When the Beasties needed an extra guy, they needed a keyboardist. It’s okay. It could be worse. At least there’s a gig for me. If I played piccolo flute, there wouldn’t be a gig for me there.

The last time we met up with Money Mark, he took us to Terminal Island, a part of Los Angeles' South Bay where Japanese Americans settled and made a living by fishing. We saw trucks, factories, and even took in some fish and chips at an old Asian-owned restaurant. Now that Mark has resurfaced with a new EP, we decided to take another trip to another neighborhood under the radar: South Central LA. Mark grew up there way back "in the '60s," and he claims to know of great place to eat a new kind of Chino Latino.

"Chino refers to the slant of Asian eyes," Mark explains. Latino is easy to figure out. It's some type of weird mixture that Mark claims is all over New York. We saw something like it in Mexicali, but in Southern California? Los Angeles is vast and varied, and the Gardena local swears that he can take me to an eatery that serves it.

But first we go to the Watts towers-one of the three things the com-munity is famous for, along with riots in 1965 and the poets known as the Watts Prophets. Fenced off but still visible, the triangle-shaped plot of land was once owned by Sam Rodia, an Italian immigrant who worked in construction but wanted to leave his mark. He built the tow-ers from 1921 to 1954 using metal, scrap junk, bottles, dishes, and homemade cement. Ironically, the sculpture's subject matter is of Marco Polo's ship that eventually found its way to China and opened the country's doors to the rest of the world. We look at the Iittle pieces of mosaic tiles and marvel at this man's painstaking work, which even-tually landed him a spot on the Sergeant Pepper's album cover right next to Bob Dylan.

On the way out, we drive past yard sales, kids playing basketball, a woman wearing big-time thong undies, some ho's, tons of thrift shops, and an insanely customized bicycle parked on a street corner. Stop.

Huddled by the bike is an older fellow named Brooks, who's taken aback by Mark's interest in the vehicle. It's an old Schwinn cruiser that has been modified into something that's part lowrider bike and part mod scooter with exhaust pipes in the front and back and mirrors and reflec-tors everywhere.

We drive on, and Mark eyes the spot that allegedly serves Chino Latino grub. It's a hut on a shady-looking street corner. There's a Cadillac in the parking area, and a few people are sitting around eating Mexican soul food! The menu includes burritos, roast turkey, chicken, ribs, tacos, chitlins, and collard greens on the side. After Mark acts like he's going to order food, we leave just in time to see a super-skinny cracked-- out woman with deep sunken eyes and tight red pants step out from the Caddie. She chicken walks around the corner, and Mark swears that just four months ago it was a Chino Latino joint.

Leaving South Central, we talk about what the Beastie Boys' original keyboardist and solo musician has been up to before ending up at a ramen place eating food made by Latinos.

GR: What have you been doing for the last two years?

MM: I've been writing songs. Ben Stiller's a fan, and in this light-I don't want to say cheesy-comedy, Along Came Polly, there's all this Latin salsa music. I did four or five Latin pieces for that movie. I had to get a band together, then we got to perform it in the movie. I play guitar, and I have a couple of lines.

And then there's an HBO series, Family Bonds. I did original music for 10 episodes. I'm also trying to make this iMovie and get my DVD thing together. I have all this footage of stuff. I was in the Moog movie and the Moog movie soundtrack. I did some touring. I was trying to figure out if I was going to change my career or not. I kept ending up being a musician or songwriter again. I thought I was long forgotten; that's why I was going to change my career.

GR: What would you be doing if you weren't making music?

MM: I don't know. I was thinking about painting or making a movie or something different. I was actually going to find my colors and paint with them. But I wrote a bunch of songs, and now I'm going to make a record. The EP is just to get people interested. It was done very quickly; it was the first six songs in my file.

GR: What about touring?

MM: I actually want to go on an iPod tour. I have these backing tracks on my iPod, and I push play and play along with a piano or guitar and sing. Then I have another iPhoto thing with a TV monitor next to me, and I rock a slide show while I'm playing. I played in Japan and did an Australian tour this summer.

GR: What's coming up?

MM: The next LP will have vocals. Then I'll do an instrumental, groovy, and far-out thing. I'm taking my time. I don't really have it all planned out, you know. It's stiII my hobby. I try not to take it all that serious. It would be a drag to do that.

GR: How did you get back to playing with the Beasties?

MM: They called me. It was kind of out of the blue. I was working on a soundtrack for a surf movie. From that, I was in Tokyo doing these shows. The Beastie Boys were staying at the hotel next to my hotel, so we were hanging out and it just happened. I think they thought there was bad blood or the bridge was burned, but it wasn't. I never threw it away.

GR: Do you still play with your keyboards?

MM: I'm in a transition into just writing songs with a guitar and piano-not worrying about the sound of it as much. I'm trying to get the lyrics and chords right.

GR: Your name became synonymous with keyboards.

MM: Yeah. Keyboard Wiz Dude, Keyboard Noodler Guy-I want to get away from that as much as I can. When the Beasties needed an extra guy, they needed a keyboardist. It's okay. It could be worse. At least there's a gig for me. If I played piccolo flute, there wouldn't be a gig for me there.

GR: What about that weird amp microphone instrument?

Then I just got into the Eccentric Noise Guy category. It's in tandem with Keyboard Wiz Guy.