Luscious on the Air!

It's the holiday season & that means I'm subbing many many shows on KALX here in Berkeley, in addition to DJing my regular Tuesday morning show from 6-9am. Tune in live either via 90.7FM or on-line at http://kalx.berkeley.edu.

The site streams all shows live, and you can see the last 24 hours of songs on the site anytime. Click on the link to the right to see all of my playlists.

Tues 12/23 6-9am
Wed 12/24 noon-3pm (my annual celebration of Joe Strummer!)
Fri 12/26 9am-noon
Sat 12/27 3pm-5:30pm
Mon 12/29 noon-3pm
Tues 12/20 6-9am
Wed 12/31 noon-3pm
Fri 1/2 3pm-6pm
(all times Pacific Standard Time)

P.S.- As always, these shows are holiday-free zones- that means NO x-mas, hannukah, or kwanza tunes! Rock the radness!

Tonight in ice hockey

Going into tonight's game we're in 1st place by 2 points (5-1-2). I had a shutout last week, so my overall GAA is 1.71 (12 goals in 7 games). Tonight we're playing one of the teams tied for 2nd place, so it ought to be a good one. Afterwards, BBQ!

For the games that we have specific stats for:
109 shots, 9 goals 1.50 GAA 0.917 Save %

Hockey bits & pieces

In our Bronze ice hockey team, I'm 3-1-2 (3 wins, 1 loss, 2 ties). Not all of the games had shots kept track of, but the goals against average is 2.00 (12 goals in 6 games).

Counting the games that were shot totals kept, I've got a 90.6% save percentage. Decent, but I did better last season. There's more than 1/2 the season left, so there's time to get more shutouts (1 so far this year).

I really love playing ice hockey, even when we lose!

Right now our team is tied for 1st in the league. We just lost 2-0 in the final minutes last night to the other 1st place team. It was our 1st loss of the season (we're 4-1-2).

EDIT: Just realized that I didn't mention that last season (see the 8/11/08 post below) our ice hockey team won the championship for the first time since I've been playing on the team (2+ years, I think? At least 4 or 5 seasons- one in summer & one in winter). It was a great night!

In BASH (Bay Area Street Hockey), the Saturday S.F. league I play in, I play out & am currently the backup goalie. After too many years, I finally scored my first goal on Saturday. Then, our goalie was injured during the game so I had to rush & put on the pads & play the last few minutes of the game. I got the win too!

More votes...

Thanks to Slate Mate Igor, I now know our vote totals are increasing as more of the huge backlog of absentee ballots are being counted.


NP - Nicole Drake 23447 18.24
NP - Igor Tregub 23240 18.08
NP - Judy E. Shelton 22702 17.66
NP - Jack Harrison 20111 15.65
NP - Jesse Townley 17381 13.52

Yay us!

Hello RENT BOARD! Hello KALX!

*** Our Rent Board Slate Won!
*** Jesse Luscious back on KALX!


*** Our Rent Board Slate Won!

Thank you for all of your good wishes, volunteer hours, and donations to the Progressive Rent Board slate! It paid off as the 5 of us were handily elected to the Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board. We will be sworn into office in early December.

#/votes %/votes
Nicole Drake 19256 18.13
Igor Tregub 19138 18.02
Judy E. Shelton 18691 17.59
Jack Harrison 16660 15.68
Jesse Townley 14170 13.34

The local election results mostly hewed to my endorsements, which was a pleasant (& rare!) surprise. The only close Berkeley race that so far isn't going my way is the hard fought District 5 race between Sophie Hahn (yay!) and Councilmember Laurie Capitelli.

With 6,660 ballots counted (absentee & provisional ballots are still being counted) Capitelli has a 400 vote lead. In 2004, 7,700 people voted on this race, and with this year's record turnout the vote total could easily go above 8,000. That said, 400 votes will be tough to make up for Sophie. Regardless of the outcome, she's happy that her supporters proved that there is much more diversity in opinion in our district than previously thought.

Like anyone with half a brain, I'm extremely relieved that McCain/Palin did not win the Presidency. I'm guardedly optimistic about Obama/Biden. The giddiness & joy that swept the streets Tuesday night was intoxicating. We watched the crowd outside of the Guerilla Cafe break into a spontaneous singing of "The Star Spangled Banner" after the night's hip-hop djs finished their set. People were blocking the streets in joy, not in anger or frustration.

Speaking of frustration- with all the good news locally (Jesse Arreguin in District 4!), state-wide, and nationally, one measure- Proposition 8- reminds us that we still have a fair ways to travel until we get to a truly just society. Updates on fighting for equal treatment under the law can be found here http://www.noonprop8.com/ and here http://www.aclunc.org/


*** Jesse Luscious back on KALX!

That's right, I'm back on the air as DJ Jesse Luscious, every Tuesday morning 6-9am, on KALX, 90.7 FM & streamed live at http://kalx.berkeley.edu The 1st show is Veteran's Day so tune in for at least a set or 2 of relevant tuneage.

Thanks to everyone who donated during our recent annual fundraiser- you truly ROCK! If you missed the programming, no worries. You can donate here:
http://givetocal.berkeley.edu/browse/?u=KALX%20Radio

Rent Board fundraiser! Jello Biafra @ 924 Gilman

Vale from Re/SEARCH will be interviewing punk & political icon Jello Biafra about "Punk, Presidential Politics, and Art." It's at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, $7-$10 sliding scale, Thursday October 2nd. Begins at 7pm & will end by 10pm, all ages.

This will be a great, funny, & informative night!

http://berkeleyrentboard.org
http://www.924gilman.org
http://www.researchpubs.com
http://www.alternativetentacles.com/bandinfo.php?band=jello

Jesse For Rent Board, plus Drake, Harrison, Shelton, & Tregub!

Thanks to everyone who came out for the rent board convention last week & supported me for the rent board slate.

I'm happy & looking forward to campaigning with the other 4 rent board progressive slate candidates: Nicole Drake, Jack Harrison, Judy Shelton, and Igor Tregub. More info soon on how to pitch in & help elect a solid, diverse slate of candidates to the Rent Board here in Berkeley.

Until then, thanks!

End of season ice stats

Jesse Townley	Gulag	14	490	21	1.50	0.957
Victoria Remler	Arctic Blast	9	325	14	1.56	0.957
Steven Nordhavn	Holey Whales	12	420	29	2.42	0.931

Jason Moy	Kwijibo	9	316	29	3.22	0.908
william yeung	OFD/SFFD	13	478	55	4.23	0.885

[that's name, team, games played, shots, goals against, goals against average (per game), save %]

This is how this season's Bronze ice season ended. Above are the top 5 goalies with 9+ games (out of 16 total). My stats include 2 games (both losses) I didn't play, so they're actually better- it's not a big deal but it'd be nice to know what I've done this season in order to improve next season. My actual record was 9-0-3.

Tonight's game verus the Holey Whales ended in a 1-1 tie in a game that didn't make a difference in the standings- the 2nd draw between the 2 teams this season. Next weekend, it's playoff time.

Here are the end-of-season standings:

Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	PTS
Arctic Blast	15	13	2	0	0	26
Gulag	16	9	4	3	0	21
OFD/SFFD	15	7	6	2	0	16
Holey Whales	16	6	7	3	0	15
Kwijibo	16	3	9	4	0	10
Gang Green	16	2	12	2	0	6

So yeah, we (Gulag) did well. One of our women started filling in at goalie this season (she lost 2, 7-8 & 6-2, but did a lot better in the 2nd game as she got the hang of it).

Today's McDonald's protest

Stopped by the downtown McDonald's protest early (around 11am) & was happy to see one of the fired workers, her brother, Michael Delacour, and some other people already there holding up signs & passing out information.

I had to split for work around 11:15 or so, but if you showed up later let us know how it went! Seemed like a good early turnout for mid-day on a weekday since I was there before the announced starting time of 11:30!

P.S.- Here's the information about Dona Spring's public memorial service on Sunday August 10th.

The memorial for Dona Spring will be held
Sunday AUGUST 10th; 2-4 p.m.
at MLK JR Civic Center Park, by Berkeley City Hall;
followed by a reception 4 to 8 p.m. at
North Berkeley Senior Center, Hearst and MLK Jr Way.

Dona was an incredible human being and a great leader for Berkeley and
beyond. We will have a videographer present at the reception to record
YOUR remembrances of Dona.
If you have suggestions please call 548-8796. T

Jesse For Rent Board!

I need your help!

The Rent Board Convention- happening Sunday August 3, 4pm in Berkeley- will choose 5 candidates for the 5 open seats. This Rent Board slate has been the winning slate for the past several elections and has ensured that the Rent Board has protected tenants during the housing bubble as much as legally possible. It's also begun work on dealing with the foreclosure crisis as it relates to rental properties.

There are 13 people competing for the 5 seats- including myself. I will be honored to run for Rent Board if the Convention chooses me- but I will not run if it chooses other candidates. Since the slate is progressive & has been filled with common sense candidates, I'm not willing to distract from the slate's success by running an independent campaign.

I need you- Berkeley resident & Jesse Townley supporter- to attend this Sunday's convention at 4 PM at the North Berkeley Senior Center at 1901 Hearst (c/s MLK Jr. Way, 2 blocks from University Ave). It's open to all & accessible. A donation of $3-10 is requested to cover the cost of the room. Please vote for me - and every other candidate you prefer!

Berkeley Rent Board http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/DepartmentHome.aspx?id=9546

What do I stand for? Here's part of the questionnaire I submitted to the Convention's selection committee:

Q: Tell us about three or more issues that you consider important to tenants in Berkeley.

1. Providing comprehensive disaster preparedness & planning for apartment dwellers. Residents of single family homes are easier to contact, so our overworked & understaffed Office of Emergency Services has not been able to do anywhere near as much effective outreach to tenants of apartment buildings.

2. Ensuring affordable housing that’s actually affordable to residents and potential residents who are earning at or close to minimum wage. The further service employees have to travel to work, the more environmental damage is done to our planet, plus intelligent zoning of appropriate projects in existing neighborhoods will ensure economic & ethnic diversity.

3. Expanding environmental programs in cooperation with property owners & tenants- from solar power to composting to recycling- will ensure a healthier future for all.

4. Ensuring that the upcoming Mitigation piece of the Soft Story Ordinance results in structurally safer buildings for tenants while controlling the costs for both property owners & tenants. Also, ensuring that rental properties with less than 5 units are covered by this or subsequent legislation will lessen the amount of death and dismemberment after the next major earthquake.

5. Identifying non-property tax sources for City revenue. This will increase city funds for city programs benefiting tenants and property owners alike, since there will be less cause for anti-tax groups like BASTA to campaign against necessary revenue programs.

There's a lot more in the questionnaire- maybe I'll post more of it later? Let me know if you want to read more, thanks!

Hear me babble!

When I was back east a couple weeks ago, I made time to stop in Jersey City to meet up with Ronen Kaufman. Ronen produces & hosts the Issue Oriented podcast series. (A buddy describes him as the James Lipton of the punk podcast world) We did a 90 minute interview which he (thankfully) edited down by at least a third. We spoke about everything from how local politics is like starting a pit to how to tie art to real life and much more.

Also on the program is Brian Cook of These Arms Are Snakes, Botch, Russian Circles, talking about balancing art with business, punk versus metal and more.

The always-interesting Issue Oriented series has interviewed musicians like the Clash's Mick Jones & Operation Ivy's Jesse Michaels to punk porno star Joanna Angel & punknews.org founder Aubin Paul. The segments are in-depth & never lapse into stereotypical questions like "what are your influences?" Dig in!

Brian Cook/Jesse Luscious podcast:
http://issueoriented.com/wordpress/?p=27
Issue Oriented site
http://www.issueoriented.com/
(You can also subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, Google, AOL, PodNova, Odeo, etc)

Dona Spring RIP

Dona was my political mentor. She was quite supportive & helpful when I was curious about getting involved with local politics and was one of the "good guys." She always stood up for what's right, even when she was in the minority.

Thoughtful, savvy, and caring- that's Dona. She'll be missed.

Jesse


From Lindsay, director of the documentary mentioned below:
Dona Spring, died at 6:30 pm on July 13, 2008 at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, CA. She was still serving on the Berkeley City Council when she died and is the longest elected Green in the United States ( 16 years).

A memorial event and biography will posted in the next month or two.
http://DonaSpring.com

A 70 minute film of her life completed in July of 2007, will be shown on July 18, 2008 see below for details.

Film -- Dona Spring, Courage in Life and Politics - film and discussion
Unitarian Church
Cedar and Bonita
North Berkeley
-- Dona Spring, Courage in Life and Politics --

The film, completed in July of 2007, is about Dona Spring sometimes called the "Conscience of Berkeley", who also happens to be the longest elected green party member in the United States (over 16 years on the City Council of Berkeley).

Among many others, the film shows Dona on TV shows, such as, Oprah Winfrey, Bill O'Reilly and CNN debating the worst elements of the status-quo. Also, Dona is shown with Ralph Nader, Al Gore and Barbara Lee and many local activists.

Dona has been the best vote on the council for environmentalists, peace activists, safe food activists, animal protection advocates and disabled advocates.

The film is 70 minutes and free or a small donation for those who can afford it, at the Unitarian Church at Cedar and Bonita in Berkeley. 7 PM opening remarks and 7:30 PM film showing, Dr. Michael Parenti, author and Berkeley activist will make some remarks before or after the film.

For more information contact:
LDP@igc.org

Tie & Jello 5-0

Last night's ice game was a battle to a 1-1 tie after 60 minutes & a 5 minute sudden death OT. Too bad there's no shootouts in our league, that'd been pretty awesome. I did pretty well, stopped a breakaway by the other team's best player literally in the last 5 seconds of OT.

Their goal came by a surprise to me- which I should've reacted better to but, well, didn't. My favorite Belorussian defenseman was coming back for a puck & didn't realize the other team's OTHER best player was a couple of strides behind him. We all thought he knew & was just playing it off- but the guy lifted it off of his stick about 20 feet in front of me & came around the front of the net, waited for me to go down, and put in the far side. Lazy play by me, I was still in shock. Very annoying.

Besides that, it was a satisfying game. I did my job & turned away flurry after flurry of shots, and a few breakaways. One of our old D, Dan, subbed for us, which is always fun. Plus Harlen, our speedy scorer from 2 years ago is back in town for the summer & will be able to play the rest of the season.

Enough of that, I've got 2 days of Jello 5-0 to handle- that's Jello's 50th Birthday shows @ the Great American Music Hall, tonight & tomorrow. It'll be fun, hectic, and a lot of work. I don't expect to be anything but mentally exhausted by the time I get home tonight- er, Tuesday morning. Rrrrrock!

Give Em The Lumber zine- hockey & punk!

One of the semi-regular writing gigs I've got going on is for Give Em The Lumber, a hockey-related zine done by Chris Dunlap, winger for an ice hockey team called Kwijybo & writer for the NOBOSS (Network of Bay Area Collectives) newsletter. It's a fun zine, even if you can't really find it anywhere besides local zine stores like Needles & Pens and the occasional ice hockey game @ Oakland Ice.

For GETL #2, I retrofitted my 2007 Loud Fast Rules magazine column about sports in punk music to focus solely on hockey content in punk & oi. I totally forgot about the Atom & His Package song "What Do You Do If You Weigh 1500 Pounds? You Play Goalie"- whoops! Anyway, here's the column:

PUCK ROCK RULES OK!

Crossover between The Jocks ™ and The Punx ™ is a lot more common then you’d think. Most of the crossover comes in the more macho subgenre of oi music, since many of those bands came out of working class Britain and were fanatical soccer- er, football- fans. In terms of punk bands- not oi bands- doing sports songs, the attitudes of most punk bands from the 70s through the 90s was anti-sports (see classics like the Dead Kennedys “Jock-O-Rama.”). Despite the anti-sports attitude of most US punk bands from the late 1970s onwards, the seeds for hockey to meet up with punk in North America was already sown with the release of 1977’s hockey movie “Slapshot” starring Paul Newman.

Most obviously, the thuggish Boston band Slapshot toured starting in the 1980s with hockey sticks they brandished on stage, although they generally stayed away from writing hockey-specific songs. Their logos have included a broken goalie mask and an altered Boston Bruins logo, and much of their art and album titles have hockey references. Much later, 2 punk bands from the Northeast dropped the gloves lyrically: The Zambonis and Two Man Advantage. Personally, I like the Zambonis better- after all, they have a song that uses the Zamboni as a metaphor for love! They also cover the classic Stompin Tom Connors song “The Hockey Song” (Stompin Tom is the Johnny Cash of Canada). Two Man Advantage are harder and punkier. The Zambonis, like many of the other bands mentioned here, have played at hockey games both for charity and for profit.

Getting back to “Slapshot” the movie, I’ve gotta assume that if you’re reading this, you’re familiar with the 3 Hanson brothers, but just in case let me describe them. Totally nerdy (complete with thick taped-up glasses), the Hanson brothers are completely geeky and childish off-ice, but on-ice are complete goons who kick ass. In one unforgettable scene, they instigate a huge brawl before the game even starts! Personally, I think the attractiveness of the Hanson Brothers for the punx is summed up by these lyrics by The Freeze from their classic song “Broken Bones,” after the narrator is beaten up by rednecks at a party:

The broken bones begin to mend and the bruises slowly fade.
I feel perversely satisfied with the friends I haven’t made.
I’ve since taken up karate and I’ve bought myself a gun.
Next time they want to beat up a punk I’m going to have myself some fun!

There’s a band called The Hanson Brothers who rock, they’re a Ramones-style side project of Canadian legends Nomeansno. With 3 partially-themed hockey records under their belt, they are one of the most prolific sports-themed punk bands in terms of sheer number of songs about a particular sport. (Like The Zambonis, they also cover Stompin Tom’s “Hockey Song”) Live, they wear hockey equipment and the art combines Ramones-style graphics and ice hockey.

Staying in the great white north, it’d be criminal for me not to mention another long-running Canadian punk band- DOA. Like soccer and the British oi scene, hockey seems to permeate the culture enough that there’s not even a need to have a lot of songs specifically about the sport. DOA sold DOA hockey jerseys for years before putting out any tunes that were actually about hockey. The first one may have been 2000’s “Give ‘Em The Lumber” from their ‘Festival of Atheists’ release. Another long-running Vancouver band, The Smugglers, have their own ice hockey team which plays in an annual ice hockey tournament against other Canadian underground bands in Toronto.

The Hanson Brothers are also the organizers of the Puck Rock compilation series which came out in 1994 and 2000, and featured hockey songs from bands from both the US and Canada, including The Hanson Brothers, DOA, SNFU, Muscle Bitches, Huevos Rancheros, The Riverdales (aka the Screeching Weasel Ramones side project), Pansy Division, The Smugglers, and a cover of wrestler Freddie Blassie’s “Pencil Necked Geek” by DOA leader Joey Shithead with Canadian indie popsters Cub. Pansy Division- the famous homocore band from San Francisco- mention hockey in both their ode to the mullet “Hockey Hair” and their ode to Canadian beefcake “Manada”!

Heading into the late 1990s and back south of the Canuckistan border to Beantown, this next band probably needs no introduction to fans of current punk rock or oi. The Dropkick Murphys have done baseball (“Tessie”), boxing (“Warrior’s Code”), and hockey (“Time To Go”). They’ve used Boston Bruins soundclips as far back as the 1997 version “Caps And Bottles.” Their song “Nutty” is the Boston Bruins theme song, and they’ve played during and after Bruins games and done charity work for the team.

Speaking of punk or oi songs that are officially sanctioned by a major league team, the last on my list is The Boils, from Philadelphia. The Flyers heard the band’s ode to the team, “(Broad Street) Bullies,” and asked them to write a new anthem for the team. That became the title track of their new 2007 cdep on TKO Records, “The Orange and The Black.” Now, the band is playing at Flyers games in addition to their regular shows.

This is a short look at hockey and the punk rock, but these are the most prolific and talented hockey-loving weirdoes. I’m sure I’ve missed some bands, but hockey seems to be one of the only sports that punk & indie bands write a lot of songs about. Oddly enough (or maybe not so oddly since these others are SO mainstream) more popular sports in the US like American football, baseball, and basketball have little or no representation in the scene.

- Jesse Luscious, goalie

P.S.- Don’t be fooled: the Minnesota indie band Hockey Night has absolutely zero songs about hockey. What a waste of a name!

Goalie stats

One of the reasons I'm assembling this blog is to keep my stats straight for my various hockey teams & leagues. I'm a hockey goalie that plays ice, roller, & street hockey around the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the leagues have stats, but most are not super accurate or have mistakes entered that never get fixed.

It's nice to be able to track how I'm doing & see where/how I can improve, so please excuse the hockey stat posts. If I can keep them private on here somehow, I will.

Is this thing on?

Mish mash- that's the plan for this blog.

Questions? Me too. Okay, more later!