my head to do something, I go full bore (case in point: Wanted to do make-up, picked a school in Burbank for night classes. Worked full time at my Marketing job in south Corona and commuted to Burbank after work-EVERY-MUTHA-FUCKING-DAY for a month. 2hours there, 1 hour home, in the summer with no AC, over 5800miles on my Mustang; but I did it and now I’m a pro artist as a hobby). So I was saying, wild hair+full bore=me moving 3 months later to Seattle; and ‘Wake Up’ was playing as I pulled the moving van out of my driveway

You should’ve seen me when I finally saw them in September 07 at the Bank of America theater; I was dancing up a storm and lost my voice singing along…they put on one amazing high energy show and the visuals kinda put you on sensory overload. Their music is so full and powerful; building up and mellowing out before coming on strong again and knocking you on your ass.

Two years later and every time I hear the Funeral, I get all sentimental and sometimes a bit misty eyed.

Even though I have moments of missing So Cal...I don’t regret the move

Circus Contraption-Fremont 5/23/08

Where to begin…where to begin... After taking a quick cat nap that wasn’t so quick, resulting in me rushing to get ready, not being able to find my: mini top hat, satin gloves, garter belt for my Cuban heels, thus switching to thigh-high fishnet stockings but not finding the set-“why the FUCK can I not find my stockings?!”…I managed to don my pencil skirt, best corset, leopard heels and stripy top, all in an effort to fit into the ‘Circus’ scene without dressing like a wretched clown-I HATE clowns. After some excellent Mexican from El Camino and some spirits; we b-lined it to the show, managing to make an asshole late entrance just as they were underway.

(sea lion)

We were greeted to a big top setting, but not the cheesy Ringling Bros of happiness we knew as a child. I’m talking borderline creepy, with a carnival feel and an underlying touch of evil. A big ring in the center for the performers, a smaller/higher ring to one side for the ‘Master’, a medium ring to the other for the live band and various ropes hanging from the ceiling…wicked, I love aerialists.

The approximate 2 hour show starts off with a musical precession and song. Within that time range you’ll see the following: a woman performing on a ‘horse’, a mermaid, a sea lion and it’s trainer, a monkey humping a doll, some women flinging about from the ceiling, a karate bunny, sword swallowing, pink poodles, an amazing song done by bottles/jugs, giant cockroaches and unfortunately a brief appearance by a clown. I honestly don’t want to go to specific into details; frankly my words would do no justice and rob this show of its splendor.

(why yes, my bed of nails IS comfortable)

I will mention this, its like an LSD trip; of which I can only assume since I only sort of did it once in high school, which really doesn’t count because someone told me to put this piece of paper on my tongue and once I found out what it was, I spit it on the wall; but I could’ve felt something, I SWEAR my stuffed animal’s shadows were dancing around my head!…it probably wasn’t real anyway, teenagers are so gullible…at any rate, the show was a feast for the eyes and I’m sure if someone were so inclined to do LSD beforehand, they’d probably be in for a great ride.

(monkey see, monkey do)

They do however sell booze at this show, which I did not partake in; nope, I was a goody-two-shoes-godly-angel-of-sobriety! (Only because I was still hung-over from guy’s night the previous night). There were several drunken fuck wads being a bit, well…fucking stupid, but the performers handle them well and in all honesty, the show feeds off the audience and their rowdy, rude behavior and tom foolery. What fun would a show be if it was a wholesome Walton experience? Vive La Raunchy!!

(multi talented band)

This troupe stays true to form with every detail. From the well tailored 20’s era styled costumes, to a band best described by them as “an off-kilter carousel accompanied by Halloween music gone slightly wrong”, to the actual performances. It was all very campy and vaudeville in style and humor. My cheeks hurt from laughing so much and before you knew it, the show was over and the time flew. It’s well worth the money to see the amazing raw talent of all the performers.

(Pink Poodles)

FYI…I think I might take some aerial lessons from one of the ladies and try to get her bod. I mean, achieve her body, not literally GET her body-perverts