Monty,Tiger Lily (The new kid on the block) and Poppy
If you know me at all you know how much we love our dogs!
This is the first photo and it was not easy to get, of all three! Monty is older and stays out of most of the action.
I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet – a relic from my childhood trip to the UK. It came to mind because of all the Sgt Pepper hoopla. They were known for their military jackets and many bands went there to grab some gear around that time.
Enjoy!
Danny
Nothing like hanging with friends …
Last month my pal Ric Menck andI went to see our faves Teenage Fanclub. As expected it was the kind of night you wish happened all the time.
Afterwards since we both know the band we went back and hung out. Captured a drummer photo with the dapper Francis Macdonald.
Fast forward to May and my pal Ric, his lovely wife Laura and their pooch Cricket have moved to Hopkins Minneapolis. The quality of life will zoom as they are moving into a fancy house!
Ric is my pal, drummer in arms and record collector geek,working at Bob Say’s awesome record store Freakbeat records. I will miss Ric on my weekly hangs at the store, and our Movie, gig hangs.
He will visit and I do wish them the best, but i shed a tear – truth be told.
Big hugs go out to the Mencks! Be safe, and have fun in your new life!
Danny Benair
I was in a LA band called The Falcons, we opened for Chuck Berry for his first concert post jail at his March 1980 Hollywood Palladium sold out concert. I was the drummer.
I believe our manager or agent landed the gig, which was a very high profile date.
The Falcons rehearsed his songs for a couple of weeks, with no idea what he would play.
Chuck showed up at soundcheck,laid his guitar next to my drum set.It stayed there all night.It was out of tune.
He said to me can you play (hits thigh and stomps foot.) I said yes. Chuck said “Play it all night.” He came with his own bass player who gave key signals and lifted his leg and dropped it for the starts and stops.
During the second song our piano player Mickey Mariano, who later joined me in The Three O’Clock was not seeing that Chuck wanted to bring the sound down, his head was staring into the grand piano. After the song Chuck’s bass player went up to him and said “Chuck would like you to leave the stage.”
The set was so weird, playing in front of 5000 people with no set list.
Around the third song, my head was down and I looked up Chuck was smiling at me between my cymbals. I was taken aback. Fe walked to the mike and said “DRUM SOLO!!!” (not a fan of drum solos), I did a few fills and back to the beat. Chuck said “MORE!!!” and that was what I did, a second solo. Somewhere I have the cassette of the gig.
Chuck said to Mickey after the set”Follow the Leader”, he did invite him back for the encore.
Below is a photo from the gig. He was quite nice to us, and it was a pretty amazing night. I think people forget, that Chuck came out of prison in 1964 and picked up where he left off, writing amazing songs Like Promised land, Nadine etc. And having more chart hits.
Jon has been looking out for Natural Energy Lab’ s website since day one, and had our back,
Thanks to friends and strangers and the ACA, Jon has had many people come to his rescue.
It turned out that he had an acute pancreatitis attack and spent 4 days in critical care at Alta Bates hospital in Berkeley. CA.
Even with ACA, bills were rising, this page has helped and he has reached his goal!
If you want to donate the link is above, or if you need help with any graphic / design / web projects – throw some work his way!
You can contact him thru his site: atomicpopmonkey.com
Thanks and goodnight.
I need to get away from theAlternative truth. I like Facts but I do like Fiction when it comes to geeky UK 60’s books about fake rock bands. Ugly Things did a feature on Square One this obscure book, and I have to say i am enjoying it! Nothing like something to take my mind for a moment off the ugly in the US, this is not who we are.
Farewell 2016 You were a bummer in so many ways..was it the worst year? How do I know? I am sure the Salem Witchcraft trials were a bummer.
We did lose way too many Iconic people in various fields, some more shocking than others. Plus an election that was not pretty and does not look any prettier after the fact.
Thinking positive… there was good music and some truly wonderful films and books… Onward we go and HNY!
Danny Benair and by the way our new number is 818-429-4383
I have never lived in a time like this. The fact that a over filled drain of Trump’s cronies will take office is beyond fathomable.
Social network is both sucking me in and making me ill.
Thoughts I have had:
We have a president elect who knows less about the constitution then immigrants studying to become citizens.
Clinton’s lawyer sums it up best: We are getting attacked for participating in a recount that we didn’t ask for by the man who won election but thinks there was massive fraud.
We want to introduce you to our Soundcloud page!
We will try to post more than is on the website.
Hello!
The election…
Everyone wants this to go away.
I believe that in my lifetime there has never been a more important election.
The key to me is the Supreme Court. My friends who have kids will grow up and have kids and this could impact generations, long after I have hit the road.
VOTE!! I’m with her, Donald Trump is the worst person to ever run for the office.
This tweet sums it up.
I have not known a Dodgers/baseball world that did not include Vin Scully.
It started when my late father left the state of Israel,where he fought in the underground.
My mother is from Chicago and her parents from Russia. When they moved to Los Angeles. My Grandfather turned my father on to Vin.
Grandfather did not live long enough for the move to the west coast Dodgers.
My dad would come home every day from work, as a Painting Contractor in the 50’s/ 60’s after the LA move dressed in white, with paint splatter all over his clothes, but in his hand was one of many transistor radios, covered in paint splatter ala Jackson Pollock.In his hand to listen to Vin. The combination of Sandy Koufax and Vin Scully had such an impact on the community.
We went to games the rest of his life and I still go.. When I hear Vin, I always think of my dad. We never went to a game without a radio, I still do.
I would love to know the percentage of MLB players Vin has seen in his lifetime … even if it was just from stats,not counting him seeing games as a young kid.
His final call at Dodger Stadium, Charlie Culberson’s game winning,division clinching home run. Hollywood could have not scripted it better.
Thank you Vin you did change my life, and I appreciate your wit and warmth and overall knowledge. It is like of a friend talking just to you.I do believe that he is.
Big hugs to Vin…
WE LOVE YOU!
Andrew Toles of the Dodgers.
If you know me at all you know I LOVE Baseball.
I also love a story of an underdog.
Andrew Toles was in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and had some troubles, and was let go. Andrew Friedman president of the Dodgers and former GM at Tampa Bay saw that Andrew in a couple of years had landed out of baseball, spending part of 2015 bagging groceries. He signed him to the Dodgers in the off season and quickly climbed the minor league ladder. He joined the Dodgers and has made the most of his ever increasing playing time. Aug 31st second game of a double header in Colorado. They lost game one and were losing 8-2 slowly chipping away until the 8th they were down 8-6 Andrew came up and hit a GRAND SLAM!! Dodgers win 10-8, fantastic moment for a guy on the outside of baseball, such a short time ago. Here it is!
