Personal History | The Che Underground

Then and now: the Chicken Pie Shop

January 1, 2011October 15, 2008 by admin

(Sweet bird of youth! Roving correspondent/photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits the scenes of our past glories. Today, the Chicken Pie Shop still serves the salt of the earth.)

The Chicken Pie Shop, known for its geriatric-variety comfort food, large portions and low prices. I recall scraping the bottom of my handbag for a couple of bucks in change and receiving an all-inclusive, starch-based feast: a chicken pie smothered in gravy; whipped potatoes; a “vegetable”; a roll with butter; and then, if you really felt like stuffing yourself, dessert (which was some kind of pie).

Tech of our lives

December 13, 2017October 8, 2008 by admin

Here’s a fun and easy one: In the consumer society of post-World War II America, nothing helps date a community like its memories of technological innovation.

Our reminiscences about mimeographs and Dymo label printers and vinyl records have been powerful reminders of the lost world we grew up in. Spankin’-new San Diego in our youth was a land of early adoption, but I bet most of us can still remember the novelty of seeing our first:

Pocket calculator
Video game
Microwave oven
Cell phone
VHS system
CD player
Personal computer
Cable TV broadcast

And maybe even our first color TV show, photocopier or portable cassette recorder.

When Garris met Cornelius

March 27, 2019October 1, 2008 by admin

I find the pedigree of this flyer in the Tom Goddard Collection colorful enough to stand on its own: an advertisement for the Tell-Tale Hearts’ April 28, 1984, appearance with Manual Scan and the Trebles at Point Loma’s Syndicate that appears to bear the imprint of two of San Diego’s most intriguing flyer artists and raconteurs.

The side-by-side signatures at the lower right of the flyer indicate the piece was signed by “SFG 84” as well as the protean Jerry Cornelius. While “SFG” and the style of the Edward Gorey/Alice in Wonderland imagery point to Steve “Fuckin’ ” Garris, Tell-Tale Heart Ray Brandes expresses certainty that the band never commissioned San Diego’s self-proclaimed “King of the Punks” to create a flyer on its behalf.

London Calling

April 21, 2012September 29, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman of Manual Scan and Lemons Are Yellow reflects on the decline of empires.)

My favorite albums were always those that weren’t just a collection of songs but presented a unified picture of their time and place, a map to their own little world. Coming of musical age in the late ’70s, one notable example was the first Clash LP, which presented a rich portrait of London as a decayed and violent landscape where one struggled for survival. This echoed the theme of how the lost power and fortune of the British empire diminished the expectations of its current citizens; this was presented by many bands, from the Kinks to the Jam.

These were distant but clever and interesting voices, and very different from the “Morning in America” world view that pervaded the US in the ’80s. They seemed especially far from San Diego, where the nearly perpetual sunshine provides a completely different backdrop from London’s rain.

Then and now: Off the Record

January 1, 2011September 17, 2008 by admin

(Roving correspondent/photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits the scenes of our youth. Today, Off the Record’s original location is roadkill.)

It takes my breath away that the candy store of my youth has been diminished to something as unsavory as a used-tire store. Off the Record has had a history, migrating from its origin on 6130 El Cajon Blvd. to the heart of the Hillcrest shopping district, where a much larger store thrived in the ’90s and early 21st century with San Diego’s indie rock scene and the DJ phemenon. The in-store concerts were memorable and yielded huge turnouts for bands such as The Misfits, Husker Du, Mudhoney and Nirvana. (Check out Nirvana at OTR in October 1991.)

After the original owner Phil Galloway sold the store, it downsized its stock considerably and in 2005 moved to a small storefront on University Avenue in North Park. The end of an era: Music stores can’t compete nowadays with the instant accessibility of MP3s and shareware. Record stores are reserved for the discriminating vinyl collectors who will never sell out completely to technology, no matter how clever those gizmos are!

Records will always be cooler.

Sonic Love Affair: “The Dirty Kids”

January 1, 2011September 14, 2008 by admin

(Che Underground prodigy-turned-full-grown rocker Dylan Rogers tells the San Diego story behind the music.)

Unlike most people on this blog, I will be starting from the end, not the beginning.

Sonic Love Affair recorded “The Dirty Kids” summer of 2006 at Wally Sound in Oakland, California. This is one of the 12 songs recorded for a second album, which was not released. Soon after the band split.

Rob Alper (guitar); Curtis Franklin (guitar); Jerry Fiore (drums); Rudge (bass); Dylan Rogers (vocals). Produced by Wally.

I had written these lyrics about eight years earlier in my apartment in Brooklyn, New York, only to toss them aside for years.

I had been thinking a lot about my childhood in the neighborhood of Ocean Beach. I was not just thinking about myself but all the kids who grew up in O.B. Kids who led a fast-paced life at very young ages, dealing with adult situations and too young to cope.

“I’m with the band.”

April 23, 2012September 12, 2008 by admin

Time for belated public acknowledgment of people who aided and abetted those of us on stage.

I’d suggest that performing with a band required a mix of artistic impulse, personal ambition, exhibitionism, a desire for recognition and a need for affirmation. (Your mileage may vary on which traits were dominant.) Most of us had a major assist from folks who didn’t seem to need the limelight so desperately but were there for us: other kids who were known as roadies; managers; girlfriends (and boyfriends); or never had an “official” label but still exerted tremendous influence.

Who carried your amp and fixed your strings? Who drew your flyers? Who second-guessed the sound man and argued with the promoter? Who stood down front on an empty dance floor when everyone else huddled 40 feet back?

Let’s give credit where credit is overdue!

Then and now: Rock Palace

December 14, 2017September 9, 2008 by admin

(Roving correspondent/photographer Kristen Tobiason surveys the remains of Rock Palace, which enjoyed a brief mid-’80s run of all-ages fun. “The stretch of El Cajon Boulevard sandwiched between I-805 and the I-15 is a desert of boarded-up, abandoned buildings dotted with a few small neighborhood repair shops or used-car lots. The Rock Palace structure has been dead since the ’80s, when completion of I-15 isolated the neighborhood.” Wallflowers frontman Dave Rinck recalls its heyday.)

Someone, somehow, sometime about 1984 or 1985 discovered what must have been an old ballroom above some dingy retail shops on El Cajon Boulevard. [Editor’s note: Contemporary flyers tell us the address was 3465 El Cajon Blvd.] In its day, it must have been a grand olde place, for it had a really high ceiling; wonderful wooden floors; and this really huge, creaky old stage at one end.

Detail: Rock Palace exterior, early ’80s (collection Jeff Benet) And what? Yes, we also noticed that a couple of guys were starting to promote rock-‘n’-roll concerts there in that grand old ballroom. Dubious? Yes, it reeked of money laundering. Manuel Noriega, the Cali Cartel, some Burmese generals, and the Taliban were probably running the place jointly. Of course before you could say “Lose sleep, baby, and stay away from bed,” these dudes had demo tapes of various Che Underground bands in their hot little hands, and the era of the Rock Palace was on!!!

Then and now: The Ken Cinema

January 1, 2011September 3, 2008 by admin

(Roving correspondent/ photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits and documents the scenes of our youth. Today, the Ken Cinema keeps it real!)

The Ken is the last of its kind. Most neighborhood theaters couldn’t cut the mustard as costs to run a neighborhood movie house skyrocketed in the early ’90s with the encroachment of digital projection and a hostile takeover by corporate multiplex theaters.

“The Ken opened in 1912,” the Cinema Treasures Web site tells us. “The theater was remodeled in 1947 by S. Charles Lee in Art Moderne style, and was restored in 1975 after being taken over by the Landmark chain as a showcase for foreign features.”

The first time I saw a film at the Ken (4061 Adams Ave.) was in 1981. In those years, the format was free-form and eclectic, serving foreign-language enthusiasts and cult-film buffs alike. The feature changed frequently, every day or so, from “8 1/2” to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” to “Rear Window.” The Ken gave me my cinematic education and formed my tastes and preferences in film. Often it was like a big party, rowdy and interactive — I remember the row of scooters parked out front for “Quadrophenia.”

How I spent my summer vacation

January 1, 2011August 29, 2008 by admin

OK, here’s a seasonal palate-cleanser to help connect the dots between then and now: A while back, I asked what the you of 1983 would have to say about the you of 2008 if you could meet. As we close in on Labor Day, what would You 1983 think of the way you spent summer 2008?

Thanks to abundant free-lance opportunities, I was able to enjoy real summer flex time for the first time since I started working office jobs 20 years ago. We explored New York neighborhood by neighborhood and capped off the summer with a trip to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, home of Dollywood. (My younger self would appreciate the urban cool of the former and the camp appeal of the latter, but he’d be amused at the planning it takes to orchestrate forays for a family of four. Don’t you just, like, get in the car? And if he could hear me scolding the kids, he’d probably want to kick me.)

Your turn: We want to know what you did this summer!