October 30, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

FINCH, UNWRITTEN LAW, LOWER ‘D’, HED PE, EEK-A-MOUSE, and KOTTONMOUTH KINGS MAIN COURSE WITH INVERSE AS SALAD

Inglewood, CA – For those who live outside California’s big mega-metropolis, and those who live in other states, going to any big event up in the LA area is a thrill, especially if you’re traveling at night and against traffic. For me, you start by driving away from the suburb sprawl with it’s ‘city’ lights and sparsely lit dark hills, then through the still unpopulated area between Lake Elsinore and the outer reaches of Corona/Riverside until you head up into the sky along a two lane ribbon of concrete spaghetti and down back unto a four to five lane wide stripe with a moderate amount of red tail lights all going at the same pace. Across the dividing strip the amount of white headlights coming toward you look like a Christmas sign decoration that travels only on one edge, the toll lane edge. It is there at the start of the 91 and I15 interchange that you feel the excitement of going to the ‘big city’, though you will be traveling for another hour and through more spaghetti junctions before you are out of the ‘burb area of LA and ready to hit the city proper.


Once we arrive at Hollywood Park, a once premier casino and horse race track with its manicured landscaped trees that is now located in the heart of the barrio, and down the street from a Church’s Chicken, we start to set up the tent, tables, etc. and store food in the kitchen for the coming morning, and the So Cal Rock Revolution. Finishing up around two, we were back up at seven bells, AM, cutting up meat and veggies. Saturday for me was one long day of passing out flyers advertising our tasty burritos after the meat cutting, shaking hands as ‘Mr. Pete’ to many of the newest customers to eat a Mr. Pete’s, talking to bands, lending a hand where needed, and visiting with the rotating tableau of band (Inverse) fans/friends, including snapping pics of the Inverse’s set with crowd reaction shots thrown in.

Sandwiched in-between was some listening and previewing many of the fine musical talents of punk, metal, screamo/hardcore, rap and rock that live, play and tour around these parts. Though I’m still sampling the ten (demo) CDs of bands that I heard a portion of, let me just list a few so far that I liked the sounds to, but these are by no means all. These are just the bands I either heard or got a CD from - Media Control, Orange Sky Blue, B Movie Stars, Indosurf, Idasas, Fozzy’s Hero, The Sleeping Sea Kings, The Smashmanics, Pristine, and Zen Robbi.

There were others to be sure as you could wander through rooms which had a stage on either side and always a band playing on one. There was a stage at the top of the staircase leading up from the food court with Mr. Pete’s, a stage out in the main concourse second floor hallway and the main stage over out under the big tent. Inverse rocked that stage early afternoon and Lower ‘D’, Ditch with Eek-A-Mouse, Hed Pe with Eek-A-Mouse, Finch (again illustrating their screamo originality with fan loyality/dancing), and Unwritten Law, a group I knew of (but only on the way up actually heard a CD of theirs) with good solid songs carried on that rocking tradition into the night.

But it was the Kottonmouth Kings, besides Finch, that I most wanted to see. For a long time I have been an ‘armchair’ fan of the Kings, reading the latest news, views, and tour do’s of the group and their group peeps. They didn’t disappoint and the large crowd that filled the front stage area and beyond echoed that sentiment, with yelling on cue, and mosh pits for the punk songs as well as for the rap/hip-hop rhythms and rhymes.

While I’m sure some people would rule the ruckus gathering of Bro heads, all supporting the righteous freedom of puffing Mary Jane legally, with fear and loathing from their form of religious indoctrination, I chose to see the true America at work with freedom of expression, and freedom of rebellion, something me and a few thousand of my closest friends, some wearing ‘Obama’ T-shirts, agreed on, by adding a different smell to the night air other than beer farts. Rock On, Free America!

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October 30, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

“WHEN YOU STOP TO LOOK AT A MAN’S SKIN COLOR, YOU MISS THE REST OF THE STORY” – R. WUERZBERGER

The Norwegian newspaper VG has reported a truly amazing story about a newly-wed trying to get to Norway to be with her husband, and the stranger who helped pay an unexpected luggage surcharge. The blog ‘Leisha’s Random Thoughts’ has translated the story.

It was 1988, and Mary Andersen was at the Miami airport checking in for a long flight to Norway to be with her husband when the airline representative informed her that she wouldn’t be able to check her luggage without paying a $100 surcharge. When it was finally Mary’s turn, she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness. “You’ll have to pay a $103 surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway,” the man behind the counter said.
Mary had no money. Her new husband had traveled ahead of her to Norway, and she had no one else to call. “I was completely desperate and tried to think which of my things I could manage without. But I had already made such a careful selection of my most prized possessions,” says Mary.


As tears streamed down her face, she heard a ‘gentle and friendly voice’ behind her saying, ‘That’s okay, I’ll pay for her.’ Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before. “He had a gentle and kind voice that was still firm and decisive. The first thing I thought was, who is this man?”

Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that radiated from the man. “He was nicely dressed, fashionably dressed with brown leather shoes, a cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants,” says Mary. She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her. Who was the man?

Barack Obama.

Twenty years later, she is thrilled that the friendly stranger at the airport may be the next President and has voted for him already and donated $100 to his campaign.

“He was my knight in shining armor,” says Mary, smiling. She paid the $103 back to Obama the day after she arrived in Norway. At that time he had just finished his job as a poorly paid community worker* in Chicago, and had started his law studies at prestigious Harvard University.

Mary even convinced her parents to vote for him. In the spring of 2006 Mary’s parents had heard that Obama was considering a run for president, but that he had still not decided. They chose to write a letter in which they told him that he would receive their votes. At the same time, they thanked Obama for helping their daughter 18 years earlier. And Obama replied in a letter to Mary’s parents dated May 4th, 2006 and stamped ‘United States Senate,  Washington   DC ‘, Barack Obama wrote:
‘I want to thank you for the lovely things you wrote about me and for reminding me of what happened at  Miami  airport. I’m happy I could help back then, and I’m delighted to hear that your daughter is happy in Norway. Please send her my best wishes. Sincerely, Barack Obama, United States Senator’.

The parents sent the letter on to Mary. Mary says that when her friends and associates talk about the election, especially when race relations is the heated subject, she relates the story of the kind man who helped out a stranger-in-need over twenty years ago, years before he had even thought about running for high office.

*Also, remember this was 1988, when 100 dollars was quite a bit of money, compared to today’s value. (Source: Dale Hollingworth, Terry H. Davis)

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