The real Tyrone Green is back...

Finally, the video is out- and on an official site so they won't pull it down. From Normal Mailer, this short video from SNL a long age ago. (Probably also THE very first Eddie Murphy appearance on television).

"Images", by TYRONE GREEN

Why do I live in L.A.?

So I can see things like THIS (all in one week, and these are just the ones I had a camera around for...)


Just like it looks - a boat crashed into a car in an intersection. NO other car was around, just what you see here. I don't know how, I just saw it and had to get it.


Huh? 18' wheels on the Left, and 15" on the right or...
Maybe they're taking home their solid-brass lifesize Michael Jackson statue.




Window display from the wig shop down the street. I don't think they are the BEST wig shop in town. Just the most inspired!

Hometown News:

KIDS HAPPY LAND again - it never gets old! This shot shows how popular it is!




Miss Morgana and I went to Disneyland a week ago, and got the scoop on one of their deep secrets: We were wondering how the posted signs say "Wait Time: 25 minutes" with any accuracy. Here's how - they hand some customer this card and say "Hand this to the attendant when you get to the ride." We thought we could sell the card on ebay to Disney geeks for zillions! Gotta be rare. But we were good and handed it to the clerk at the ride - and he promptly did nothing with it for as long as we watched! Didn't check his watch or anything... accuracy shmacuracy!

One of the things I see around my town that others don't.


Unique! An advertizing URINAL CAKE for Gene Simmons' Family Jewels reality show. When you pee, it triggers it and it SAYS "Gene Simmons Family Jewels... New season on A&E". I never once thought of stealing it from this location, but I wondered how much it would be worth in the future?


Another thing I see in my daily life, that many people might not....

The Eagle has Landed!

So - my good friend Michael Ackerman spotted this on Craigslist, in Orange County (about an hour from here). It was an old A&M Records recording console, custom built in 1969/70. It took a lot of sleuthing to find anything about these, but information finally showed up. The photos of it in the ad were really poor quality - so I (and anyone else looking) couldn't tell much about it.

This is the console, as it sat in storage for a plumbing firm for 26 years...

I finally got better photos, but could not identify it in the few vintage A&M Studio photos that survive. As it turns out, it was used in a rarely-photographed room, called "Mix 2" where people would simply mix - and not record new parts. All the desks were built by HAECO - by their chief technicial engineer at the studios, Howard Holzer, a famous designer and engineer himself. These desks are excellent quality, built of various legendary components; Spectra Sonics, Electrodyne, API, Stephens, etc. Many famous records were done on these A&M desks - Almost all of Joni Mitchell's LPs, Herb Alpert, The Carpenters, Carole King's Tapestry, etc etc.



It took months and several trips to the O.C. warehouse, but we finally got the console up here to L.A. again, it's old hometown. (A&M is actually just up the street from my house). It took a sturdy trailer (we tried trucks and lift-gates - all too small) and a special winch to get it on and off...



The cool trumpet logo is for Herb Alpert, who was the "A" in A&M:


Colorful sucker - isn't it? From the mellow/yellow formica top, to the colored switches, and the custom-made plastic balls on the fader tops! One of the reasons I'm happiest to find it, is that almost ALL vintage consoles have been removed and repackaged from their original situation - the desk and frame are usually changed. This one is intact, including the "belly up to the bar" brass footrail underneath! (See top photo).


One of the few shots of these mixers is this one of The Carpenters sitting at one of the sister Haeco desks made for A&M. Smiling because it sounds SO good, I think! Or maybe because theirs has the colored-ball tops too!


I stored it for now in a space right near a friend's studio. They are gonna refurbish it and get it running. In return I will let them install it in their studio to use. (I have a GREAT mixer already to use - so this will be nice for them, and I can keep my eye on it while it gets used!)

Great view as a storm comes into Hollywood (hoping to make it big I bet)

Largo club doors - empty after the final show. Spent well over 10 years going here, off and on. Some great times, and some terrible ones. But memorable...

"DO NOT..." what?

Honesty is the best policy at "The Smelly Cheese Shop" in Australia...

More randoms...

I never get tired of this one...



I guess someone decided this is a better band name than "The Who" which is very old and tired now...



Their FIRST selling point sure does grab the customer!



New Years' Even with my very mature friend Paul, who had just heard that shaving cream could be ignited. And we threw firecrackers.



Finally!



Another effect of the slow phone camera - like the propeller in the posts below, this one is out the car window in London. Love it.



The guitar guy sometimes plays VERY hard for a man in his 60s!



And so does the keyboard player!



Wait, are these the dummies the display, or are they for sale, or is this "The Emperor's New Clothes"?

Traveling?

You could do worse than wait for your flight in the VIRGIN Atlantic lounge at Heathrow airport in London! I took these pics on the way home last winter...

Completely unrelated to that last post...

Saw this shop in Newcastle, Australia (a hellhole in some parts).

Hangin' with the homies...

Pics of people, places, things...

Not a bad view from a hotel room. Osaka, I think...
In Japan, they have shrines to many holy and revered things, such as Christina Aguilera.
Dadadadadadadadada..... Bailey?!


So - in Auckland NZ, we rehearsed in an abandoned warehouse. Well, seemed abandoned. But McCartney and Clapton found it useful this year as well, so I guess that qualifies as not "forgotten".
Our sound guy, Paul Ramsay, mixing rehearsal from the next room at his mixing board. I only mention mixing twice in that sentence, because there is a giant indiustrial MIXER behind him left over from the abandoned factory... coincidence? I think not.

More, you say...

Adelaide - of all our time in Australia (3 weeks) this was the place with the coolest sights and easiest to take. Not so full of Starbucks and Target, but more original local style and cool people. Go to Adelaide....

More from the files..

I just thought, I am way overdue to put some pics up on Tyrone Green. Here we go. Very minimal, but now inspired to do more soon...
SEGWAY or the Highway! Myself and bother-in-law Manuel and nephew Pete took a tour of downtown LA on segway scooters... amazing fun. Semi-dangerous and yet nothing untoward happened. Recommended for those with some self-awareness and physical control!