San Diego could once lay claim to Grammy-winning violinist and composer Mark O'Connor.  He lived in Vista on an avocado farm, having left Nashville and a demanding schedule as a studio musician.   O'Connor composed Vistas while there, inspired by the landscape around him.  It seems inspiration is everywhere for O'Connor, but especially in the mountains and hollows of Appalachia.  His album Appalachian Journey, on which he collaborated with Yo-Yo Ma and Edgar Meyer, was a critical and popular success.  Their effort led to O'Connor's Appalachia Waltz Trio, a chamber group that includes Mike Block on cello and Gillian Gallagher on viola.

For the last three years, O'Connor has been living in New York City, but San Diego is still home to his string camp, which takes place each summer at Point Loma.  O'Connor and his Appalachia Waltz Trio performed on These Days and O'Connor talked about his passion for teaching and mentoring young musicians, his own mentors, like Stephane Grappelli and Benny Thomasson, and how he fuses his interests in roots, jazz, and classical music.  Watching O'Connor play is really something -- kind of other-worldly.  His skill and craft boggle the mind.  You can see O'Connor and the Appalacian Waltz Trio this Saturday night at the Birch North Park Theater. 

I am now in the midst of acclimating to the world again.  I'm going slowly, hoping to not get the bends as I move from Comic-Con submersion to street-level life.   Culturally, I'm moving from this:

To this:

I know the dust bunnies have been building around Culture Lust.  I've been mad busy coordinating the coverage for our Comic-Con blog. Check it out - I'm so proud of the work we've done so far, with few resources and a lot of enthusiasm.  We'll be covering all four days of the convention with video, photography, blogging, and tweeting.  Our team includes smart people tasked with finding out the latest in video games, tv, film, collectibles, graphic novels and comics. 

I'm trying to get an interview with Michael C. Hall, aka Dexter, and I'll be going to the Dexter panel.  I'm also planning on going to the HBO panel for Alan Ball's new drama True Blood, The Black Panel, and the steampunk gathering (fascinated!).  Jeff Soto will be signing copies of his latest Murphy designed art book on Saturday so I hope to see him as well.  I love his work.  Of course, I plan to take a lot of photos of the costumes and crowd - always a treat.  So, the dust bunnies may accumulate as I spend time working on the Comic-Con blog.  Follow me over there - you'll have a blast.

My friend Ed (thanks!) sent me this the other day... "in the spirit of Comic-Con."  It's a real Craigs List ad... hilarious!  I assume I have some proper nemeses in my readership who could use $350.

Nemesis required. 6-month project with possibilty to extend

Date: 2008-05-07, 2:49PM PDT

I've been trying to think of ways to spice up my life. I'm 35 years old, happily married with two kids and I have a good job in insurance. But somethings missing. I feel like I'm old before my time. I need to inject some excitement into my daily routine through my arm before its too late. I need a challenge, something to get the adrenaline pumping again. An addiction would be nice, but, in short, I need a nemesis. I'm willing to pay $350 up front for you services as an arch enemy over the next six months. Nothing crazy. Steal my parking space, knock my coffee over, trip me when Im running to catch the BART and occasionaly whisper in my ear, "Ahha, we meet again". That kind of thing. Just keep me on my toes. Complacency will be the death of me. You need to have an evil streak and be blessed with innate guile and cunning. You should also be adept at inconsicuous pursuit. Evil laugh preferred. Send me a photo and a brief explanation why you would be a good nemesis.

British accent preferred.

it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Compensation: $350 up front

Death metal isn't really my thing.  It's all distorted guitars and growls and physical aggression about darkness and nihilism.  But I think it doesn't work for me from an aesthetic standpoint.  I've come to understand the impulse - it shares a lot with punk music's drive towards anarchy.   Nihilism is easier for me to stomach in film and books.  It's less intense and single-minded when packaged with a narrative and character.  But in music, the darkness and anarchic streak is so visceral and immediate.  I can't imagine kicking around the house, blasting some death metal.  If there's an apocalypse and somehow I'm the only one left alive - me and my dog - walking through the rubble and debris shellshocked while scrounging for food and dog biscuits in torn clothing, then I could see pining for a little death metal to soundtrack my life.

Who knew I would find it comforting to learn death metal and heavy metal music are popular in the Middle East?  I like being reminded that youth culture everywhere, even under repressive regimes, is still challenging authority and creating subcultures and underground trends.  I produced a show on These Days on the topic of alternative music in Musliim countries, inspired by Mark LeVine's book Heavy Metal Islam.  LeVine is a musician and professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of California-Irvine.  He spent five years traveling through countries like Morocco, Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia observing the heavy metal (and its subgenres), hip-hop, and punk scenes to learn how these art forms play out in the context of religious fundamentalism and repressive governments.   LeVine was our guest and a fantastic interview.  He's gone to places few of us have gone and paid attention to something usually ignored by the West - and he knows hwo to tell a story.  When he and I talked, he told me that in Iran, you see kids on street corners rhyming, playing beats off their cell phones and staging mini battles.  When the police drive by, they disperse, running in different directions as if they were selling drugs or something.  Just like in the poor urban centers of the US, hip-hop is still the most affordable way to be a musician. 

Check out Mark's book, it's an engaging read.  Also, go here to hear some of the music Mark listened to while writing the book.  It's a great resource for what's happening in music in the Middle East.  

And, in support of metalheads everywhere, especially Islamic style, here's a video from the Iranian death metal band Arthimoth.  The song is "Baptized."  The lead singer was jailed for making this video.  This is probably the only time you'll find a death metal video on Culture Lust, unless there's an apocalypse, in which case, I might be too busy to blog. 

The biggest pop culture convention in the world is only 22 days away! Comic-Con International happens right here in our sunny backyard and KPBS is gearing up for some great coverage.  We'll inlcude videos of some of the panels, and cover television, gaming, comic books, graphic novels, artists, movies, and toys...all those wonderful toys!  One of the things that we'd like to do is follow someone through the process of designing and creating a costume for the annual Masquerade. If you live in San Diego and plan to enter the Masquerade, please contact us! (um, have you noticed that Comic-Con brings out the exclamation points in me?)

We are looking for a talented, creative individual who's willing to let KPBS record their costume journey. Ideally, this person will be competing in the Best Original Design or Most Beautiful category, but we'll consider anyone with an ambitious costume and a good story to tell. If you have any questions or would like to be considered as the subject for our Masquerade web feature and video, please email me at . 

We had a great hour of music on These Days this week.  Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet played in studio for the entire hour.  The quartet's all-star line-up includes banjo virtuoso Béla Fleck, Ben Sollee on cello, Casey Driessen on fiddle, and Washburn on vocals and banjo.  The band was a little punchy when they arrived, having driven all night from Santa Barbara to Solana Beach where they slept only a few hours before getting to our studios for a 9:15am soundcheck. They cracked wise and teased each other a lot, even teasing Tom here and there.  For Washburn, the only woman in the bunch, it must be like travelling with three brothers. 

Béla Fleck was so down to earth, very low key and approachable.  Zach, the band's tour manager sat in the studio with us while we recorded and we talked about the challenges of touring non-stop, especially for someone like Béla, who always seems to be on the road.  He said that even when they have down time, when they are waiting in an airport for example, Béla picks up the banjo and starts playing.  Zach says he plays constantly, that "he lives and breathes his art."

In fact, all of these musicians bring so much to the quartet.  Driessen has a unique "chop" style on the five string fiddle, Washburn writes, plays banjo in the clawhammer style, and has a voice that takes you back in time.  And Ben Sollee is versatile on the cello, especially when you listen to his newly released solo record Learning to Bend, as I'm doing right now.  The album htas a soul, R&B sound that I didn't expect from a cellist.  He does a cover of one of my all-time faves, A Change is Gonna Come. 

So take a coffee break and enjoy the performance video of Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet...

I'm a film lover, but there's this weird thing that happens to me when the lights go down in a theater.  First there are the trailers -- which I love.  Most of them are bad, but the good ones stay with me.  Mostly, I love trailers because they represent possibility.  They are neat little packages of seduction.  After those 10 minutes of possibility, I get the thing I actually paid for... the thing that could let me down... the movie I've actually come to see.  Which gets me to the weird thing that happens:  I'm always slightly disappointed when the movie starts.  These are not the words of a film lover, I know.   But because I've built up expectations and hopes, I'm uneasy. 

One of the things that eases the disappointment of a film's beginning is a good title sequence.  A title sequence is an art form in itself, like the book jacket cover or album art.  Title sequences have become a showcase for design, illustration and music.  Years ago, a friend turned me on to the beauty of the title sequence for To Kill a Mockingbird.  And I still remember seeing the David Fincher's thriller Se7en , with its stunningly dark but gorgeous beginning set to a Coil remix of Nine Inch Nails' Closer. 

I just learned about a great site that has been compiliing title sequences called Art of the Title.  It's captivating!  You can watch the title sequence for Showtime's Dexter (which I've been watching On Demand and getting totally creeped out).  It's clearly influenced by the Se7en design - just as macabre,  but with more pop and zip.  It makes the morning rituals of coffee, shaving and breakfast into a twisted ritual.  The camerawork is something to behold.

My other favorites are the title sequences for American Splendor, Donnie Brasco and the amazing Delicatessen. 

Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.
  -George Carlin

Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.
        -George Carlin

When cheese gets its picture taken what does it say?
        -George Carlin

I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.
        -George Carlin

Local troubadour Gregory Page brought his vintage sound to These Days yesterday, performing in our studios and sharing stories with host Tom Fudge. Page is something of an institution in this town. He's made 16 albums, performed on many local stages, and produced albums for, or collaborated with, some of San Diego's shining stars (Jason Mraz, Jeff Berkley, Steve Poltz). Page's music makes me nostalgic; his warbling and instrumentation sound straight out of the phonograph. Listening to him transplants me to some Great Gatsby-like setting where everyone dresses for cocktail hour. 

Page showed up to the studios in his signature dapper vintage suit and hat, but unfortunately had to remove his hat to wear headphones for the recording. He joked that we could tie his hat from the ceiling with an invisible string and it could just float above him. This would have been hilarious for the video, but it was minutes before we went live. I wonder if Tom would have held it together through the interview if I'd actually made this happen.

Page brought some friends with him for the performance.  Erika Davies has a lovely voice.  She's also a clothing designer and you can see her creations here.  Also, check out her dress in the video, she made it and it's adorable.   Also playing with Page is the incredibly talented violinist Ray Suen.  Suen's been playing with Louis XIV, but has just become a touring member of the band The Killers.

Page has a new CD out called All Make Believe and there's a CD release party at Lestats on Saturday, June 28th.   It will be a great night out.

The July/August edition of Atlantic Monthly has an article on whether Google and the Internet is making us stupid.  Author Nicholas Carr is certainly not the first to wonder about this.  I have to admit, an early paragraph in his piece felt really familiar.

"Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle."

I've occasionally felt this way over the last few years and have talked about it with friends who also used to read novels by the boat loads.  I was a Lit major and used to read all the time.  I've been known to hoard books.  Once when I was living in Baltimore, I ventured out during an ice storm with a sprained knee to go to the library and restock my reading supply.  I have vivid memories of trying to maneuver down icy stairs in a full leg brace but happy because I had a backpack full of books. 

Today, if I were stranded due to weather and a bum wheel, well, I'd just fire up the laptop and click from article to article.   I'm not saying this is a bad thing, just different, and I wonder what the overall effect will be.  I don't mean to overly romanticize some past that never was, when everyone spent their days in overstuffed chairs working their way through the literary canon.  But did we read differently before the Internet?  

This whole idea reminds me of a picture I took of my father a couple of years ago at Christmas.  He rarely reads online.  His study is a place where time stands still.  Whenever I step into it, I always feel like it's a world both foreign yet completely comfortable.