Local bastard

“Let me clear my throat.” It’s a cool Chico night, and I stand in the gutter. A pack of nightcrawlers, walking shoulder-to-shoulder toward me has forced me down, again. These ratty, faded Converses offer no resistance, drinking up the mysterious run-off now passing through me. Maybe I’ll park it here in the calendar. Just hide out, tuck rumors and gossip in between the “Falun Gong” and “Men’s Soul Journey” and pick at fresh scabs from my streetside vantage point … or something like that. Not exactly sure yet what shape it’s going to take, just know that sharing will make it better. So, if you know stuff, contact your Local Bastard and dish. Send e-mails to noise@newsreview.com or leave a message at 894-2300, ext. 2243.

Hurrah! Chico’s No. 10 now! The guy who said Chico was one of America’s top 100 arts towns (John Villani, in The 100 Best Art Towns in America), now says we’ve made it into the top 10. Well, kind of. If you divide the top 100 according to population, we’re No. 10 in towns with a population between 30,000 and 100,000. Santa Fe (where Villani lives) is No. 1.

I don’t know about anyone else, but this stuff doesn’t do it for me. I know that groups like the Chico Chamber of Commerce, the City of Chico, the Chico Arts Commission and the Friends of the Arts are all excited about it and are probably right when they see this as the kind of thing that can boost the arts as an economic factor in town, but I don’t know. … Glass blowing? Wall murals? “Giant Hands"? I doubt many local artists—the ones making, playing and acting—identify all that much with the tourist-guide fare.

Give me Botchii any day. Our own insane experimental noise duo is currently sharing its destruction with Japan (Botchii message on the www.chicolist.com message board: “…last night was the best show that we’ve ever had. … the audience was chanting ‘U-na-gi!’ as well as ‘Jennifer Lo-pez!’ Plus I lost some teeth attempting to swallow a microphone.”). Before Botchii fled east, Paradise Lost Video hosted a going-away screening of lead Botchii Tom Skowronski’s re-edited version of his band documentary, Tom’s Life Sucks. Tucked in all cozy in the back room (just past the porn curtain), a dozen or so other smelly, nerdy Chico rock dudes and I had the pleasure of witnessing the unveiling of the impressively schizoid, loud and thrilling video, which was also make-me-cry-and-get-all-red-faced giggly-hilarious—especially the “I’m a watermelon” rap video, filmed on location in front of the Wal-Mart sign.

Next week: Local Bastard vs. Chico rockers.

To do:

• Four at Fulcrum: Muff’n (Fri.), Americas/Cabrini Green (Sat.), Wow & Flutter/Sleepyhead (Sun.), West By Swan/Aubrey Debauchery/Boy Tiger (Tues.)

• DNA’s Memoirs of the Messiah: A 98% True Story book-release party (Sun., 6pm, Lyon Books)

• Madcat Film Festival’s “The Experimentalists,” avant-garde 16mm films (Tues., 7pm, Ayres 106, Chico State.

• Caitlin Schwerin’s little painted squares at the Upper Crust

To burn:

• “The Rest Will Follow,” And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

• “You’re Fit,” The Streets

• Def Jim Recordings, Year in Review, 2004 (remixes and mash-ups by local teacher and drummer Jim Rizutto), contact jim_heem@yahoo.com.

Two more:

• www.kinja.com: your blog garage

• The Hole (www.cp-tel.net/pasqualy/hole/index.html): it’s so cold …