Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll

A few months ago we - me, Cory, Kepi & Roach - watched an advance of the new DVD release for the Chuck Berry concert documentary Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll. It's in stores now and you should definitely check it out. There's a lot of interesting behind-the-scenes insight into Berry's obsession with money plus some scary stuff that happens during a visit to a prison where Berry once served time. There's also good footage featuring Berry with Keith Richards who organized the concert in question.

In the film, an exhausted Richards described the experience as torture, adding, "He gives me more headaches than Mick Jagger. But I still can't dislike him."

One key scene shows Berry and Richards at loggerheads during rehearsals over the chords for "Carol," one of about a dozen Berry songs covered by the Stones during their career.

"That was a very tough moment," Hackford said, "because it was a humiliating moment where Chuck is taking him to school ... it's like, 'Go ahead, Keith. You're the big rock 'n' roll star. Blow up and stomp off.' Keith just stood his ground.

Read more of the CNN story about the DVD

And speaking of Chuck Berry, the Haints are going to open for him in St. Louis on August 16th! Can't wait. The Ghoulies played with him almost 2 years ago at Blueberry Hill - and now it's time for another trip. You should all buy your plane tickets now because if you have not seen this 79-year-old man rock in person, then you have not seen rock'n'roll. Chuck Berry may be "tyrannical" but he puts on a damn good show. He duck walks like a madman and I'll bet he's not all sore and achey in the morning like I am after doing just a few squats and sit-ups.

While we're in St. Louis we're also going to hit up some key landmarks again: The arch, the City Museum, etc...I'm so excited that even the prospect of the smothering Midwestern humidity is not enough to dissuade me.

Speaking of heat, apparantly the earth is frying itself to a crisp. Or, actually, we are. No surprise there, of course. Insert cliche about Sacramento heat/heatwave here. Insert 'em all - I'm feeling them all. Boo. But yay for the central heat & air we put in our house last year before moving in. Best $5K spent ever.

Last night we decided to celebrate the first day of summer with a trip to Three Sisters for dinner. I wanted to sit on the patio. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

For starters, the service was really slow and inattentive - especially considering how not busy the place was. Second, although our spot on the patio was nice (not too shady, not too sunny) the actual patio itself is in bad shape - at least where we were sitting. It's freaking slanted - which means that the table is slanted and, thus, all of your dishes and glasses are slanted. I had an apartment like that in New York once...that table brought back surreally bad memories.

Oh well, it was cheaper than the apartment. Still, the food was also just so-so - I had the Del Pueblo salad which, in the past, has been quite yummy. It seemed kind of meager last night - like there were some key ingredients missing. I've also decided I don't really like their chips - kind of bland.

At least the Corona was good.

After, we headed over to Tower on Watt Ave. where we both struck out on things we were looking for (both at the book store and record store). Finally, we hightailed it over to Vic's Ice Cream - just in time to grab some mint chocolate chip ice cream right before closing. That was the best part of the night. Mint chocolate chip makes everything better.

Oh - and looks like tonight is your last night to check out The Devil and Daniel Johnston. The documentary is really good - thanks to all the amazing home videos of Daniel. It's so strange and sad - and yet happy too - to see him as a kid, as a teen, as a young man slowly turning into the Daniel we see today. The only thing I didn't like about this film was the occasional device of recreating scenes. Because when you see those reenactments next to the real thing - they end up feeling a little cheap and cheesy. But it's still a fascinating, funny and sad look at an amazingly creative and intriguing person.

More good stuff: The new Christina Aguilera single Ain't No Other Man and the new Joan Jett record Sinner. Check them out!