June 28, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

DORKS A’POPPIN’

Temecula, CA – I have to admit that reading the Ashley Cook and Peter Surowski Valley News pieces about Master Splinter, Tawnie Gadban, and The Shake Ups brought a sly grin to my face as it validates what I’ve felt for years about the world of interesting local new music scene and the people who inhabit it. Here’s the latest, Guys. Cyndi Lauper is doing a new movie called ‘Section B’ and a band who played Madlins, Java Jo’z, and other spots around the towns is doing the music sound track. I think that is, well, you know what kind of awesome. Don’t make me use that ‘word’ on a Sunday, the one that begins with a ‘f’ and ends with a ‘k’? (‘firetruck’), and actually, it isn’t quite the same band, either. But let me tell you in their own words.


“A few cool things band wise- we just landed a role in the feature film Section B with Cyndi Lauper. Our song The Life will be in the movie and on the soundtrack, plus we’re acting as the backing band in the film. We’re stoked about it, Brian gets to produce almost the whole soundtrack including co-produce title track Dream by Cyndi.”

Huge, huge news!!!  H&SR has been selected to contribute music and act in the new feature film, Section B.  Ensemble cast includes Cyndi Lauper, Tippi Hedren, Ace Young, and Queen Emily. The guys (former D.O.R.K., former Animo, now Heart & Soul Radio) will be contributing their own song “The Life” as well as acting as the backing band in the film.  On top of that our own Brian Johannsen will be producing a handful of original songs written for the movie performed by Ace Young, Queen Emily, Jennifer Wilde, and the legendary Cyndi Lauper!  Schuyler and Jimmy are slotted to contribute their musical talents on the tracks as well. Recently the independent film, written and directed by Darla Rae, has sparked quite the controversy around “Britain’s Got Talent” star Susan Boyle.  Rae extended an offer to the overnight sensation to sing a duet with Queen Emily, upsetting “Britain’s Got Talent” creators.  Lauper chimed in with her own two cents at the Tribeca Film Festival saying “I think she’s a kick.  I really like her” and it would be “fantastic” if Boyle accepted the role.


Follow all the hype, twists, and turns at film’s official website and blog: http://www.sectionbmovie.com Filming is expected to start early this Fall and Brian will be in the studio throughout the summer recording the tracks.  The film already has distribution and is releasing on 1,000 screens across North America.  A soundtrack featuring Lauper’s title track “Dream” along our song “The Life” will also be available.  This is going to be an amazing experience for us and we appreciate the opportunity, many thanks to Darla Rae and Jennifer Wilde for thinking of us!Here’s the cast thus far:Cyndi Lauper - Betty (Grammy Award Winner), Tippi Hedren - Helen (I Heart Huckabees, House of Good and Evil, “CSI”), Marla Maples - Martina (For Richer or Poorer, “Sunset Beach”), Tiffany Trump – Megan, Queen Emily - Bonnie (“America’s Got Talent”), Ace Young - Ryan (“American Idol Season 5”, Grease on Broadway), Jennifer Wilde – Delilah, Kirk Montgomery – Spencer, Steven Christopher Parker - Jackson (“ER”, Juno, Little Miss Sunshine), Darla Rae- Barbara (Halloween, Powder), Michael Shaloub - Mr. P (Monk), Laura Dodd – Lily, Jennifer Sciole, Denise Plante, Andrea Frizzi, and Mike Wheaton.

(Source: H&SR, Sean’s Spoon Fed)

Posted in Murrieta, United States of America, Movies, Temecula, Our Favorite Things, Music, Film, News | Print | No Comments »

June 26, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

3^RD CD SHOWS A RETURN TO POP PUNK ROOTS AND HUSTLER HUMOR

Temecula, CA – Copping the long awaited third CD from the pop punk band, UhOh! Explosion, I was interested to hear if they had indeed returned to their underage bad boy subjects that make them destined to become a Sunday morning sermon subject someday. From the new Drop Out Records CD lyrics, that day appears to coming sooner rather than later, but only if you take them as dead serious, and that doesn’t appear to be the focus of this CD, ‘For The Win’. Let’s face it folks, the grown-up adult world is scary and gets scarier every day. Seeing a defenseless girl die in the street because she is protesting an alleged fixed election only to have the unelected ‘supreme’ leader call for more bloodshed because he is ‘god’; gasoline again rising in price despite over 660,000 jobs being lost last month (in this country alone); money being printed like wallpaper and funneled into bankers’ pockets; the ‘King of Pop’s probable O.D. because of being shot up with Demerol; and the Jehovah Witness presenting free (no plate passing) services to instruct people about getting through upcoming ‘end times’, not to mention Sony Pictures’ disaster pic to end all disaster flicks,’2012’, what are punk kids suppose to sing about, given the shape of today’s world and the darkness clouding their future?


Using catchy lyrics, upbeat, hard fluffer melodies, bad-ass beats, more female vocal add-ins, and even horns that have a Dixieland jazz riff to them, UO!E has indeed returned to their fun IYF core, expressing what probably most people under 25 are feeling, dgaf! This time out more than just ‘balls in your asshole’ are hit square in the middle. The only thing that isn’t heralded is a blimpkin, the 21^st Century’s ‘pearl necklace’ joke equivalent. Fast hard-driving punk tempos take over after the opening song’s R&B-ish rhythm rhyming with the next song being the band motif of personal dgaf. Next ‘The Original Mack’ sends up ‘doing it like a porn star’ complete with female backup additional vocals which will either make you blush or laugh. Having had three wives, you can guess my reaction. ‘Five Finger Discount’ is about punks coping with high prices/no money, and brought a laugh out loud from a serious hip-hop talent who listened with me to the CD the night I got it. It is also the longest track of the 15 presented, coming in at just over four minutes on a CD filled with radio time-friendly songs, though most of which the FCC would never allow on the airwaves. To paraphrase The Simpsons, ‘they’re singing what we are all thinking’, or were before the weight of the world began to crush our youthful outlook. The next two songs, ‘Big Stick Dynamite’ and ‘Kidz Go Wild’ kind of turn ‘this bitch out’ and could be a beer ponger’s national anthem. ‘Gee Eh Why’ (g-a-y) makes light of homophobia, and ‘Party Retarded’ with its steel drum intro and bridge influences crosses back and forth between punk rocker and hip-hop. ‘DGAF 187’ is the most authentic nod to the rip-hop theme of the Sub Noize genre. But just as you start to wipe the fingerprints off your crowbar used for cracking skulls, along comes the song, ‘5 Inches Of Love’, a slow tongue-in-cheek ballad about having a 3” penis that is sure to get a howl from the Sex Pixi when she hears it. Religion is touched in ‘Be Like The Antichrist’ as the tempo speeds back up to balls to the wall rock ‘n’ roll, including a searing guitar solo. Silicon in your girlfriend is the key to ‘OC Girl’, a song that paints a picture that can only be called true ‘So Cali’. ‘Don’t You Know I Gotta Nut’ could be a theme song for a Hustler video, and even includes a straight piece that explains the whole ‘birds and the bees’ thing in about 20 seconds. Take that health class. ‘I Sold Out’ is a fast romp through materialist realism but ends with love being triumphant over money. Of course, this wouldn’t be a punk record or a punk band without a song about resisting authority (think Iran) and is rightly called, ‘Rise Up’. As Dick Clark would say in rating this CD, ‘I give it a 95 ‘cause it is easy to push-pit to and has a good beat.’ Personally I would throw in a plus for all the self-debasing bawdy humor presented by a band that is both fun and in your face. Being kids, they haven’t lost the sensibility of being rude in pointing out the foibles we ‘grown-ups’ take as solemn adulthood. Carry on, my wayward sons. You can order the new CD by this link or by catching UhOh! Explosion at Warped Tour this summer, coming soon to a city near you.

Posted in Orange County, California, United States of America, Our Favorite Things, Music, Commentary, News | Print | 2 Comments »

June 26, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

WHEN CREATIVITY AND DRIVE MEET IN T-TOWN, LOOK OUT HORACIO ALGER!

Temecula, CA – I’ve often said that this valley in which the cities of Murrieta and Temecula sit is a fertile area for creativity. Earl Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler both lived around these parts before Arnold ever lifted his first barbell. When I first came to town, I had a children’s story ‘in the can’ by the six month mark though I haven’t gotten it published yet. The Universal Finger Light and the Metal Mulisha both were introduced to the world from here. The same can be said for Monster Energy Drinks, but perhaps the most inspiring story of all might just be the story of Skin Industries owner, Al Borda. It is a story that would have made Horacio Alger proud. Who is Horacio Alger? Google it, for this tale is all about Al.


This story starts out from a small conversation with Al’s mom down at the USA gas mini-mart where she and her Jag are adored by the day crew. The next story stop was in Los Vegas a few weeks ago when I stopped by the Skin Industries booth to say ‘howdy neighbor’. Lance Thayer, Skin CFO, was between appointments and so I related the Skin mom story to him. He chuckled and said, “You should tell Al about (the meet-up). He would enjoy hearing about it,” and gave me Al’s email. Now I have to say that I knew a little about Skin Industries for in the late 90s I was printing private label, mostly band, T-shirts. I was hoping to break into the clothing market and was trying to come up with a catchy name and a band to wear them, think Blink 182 and Hurley, which Nike later bought ‘cha-ching’. I was pissed when I started to see ‘Skin’ shirts. The name was so simple, yet so profound. I got over being angry at myself for not thinking of it a few days later and life went on. Years later I saw that there was a Skin store in the Murrieta Target center, and said to myself, ‘Damn, Skin (Industries) must be doing alright.’ In the years since, I have seen a black Hummer and Lamborghini both with huge Skin outline stickers across the rear window. Skin Industries has its own energy drink and Skin apparel is available at Tilley’s, No Fear, Pac Sun, Zumiez, Dillard’s, and Macy’s in the States, along with having distribution in Canada, Europe, and Australia, and of course online, not to mention having a booth at FMX and other motor sports functions. At any outdoor dirt/river rat gathering, you will see someone wearing a Skin T-shirt, and usually more than one. Not too shabby for a kid that dropped out of school in the ninth grade, wouldn’t you say? As I walked into the year old ‘new’ offices which sit close to the hills at the outer southwest perimeter of Temecula’s industrial park, I had no idea of what was under the skin of Skin, but I got a clue when I looked down the long hallway and spotted a lone figure standing outside just beyond the glass door intently texting.

Stepping inside the office after Al, the first thing to catch my eye was the absence of any female staff, except for the few who are in pictures that adorn the walls along with past tribute articles done in magazines like Skinnie, Heavy Hitters, and MMA Sport, among others. The second observation was the two massive golden Foo Dogs which stand guard outside the doorway entrance of Al’s office. “I’m very superstitious,” he says. A second tiny pair of dark brown wooden Foo Dogs sits on his neatly compartmentalized desk. “They weed out evil spirits. I don’t believe in religion, in any one religion,” he says. “I’d be broke, living in a box somewhere if I donated to everything people want me to support.” Then he smiles, “I have a good friend who is a Christian pastor that works (in) the super cross and motocross (field), Chaplain Steve. He has spiky blond hair, full on tat sleeves, a really good looking guy. He never tells you to read the Bible and says that he’s ‘not here to advertise my beliefs or religion’ (to the guys). He’s had hard times and is there to help or answer any questions (about God) but he doesn’t Bible thump you the way a lot of Christians do. (Action sports) have a lot of Christian people in them who do.”

Taking a second call, Al apologizes and says to continue the interview because “I can multi-task,” and does, as over the interview period of an hour or so various members of his staff come into his office for final approval on various projects (ads, photos, licensing). Though not hyper or overly stressed, you get the feeling as you look at a guy with some five o’clock shadow, tats on both arms but not complex sleeve work and tats on his knuckles, proving he is no poser, that Al is the Captain of the Skin ocean liner. Suddenly it makes sense that his ‘beautiful’ wife, Holly, sets his work time limit at 60 hours a week. “I grew up really poor so I just work. That is my drug and my passion,” says the man who does no recreational drugs and has about four glasses of wine a year. But he can hang if he has to as Matt, his body guard, quips when he recalls the time when Al ‘slammed down’ a full beer as the group got ready to leave Hooters one night. You can tell that Matt, Lance, who got me a Skin energy drink which was very flavorsome with no aftertaste, Sergio, the Marketing Assistant, and Charles Armstrong, the lead designer (although there are a combined 12 different people currently working on future design art that are on staff), are all friends and teammates. Al is the ‘coach’.

“I was born (January ’72) in Blythewood, AK, on an air force base, but my parents divorced when I was one year old. Then my mother remarried (another man in the Air Force) and we moved to Europe. When I was about eight we came back to the States and settled in Chula Vista because my step-dad was from San Diego. I don’t know why they chose there because being a white boy and speaking no Spanish, well I got stabbed in school, in the sixth grade,” he says as he shows me the faded scar on his arm. “They all said I wouldn’t (amount to anything). We moved to Del Mar (where I) attended Torrey Pines High School that had a bunch of rich kids that went there. These kids’ parents bought them Benz, and Lexus and they got to park on the upper level. The teachers had to park on the lower level, that’s how rich this school was. And since I lived on the other side of the freeway, they let me know that I ‘didn’t live in Del Mar, I lived in San Diego.’ I got the shit beat out of me (on occasion) and left high school in the 9^th grade. I told my mom pretty much right away (about quitting).” His mom and step-dad had split when Al was around 10 or 12 so Al ‘always did my own thing.’ Taking some regular part time jobs like gas station attendant and being a ‘bus boy’, he found real action in becoming an exotic car broker for a major auto procurement company, moving out of the house at 15 ½ and soon had clients like Sly Stallone, Ice T, Mike Tyson, Tu Pac, and Tom Cruise (who had his Rain Man character based off Al’s bosses who are the two brothers that owned the company). “I would find the cars in newspapers at these newsstands in Hillcrest. I would go through the want ads, find a car a client was looking for, and then I would fly out (and get it).” This high octane lifestyle lasted about two and a half years but the street hustler instinct was polished and detailed at a young age.

Al Borda was also making some interesting friends that would later solidify his love of action sports. “I’ve known Tony Hawk since I was 13. His dad ran the Del Mar Skate Ranch. He’s just a couple of years older than me. I also used to ride (dirt) motorcycles a lot. I worked at this one place and behind the building were all these hills. Ken Block, before he started his DC brand shoe company, was part of our group. We had our own (private) motocross track out back. I would draw up (art) designs and they went out in graphic kits for motocross bikes, or ‘skins’ as they are called because they cover the bike fenders. They became a hit.” Once these ‘skin’ designs were done on T-shirts, they became an underground ‘must have’ and Skin Industries was born in 1998. A wall picture showing a blond Bro bombshell standing beside a speed limit sign of ‘98’ MPH attests to that start-up year. “We put more effort in the design and keep doing it the same way as when we started. No one has requested that we do stuff (like Ed Hardy) with rhinestones, sequins and things like that. We are more concerned with design than ‘bling’. We moved the company up here (to this valley) in ’99. I lived Temecula for a few years, then in Murrieta, but the last five years I’ve lived in De Luz.” When I asked how the company had been steered into blowing up so big, Al said very self-effacing, “Well I don’t know if it has yet. It’s been 11 years and a long steady process,” an achievement that’s rare these days since Al and Skin did it without backers, co-owners, bank loans, or creditors. “Every penny (put into this company venture) is mine” is a statement of both motivation and pride. So what’s next for Al? “I’ve been married for 11 months. We got married a year to the day after we met, which was on 8/7/07. I wanted to get married on 8/8/08 since eights are lucky (in the far east Foo Dog culture) but couldn’t get things to work out, too many conflicting schedules, so we got married in Vegas on the day before, the anniversary of our meeting. (This time) I had thought about having a big party at the house, but now we might go to San Francisco because (my wife) has never been (there).”

As I left the office where each person there was wearing a Skin T- shirt (Al had a red design on) from the 250 designs put out over the years, I wondered if one day the name of Al Borda will be synonymous with action sports the way Tony Hawk is with skateboarding. Skin Tees certainly are and it is not through some lucky break or rich parent legacy, just good old-fashioned hard work, elbow grease, and the Simpsons’ way of ‘whatever doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.’ And in this case also richer. As I said earlier in this story, not too shabby for a ninth grade drop-out who now deserves to park on the upper level of TPHS, should he ever decide to visit his old high school digs. Kick ass!

Posted in Sports, Cars, Money, Boats, California, Motorcycles, United States of America, San Diego, Family Attractions, InViews, Our Favorite Things, Temecula, Schools, Murrieta, News | Print | No Comments »

June 24, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Dear Readers,

I got an email from my dear friend Pat Comerchero who runs the Temecula Children’s Museum on Main Street in Old Town Temecula. Pat does great work there in helping to educate kids in a fun way and for that her facility was nominated for a 2009 Nickelodeon Parents Pick Award. I need your help to make sure the Temecula Children’s Museum wins! Please read on and make sure to vote every day, and spread the word to freinds and family!! The TCM is currently in first place with over 53% of the vote with 20 days to go, please help keep them in the lead!!

Please visit: http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/san-diego-ca-usa/best-san-diego-museum and vote for the Temecula Children’s Museum!!

Thanks,

Bill Gould

——————–

GREAT NEWS!!! The Temecula Children’s Museum has been selected as a nominee for Nickelodeon’s 2009 Parents’ Pick Award!

This is the second year for this nationally recognized award and nominations are based on recommendations from Nickelodeon’s local city editors. We were notified today.

BAD NEWS!!!!  We are grouped under San Diego, which means that we are competing with their museums like the Space Theater, everything in Balboa Park, etc.

The winners of the award are based on how many on-line votes each nominee receives.

Parents are encouraged to go to http://www.parentsconnect.com/parentspicks! to vote for their favorite.

SO… We need everyone in Temecula to vote for the Temecula Children’s Museum - not once, but every day until July 15!

If you go to the website, you’ll see that we have 1% of the vote while the big S.D. museums have about 43%. But we can make a difference if lots and lots of Temecula residents vote every day until July 15. It seems like a really difficult task, doesn’t it? But knowing how Temeculans stick together, I think we can at least make a big effort!

Truthfully, I am so excited (please forgive if any of this note is a little incoherent!) that I seriously need help from everyone to plan a marketing campaign, since my head is spinning right now. Can any of you who specialize in that sort of thing please volunteer some of your expert help to get the word out and, more importantly, to get people to vote????

I pasted part of the email below - it has the link so you can vote for us. Choose San Diego as the city, click ‘museums’ and then the Temecula Children’s Museum.

Thank you - we really need your support right now to promote Temecula and our very special children’s museum.

Pat Comerchero and the Friends of the Temecula Children’s Museum

www.pennypickles.org

Posted in Anza, Theater, United States of America, Winchester, Inland Empire, California, Riverside County, Old Town Temecula, San Diego, Schools, Temecula, Our Favorite Things, Family Attractions, Murrieta, Wildomar, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, News | Print | No Comments »

June 20, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

PARTY IS QUINTESSENTIAL SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

T-Town, CA – In Hollywood, the big party comes when a film or CD is released and someone newly rich has a big blow-out where all the ‘in’ people show up. But I live in the sticks, well, the ‘fast sticks’, so here the big ‘blow-out comes when the ‘rents are out of town, and Hawaii is way ‘out-of-town’. Standing out in the curved driveway and looking to the east, you see the darker hills of wine country. As you swing your unobstructed view around toward the south, you first see the lights of the Pechanga Casino off in the distance and then finally the string bead of lights crawling northward up from San Diego along the 15. It is an awesome view, and I know awesome views. Glancing back at the house, perhaps mansion would not be too strong a word to use here from the huge massive gate entrance, the line of cars parked out along the narrow hilly road goes for at least a quarter mile, but the noise made inside the house behind the tall blondish wood doors can barely be heard. “If this party was at a tract house in some neighborhood, you would already hear the crowd,” says my traveling companion in our party of four, arriving fashionably late. Indeed, as you walk past the line of cars parked up from the driveway entrance to the massive front door, the party din is barely audible though the house is lit up like a Christmas tree. It is only after you open the unlocked door and walk into the foyer which is filled with people do you realize that this party is big; big, big in fact. The room with six beer pong tables set up has people playing and watching teams compete. The spacious kitchen area is filled but not packed out. The sitting room is set up for a band though no one is playing when we get there. Later one guest will remark that he saw ‘the best concert ever in a living room’ as different members from three or four bands take the stage and jam covers. Out on the back patio and by the pool there are waves of people as well as up the wrought iron spiral staircase to the large balcony that gives you a higher vantage point of the view I described earlier.


Despite the fact that I have been to several ‘West Wing’ parties before, including one that had a grip of folks, this time there are more people than ever before. Though there are a lot of new faces, the scene faces that I know are everywhere. It is easier to say who is not there. Hugs and ‘hellos’ abound and soon I am engrossed in a deep political conversation and travelogue with two friends who crisscrossed the country thanks to their sales job. As the cool evening breeze kicks up, we decide to move inside and closer to the warmth of the crowd. And the party swirled on from there. A ‘flip cup’ tournament, later a beer pong match, an enchanting conversation about Salvador Dali with an artist just back from Chicago (“It was the wettest spring ever, so good to be back here”), shared secrets (“Guess who had a [ménage á trios]?”), video shooting versus work schedules, scene show music venue news, and some tech talk. But since this is Hollywood, or at least the back lot, the night turns to smoozing and networking for connections, at least for me. By the time I get home around four, I’m a happy camper. I’ve flirted, flitted, made some new inroads for next week; watched folks get pushed into the pool; seen some funny-at-a-party, lucky-they-were-drunk moments; and had a ‘the world dissolves around you’ conversation with a very pretty young woman that brings out a ‘who is this old panda’ look from the barely over 21 ‘stud-lees’ observing our absence. No fights, no high drama, just a beautiful party in a beautiful house in a beautiful valley setting. Temecula can be so alluring to live in, and so much fun.

Posted in Money, Homes, California, Temecula, Our Favorite Things, Music, Film, News | Print | 1 Comment »