Author Archives: Blanca Myers

About Blanca Myers

BLANCA MYERS: San Francisco Hometown? Dream town? Hometown: Minneapolis. Dream town: San Francisco. Who inspires you? Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Peggy Guggenheim, David Byrne, Patti Smith, The Merry Pranksters... all the people I've met along the way. Best advice ever received? "Space is the place." Anything else you'd like to confess? That I'm listening to Phish as you read this.

“For You And Your Friends To Act Out”: Vignettes by Mike Gordon

Mike Gordon VignettesBass player Mike Gordon’s slightly askew wit makes for a writing style that simultaneously makes you scratch your head and chuckle. Enjoy these vignettes Gordon published on his newly redesigned website, below.  On a slightly tangential note, why is scratching your head the universal sign for confusion?

For You And Your Friends To Act Out” by Mike Gordon

a) In a restaurant, person N stands up and yells, “These brussels sprouts are so fuckin’ tender,” and person Y (maybe you) stands up and yells abrasively loud, “I’m so glad someone is willing to voice a positive opinion.”

b) This is mean. Person N sideswipes person Y’s car, passing from opposite directions. Both people (safely!) are slowing their cars so that by the time of the scrape, or right after, they’re able to gracefully ease their doors open, grabbing huge bags of ketchup they’ve brought along, and smear themselves with ketchup while easing out the doors and lying down on the pavement between the stopped cars. If anyone comes up, Person Y says, “Please check the trunk of my car,” and when Unsuspecting checks that trunk, there is a third person lying in pools of ketchup.

c) Person N has a plant sprayer of lavender mist and sprays at Unsuspecting at a gymnasium. Unsuspecting, perhaps working out, begs a little mercy, and Person N says, “Oh, come on, at least I’m not spraying vinegar on you.” Unsuspecting might ask who the hell would spray vinegar, and Person N says, “Dunno,” and sprays vinegar from another hidden bottle (rear belt loops work great for hooking!).

d) People N and Y act out an old Men At Work video.

e) Person N goes to the library and grabs a book to check out. Person Y jumps behind the counter pretending to be the librarian and says, “You’re gonna need a card.” Person N says, “if this were a Portlandia episode it would be very funny.” Person Y says, “It isn’t”

f) Person N keeps ramming into people, accidentally, saying “I’ll get it,” and that can apply to Unsuspecting taking out a tissue or reaching for a doorknob. You get the gist. Person Y is always on hand as an innocent bystander who says, “You don’t see that kind of chivalry anymore.”

g) Person N goes up to Unsuspecting in a mall and says, “Did you go to Mettlemont High?”. Person Y is walking by and says, “I just googled that and it’s fake.”

h) Person N walks up to groups of six on a sidewalk, saying, “Can you step to the right? This is part of my reality show. See – there’s our videographer, Seth.” Person Y is holding up a fake video camera, peering into it down yonder. Person N says, “No, not him; that’s just someone doing air video, my real video guy must have ducked into a shop for some chew.”

i) This is great for an art fair. Person N has a bag of lightbulbs, and every once in a while that same Person puts one on the table and smashes it with a hammer. Person Y walks by and says, “You just made me cry. I love that kind of art.”

j) Person N stands somewhere like baggage claim coughing loud into the air without covering his mouth – not with an arm, not with a hand – for at least two minutes. Person Y stands up and says really loud, “Excuse me people! That yucky outburst unsterilizes terribly your otherwise uncontaminated, reusable, pollution free oxygen – contamination kills every time, singlehandedly.” And then Person N yells loudly, “Excuse me people! Do not listen to that other person! He is an insurgent and uses subliminal coercion, hiding messages in the first letters of words he’s hollerin’”

CinnamonGirl Bracelets – Coming to an Arm Party Near You

We love arm parties as much as the next gal, but we’re considering quitting our jobs here at Y&P and slanging CinnamonGirl‘s hippie arm bracelets at music festivals worldwide. These studded and crystal-adorned woven cloth friendship bracelets are handmade in Newport Beach, California. Find  Carly, the artist, on her on Etsy shop: CinnamonGirl’s Etsy Shop.
Peace sign with two hands,
-blanca

CinnamonGirl's studded friendship bracelets join my arm party (left)

CinnamonGirl’s studded friendship bracelets join my arm party (left)

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Crystal quartz & Drusy point pendant on Woven Friendship Bracelet

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Her braided and studded friendship bracelets come in assorted colors and shapes

NVO: Our New Favorite Party Band

NVO: If you like Lotus, The Disco Biscuits, and Phish, you’ll dig this live music experience – Photo by Sam Heller

NVO, our new favorite party band, kicked off their California Spring Break tour last night in LA, and they’re headed up the coast. The San Francisco-based quartet has a sound that is best described as funky, intergalactic panty-dropping party music.

“We started NVO to play our friends’ monthly house party. The party just kept growing, and our friends kept finding bigger spaces to host it. And then the party just got too big to be a house party,” drummer Greg Maximov explained backstage at the Fillmore last April.

NVO has since only gained momentum. They outgrew their monthly party at The Boom Boom Room, and wooed new fans at festivals like High Sierra Music Festival. They’ve supported acts like Lotus and Bernie Worrel, and they’re currently on tour with Conspirator (the side-project of Aron Magner and Marc Brownstein of The Disco Biscuits).

NVO backstage at The Fillmore – Photo by Sam Heller

NVO’s groove lies in their celestial rhetoric and embrace of both digital and analogue sounds. Their drumming attacks, their electric guitar guides, and the MIDIS, sampling, and Kaossilator transport audiences to a dynamic and metagalactic state of jammy flow, something NVO has aptly dubbed “space funk” (aka the untz). Catch NVO in a town near you for a unique San Francisco party treat. See you at The Independent on Friday.

cookoo cachoo in space suits too,
-blanca

NVO Spring Tour 2013
NVO 2013 Spring Tour Dates

03/14/13 Solano Beach, CA Belly-Up Tavern United States
03/15/13 San Francisco, CA The Independent United States
03/16/13 Crystal Bay, NV Crystal Bay Casino United States
03/17/13 Chico, CA Lost on Main United States

Find NVO on SoundcloudFacebook, and Twitter

New Atoms for Peace Video with A+ Dance Moves from Thom York

Atoms for Peace – Ingenue

This morning NPR posted Atoms for Peace’s new music video for “Ingenue”, directed by the same It was directed by Garth Jennings and choreographed by Wayne McGregor, the same team as Radiohead’s “Lotus Flower” video. Who doyu think has better dance moves, David Byrne or Thom York?

Into Psyche Rock? Check out Nashville’s The Sufis

The SufisOne of my top-10 albums in 2012 was The Sufis’ debut self-titled album. This psych/garage rock band hails from Nashville and channels the type-II spaciness of late sixties Pink Floyd and The Velvet Underground. They will take you on an intergalactic journey far out, and then spiral you back down to earth with harmonic vocal melodies reminiscent of The Beatles. Check out their SoundCloud.