Ventura Music Hall

X rocking the Ventura Concert Hall

 

 

 

The Ventura Music Hall opened a few months back in the space that once held The Ventura Bowling Center and then Discovery Bowl on Thompson, walking distance from my house. No more bowling, now it's a straight concert/club venue.

A variety of acts have played the venue and are on the upcoming calendar, and I had given serious thought to seeing both Flogging Molly and Bob Mould, but the thought of seeing long time favorites X was just too much to pass up-especially with a ticket price of $25.

The venue itself is pretty nice. Discovery Bowl had cleaned up the bar area in the front, and the bar served a nice selection of local micro-brews. The ceiling, if you get the chance to look up, is an interesting lattice work of wood-the building itself was built during WW II, meaning that there was no steel used in construction.

 

I first saw X in 1981 at the Roxy in Hollywood, and I remember that show was crazy-it scared me a bit. The mosh pit was huge, and I learned how to stand at the edge and push people back in or twist my shoulders to send people flying-whatever was needed. But this crowd looked to be my age or older-X drew an older crowd then the other bands I saw back in the day-and those same people were probably here. That meant that when the mosh pit broke out, it would last about half a song.

Back in the day, even slow songs got a slower moving mosh pit-that didn't happen here. X never liked stage divers, so of course there was none of that in the geriatric crowd that I watched the show with.

The sound mix wasn't great-the vocals were buried. The instruments sounded awesome-Billy Zoom's guitar lines rang true, and you could feel the power of DJ Bonebreak's drumming, but the harmonies make this band, and John Doe and Exene's vocals were low in the mix. The instruments locked into their groove, playing as well as when I saw them in the 80s. The songs from Alphabetland fit in well-the title track sounded like a vintage X song. For whatever it's worth, however, I miss Billy Zoom's Gretsch Silver Jet. He appeared to be playing a Gretsch Country Gentlemen, but I'm not an expert and could be wrong.
 

X does tour with an additional player, Craig Packham, who comes out when Billy Zoom plays the saxaphone or DJ Bonebreak plays the vibraphone. It's obvious, because DJ usually plays more complicated drum parts then the 4/4 that is being played when he moves to vibes.

Check the ceiling woodwork!

Hopefully, the sound mix was an anomaly, though it was a bummer to not get John and Exene's full harmonies. But the venue was good-good site lines all over the house and not too big. I'll see X again when they come through, and I'd happily see people playing at the Ventura Concert Hall.

Still With Watchgang-Grayton

I'm still getting Watchgang watches, and a few that I've written about have moved into my regular watch rotation. On the other hand, a few are still in their boxes because for a variety of reasons they haven't struck me as watches that I need to wear.

I was thinking about canceling my subscription-I've been buying a few watches off of eBay and Goodwill and I only have so many places to wear them. I did scale back to getting a watch every two months instead of every month. I wasn't really thrilled with what I was being sent, and I have too many watches.

I noticed that the Watchgang bill hit my credit card last week, so I figured I'd get a look at this one, and maybe stop if it didn't appeal to me.

The usual white envelope held a box from Grayton. I'd never heard of them before, which again, doesn't mean a great deal. I've discovered that there are several micro-brands out there, and a quick internet search turned up an online only watch brand that specialized in mechanical watches. They describe themselves as 'urbanites,' taking their design cues from the great cities of the world.

Opening the box revealed this pretty nice grey flannel watch sleeve.  I guess I could use it for sunglasses or just to carry this watch in when I travel. I don't travel that much, but the thought is nice.

The watch was well packed, with the usual clear cellophane type plastic on the front and back, and some extra tissue where the band met the case. The leather of the band was thick but supple, something that I prefer over metal bracelets.

The back is clear, showing the Seiko NH35 movement. It's nice to see it, but there's nothing really special about it. No unusual looking jewels or anything, just a movement ticking away. Interestingly, every watch sent by Watchgang has been running when I open the box-even the automatics, which means someone at Watchgang winds everything before it goes in the mail.

It's a 40mm watch, my favorite size, and had a tag with an msrp of $280. Back on their website, the watch is Elegant Sport Leather Bourbon. Checking eBay, this watch wasn't up, but there were about 40 Graytons listed, ranging in price from $20 to $350 for something really fancy. Their website has an interesting dial within a dial that tops out at $620, with their least expensive being $195.

The watch felt really nice on my arm. I think the 40mm is a good size for my wrist, the leather wrapped on my arm well and though it feels solid, the watch isn't heavy. I don't know that I would have picked a brown watch-the second brown faced watch that I've received from Watchgang and now the second one I own, but it's supple on my wrist. The watch looks clean-not too fancy but clearly better than a Timex or Armitron.

I don't think I'm going to collect compliments or comments on it, but I put it on and have been wearing it the last few days. It is very comfortable and easy to read. The lume isn't very good, so if you plan on looking at your watch in the dark, this won't be the one for you. I don't really think it's the type of watch that loans itself to that type of wear.

The short version is that I like it. The brown face has grown on me, the band is comfortable and it's simple and clean. The G on the fancy clasp is a nice touch-there's a G on the crown as well, the number markings are simple, and the shape of the hands is classic. The red second hand provides enough contrast to be easily seen, and though the date isn't magnified, the numbers are big enough to be visible. It's quiet for an automatic, too.

I don't think that I'll rush and buy another Grayton anytime soon-I've got many watches already that fill the 'classic automatic' niche in my collection, and nothing on their website really jumped out at me-but it's a good value for an automatic watch.

Micky Mouse and Watchgang Six-Blackwell

 Mickey Mouse and Watchgang 6

From August 1983

My mother bought me my first Mickey Mouse watch for my 20th birthday in 1983. A friend of hers worked for Disney, and this was supposed to be a watch that was only available to employees. I don't know if that's true, but I liked it and used it for my dress watch for the next few years. It's a Bradley, a company that specialized in character watches, and it's Swiss made but only seven jewels. It still runs and keeps reasonably good time, and I pull it out regularly. I had always wanted a Mickey Mouse watch, but when I was little, I picked the Harlem Globetrotter watch, and in high school I was 'too cool' for a Mickey Mouse watch.

 

My Swatch was my daily watch, and I saved this for special occasions. But the battery died, and before Amazon, it was difficult to get Swatch batteries. I needed a watch for a delivery job I had, so I started using this daily, quickly causing the thin gold plating to wear away.

The next Micky Mouse watch I received was the one on the left of this group of four. It was a gift from about 1988, a quartz Lorus watch that does the job and has Micky Mouse on the face.

The Goofy watch is fun-it runs backwards! I bought it in the late 80's, and interestingly, if I wore it for more than two days straight, I started to read all analog clocks backward. It made for some mental confusion. It's a Pedre, a brand that still exists, though I don't know if it's the same Pedre. I remember that Lorus also made a backwards running Goofy, but I bought this one because it looked much nicer and it was supposed to be a limited edition. It's not running at the moment, and I don't know if it's broken or just needs a battery. Something to check into tomorrow.

Next to it is a very cheap Christmas Mickey that my Mom bought me, and next to that is a fancier looking square Mickey that also isn't running at the moment.

The last Mickey that I bought was this orange one that I like a lot, especially after I changed the band to this one. I think it's from around five or six years ago.

 Watchgang Six

 

This is a hefty and serious looking black box. The Blackwell is off to a good start. Inside the box, you get a bag:

But you don't wear either the box or the bag. Now, what does the watch look like? Well, it looks like this:

I'm not sure that I like it, but I'm not sure that I don't. I does have a very definite look. I like the rice grain band, and though I couldn't photograph it, it has a domed crystal that give it an interesting view from the side. According to the Blackwell website, this is a Guggen Mesh Light, listed at $250. The dial has a spider web design, and the back has the Guggenheim engraved.

At 44mm, it's a big watch and does have heft on the wrist. At this size, the domed crystal could be a liability-I could see myself banging it up pretty good. 

Interestingly, it's not a chronograph, but a dual time watch. The small dial on the face on the left is for a different time zone. Since the origin story for the brand is New York City, I set it for New York. The small dial on the right is a 24 hour dial, but I figured that out from looking at the watch right now (it's almost 6 PM) and realizing that I took the pictures at 3 PM-it isn't mentioned in the online manual. Both dials are really too small to be practical, but they do add to the look. 

I'm going to give this one a wear this weekend, and finish this up next week.

Two Weeks Later

I've worn it a few times, and was surprised that it was comfortable on my wrist. I thought that the size would cause me to bang it into things, but I apparently did not. As they day progressed, I liked the look. This one is a keeper.

July 29, 2022 Update

When I wrote this, I forgot that I do have a Donald Duck watch-two actually, though one is broken beyond repair. This one I bought at Disneyland in the mid 90s. It's a limited edition Ingersoll. Three are currently up on eBay for between $130-$595. 

There's also a Pedre that looks very similar, but has a fancy band. I remember that both were at Disneyland when I bought this, but the Pedre cost a little more and the things on the band looked like the would get in the way. 

I didn't wear this much when I got it-I usually went with the Goofy when I felt the need for a character watch, so it's in surprisingly good shape. I've busted it out a few times this summer. 

The one broken beyond repair my daughter had bought me for Father's Day. It was at Big 5, and it was very cheap watch in both cost and quality, and was broken with light wear rather quickly.

Swatches and Watchgang Five-William L

Swatches

 

I already told the story of my first Swatch, and I recently bought the updated version while on a trip to New York. I was very happy with that first one, and it was my day to day watch for a number of years.

The left is original and the right is the new version.

Swatches were cheap, and looked cool, so I ended up with several of them throughout the 90s. They were always a touch small for my small wrists, but wore them anyway.

I actually have owned a few more. In the 90s I had both a Diver and a Chrono that were in heavy watch rotation until the bands disintegrated. They're probably still around the house someplace, and I've bought a few replacement Swatch bands. But many of the bands were part of the design, so the watch really loses something without them. 

I also was always bummed when the batteries would die. Back in the 90s, before Amazon, finding the right battery could be a challenge. That's why I was thrilled when Swatch started making automatics. The Earth Day one on the right I still wear pretty frequently, even though I had to change the band.

The band on the right is a replacement

I have a few Irony Swatches as well, but they aren't that comfortable to wear.

Finally, I have this Mark Spitz watch. As a club swimmer during the Munich Olympics, Mark Spitz was my hero. Seven Gold Medals! How cool was that? And everyone cared about swimmers in the Olympics.

I found it for around $50 on eBay about 10 years ago. 

In the 00's I stopped wearing my Swatches. Tastes change, and there weren't any that really appealed to me the way they did in the 90's. That, and they're just a little small for my wrist. I don't think I have particularly large wrists, but the Swatches just don't seem to sit on my wrist as well as my other watches. 

Watchgang Five-The William L

The William L Mecaquartz 70's Chronograph

 The William L came wrapped in a white box, which held a grey travel case.

The white box vaguely resembled the box that my checks used to come in. Nothing to get too worked up about.

The grey travel case looked nice, and I might be able to get some use out of it. I have found that I travel with a couple of watches, for no other reason than I have a bunch and like to wear them. On first glance, I hoped that maybe I could carry two or three watches in the case, which would be nice.

Interestingly the zipper pull came off the zipper almost immediately. A small thing that I just corrected with a pair of pliers, but a detail that makes you wonder what else is missed.

I unzipped and found the watch.

I don't have many metal band watches, so I was a touch disappointed when I saw that. And the watch also has a brown face, definitely an interesting color choice. I went to the William L website, and found the list price of 211 Euros, or about $240 dollars.

I tried the chronograph feature, and unlike some of my other watches, it stopped and started and lined up back at the 12, a good thing. The stopwatch didn't do splits, though. I'm never going to take splits on this watch, but I thought I'd check anyway.

The unidirectional bezel moved well enough, but the push buttons for the stop watch and reset didn't feel particularly solid. Again, I don't think I'll use those features much-my Timex Ironman handles all my timing needs, but it seems like those buttons shouldn't feel flimsy.

Interestingly, it has a see through back, something you see on automatic watches where the movements do something. On a quartz watch, I guess you can watch the battery drain. It's a Seiko movement, which is very reliable, and a mineral crystal, so it shouldn't scratch too bad.

William L, according to their story, "does not hide its Chinese production. Each piece is conceived in Paris and manufactured in Shenzhen," not necessarily bad-the Chinese can make good watches, but not carrying the same cache as a Swiss or Japanese watch. 

On my arm, there's some heft to it, and I'm going to have to wear it about to get a feel. On the William L website, they have the watch with a brown leather band, and I think I like that better than the metal band. With the silver bezel, it doesn't feel like there's enough contrast on my wrist to make it stand out. 

Otherwise, it's not a bad watch at all.

For The Win Smash Burgers/Kettle Glazed Doughnuts

 

A rainy day road trip with my son and a craving for a good hamburger led us to For The Win for smash burgers.

First, what is the difference between a smash burger and a regular burger? The smash burger is a patty cooked on a hot grill, smashed down with the spatula so that more of the patty is in contact with the high heat. The idea is that more proteins in the meat break down, giving the meat a more charred flavor, while still retaining some of it's juiciness.

 

 A Double with Cheese

 

Apparently, it's proper to use a soft bun as well, and keep the extras to a minimum.

 

For The Win started during the pandemic, the remnants of the owner's high end restaurant. It's a small space, but since it was raining, my son and I were easily able to find in door seating.

He's a young man, and ordered a triple cheese with bacon. I just can't eat that way anymore, and wanted to get a doughnut from the place next door after, so I went with the double with cheese. We bought french fries and brussel sprouts, too.

So at twice the price of a comparable In-N-Out burger, was it worth it?

Maybe. The smash burger technique does add a more complicated flavor, toasty across each bite instead of just the edges. I liked the potato buns better than In-N-Outs, too. The cheese was nothing special and might have benefited from being a sharp cheddar. The fries were ordinary. 

The brussel sprouts were very good, though. They were grilled and had a very strong hint of citrus that really set off their flavor, and I wish we'd have gotten a second order of those and skipped the fries altogether. 

 

The staff was friendly, even allowing me to buy a Mexican Coke from the liquor store next door and bring it in since they were out. The service was fast, too.

I won't make a special trip, but if I'm in the area and don't feel like a Tommy Burger, I'd definitely eat there again. They're open until 9 PM.

Kettle Glazed Doughnuts, next door, was also good and not too expensive. My son went with the s'mores, which he said was good.

I had this, which was also good. We were there late in the day, and the doughnuts were still soft and fresh, not like a stale doughnut that's been sitting in a case all day. With the burgers, it was a tasty, high calorie meal.

 

 

Philz Coffee, San Francisco

 

I haven’t written about coffee in awhile, mostly because I’ve hit all the coffee places in Ventura and don’t really have anything else to say about them.

But I’m in San Francisco at the moment, and while walking by the Marina Yacht Club, I spotted a coffee truck with a bit of a line, and thought it must be pretty good for people to wait for coffee on a 45 degree foggy morning.

Philz coffee is all over the Bay Area, but I’m not up here that often to know. They do pour-overs made to order, and the line was moving fast. I ordered one of their dark roasts, the Tantalizing Turkish. They describe it as “cardamom, herbs and tobacco” but I got more chocolate and smoke, with a hint of mint at the end-they add mint leaves to the coffee. There was no bitterness to it, and it went well with the cream, sugar and cinnamon that I normally add to my coffee.

At $3.80 for a medium cup, it wasn’t outrageously expensive and well worth the wait. Definitely a place I’d come back to.

Antique Watches and Watch Gang 4-Spinnaker

 40 years ago I was working in a harberdashery in Downey, California, called Miller's Store for Men. An independent men's clothier, it was owned by Bill Miller and Kevin Kelly, and though Mr. Miller was still around, Kevin was the one that actually ran the day-to-day operations. He was possibly the best salesman I've ever seen. Many of the customers were regulars, and would often come in to talk to Kevin, and he knew what he could sell them. But even when it wasn't a regular, if you came in for clothes, he'd set you up well. Kevin wasn't heavy handed by any means, but worked with the general philosophy that if you were, say, buying a shirt for some event, that you'd likely need pants, and if you needed pants, a new belt would probably look sharp, and you wouldn't want to ruin the look with beat up old socks. So he'd lay everything out for you, show you how you could use your purchases and add a few other elements to make it more personal, let you decide what you wanted, and in the end, whether you just bought the one shirt or the whole outfit, you left feeling good. I tried to use that same philosophy when I worked at Nordstrom in later years.

 

In the store, Kevin was always dressed in a custom made, tailored Le Baron suit and tie. But he didn't do tie bars or cuff links, instead opting for nice watches. I asked him about it, and his feeling was that since he didn't wear jewelry, nice watches were in order. 

The first vintage watch I purchased for myself was this Elgin, bought in a vintage clothing store in West LA in the late 80s. I was about to graduate from college, and though I knew my Mom was going to buy me a new Seiko that the UCLA Alumni Association put out, I saw this watch and thought it was simple and classy. The owner of the store refurbished watches as a hobby, and I remember that he was asking $150  for this. Sharon, from the last entry, was with me and said she liked it, so I bought it. It's hard to tell, but the best guess for it's manufacture is sometime in the 1940s, USA made, and a quick check on Wikipedia reveals that Elgin went out of business in 1968.

The next two were also purchased with Sharon, this time on a trip to the big island of Hawaii in probably 1989. We stopped at a 2nd hand shop, and the owner had several watches on display. I liked both of these, and couldn't decide between the two. I knew I'd wear the one on the left more, but I liked the flash of the one on the right. Neither are name brand watches-the equivalent would be knock off watches you find at Kohls, but they both have a vintage look. The Crestwood on the left is Swiss made, and imported by some company in New York. It's likely from the 50s or 60s.

I've seen other Louis watches, but can't find any information on them. I vaguely remember the owner saying it was a knock off of a Cartier watch from the 20s. I think the shop took cash only, and we didn't have any cash on us when we first stopped. We came back later, just as he was closing, and the owner gave us a couple of the beers and told us a few stories, and I ended up buying both. Sharon bought a watch, too, but it was a better one-I think an Omega-and she paid $200. I think I bought both of mine for $125.

I liked those three watches and wore them a lot all through the 90s. 

 

I bought a more vintage watches, and I overpaid for all of them. I have a couple of others that pretty much fell apart after I bought them.

And the ones that fell apart:

 

Which brings me to this one:

I picked this one up in an antique barn of a store in Arizona in '95. It quickly became one of my workhorse watches. I liked the 60s vibe of it, and I think I paid far more than it's worth when I had it repaired about 10 years ago. I just liked the look. This brand still exists and seems to be on junk watches at WalMart mostly. But I like it and I wear it frequently.

I was given these two Bulovas recently. The one on the left looks like it's seen a pretty hard life, but the one on the right is pretty nice-I added a new band because the old one was too small. I wear them, but these days I'm pretty hard on my watches, so usually wear something a bit more substantial. The one on the right has a marking of 'L2', meaning it's from 1952.

I wound all these watches up this morning to see how they're all running. The newest one, I think, is the Pierre Jacquard, and that one is at least 50, and was serviced last 10 years ago. All of them are keeping reasonably good time. The cool thing now, though, is that I don't really need my watch to keep time. My phone does it better, so the watch is really now just for show.

Watch Gang 4

Spinnaker is the first watch of the four Watch Gang watches that I'd heard of before I received it. They constantly advertise on Facebook, and I'm on their mailing list. They have some great looking watches, and a quick look at the Spinnaker website shows a variety of quartz and automatic watches ranging in price from $199 to $650. Still, dropping a couple hundred bucks is a difficult concept for me, and though I have many watches in that price range, I haven't seen a Spinnaker watch that makes me think 'I need that.'

The packaging for this one was rather ordinary. A Spinnaker box inside of a plain white box.

But the watch inside was pretty nice. This is the first automatic that I have received, and I really do like automatic watches for no other reason than I never have to worry about a dead battery.

The watch is a Hunley in Woodland Green, currently sold out on the website, and with the retail price of $305. It's a good size, with a case diameter of 41.5 mm, and it features a Seiko NH-35 movement.

It's water resistant to 200 meters, though with the hunter green leather band, I'd never wear it in the water. The power reserve is at least 24 hours

I don't know that I would've ever picked green, but I did take it on a recent trip to New York City, and comfortably wore it. I like the feel of it on my wrist-heft, but without too much weight.

It's a good watch, and the first that I've been excited about right out of the box. I also may take another look at the Spinnaker website and I'm sure that I'll pull the trigger on a few more.