Archive for March, 2012
Peligro plays The New Parish in Oakland, California, March 2, 2012
My good friend Willy Lipat used to play in Jungle Studs and in Sluglords, two interesting punk bands from San Francisco, California USA.
Lipat got to know many musicians in the punk scene.
Steve DePace and D.H. Peligro were two of the other four members in Jungle Studs, along with Tony Chatham and Freddy.
Unfortunately, I have been told that Chatham got too deep into drugs and alcohol and ruined his mind so severely that the last time I heard he is living at Laguna Honda Hospital, which I can see at night only when its lights are on through the trees outside my living room window, about a mile away. I’ve been told Chatham doesn’t remember even his own wife and two children, so I have not been to see him. I would like to visit Tony Chatham, so if his family finds this, please let me know if a visit would be appropriate.
I got to know DePace and Peligro in their Jungle Studs days because I was studying (aka wasting vast amounts of my family’s money) at Brooks Institute at the time, and photographed Jungle Studs for a class assignment. One of these days I will drag out my old 4 x 5″ Kodak Vericolor negatives and have them scanned so I can illustrate a post about Jungle Studs.
Chatham was fond of telling me that he had framed the photograph I took of Jungle Studs and displayed it over his bed.
Lipat is still friends with DePace and Peligro, and DePace even came to my house for my birthday in 2007, with Lipat.
I just learned last week that Steve DePace went to high school at St. Ignacious, an elite and costly private school in San Francisco. This makes perfect sense to me because DePace is a sharp guy who writes well. DePace seems to have taken on a leadership role in the vintage hard core punk rock scene. He organized a great concert March 2, 2012 at the Oakland, California music venue The New Parish. The other musicians thanked him over the public address system several times throughout the four band event. DePace was the only organizer thanked, so clearly DePace is the guy.
Steve DePace is the drummer for the influential punk band Flipper, founded in 1979. I wrote a blog post in February, 2012 about Flipper.
D.H. Peligro was the drummer for Dead Kennedys, my favorite punk band, during its heyday in the 1980s. Peligro briefly was a member of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, according to Peligro’s WikiPediA entry.
D.H. Peligro has his own band now, appropriately named Peligro. Peligro means ‘danger’ in Spanish. One word cool band names are rare these days, so I suspect Peligro is glad to have Peligro.
Peligro played March 2, 2012 at the DePace organized show at The New Parish. I was there with my good camera, at the invitation of Steve DePace.
Peligro has produced three recordings. Sadly, I am not familiar with any of them, so I can’t comment on them.
What I can comment on is that on March 2nd, Peligro looked healthy, strong, lean and powerful, both on stage and off. He appears to have the same physique he had when he posed in a loin cloth at Powell and Market Streets (the tourist center of the City) in San Francisco for the cover of their Jungle Studs debut record over 20 years ago.
By my calculations, D.H. Peligro is 51 years old. He’s just as bold with women as I remember him being years ago. For his Friday night performance, Peligro wore a Coca-Cola red t-shirt emblazoned in the Coca-Cola font in white that read ‘Enjoy Cock.’ What I wouldn’t give for Peligro’s supreme confidence. Peligro used to date gorgeous and frequently published models, and I would not be surprised if he still does.
Playing in a punk rock band looks tiring. Whatever position one has in a punk band, the intensity is generally at the top end of the spectrum. Frankly, I am in awe that Peligro still has the physical energy for this. At the Friday show, he was on fire, as you can see in these pictures, which I took with my Canon 5D Mark II with a Canon 80-200mm L zoom lens on a tripod from the balcony.
Peligro has two other strong musicians that were also on fire on Friday.
I’m including video I shot of one song, to show you their musical energy. I spoke with D.H. after the show, and he remembered me which was flattering since I haven’t seen him in perhaps two decades, but I forgot to ask permission to post this video. I had permission from Steve DePace to capture video of Flipper. I had permission from the concert venue to be there capturing video. I simply don’t know if I had permission to capture video of the opening bands. D.H., if you’re reading this and would like me to remove the video clip, send me a message on Facebook. If you want me to photograph your band or just you, I would be honored to help out. Have a look at my work photographing people, here.
As is usual, I posted these pictures at full camera resolution of 21 megapixels. Click on them to see them at full size.
Here are two Peligro music videos I discovered while researching this post. Powerful stuff.
Peligro was nominated for a Grammy Award for his rendition of Purple Haze by Jimi Hendrix, which you can see D.H. Peligro singing in the second video below.
9th anniversary for gOffice.com, my startup
My startup Silveroffice, Inc. (gOffice) is 9 years old today. I am so thankful I didn’t sell it to Google when they came calling in 2006.
Zero Net Energy Working Group roundtable coming up March 19, 2012
I have joined the Zero Net Energy Working Group. This group was formed to advance zero net energy building construction in California, USA.
From WikiPediA:
“A zero-energy building, also known as a zero net energy (ZNE) building, Net-Zero Energy Building (NZEB), or Net Zero Building, is a popular term to describe a building with zero net energy consumption and zero carbon emissions annually.[1] Zero energy buildings can be independent from the energy grid supply. Energy can be harvested on-site—usually through a combination of energy producing technologies like Solar and Wind—while reducing the overall use of energy with extremely efficient HVAC and Lighting technologies. The zero-energy design principle is becoming more practical to adopt due to the increasing costs of traditional fossil fuels and their negative impact on the planet’s climate and ecological balance.”
Of course, such buildings consume prodigious amounts of energy each year, but that energy comes from solar and geothermal sources, which are as close to infinite as is possible in a universe where stars burn out over time.
The Zero Net Energy Working Group organizes roundtables to educate builders and other interested parties about zero net energy technology.
The next roundtable is free and open to the public, and with the group’s permission and enthusiasm, I am writing this blog post to invite you to attend.
The event will be held Monday, March 19, 2012 from 6pm to 9pm at The Energy Center, 370 Lang Road, Burlingame, California 94010 USA. There is ample parking on site.
Since this is a brief meeting, only one topic will be covered — spray foam insulation. This type of insulation is generally derived from soy beans or petroleum. Spray foam insulation seals air leaks and water leaks, and is generally considered a premium and highly desirable product. It’s what I plan to use to insulate my bus conversion, which I am designing to be exceptionally energy efficient, with triple pane windows, for example.
Brian C. Harris of Paradigm Promotions will introduce the panel.
William Malpas, a General Contractor with Malpas & Birmingham will moderate the discussion.
The panel will include:
- Mac Sheldon, representative from the spray foam manufacturer Demilec
- James Morshead, spray foam application expert from SDI Insulation
- Gary Kaufman, spray foam application expert from SDI Insulation
- David Edwards, Founder of Earthbound Homes
This panel discuss is expected to be most useful to architects, builders, developers and regulators, but all are welcome to attend. I appreciate their inclusive admission policy, since I am not part of the building industry.
Sign up via the MeetUp page for this rountable once the event is listed there. To RSVP before the MeetUp page is ready, send email to letmehelp at znewg dot org.