Housekeeping | The Che Underground

‘Where’d my post go?!’

March 22, 2012March 22, 2012 by Mmrothenberg

Missing puzzle pieces in head I’ve been hearing that question a lot in the past few weeks as contributors to Che Underground: The Blog notice stories that have gone missing from our four-year document of San Diego’s underground music scene.

To put the pieces back in place, I’ll need your help.

First, a brief explanation of what happened: We suffered some security breaches to the old version of the blog. Our Web-hosting service noticed unusual activity and blocked the site. I did a quick fix to the database. We updated the blog software, and the blog was switched back on.

Todd Tomarrow memorial mixer!

December 19, 2011August 22, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

As Che Underground: The Blog reported in May, San Diego’s extended arts family lost a member with the passing of the hugely talented costumer Todd Tomarrow in San Francisco. Now, a circle of friends plan to round out the Labor Day weekend at San Diego’s Casbah with a celebration of Todd’s life.

Catherine Pierson Waters, Kelsey Farris and Kristi Maddocks will host “The Todd Tomarrow (Todd Bundy) Memorial Celebration & Pot-luck BBQ” Sunday, Sept. 4, from 2pm to 6pm. (Since it’s in a bar, guests must be over 21.)

“The Memorial Celebration will begin with ‘An Hour of Remembrance,’ ” the Facebook event announcement reads, “followed by a pot-luck BBQ & dance in the Casbah’s back patio. The event will feature a no-host bar. … DJ Van Richter will be spinning music for your Dancing Pleasure (just as Todd would have wanted)!

Save the Che Cafe!

December 16, 2017August 20, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

A Che PSA: UCSD’s Che Cafe is the target of a fundraising campaign to continue its decades-long run of music and memories. I hope a few of our many readers can get behind this cause with their wallets and creativity.

Followers of this blog will recall that the Che (for which this blog is named) suffered the catastrophic theft in August 2009 of its sound equipment, and insurance costs for the venue bring the fundraising goal to $12,000, according to the site.

Introducing Sceneroller

September 4, 2011March 11, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

We’ve spent the past three years here on Che Underground: The Blog talking about the bands, people, places and shows that made our scene. Now here’s a way to connect them to each other — and to other scenes around the world.

San Diego is my musical home, and our musical history is precious to me … So this is the right place for the first real public launch of Sceneroller, a software platform that lets users connect bands, people, venues and gigs to write a shared history of local music scenes.

Che Underground’s third birthday

September 4, 2011February 16, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

How much is that in blog years? Today marks three solar orbits since we launched Che Underground: The Blog and another opportunity to take stock of the ground we’ve covered in the interim.

We’ve grown a lot in the past year. Just in time for our second birthday, we broke a traffic record with 9,000 unique visitors in January 2010. This year, we came close to doubling that number; January 2011 was another record-breaker, with more than 16,000 visitors.

From the Brood to the bloodstream

September 4, 2011January 22, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

(Calling all readers: Take a simple, painless test to save a life.)

Roger Pinnell started his first band in San Diego when he was 19. Throughout 1981 and ’82, he sang in Violation 5 and later The Brood, with bass player Chuck Cole and other friends. The Brood’s most memorable show was at the North Park Lions Club, where they opened for The Misfits.

When he moved to San Francisco in 1985, Roger formed Piglatin with bass player Donnie Diaz, another veteran of the early San Diego underground. The band released two records, and Roger briefly led a lineup of Piglatin in New York City. For the last several years he has concentrated on writing fiction and lives in San Francisco.

Since the summer of 2008, Roger has been battling a rare blood cancer, mantle cell lymphoma. He recently had a relapse and needs a bone-marrow transplant in order to beat this. His doctors at UCSF Medical Center are still searching for a donor. Roger is asking anyone who is willing and able to explore this link for the National Marrow Donor Registry and follow the steps to “Join The Registry.”

All that’s required to join is a simple cheek swab, which the Registry will send to your home in a kit.

WordPress doctor in the house?

August 26, 2011December 31, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

It’s happening again …

For the second time in less than two weeks, we’ve experienced the perennial glitch in which commenting was disabled on every blog post, preventing any of you from adding new comments.

This means I have to open every one of the hundreds of posts and reactivate commenting. I’ve already done so on the most recent posts and will be fixing the rest as quickly as I can (i.e., today).

Finds and resurrections

July 3, 2011November 12, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

Going on three years since the launch of this blog, we’ve come a long way: We’ve posted all kinds of wonderful treasures from our musical youth, reunited with hundreds of old friends, started new collaborations — and in October alone, drew more than 15,000 visitors here.

That means we’re in a great position to locate just about any surviving sounds, images and accounts from our past … or to re-create anything we want to revisit.

So where do you want to dig next? What recordings, flyers, photos, bands, events and people have you missed all these years? Working together, there’s a great chance we can find them.

Urgent call for Che Cafe photos

July 3, 2011October 27, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

This is a public-service announcement, with guitars:

“I’m currently working with the Alumni Association at UCSD to acquire photographs of the history of various aspects of campus to include in a 50^th Anniversary book of photography,” writes Stephanie Usry. “Since the Che has been a continually important part of the campus and one that is held in high esteem by many students, we are planning to include historical pictures and we would also like to add some more recent photographs of the venue.

“Do you have any photographs that we may include that you feel represent the identity of the Che (recent shows or events, gatherings there) that we may be able to include in this publication?

San Diego’s next big thing?

December 11, 2017October 26, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

I had a great conversation Sunday with Sergio from Hair Theatre. We talked about how early parenthood complicates musical forays (both playing out and keeping up). Add to my predicament 24 years’ and 3,000 miles’ separation from San Diego, and I confess complete ignorance of what’s hot in my hometown beyond recent projects by friends from my youth.

This seems a disgraceful lapse if I’m curating a blog ostensibly about music and San Diego! I don’t expect to become an instant expert, but I would enjoy a decent 360-degree view of what people of every age are creating and listening to … After all, many of the people who contribute here remain vital, active participants in various segments of the SD music scene, and they’re the people who can help me connect the dots from San Diego then to the town of now.