Gannet News Service
Three members of cosmic country rock band I See Hawks In L.A. (Big Book Records www.iseehawks.com) were arrested for public urination at the California Aqueduct channel crisscrossing Highway 46 between Highway 101 and Interstate 5.They face possible additional charges of contamination of public water supply and even terrorism. Igor Putin, who replaced the late Tim Russert on Hard Ball, claims that Washington insiders believe an achievement starved Bush Administration may want to make a public example of the roots rockers and their symbolically charged display (see “12 Must Download mp3s” in June’s Spin Magazine for a loopy I See Hawks apocalyptic take on a Slash Impersonator livin large at decadent Hollywood Hills uber-parties).
Also arrested on unspecified charges was their keyboardist or guitarist, for documenting the urination proceedings on his digital camera. When confronted by a Highway Patrol officer and three Crown Victoria’s full of Kern County sheriffs, the band member tossed his footage laden camera into the middle of the wide Aqueduct waters. He then lay prone, face buried in the gravel, and was escorted quietly to a squad car. The camera has not been recovered.
Singer songwriter Rob Waller, interviewed from an unspecified location through cell phone by journalist Mark Follman for an upcoming Salon profile (Salon.com/weeks words/walleriseehawksinla), has a firm, and many say, convincing take on his band’s purpose in urinating directly into the waters that quenches Southern California’s mighty thirst.
Waller: “Let’s consider a little common sense, shall we? Is urinating into our water supply ten feet from a busy highway while documenting with video anything but a social statement? I guess my response to the accusations is the same as my admonition for society: we’re drinking our pee.