admin | The Che Underground

The quirky bits: Scribbles we love

February 7, 2018August 26, 2009 by admin

(Toby Gibson asks after our favorite filler.)

It’s fairly easy to guess that pretty much everyone who comes through this site is some pedigree of audiophile — many have already confirmed themselves as walking archives of music history and have shared some fantastic personal details and trivia.

It’s also fairly easy to imagine that I’m not the only person who keys in on tiny personal fragments (or funny quirks, or just neat bits) of songs that I wait for every time I hear them — someone talking in the background, either by design or unintentionally, funny melodic idiosyncrasies that stick in the mind to become that moment that you wait for.

Gone fishin’ …

September 14, 2009August 24, 2009 by admin

Well, not exactly — but a family vacation (and a petition by the family members who comprise it that I unplug a while) has slowed our regular programming cycle. Che Underground: The Blog has a wealth of archival treasures and challenging conversations waiting in the wings, but it may be a day or two before I can get the gears turning again.

What are you up to this summer?

… Which in itself suggests a topic I’d like to hear about! In this networked world of 2009, how do you balance the digital and the analog parts of your lives? I feel very lucky to share the former with all of you (and the latter with many of you), but how do you make time for each?

Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen

December 16, 2017August 21, 2009 by admin

I’ve belatedly read “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell’s marvelous little book on the critical mass required to create an epidemic — whether a literal, biological one or the adoption of ideas or products.

I’ve been comparing Gladwell’s ideas to the intense little scene we experienced in late ’70s/early ’80s San Diego. In particular, I’ve been thinking about the people that played the three key roles Gladwell describes as necessary for a movement to take off. Check out the definitions, and then think about the folks we hung around with back when we were young:

Photos from the Coleman Collection

December 31, 2010August 18, 2009 by admin

Carol Coleman (née Anderson), Encinitas Pannikin manager extraordinaire and all-around rockin’ scenester, recently digitized some photographs that include shots tracking paths we took from Hair Theatre and Noise 292.

These pictures include Hair Theatre vocalist Sergio, Noise 292 guitarist David Rives (and Answers guitarist Dave Fleminger) at one of the occasions when the former drummed for us at the Che Cafe; several shows by 3 Guys Called Jesus, the band I formed with bassist Steve Duke and drummer Robert Labbe in 1985; and 1995 photos of Joy Bomb, San Diego’s successor to Hair Theatre.

Community watch! Help Che find its gear

April 23, 2012August 16, 2009 by admin

Our ancestral stomping grounds recently suffered a theft. Dave Fleminger notes this August 7 notice on Craigslist, posted by the Che Cafe Collective:

“The Che Cafe … was broken into sometime between August 3 and August 5. ALL of our mics, xlr cables, direct in boxes, monitors, the sound board itself, ALL of it has been STOLEN. We’re looking at 8 to 10 thousand dollars worth of equipment gone.

Mike Woods, 1961-2009

April 23, 2012August 14, 2009 by admin

Toby Gibson alerted me to this obituary from the San Diego Tribune and to the comments on a related MySpace page.

Mike and Lori 2000 “Michael Dean Woods, 48, of Corpus Christi, Texas, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Thursday June 25, 2009. Mike had a rare genetic disorder, Porphyria.

Mike Woods “Mike was born in Oregon on April 1, 1961. He is preceded in death by his parents, Dean and Phyllis, who raised him in San Diego, California. Michael worked hanging drywall, he also made custom rockscapes.

Peter, Paul and Mom: Hippies of our lives

December 18, 2017August 13, 2009 by admin

(Stop, children! What’s that sound? Robin Pugh Yi contemplates what’s goin’ down with the older generation.)

I have tickets to go to a Peter, Paul and Mary concert with my parents in a couple of weeks.

It’s a family ritual. My husband gets tickets to performances by old hippies like Tom Paxton and Arlo Guthrie. I sigh and ask if he isn’t yet tired of Baby Boomers’ belief that they are inventors and keepers of the Holy Grail of Perpetual Adolescence. How can he maintain a straight face listening to “Hair” lyrics?

Then I go, because he has tickets. And it means a lot to Mom to go with us, enthusiastically sing along, and elbow me when I roll my eyes.

Then, inevitably, something breaks down my guard. Pete Seeger sings “Abiyoyo,” or Judy Collins sings “In My Life,” and I am once again a little girl in the Summer of Love. My parents, my aunts and uncles, their friends are so young, so sweet and earnest and unaware of everything to come. Sincerely trying to teach their children well.

From ZERO to HEROine: On becoming a Blues Gangster & ‘The Perils of Life’

March 21, 2018August 11, 2009 by admin

(Miss Kristi Maddocks documents the birth of a new Che Underground collaboration.)

April 1, 2008, was an important day to me. It marks a positive turning point in my life — a day that my life changed in an unexpectedly beautiful way — a day that eventually led me back to many dear old friends, and into the lap of The Che Underground, and The Blues Gangsters.

April 1, 2008 was the date of my 3rd REBIRTHday Party, at Speisekammer Restaurant in Alameda. This was the third time I celebrated this date — the day in 2005 that I almost lost my life to a brain hemorrhage and massive stroke. By 2008, I was well on my way to a nearly complete recovery.

For the first time since I turned ill, I felt strong enough to extend invitations to my former musical partners and include them in the festivities. I was opening my heart, my mind and my world. A few of these musical guests included Anni and Carina of Everybody Violet … which in a way was a real reunion for us; neither Anni nor I had seen or talked to Carina in over 20 years.

Helter Skelter: Tate-LaBianca at 40

March 30, 2019August 8, 2009 by admin

(Ray Brandes considers the lasting effect of the ’60s’ dark coda.)

Forty years ago this weekend, the series of grisly crimes that ultimately became known as the Tate-LaBianca murders was committed in Los Angeles. The story of the case and its aftermath is well-documented, most notably in three books: District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi’s Helter Skelter, Ed Sanders’ The Family and John Gilmore’s The Garbage People.

In the past four decades, the public has never lost its fascination with Charles Manson, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten and Tex Watson. The recent announcement of the parole of Family member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme for the 1975 assassination attempt upon President Gerald Ford has righteous citizens nationwide in an uproar.

“Better lock your doors and watch your own kids,” Susan Atkins said upon hearing the verdict.

Che Games memories from Mathias Kuo

January 1, 2011August 7, 2009 by admin

(A long-time reader puts out the call for then-and-now matchups!)

With the advent and conclusion of the Che Games this May, we are reminded of our youth and the path that brought us to the world we exist in today.

Some are still active in the scene and lifestyle; others, such as myself, have taken the experiences and philosophies of that time and melded them into the child-rearing, career-focused, mortgage- and bill-paying reality of the new millennium and the harsh realization that I am a 40-something now and “damn old.”

I discovered the Che Underground last summer, and it has been on my browser ever since. The articles and especially the pictures have allowed me to connect with old friends as well as reminisce about “the formative years” and how that small slice of time has helped me to cope with the world we live in today.