me and the terribles (as one band) are playing a one-time show tomorrow at bldg 16 in providence, 9pm $7. with hail seizures, collective of dirt, and chin up meriwether.

ok, let’s be positive!

i had a really fun time in providence this week. unlike last week, where i was mostly dilly-dallying and visiting and batting eyelashes, this time around i was mostly pounding away tough at work, or at the burrito place, or fast asleep immediately, but it was satisfying. the only exception (which was still satisfying) was on wednesday, when there was a show at the space: daniel higgs, arrington de dionyso, mgm grand, querent.

querent is natalja from the dirt pals, singing into a looping and pitch-shifting pedal array, totally beautiful and actual words. daniel higgs played ornery christian mystic to a skeptical crowd of blissful admirers, reading off of a huge scroll and singing all of his words super-hard, like an incantation. arrington played bass clarinet, various other blowing-into things, and finally just voice, in a hypnotic pitch-drift throat singing method, and stared at people. mgm grand was a dance troupe that was a total waste of a lot of time– tons of dead time watching the three members look at each other as if to say “are we still doing this? oh, we are? ok”. absolutely no ideas or emotion or anything, and everyone corralled into an uncomfortable environment. really not good, and really long, like 40 minutes. after that show i raced over to the stand-up comedy show at as220, which i only caught the last part of (which made me madder at the dance troupe for wasting my time). luckily the last act was muffy, and she totally destroyed, absolutely flawless. incredible. everyone had such hi NRG that afterwards, like a 90s hardcore show, we went to IHOP. afterwhich at 2:30 i went right back to work.

the opening on friday night was after much much very last-minute work and little sleep and lots of stupid coffee. there was a decent crowd– queenie and snowflake were there, and i got to pass on these nicknames that they would never introduce themselves by to others. at the last minute (5am the previous night) i made a secondary installation, called “OUR FIRST MILLION”, which took me all of 10 minutes to put together and like everything i consider frivolous (but is maybe better described as “natural”), it got a lot of kind words, despite being kind of just a cheap joke.

MT pointed out on the poster that the show was made possible though no arts organizations, only through “the idea that anything is possible”. but i have to give special super-huge thanks to the joanne hart foundation, dave howl land, and meredith younger, who all provided crucial assists that i could not have done without, and did so with a “yeah, duh” mien. also thanks to the dirt pals, champion suppliers of windowless sleeping nooks and oatmeal!

pictures relevant to this entire post here.

well, i’ve rested and eaten and i drank some coffee and maybe this is unfair but i’m still mad that no one from worcester except ML and my mom came to the big art opening in providence. i worked really hard on it, thinking about my friends the whole time, how great it would be to show them what i was capable of. there were times in the construction of the piece (”my life 08″) where i really wanted to give up, but i wanted to do a good job and make everyone proud, so i kept pushing myself. at the end of the night i realized that ML was right, and actually no one was coming. this was really a slap in the face.

in all fairness, i didn’t do as good a job at telling people about the show as i could’ve– i told every person i came in contact with, and i put up a big post on this very website, but i didn’t send anything out to the lists. so, it could be the case that people have dedicated a part of their brainspace to email– when an upcoming event doesn’t have a corresponding email, it doesn’t really register. i can picture this. but mike called around looking for a ride in on the day of and was unilaterally shut down, so many people did make a conscious choice to not attend. and i can forgive any individual for not being able to make it, i am not that vain. it’s that it was almost everyone, that’s the kicker. the other thing is that i didn’t stress that it was important to me that people come to the opening. i guess this is a classic marriage sitcom cliché, but is it unreasonable to want people to want what we want without telling them we want them to want it?

riding the bus back with ML we got into the conversation: do we stay in worcester just because we know where everything is and all our stuff is here? are we babies? also, are we surrounded by babies? does the city of worcester self-select for people that don’t see the value of going for it? i can’t remember if i said this before but there’s an apocryphal story about newly-hatched eagles, that their mother holds them up to the sun and the eagles that cannot hold the gaze of the sun and look away are thrown off a cliff to die. is this my life here in reverse?

it goes without saying that there was a good amount of my friends from providence there, but that’s not a fair comparison because they’re right there. mike t had very positive things to say about my work, which is ultimately the most important thing, as i greatly value his opinions, and he really helped me out in getting me on this show and by putting my piece right in front, the first thing you see as you walk in (which i know caused others some stress during the construction process). also, he’s really helped me out every time he could since the very beginning of our friendship. mike, i think it’s a dumb idea that you are moving to miami, but i kind of understand. i will really really miss you but perhaps that’s a topic for another time.

the piece finished up nicely, especially considering that it’s the biggest thing i’ve ever made. the opening was fun but the only people from worcester were my mom and mike leslie. i kept looking at the door thinking “where is everyone?”, it sucked. luckily i was surrounded by interesting people working on amazing projects. the bus ride back now costs $17. i’m still sleep-deprived and i have no food at all. full round-up when i remedy some of these situations. good night, assholes!

Like I was saying, Jen of comedy was mind blowing then we all went to IHOP(?) which was crazy gave lots for Jerry(?) got elected Mayor of breakfast, true story. listen

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The installation is going really good. Hey Dave, I thought of another bad(?) news(?) rap(?) dude. Cool motif. listen

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this is the installation that i’ve been working on in providence this month. the opening is this friday from 6 - 9pm. it’s in downtown providence, at the old cogen’s building, 131 washington st, which is near matthewson street, around the corner from as220. um, i hope some people come to it!

this is the biggest single piece i’ve ever done, in terms of physical size. despite being far from being completed, i’m happy about how it’s coming along.

yesterday’s stArt on the street was ssuper duper fun, the best one yet and they’ve all been awesome. i split a space with jjb buckmaster and nik perry, which was really fun, and which gave me more ability to take walks around and see other people’s stuff. other exhibitors that i knew included ashleigh, who had her sculpey jewelery and home-made hula hoops; eamon, who had paintings; audra, who had paintings and sculpture; and john guida, who had a total yard sale of paintings– no table, no tent, just a blanket with everything saloned out.

the crowd was great, tons of people from the very beginning right up to the end. i only caught a little bit of the music (ok, just bone zone and bj snowden) but what i saw was great and it’s my understanding that this tip was indicative of the entire iceberg. the ubiquitous industrial sonic echo played, of course. hey, even i got on the mic to play a few songs at the second stage. pictures of my set are here, from the part where mz, matt carroll and flo grabbed traffic cones as megaphones and sang back-up vocals for me, which made me super super happy. i met tons of new folks and passed out tons of flyers and copies of the new newspaper me and mickey dm have been working on. i made bank but, well, not to be cocky, but i kind of always clean up at these affairs. more to the point, all the vendors i talked to (which is a select group, but whatever) did good. john guida, god bless him, came up to me late in the day with a big smile, wearing a cool macrame wristband / coffee cousy he just bought, almost embarrassed at how high the cheddar he stacked up stacked up. middle andrew (andrew oesch) and jean coz made a huge cardboard building building party that was super busy all day, and when it came time to smash it all down and flatten all the cardobard for recycling, it was all pushed into an alley, where bone zone set up and played the funnest ten-minute set ever– cardboard flying everywhere and people being crazy crazy crazy. i already posted the video, which looks like serious braveheart, but watch it again and realize how rare it is to have a punk show that is either outside, at a festival, or during the day, plus with tons of actual kids, and cops twenty feet away, that is even close to creating this level of blissful abandonment (from which all art stems). so much fun. it got shut down a few songs in because people were on the roof, which was not something anyone could control, but oh well. joe and tobin were both in the thick of it, and when we all came out joe was the first person i saw so i grabbed him and said “PUNKS RULE OK!!!!!”. he was like “YAAAAAAARRRGGHHH!!!!!!”.

basically, from all points of view and from every level of participation (and there was a million ways to participate) and in every quantifiable and qualitative way, it was worth everyone’s while in a big way. super big thanks to the organizers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

all my pictures are up on pretty alright– i saw tons of bloggers out snapping digicams, here’s jeff, claudia, and brendan. oh, and flickr tag startonthestreet

BONE ZONE at stArt in the street, worcester 2008 from fujichia katsuda on Vimeo.

holy shittttttttttttttttt

this was at yesterday’s “stArt in the street” streetfest.

ok, few are going to see this in time to act upon it maybe, but i’m playing from 11:35 - 12:00 at the second stage on the start on the street fest, which is on park ave between pleasant and highland. i realize it’s pretty early to be out on a sunday, but it would be nice to see someone i know out there. ok, that’s it. back to work.

dave, not trying to blow up a spot, just have to redeem myself with the ones from the list i couldn’t remember:
sneezy f dopey
ms misdemeanor magazine
bic pen

ok, now to stay up all night printing t-shirts.