this year’s major taylor race was last sunday. i missed the registration (which was kind of ideal) and thus could not enter the race proper, but i had a great time nonetheless. the event is a one-person-at-a-time time trial up george st, a super super steep hill (only two blocks long) off main st near the courthouse. because there is no real head-to-head competition, people of all ages and ability levels participate, some to compete, but most to just to participate, and rep. and because it’s one person at a time, you can really cheer on every single person, which is really fun, and since it’s kind of grueling and in close quarters (the audience lines the sidewalk), the cheering really helps to motivate people. we were camped out pretty far up the hill, and i really feel like our voices and antics pulled people that otherwise might’ve given up. really a great feeling.

that afternoon and night more flitting around. after the hill climb and the traditional pickle barrel lunch, me and MZ, ML and MC all ambled to mouse feet house in home invasion mode to “watch a movie” aka “take a nap”, which ruled and as i expected, randa made cookies, which we ate (cookies: good). waking up all groggy we strode umbrellaed in the rain to the soda place for suicides and deck steaks, then hung out in the parking lot under the 7-11 eave for a good long time. a dinner party at jenna’s house produced two kinds of enchilada, then back to the fold. NICE.

now a little more on the topic of major taylor:
major taylor was a bicycle hero who lived in worcester at the turn of the century (19th - 20th, not 20th - 21st). he was only the second black athlete to become a world champion at anything (after boxer george dixon), and was conspired against at every level of organized bicycling for the duration of his career. he was constantly being threatened by fans and was at least once beat up by another racer. bicycle associations moved many races to sundays, when they knew he could not race for religious reasons. but he persevered and didn’t just “survive”, but became a champion, and what’s more, remained the entire time a gentleman. GOD BLESS.

also, i know i say this every year, but in re: the major taylor hill climb, next year is the year to rep, so train up, get a 1:1 gear ratio if you need to, get your costume ready, and notch your pride up.

major taylor on wikipedia
major taylor association hill climb

i’m playing a show this thursday, the 26th, at distant castle.
also
DIEGO PEREZ
ID M THEFTABLE
ANIKKI DAWN

that’s right, it’s FOLK MUSTACHE v NOISE BEARD. swayers and players (featuring sayers and brayers).

let’s say 8:30 pm.

i’ll have some new songs, and a new collectible one sheet.

lion darwing by JJB Buckmaster

oh, diego is a fun guy from providence, and is the holy ghost to father deer tick and son chris paddock. annikki dawn is a whippoorwill in a peaceable kingdom. id m theftable is a mystery beast from deep maine, that sits at a table with devices and makes throat clearing noises in a noise mode. josh tumble cat ranks him high, and that goes a long way for me. this is going to be great!

a few weeks ago me and nik perry were in the liquor store getting swamp water supplies when he noticed that the nice indian ladies who work at this particular liquor store had drawn a beard and mustache on the babe calendar. we broed down a little about this compulsion, then as we were leaving, the lady said something in hindi to her mother, butme and nik both thought she was talking to us, and we both heard “good luck, archimedes!” and we both didn’t know how to respond, which is probably for the best.

the other day there was a guy at the grocery store going on and on in the meat section about how good the haddock was, to point of stopping people who were walking by and saying “you gotta try the haddock!”. i told him “you sound like my wife– it seems like every night she has a haddock!”. the guy said “huh.”. i’m sorry but this did happen, and i’m sorry.

karaoke was fun, i sang a few, including “fernando“, which was just out of my range so on the high notes i had to grab my throat and physically change the shape of my windpipe, which is something i read about akon doing.

the show last night was also fun, although for no reason i was totally out of it. as in, my brain and body were all weird. i liked all the bands, especially grass widow, and it was super great to see matt tobey tear on the guitar! and the house totally smelled “crusty”, which is cool.

kevin driscoll has a new screwed-down mixtape, it’s good, even though it’s named after a kind of fart: NIGHT WIND. george washington carver myers also has a screwed mix tape that just came out, but the source material is all dancehall, and when you screw down the huge bass drops already present in reggae they turn into a sound like a cable is a little loose, or something is improperly grounded. my screw tape is coming out next week, dead serious, cd + download, another “new trend” release.

here’s the flyer for tomorrow’s B*X+Q. nik perry made it (the flyer):

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…)

by my records,

this is post # 2000. here’s a quick rundown of the next 2000 posts:

and remember:

Fujichia: success and viscosity!

tonight pars called me up and a group of us watched 1967’s “dr doolittle” and drank some RBFs (my man willy shakes knows what i’m talking about here). i hadn’t seen dr doolittle since i was but a lad, and only three days ago in the car i heard a radio program about what a flop this movie was, but when pars says movie, jacob berendes grabs a blanket. when pars says keno, jacob berendes sharpens a #2 pencil. when pars says human growth hormone, jacob berendes rolls up a sleeve. in any event, the movie was no swiss family robinson, but it was not without merit. my understanding is that rex harrison was drunk for the duration of the filming, which was probably a good move on his part. regarding the famous ape who costarred:

In retirement Cheeta lives at a primate sanctuary called Creative Habitats and Enrichment for Endangered and Threatened Apes (or CHEETA) in Palm Springs, California. He watches television and makes paintings which are sold to benefit primate-related charities. He often watches his old films with his grandson, Jeeter. He also likes to leaf through books and “play” the piano.

Cheeta became the longest-lived chimpanzee known when he reached 64 in 1996. He is cited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s oldest non-human primate.

The October 4, 2006, edition of the Palm Springs newspaper, The Desert Sun, reported that Cheeta received his first-ever visit from famed primatologist Jane Goodall the previous day.

Cheeta is still alive at the age of 75 as of 2008. His 75th birthday was celebrated on 9 April 2007, at his “Casa de Cheeta” in Palm Springs at an event hosted by Dan Westfall and Diane Weissmuller, (Johnny Weissmuller, Jr.’s widow). The press and many Palm Spring celebrities attended.

He has taken on a literary agent ahead of the publication of his autobiography, Me Cheeta, expected in October 2008.
cheeta: retirement

yessssssssssssss.

work on the store is going good, thanks everyone for putting in t-shirt orders, keep them coming! more mail-order shit on the way. also in two weeks we’re doing a fashion shoot to draw attention to all the weird clothes we have, featuring a stylist available to help pick you pick out a bumpinin outfit, electric fan to blow your hair all up, lights, backdrops, and a REAL LIVE FASHION PHOTOGRAPHER (little andrew) telling you to work it and be poutier and to give it and so on. keep giving me your ideas for events…

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!

our wednesday HBML volunteer caught a flu so i went in yesterday and shuffled some stuff around and worked on some projects, most notably a series of mirrors with different mustaches drawn on them. it was pretty good, i drank tea all day.

tonight two high school girls (one of whom i know through the store) are performing my song “japanese pen pal girl tattoo” at an open mic somewhere in worcester county. i’m told it will be taped. actually, the only reason i know about it in advance is that in the lyric sheet to foreign policy, that’s the song that gets truncated with a curt “the rest of the words are perfectly audible”. and evidently, that is not the case, which works out quite to my advantage, as i had to be queried. how many other teenage open mics have i been a part of unawares? oh, yeah, and speaking of lyric sheets, i don’t know if i mentioned this but i finally accidentally looked at the lyrics to Dry Bones after so much vigilance only to find out that i was right and they don’t say what i initiallly thought they said, which just means now i’ll have to record my own version with my own serendipitous words. oh, and it turns out that what i actually say is “pretty much what [the girl who emailed me] thought”. anyway, from now on, all lyric sheets are vague or introduce untruths.

oh, and i’m playing a show in providence at meg turner’s falls (meg from summercamp’s new place) tomorrow with the terribles and j9 bressner. oh, i’ll play my version! and if you can’t tell from teh infographic, i’ve been working on some new songs, some of which i will play, and will probably have to read off a piece of paper like a hack.

today at the store i told a kid that a fresh shipment of iron maiden shirts (in kids sizes) is coming in “tomorrow” and they look “really weird”. i told him that they featured eddie drinking a milkshake. change “milkshake” to “ice cream cone” and “tomorrow” to “next week” and this is 100% true. in the interest of “iron maiden is not a t-shirt”, it will come with a cdr of iron maiden, plus maiden covers by anton maiden and lazy magnet, and possibly some of the jason forrest iron maiden record if i can find it (kevin?). song picks and other artist recommendations must be submitted before tuesday.

i got a ride up to portland maine with nasty nacho and little andrew, and thanksgiving was nice with my sister and brurinlaw and his family, and now i’m that antsy i always get when i’m still away from my myriad projects / modes. moreover dawn riddle my future girlfriend is right now in worcester where i’m not and bound to leave before i arrive. we have of course never met. hi dawn! today i watched that new crispin glover movie “beowulf” and ate a seriously lackluster burrito. i hope you did something good too like throw rocks at a tree for two hours.

prjects lately of note include the split LP with dan beckman (the corle web site did indeed leak the tentative name “void faith” (or “faith void”?)), the split book with empty mountain (”garbage strike”), the future of the store, a new company, and finally an internet t-shirt website with follow-through. GEEZ! trying to get back into writing writing and not just how was your day dear, also in serious need of a spirit kwest / naming ceremony. not making sense is a loose but seemingly appropriate start towards both these knowingly slippery ends, but of course you can’t keep spaghettiing around forever. ok, see you back in the town house.

i ate a ton of candy on halloween night and emotionally crashed, now i’m still in a bad mood. not really moved in to the new place despite cleaning out the old place for the past two weeks. i need to build a loft for my bed before i can really settle in. the new place is OK except that the walls are super thin. it’s up a huge hill but everything in worcester is up a huge hill.

HBML is still operating on a “used goods 95 cents” plan. it was slow this week but i got some stuff done, i think next wednesday the back room will be open, then things will get really weird. truth be told, i’m trying to go out of business by december.

i set up an etsy shop to start selling stuffed animals. not the ones from the 365 days of stuffed animals project, but duplicates of some of them, and some of the newer mash ups i’ve been selling down at the store. hit it if you’re into it- kid’s gotta eat. right now the only one up is the parakeet, featured above, which i have three of. more in the next few days as i get better pictures.

now if sylvan doesn’t put some of her beaded stuff online by friday, she gets to buy me dinner, as per our bet. but if she does comlete her mission, then we celebrate with a nice dinner. win win!