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Save Our Mothership: George Clinton can't believe Mike Connor's butt did not get funkified at the P-Funk Catalyst show. Slop-adelic! With a stock of about 40 musicians in tow (mind you, that number is quite literal), George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars seemed poised to give us all a funkatronic ass-whoopin' last Thursday night at the Catalyst. But all I can say is that both of my cheeks are still squarely imprinted with the seat of my desk chair. Meaning what? Meaning that my ass didn't get the whoopin' it deserved! C'mon people, work with me here. Please don't make me spell it out for you. Writing about someone with as rich and storied a history as Clinton, I find myself in a peculiar, though certainly not unprecedented, position as a journalist. I don't want to be the one to rain on the parade of loyal funkateers still waiting for that perfect P-Funk show that gets so damn funky that it brings about the funkadelic rapture and spirits them away to a More Perfect Funkiverse. But Thursday night's show was certainly not that show. Coasting on the strength of his name and the mythology of his self-created, funkalicious universe, GC and P-Funk managed to entertain the sizeable crowd, despite a sloppy and tiresome performance. The plethora of players, which at first sounded like a boon, turned out to be a curse, because each new musician taking the stage was fresh enough to deliver their very own extended 15-minute solo. Sure, they could all kick out the jams, but they kicked 'em in the teeth, ground them into powder and sprinkled them over the crowd, and Lord how we tried to pretend it was magical fairy dust raining down, elevating us to a higher ground, but deep down in our chair-shaped butts, didn't we all feel the truth? Flowers in the Attic Earlier last Thursday night, the Attic opened its doors for the first time since the restaurant portion was (more or less) completed. Owner Joe Quigg jokingly entreated the multitude of guests to pick up a paintbrush and help finish it off, but everyone just laughed and helped finish off the hors d'oeuvres instead. Typical. But even without our help, the Attic will be fully operational very soon. Visit www.scica.org for details, and keep your eyes peeled for the new bimonthly community television show, Sowat, hosted by Jeff Dinnell and Chip. It premieres in December in a Sunday evening slot; stay tuned for details ... Cautious Opening Speaking of openings, by the time you read this, Club Caution will have celebrated the grand opening of the restaurant portion of the club, also known as the Loading Zone. The club portion of the club won't open for a while yet, but if the suspense is killing you, at least now you can drop by and get a taste of what's to come. Mike Connor [ Santa Cruz Week | Metroactive Central | Archives ]