Carre' Callaway is Queen Kwong.

She was mentored by Trent Reznor starting at the age of 17 and toured with Nine Inch Nails, opening for the band as a solo act, just her and her guitar, in 2005.

See almost the WHOLE AMAZING VIDEO of her interview with REVIEWER MAGAZINE here:
reviewermagazine.com/carre-web-version.mov
and check her out on Myspace here:
myspace.com/queenkwong

She plays the Silverlake Lounge in LA on May 14th.

[DVD review]

Can’t Keep Me Down, The Bobby DuCharme Story

Film coverage by Andrew Napoli

Can’t Keep Me Down, The Bobby DuCharme Story documents the triumph of the human spirit as a phoenix from the watery flames of the sea.

It chronicles the life of Mr. DuCharme, who was poised for a career as a professional surfer when a surfing accident left him paralyzed. As a quadriplegic, Bobby has remained steadfast in his love for surfing and is a prominent member of the surf community. With the help of family, friends and community, he shows how love and a determined will are triumphant.

Bobby and his older brother Chris were raised on the beaches of San Diego. His first love was skateboarding, but once the surfing sun shone on him, it outshined everything else. When Bobby started hitting the water, his natural talent and fearless wave charging immediately earned him the respect of the local established surf community. His good nature helped him be seen as a big brother to many of the younger surfers.

He would often ditch work at the local surf shop if the waves curled their tempting finger at him. He would even borrow surfboards from the shop for a session or two (now that’s a no-no!) This young man cut school 17 times before his parents knew any better. He then proudly displayed the number 17 on his surfboard. Nice. All of this time in the ocean was paying high surfing dividends. In 1998, he won the Ocean Beach Surfer Bowl, and this is documented nicely in the movie. It is no stretch envisioning him developing into a seasoned pro. But that was not his road to travel.

Like most San Diego surfers, Bobby would surf anywhere. He was always on the search for better waves. Apparently, the surf off of Coronado is rarely worth surfing. That is, of course, except when the weather conditions are just right. Those days the waves are sizable. It was just such a day on June 1, 1999 when Bobby was out surfing and having what he calls a “dream session.”

He recalls being tired, standing straight up on his board, the wave’s lip hitting the top of his head and then falling backwards into the sandbar. Conscious, unable to move and underwater, Bobby held his breath and prayed. A life guard saw him floating and pulled him out of the water. Bobby was alive.

He had broken his neck and severely injured his spinal cord. But an outpouring of support began coming in from all around him. His hospital room was filled with family, friends, well-wishers, surfers and non-surfers alike. The community united when they were most needed. Thus began Bobby’s healing process.

And this is where the real story begins. There are interviews with surfers, family, friends, doctors and voice over commentary by Mr. DuCharme himself about his epic rise through rehab, and his new contribution to the surf culture: making surf movies out of footage received from local and professional surfers. He has made 5 movies in 6 years and Paralyzed Productions, his video production company (logo: a wheelchair shooting the tube,) helped to make Can’t Keep Me Down. This success is possible because of Bobby’s strength of will and the inexhaustible help of the community. Fundraisers paid for his wheelchair accessible van and for the computer he uses to edit his movies. In the end Bobby feels that he has found the courage to go on thanks to God.

The movie was written, produced, and directed by Jesse Schluntz, who does a fine job bringing this life story to the screen. The interviews are personal, candid and revealing. The shots of Ocean Beach are genuine and feel like home. The surf footage is excellent (this is, after all, its own kind of surf movie) and the pictures and video of the DuCharme family in their youth are pure Americana. This movie is San Diego through and through. Everyone will learn a lesson in the resilience of the human spirit from Bobby. You will be inspired.

~AN

[New Books Video Interview]

Avant-garde Publishing

Reviewer Mag checks out the new book called Carnivora by alt-book publishers Scapegoat Books. It's their eighth release.

Click the pic for the video interview:



www.myspace.com/scapegoatbooks

alternate ad page: http://reviewermagazine.com/landowner-records-ad-38.html

The Empty Mirror

Postmodern hope is spent.
But will you still not repent?

LANDOWNER RECORDS presents:
"OVERWHELM"

What the Hell? Hear it now, for Heaven's sake:

http://TheEmptyMirror.net
http://myspace.com/TheEmptyMirror

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival

Friday April 25 and Saturday April 26 @ Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California

Review by Matthew Powers

Friday

Bouncing my way from the techno tents to the indie rock stages it was obvious that Coachella was different. One moment you’d hear the shredding riffs of Raconteurs the next you’d be jamming to the frenetic turntables of Aphex Twin.

But what is Coachella really different from? Everyone, including myself, has used terms like “different,” “alternative,” and “indie” to describe the event. But the enormous diversity of music makes it impossible to reduce the festival to a one-word label.

The only thing Coachella is a really an alternative to is all of the bad music in the world. If this somehow makes the event some exclusive, niche event so be it.

I got to the concert late Friday afternoon and was welcomed to the snarl of Tegan and Sara. Original, emotive, and catchy the twin sisters aren’t too cool to be palatable. The set was punctuated by the excellent “Walking with a Ghost,” replete with acoustic guitar opening, frog-in-the-mouth vocals, and choppy, insistent riffs.

Prince galvanized Coachella with his “No War” chants

The family affair continued as I jaunted over the check out the National. Made of two sets of twin brothers and singer Matt Berninger, the band’s shared the same musical template as Tegan & Sara: dissonant guitar music interrupted by tuneful choruses. And it worked. By the final song, “Abel,” the National got the crowd got relatively raucous, lightly moshing to the ferocious, barking vocals.

Still there was something missing. The music of indie rock tends to be detached and cerebral. And this carries onto their outward appearance, which is often excessively polite and emotionally distant.

This was not the case when I wandered off to the Mojave tent. The colorful theatrics of electronica band Goldfrapp boldly contrasted with inoffensiveness of the rockers. The duo got the crowd moving with their irresistible concoction of pulsating synthesizers and breathy vocals. The last song, “Strict Machine,” provided a particularly intoxicating close. Over tense synths Alison Goldfrapp electrified the crowd with her soaring, mesmerizing falsettos, providing the first transcendent moment of Coachella.

The Verve’s set closed my night. The content of their music is excellent and their return (after 10 years absence) was welcome. But the performance itself was disappointing. Richard Ashcroft’s calculated rock star swagger was unconvincing and the ethereal intimacy of psychedelic numbers like “Life’s an Ocean” were lost in the electric drone of Nick McCabe’s guitar.

Nonetheless they closed on top. The penultimate tune “Bittersweet Symphony” provided a chance for everyone to sing along. The English quartet also sparked interest with their final song, a recently written, throbbing funk-rock tune. It was a curious departure from their past and it got me excited for the future album.

Saturday

It was clear from the start, while weaving my way through throngs of alterna-twentysomethings, that Saturday was going to be a busy day. The Sahara tent was packed to the max to hear the surrealistic techno of Erol Alkan and Hot Chip.
Over at the Mojave tent Animal Collective sent its audience into a frenzy with its experimental pastiche of computer beats, unorthodox time signatures, and singer Avey Tare’s volatile vocals. More of a sound collage than a collection of coherent songs, the set lacked the emotional impact of keyboardist Panda Bear’s solo work. Nonetheless the experience was as engaging as it was weird and it provided one of the most energetic shows of the day.

This was in contrast to shows at the main and outdoor stages. Death Cab for Cutie and Rilo Kiley played well-meaning sets that were as harmless as their discography. Death Cab’s Ben Gibbard’s wistful lyrics came across as more cloying than poetic while Rilo Kiley’s classic rock-inspired set left me wondering why they have so much indie cred.

But their underwhelming performances merely made sense in the context of the night’s narrative. The good stuff was waiting just ahead.

The good stuff on the main stage started with Kraftwerk. The pioneers of laptop pop played a solid, occasionally hypnotic, set of classics. Songs like “Trans-Europe Express,” “Computer Love,” and “The Robots” encapsulated their ironic subversion of alienation and conformity in the modern world. This was buttressed by background slideshow of everyday life: automobiles, innocent family life, and the band’s home German landscape.

They dressed the part too. Wearing one-piece uniforms, the band looked like a collection of nuclear engineers. And it was no accident. One of the final songs, “Radioactivity,” was a warning against the titular subject, complete with a scroll in the background denoting a list of nuclear disasters.

Building on Kraftwerk’s minimalist rhythms was fellow sub-headliner Portishead. A quintessential studio band, Portishead was able to effortlessly simulate the compressed precision of their first two albums. Singer Beth Gibbons’ aching vocals were particularly atmospheric on the poignant “Wandering Star.” The crystalline notes and gentle trajectory of the tune ascended deep into the warm desert air and seemed to hang there forever.

Like Friday, though, there was still something missing. Most performances were only 40 minutes long, which made it difficult to get immersed in any single artist. And it felt like most bands weren’t comfortable with the festival environment. Showmanship and spontaneity were virtually non-existent on the main stages.

This all changed with the final act of the night. “From now on this is Prince’s house!” the pop icon shouted as he arrived on the stage. Prince opened with a lengthy instrumental jam and followed with a series of classics: “Little Red Corvette,” “1999,” “Cream.”

There were plenty of surprises too. Members of Prince’s classic back-up bands like The Revolution and The Time were more than just complementary musicians. They sang lead, provided very long drum solos, and even took over completely when the artist left the stage for a few moments. Prince also provided an innovative version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” alternating from chill-out electronics to a violent, guitar-drenched chorus.

The cover songs, improvisations, and general musical indulgence did get a little old. But this was completely made up by Prince’s unrestrained personality. Dressed in a jewel-covered white outfit the headliner dazzled his massive audience with an unmatched flamboyance and an aggressive incorporation of audience participation. His guitar playing was stellar too, full of astonishing, Hendrix-like solos.

Prince ended his set proper with an extended rendition of The Beatles “Come Together.” Treating it as more than an old hippie anthem, Prince galvanized Coachella with his “No War” chants and announced that a new “golden age” is on the horizon. And when he said it, you really believed it.

~MP

Alternative page: http://reviewermagazine.com/pellicano-wiretapping-trial.html

At the Pellicano Wiretapping Trial

By William Wheaton

[Editor's Note: This is an exclusive to REVIEWER MAGAZINE. See William Wheaton's post-Wiretapping Trial coverage video interviews here and here. ~RR]

The Paparazzi

April 2nd, Los Angeles: I stood outside the door of the Roybal Federal Building near Downtown Los Angeles. I talked briefly with a photographer from The New York Post about the federal trial of private investigator Anthony Pellicano. I asked him what he thought the outcome of the trial would be.

“It means absolutely nothing. No one cares.”

He was waiting for Sandra Carradine, the ex-wife of actor Keith Carradine from the television hits Deadwood and Kung Fu to walk out the door to snap a shot of her for the papers. She was inside the federal building testifying about conspiring to tap her ex-husband’s phones with her private investigator and for some-time lover Anthony Pellicano.

The Post photographer’s attitude about the trial is exemplary of one of the two extremes in the spectrum of journalism in regards to the Pellicano trial. One side, which was epitomized by most of the writings of Fox News webpage columnist Roger Friedman, had predicted that Pellicano would be the biggest Hollywood scandal in years, the other side, the side of the Post photographer claims the story means nothing, and curiously uses the phrases ‘bomb” or “dud” or “fizzle out” that you would find used to described films that bombed.

It’s neither, but I’d say it’s closer to the side of big. It may be that it was difficult to market as a story to tabloids because the business and law involved is very involved, but major news sources such as The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and the Huffington Post maintain ongoing coverage of the trial. From the perspective of celebrity it may have been a disappointment—the trial and investigation looked like it would mean the outing of Tom Cruise’s homosexuality—but it appears only to have been briefly alluded to in the trial when former Pellicano employee Tarita Virtue testified that “sissy” was the codeword for Pellicano’s files on Cruise- the near leader of a cult whose founder was convinced that he could cure homosexuality being exposed as a closet homosexual would have been good, true. But the trail was more like a white-collar crime case with peripheral celebrity involvements and entanglements. Courtney Love, Tom Cruise and Michael Jackson during his first wave of child molestation allegations where all clients of Pellicano. Michael Jackson wasn’t mentioned in the trial, a tape of a conversation between Courtney Love and Pellicano was posted on Huffington Post, and Tom Cruise was mentioned in the trial, and Pellicano is likely to have used information obtained illegally working for Cruise. However, many prominent film and inside power players were exposed in connection to Pellicano’s wiretapping and in some cases admitted to listening to or gaining information from Pellicano’s phone taps.

As Sandra Carradine walked out the door, the photographer from the Post ran after her as she and a man accompanying her ran for a cab trying to avoid the photographer. This was no consensual act and clearly against the will of Sandra Carradine. The car speed away.

That was my welcome to the circus known as U.S. v. Anthony Pellicano.

The Agony of Andrew Stevens

April 3rd, Los Angeles: The first testimony and cross examination of Michelle Malkin, relating to her giving of information on cable pairs and binding posts to former SBC employee and co-defendant Ray Turner relating to information she had given to him regarding binding posts and cable pairs of SBC costumers. She spoke of giving information to Ray Turner and being questioned both by the FBI and in an internal investigation by SBC. When cross-examined by Ms. Soo Hoo, (attorney for Ray Turner) Michelle Malkin admitted that yes, Mr. Ray Turner is a very good looking man, that he does look much like Trey Parker, and that she liked him. One statement that Michelle Malkin made that struck me was that she said” This may sound strange but I didn’t think Mr. Turner would risk my career at the telephone company.”

When Michelle Malkin was dismissed, Timea Zsibrita, the sister of Monika Zsibrita, the Hungarian model that Chris Rock had hired Pellicano to investigate. Timea Zsibrita was however testifying about a matter in which she was impregnated by a CEO named Ivan Hoffman and Pellicano was called in as negotiator on the manner. Timea was given $120,000.00 to have an abortion and she testified, Pellicano drove her to the clinic.

This is what she was called in for was this, though. On an overhead projector was shown a spreadsheet of information that was a police DMV database search. One of the federal prosecutors asked Timea to identify her name and the name of her sister and other information, some of the information such as Social Security number redacted or inked out in the overhead version, while she was asked to identify the information on a version she held, in which the information is not redacted. This kind of material, which constituted a good bit of the actual trial, is in relation to alleged Illegal database searches conducted by retired police chief co-defendant Sgt. Mark Arneson. Behind me in the press box, a male reporter in whispered tones explained to a woman (I think Nancy Dillon of the Daily News) that this was the sister of the woman who had tried to hit Pellicano with a paternity suit and that there was some subplot about the two sisters being predators that took advantage of the rich and famous.

Pellicano, who operates as his own attorney in a disastrous move, cross-examined Timea and asked if there was any reason for surveillance in this case. She said there wasn’t. Timea Zsibrifta’s testimony is brief but is somewhat intriguing when understood in relation with later testimony about the Chris Rock matter.

Much more involved was the testimony of Andrew Stevens. Andrew Stevens is a film producer that entered into dispute with a company called Intertainment headed by a German named `Barry' Beares. Andrew Stevens was considering a defamation suit against Intertainment and retained one Mr. Bertie Fields, the attorney to the honorable Mr. Cruise and Mr. Jackson. Bertie Fields plays a prominent role in this trial. On advice of Bertie Fields, Andrew Stevens was told to hire Anthony Pellicano “to take him off the market.” Andrew Stevens was granted use immunity and thus, he can’t be charged with anything. There’s a box of tissues next to the witness box in case of tears, of which there are many in the Pellicano trial, both in the case of his alleged victims and the people who hired him. Andrew Stevens was one of them.

Before playing a tape of a telephone conversation between Andrew Stevens and Pellicano, which federal prosecutor Kevin Lally asked if Andrew Stevens knew was being recorded which Stevens said he did not. It is actually illegal to do that in California, but Pellicano did it all the time. Only one actual conversation or recording is a wiretapped conversation in the trial, a conversation between Lisa and Tom Gores, in relation to Alex Gores’s inquiries into his wife’s affair with his brother. However, Pellicano, being the proud member of Mensa and the genius that he no doubt is, tape recorded all of his conversations with his clients on encrypted tapes, many of which the FBI decoded and in which he talks to his clients about listening to people’s telephone conversations. As a matter of fact, much time was spent in court listening to excerpts of such calls. However, Pellicano, being the genius that he is, will, no doubt, acting as his own attorney, save the day for himself. After all, he is a member of Mensa and, therefore, must be smarter then the rest of us. He’s also, as he points out in the taped conversation with Andrew Stevens, a “Sicilian which means if you’re with me you’re with me and that’s that.”

During the playing of the phone conversations, Andrew Stevens wept on the stand, his face betraying internal agony over the sin he had committed, to which others had plead guilty, called within our legal system conspiracy to wiretap. As one conversation played, you could hear the voice of Anthony Pellicano asking him for the phone numbers of Steve Brown and other people in the Intertainment side of the dispute. Chad Hummel, the excellent defense lawyer for Mark Arneson, asked why he is heard on the tape giving out phone number after phone number. While Andrew Stevens admits to knowing that Pellicano was tapping phones he says the reason was that he hadn’t used a private investigator before and that he didn’t really know what they did or how they operated.

Andrew Stevens’ testimony in this trial is much like other testimony. A Hollywood power player admits that in some matter, especially in legal matters, Pellicano was called in often by a lawyer to investigate the other parties. In many instances the lawyer is Bertie Fields, which has always lead me to suspect that in the case where the boy accused Michael Jackson of molestation and then was paid millions of dollars and then refused to testify, or in all the various legal matters Pellicano may have worked for Tom Cruise, you have to be suspicious, which may cause real problems for those two especially within the industry.

Andrew Stevens wept. He was caught in a state of distress in public admitting before the world that he had involved himself in the queer and dirty crime of wiretapping. His admission was not so different then many others- Robert Pfeiffer who had gone from being in the new wave band Human Switchboard to being a record executive to being in the news about pleading guilty to conspiracy to wiretap was on that same stand. Admitting to the same thing as many other wealthy clients and Pellicano employees had. Billionaire Alex Gores admitted using Pellicano to check up on his wife’s possible infidelity, and yes, admitted that he knew that Pellicano was tapping the phones. Who knew? Another big Hollywood private investigator who was there, John Nazarian told me “literally hundreds of people knew he used wiretaps.” John Nazarian also pointed out something else. “I come from a law enforcement background. He comes from an asshole background. The goal of being a private investigator is not to get your clients indicted.” That happened with Pellicano a number of times and with Andrew Stevens and other instances where no charges were filled, there is still the public humiliation, the tears at the stand, the embarrassment and disgrace.

A Fool for a Client

April 4th, Los Angeles: I meet co-defendant Abner Nicherie in the elevator up. He said hello and when I asked him how he was doing, he shrugged his shoulders. We both laughed. He introduced himself.

“Abner Nicherie.”

“Ah, Abner Nicherie. William Wheaton. I almost interviewed your brother at one point.”

“My condolences. It’s good, though, that it never happened.”

“Oh, you don’t like him.”

“Daniel is very unique.”

Just as well, since Daniel is serving time in federal prison, having plead guilty to wiretapping and $40 million in fraud in relation to the Pellicano case, although his guilty plea didn’t affect Abner’s plea. I was contacted while promoting my short story collection Hollywood Wiretapping by a source that had claimed to work on the case that I was able to trace as most likely having been working at the office of private investigator Jan B. Tucker for Daniel Nicherie. This was on Myspace.com. When Daniel was sentenced, my source offered to forward some questions to Daniel, “as to going in to the prison, that is not possible”. The problem was that at the time the audio book version of my short story collection Hollywood Wiretapping was being released by CTW Records, whose owner Mike Warden, was obsessed with using Myspace.com spam as a means of advertising both CTW products and his political views as a Ron Paul supporter and a member of the 9-11 Truth Movement. I had turned over my personal pages password to Mike Warden, my source complained about annoying promos, I found a very backhand e-mail sent to my source by Mike Warden, I was blocked, and that was that for Daniel.

I would have to say that Abner is, as other reporters mentioned, quite friendly, at least on the surface. He was seen around the trial with a woman with plastic surgery that would scare Michael Jackson that I thought was his girlfriend but later learned was actually his mother. He was funny and polite; if I didn’t know more about the case I would have said he’d be a good person to go have a drink with. The same cannot be said of Anthony Pellicano.

How bad an attorney for himself was Anthony Pellicano on the stand? First of all, under court instruction he must speak of himself in the third-person, and a lot of the time he forgets to do so- and sounds like an annoying fool. Secondly, in some cases his arrogance about his technical knowledge makes him self-incriminating. And thirdly, while cross-examining, you can detect how his alleged victims and those with whom he’s interacted are. His work as a private investigator involved substantial amounts of law, but that in no way makes him a lawyer. As in the cases of other high-profile clients such as Charles Manson, his follower Squeaky Fromme, Zacarias Moussaoui, the old adage about someone who acts as their own lawyer having a fool for a client still stands.

My favorite instance of his self-incrimination came during the cross-examination came when his former employee Wayne Nelson was on the stand. He asked Wayne Nelson whether it was true that Mr. Pellicano had designed Telesleuth Audio Forensics Sleuth Software and Telesleuth, Jr., to which Wayne Nelson responded by saying, “no, that was mostly Kevin’s work,” referring to co-defendant Kevin Kachikian. It might have been hard for the government to find a prosecutor who would do a better job of destroying Pellicano then Pellicano operating as his own attorney.

The Unassuming Mr. Kalta

The same day saw the dramatic testimony of George Kalta. George Kalta is a retired owner of a lighting company who was under investigation for sexually assaulting then 18-year old Laura Moreno in October 2001. After paying a $25,000 retainer on the case to Anthony Pellicano, and also developing a close friendship with Pellicano, The matter was dropped supposedly through a contact that Pellicano had through the DAs office. George Kalta then also was talked by Pellicano into hiring him to do some investigative work on his competitors, noting that “it’s hard to say no to him.” In February 2002, the case was re-opened and Pellicano was employed and paid $80,000 to wiretap and run background checks on Laura Moreno and her family, to find damaging information, such as, as Pellicano put it on tape, “she’s had three abortions and she’s on LSD.” Turmoil between George Kalta and Pellicano erupted when George Kalta switched his lawyer from Danny Davis to Lisa Abramson. The name Lisa Abramson was recognizable to me as the lawyer who had worked on the Phil Spector trial. She also defended the Menendez brothers. Asked what happened when he switched lawyers, George Kalta stated that Pellicano, “went ballistic”.

A tape of a conversation is played where Pellicano keeps insisting that George not sign a document on the case that would have given Leslie Abramson the rights to look over all Pellicano’s work on the case, yelling again and again “George you don’t want to do that!” and “George, you almost got me arrested!”

George Kalta eventually pleaded guilty in the assault matter, and also plead guilty in the question of wiretapping. And guess what? Surprise, surprise: evidence was presented that Pellicano was running unauthorized background checks on George Kalta. A curious act for man who ended his conversation with Kalta with the words, “love you, George.”

Pellicano’s cross-examination of Kalta was a mess. Pellicano serving as his own former client again and again for proof that the conversations on the phone played in trial mentioned wiretaps.

“Where on that tape is there any mention of phone boxes?” Pellicano asked, his face turning red with rage and his voice trembling with the phrase “phone boxes,” sounding crazed and dangerous.

Chris Rock Testifies

April 5th, Los Angeles: One of the most amazing and glaring problems with modern American media was in full-effect with the coverage of the April 5th events at the Pellicano trial. Most of the coverage of the trial from that day in court was about comedian Chris Rock’s appearance in court. Chris Rock only testified for about 15 minutes. Pellicano, acting as his own lawyer, didn’t even cross-examine him. Earlier in the trial his fellow comedian Gary Shandling had famously made jokes on the witness stand, but Rock was clearly very, very nervous, in sharp contrast to his flamboyant and controversial comedic persona.

What had happened was this: when separated from his wife, he had a brief affair with a woman named Monika Zsibrita—the sister of Timea Zsibrita who also testified in the Pellicano trial. Monika Zsibrita attempted to hit Chris Rock with a paternity suit. The child was found not to be his. On advice of his lawyers, he hired Anthony Pellicano to work the case. A brief excerpt of a phone call, the entirety of which is available online, between Rock and Pellicano, Chris Rock and Anthony Pellicano discuss a police report that Anthony Pellicano is “not supposed to have” that Pellicano says was a report of a rape made about him by Monika Zsibrita. No charges were ever filled and in the paternity matter, Rock was proven not to be the father. As Rock said, “I come her today as a free man” and as he also pointed out “a person that claimed that she had child that was not mine came after me demanding large sums of money.” The federal government was not after Chris Rock in any way. He was used to collaborate a few facts and identify some information on one of the overheads pertaining to Arneson’s alleged DMV record searches.

That’s it, and he was free to go. Much of the day’s testimony had to do with the elaborate chain of events surrounding the Nicherie brothers and their conflict with Ami Shafrir. A brief appearance by a celebrity totally eclipsed the almost unreported but absolutely explosive testimony of Sarit Shafrir.

A Dangerous Game- the Testimony of Sarit Shafrir

The crucial testimony of the day came from Sarit Shafrir, there can be no question. Laura Moreno testified briefly and identified yet more of the DMV record checks attributed to Mark Arneson. Pamela Miller, the former nanny of Taylor Thompson, one of the most wealthy women in Canada, about phone tapping and DMV background searches on her and her family allegedly conducted by Pellicano in relation to a legal dispute with Taylor Thompson surrounding deposition she gave in a paternity battle with Taylor Thompson’s ex-husband. After Pamela Miller’s testimony, during break, she spoke with a number of reporters about being diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and having a difficult time finding work and functioning after the whole thing.

Then there is the highly sophisticated testimony of Sarit Shafrir, the ex-wife of Ami Shafrir, the man that Daniel Nicherie has pleaded guilty to wiretapping and defrauding of $40,000,000.

The premise of this highly involved story begins with a divorce in the year 2000. This divorce was apparently so contentious that authorities requested both parties turn over their firearms. During this period, Sarit Shafrir testified that she meet Daniel and Abner Nicherie. “Did you become romantically involved with one of the Nicherie brothers?” asked a federal prosecutor to which Sarit said “Yes.” “Which one?” “Abner.” Also during this time period the Nicherie brothers were engaged in legal dispute with Ami Shafrir.

Sarit Shafrir testified that the Nicherie brothers “took complete control of every aspect of my life.” They even lived with her and controlled her business dealings and her personal life, she claimed. She claims they taught her how to lie and how to forge signatures.

At this time, our friend Mr. Pellicano comes into play, although Sarit Shafrir didn’t interact with him until much later. “They told me he was an intense player, that it is a dangerous game.” Sarit stated.

What she was told about the wiretapping gave some of the most vivid descriptions of the technology involved during the trial. She mentioned that the wiretapping was said to be conducted using recording devices placed near phones boxes which had to be replaced every forty-eight hours. She spoke of them informing her of a graph on Pellicano’s computer that could determine volume in the calls so that they could tell “if Ami was screaming really loud”.

There was a problem, though. While Pellicano did not generally allow his clients to listen to wiretapped conversations, there was here a language barrier. Many of Ami Shafrir’s conversations were in Hebrew, and so the Nicherie brothers acted as translators.

Unbeknownst to Pellicano, the brothers Nicherie snuck cell phones on their persons while being played the wiretaps. Sarit Shafrir was “freaked out” by this, which would not deter the gleeful Nicherie brothers who would she said would tell her things like “You gotta hear this” and even left snippets of the wiretapped conversations on her answering machine. Ironically, Former LAPD officer Craig Stevens later testified that Ami Shafrir was also a Pellicano client.

Lawrence Semenza, the defense attorney for Abner who was taking notes during this section of the trail, went into lengthy cross-examination, beginning by bringing up the question of what kind of business the Shafrirs owned. It was a business involved in the billing and operation of adult phone services and astrology or psychic hotlines.

Semenza brought up the question of double billing, a practice which Daniel Nicherie on a web-page accused Ami Shafrir of taking part of in which parties are billed later for charges they already paid for discretely as to avoid notice on their phone bills. Credit card fraud is another activity that Semenza brought up and Sarit Shafrir testified that one of Ami’s employees had actually admitted Ami was pulling credit card fraud. My understanding of the Shafrir/Nicherie conflict is that it may have been a sort of white-collar crime war, in which the parties involved can’t always be redacted into simple definitions of good and evil. However, under re-direct examination, when asked about accusations that Ami Shafrir had molested their daughter, Sharit said “he told my daughter if she wants to protect mommy, she needs to say that daddy touched her,", demonstrating how out of control “the dangerous game” had become.

Michael Ovitz, Anita Busch, and a Quick Paul Barresi Subplot

April 10th, Loa Angeles: The climax, of sorts, to the trial was the testimony of Anita Busch, which followed and was closely tied to the testimony of former Disney CEO Michael Ovitz.

In 2002, Michael Ovitz’s company was in turmoil, he testified. A series of articles where published claiming, that his company AMG, was going through financial hardships. Many of these where penned by the journalist Anita Busch. Michael Ovitz claimed that the company was not in financial hardships, these articles seemed to make financial problems. Solution? Call in Anthony Pellicano, which prompted a telephone call in which Mike Ovitz starts out by stating, “ I need to speak to you.” To which Pellicano on tape responds, “Listen, my friend Bert Fields loves you and I love you.” At which point Mr. Pellicano was retained to find out embarrassing information about Anita Busch, which, Ovitz testified, there was none of.

I’ll share what I thought about this as I sat there. I thought, “who cares?” It can’t be stressed too many times that Pellicano was called in for reasons that seem incredibly petty. Michael Ovitz is a very wealthy man and would still be even if reporters reported drops in income periodically.

Ovitz, of course, claimed he had no knowledge of illegal wiretaps or police database searches. He is, however, in the process of being sued by Anita Busch over alleged threats being made against her life.

The Ovitz testimony was difficult to follow because an individual I recognized to be Paul Barresi was talking to some woman. Barresi worked for Pellicano and also a figure in the gay porn world. A lot of the more provocative allegations about Tom in the wiretapping case I’ve read are available on-line in an excerpt from a book that Barresi was supposedly writing entitled “Pellicano’s Enforcer.” The excerpt I had read describes a situation in which a male prostitute called Big Read approaches Barresi about having had Tom Cruise as a client, but Barresi informs Bertie Fields and Pellicano about Big Read, who then suspects his phone is tapped and that he is being followed, possibly by Scientologists. Outside during break, I talked with Barresi briefly but he said he wasn’t interested in talking to media people yet and when I mentioned the excerpt online he even asked, “Are you sure?”

After that Anita Busch took the stand. One morning in late 2002, Anita Busch found her car window smashed, with a frying pan and a dead fish in it, a rose and a sign that said stop, she testified. The bomb squad was called in to clear off the mess.

Next, she found her computer information destroyed by a computer virus. By strange coincidence (?) my own computer broke the same day as her testimony. She testified that all her computer files were destroyed by a virus. She testified that also a vehicle with two men in it came rushing forward and two men came out and made the gesture to keep quite.

This is where Pellicano acting as his own lawyer totally self-destructed. Mark Arneson’s lawyer Chad Hummel pointed out that Anita Busch was also writing a story on Steven Segal’s ties to the mafia and the Gambino crime family, suggesting the attack may have had absolutely nothing to do with Pellicano. First, though subject to many calls of objection from the prosecutors, Pellicano questioned Anita Busch about a possible book on the event she was writing. Anita Busch said there wouldn’t be any book. Then under cross-examination, Pellicano made Anita Busch, clearly in a state of terror, go over every detail of the incident with the car again and again. What angle the vehicle was coming from, what color the vehicle was, and the court could visibly see Anita Busch go through some kind of post-traumatic stress incident right there on the witness stand. Pellicano continued to torture her in this way regardless, displaying the very real fear she experienced and the assurance she had that it was he who was responsible.

Prosecution Rests

April 11th, Los Angeles: I didn’t intend to stay for the defense. A reporter for the Times, I believe it was Carla Hall asked me about as she and I chatted with John Nazarian.

“Small budget, small magazine. Also, I think the verdict would appear fairly clear.”

Nazarian and the Los Angles Time reporter cracked up.

What the Stallone matter was about was this. Planet Hollywood is the restaurant chain owned by Stallone and others. It is actually still around but it has had a history of bankruptcy. Stallone ended up in litigation against his business manager Kenneth Starr (not the Kenneth Star in the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal) over the matter. Ken Starr was represented by guess who? Why it’s Bertie Fields, esq. again. Wow, for someone who had no knowledge of illegal wiretapping Bertie Fields sure has a lot of former clients in this case!

So Stallone wasn’t called but his lawyer Lawrence Nagler was. Nagler testified after a tape was played with Pellicano talking to Kenneth Starr about Stallone’s camps legal strategy and even lists off what Nagler testified was his salary, $15,000 a month plus 20% of the take. On the tape he also tells star that Stallone and team are trying to get signed affidavit from a woman that was a former Starr employee about him.

“That is exactly what we where trying to do,” Testified Nagler.

And about the salary? Pellicano was exactly right about that, too. I have read in the press that the Pellicano prosecution rested on the matter of Stallone- this is wrong it rested with a tape of a phone call involving the case of Komi Hass. A detective who had worked on the case testified that Komi Hass was charged with Manslaughter and distributing a narcotic (ecstasy and GHB) in the death of Sandra Rodriguez, who fell from a balcony. The last thing I heard is a tape of Pellicano talking to Mark Arneson. Mark Arneson gives Pellicano the good word. It’s a DUI. She was on probation when she died. Pellicano is pleased, and then gives off a list of other numbers for Arneson presumably to check and he just lists of numbers. And on that Kevin Lally said, “The prosecution rests”.

Sabotage!

April 23rd, New York: It appears that someone may have sabotaged my computer. The reason I suspect this is the case is because my computer was damaged while I was in Los Angeles and it is possible that someone could have gotten into the RUV trailer in Alhambra that I was staying in while working on the Pellicano trial. I thought nothing off it at the time- or almost nothing. After returning from some brief meetings with Reviewer Rob in San Diego, I went back to New York the workers at Mickey's Hook Up in Williamsburg found still liquid within the computer and I don't remember any spills near the computer or anything at all like that. The tech workers at the shop took photos of the wreck of the computer for legal purposes. I wouldn't say for certain it was intentional, but it could very well be.

Conclusion

April 25th, New York: In response to news arriving from the frontline of a possible mistrial in the case- it has been said that the government introduced a bankruptcy filling attributed to Mark Arneson that was, perhaps the work of the witness Phyllis Miller, who testified she was in the process of re-financing Arneson’s home, but indeed, may have incriminated herself and her husband for fraud and possibly perjury on the stand. Chad Hummel, of course, called for a mistrial. Chad Hummel is formidable. Pellicano, in such a case, wouldn’t be out of the fire because he must be tried separately in the case involving lawyer Terry Christensen and the custody dispute of Kirk and Lisa Kerkorian, As Terry Christensen was able to have his separated from the current racketeering trial, as he had little to do with the general operation of Pellicano’s alleged racket. Pellicano will still probably end up in prison. The tape of Pellicano and Christensen talking speaks for itself. Pellicano is a very dangerous man, the longer he is separated from society, the better. There is, however, the glaring double standard that so many people were granted use immunity in the case and were charged with nothing, being left free to go.

After all, Pellicano was only doing his job.

~WW

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Hugh Gaskins and the G String Daddies

With the soul of a bluesman, Hugh Gaskins has drawn from a lifetime of varied influences and embraced a diversity of genres in his own music, an "American fusion" of sorts. An eclectic tapestry of blues, rockabilly, rock, country, cowboy blues – call it what you want – you'll hear a little of it all… and it goes down like aged whiskey – with more than just a little kick.

"It happens whether you want it to or not, chosen or unchosen, and it's the best thing this country does - a fusion of diverse cultures. Like it or not, it goes on and is most obvious in the music: jazz, blues, gospel, cajun, zydeco, Tex-Mex, bluegrass, C&W, rockabilly, and an endless list of others with a common thread running through them all. Along these lines, nothing represents this idea better than the sight and sound of a young Elvis. I say young because that's when the black and the white of the man was still good and confused, mixed up in a way that could make you whole."

Hugh has been a part of the San Diego music scene since the seventies as both a busy solo performer and in bands such as Street Noise and Santa Fe Blues Line. In early 2006, Hugh joined forces with bass man Charlie Gordon and drummer Dan Renwick to form The Hugh Gaskins Band, later to be renamed the G String Daddies.

Gordon's jazz sensibilities and Renwick's rock background bleed into the Gaskins mix to produce a tight, crisp sound, but with a feel and musicality that moves and breathes. They cover a broad cut of the musical spectrum, and though they do a lot of Gaskins originals, no one is safe from having their work covered with the GSD stamp firmly affixed. From Johnny Cash to Jimmy Reed, Robert Johnson to Grand Funk Railroad, Elvis to Alvin Lee and a whole bunch in between, the band coalesces around the essence of a song, but takes it on a little ride to a different part of town...

UPCOMING SHOWS:
Thornton's Irish Pub - 5/9, 5/23, 6/6, 6/20, 7/11, 7/25
Fannie's Nightclub - 6/13, 6/27

VISIT US AT: http://www.myspace.com/gstringdaddies

New Music - CD reviews

by Andrew Napoli

:::

Chuck Dukowski Sextet
Reverse the Polarity
“Does my life propel my country’s evil?” This question from the song “The Whole World’s Evil Villain” is one we all should be asking ourselves. And this CD is filled with nuggets such as this one. They reveal the truth about our current condition here in the good old US of A. “Made of Grease” is a treatise on the evils of capitalism and its effect on art. It is a song that chips off the landslide of the crumbling music industry. The lyrics “Have more and think less, objects enslave you” from “Try to Feel Free” speak to our sleepy credit card society of greed, because the tragedies of war do not penetrate our avaricious slumber. Listen to the whole album. Read the lyrics and take stock of your contribution to the mess that CD6 describes. Chuck was the original bass player for Black Flag and his Sextet (there are actually four of them!) is a crack unit, tight and to the point. The music sounds like people playing instruments, not like an over-produced machine. The music is as real as the message. [http://myspace.com/chuckdukoskisextet] -AN

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Open Wounds
The everyday struggle
This is tight and fast hardcore. The rhythmic changes are ferocious and the sound of the snare bites like a rabid dog. All of the instruments are locked in place and these vocals could give Hannibal Lecter nightmares. The anger and self-deprecation are sincere and the lyrical content, especially in songs that microscope society, can be substantial. “Depth of Isolation” is a juggernaut about the atrocities in Darfur and indeed all across the globe. If you love metal, good riffs and a thundering double bass (and have a lot of pent up anger) then you need to listen to this. [http://myspace.com/openwounds_rip] – AN

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Or The Gun - New album by The Moviegoers

Or The Gun is now available on iTunes and at CDBaby.com. "Or The Gun" is The Moviegoers' first release with Mangoose Records.

Be The Moviegoer's MySpace friend and listen to their music at: http://www.myspace.com/themoviegoers.

"The Moviegoers have an odd appeal that edges so close to the familiar, yet somehow jumps in unexpected directions at every chance." - Amy Salisbury, The Pride

"If you are a fan of soft, subtly-constructed alt-rock, The Moviegoers should be a band one looks out for. Keep your ear to the ground for this band; I can guarantee a return on that investment." - James McQuiston, NeuFutur Magazine

Learn more about Mangoose Records at http://www.mangooserecords.com.

http://reviewermagazine.com/rvur38music-andrew-napoli-4-23.html

New Music

CD Reviews By Andrew Napoli

Celeste Lear
Looking Up from Under Water
Celeste is the granddaughter of the man who invented the 8-track. She continues in this solitary tradition by handling nearly everything herself: producing, programming, playing guitar and singing. She puts her degree in sound engineering to work on this collection of mellow electronica as it sounds slick and shiny. Her voice soars on songs like “Entropy” and “Porcelain White Desert” and whenever she throws in an acoustic guitar (listen to: “Traveler”) it brings a wooden organic feel that decorates her deep space colors nicely. Clocking in here with 16 songs (including a remix of “Catch the Sun”) and more than one hour of music, she may have benefit with a more economic song selection. Tracks are available for purchase on her myspace page. [http://myspace.com/celestelear] –AN

Hugh Gaskins and the G String Daddies
Big Legged Woman
Hugh Gaskins has the hard egg sound of a musician who has been boiling in the life of a working man. That is because he has. This edge, combined with the talents of the G String Daddies: Charlie Gordon on bass, Dan Renwick on drums, and Steve Piccus on harmonica makes for quite the whiskey roller coaster ride. This is blues fusion with a Bob Seeger-esque rock ethic. There are 17 tracks and 5 are cover songs (Johnny Cash, Lead Belly, etc.) so there is plenty of blues here. The music has more depth than much of the decipherable lyrical content, and Hugh Gaskins’ vocals shine most when he indulges in scat. [http://myspace.com/hughgaskins] -AN

The Hi-Lites
Hi-Altitude!
Here is a quote from the band’s myspace page: “Yes, initially, a great change in the world created Ska, but now, the Ska will change the world!” That said, all of the pieces for a fine ska CD are here: positive, life-affirming lyrics (in the celebratory style that helped forge ska – the liberation of Jamaica,) a sharp, jazzy horn section, chunky-train reggae rhythm, and a walking bass line. “Nefertiti” is a highlight and also clocks in as the longest jam at 7 minutes. Also check out “China Clipper” a Tommy McCook cover. Of the 13 tracks, 6 are originals and the rest are covers (3 written by Tommy McCook.) There will be no time to sip Caribbean rum when listening to The Hi-Lites because you’ll be too busy sweating on the dance floor. [http://www.myspace.com/thehilites] -AN

Decay of the Angel
This is the brainchild of Yuki Sakurai. She handles the instrumentation and vocals with the exception of the bass which is played by Harry Dalrymple, Jr. The vocals are ghostly though at times Yuki conjures the spirit of Joe Strummer (listen to: “Untitled”). Her guitar playing and composition is, in part, defined by the fact that she did not learn guitar until she was 30. This seems to have allowed her to explore the instrument in a manner that is unconventional. The name of this musical endeavor comes from a book written by Yukio Mishima, a Japanese author and playwright, who upon completing the book committed seppuku (a ritual suicide usually reserved for samurai.) Needless to say, this CD is no lite affair. The lyrics are a twisted spiritual dream that reveal more with each listen. The music is a combination of noise and beauty. Check out their myspace page for more songs not available on the CD.
[http://myspace.com/decayoftheangel] –AN

Two San Diego Band’s Myspace Tracks Reviewed

By Andrew Napoli

The Moviegoers and Writer

Writer has four songs available to listen to on their myspace page (http://myspace.com/writer.) Two of the songs are from Writer’s 2006 release: Cover Your Tracks and two are from a recently released 7 inch (vinyl!): Don’t Wake the Sun. "Friend" is the best of the two tracks from their 2006 endeavor. The drum work and picked acoustic guitar lay a nice bed of leaves in which the rest of the instrumentation reclines. The title track from the 7 inch is a catchy song about a beer-goggle evening that will last forever as long as no one disturbs the sun. "I Think She Died" floats out of an early morning fog with no lighthouse to guide us safely back to shore. Check it out on myspace or buy it on vinyl!

The Moviegoers have been making music in one incantation or another since 2004. The songs on their myspace page (http://myspace.com/themoviegoers) reveal a band in the midst of developing its sound. The vocals alternate from male to female but not until “Love is Like and Aeroplane” do we really hear the lead vocalists share some space with each other and it is a welcome development. They show some force with “Dreaming or in Delirium” and “SS Vaseline” with guitars that sound plugged into an electric fence and vocals calling from an open field on the other side. Too often though the thin keyboard sound belies the power of the songs. Their diversity warrants inspection of their new CD: Or the Gun.

Note - alternate page: http://reviewermagazine.com/rvur38music-michael-caldwell-1.html

Music Reviews by Michael Caldwell

The Sword
Gods of the Earth
(Kemado Records)

With their sophomore invasion Gods of the Earth, The Sword don’t tinker much with the formula they stole from Black Sabbath. And why should they? That same formula was used to create their killer debut Age of Winters. Instead of tyring to re-invent the metal wheel, the Austin based quartet wisely focus on getting the details right. That’s where the Devil resides anyway, and the group has once again enlisted the Old Goat into their camp.

Blending mystical musings and precision-based Righteous Riffage (yes, with two capital “Rs”) Gods of the Earth plays like the soundtrack to the classic Conan the Barbarian comics. And what is best in metal? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women! Certainly, there is plenty of crushing, driving and wailing to be found.

The album’s opening salvo, the instrumental “The Sundering” evokes a swirling dust storm as the horde approaches. Indeed, until the last track, the charge seldom abates. Not since Iron Maiden has a group perfected such a ferocious gallop. “Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians,” the album’s single, is a prime example of The Sword’s mad cavalry charge. The tune is as overbearing as its title—and metal fans would have it no other way.

Other noteworthy tracks include the album’s seven-plus-minute epic, “The White Sea” and the groove-based “Maiden, Mother & Crone”. If there are faults to be found with the album, it’s that J.D. Cronise’s vocals don’t always match the might of his and Kyle Shutt’s guitars. Also a modicum of groove has been forsaken in favor of heavy hoofed trampling. But these are trifle complaints since only non metal heads and Philistines will fail to find glory in Gods of the Earth. — Michael Caldwell

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Ministry and Co-Conspirators
Cover Up
(13th Planet)

With their 2007 swansong release The Last Sucker Ministry finalize their shock and awe attack on George W. Bush and his administration. With lyrics such as Dick Cheney Son of Satan…You know he’s evil, he’s not of this race…He used a shotgun to blow off a face there is little doubt the band means business. Yet, perhaps all Bush bashing and no play was making Ministry’s main man Al Jourgensen a dull boy.

Proving they don’t take themselves too seriously, Jourgensen and his co-conspirators have issued an album of 11 covers. Yes, there are two paths you can go by with re-interpreting songs made popular by others. One is to ruin a perfectly good tune and waste everyone’s time. The other route is to create something equal or greater to the original which of course is a win-win. With Cover Up, Ministry travel mostly in the latter direction.



Two of the least obvious cover choices, The Rolling Stone’s “Under My Thumb” and “What a Wonderful World” perhaps most famously performed by Louis Armstrong don’t lend themselves well to Ministry-ization. Pretty melodies are not Jourgensen and company’s forte and both songs have strong melodies that, in this context, are underserved—though the guys get some credit for trying to stretch out. The surprising misfire is a fairly flat attempt at T-Rex’s “Bang A Gong.” Bob Dylan’s’ “Lay Lady Lay”, interestingly kind of works. Yet when Ministry tackles songs more rhythmically-based the listener finds a solid turn-it-up-and-drive ally. Golden Earring’s “Radar Love” and Deep Purple’s “Space Truckin’” have the right propulsion. But it’s “Black Betty” in the vein of Ram Jam and “Roadhouse Blues” that may instigate the smashing of windshields. Some tunes don’t warrant multiple listens but the ones that do will make nice additions to your “road trip mix”. — Michael Caldwell

:::

Mower
Not For You
( Suburban Noize)

Fearless and refusing to be pigeonholed, San Diego based metalcore act Mower concludes their second album with a cover of The Mama’s and the Papa’s “California Dreaming”. It sounds just like you’d imagine; but you’ve got to give Mower props for being ballsy. Led by the dual pronged attack of vocalists Dominic Moscatello and Brian Sheerin – think Flavor Flav’s treble to Chuck D’s bass, respectively (only more like Fear Factory) – Mower is sharpest when they stay truer to the trappings of their genre. Angry rocker “Road Rage” makes you want to drive right or go Mad Max on someone, while the industrial thump of “General Admission” hints at the group’s sizeable heart on stage. Power ballad “Broken Wings” sounds like a flaccid attempt to bring in the chicks–and along with “California Dreaming”–doesn’t really belong in the mix.

Produced by ex-Snot and Soulfly guitarist Mike Doling, the collection maintains a punk rock, hit-it and quit-it, brevity. Most songs run at or below the three-minute mark. In the case of the promising 1:15 minute instrumental “MPYP,” the abruptness does a disservice to the track’s good stoner groove.

Not For You seems very much like the album the band members wanted to make for themselves. No problem there, but once the group concentrates their diverse influences Mower may well make a cohesive album that will satisfy any aggressive music fan. —Michael Caldwell

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Powerman 5000
Destroy What You Enjoy
(Drt Entertainment)

A stark black background provides contrast to a white male face. Cropped from the snarling upper lip to the chest, the un-doctored photograph shows the man wearing a stainless steel chain link necklace—complete with actual padlock. His gray shirt has been stenciled with the word “Destroy”. Who says you can’t judge an album by its cover? It doesn’t take a musicologist to determine that the contents probably contain some in-your-face punk rock.

And indeed, on Powerman 5000’s seventh album “Destroy What You Enjoy” the group continues further along the punk rock path first tread on 2003’s “Transform.” Gone are the metal leanings of earlier albums that helped land the band tour slots with Marilyn Manson, Korn and Ozzfest. Gone are the sci-fi themes and industrial sound effects, which severed as a reminder that Rob Zombie is big brother to Spider (a.k.a. Michael Cummings) the group’s lead vocalist and sole original member. Gone are the space suits the guys used to don for live performances.

But that’s not to suggest the quintet (including Adrian Ost/drums, Siggy/bass, Johnny Heatley and Terry Corso/guitars) has become a one trick punk pony. With their eleven new offerings, Powerman 5000 reaches into a fairly sizeable bag of both rock and punk influences. Perhaps that is part of the meaning behind the album’s title. They’ve taken music they enjoy and destroyed it—in a sense–to create their own music.

“Now That’s Rock ‘N Roll” is an uptempo Billy Idol-esque romp with just a hint of Stone Temple Pilots, but then STP might have been channeling Idol. The catchy “All My Friends Are Ghosts,” with its big-shout-out chorus, driving guitars and loose high hat, might fit comfortably on a Foo Fighters album. The band even does a power pop impression with the album’s first single “Wild World.” Other tracks evoke the Sex Pistols, The Clash, 70’s glam rock, and even early Aerosmith. The only deviation from the rock format is the country ballad “Miss America.” The song’s title is a play on words, “Crap movies and shit TV/We got it all most definitely/ Lots of drugs and lots of guns/But no one seems to be having much fun/ You might miss America when it’s gone”. Closing out the album, the live and energetic “Heroes and Villains” gives listeners a hint at what a PM5K performance would sound like. And overall, “Destroy” sounds like a hit at Hot Topic locations. —Michael Caldwell

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Potluck
Straight Outta Humboldt
(Suburban Noize Records)

Remember when you and a friend bought your first bag of weed? Potluck’s third full-length platter Straight Outta Humbolt is an auditory flashback to that experience. Like the adrenaline rush of doing something potentially dangerous and illegal, there is an intrinsic excitement present on the album due to the hip hop group’s underground vibe and status. The rap duo of 1 Ton (originally from San Diego) and Underrated possess a do-it-yourself attitude that helps account for the album’s upbeat energy; particularly on the first three tracks, “Rock the World,” “Get High” and “Fire”. However, Potluck’s anthems are more suited to house parties than arenas and listeners may start to question their buzz when each of the first three offerings falls short of being a bona fide banger. You can almost hear your buddy asking, “Do you feel anything? Are you high?” Three lame skits—which should be illegal—increase the doubt.

Containing 22 cuts—no less than half about weed—Straight Outta Humbolt contains way too many seeds and stems and too few quality buds. The inclusion of notable friends, such as The Luniz, Tech N9ne and the Kottonmouth Kings, does little to spark things up. The few times Potluck emerges from the haze of “Mary Jane” and attempts greater depth, most notably with the personal expose of “My Life” and the questioning vulnerability of “Love Me,” it’s too late and too formulaic. One of the album’s green patches—where the sentiment is fully packed instead of half baked—is the smooth “Money Makes the World Go ‘Round.” Here Underrated reveals some thought provoking insight, “I hate money/Money make a mother fucker act funny/ Money separates me and you/ And you’re whack if you don’t drive a Beemer or a Benz/Sounds bad, but it’s true.”

Potluck has solid MC skills, and the album contains some decent production elements including the effective incorporation of rhythm guitars. But 1 Ton and Underrated need to find a new drug in order to stimulate greater lyrical originality. Just like that first bag of weed, the initial buzz provided from Straight Outta Humbolt might not be worth the ensuing headache. — Michael Caldwell

:::

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Editor's note: we've got an alternate page for this review listing located here: http://reviewermagazine.com/project-coldfeet.php. We're beginning to move the website over to a non-livejournal blog format. Suggestions and comments should be emailed to editor@reviewermagazine.com. Thanks.

That's Incredible!

"The team found evidence of advanced acoustical systems research ..."

Project COLDFEET: Seven Days in the Arctic

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union battled for every advantage, including studying the Arctic for its strategic value. For seven days in May 1962, under Project COLDFEET, the US intelligence community pursued a rare opportunity to collect intelligence firsthand from an abandoned Soviet research station high in the Arctic.

The Soviet drift station – located on a floating ice island – had been hastily evacuated when shifting ice made the base runway unusable. Since the ice was breaking apart – and normal air transport to the island was now impossible – the Soviets felt the remote base and its equipment and research materials would be crushed and thoroughly destroyed in the Arctic Sea. Unfortunately for the Soviets, they were wrong.

Project COLDFEET was truly a joint venture bringing together the resources and expertise of the Office of Naval Research, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. On May 28, using pilots and a B-17 from CIA proprietary Intermountain Aviation – accompanied by a polar navigator borrowed from Pan American Airlines – two intelligence collectors were successfully dropped by parachute onto the ice.

The B-17 – now rigged with Robert Fulton’s Skyhook – returned on June 2 to recover the team and their take. The Skyhook was a unique airborne pickup device that included a nose yolk and a special winch system. The key measure of COLDFEET’s success was the unprecedented safe removal of the investigative team and many critical items.

The mission yielded valuable information to the US intelligence community on the Soviet Union’s drift station research activities. The team found evidence of advanced acoustical systems research to detect under-ice US submarines and efforts to develop Arctic anti-submarine warfare techniques.

This small team — incredibly courageous and resourceful — planned and executed a remarkable feet, capitalizing on a rare intelligence opportunity.

[Reprinted from cia.gov. ~Ed.]



Book Details Summary:
[from http://www.allbookstores.com/author/Leonard_A_Leschack.html]
The title of this book is Project Coldfeet : Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station and it was written by William M. Leary, Leonard A. Leschack. This edition of Project Coldfeet : Secret Mission to a Soviet Ice Station is in a Hardcover format. This book's publish date is September 1996 and it has a suggested retail price of $29.95. There are 196 pages in the book and it was published by Naval Inst Pr. The 10 digit ISBN is 1557505144 and the 13 digit ISBN is 9781557505149.

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Vote For McCain For More Of The Same!

Below, from http://Moveon.org:

For all the coverage this week of Senator John McCain's background, there are some important things you won't learn about him from the TV networks. His carefully crafted positive image relies on people not knowing this stuff—and you might be surprised by some of it.

Please check out the list below, and then forward it to your friends, family, and coworkers. We can't rely on the media to tell folks about the real John McCain—but if we all pass this along, we can reach as many people as CNN Headline News does on a good night.

Click here to tell us how many people you can pass it on to—and to see our progress nationally:

http://pol.moveon.org/mccain10/?id=12407-4454980-Bvf7Rt&t=231

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don't):
1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he's continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3
4. McCain opposes a woman's right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4

5. The Children's Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children's health care bill last year, then defended Bush's veto of the bill.5

6. He's one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

7. Many of McCain's fellow Republican senators say he's too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He's erratic. He's hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

John McCain is not who the Washington press corps make him out to be. Please help get the word out—forward this email to your personal network. And if you want us to keep you posted on MoveOn's work to get the truth out about John McCain, sign up here:
http://pol.moveon.org/mccaintruth/?id=12407-4454980-Bvf7Rt&t=232

Thank you for all you do.

–Eli, Justin, Noah, Laura, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Sources:
1. "The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day," ABC News, April 3, 2008
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/04/the-complicated.html

"McCain Facts," ColorOfChange.org, April 4, 2008
http://colorofchange.org/mccain_facts/

2. "McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq," Bloomberg News, March 12, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aF28rSCtk0ZM&refer=us

"Buchanan: John McCain 'Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi,'" ThinkProgress, February 6, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/06/buchanan-gandhi-mccain/

3. "McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill," ThinkProgress, February 20, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/20/mccain-torture-veto/

4. "McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned," MSNBC, February 18, 2007
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17222147/

5. "2007 Children's Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard," February 2008
http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_learn_scorecard2007

"McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion," CNN, October 3, 2007
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/03/mccain.interview/

6. "Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady," Associated Press, April 3, 2008
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-S1sWHm0tchtdMP5LcLywg5ZtMgD8VQ86M80

"McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End `Systemic Risk,'" Bloomberg News, March 25, 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aHMiDVYaXZFM&refer=home

7. "Will McCain's Temper Be a Liability?," Associated Press, February 16, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=4301022

"Famed McCain temper is tamed," Boston Globe, January 27, 2008
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/01/27/famed_mccain_temper_is_tamed/

8. "Black Claims McCain's Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: 'I Don't Know What The Criticism Is,'" ThinkProgress, April 2, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/02/mccain-black-lobbyist/

"McCain's Lobbyist Friends Rally 'Round Their Man," ABC News, January 29, 2008
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4210251

9. "McCain's Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam," Mother Jones Magazine, March 12, 2008
http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2008/03/john-mccain-rod-parsley-spiritual-guide.html

"Will McCain Specifically 'Repudiate' Hagee's Anti-Gay Comments?," ThinkProgress, March 12, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/03/12/mccain-hagee-anti-gay/

"McCain 'Very Honored' By Support Of Pastor Preaching 'End-Time Confrontation With Iran,'" ThinkProgress, February 28, 2008
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/02/28/hagee-mccain-endorsement/

10. "John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record," Sierra Club, February 28, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/environment/77913/
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:

http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=12407-4454980-Bvf7Rt&t=241

Mika Miko

Video and photo by Reviewer Rob

Last weekend I was at The Whistle Stop and one of the bands was Mika Miko, a girl band from LA. If you're as obsessed with easy access to information as I am then you're an avid user of Wikipedia.org. So I was really pleased to find Mika Miko's listing there to be brief yet complete. I've reprinted it below, and below that is a link to the video of a song from their high energy posted set on youtube.com/reviewer. ~RR

Mika Miko is an underground youth punk/noise band formed in 2003 in Los Angeles, California, U.S.. [1] In 2004 they gained local popularity for their frenetic live performances which emulate being at a party and often take place at parties. Featuring Victor Fandgore (Jennifer Clavin), Jet Blanca (Jenna Thornhill), Michelle Suarez, Jessica Clavin, and Jon Erik Edrosa, the original line up of the band made its first demo CD-R, its first 7" record, and toured the West Coast extensively before replacing their original drummer with Kate Hall and embarking on their first national tour in the Summer of 2005. Also in 2005 they were featured on two compilations released by Los Angeles-based record labels, produced their first two self-released cassettes, and two members of the band appeared on the Hawnay Troof EP Community.

Their first full-length album was co-released by Post Present Medium and Kill Rock Stars in the Summer of 2006. A second pressing on vinyl was later released by Sweden based label Deleted Art. In August of 2006 the band graced the cover of Maximum Rocknroll which within contained an interview and photoshoot by Vice Cooler. In July of 2006 they were featured in ANP Quarterly. Members of the band appeared in the film 40 Bands/80 Minutes! released in 2006. The band was featured in the Static section of Punk Planet's 76th issue (November/December 2006). They often play at The Smell, an all-ages venue in Los Angeles, where they are also volunteers.

Mika Miko's vocalist used a rotary-style telephone handset as a microphone. Here's what it looked like before the band took the stage:

Kill Me Tomorrow played The Whistle Stop 3/29/08

Videos and photo by Reviewer Rob

[Sorry for the scratchy sound quality. Really need to get a better video camera here that can handle loud live music.]

I hadn’t been out in a dog’s age so when I saw advertised online at the Reader website that Grrrl Power was having a group art show in trendy South Park I went out to see it. I was dressed stylishly in a black suit and pomegranet shirt after my meeting with a wedding-shoot client earlier that evening so I decided not to change out of my sartorial splendor.

Cool night, as an early spring weather front was approaching, so my jacket was appreciated. Inside the bar at The Whistle Stop the crowd grew thick as Kill Me Tomorrow prepared to play and the band before them, Mika Miko, got a few people even dancing up front.

I saw Kill Me Tomorrow play an amazing set there that night. Got an astonishing series of videos which included an in-depth interview with Dan Wise wherein he describes his other musical project Thin Man (Tall Man would work too as Dan's 6-4) and we also talked about The Next Big Thing breaking on the musical scene. The artistically talented Zack and K8 Wince were good to see up close in performance since when I saw them at The Casbah the crowd was unfriendly near the stage so I didn't want to squeeze in. Those two are great painters as well as musicians of large caliber - too bad they both have jobs now that require they work so much so they don't paint as often as they used to. Or maybe painting was just a phase for them and now they're concentrating solely on music... Whatever it is, check out K8's screen-printed tee-shirts at her Blood & Guts myspace which is the name of her clothing company.

After about three pints of Hefenweizen and three bottles of Pacifica on Saturday night at The Whistle Stop bar in South Bark I hired a cab at the corner of Juniper and Fern and took a $30 ride back home to OB. No need to drive that way after a nice night at the street fair they’ve got going there in South Park now. The gentrification of that part of San Diego is really something to see.

~RR

Dan Wise discusses The Next Big Thing as well as his influences for Kill Me Tomorrow:

KMT does a song:

http://www.myspace.com/killmetomorrow
http://reviewermagazine.com/taxis-in-san-diego.jpg

Click this pic below for the full series of videos shot that night in their proper order:

Above: Photo by ReviewerRob, http://www.ReviewerMag.com.

[spooky opening]

Kelly Hutchison's Dark Vomit
Art Show

April 5, at Art of Framing Gallery
3333 Adams Avenue, San Diego

Attend this art show opening of a very unique painter's work. Kelly's bright surrealism is reminiscent of an earlier period, early-1900s Americana in a way, and is worth a look even for the most jaded art enthusiasts. ~RR

http://www.TheArtOfFraming.net
http://www.DarkVomit.com

"My therapy is in art and making paintings. ...I like warm days, bean and cheese burritos, riding old beach cruiser bicycles, and putting smiley faces in my emails and messages." ~ Kelly Hutchison

[covering the covers]

JEFF BUCKLEY’S "HALLELUJAH"
BECOMES AMERICA’S NUMBER ONE
DIGITAL SONG

JASON CASTRO’S AMERICAN IDOL PERFORMANCE OF "HALLELUJAH" PROPELS JEFF BUCKLEY’S 1994 RECORDING TO THE TOP OF THE ITUNES SINGLES CHART

A CRUCIAL SONG FROM HIS 1994 DEBUT ALBUM GRACE BECOMES JEFF BUCKLEY’S FIRST U.S. NUMBER ONE

Thanks to American Idol, America’s top-rated network television show, the music of Columbia recording artist Jeff Buckley has achieved a sudden and unprecedented level of popularity across the USA.

[From the official Jeff Buckley myspace, http://www.myspace.com/jeffbuckley.]

This week, Jeff’s 1994 recording "Hallelujah" hit the 1 spot on iTunes’ singles chart. It’s the first U.S. Number One on any chart for the revered singer/songwriter, who died May 29, 1997 at age 30.

Jeff released Grace, his first full-length Columbia album, in August 1994. One of its most popular tracks was (and still is) his beautiful and deeply spiritual rendition of Leonard Cohen’s "Hallelujah," first recorded by its composer on Cohen’s 1984 Columbia album Various Positions. Many critics and listeners consider Jeff Buckley’s Grace version to be the definitive recorded interpretation of the song. "Hallelujah" was included on Rolling Stone’s 2004 list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and hailed by Q Magazine in 2007 as "the most perfect song ever."

On Tuesday, March 4, Jason Castro, a 20-year-old aspiring singer from Rockwall, Texas, performed "Hallelujah" on American Idol—now in its seventh season on the Fox network and still the Number One-rated television show in the nation. Although "Hallelujah" has been performed by artists ranging from k.d. lang to Bon Jovi, American Idol judges Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell both stated that Jeff Buckley’s version was their personal favorite.

Jason Castro’s rendition of the song—combined with the judges’ favorable comments — propelled droves of viewers to the iTunes Store to download the original version from Grace, which promptly shot to No. 4 on iTunes singles chart and then over the following weekend continued to climb, finally reaching the coveted Number One position. To date, Legacy Recordings has sold over 565,773 digital downloads of Jeff Buckley’s "Hallelujah."

"It’s a thrill to see Jeff’s work being embraced in his own country at this level," says Mary Guibert, the artist’s mother and the chief executor of his estate. "Even though it has been more than a decade since his departure, it was very moving to hear the American Idol judges speak so highly of Jeff. A mother can’t help but love that!"

[mass email]

The Eloquence Of Barack

from http://moveon.org

In the middle of a presidential contest tainted by racism and sexism, Barack Obama did something amazing today. He gave one of the most honest, courageous, and thoughtful speeches we've ever seen.

It was unlike any political speech in recent memory. And not surprisingly, the media have almost totally missed the point—reducing the whole thing to a few soundbites and hashing over whether he "did enough to condemn his pastor."

We've got to spread the word ourselves.

If you haven't seen the speech yet, please check it out below. And then please forward it to all your friends and family. We've set a goal: reaching out to 100,000 people.

Click here to tell us how many people you can pass it on to (and to watch our progress nationally):
http://pol.moveon.org/obamaspeech/?id=12333-4454980-PL5go4&t=545

If all this controversy has raised questions among your friends and family, this speech is something they need to see.

And your friends who support Obama will appreciate it, too. It's deeply moving and they won't get the story from the mainstream media.

This is a message that could change our nation.

Thank you for all you do.

–Noah, Justin, Daniel, Tanya, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008