We started early

We're still not sure why, it could be part of the whole - check out how non-Mexican we are kick that my parents were on in the 70's but we have photos from several studio photographers all pre-1980. Sure we have lots of those little square photos with the waffle texture varnish like everyone else but for special occasions our parents took us to the studio. About 10 years ago this photo surfaced of me choking Dede. I don't remember seeing this growing up but I do remember seeing others from this same session. I know we were baptized late, no explanation for that or why we don't have middle names. I think these pictures were not taken for our baptismal but just around the same time. There are other photos of us with our brother and he's wearing a little brown suit. My Mom made these dresses for us, not sure about the bows in our hair. I've had this hanging up in my apartment since we found it in with the other family pictures. When www.awkwardfamilyphotos.com hit the scene we knew we had to send this photo in. We were really lazy about it and just said we were going to scan it and submit it for months. Well I finally took it down off the wall and took it over to the 'bello to get a scan done. We submitted it yesterday afternoon and it was up today by lunch time, along with a very nice thank you note from the webmaster asking if we'd like to be in the new book. Go check it out for yourselves, I was going to post the picture here but you'll enjoy this site so much you'll really need to go experience it as often as possible. For your enjoyment - our pic, a salute to starting sibling rivalries and beatdowns early. Not to worry we're fine now I haven't put her in a chokehold in like 20 years.

I'll Meet You on Sunset

Just coming back home from the second show I've seen at the "new" Palladium. The first was Franz Ferdinand and tonight I went to see Arctic Monkeys. I've seen both bands before, this is the second time seeing the Arctic Monkeys at this venue. I knew they had put in a new sound system with huge hanging arcs of speakers but tonight you could truly feel the sound. They must not have had it cranked fully up for Franz Ferdinand but tonight the show was sold out and the speakers were at full volume. It was amazing the sound just shook right through you even from a fair bit away and it was still nice and clean. No cracks or fuzzy speaker sounds here, I hope they always turn it up like that.

Sheffield was definitely in the house tonight. What first caught my ear from this band was they were young and had a varied sound on their album. Riot Van sucked me in just as well as Fake Tales of San Francisco. The follow up albums have not disappointed and they've amped up the guitar sound that crept into a few tracks on the first album. The set did come to a slight halt when they decided to slow it down for a few tracks but they made up for it by flipping the amps back up and assaulting the eager crowd with a wall of blistering guitar for the rest of the set which included a Nick Cave cover. Also they seem to be super big fans of strobe lights now which I really enjoyed, it was pretty much their only lighting effect and that combined with the guitar tidal wave may induce migraines or seizures. If you do suffer some sort of head injury, have a fit or any sort of long term damage from a show I say well done, you're very hardcore.

Franz Ferdinand was a slightly mellower set which wasn't as loud as the Arctic Monkeys but was still enjoyable. When their first album came out they said all they wanted was to make music that made girls want to dance. Now they make not just the girls but the boys dance too. I'm glad to have known about the band since their origins back at the Chateau parties. The crowd for Franz was about half the size of the show tonight but I really don't think I ever saw an ad for that show and only found out about it after driving by the venue a few weeks before the show so shame on you Live Nation for not telling Los Angeles about the wonderful Scots that came to play for us.

After both of these shows I must highly recommend seeing anything you can at the Palladium. There are tons of new restaurants open in the area and plenty of scooter parking to be found. Ok you may not need to know about the scooter parking but its still good to know. More people should get on two wheels, its amazing the things I see while riding around town. Tonight I saw a man on Melrose riding a Penny Farthing bike. This is the second one I've seen this year, the first was in Oakland by the airport. I'm sure all of this is still going on when I'm in the Echo but with the radio on I just don't care as much. It is harder to take photos of cool stuff on the fly though. I'll have to see about mounting my camera to the bike and video tape my ride one night, then you can also experience the most pot hole and irregularly paved streets in all of Los Angeles!