this handsome calendar is of the wall variety, 8 x 14 when opened, illustrated (by me) with lots of weird drawings and semi-crazed writings, and annotated (by me) with a selection of birthdays (dan wars, mel soter, nicky revs, more). space to write in timely information like important science fiction conventions and when is shark week anyway? well-suited for all your abraxial needs.
$5
last night i wanted to take it easy– finally got sick after bragging about eating so healthy then eating a mess of tactical desert items and weakening my immune system just for a few hours. of course when you’re sick you don’t want to eat brown rice and raw garlic, you want ramen noodles and dr peppers so i got a little sick and let myself get sicker. anyway i’d do it again in a heartbeat but i wanted to take it easy so instead of going to the teenage waistband tape release show with SA and jim i went with billy blue to the dumb tapas bar for the “worcester movies weekly” launch party. i know that going to a bar isn’t taking it easy as such, but it was only for a little bit and in answer to your question, yes, it is still funny to conflate “tapas” and “topless”. i like rob, the guy that does the magazine, and i’m trying to get a job writing reviews, so i’m happy i went. it was a decent turnout and when i got there they were playing the theme song to ““, which i was into but thought was really really weird until i realized an hour later that they had been playing movie songs all night. billy blue bought me a drink, which was more expensive than either of us had anticipated, and was actually the second drink choice, after the first drink came and with it a too-hefty price tag. the nice guy bartender took the first drink back no problem, and i can only hope that he dumped it into a big jug with all the other “balk” drinks, to be drank at a later date. it was, you know, exposed duct work, brick wall… i guess the bar wasn’t “dumb”, it was just weird to be someplace expensive. maybe this is going to sound amateurish, but everytime i’m in someplace “nice” i think about how “they” need “us” but “we” don’t need “them”. you know (or, you don’t)… of course it was doubly weird as it was in the same building as “the space”, the seminal worcester punk club and most important physical location in my (as-yet brief) history, and right above where ‘s ice cream shop used to be. times change i guess but i can’t help but think about all this new development in the old mills going underused for a long spell and gradually a new generation of weirdos move in. i know, we’re talking about things in geologic time now.
i got myself two presents in the past week or so, both of which i deserve. i finally got the albert ayler $90 10 disk box set i’ve been wanting for years and it rules. the dick tracy reprint book was more of an impulse buy but as i told mel this evening, i can write it off as an educational expense, and anyway kasey henniman told me that i had to give myself a present every day. it sucks that all the comics i want to buy nowadays (with the exception of all the “planet terry”s i bought off a shaef-duff last week) are $30 hardbound books- the gasoline alley reprints, the popeye reprints, the dick tracy reprints… what kind of sucks about the dick tracy book (and to some extent the popeye book, which i don’t yet have) is that what i really want is the later stuff, when it was super goony and bonkers and really flexing. full writeup of the ayler box after i listen to everyhing 5 or six times, and the inevitable me-tying-it-in-to-everything-i’ve-been-thinking-about-lately.
maybe the most important part of this post is this: “tapas” & “topless”— still funny. anyway give me a break i’m sick.
every now and then i check in on - he’s a buddy of mine, and it’s good to check up on someone every now and again. david, i see you’re into newspaper comics, so here’s two from my vaults (click for larger versions):
a refutation of the most recent beetle bailey thing you linked to, proving that people are indeed trying to actually kill beetle bailey. i think this was actually prefigured in a mad magazine parody of beetle bailey.
a good blondie that even nick reville likes.
a really good single panel of blondie.
do i need to discuss these things? well, maybe i’ll just point out some things from this last item- the way dagwood sits- so low; the geometry of the scene- always interesting; daisy the dog- an archetype; blondie’s hair- mesmerizing; love- fighting. hi dave!
the past few days have felt like three months in a good way. ML’s art show was fun, i drove in with mcoe cschubs cbren and brianna, we stopped and got double espressos en route, and me having only ever had 6 lifetime cups of coffee before! got to the show all jittery and saw everyone from worcester packing the place drinking free vitamin water and shmoozing. mike’s drawings rule obviously and he even had a big painting that was totally boss, a huge old western landscape from his grandma’s collection, into which he painted spooky lurkers and regular creeps. i’m psyched that the show was at , which is a shop i really like. orchard and are kind of sister stores, and everytime i see devoe and bro derick (the dudes that run orchard) we talk about our stores, and try to come up with a weird project we can do together. after the show, and a good amount of hanging out in the street, nothing special. we went back to worcester and hung out at the hotel vernon, then me and carolynn walked home, stopping at the re-opened miss worcester.
the miss worcester used to be a real heartbreaker but now it’s just sort of a regular place. tina, the woman that ran it forever (every day of the year) was booted out unceremoniously some years back after a dispute over whether she owned the business, the building, the land the building was on, or what. the dude that kicked her out was refurbishing it to run it himself, but then something happened and he’s out, and the new owners i think have nothing to do with the badness. tina was a real quiet gruff yankee archetype with a heart of gold, and is greatly missed. the new folks seem nice enough. anyway it was good, the homefries are very different but ok, and i bugged out a little because there were kids with actual white belts hanging out inside! i didn’t realize this was still a uniform for punk dilettantes but upon reflection it is totally appropriate.
saturday was another positively beautiful day of unseasonable warmth- sweatshirt weather if you can believe it. i did some writing, went out to dinner with emma, The Only Phone Book Fan, met kpars at the store to work on some stuff for tour (frenching action left sunday for points south), party at tbhat’s house, then a nice long walk into the warm night with nicky revs, cutting through parking lots and under fences and talking about “going big” and “not having a game plan” (two cool moves for 2007). yesterday, sunday, played some soccer in the field outside my house, but i played “harpo”- playing on neither team, just keeping things lively. movie at forbes st was the bollywood movie “shabnam mausi”, which ruled so hard i almost don’t believe it, based on the of the first hijra (transgendered or intersex person) to be elected to political office in india. oh my god it ruled.
today it’s raining raindrops big as dimes but it’s still weird-warm out with thick gray air. radiant splendor continues. mel returns from chicago today. maybe dinner with friends again tonight.
(this is not pictures from th art show- does anyone have pictures of the art show?)
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new 2-color HBML shirt drops tomorrow (if all goes well). as promised, they will be black and purple on LAVENDER.
don’t forget about ML’s arte showe this friday at , 1562 tremont st boston MA from 7 to 10pm. it’s a tiny room, and i think everyone is going. it’ll be up for like a month i think. mike is making limited edition cookies, plus t-shirts, some of which i’ll have at the store if you don’t get one at the show.
there’s a 7-11 that opened up down the street from me and i know this sounds kind of ridiculous but i think it’s really good for me, in that i like fountain soda, and it’s the only fountain soda place around and i need easy short “get out of the house” destinations, for when i’m flustering around and need to just move a little in order to get my brain running again. this particular 7-11 itself is so new and well lit in that gross light, and there’s never music playing, and there’s no decorations, and the layout is kind of weird– it’s almost like a train station. it’s altogether appropriate for the transitory activity outlined above. in the two times i’ve gone i’ve run into weird friends, if this trend continues i’ll be absolutely delighted.
there are security cameras posted at the corner of building pointed out at the parking lot, it’s not like i’m going to rob the place, but i’m sure there’s a 45 degree approach that renders you invisible, and maybe a warp like that atari mice-in-a-maze game in which hitting the corners perfectly allowed you to squeeze right through the wall and evade capture.
my internet is down. i wrote this at the time noted, then posted it a day later and back-dated it. ok.
last night there was a new years party at the go go, the big farm house i used to live at on the edge of town. i had a good time but was it ever a mess. dan wars brought 9 cars of people from boston, all the worcester punks showed up, me and mike made dance party mix tapes, beer flowed like water (down people’s backs), disfrat played (that’s dan’s louie louie / wooly bully / hang on sloopy band), it was a mess. some people didn’t but i sure did: have a great time. there was the tenseness i get at a party, there was the inevitable weird time of looking back at the last year of your life, there were other stresses both personal and external, but dancing and singing and carrying on on the dance floor, and in other situations as well, there were moments where i had indeed returned to heaven. it’s raining now and i’m in my house alone, i’d be lying if i didn’t say i felt a tinge of melancholy. but more than that i’m just excited. no resolution this year, just the realization that loving life means living it and all that entails. it’s just like that john hurt record said- i’ll be there, you’ll be there, i’ll meet you in the soup and we’ll get all mixed up together.
ha ha! i know! who cares! love ya!