Dumbek's Random Stuff

As of this evening, our house is 100% Comcast-free.

We switched to Verizon FIOS. We've heard nothing but good things about it. Time will tell.

Long story short - J. Robbins' 1-year-old son has been diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. There's a benefit show tomorrow night to try to help raise money to help pay the Robbins family's bills.

Go here to read the whole story on Callum's condition. What an adorable kid.


Info on the show:

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Gypsy Eyes Records Presents:
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A benefit for CALLUM ROBBINS
(http://www.desotorecords.com/cal/index.shtml) featuring

OWLS AND CROWS
BRANDON BUTLER
BEAT THE DEVIL (NYC, www.myspace.com/devilnoise)

Saturday, Jan. 27th, 9:00 Doors
at Nick P's The Hosiery
443 Eye St. NW
$10 donation (with sliding scale)
BYOB BYOB BYOB BYOB

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Van Halen reuniting with Roth for summer tour

They said a contract could be signed as early as Wednesday for tour promoter Live Nation to produce a 40-date trek, which would mark Roth's first outing with the rock band in more than 20 years.


I am so all over this.

Anybody in DC want a ticket to see Paul Weller next week in NYC? I got a ticket, but now I can't make the show.

1/29 @ Irving Plaza. $52.70 This is the night he's focusing on material from The Jam.

From YepRoc:

Over the past few years, Weller has sprinkled his set lists with a couple of Jam and Style Council songs. However, with the forthcoming release of his first ever career-spanning box set titled Hit Parade, Weller will focus on each glorious segment of his vast songbook. Each night will feature a selection of songs encompassing his entire career, but will also focus on a specific time period as well.

* Jan 29th - An Evening with Paul Weller: Spotlighting The Music of The Jam
* Jan 30th - An Evening with Paul Weller: Spotlighting The Music of The Style Council
* Jan 31st - An Evening with Paul Weller: Spotlighting His Entire Career

It's gonna be swell. Wish I could go. :-(

So I'm reading through one of the books I got for Xmas - Fanatic by Henry Rollins. It's a book full of annotations related to the songs he played on the first run of his radio show Harmony In My Head on Indie 103.1 back in 2004. I love listening to/reading Henry's thoughts on music. When it comes down to it, he's just a fan-boy music-dork like the rest of us. He can get just as passionate about Dionne Warwick as he gets about Bad Brains. OK...That's a slight exaggeration, but not as much as you'd think.

One of the bands that comes up over and over again in the book is UK Subs - an old punk band from the UK (duh) that was already legendary by the early 80s. After the umpteenth mention of them in Henry's book, I decided it was time to pull out my only UK Subs lp and give it a listen.

I bought this record when I saw them playing at The Complex - a short-lived venue on 9th St. in DC, sometime in the mid-80s ('86, I think). As I pulled the record out of the sleeve a postcard fell out. As I looked at the postcard, a few more memories came back. My friends and I actually got to hang out with the band for a while that night. At least one of them was interested in our friend "B". They seemed to think if they kept feeding us free beer, they might have a chance with her. Little did they know they had no chance in hell, but we weren't about to tell them that. Not as long as the beer was flowing anyway.**

Anyway - I ended up getting a couple of autographs on this postcard. I forgot all about that until today. The odd thing about this is that one of the autographs reads "To Jim - Henry Rollins Rules".



Whoa! That's like weird and shit. The only explanation for this that I can come up with is that I was probably wearing my Black Flag shirt that night.








** They unintentionally got me back for drinking the free beer. The record they sold me had a chunk taken off the edge, so the first track on both sides is unplayable. That explains why I never really got into this record. Never trust a punk.


(Plate of Shrimp explanation)

What happens at MAL... stays at MAL.

Things that have me giddy this week:


Both MAL and Blowoff are this weekend. Decadence abounds.

R.E.M. and Patti Smith are going into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Excellent! Van Halen too. I can't wait to watch that trainwreck.

I finally found a nice copy of my 2nd Dead show (9-3-88 - Cap Ctr). I've been looking for a decent copy for over 15 years now. Noteworthy for the first electric "Ripple" in about 17 years. Also noteworthy for other... ummm... personal reasons.




Most importantly - My new girlfriend's tv series debuted last night. Oh, New York, how I love you so.

What's your most treasured possession?

You probably won't understand it, but I love being a woman. I would have to say my most treasured possession is my vagina.

That's my girl!

OK - Who can get me in to this gig for free?

The House Democratic Leadership &
The House Democratic Caucus

For a Celebration Concert Honoring

Speaker Nancy Pelosi

with Special Musical Performances by
Tony Bennett
Carole King
Wyclef Jean

And

Your House Band
Featuring
Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzmann, Bob Weir,
Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes,
Mike Gordon, and Special Guests

With Special Appearances by
Amy Brenneman
Richard Gere

Additional performers to be announced

Thursday, January 4th, 2007
7:00 pm

National Building Museum
440 G Street NW, Washington, DC

$1,000 per ticket

keyword = "FREE". I may also need to borrow a tux from someone. Thx.

We started the new year by watching 3 people puke on the Metro. Technically, it was 2 in our car and one in the station...but you get the idea.

Smoke-free DC starting today - WOOHOO!



(pic from threadless t's)