2003 Canyon Dr.
October 2016. Move into craftsmand house in beachwood canyon. Pool house with "" door, brick floor, exposed wooden panels and a cast iron stove. two avocado trees, a wooden fence, patio seating, strung lights, pool, jacuzzi, I lived in one of the 2 rooms. Aurelie Saada and her two daughters Shalom and Scarlett. French tunisian Jewish goddess. A true gypsy, vintage clothes, bright patterns, red lipstick dancing around the house. I was libing in a dream surrounded by beautiful strong woman who all loved eachother! I felt at home comforted by homemade challah. Dinner parties were a constamt, flowing wine, piano playing. We had all sorts of house guests, darft punk, lily-depp rose- soko, etc..
STRFKR
STARFUCKER or STRFKR is; Joshua Hodges aka Sexton Blake (vocals, keyboards, guitar, drums), Shawn Glassford (bass, keyboards, drums), aKeil Corcoran (drums, keyboards, vocals). With four studio albums, their discography paints a fantastic and melodic world. A trancey realm of Science fiction fantasy where insightful philosophy alludes to desire and concludes to dance.
I sit in a padded beige leather booth while Josh Hodges sits across from me in the Starfucker tour bus parked around the corner from the venue. He snacks on British tea cookies in his pink tunic and we start to talk politics, music, and art.
I congratulate Hodges on the band's release of another great album! Being No One, Going Nowhere, leads listeners through an array of synthy sophistication and self enlightenment. Almost ten years after the band's first self titled release, Starfucker continues to narrate a dreamy, psychedelic landscape. Hodges explains:
“It feels good to finish this album because it took so long. I started a bunch of different projects thinking it would be the next starfucker album but then I kept getting frustrated and stopping. I knew it needed it to be something else. I still want to finish all of those others projects now that the album’s done but it feels good to have finally of found the sound I was looking for. I wanted the album to be more dancey and geared towards our live show.”
“There is another self, more really "us" than "I". And if you become aware of that unknown self - the more you become aware of it - the more you realize that it is inseparably connected with everything else that there is. That you are a function of this total galaxy, bounded by the Milky Way, and that furthermore this galaxy is a function of all other galaxies. And that vast thing that you see far off, far off, far off with telescopes, you look, and look, and look. One day you'll go and wake up and say, "Why, that's me!". And in knowing that know, you see that you'll never die.” Alan Watts
I started listening to starfucker because of the intriguing album art. Good album art almost always leads to good music. So far my theory has never lead me astray. Their first album featured an Iconic rainbow pyramid, now tattooed onto many fans. Reptilians, their second album cover is an anime esq illustration with two unknown characters in the foreground. The background image consist of pink pterodactyls, a palm mountain emerging from a sea in a prodigiously serene landscape. Their third album Miracle Mile, is covered by a lush bundle of roses overlaying the band membersprofiles. Being no one going nowhere, features a beautiful collage of cool tones looking through interstellar Windows and an artist painting a canvas. Josh revealed, “This Album art Shawn glassford picked out. It’s a collage of images put together by, Mariano Peccinetti, http://trasvorder.tumblr.com/archive Some of Mario’s other images were contestants for the cover image but they picked this particular image because it fit the album best. The previous Starfucker albums were all designed by the same artist, Sohale Kevin Darouian, http://sohaledesign.com a graphic designer from Portland whom josh stumbled upon a few years back.” Google both artists or click the links above to see more of their work.
Obviously curious, I asked Hodges, “what are you listening to.” He munches on his cookies with his legs crossed, ponders for a minute and then responds with, “Mostly Podcasts like, frooties groovies 4 track from san fran, some Avant mellow jazz instrumentals, Andy Shauf, https://andyshauf.bandcamp.com/album/the-party, Christopher ryan, http://chrisryanphd.com”
Have you had any crazy things happen over at your dessert studio?
“No but it’s near a military base and heard bombing once”
But still
No alien sightings…
yet.
Returning to the west.
My time in the east has passed. A new season awaits. Palm trees, cacti, and all my roses. Its been 5 long years of self discovery. A naive eighteen year old, uncertain, sheltered. Now twenty-two. college educated, aged by the east coast mentality. I know how to live by myself., independent, wanderer, and artist. Going back to the west to begin my career as a photographer.
Ode to Philadelphia
oh man. There is no city quite like you. Dirty, rough, and rambuctious. Spirit of the blue collar man. Trapped in a basement with only beer to drink and punk music to dance. Philly is stuck in the 1980's, coin tokens, post-industrial. An endless collection of characters. Living in south philadelphia on Broad and Ellsworth. three story brick home and a roof deck. Lived with caleb rochester and adam pediitto. Caleb was an ex-punk, recovering addict and avid furniture collector. I worked as a hostess for a mexican restuarant that also functioned as a speak easy. Weekends I was the door girl for the speak easy, collecting bribes and telling patrons we had no room for them.
