Saturday, February 27, 2010
Breakfast: oatmeal with fresh diced apple, organic cinnamon, organic nonfat milk; 12 ounces of apple juice, 12 ounces of hot water. Tweaked Patrick's USB hub configuration. Cleaned up dead leaves and removed weeds from the backyard. Removed worm carcasses of worms that had crawled into our apartment under the door and subsequently died. Saved two worms that were still living and moved them outside. Washed dishes. Removed trash, recycling, and compost. Began backing up our music hard drive to my Time Machine drive. Cleaned the bathroom, cut my hair, showered. Lunch at home by myself: soba noodle soup with organic vegetable broth, egg, baby spinach, baby bok choy, garlic, red onion, organic tofu. Nap. Dinner at home by myself: 2 kinds of pasta shapes with garlic, basil, and crimini mushroom marinara sauce; dinner roll and Smart Balance Light; side of baby spinach salad with red onion, sunflower seeds, lowfat ranch dressing. Drove to the Japantown parking garage, parked. Walked to Yoshi's. Saw DJ Qbert with special guests Casual, DJ Shortkut, Jazz Mafia All-Stars, and Mars-1, promoted by Dan the Automator, $20. Upon arrival I found a will call line but it wasn't clear where I was supposed to buy a ticket. The ticket booth is deep inside the main entrance past another set of doors in the center. I bought my ticket, and during the purchase I asked if there was a coat check. I was told that they weren't sure and there probably wouldn't be but if there was one it would be to the left after you enter. It wasn't clear in which line I was supposed to wait, so I asked the ticketseller about that, too. Turns out that the will call line was also the line for ticketholders—confusing. After I got my wristband and 3D glasses, I was passed through another set of doors. I did not see a coat check, so I wandered around a bit. Everyone was waiting in a restaurant area. A DJ area and a small open space in front for standees had been set up in what was usually a dining area, which I thought strange since the space was probably way too small for DJ Qbert, it was carpet and not flooring, and you wouldn't expect a lot of people to be sitting at tables during such a performance. The DJ area was still being set up so it was cordoned off somewhat by some Japanese room panels. I went back to look for the coat check. Turns out that there was a coat check but there was no sign for it and there was no one stationed there permanently. (The coat check person seemed to be playing more than one role, so he wasn't always in the window.) Coat check was $1, but when I said I had a ten and needed change he realized he didn't have change to offer and waved his hand saying, "Get me later." While waiting, I noticed that the kitchen at Yoshi's was in our waiting area and they were serving appetizers for $5 per plate: one California roll, one spicy tuna roll, one plate of french fries, one plate of chicken wings. I did not buy food or drink. The Yoshi's space I wandered in is excellent. There are a lot of different rooms, all very excellently decorated and with slightly different moods. There were many bars all over, too. DJ Shortkut began playing right around 10:30 PM, all old-school hip-hop. It was the first time I had seen video directly integrated into the mixing and scratching. I don't know how they did it, but it seemed like he was controlling the sound and the video effects and the synch was seamless. I thought that was really neat. Dan the Automator introduced himself after a while and provided a welcome message to open the new Audio Alchemy series. Some of his mannerisms remind me of patchooey. Later in Shortkut's set he also announced that DJ Qbert would be set up in a different room around 11:30 PM but then told us that the room's capacity was only 500, which set me and everyone else at some unease because it was obvious that there were way more than 500 people who had been admitted. I don't go to live music performances very much, and so I was disappointed to have arrived at about 9:45 PM and wait so long to see the main performer. I could have been dancing at Shangri-La instead of waiting around. There was some other kind of delay and the 11:30 PM start became midnight so before midnight everyone was crammed in the space closest to the room that would be opening. People were shoving through, some carrying drinks for others, some wanting to go to the restroom which was near the doors-to-be-opened. It wasn't very orderly but it wasn't very disorderly, either. But inevitably I came into contact with people who were rude or who simply didn't respect other people's personal space. I could tell others near me were thinking the same thing I was—this isn't worth waiting for, let's just bag it and call it a loss—and that's when the doors opened. Just before the doors opened, I thought there would be a stampede resulting in news headlines, but that didn't happen. I got in to the next room and right after I did they decided to temporarily hold the line—and that happened twice in different spots! Whew! But once I got in I saw that the room held way more than 500 people and it was not even half full when I got in—I don't know what happened with the communications mixup. Everyone who wanted to get in most likely got in. Jazz Mafia opened with a few numbers, then Qbert came on and jammed with them. One of their numbers was an interpretation of Herbie Hancock's Rockit—excellent! After a few songs Jazz Mafia let Qbert continue on his own. A man painted off to the right during the performance. Qbert played for an hour but even after 20 minutes I was yawning partly due to the late hour and partly due to how long can you listen to scratching on top of other music? The video camera positioned over his turntables was displayed on a large screen, and that was very valuable to have the live-blown-up version of his hands doing the work. They had also set up a large screen behind him which had a 3D fishtank. (I had the glasses but could not see any obvious 3D effects with them.) Afterwards I got my car—parking turned out to be $10. $30 for 4 hours of entertainment, only 1 of which was really what I wanted to see. Not a great deal, but I would come back April 10 to see Mixmaster Mike, and I might show up later than the stated start hour of the show now that I know the main performer doesn't start for 2 hours after the show "starts." Afterwards I was really hungry so I got breakfast at Mel's Diner at 4th and Mission. After that I drove to the End Up to see what remained of Shangri-La. I chatted mostly with Tony H, met Richard (whose face was I think painted kind of like that boy in Baraka), Charles (who did acrobatics with me), and Corey and Garrett. Richard took a photo of him and me and sent it to me in email but when I checked later it had never arrived. It must have gotten eaten by the spam eater, and I have no way of contacting him to let him know.