Personal History | The Che Underground

The Casbah turns 20!

December 18, 2017November 22, 2008 by admin

(Dean Curtis hails a major anniversary for a San Diego institution.)

In 1988, I finally got serious about a higher education. I previously tried college at SDSU in 1980/81 but it interfered with my social life and record-buying fund, so I dropped out. (I hated SDSU anyway.) But in 1988 I packed up the 1967 VW van, and me and my girlfriend Michelle headed off for Humboldt State University, after a fine summer living in the van and beach-combing up the California coast.

Soon after I left San Diego, the Casbah was opened by legendary San Diego show promoter Tim Mays (who with Laura Frasier operated the Skeleton Club in the late ’70s, and with Peter Verbrugge and Bob Bennett opened the Pink Panther in 1986).

Since he started the Casbah in 1989 (before moving it in 1994 down the street to its current location on Kettner and Laurel), Mays has also opened some great restaurants, including the Turf Club and Starlite.

Sympathy for the ’70s

March 29, 2019November 13, 2008 by admin

“Perhaps another thread for ’70s appreciation is in order, too,” writes Ray Brandes of yesterday’s post focused on the darkest aspects of our formative years.

Toby Gibson concurs: “While my dark, apocalyptic views of the ’70s (and my gritty black-and-white memories) seem negative, I wish I could go back for so many things that are gone now, and to get away from so many things that are just WAY worse.”

Let’s accentuate the positive! Many of us idolized the ’60s, but most of us spent the majority of our minority in the ’70s. What memories of the era warm you up when the modern world seems cold?

Traumatic ’70s madness

March 29, 2019November 12, 2008 by admin

Blackberrying CNN on the ride in to work, I learned that next week marks the 30th anniversary of the mass murder-suicide of 909 Americans who’d followed Jim Jones from California into the jungles of Guyana.

It got me thinking (again) that there was a lot of really horrible stuff happening when most of us were in secondary school — much of it in California in general or San Diego in particular.

Read moreTraumatic ’70s madness

Mods at Mount Soledad, Ski Beach

January 1, 2011November 10, 2008 by admin

Veteran scooterist Elker deMello has answered Mike McCarthy’s recent contribution of scooter-rally cheesecake with his own trove of photographs from outdoor gatherings of the San Diego mod tribes, including his own Dancing Skeletons.

This batch from the Elker deMello Archives comprises photography from the very same Mount Soledad rally Mike documented along with some great shots of our mod friends congregating alongside the volleyball players at Ski Beach.

My rockin’ Sweet 16

June 30, 2009November 7, 2008 by admin

(Miss Kristi Maddocks takes one step beyond childhood with a heavy, heavy monster party. Pick it up, pick it up!)

Before there was MTV, princesses all over the world celebrated their teenage years with fabulous Sweet 16 birthday parties. Although by that time I was a child of the Che Underground, celebrating this rite of passage was an excuse to throw a wonderful party, as well as an old family tradition that I could not pass up.

When I turned 16 in 1982, the Headquarters and Distillery East were my favorite hangouts. I spent my days playing volleyball and studying at Torrey Pines High School, and hung out with the mod/punk/surfer clique known as “The Scrubboes.” In the evenings I was out dancing with my friends from UC, La Jolla, PB and downtown. It only made sense that my ska-theme birthday party included kids from both walks of life!

The kid stays in the picture

January 1, 2011November 6, 2008 by admin

(Hair Theatre guitarist Paul Allen describes one photograph’s journey.)

This is one of 4 photos, as I recall, that [Hair Theatre vocalist] Sergio had given me before I moved to San Francisco in February 1989. I think Laura Swapp took them. I couldn’t tell you where we were playing. Like most of the clubs back then, the predominant color is black.

In the spring of 1992 I moved on a whim (the morning after the night I decided to go, after staying up all night) to New Orleans. Having prepared little, I ended up in an apartment with no furniture, stove or fridge. I’d turn on the light at night to find a virtual colony of roaches, beetles and crickets all scurrying for this giant hole in the closet floor. At this point I was so broke I was living on peanut butter & jelly and Thunderbird (a fifth chilled for $2.59!).

I entrusted a friend back in S.F. to sell my amp, stereo, books and records. The deal was he would keep 40 percent and send me 60 percent.

Rockin’ Halloween 1984

January 1, 2011October 31, 2008 by admin

(Not satisfied to supply the holiday tunes, the Brandes siblings come through with a swingin’ Halloween photo gallery for recovering SD scenesters! Claudia Brandes provides the back story.)

These photos were taken at the Halloween party that Zoe and I threw at her loft downtown in 1984. Zoe and I were great friends at the time, and we talked all year about wanting to have a huge Halloween party. She was the only person I had ever met, besides Kristen Schwartz, who loved Halloween as much as I did.

Kristen, in one image, is a “jigsaw puzzle,” and Zoe is George Washington. It was a great costume, and she was quite convincing! I was Peter Pan, which allowed me to wear my Beatle boots and a short skirt and still look cool. One photo has a very handsome young Peter Miesner dancing with Zoe.

This We Dug: The Red Krayola

December 11, 2017October 28, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

Hi everyone! Dave Wallflower here again. Underground culture is a worldwide phenomenon. It is everywhere. It is all around us. It is like the air we breathe, the water we swim in (assuming that we are fish). In this the third edition of This We Dug, you will learn about Red Krayola, a band that helped form the collective Che Underground consciousness. They were like some of the water we fish swam in. This issue of This We Dug was supplied by Che alumni Paul Kaufman and Dave Fleminger, two guys who in turn provided more than a little of the underground air we breathed.

Austin, Texas, made some very high-profile contributions to the psychedelic scene, notably Roky Erikson’s 13th Floor Elevators. But there were other bands in that scene you should check out. The Bubble Puppy album is cool. But my all-time favorite album from this time and place is the second LP by Red Krayola, “God Bless the Red Krayola and all who Sail with It.” This came after their half-song, half-“free form freak-out” debut LP “The Parable of Arable Land,” which provided the immortal “Hurricane Fighter Plane” (notably covered by Boo in the mid-’90s).

Sucking in the ’60s

April 21, 2012October 22, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Original recipe/extra crispy Manual Scan rhythm section Paul Kaufman and Dave Fleminger come to honor the decade, not to rile on it.)

Even the most hardcore among us admire some aspect of ’60s music and culture. And for some, this era still remains the zenith of everything that was cool. There were rapid changes in taste and style from one year to the next during that tumultuous time, and by the end of the decade the seeds of excess were already planted. So, we ask the simple question:

When did the ’60s jump the shark?

Some moments worth considering:

The assassination of Martin Luther King.
Death of Brian Epstein.
Death of Brian Jones.
Altamont.
Letting Phil Spector “produce” the Let it Be album.
Magical Mystery Tour.
Sonny Bono says “Music took a left turn.”

Mod match-up mania!

January 1, 2011October 17, 2008 by admin

It takes a virtual village to reconstruct an old-school San Diego scooter rally; this cache of photos from Mike McCarthy will require some heavy-duty forensics from the mod veterans among us.

“They look to be done at Mount Soledad, when you could climb up on the steps (can’t now),” writes Tony Suarez. “I have already recognized Cyndie Jaynes, Shawna Davis, James Kessler, Eric deMello, Dan Holsenback, Jay Wiseman, Karen Jagger, Dawn Edmundson, John Ryan and Kevin Ring.”