Dr. Frank's What's-it

I Believe in You

Mortdecai

As you can see below, I am reading the Mortdecai books. Stupendous writing. Why was I not informed of this before? It's a "slow read" but not for the usual reasons: it's slow because I keep having to pause to read clumps of sentences out loud to the cat, G. K. Chesterton (who seems to appreciate them too, if only in his own way.) Gorgeous. Kind of wish I could be K. Bonfiglioli, except for the already being dead part. I'm sure he eventually figured out how to pronounce his own name, so that's alright.

The book was a gift from someone who said the narrator reminded her of me, which I suppose I ought to take as a slander, or at least as an admonishment and goad to do better; but as it happens, I don't.

(I haven't seen the recent film and my understanding is that's all to the good.)

Education in the Liberal Arts

When you guys see stuff like this, do you think back to your college years and imagine how your professors might have fared under the current zero tolerance "shout 'em down" atmosphere that apparently prevails at universities these days? I always think of Alain Renoir, the most interesting man I ever knew, and the best teacher, and also a man who told jokes that would launch a thousand black bloc pepper spray firebombs and buzzfeed excommunication-from-humanity listicle-encyclicals and twitter witch-hunts today. What would he have done? I don't know, it's impossible to imagine a guy like that anywhere near a university nowadays. It's a weird thought experiment.

Glad I'm not a professor (as, believe it or not, I once planned to be.) Or a student. Or a proper person, really. It's a funny old world, innit?

Notebook

Bed is the only place for protracted telephoning. It is also excellently suited to reading, sleeping and listening to canaries. It is not at all a good place for sex: sex should take place in armchairs, or in bathrooms, or on lawns which have been brushed but not too recently mown, or on sandy beaches if you happen to have been circumcised. If you are too tired to have intercourse except in bed you are probably too tired anyway and should be husbanding your strength. Women are the great advocates of sex in bed because they have bad figures to hide (usually) and cold feet to warm (always.) Boys are different, of course. But you probably knew that. I must try not to be didactic.

-- Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point that Thing at Me

You Guys Know about This, Right?

That "sneak peek" thing is out of date (I actually took this photo at the Gilman "Lookouting" show in January where we had these handbills in advance of the shows' announcement.) Still, it's a show. More shows listed here.

CUNT

Michele is playing Marisa's guitar.

The Case of the Purloined Chiswick Catalog

There was a time when I had managed to collect almost the entire Chiswick Records catalog, leaving out duplicates and re-presses, with only a few missing items. I would say about half of this collection remains in my possession. I sold a couple of the big-ticket items when I was especially broke (which I regret) but most of them managed to migrate away mysteriously, of their own accord it almost seems.

Unlike missing Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, and UFO, Ramones and Robyn Hitchcock, whose absences can be blamed on this or that girl rage-confiscating them over the years, there isn’t a crazy ex-girlfriend I’m aware of who could be plausibly counted as a Chiswick fan. For instance, would any conceivable girlfriend steal Sniff ’n’ the Tears? Would anyone? Kind of a puzzle.

I have managed to restore the LZ, the TL, the BS and the Ramones over the past few years; haven’t got around to trying the UFO and Robyn Hitchcock (who feels more “natively CD” than the others, so I haven’t tried to address the vinyl gap there.. yet.)

Replenishing the Chiswick catalog would be hugely expensive now and quite a hassle, and it probably won’t happen. It doesn’t matter too much really. It was just a stupid thing I did, once upon a time. Kind of miss some of them, though.

Ain’t insomnia grand?

(Cross-posted on Medium.)

Michele and Marisa got their arms done

On with the Show, Good Health to You

Show update... the (only) new thing at the moment, as you can see, is that we're doing one of the club shows at this year's Punk Rock Bowling fest in Las Vegas. Maybe more to come, we'll see. Cool and crazy to be playing with Channel 3. I listened relentlessly to their Posh Boy 12" and album when I was a teenager and played them on the radio all the time on KALX, though I never got the chance to see them live. Anyway, tickets go on sale on March 11 (1 PM PST.)

I've been trying to organize my thoughts around the theoretical track list of a fantasy next MTX album and I'm considering playing mostly new songs in the solo sets at the Joel birthday show at the Bottom of the Hill on April 1. If you're going to be there and would like to hear anything in particular, though, drop me a line and let me know.

Sat. April 1: Dr. Frank solo/acoustic, with the Avengers, Pansy Division, the Plus Ones. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St., San Francisco CA. This is Joel Reader's birthday, and as far as I'm aware I'm going to do two short acoustic sets amidst the electric bands. Tickets here. Facebook event page here.

Thurs. April 6: MTX, Teenage Bottlerocket, Nobodys, Happyness. Bottom of the Hill, 1233 17th St. San Francisco, CA. Tickets here.

Fri. April 7: MTX, Teenage Bottlerocket, Nobodys. Soda Bar, San Diego, CA. Tickets here.

Sat. April 8: MTX, Teenage Bottlerocket, Nobodys, Planet Manboy. Pub Rock Live, Scottsdale, AZ. Tickets here. Facebook event page here.

Sun. April 9th: MTX, Teenage Bottlerocket, Nobodys. The Roxy, West Hollywood, CA. Tickets here.

Sat. May 27: Punk Rock Bowling presents: MTX, Ch 3, Lucky Eejits. The Beauty Bar. 517 Fremont Street, Las Vegas NV. $17. 21+.