| December 28, 2002
 If you’ve been reading our site for a while, you know that we’ve been putting together a Cool Grrrls compilation CD titled, "Cool Grrrls Kick Ass!" Well we just picked up the mastered CD from Jim Monroe and it sounds grrrreat! Out of over two hundred CDs that we received from all over the world, we picked out 26 songs. Unfortunately that was 10 songs too many. So we had the pain- staking task of cutting it down to 16 songs. Some of the bands I really wanted on this compilation CD aren’t. So look out for "Cool Grrrls Kick Ass! II" coming out sometime next year. I really want to thank all the bands that sent in their CDs to be included on this compilation. I wish we could put out a four CD set, coz we had enough really cool songs to fill at set like that easily. Our "Cool Grrrls Kick Ass!" CD is available at our store.
The 16 bands that did make it on the CD are:
Tirany – So Long – from Australia
Lava Baby – Sex Junkie – from NYC, NY
The Kowalskis – Career Barbie from NYC, NY
Moler – Red and White Stripes – from Australia
The HissyFits – Something Wrong 2001 - from NYC, NY
Gore Gore Girls – Hot Rod Breakdown - from Detroit, MI
The Drive – Cursed - from NYC, NY
Manda and the Marbles – Dangerous – from Columbus, OH
The Organ – Sinking Hearts – from Canada
Riff Randells – Lethal Lipgloss from Canada
Barbee Killed Kenn – Bitch - from California
Dada Stunt Girl – Femmenstruation Liberation – from Finland
Boobie Trap – Drunk – from California
Switchblade Kittens – Solar Plexus Kick - from California
The Waulkees – The Coolest Girl In Town - from Italy
Get the Girl – Traffic Jam – from California
Lots of other things have been going on with Cool Grrrls over the last several months. We’ve added a few new correspondents. Including our first ever, Cool Grrrl from South America! Kari is from Argentina and heads up the Argentina@Nite. Like most of the Cool Grrrls, Kari is in a way cool band called Hyperstatic. Another recent addition to Coolgrrrls.com is Franki. Franki is another
Orange County@Nite correspondent. Franki is in a way cool band as well, called Boobie Trap. And we have another Germany@Nite Cool Grrrl. Her name is Marion and she’s super cool. Marion even got to check out one of my favorite bands The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs while they were on tour in Germany. So please do check out their pages and feel free to send them an e-mail welcoming them to our site.
A few weeks back, our other Germany correspondent and ruler of the Chicks Rule page, Sabine and her friend/personal photographer Sandra made it out here to the Cool Grrrls HQ in California for a week of rest and relaxation, also to interview Sabine’s friend Tony Hawk at his Boom Boom HuckJam sk8 event down in San Diego. It is always fun to meet one of the Cool Grrrls in person. After corresponding with someone by e-mail for years you think you know them, but you really don’t until you spend some time with them. I can tell you that Sabine is super fun, very intelligent, tall, pretty, she loves Mexican food and she really, really loves to shop. The Tony Hawk interview went well and it was nice meeting him. After the interview, we stayed for the Boom Boom HuckJam event. It was awesome! Devo played all their 80s’ hits. They had rad Moto-X guys getting rad air, BMX guys doing unreal tricks on the half pipe, and of course the skating was the main event. Tony even pulled off a 900. I’ve heard he’s the only one in the world to be able to pull that trick off. Soooo make sure you check back and look for the Tony Hawk interview and Sabine’s California update soon. Special thanks to Sabine and her friend Sandra for a really fun week!
The other Cool Grrrls have been busy too … Helcat just sent in an update from Australia about road tripping w/Cow Penalty across the outback, seeing an Emu get smashed, and gigging with her band Moler @ the Espy for the "Night of the Longnecks". Manga our former Teen Scene UK correspondent, now in her twenties and heading up the London@Nite page was seen dancin’ up a storm with her friend Monkeyman. Alisha Amnesia our San Francisco@Nite has returned with another killer rock n’ roll update from the city by the bay. In Los Angeles, Kastle hopped on a plane and jetted to the East Coast to hang with our NYC correspondents. While there, Kastle was lucky enough to catch her fellow Cool Grrrl Kitty and her band The Kowalskis as well as Cool Grrrl Eva and her band The Drive who were performing on the same bill at Don Hill’s. Lei updated us on the Atlanta club scene along with letting us know about her new purchase. She now is the owner of 2 Technic 1200 MK2s with Ortofon SS needles, a Pioneer 500 Mixer and the Sony 700 Series. I know nothing about DJ equipment, but I’ve been told that she picked out some pretty cool stuff. On Miami@Nite, Shannon meets the infamous Sasha. I guess Sasha is the DJ who was a huge part in revolutionizing dance music. Shannon also interviewed her fave band, Hybrid for cooljunkie.com. The d-grrrl wrote about "The Death and Life of Punk Rock", a story that was inspired after attending "The Inland Invasion" out here in California. Kata has left Budapest again. This time she’s spending a year in Germany. Once Kata gets settled look for an update on her recent move. Melody Licious should be home by now from her recent European Tour with her band Gore Gore Girls, her European Tour update will be coming soon. Other Cool Grrrls I have recently talked to and that are working on updates are Mar, Carrie and Lisa Darling.
 If you haven’t heard yet we’ve started a lil’ sister site called Glitter Grrrls. And we have some grrrreat girls writing for it. You’ll have to go check it out and see what our younger readers are really into. Thanks to Carrie @ Carrie Apple Studio for designing Glitter Grrrls. Also thanks to Laura Encarnado, Michelle Lemoignan, Katie Kiedyk, Crystal Hawkins, and all the other Glitter Grrrl contributors for their very cool contributions!
On a personal note … Last month I went over to a friend’s house and was told he was surfing in Bali and will be back in a week. On October 12 I heard about the bomb blast that ripped through a section of clubs in Bali. I called my friend Crabbie who as of a week ago was there, but only got his answering machine. The next day I planned on going over to his house to check on him. That morning I picked up the paper and saw a picture of two of my friends that I have known and surfed with for 20 years. Web was dead and Crabbie was injured with a broken shoulder and 3rd degrees burns on his hands. A majority of his hearing was loss also. Crabbie and Web were friends of Cool Grrrls … Crabbie’s band; El Centro actually played our last Cool Grrrls party in Hollywood earlier this year. I really can’t understand what Al-Qaida has to gain by killing innocent people.
When Crabbie made it home he said, "I'm very happy to be home." He went on to say, "What I went through is living hell. I was 20 feet from the bomb. How can you be that close to a bomb and be alive? I don't know if it is a gift or a curse." He said he attempted to rescue Web. "I tried to get him out, but the roof fell down on him," he said. "I had to get out. There was just fire everywhere." Said Crabbie, "I don't know who was behind it. They can't be too pleased with themselves. If they were targeting Americans, they got Australians." He wants President Bush to take action. "It's
gonna come here eventually. Something's got to be done," he said. "(They will) burn in hell. They need to pay. Innocent people dying like this is not right." Crabbie told a friend that the exit was blocked, but knew he had to get out and ran to a corner of the bar. Knowing the bar was poorly made of corrugated metal and held together by spot welds he slammed his shoulder up against the wall until the welds gave way and fall through the opening, other people spilled out after him. That’s how he broke his shoulder. He went on to say he thought once he got outside that he was going to be picked off by some terrorist.
On October 19th there was a memorial for Web down in Newport Beach on 52nd Street, where we all spent the better part of 20 years surfing and having fun. Web’s nickname was Insta Bro, coz anybody he meet he made them feel like they were best friends. Web made a lot of friends while he was alive and most of them came out to say goodbye. After a brief service on the beach, about 150 friends including Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a US congressman from Huntington Beach, paddled out and formed a huge circle to hold hands and remember a friend, father, and husband. RIP Web. Our condolences go out to Web’s wife Mona and their two children. Also our thoughts and best wishes to all of our Australian friends who lost so many.
--Frank
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