RIP DPC

A monumental part of my youth is being destroyed this week as reported by The Tucson Weekly: Demolition Begins On Former Downtown Performance Center/Mat Bevel Spaces.

RIP DPC, photo by Tony Lightstorm

RIP DPC, photo by Tony Lightstorm

The Downtown Performance Center was a downtown-Tucson warehouse, owned by the Arizona Department of Transportation, and leased to artist Steven Eye. It existed in the early/mid 90’s, primarily hosting punk/underground shows. Eventually it was shut down as a venue due to neighborhood complaints, and was reborn as The Mat Bevel Institute, retaining an artistic and unconventional aesthetic.

Entrance of the DPC, photo by Matt McCoy

Entrance of the DPC, photo by Matt McCoy

While I was in high school many of my weekend nights were spent driving the 25 round trip miles from the exurbs of East Tucson to see bands at the DPC. The shows were an incredible outlet for us kids growing up in the suburban Arizona wastelands: DIY, under $5, all-ages, and refreshingly tolerant.

Among the dozens of shows I attended, a few highlights were NoMeansNo, Steel Pole Bathtub, Treepeople, Green Day, Citizen Fish, Jawbreaker, J-Chuch, and the bacchanalian insanity of Crash Worship. That’s not even going into the rich tapestry of local music that was showcased at the space.

I left Tucson 16 years ago, so can’t comment much about what’s going on there now, but I can say definitevely that the 1990’s music scene in Tucson was strong, and the DPC was largely responsible.

If you were around during the DPC’s glory days, and don’t yet know about its Facebook group, check it out over here: I Hung Out at the DPC.

Thanks a million to DPC founder Steven Eye, and the others who helped build the vital community that shaped my adolescence so profoundly.

David Lynch Wins the Ice Bucket Challenge

Okay, so the Ice Bucket Challenge is stupid. For one thing fresh water is a precious commodity, especially here in drought-stricken California. Also, the situation long ago jumped the shark beyond awareness of a good cause, and into the realm of navel-gazing-viral-for-viral’s-sake-narcissistic-attention-seeking-bullshit.

However, now that that’s out of the way, I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed watching David Lynch’s contribution to the phenomenon. His video includes multiple soakings, a secret ingredient in the ice water, a trumpet performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, and is capped off perfectly by the unexpected geopolitically-minded challenge at the end.


So, congratulations David Lynch, your surreal mind has melted my icy heart. You officially win the Ice Bucket Challenge.

And while I’m giving props to Ice-Bucketers, I will award runner-up status to both Patrick Stewart,


and this bit of gold right here:

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge done right.

Well done Internet. You have made me proud.

 

The Last Week of the Last Year, of the First Half of My Life

For whatever reason, I seem to be inspired by big calendar dates and life events. I started this blog on my birthday in 2010, shortly after getting married, and deeply feeling my 36 years of age. Then very quickly I got bored, or distracted, or lazy, and stopped posting. About a year later I tried to get back on track on New Years Day 2012, but that fizzled.

Fast-forward four years: I am quickly approaching 40, and goddamn do I feel it!

We all know that 40 is the classic “mid-life crisis” age, and as I get ready to careen off that cliff I guess that lately I have become reflective of all-things-Dan. So much has happened in the recent days, weeks and months, but truly the whirlwind of the past four years has been due to the August 2012 arrival of my twin sons: Cormac and Ansel (aka Hulk and Thor). They are now two years old and just as wonderful and challenging as you might expect.

Monte Vista Hotel
The boys holding court at the Monte Vista Hotel in Flagstaff, AZ – June 2014

Yes, they’re delightful and adorable, but let’s be clear: two years of raising twins has been damn hard. Only recently have I had a chance to look around, take a breath, and consider re-booting. And that’s exactly how I’m treating it; this is a long overdue reboot of the blog.

As I mentioned above, I’ve done this before, and with miserable results, so my personal challenge this time is to blog at least something small, EVERY SINGLE DAY. I know I will fail at some point, but hopefully it will take a long time before that happens.

I still hope to use this space as an outlet for everything from my Bay Area transit fantasies, to random adventure chronicles, and whatever else comes up, and needless to say I hope lots of space will be devoted to the exciting adventures of my little superheroes.

That’s all I got for now. In the meantime, please catch up with my wonderful wife’s blog. She has done a bang-up job documenting the last two years with the boys.

-Dan

* Thanks to my friend and colleague from a former life, Tom Collins, for the inspiration for the title of this post

New Year, New Look

Hey, remember when I started a blog? How has that been going anyway?

Let’s see, three total posts in 2011, all from last January, one of which was also titled “New Year, New Look”. Pathetic!

Hopefully this will be a better year for me to be inspired, but don’t hold your breath.

Having said that, I am making a change that will hopefully encourage me to post more often. I’ll be merging this blog, and my Tumblr account, to create an uber-blog to rule them all. To that end, I need to shuffle some files and settings with my web hosting provider.

For those of you reading this through an RSS reader, I believe the feed URL will change, from http://lastdanstanding.com/feed/rss to http://lastdanstanding.com/rss. I expect to make the change by this weekend, January 7th/8th. Until that happens though, you could always pull the RSS feed direct from tumblr, which you can do right now. It’s this one: http://lastdanstanding.tumblr.com/rss.

Otherwise, Happy New Year to y’all!

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Great New Year cartoon by Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle (via Vince Mancini)