Margrit & Margaret

Thursday, August 5
Picture this: I write a blog about how I undertake a mission to cook all the recipes in Margaret Cho's cookbook...no wait...wrong universe.

OK. Picture this instead--since this DID happen:
International Pop Overthrow Festival at the Echoplex in Echo Park in Los Angeles! IPO is indie-music tastemaker, David Bash’s baby—and his baby is now a teenager, this is the 13th year (time for a bar-mitzvah) that he’s been traveling to and from NYC, Liverpool, Seattle, Los Angeles (among other locations ) creating scores of super lineups of indie-power-pop joy. We are proud to be part of such a cool institution—in fact this year we are on the IPO compilation CD. Hence, if you go to any of the shows you can pick up a copy and you’ll get our song, “SYLLABLE” for free (and 65 other cool tunes by bands you will be psyched to know about).

We are up first tonight, so when we get to the Echoplex we just carry our gear right up to the stage and set it up and check it. Done and done. We get swag on the merch-table, Done and done. It’s still over an hour before our set, so we repair to TWO BOOTS pizza next door. I always get a TWO BOOTS slice when I’m in the Village in NYC; I had no idea they had expanded to LA. I say: YUM! We are all pretty much ravenous, but we only get a single slice—for now. There are many items on the menu we want to experience, but I for one, must not be too terribly full whilst rocking. But after the show—I intend to eat the face off of a calzone (as Christina Kowalchuk would say).

We go back downstairs to the club and in walks Gary’s friend, the clever funnyman, Jim Earl (of the Clutter Family--oh, and Gary just mastered their CD). Jim is accompanied by his friend--the brilliant, hip, and fabulous Margaret Cho--ooh! How cool! We try not to say anything too ridiculous to her, since we are such total fans of all her work.

And then it’s time for us to rock! We explode into “500 Years” and it’s super fun to play on such a big ol’ stage. We burn through our set in what seems like nanoseconds (but it’s actually our allotted 25 minutes), and then it’s time to take a bow and carry off my piano.

We sell and sign some CDs, and chat with Jim Earl and Margaret Cho, who give us warm and fuzzy feedback--especially Margaret, who says many enthusiastic and encouraging words about our music, genre, and our performance thereof--and this, I must say, my friends, is most inspiring and thrilling indeed. She tells me she is working on her music these days ---which is supercool--and that she has a keytar...(Ok this link is a crazy one with Rick and Adam Wakeman--just saying). Margaret informs me that the old keytars from the 80's are "bullshit" but the new ones are great--this is a good tip and when I (inevitably) can't resist the urge any longer, and go ahead and acquire my very own personal keytar, I will be forewarned and forearmed. She and Jim then take off to fulfill their quest for pie. Mmm, pie.

The next band starts up: The Shebangs! We just played with them in SF in January at El Rio. Now here we are on this massive stage. They have an awesome set, followed by Steve Barton –who also plays a superb set. WOW! And hey--we are everywhere that Steve is (well, twice in 24 hours--as will be related in the next blog). This is a damned good show of which we are proud participants.

At this point our returning hunger makes our interest in music become detached and visions of TWO BOOTS pizza draws us back for more of the fine fare. We go order and split a chicken parmesan sandwich and a saprasetta mushroom and artichoke calzone—it is pretty delish. As we munch our second dinner we look around. Wow. Everyone looks famous— for example, I keep thinking the guy across from our table with the pepperoni slice looks like a guy from Star Trek New Generation...right?

And now, because pie was invoked during the course of the evening, we go now in search of dessert. We end up only a few doors down at Masa. We are ALMOST turned away, but once the owner is assured we will take something sweet to go, he personally sets us up with bread pudding and carrot cake. He tells us that if we don’t like the bread pudding we can come back & get our money back. He is very confident. He informs us that it’s actually croissant pudding—specifically, it’s made with chocolate and almond croissants. Good LORD!

When we get the treats back to Lynn’s house and try them, there is much rejoicing-especially over the bread pudding. AMAZING! It is should have a star on Hollywood Boulevard. I just know it's Margaret Cho's recipe--and I know, I just know she can cook it while singing and playing her keytar!

With these comforting visions dancing in my head--and eggs, sugar, butter, chocolate, and marzipan pirouetting in my belly, I slumber sweetly.