Well after much deliberation I have come up with a plan
I hate when my blog becomes work so I it was either dump it or grow it.
I gave up giving up for lent so I guess I will grow it.
Gonna throw in some new features.
Shout outs to Marty and Boris here for keeping me going and having the faith in me. And also one of them asked me to blog this shit and the other agreed.
They are the best non blood big brothers a girl could want…
So there will a a few days where you know what you will be getting..
Monday always has to be random. And weekends I hardly blog.
So Tuesdays will be the answers day.. Not sure what to call it each week that will come later. But everyone can email me question and I will answer in one swift shot..
Wednesday hump day…links to get you over the humps.
Thursday I will discuss music..
And
And.
And.
Are you ready for it..
Drum roll please..
A name stolen from me and my radio shows!
“Flashback Fridays”
Tales of the past.. Including name dropping.. Famous locals.. Freaky things in my past that you all beg to hear and I won’t tell.
Time will tell.
I have been dropping hints to a lot more going on than meets the eye on Marty’s page for years.. But I never tell the stories.
And speaking of Marty’s page.. The link is http://www.trippingwithmarty.com
So start thinking of questions you want to ask me..Email me them at djgidgetbates@gmail.com
I will compile all week…
You can email a few questions but let’s limit to three questions a piece a week..Or it will get stale fast and you will run out of stuff to ask…
Now for the special sneak preview
This is actually for Marty himself…
He’s asked in email and in my blog before and I know after today’s email from him he would love for this to be the start.. I am gonna do a FF piece right here right now.. On the fly..

1990. February.. I was sick with a flu that had me at the hospital. I missed a show I paid money for.. Those days all my shows I attended were usually free. The band was Toad the Wet Sprocket. I was so bummed they were so good live.
But I had a fever of 103.. And my health was in the shitter so I was in bed for 2 and half weeks. The night before the flu hit was the last week of January. I had just finally gotten all my stuff out of my earthquake damaged apartment. I did stay till it felt no longer safe. The floor boards had torn and the back built on room I was in was pulling from the rest of the house. Occasionally plaster would fall on my bed.. it was time to go.
I heard after the fact they had to actually tear the room down and the room below it.. it had been built illegally and was unsafe and they never put it back on and new un rent controlled people moved in. when I moved out I was paying 233 a month. We’ll talk about the apartment some day at later intervals.
So my first week back in Fremont I went to see Dramarama at the edge in Palo Alto. I met the tour manager and then John Easdale. The next night was the Ibeam in SF.. I met the rest of the band..I traded Chris Carter a candy bar for a T-shirt he was supposed to send me.. And never did. I was actually working as a cigarette girl that night.
I felt really crappy on the drive home..I went to bed and woke up 2 days later.
I had missed Toad…they played during those two days.
A trip to the ER suggested I had an Asian flu and needed rest. 2 more weeks went by and I was in bed the whole time.. With 2 more doc trips. Antibiotics for the walking pneumonia that set in..
I got better the day before Valentine ’s Day.
Marcella met me at the cactus to see Dramarama again..It was a Friday and a Gavin convention weekend.
John never forgets a face and we made instant friends with each other and hung out after the show.
Because of the bronchial infection my voice was very much like Chris carters and I was coughing like crazy.
But I told them “I used to have a cold I’m ok now it’s just bronchitis” I was never able to live that one down.. Became kind a joke of my health.
They missed playing Gavin due to the rain storm we all watched from across the street at the little motel they were holed up in. No one wanted to play outside.
I didn’t expect to hang out all night and needed to drive back to Fremont to get my glasses and inhaler. I dragged Carter with me.
It was kinda funny to hear my mom call down and Chris answer her with a jersey accent that I was safe and would be home soon and she answering back in her Jersey accent. I had to go back at least for Marcella.
After a bit of hanging out I went home only to hang out again in a few weeks. They seemed to play the Bay Area a lot.
I had seen them so many times before but never dreamed we could all be friends.
The next visit involved me being gifted with a box of wheat thins. John thought I looked like Sandy Duncan.
Chris asked me a favor.
He had a friend coming up to the Bay area for a few weeks and asked if I would hang out with him make sure he gets to his eating places and got out.. His mom was needing some help so he was gonna be up for a few weeks at least.
I wrote the number down and the address of his mother and agreed to call him on the day he arrived.
I honestly had no idea it was THE Rodney Bingenheimer.
The night after they went back I called his friend and much to my surprise I was in shock over my first call to Rodney Bingenheimer. He was sweet and soft spoken and although I had only heard his radio show twice when visiting LA I expected larger than life.. Not even close.
The next morning we had aftershocks of good size. Like three or four of them. I knew it was quite early but I called to check on him anyway with him being closer to Los Gatos and Loma Prieta than I was.. He was fine and grateful I checked on him. Then he went back to sleep.
At the same time as these earthquakes there was a hostage situation in Berkeley in a café I used to go too. And some shootings.. So I never went back to bed and watched the TV all morning. That night I picked up the Rodders and took him with me on a peachy puff ride. And we did this all week. Chris Carter had never even been to Rodney’s mom’s house.. Yet there I was.. His mom had a shrine for him on the mantle.
I was there a lot. And I even took pics of his street. He lived on one of the tunnel tree streets as I called them. The trees grew to form a natural tunnel.
He ate out three times a day and I drove him to a lot of these meals out.
And we went to clubs.
I even dragged him to Original Joes on First Street in San Jose.
It was a blast. It wasn’t that he was famous.. We were both just a lot alike. And it was an instant friendship.
One that lasts still to this day.
Maybe it was the both at our moms coincidence.. Not sure. The bond was set. It wasn’t the attraction kind of bond.. it was the instant friendship we need each other to face reality kind of bond.
We were both known in our circles and we were both very shy and soft spoken in real life. We joked that we must be related as I am adopted and that would be one hell of a story.
When we were out together we were able to deflect attention onto the other.. And since I don’t get star struck it was easy for Rodney to know I was a good go to girl for some of his band friends playing in SF.. I was a realist.. So what, they’re famous.. No biggie I’ll take them around..
This starting my new career as a Rodney girl..
But unlike the admins before me I was his friend..One he could be Just Rodney and I could be Just Gidget.
To this day Rodney and I hardly ever talk bands. We talk Denny’s and food prices and local news then get to business. It’s how we work.
Till today I never wrote about how I know him.
He is uncomfortable with being in print.. As am I. He hates the movie that intruded on his life. I do too.
He is not a sad little man.. He is just Rodney.
We all have flaws but… that movie made him appear almost too flawed in such a fake way I walked out feeling molested, violated. I don’t want to have anything to do with exploiting him.. Ever.. Real friends don’t use real friends to get famous.
I sat in the film with a lot of famous Seattlelites. The band Soundgarden was a few seats behind me. They were with Stone Gossard.
They all had the same puzzled look I had.
That next Monday I heard a local DJ defend Rodney against the film.. Saying if the filmmaker was a real friend he wouldn’t have made Rodney look so pathetic. I called him on the phone and told him I agreed.
The movie to me was a circus.. Not the real story.
So there is my friendship with Rodney in a nutshell.
I will share three small things over the last twenty years.
I double check all dead people to call Rodney about.
I love obituaries. You check them to make sure you aren’t in them.. but we never tell anyone that people are dead till we fact check.. And this was pre-internet days.
Rodney was told by another that Lux Interier died. So he did a cramps tribute on the air. Lux called the next day and said … “Why Hello there Rodney I am calling from the grave!”
Lux was not in fact dead.
So when Lux really did die we were dumfounded.. Thank god he died during the internet days and I was able to in fact definitely out him as really being dead in time for Rodney to do the show. Adding why does he have to die this close to a show so we have more time!??????
Death rattles him greatly.
I got him on air once in my life to discuss the death of Michael Jackson.. As Rodney hates the internet and refuses to do internet radio shows! But Michael was his friend.. And that taught me a lot about bashing the dead. It’s just not right.
Story number two is pretty wild.. Rodney wanted to play a band called Birdland. Lewis Largent the station manager at the time had a beef with Lizzy Lee the guitar player. Rodney almost quit over it till it was allowed.
Birdland broke up right after they played LA.
All that station fighting for nothing.
Lizzy Lee loves Rodney still to this day for that. And LOVES to tell the story of how not only did Rodney stick up for him but he got a ride in the famous GTO.
I met Lewis later that year at a GooGoo dolls show at a small bar in SF..He told me that He saw balls on Rodney he had never seen on a DJ and that is why he’d love to have Rodney on his side. That is the kind of guy you’d want pulling for you.. But then added he couldn’t stand Birdland so he had to stand his guns.
Needles to say they don’t fight Rodney on a lot of what he plays.
I kinda liked Lewis for being honest. But I had to stand my defensive of Rodney ground too. But we shook on it…
Then talked about MTV for awhile till the Goos took the stage.
Which adds to story number three.
I met the most awesome band they were gonna be huge.. They played for maybe 100 people at the Cactus Club and the singer took off his shirt and wore it like a diaper and he was funny and the music was awesome.
They were in fact called the Goo Goo Dolls.
I hung out with them after. One of many time to hang with them.. They told me what big fans they were of Rodney’s as my friend Erin went on about how I was Rodney’s missing link relative. She knew them for years I guess being from back east somewhere. And a photographer.
I called Rodney and told them about this band.. He explained that a mutual friend named Brian also was a huge fan of the Goos and he will tell me what he told Brian..That the name was the worst name in rock and they will never make it.
I tried for a long time to get him to play them.
That night at the Night Break Rodney was with me. To see the opening band.. Best Kissers In The World.
As soon as Best Kissers was done so was Rodney.. He reminded me that supporting the Goos was not in fact ever going to happen and left to go see his new favorite band with the best band name ever. Brian Jonestown Massacre.. Now that’s a name.. They would make it.
And he was gone..
The Goos were once again disappointed Rodney dissed them.
Let’s weigh it out.. Goo Goo Dolls? BJM?
Hummmm.
We still joke about this but he doesn’t really find it funny that I laugh about which one he chose.
Or the fact I sat with Lewis Largent.. The devil manager himself.
So there ya have it…
Didn’t the Goos get nominated for an Oscar???? I better not ask Rodney that…

So far on today’s blog I covered ¾ of my weekly new blog line up.
I answered a question marty had been asking.. Which covered what Friday’s blog will be like and I gave you a link..(Marty’s page)
So now I leave you with music
This video came out yesterday and it really messes with my head.
Enjoy.
Might be one of the best videos I have seen in years.

And I know this isn’t my logo for Friday but it sure fits today to get you all pumped for a week of waiting for a mind-blowing flashback story form the Gidget!

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