Sitemeter Sez: New York City, New York; Adger, Alabama; Tustin, California; Tarboro, North Carolina and Issaquah, Washington.
ROCK against Reaganomics at: Theater X-Net
Starring: Ida Rubinstein Belle Epoch Russian/Parisian beauty.
Ida's Places in Paris -- from my first jet-lagged day by the Seine.
Read more about Ida in Sisters of Salome by Toni Bentley
Visit: Michael's Montana Web Archive
Theater, Art, Flash Gordon, Funky Music and MORE!
NEW --Launching NOW! Outre Space Cinema -- Featuring: 1930's Rocketry, Spitfires of the Spaceways and Cellulose to Celluloid, Flash Gordon in the Saturday Matinees and Sunday Comics.
Many thanks to Jim Keefe (Visit his Website) -- the LAST Flash Gordon illustrator of the 20th Century, and Flash's first illustrator of the 21st, for his recommendations -- HERE!
Charity Alert: Check into Terra Sigilata blog -- donate $$$ to cancer patients just by clicking onto the site. Keep that Resolution to click on The Hunger Site every day.
In The Community: Those retouched old Glacier National Park photos for the Hockaday Museum of Art are printed now!
Check out Fall for Glacier -- a fundraiser for several programs that make Glacier National Park even better!
Concert Review: George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars May 8, 2008 -- Review by "Swang" (NOTE: His pal Gregg Fitz is an acquaintance of mine from the time he visited Salt Lake City with Bernie Worrell.)
met gregg f. and friend at the pony about 2 pm. met allen (monitor man) and james (guitar tech) at the stage door. both had been on tour with gregg during the bootsy days and were happy to see him. allen got razor sharp on the phone, and he and gregg spoke for a bit. let's wish razor well, y'all...
after a bit of hanging out, we went out back to the buses and ran into clip who was also happy to see gregg. i told clip to bug gregg about doing some more 420 shows in the future.
tim kinley and friend were in the building, and he had with him some rare korean copies of several p releases. nice to see that brotha...
gave rico a lift to a local store before soundcheck and reminded him that he and i played together at a bernie show a while back. that cat is mad cool. Cool
when rico and i returned, much of the mob was up and about. greg thomas and frank were warming up a bit. first time meeting both; nice as could be. some cool rubberband stories shared between frank and gregg as well.
soundcheck began as frank, lige, rouse, shauna, ronkat, shider, kendra and danny kicked into "slop". rico replaced frank, and the band worked out "joyful process". the bass very nearly caved the walls in. you could literally feel the pony shaking. i was pretty sure they weren't going to play "process" at the show so i felt very fortunate to have been at the soundcheck. danny also did a taste of "man's best friend" and caught me singing some of it. smiles...
had some food and got ready for the show. "callin' on the funk" gave way to "funkentelechy" and the (very packed) house was rockin' from jump. there was old and new school in the building, but old school showed new what time it was. they were all up front, p-funk signs in the air for the entire length of the show, while the new schoolers meandered a bit more. i was hanging in the back where i spotted the doctor on his way to the stage door. wished him a good show and then made my way over to allen's monitor soundboard to the right of the stage.
steve, belita and garry were already sangin' their booties off. "bop gun" had steve holding the crowd in the palm of his hand. bennie and greg sounded amazing too. ms. belita (such a sweet lady) took it there on "you do me". "slop" sounded great as always, and rouse was great on the leads. doctor enters to a tremendous jersey welcome. there's just something about when they come back to jersey...
"i got a thing"/"i bet ya" was an old school favorite. the whole crowd was loving it, and gc seemed really into this part of the show. rouse - amazing!
"red hot mama" next. gregg guested for about 2 minutes on this one. he told me he wasn't going to play, but i guess he couldn't help it. gc turned around and called "let's take it to the stage". have to say, george, while still gravelly voiced, sounded really good on the raps and singing. trey and gc teamed up for "booty" during "let's take it..." clip had a wireless mic and was wandering through the crowd chiming in on everything. i don't think he was on stage all night.
"give up the funk (tear the roof off the sucker)" had the new schoolers singing the wrong words as usual Laughing , but as i said, old school showed 'em up. gc spotted me singing along with the "wind me up" break and flashed me the 'p'. Cool "downstroke" saw foley take the kit. i knew he was a killer lead bassist, but THIS MF-er CAN PLAY SOME FUNKY ASS DRUMS!!! i mean he was loud and funky but also broke it down tight and snappy in the right spots. he did the honor of giving poo poo his hits. Razz
the arrangement of "bounce to this" was less like the how late version and more like the one on kendra's album. she sounded great and looked gorgeous. i can admit having a little crush on her. regrettably, i didn't get the opportunity to talk with her much, but she did a great job all night.
the band slimmed down for "maggot brain": rico, lige, shauna, danny and ricky with garry rejoining them toward the end. ricky did a great job, but i know some of his theatrics make a few of y'all uncomfortable. whatever you feel about his showmanship, the man can play and was pretty faithful to those leads we all know and love.
"one nation" featured garry and ronkat doing their mellow intro. they took it straight to sunday morning service on this one. "standing on the verge"/"pumpin' it up"/"bustin' loose" was awesome to hear again. the doctor and clip went into a bit of "star-spangled funky", and allen laughed and flashed me a "how-in-the-hell-do-you-know-that-sh*t?!" look as i sang along. "flashlight" saw the old schoolers pulling out their own flashlights, and "knee deep" was on the one. belita, garry, greg and even gerome rodgers each took a vocal spotlight, and rouse once again took a solo very faithful to the original. allen and i both got very into the "rubber duckie"/"disco to go" tag that, as long as they have been playing it, never gets old. something in my heart tells me that they keep that tag on there just for us die-hard clones. god, i love this band...
i thought the "atomic dog" encore was next, but the band had other ideas. last song of the night: "aqua boogie" with rico slammin' the skins. the "big bang theory" tag was another one for us die-hards. i have a feeling the band would have kept going, but the pony staff was not having it, and that was it. hung out on the bus for a bit after the show while the band threw down some post show grub. clip and i chatted for a bit, and then i decided to head out.
this was my first mob show in a while, and i'm happy to see the band in fine form. a sign of funky thangs to come, i'm sure. thanks to airbody in the p-funk camp for coming home and giving up the funk for jersey.
band: gc garry frank rico foley lige ricky shauna ronkat danny jerome greg bennie linda kendra p-nut trey clip paul steve belita poo poo (Gene Anderson)
