First, Brad Nowell dies of an overdose the night before a scheduled Sublime gig at Nicholby’s. Then Dee Dee Ramone croaks a day or two away from a Ventura tour stop. And last night, whatever curse hangs over this city waiting to engulf visiting musicians struck again, albeit in a (hopefully) milder form. As roadies prepared the stage for Swedish garage rock revivalists, singer Pelle Almqvist wandered out to inform the crowd that guitarist Vigilante Carlstroem had been taken to the hospital for undisclosed reasons. Thus, this would be a “different” kind of Hives show, with Almqvist — whose energized presence is pretty much the entire reason why Spin once declared them one of the best live bands on the planet — anchored to a guitar. (Isn’t this the kind of situation where the guitar tech who’s been secretly practicing the set the whole tour steps in to save the show?)

Luckily for those who actually paid for the show (which doesn’t include me — it’s a perk, all right?), Almqvist ditched the six-string two songs in and got back to the mic-swinging and amp-climbing people expected, only picking the instrument back up occasionally throughout the set. Without the twin guitar attack to bolster the power chord riffing, the band’s sound definitely lost a bit of its muscle, but the reconfigured four-piece managed to turn in a punchy, typically adrenalized performance, at least enough to keep anyone from asking for their money back.

But what the hell happened to Carlstroem? Food poisoning? Seizure? Random gorilla attack?

Their MySpace and Website has no updates as of yet, although their most recent diary entry, dated 9/21, reveals both Almqvist and Carlstroem have been sick the last few days. And of course it all comes to a head in Ventura. Typical.

From Perez Hilton:

Is this guy just crazy or really determined to get in?

Last Thursday, a Ventura County man crashed his vehicle into the main gates at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy mansion.

Detectives believe the reason was due to an “ongoing dispute” but did not offer any further details.

But, here’s the kicker, then the unnamed suspect did it again!

On Tuesday, he rammed his car into the front gates for the second time in less than a week.

This time though he fled before police arrived.

The gates did sustain some damage, though luckily no one was hurt.

As for Hef and the girls, it’s unknown if they were home at the time of the incidents.

Leave our bunnies alone!

From Reuters:

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Republican candidate John McCain may have used his song in the U.S. presidential campaign, but veteran rock ‘n’ roller Chuck Berry has no doubt whom he wants to see in the White House next year.

“America has finally come to this point where you can pick a man of color and that not be a drawback,” the legendary 81-year-old guitarist said of Barack Obama, who clinched the Democratic presidential nomination last week and would become the country’s first black president if he wins in November.

“It’s no question, myself being a man of color … I mean, you have to feel good about it,” Berry, himself a black pioneer in the 1950s music scene, told Reuters by phone from New York ahead of a Brazil tour that starts next week.

“Definitely a proud and successful moment for all the people of this country, not just black people, but Americans in general.”

Now that Chuck has officially endorsed him, Barack should hit him up for the right to use “Brown Eyed Handsome Man” as his campaign song. Or at least have him perform at the inauguration.

Just four more wins …

There hasn’t been a better time in the two decades since it originally aired to revisit Tanner ’88 – the Robert Altman-directed HBO miniseries about a fictional Michigan Congressman seeking the Democratic presidential nomination — than right now. The Sundance Channel replayed its 11 episodes in 2004, prompting several critical reappraisals, and while that year’s general election ended up looking a lot like 1988′s (unappealing Dem vs. a Bush), the show is all about the primary season. And since this current one will not fucking end, a good skewering of the process is just what we (meaning “I”) need to keep our (meaning “my”) sanity. I actually got the series through Netflix all the way back in October, watched one episode and stored it away. It looked like something taped for public access, and, as with a lot of things Altman, it was obviously going to take some patience to get into. But, as I have officially grown exhausted with the “Long, Flat, Seemingly Endless Baatan Death March to the White House” (c) Daily Show, I wanted to see if things were as fucked up back at what was essentially the dawn of the current Media Age. Writer Gary Trudeau doesn’t prove to be prophetic — Tanner is friends with a black minister, but he isn’t caught on tape damning any countries to hell or claiming the government invented any incurable diseases — but for those of us whose only concern at the time was catching the latest episode of Sledge Hammer!, what he captures is an electoral process that, even without YouTube and 24-hour cable news channels, looks like a similar (if primitive) version of the one we’re witnessing today: skeezy journalists digging through the candidates’ personal trash; campaign managers and other hangers-on who think they’re the ones running for president; general scandal and sensationalism trumping issues. If anything, Tanner ’88 seems less satirical now and more like the straight-faced documentary its shot to resemble.

From Huffington Post:

NEW YORK — A journalism think tank studying “The Daily Show” doesn’t believe many people get their news from Jon Stewart _ because otherwise they wouldn’t get the jokes.

The Project for Excellence in Journalism also said it was surprised at how much the Comedy Central late-night program resembles “The O’Reilly Factor,” “Hardball” and other cable news shows in content.

The Washington-based organization asked its researchers to study a year’s worth of “The Daily Show” tapes _ hardly a grim assignment _ after hearing the frequent claim that many young people learn about the world from Stewart instead of more traditional news sources.

Tom Rosenstiel, the project’s director, said he doubts this is the case. He considers “The Daily Show” more of a political satire in the tradition of newspapermen like Art Buchwald, H.L. Mencken and Russell Baker.

“They’re not making jokes about Dan Quayle is dumb or Gerald Ford is clumsy,” he said. “They’re not making jokes that you could get if you live in the country but don’t read the news … . You can’t get the jokes if you’re not watching the news. The jokes are designed to make you think more about the news.”

Speaking from experience, never doubt a journalist’s ability to waste time. Seriously, they studied a year’s worth of Daily Show and came to the conclusion that the show is a satire of the news. Exactly how far was it into the year that they came to that conclusion? I’m guessing mid-March.

The Huffington Post put this article up under the headline “‘Daily Show’ Very Similar to ‘O’Reilly Factor,’” which admittedly piqued my interest. And how, exactly, are they similar?

Politics, government and the Bush administration’s policies in Iraq accounted for about half of the show’s content, making it quite similar to the focus of serious cable news shows, the study said.

Quite the observation: the content of a satirical news program resembles that of actual news programs. Excuse me while I collect the bits of my mind that have blown out the back of my head.

I did learn something from reading about this study, though: Apparently, The O’Reilly Factor is a “serious” cable news show. Who knew?

Hi Matthew,

I thought you and your readers would like to help us congratulate James Peters, a Thousand Oaks, CA, resident who recently won the ‘GORE-TEX® Footwear Diamond in the Rough’ contest by finding a hidden GORE-TEX® brand logo in Ventura, CA.

James Peters will receive $500 in GORE-TEX® gear for his next vacation.

…

W.L. GORE & ASSOCIATES NAMES FIRST WINNERS IN ‘GORE-TEX® FOOTWEAR DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH’ CONTEST

– Game Pieces Found in New York and California; Contest Continues in International Destinations —

Elkton, MD – April 30, 2008 – W.L. Gore & Associates, a leading manufacturer of advanced technology products including the GORE-TEX® brand, today announced that two hidden GORE-TEX® brand game pieces have been found in Ithaca, New York and Ventura, California, within one week after the launch of the ‘GORE-TEX® Footwear Diamond in the Rough’ contest. The ‘GORE-TEX® Footwear Diamond in the Rough’ contest challenges U.S. travelers to uncover a hidden GORE-TEX® brand game piece in eight of the 10 destinations selected as Top 10 GORE-TEX® Footwear Summer Travel Destinations for 2008. Each winner will receive $500 in GORE-TEX® gear.

…

Ventura, California

On April 18, 2008, avid rock climber, James Peters, learned about the ‘GORE-TEX® Footwear Diamond in the Rough’ contest and decided that he would make the trip to Ventura, CA to join in the fun. Peters traveled 30 miles from Thousand Oaks, CA and found the hidden game piece at Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau.

“I am an avid and frequent traveler, so when I learned about the ‘GORE-TEX® Footwear Diamond in the Rough Contest, I could not resist making the trip to Ventura. Not only did I find the game piece, but I was able to enjoy the charming downtown and the cool coastal weather of this Southern California beach town. I am very excited to be the winner for California and I am eager to get and use some new GORE-TEX® gear,” commented James Peters.

First off, I like the insinuation that this “avid rock climber” made some sort of daring trek — possibly across a jagged, unforgiving landscape, fighting off giant scorpions and dysentery — from Thousand Oaks to Ventura in order to win this prize. And I especially enjoyed his “comment” on “the cool coastal weather of this Southern California beach town.” C’mon, did he really say that? As if this guy who lives in 20 minutes away just happened to stumble upon some quaint oceanside oasis in his quest for free GORE-TEX. This is why I chose not to go into the PR wing of journalism, even though all my self-loathing college professors insisted that’s where all the money is.

And am I the only person who thought GORE-TEX was something Seinfeld made up?

“I’m Going to a River”