Robert Phoenix

“Poverty is the parent of crime and revolution.”
(Aristotle)

It must be the Mercury/Venus conjunction in Scorpio, creeping up on my ascendant. Tales of the underworld unwind. I’ve been following with some interest a simmering feud between rival motorcycle gangs, The Hells Angels and The Vagos. Just over a week ago, the head of the Hells Angels in San Jose, Jeffery “Jethro” Pettigrew was gunned down in a casino in Reno (hey that rhymes) allegedly by a member of the rival Vagos gang. According to my buddy James, who used to be a detective in the Central Valley, they’ve got some kind of turf war going on for Meth distribution.

Last weekend at Pettigrew’s funeral in San Jose, a fight broke out and there was another fatal shooting. This time it was Angel on Angel and the dead Angel was “Steve Tausan.” Tausan was the Angel’s enforcer. A former marine and professional boxer, he was a certifiable badass. I went to high school with Steve Tausan. I knew him since junior high and even trained with him in P.A.L. boxing. Even back then, he was one, tough, little dude. In high school, he was a boxing champ. I wan’t close with him, though we talked. What’s fascinating is that he was never a bully. He was a edgy, but not a bully (though my high school buddy Kurt said he saw him drop kick a cat during PE once) and by the way, no one fucked with Steve Tausan. Read the rest of this entry »

Ordo Ab Kachao!!!

I just saw Cars 2 last night, a special sneak preview held by Disney in SF. We blazed through traffic like a laser, devouring asphalt at a giddy pace, one not known in the Bay Area at 6:30PM. It was Sunny and me, enough for a carpool in a light diamond lane. I told Sunny that this is what it’s like to be really rich. He wanted to know why. I said that when you’re rich, it’s like driving through life as if it’s a diamond lane all the time. Not sure he got it completely. He went back to tracking jets in the sky.

We found the theater and parking, rolled in and were greeted by Disney dudes in suits and blue tooth ear buds. They could have easily passed for secret service muscle. I would later find out that this would be an unwittingly ironic start to Cars 2.

After a brief hold-up, where we were almost shut out of watching the movie, they ushered us in and we grabbed our seats near the front. I ran for some popcorn and an Icee. $10.50 later, I was watching the end of the trailer for The Lion King. If you don’t know it already, “The Lion King” is a disturbing piece of Disney mind warp that contains oodles of traumatic conditioning and weird homo-erotic subliminals. The crowd, oohed and ahhed, then clapped as the trailer faded to black. This was definitely a pro-Disney crowd.

After a new, Toy Story short, Cars 2 revved up. I am now going to warn you that I will be dishing up lots of spoilers along the way. Continue on if you don’t mind them. Read the rest of this entry »