showbiz no biz

This is my calendar for December. Note the lack of markings on it. Very unusual to not have anything listed on there as far as gigs, but it's turned out that you could shoot a cannon through my December of this year.

Actually that's just fine with me. Last December was just the opposite, with five gigs plus a couple of rehearsals. With the daygig, that's a lot. Or at least that's a lot to an aging curmudgeon like myself. A busy month, after which I seemed to have a Winter vacation from gigs, not to do another one until April.

So we'll see what the tide brings in for this season. One's calendar can change dramatically, from famine to feast--and unfortunately, I've seen it go from feast to famine as well, with a whole month's bookings all cancelling at once. Thusfar, though, you could shoot a cannon through my schedule and the only thing you'd hit would be a warning to myself, posted as a gig announcement, not to play downtown next year during the car show.

We'll see...

R.I.P. Bianca Butthole

Punk. It's not my favorite style of music as far as the sounds(though I've heard some in there that I didn't mind), but I do like the sense of humor behind it. So I do at least enjoy the bandnames, band member aliases, and song titles.

Somehow, as I'm frequently wont to do on the computer, I stumbled onto a band from the 90's, an LA-based girl punk band called "Betty Blowtorch". Pictured here is their bass player/vocalist Bianca Butthole. Other members are Blare N Bitch on lead guitar, rhythm guitarist Sharon Needles and drummer Judy Molish. All of them except for Bianca Butthole were former members of another LA-based group called Butt Trumpet. This group was known for their crass song lyrics, and featured another local musician who called himself Dan Druff.

Let's see.. There was another related group called L7(yes, 50's hipster slang for "square, daddy-o"), who had a couple recordings out, the third of which was called "Waiting for Stink". You can hear an assortment of Betty Blowtorch things online, one of my favorites being the colorful "Shut up and Fuck".

So that's all I know about Betty Blowtorch. Their frontlady Bianca Butthole(actually Halstead)was killed in a car crash back in the 90's, and the band came to an end from there. The others still play, and are in another band, whose name escapes me. I had a friend ask if Blare N Bitch was copyrighted, and I said probably. Love the sense of humor. And the tunes aren't too bad either.