I just can't say enough good stuff about Derf and his excellent graphic novel, Punk Rock and Trailer Parks.
It all takes place in 1980 in Akron, Ohio during the hey day of the punk scene as some of the most influential bands of the day come through Akron as the hero of the book, The Baron encounters all of the shit most people put up with while being a teenager along with discovering punk rock, love found and lost, bullying, bizarre characters in the trailer park, losing a best friend while a lot of the seminal forces of punk rock drift through from the Clash, the Ramones, the Plasmatics and even the Godfather of rock critics, Lester Bangs can be found within these pages.
I’ll shut up now because I don’t want to give too much but this baby is quite the page-turner and Derf’s goofy cartooning style is really fun. It can remind one of Peter Bagge’s Buddy Bradley in a way but Derf definitely has his own style and voice.
Man, I wish we had a place like the Bank (punk club) like they had in Akron, Ohio out here in my home town in California.... but then again, an hour and a half ride down the freeway and I was in San Francisco seeing it all anyway. Great book. Check it out!

Las Chicas Mexicanas de East L.A.


This is a picture of my mom (on the right) with her best friend from James Garfield high school in East L.A. The photo was taken around her Sophomore year circa 1942. That very summer before my mom was to attend Garfield for her Junior year that coming fall her house burned down and she relocated to the town of San Gabriel and finished her last two years of high school at Alhambra High school.
I found this photo again after she died back in 1998 in her home in Sacramento, California.

Here's my resonator slide guitar. I've had it about 5+ years now. Not too sure about the year it is. My buddy John Pedersen (Amazing Grace Music, San Anselmo, CA), who I bought it from claims that it's from the late 1920's. I'm thinking that's it's from the mid-1930's. I also think that the body is different from the neck....
Okay, here's the deal... I'm thinking that it's probably a late 1920's National body, which someone welded the seams back together on it (why it's probably painted this monkey shit, Krylon brown) and that the neck is probably a mid to late 1930's Dobro. I don't know about ANY of this but I do know that it plays and sounds fantastic!
When I get my video camera back I'll try to learn how to download these guitars in action. Until then, just dig the picture.

Another art show... Yep, it's the Box Show in Pt. Reyes Station. Note that my box for this years show is part of the header this year. Come check out the show, it's a lot of fun!

Here’s a picture of my crappy, circa 1960 Japanese guitar I bought at a pawnshop last year for the HUGE sum of $40. It was pretty much unplayable and I had to work on it a bit to get it running and boy, does it run! YOW!
I like to call it my Hound Dog Taylor model, though it's somewhat like, yet not exactly like the late and great Theodore Roosevelt "Hound Dog" Taylor's axe.

I like to use it for open tuning slide guitar stuff. Great and nasty tones emanate from this slab of cheap wood with a couple of tin pick-ups screwed into it and strings stretched across it's heavily scared carcass. I really like it.

Hopefully, I’ll figure out how to post videos on here soon and I’ll put this guitar through its paces and you’ll be able to better hear and see it (while simultaneously being able to mock my playing and my taste in guitars as well).

My dear friend and drummer for my band Los Bottle Rockets, Mr. Curtis 'BPM' Cirillo loves to tease me about never really buying a guitar over $125. I don't think that I do that purposely. I just like the sound and feel of something more than it's label, I suppose.

The infamous, "Heavier-than-a-Samoan" one speed tanker bike I've been carting around with me for most of my life (I even delivered news papers on it for a spell as a young lad). It's a mid-1960's Schwinn "Typhoon" that was originally candy apple red but a relative, who is no longer with us so, out of respect shall remain anonymous painted it orange circa 1970 in East Los Angeles because he, "Thought it looks better orange." I think I'm the second owner as I bought it used for $15 in late 1969 in East Los.
I've given this bike away twice over the years and it still came back to me. It sat in my mother's garage until her death in 1998 and then under my house until a couple of years ago when my wife asked me one night at the dinner table what I wanted to do with it.
I had totally forgot about it and was so stoked that I still had it that I hauled it out the next day, cleaned and lubed it up and ride it to this day.
Here it is replete with the huge, Wald basket (able to hold a few 6 packs of Anchor Steam beer), "Dennis, the plastic crab" on the front, cob webs and rust spots. A beauty to be sure.

For anyone who may read this blog I am in a group show in Oakland, CA this month and next month, July 13 - August 28.
The Many Faces of Frida.
It will be held at the Craft & Cultural Arts Gallery, State of California Office Building - Artrium.
1515 Clay, Oakland, CA 94612.