Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Evolving the Love Shack at the Bottom of Tomato Hill - URGENCY


@

TOMORROW NIGHT!
(Wednesday July 1st)
We've been invited to play a show with our good friends from
'Pale Red Horse'
for a hot night in San Francisco.

Bottom of the Hill 




1233 17th Street (17th @ Missouri) 





San
Francisco, CA 94107
~9pm
CLICK HERE FOR MAP




Info line:
415-621-4455


Following concerts:


~Friday July 3rd
@

7042 Folsom Blvd.
Sacramento, CA 95819
click for map to evolv

Sacramento is an interesting city. Maybe we will bring some color to all the checkered people.


~July 25th
BATTLE FOR THE STAGE - Marin Local Music
come support us, if we win, we get to play with THE B-52's!!
LOVE SHACK BABY YEEAAAA!!


~Weekend of August 15th
TOMATO FESTIVAL!!
If life deals you lemons, make lemonade; if it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys
Not that we advocate alcohol usage, but tomatoes are a fine treat from the vine.  For a free cd, come to this show and throw tomatoes at us.  For free everything we ever do,
come to at least 4 out of 5 of the upcoming shows!
TOMATO FEST LINK

Xoxo,
Arnie
Ryan
Tim
John-Robin

a.k.a.
BillionsUponUs
www.myspace.com/BillionsUponUs

Friday, June 26, 2009

Apricots


Close to a hundred apricot trees, of a heirloom variety, very old, go unharvested, and are enjoyed only by the families of deer. We have begun to soend some time here and eat these fruits right off the ground. These ones are sweeter then the one still hanging, they taste like sweet apricot pie with brown sugar, just really AMAZING!! Tap in to the fruit around you. it's waiting to drip it's sweet sticky nectar down your neck...

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Miami


two days in the houston airport with full flights, eating airport bananas, can be disarming. with patience and persistence at my side I finally made it! yes, alcohol weed cocaine cubans babes palm trees- it all here-all the things things place is famous for, interesting... my balance is thrown far, need sleep. spent my airport time stretching, shredding arpeggios and Nutcracker on the guitar, and of course the Starbucks bananas. the people that work at the starbucks in houston airport recognize me and give me bag of freckled bananas, they cant sell em. one cleaning lady at the airport asked, "are related to Brad Pitt?" "yea, he's my son." i responded, i just diddnt understand what she was talking about, and then when i was leaving she said, "Bye Justin Timberlake". i just landed here a few hours ago and have tried a new fruit. called the UGLI fruit, a grapefruity citrus. it is pretty ugly.
this is the cuban orange:

the man whos tree this was said this fruit is for curing meat because it is bitter. yea, FRUIT grows to cure MEAT? hmm i think he meant Fruit cures meat EATERS.

ive already seen the gorgeous Suvine, the beautiful Amanda, Radical Dan, and Johnny 5. we went to some parties and had a great night of drumming, hula-hooping, dancing, playing and singing Micheal Jackson songs.. earlier i had orange juice blended with mangoes and now eating a mouth salad (bok choy, romaine, toms) before i sleep for 30 hrs STRAIGHT!! (seriously tired) i just bit a cherry tomato and squirted tomato goop all of the screen and keyboard- im going to let it dry as a sticky memento of this night. pictures to come, excited about Florida fruits and exploring tomorrow.

Day 2
most people here speak spanish, it is really nice. i got to ride bike around ALL DAY. a jalopy i found in Dans garage. like no brakes, wobbly tires, bent cranks, and overall flat tires. i rode over islands and along miami beach. i drank coconuts all day.

not thirsty anymore!

at the beach, one man started yelling and screaming 'HELP!' while splashing around in the water. shark? eel? jellyfish? cold? i couldnt figure it out because it diddnt really look like he needed help. people were looking and calling emergency, pointing. i was standing there, wondering,"should i go in there and get him? he's REALLY BIG, would he take me down with him?" the beach life guard drove up in a golf cart right as the guy was coming out of the water. it was weird. I think he was just making a scene. When i was coming out of the water, i ran into a girl that was in the same dance production i was in! same school, very coincidental. we hung out and her mom tried to drag me into some network marketing scheme, and the girl took a million pics of me climbing trees to get cocos. she pointed me the way to this little farmers market where i found amazing fruits!


avos the size of large grapefruits called cuban avocados were 2 for 3 dollars.


i got huge guavas,



'apple-bananas'(some variety that tastes like butterscotch yo!), tangerines, and blood oranges. i saw some fruit called 'inispero' that looked exactly like the 'sawo' from indonesia. the cuban man helping me was showing me his favorite fruits, and how to pick the best ones. he preached to me, to live long and strong you should eat fruits and vegetable, haha i assured him that i understood. very nice guy cool accent good build dark skin lean fit bright eyes.
"tell me my age." he asked
i guessed around 40
he said "i am fifty eight years old my friend!" laughing
i looked at him again, closer, he was right! i was very impressed and the guavas he suggested to me were also impressive.
there are a lot of beautiful people here. the fit ones running, playing volley ball. the fat ones sitting down at the thousands of fine restaurants eating animals. the fashion chics prancing around with their skinny legs and huge glasses. all the hispanic kids running around the beaches and playgrounds

and mastering the monkey bars!



hanging out with Amanda was really fun, i got to watch her hula-hoop and that was exciting. She is very sexy, playful, all so uniquely beautiful. i like to watch her move, sway, a good groove, i like the beat. all the other chics around here are so erect and stiff looking, probably having to compensate for the weight of those huge ridiculous but 'fashionably-trendy' glasses. i shouldn't judge, a lesson i'm still learning from Suvine.

this girl took me out on a date in this fancy restaurant that used to the Versaci House, she was beautiful,

wish i was dressed better, but im not going to buy any clothes unless they are organic and/or vegan.
speaking of dates, think they are sweet? try soaking them in fresh coconut water! YUMMM!!!!!!!



I met a great friend today, while i was sitting on a boat dock eating the citrus.

a security guy
younger that I
while doing his job
had passed me by

i offered him a tangerine, he was soo into it. i told him about how cutting dairy and going vegan freed cured me from so many ailments and he was soo interested. he had heard of vegetarian here and there but never really gave it any thought until then. i gave him this website, and it sounds like he will join up. we ate bananas, tangerines, blood-oranges on a boat dock after dark lookin over the bay into downtown Miami. we talked for two hours and became really good friends. his girlfriend (x) has a mamey tree. he told me about Miami and the folks, the cubans, the things he was doing. very good time. ill probably hang out again with him tomorrow.
On the bike ride back i got some more cocos then Dan and I whacked em open and had a nice drink rocking out to Michael Jackson... again!
listen to beat it:
"they told him dont you ever come around 'here'"
that one word 'here' sounding more like 'heeya'
in all of the MJ perfection, in every way, that one single note does not sound right, too nasal and whiny.
Im am very interested in the synergy between amazing people, like MJ and Quincy Jones.
Please remember to stretch, take deep breaths, and then go wild!
take the extra effort to go out and talk to people you dont know, because you actually do! just have make the connection.

Day 3
great excercise today
drank two cocos then hit the road n rode 10 miles on the clunker bike to meet up with Amanda and her crew to go to the fruit and spice park. had to wait for this draw bridge:

passed places like this:


got lost, then i found this starfruit tree and ate a great after-ride breakfast


sweet and tarty i ate about 15 of them
when i met up with Amanda and Johnny 5 and the others, the sweetheart, she had these eggfruits waiting for me. lesson-sharing is cool. id never had em before and i was SOOOOO excited.

she finds a blacksapote:

easily my two most favorite fruits ever, (eggfruit and black sapote) unbelievable and indescribable. i could move to Florida for this alone.
in the park they have this sample platter of some wild fruits they grow. sapotes, eggfruit, guava, starfruit, loquat, rare bananas, other weird things, and im like scarfing these things down now! ARMPFF ARMPFF ARMPFF!

Amanda Bonanza and Safari Johnari



ive read about this fruit, called the 'ice cream bean' but was not ripe.


there were hundreds if not thousands of varieties of rare and ultra-exotic fruits there, i was basically in heaven. i hopped this fence and was munching on some weird berries. but then legs and face went numb, and then i saw this sign:

then my nose started bleeding and i decided to let it drip on this leaf like in the movie 'The Predator' when the predator gets shot while escaping from Dutch's team of badass jungle commandos.

(but my blood is not glow-in-the-dark-neon-green, shucks)


choices choices

this is weird

sausage tree, non-edible

black sapote, in the ranks with durian, for me, sooooo in love.


these are literally the coolest people ever

that girl, besides being astoundingly beautiful, is also a yoga master, adores music, and is an amazing connection to the universe, making her life stress-free, and bringing the best things into her life. ive never met some one with so much loving energy flowing in and out. we are going to trade guitar lessons for yoga lessons. that dude to the right, tyler, is the funniest and most complimenting person ever. he always is having fun and makes sure people have fun, flows with the moment like no other, and makes everyone feel happy and excited. the other guy, Johnny 5, enjoys driving fast while listening to Sade, yea hes a smooth operator!

6 miles away we get to this stand selling all the fruits we just watched growing and sampled. i will buy 50 or so pounds and bring them back to texas and california to share with my loved ones.

this is the texture in the eggfruit, just like a boiled-egg, a bit dry and gets stuck on the top of my mouth, im sooooooooo in love.

after the massive fruit escapade, we went to a rock climbing gym


i am soo happy to be with such a vibrant group of people. every one of them are perfect. it is the right crew for me, they are so locked in to human experience. making it happen. A lot of us raw kids just met but worked together surprisingly well. I am so proud to be able to have friends like this that do amazing things for the world.


came back with these fruits. a few rare varieties of sapote, sapodilla, lots of eggfruits, mamey, starfruit, honeyripple (something like that) oranges, really sweet like a cross between grapefruit and sweet orange. i climbed a tree and got some cocos on the way back for a nice drink when Dan and I wake up. mouth salad. stretch. goodnight!
FLORIDA IS SOO COOL AND I GIVE ENDLESS THANKS TO MY FRIENDS HERE FOR HOSTING ME AND SHOWING ME THE BEST TIME EVER! (you know who you are!!)

Monday, March 2, 2009

5 Q's


1. Name: Arnie Rodriguez
2. Ideal form of communication: Mental Telepathy


3. Top 3 favorite albums, why?

First, Tchaikovsky- Nutcracker
not actually a 'album' but holds absolute mastery of composition and orchestration. True artistry is revealed in the phrasing.


Second, Dredg - El Ceilo

it is an album that took a band from local to international. recorded at my favorite california studio, Skywalker Sound. The sonic accomplishments in this album are very great. so many untraditional recording and production techniques set this album apart from any other by far. i believe this kind of experimentation and ingenuity is paramount. this album created the idea of a world, and fulfilled it in every aspect.

Third, and kind of first, too, Michael Jackson - Thriller

i love michael and i love quincy, so i have to love this album. This is one of the few records that could be argued 'absolutely perfect' in every way. to me, it is not perfect, for the word "here" in the vocal line "they told him dont you ever come around here" is just too nasal-y for me. other than that one tiny little thing, this album grooves, soothes, and kicks ass.

other albums worth mentioning-
Any Pantera albums engineered By Terry Date














most Peter Gabriel Albums

any Steely Dan albums engineered by Roger Nichols ( i had a master class with him in Nashville, brilliant sound guy, used to be a rocket scientist!)

Dream Theater's Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence


and, the new recorded score of Sweeney Todd is a great reproduction of the broadway orignial (except for miss lovetts vocals are WAY TOO AUTO-TUNED!)

4. What currently keeps you busy? Studying Orchestration and Playing Music

5. Where do you see yourself 5 years from now? Touring the WORLD and having achieved the consistency of writing, recording, and touring a new record at-least every 18 months.