july 30th (wednesday) at the firehouse, 6pm. i think the movie thing is not going to happen, but we’ll have some other attraction.
there’s another show this nite (alluded to in the flyer), which is black rainbow, genesis climber, terribles, bonezone, and blister pack, at distant castle. blister pack is kpars, macoe, the countess cindy b, and PKPKPKPKPKP, it’s their first show.
people! i had a great weekend!
slept during the dumbest part of the day on saturday, then woke up and worked at the shoppe, which was nice and some folks came in and i had some good ideas. band practice after work (incisor) which is really fun and somewhat cathartic for me and in any event it’s good exercise. at night me and nicky revs drove deep into the woods in RI to visit peter glantz. peter lives in the back house of an estate grandfathered in to the middle of a state park, a house unpinpointable with GPS. as we passed the front house (not knowing if we were in the right place), a perfect curtain inside parted to reveal a near-lifesize marionette that proceeded to gesticulate with no one in the room watching it. guys, it was really scary. but we just followed the music (snoop dogg) to the campfire, and everything worked out. jo dery was there and i told her about this blog– hi jo! we all took a nice late nite walk into the woods, it was fun and i hardly even thought about being hunted by a mountain lion.
driving back through providence was where the serendipity really kicked in and i quickly found very recent (that day) internet social networking friend and now-actual friend micky achilles kicking on a street corner texting some goblin. sometimes shit just goes off, and in no time at all i was hitching my wagon to her train and together with empty mountain, lola, and dylan we peaced the bad karaoke spot to the 2am art gallery in wakefield RI. the event was 24 hour comics day, and we stayed there until 6 or 7am scribblin’ and gigglin’, listening inexplicably to a live dj playing only portishead (?), walking to tim horton’s (which was delightfully exotic to me), and generally cutting up. awesome!!! fell asleep back at little pancakes for a few hours, then borrowed a tiny BMX bike (fun) and all day cruised around finding people and drinking water with them, strategizing, gossiping, ofttimes regaling, and a little bit, kvetching, bringing choice morsels to a harmonious table, every conversation and interaction a fine river through novel territory. guys, great weekend!
i just realized i never finished serializing this, so for you internet-only readers, here’s white vinegar #1. next issue “soon” (if).
last night i ate yellow sandwiches and watched jurassic park with diamond and company, and 15 years later the effects still look cool / you don’t see the effects (on the movie). today lunch at the quan yin with American League was delightful and then we went to building 19 and i bought a gift copy of that ed ruscha book i love, “they called her styrene”. ok, i looked it up and couldn’t find anything definitive, but the title painting was made in 1977, x ray spex started in 1976, so it’s possible, but i feel not super likely but who knows. or, who cares enough to investigate. i also got a price guide of golden age comics, and cut off the top three inches, the only part i want, with a band saw. pretty satisfying. now i’m cleaning up, trying to sort through boxes marked “MISC”, and ironing 200 21″ squares.
readers of mcsweeney’s internet tendency may find something amusing on today’s front page. not surprisingly, they didn’t go with my original copy, which was really quite bang zip pow. also not suprisingly, they used the catchier but archaic and not preferred name. AS IF i’m complaining. lauren, thanks for hooking it up!!
the most important part about today was that walking through the classic empty brick industrial ssection of town at night from the pizza thing at the free school to the punk show in the old thrift store, the moon coming up was so big it looked like a massive sports arena just outside of town. the show was cool, dan and jen came out, and so did crusty tim, who is moving to worcester (or wArcester as he calls it) in two weeks, and i can’t wait until he developes underlings, or i overhear people talking about him. i told him i’d show him around town, where the cheap sandwiches are, where the loose cigarettes are sold. as far as bands, the only one i paid attention to was red thread, and they were awesome, and everyone was moving, which makes everyone feel good. mike’s ramp got moved from the go go to there, so now people can skate during the entire show and not be disruptive to people trying to walk or stand or dance or not get hit by skateboards. there was a dog and the dog kept chasing the skateboarders back and forth back and forth, nipping at the air but not daring to bite (and always getting out of the way and once, pooping). it was cute but also a bummer– a loud show is no place for a dog, or didn’t you hear that spazz song? sort of met some new folks, and then i did that thing i like to do nowadays, which is leave the scene while my memories are still beautiful. there’s another show next friday, i need to come up with something to make it interesting…
the comic book convention yesterday was fun, and kind of an awesome bust. i didn’t find the hardbound kamandi books or jimbo #4 - 6, and as far as “display”, almost no one was into what i was doing. i made a ton of pins, and sold very few, and even less of my comics. no one was into the fact that they contained real hair– most were distressed by this. but i’m not complaining, i had a good time.
the fair was broken up into three sections: there was the main hall, which was dealers– back issues, action figures, stuff like that; the artists section– people doing sketches and hawking their wares; and the indie section, which was the artists section but only people outside of the mainstream (ie, people not trying to get on marvel / dc, or people clearly unable to if they tried). the indie section was a tiny ghetto in a cramped corner room, and because of our connections with andy fish (and because jamie is a genuinely good and published comic artist) we escaped this, and hung out with the mid-level artists. jamie had his portfolio out and a lot of people took interest in it, and paid him to draw sketches for them. at one point someone asked him to draw a guy playing saxophone, and draw it in his book of all people playing saxophones. dan wars was there and piped up for me, and convinced the guy to let me do one too– jamie drew an alan moore swamp thing inspired swirl, so i drew man thing (playing the saxophone). the guy came back to collect his book and asked our prices, jamie told him $15 each, which is cheap for a sketch (in that world) but still kind of creased my dome. dan also commissioned me and jamie to draw ROM the space knight, and i gave some drawings to veronica from the art museum. i think i pretty much broke even, or almost anyway.
i’m used to cleaning up at stuff like this, but this wasn’t a crafts fair or zine fair (are there zine fairs anymore, or does everyone just hold it for SPX?). it was kind of fun being so totally out of my element.
some sketches on display (after the cut)
(more…)
the new zine is pretty much done, i’m making copies now. i just have to throw together a cover, a process that involved me saying (earlier, to myself) “i can’t believe i threw out that bag of hair”. the zine is kind of about a boxer, in that there’s a lot of pictures of a guy boxing. it’s definitely inspired by my war (the record, not my actual war), and it’s called “I MIGHT BE A BIG BABY”.
i’m pretty psyched about this comic book convention, mainly because 1,) hanging out with jamie is fun; 2,) it made me make a new comic book; 3,) i think i’ll be able to find a half-price copy of the KAMANDI collection.
the show tonight was fun, i sang with a microphone, which was nice for a change but i still prefer without. i had a special song medley prepared, then people got so rowdy during it that the mic got unplugged, and i couldn’t do all the super special shit (which is totally nobody’s fault). next time, maybe. also when ghost mice played they eschewed the mic and it just made me wish i had done it, not to be like them, but, well, to be louder than them. i mean, they’re from bloomington, and like everyone in that crowd, their voices come from their heads, not their lungs. i had to split before the end of the night, because sometimes you just have to split for a hundred tiny reasons that you don’t ever talk about ON THE INTERNET. oh, and as i suspected, there were a lot of teenagers at the show.
the music video for my song “twin elephants” is now up on youtube. you can consider it a “two girls one cup” fanvid.
OK, starting now, if anyone out there wants to make their own music videos to one of my songs (either something from foreign policy or anything from the vaults), i will be super super delighted, and will send you a free fujichia t-shirt, and if you stop by the store, i’ll give you a soda. and the video can’t just be my song over some other video you cheapskate! limited to first 10!
i forgot that i scanned these in… when billy blue used to play gilrein’s, i would bring my sketchbook and try to draw the guitarist, pete henderson, who has a really good guitar face, like he’s eating something so good it’s freaking him out but he’s really trying to concentrate on it. here’s three of the best attempts out of very many tries:
as a angry cat:
jjb bucks’ valiant effort:
and my own final personal best:
here’s an ok photo for reference, but he doesn’t have the face. but he is doing the same thing as the guy on his t-shirt, which i always enjoy.
well, i have to say, the show last night at the q was pretty fun. there were a lot of people there, many of whom were strangers to me, everyone was having a good time. they still didn’t have plain green tea, so i just drank water all night. i ate half of annie’s vegan deli sandwich, it was ok, and i got the continued backstory on the place. so the backstory i had was simply “wealthy aunt”, which explains how they could be a business and have all this expensive equipment and seemingly not know how to use it (such was my experience the first two times i went in). the continued backstory is that “a bunch of ICP dudes” “took over” the java hut (the primary late teen slam poetry rec room), and all the couch rats jumped ship. but like i said, i had a good time, people were friendly. i cannot comment on the quality or value of the foodstuffs, as i only got water, but it was ina real glass anyway. long story short, it’s a clubhouse, which is whatever– everyone needs a clubhouse.
as far as the performances, i missed the first act, which only meant that things started dead on time, which means that people were there early, which rules. i played second and had a great time warbling and telling stories. it’s weird being on stage AND having everyone sitting down at tables, but so it goes. i forgot to sing all the special songs i was working on, so it goes. the foundation was really good, playing at a really moderate volume, which was pretty awesome. lots of people dancing and having fun. or rather, the usual suspects dancing and having fun, while weirded-out teens played cool. they have a really long instrumental riff-out that always results in the audience playing with the band like toys– this time me and elder sabatinelli lofted and chicken-fought annie and dave (bass and guitar), then later, dave was slowly pantsed. i really like dave and annie, a cool and rare super tight brother sister best friend pair. the drummer jerry is fun to watch too, it kind of looks like the drums are small animals and he’s trying to keep them from getting near his face.
i’m getting a little sick right now which sucks, so i’m drinking lots of miso and no dumb sugars. oh, the volunteer meeting at the store was yesterday and it was awesome! next week i’m only working at the store on saturday, which means lots of time to make stuff and have ideas. i’m psyched. god bless kelley parsons, volunteer coordinator and friend.
UG! i was pissed off all day waiting for some internet strangers to drag this couch out of the shop so i can get things in a better order for incoming volunteers. well they never showed and i lost a day of my life and i missed seeing the syncromaids and now the store is totally torn apart (which i had to do to get the couch out of the back). COOL! they said they could come get it wednesday morning– who wants to go to the store to help them? not me, but it has to get done (which means no one except me will do it).
stormed home in a bad mood hating all life– i was even accidentally at the front of a new year’s eve parade scowling in the TV camera. got home and ate some and watched a little bit of my favorite movie (dracula) and caught the 6:00 fireworks from my front step- the closest i’ve ever seen them. i feel better now but that doesn’t mean everything in my life is suddenly awesome. i wrote a “year in review” but it’s a total downer and one thing i learned this year is that no one wants to know how you’re doing if it’s bad, and people who need people are fucked. there’s no party in worcester because no one in worcester can get their shit together. instead everyone’s going to providence, which i thought would be an escape for me but the other thing i learned is that there’s no escape.
this saturday (the 5th) i’m playing a show at the q, which is the pathetic coffee house on chandler st towards tatnuck square. it’s me, the foundation, and “i hate them”. it’s billed as a dance competition, but i don’t play dance music (and i resent bands telling me to dance). bring your own booze and hide it on your person. i don’t know what time the show’s going to be at but i bet i’m going to play first. this is the place where the guy didn’t know what earl grey was, and the fucking edward gorey ripoff asshole’s pictures are hanging up everywhere.
this wednesday (the 2nd) there’s a show at the go go, with terribles bone zone and black rainbow (erick lyle’s new band). this is going to be the last punk show ever at the go go, because ML’s moving out and after that no punks will ever move in (because it’ll be all people with careers). there’s a show at mr worcester on the 12th, which is the saturday after next– i think the rowdy ones are playing.
