Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

Elizabeth Rogers asked if I had a good time. Well...yeah. Bands that had stopped knocking around town years ago were back together, some sounding better than they ever had in the first place. Also, there was a great spirit there. Musicians I remember as surly were so happy to be playing.


Hotel Congress had several issues of Howie Salmon's Slit fanzine on display. Howie gave me some copies of the magazine a few years ago. My favorite was an interview with XTC (they played the Student Union Ballroom in 1980) At the end of the interview, there was a bit hand scrawled that said, "Yeah, bug off you wankers..." Sort of funny.

They didn't have any of Howie's Rock'n'Roll Comix though.

Howie started as a young fan, but eventually became the drummer for the Phantom Limbs and played on their first two albums.

He's had an incredibly rough year; it was good to see him up and about.


My brother managed to arrange for not only a Governor's proclaimation for the whole event, but individual proclaimations for the various bands.

As cool as this is, I wonder if some historian will be looking through Janet's paperwork in a couple of decades and wonder why her signature is affixed to a document honoring something called Love Mound or Mondo Guano.


I went around with my program and got signatures from various musicians. At first, I was recluctant, but they were happy to do it. I think Paula Jean Brown was a bit iffy about it, but she was happy to sign. Most of the people that signed said it was a good idea. The funny thing was having people try to decide where to sign, since so many of them were in several different bands.

Here's who I got:

• Giant Sand: Paula Jean Brown, Howe Gelb
• The Pedestrians: John Venet, Billy "Billy Sed" Sedylmayr
• Shoebomb: Joe Manas, Melissa Manas, Margaret Ford, Diane Jerguens, Unreadable
• Sidewinders: Rich Hopkins, Dave Slutes, Bruce Halper (Note: Diane Jerguens signed in-between since she was in both bands)
• 35 Summers: Tammy Allen (wrote "You are Loved!"), Trixy Crowder, Randy McReynolds, Bridget Keating, Todd Pearson
• Al Perry: Al Perry
• Broken Horse: Alex Oropeza
• Earl's Family Bombers: Collin Bentley
• Gila Bend: Loren Dircks (wrote "Thank you for being one of the DIE HARDS"), Jim Blackhall
• Greyhound Soul: Joey Peña
• Knockout Pills: Matt Rendon, Jason Willis, Travis Spillers
• Naked Prey: Dave Seeger, Van Christian
• The Napkins: Danny "Serge" Walker
• Pollo Elastico: Chris Carlone, Pete Holmes
• The Pills: Winston Watson, Brian Smith, Robin Johnson
  
• Tom Walbank and the Ambassadors: Tom Walbank
• Al Foul and the Shakes: Al Foul
• Chris Burroughts and the Nationals: Chris Burroughs
• Cosmic Boogie Tribe: Lou Rodriguez
• Doo Rag: Bob "Bob Log III" Reynolds
• Friends of Dean Martinez: Bill Elm
• Green on Red: Chris Cacavas, Chuck Prophet IV
• Pieta Brown: Pieta Brown (with a little heart...I'm done for the week...)
• River Roses: Caitlin von Schmidt, Gene Ruley, Chris Holiman
• Calexico: Nick Luca, John Convertino (Somehow, I missed Joey)
  
• Weird Lovemakers: Gerard Schumacher, Greg Petix ("The Fred Schneider of the Band")
  

Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.