Highs and Lows, Kids, New York, Books Lust

By Erhman Hall | Rocker (Nancy Boys, Pillow Fighters) and bartender

10. The BBC. The Black Box Cabaret at CSUMB has the best crowd on the Peninsula. In 2006 I crowd-surfed, smashed my guitar and exposed myself, to the delight of the crowd and dismay of the staff. It’s the most rock and roll venue in town.

9. The BBC. While the crowd may be unparalleled, I have yet to hear an intelligible note come through the sound system (which, in some cases, isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

8. Pearl Jam. The band released a brilliant album this year—and this time they got some critical acclaim for it. Glad to see the press pull their heads from their rears long enough to breathe this fresh air.

7. Screamo. Sunny Day Real Estate was a great band, now officially cloned more times than Jango Fett in that Star Wars film. From a lover of all things rock to its much-anticipated death, here’s your Antichrist.

6. Winning Over the Weekly. After tallying my win-loss record for the Wednesday basketball games with members of the Weekly staff, I must take this opportunity to brag that I have a winning record. Note to editors: Just try and cut this.

5. The Blue Moon. Not the Monterey clothing store (their stuff is great). I speak of the legendary Seattle venue, and ex-Hendrix hangout. Trying to perform a song with multiple key changes and odd time signatures while burnt-out ex-heroin addicts improvised along left my ears bleeding and my heart aching.

4. Bartending at Monterey Live. If someone told me a year ago that I would be getting paid to contribute to people’s debauchery whilst performing behind the bar, I would have laughed. Now that I do this on a consistent basis, I’m laughing.

3. Cabbage Soup. Why wasn’t I told that Seattle had such a high unemployment rate? I ate nothing except cabbage soup for two months before starvation got me back to Monterey, not much worse for wear, but feeling a bit Irish.

2. My Garage Sale. A performance by Vermillion Lies, vegan pancakes and earning enough money to move to Seattle to produce The Pillow Fighter’s Struggle to Snuggle LP; this ranks as one of my better ideas.

1. My Garage Sale: Selling all of my David Bowie records to Fog Box records CEO Sara Bailey. Curses.