Not sure what prompted it, but I found myself looking up one of my favorite pop bands ever: Jellyfish.  They were based in San Francisco and  blew up in the early to mid-nineties when I was putting in time in the city by the Bay.

If you dig the Beatles, the Beach Boys, XTC and the like, you probably know these fellas.  If not, WTF?

They were never as big in the States as they deserved to be, but they were around long enough to leave us some neat stuff to listen to.

As great as they were on record, they were even better live.  Rarely do you see the vocal and instrumental skills displayed here in these live versions of some of my favorite J-Fish songs:

Anyhoo..So me and the fam are shopping at Whole Fools this afternoon in Venice and this long -haired dude walks by us, and it’s Roger Manning, the keyboardist from Jellyfish!!

Talk about serendipity!  I just started listening to their music again..and there he is.

I tried to chase him down, but I was saddled with child.  He escaped before I could go all fanboy on him.

Anyway..All of the members have gone on to create more great music, but I hope they’ll eventually get back together for a reunion tour.  Feh!! Who am I kiddin’?   America doesn’t deserve it!!

SOME PHOTOS FROM MY SIGNING AT POLITICS AND PROSE IN D.C.

EMAILS/LETTERS OF THE WEEK…

RE: Random Acts of Cuteness (the K Chronicles)

Thanks for the great strip!  I’ve been reading it since I was in college in
the early ’90’s.  We happen to have our own unbearable cuteness of being,
who is 2, and does most of the same things your boy does.  Random acts of
bottomlessness, complete with jumping up and down while watching the boy
parts jiggle, is definitely a favorite. Making everything in the house into
weapons and flirting with females of all ages is quite popular.  We also
have a very, very funny and very “liberated” 6 year-old, who draws pics of
princesses using their “princess guns” to shoot snakes.  She’s been known to
use her dart gun to fire warning shots when she gets into bed at night to
scare away the monsters.  I’ve attached the pic she drew of the princess
shooting the snake.  Life’s Little Vic:  When your kid is secure enough to
chase away her own monsters. :D

Yours truly, A.

—-
Keith~
Love your ‘toons. I’ve been reading them for years. I have a Q for your FAQ’s which obviously hasn’t been A F enough:
When and where did “K Chronicles” first get published?
Nobody even remotely close to here carries “The Knight Life” so I’ve been catching up with them online and forwarding many to friends and family. Keep up the great work. I thoroughly enjoy it.
~W.

(the k chronicles in it’s current incarnation, were first printed in the “local color” section of the san francisco bay guardian in 1992–the s.f.weekly picked it up and ran it regularly about a year later.  but an early incarnation ran in my college newspaper, the log (as in ship’s), at salem state college (now university) starting in 1985.-kk)

—-

Dear Keith,

I read your comic in the San Diego Union Tribune and like it very much.  I
was particularly touched by a Sunday strip some time ago where the character
relates going to the home of a deceased soldier and discovering he was gay –
his anguish at not knowing something so important was just really well done.
Today on Facebook a friend linked an article from Andrew Sullivan with a
very similar story.

Is there an online link to that particular comic?  I’d like to post it in
reply because I just thought the comic got the point across more effectively
than the written word.

Thank you!

Peace,

G.

Here’s the link:  http://www.knightlifecomic.com/2009/08/02/vet-mentoring-2/

—–

re:”More Whining From the Left” (Knight Life)

Hello Mr. Knight,

Today’s strip talked about left-handed issues. I’m surprised you
didn’t mention the fact “sinister” is Latin for “left-sided” or
left-handed
http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/glossary/glossary.cgi?page=s

Interesting that a word which meant nothing more than “left-handed”
came to be redefined to mean evil!

Your comments hit close to home. I myself am right-handed but my
wife’s family is brain-washed into believing evil things about
left-handed people. Her mother had 4 kids, and drilled into the older
children that if they handed a younger child a cup and that child
reached out with their left hand to take the cup, they were to take
the cup back and purposefully present the cup to the child’s right
hand… for fear the child would grow up to be left-handed. There are
other such stories.

Thanks for the strip, they’re quite enjoyable!

Best regards,

T.