(bloomington indiana’s) melissa number one (not that there could be another but that’s where she lives) and nate powell came to town and kidnapped me, now i’m providence, where people are going to go go in the ocean, but not me. can’t write right right now, gotta tie up other ends. back tonight/tomorrow morning.
well, i tried, but i just can’t do it. kpraas had the idea of not writing about the providence show, so that it would just be a rumor, uncorroborated and non-official. ssounds good but here i am a few days later and i have to do it. i’m not worried about the show sinking into the memory hole, in part because, well, to be honest, there’s not a lot about the show itself specifically that i remember, as i can’t really ever remember what happens when i’m performing, and the rest of the night was just getting ready and then winding down. i rode in with lil spat and ML, there was home made ice cream there, the bands were ok if you like riot folk (which some people don’t and some do), i went to that 7-11, there was a good crowd etc.. i guess i have to write because i want to say: thank you to everyone involved. it was awesome to see everyone going totally nuts and pushing and yelling and singing along as loud as possible, and at the end i shut my eyes and i remember feeling as light as a feather, and indeed, being physically lifted up over everyone’s heads, and hearing someone (kristina) yell “this is beautiful!” in that sudden exasperated way, a real “oh my god, is this even happening?!?!”. needless to say, being a part of this was a tremendously good feeling, of the sort i will chase for the rest of my life. thank you to everyone. thank you to the terribles- i am blessed to be able to perform with one of my favorite bands ever. and thank you to building 16, you asked me to play. and thank you to andrew oe, who made a cool flyer with a huge picture of personal hero george plimpton.
even though i said it was a one-time only thing, i think we may bust out a worcester show at a sufficiently special time.
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.
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.
ok, so the update over the phone thing doesn’t work ssuper super great, but what do you want for nothing? the past week has been really good, lots of thinly-velied and sometimes veiled not at all requests from me to other people that they make dinner for me and also i stay at their house, WHICH IS COOL. that was providence. return to worcester on the saturday and immediately jumped into the big mystery band show, which ruled. there was an auction that i was the auctioneer for, to raise money for HBML, and that was splendid also– lots of people donated skills and services like cranio-sacral massages and time in a recording studio and a piggyback to anywhere, and then i fast-talked and lots of people bid in a mild frenzy, pretty ideal. as is the custom, all the bands were great and many of them had people that had never been in bands before, and you could see them realizing that their own creative instincts were valid. the audience was lots of people. the second show of the summer is this friday, at the go go, it’s gonna rip.
ssunday i hung out with my sister, my brurinlaw, and my niece. sheryl-ann, if you’re out in oak-land reading this, you’ll be pleassed i’m sure to see the photoevidence of this on the photo blog. the day was fun and the baby is great, and me and the brurinlaw talked more about the flash game idea i had, DONKEY COMMAND.
the installation thing i’m doing, the grand opening got pushed back to the 26th or 27th, which frees me up to do tons of get-ready stuff for the big start on the street streetfest this sunday, plus the boston zine fair this saturday. as it turns out, i’m playing music at the start in the street thing, which is fine but really just one more thing to stress about, but it’ll be fun, plus i’m getting paid, which is good, because i have to move out of where i’m now living at, and into a more expensive place.
me and mickey DM are meeting tomorrow to put the layout down of the new broadsheet magazine, previously called RHODODENDRON FESTIVAL, now i think to be called NEW PARIS GAZETTE, or something like that. tonight until late, finishing writing everything.
fujichia: when it rains, it pours.
fujichia: it’s always raining something.
other quick news:
• the new empty mountain site looks hecka tite bro…
• robot finds kitten, the video game that was the sole entrant to a contest i created 10 years ago has been included as a minigame in a recent PSP release. more news here. also, RFK came preloaded on dave paquette’s mp3 player.
• peter sibley reps a paris of the eighties tshirt in the group shot for the software project he’s been working on, which (the software) is nuts, which was recently launched into outer space for some reason.
woke up on the morning of the farmer’s market and it was raining so i fell back asleep, which was awesome. lots of good folks came by the shop on saturday and then the bone zone taping was bone-nanas– it was raining out, it was steamy inside, everyone was super super sweaty. good turnout but actually a lot of conspicuous absences. you know who you are– what gives? dan wars is excused. anyway here’s a phone camera version. it sounded pretty much like that too. the whole thing went off pretty hitchless, the cops came early and we said “we’re filming an episode of a cable access tv show” and they left. or in the words of the poet, “i told them the truth and they fell for it”. afterwards an afterparty at billy blue’s which was totally weird. since the show started at 7pm, and only lasted a half hour, you kept thinking it was later than it was. so when me and purtle left at 7am, the actual time for the rest of the world was only midnight.
tomorrow this RISD silkscreen racket day one, plus i get started on this installation, which is something i’m still not sure about– i mean, it’s happening, but the particulars are still anyone’s anything. i’m at jean and scott’s now, making some crazy faces from the ML face explosion sticker set, which you can buy online, or possibly win at the AS220 print lottery, where it is listed as “FRIED TYLENOL WITH RANCH DRESSING”. scott’s sticker is coming out really good– he just got a funny idea about it but won’t tell, will only show. to quote, “let the boy boogie woogie!”.
providence, i’ll see you in the street or call me up with dinner offers. Q SHAMBAZUG. also lunch. play your cards right: breakfast. CAT SOUND.
well, sure enough a few days go by and my memory’s completely shot. let’s see what we can dredge up, eh?
friday one of my favorite bands, best friends forever played at the go go with the terribles, dead mom the dog (previously the foundation), and bob carlton. i was bummed because i didn’t get asked to play, despite being requested by the bffs, but then the terribles played my song “jla dreamer” and i sang and it felt great to sing for everyone. none can keep me down but me! BFF played last year at this time and it ruled, this time it was even better because everyone knew all the words, and people went super-crazy. they’re like the smiths to me, lots of clever lines about crushes, and everyone clutching at their own shirt and rolling their eyes back.
the next day they came to the shoppe and filmed some scenes for the cosby show idea, which is a little more than halfway through in the filming department, and is going on hiatus so i can do other things with my life. i’m giving myself two weeks from now to have a teaser commercial up on youtube, a few edited scenes, with the backdrops and laughtracks and everything. again, what we have so far is really really really awesome. andy fish is going to help me stage the premiere at the worcester art museum, a prospect i am delighted about.
saturday after work we went to the king st block party, which had as many people and as much music as last year, but everything suffered from lack of a bumpin’ sound system– speakers couldn’t be heard, music didn’t inspire dance. so let a lesson be took: bump it. slept over at purtle’s and all the next day hung out with him and j9, just shooting the shit and almost not going outside, which ended up driving everyone crazy. that night drove to providence for a terribles show at the intersection of batty and vermin st (no joke!) that had to get moved due to a trying-to-sleep baby. the car was briefly broke down and had to be pushed slightly uphill, a task that proved impossible due to the fact that it was biodiesel and the whole backend was greasy and slippery from condensed china lantern vapors. uh, everything was fine with it, ultimately– no worries.
got some more books, including the kirby bio “king of comics” (which is not exactly exceptional but is honorable and necessary and has more than a few amazing pages) and the incredible “rationale of the dirty joke” by g legman. i first learned about this latter book in this article (a good a place to start as any) from the new yorker some years ago. i remember quoting this specifically, but i’m unable to search out wherein i did:
“Legman was a handsome man, with thick dark hair, blue eyes, and a strong nose; because of chronic poverty, he was typically dressed in threadbare clothes with a length of rope for a belt. Friends describe him as tetchy and difficult, but exhilarating to be around. Academics were put off by this autodidact from the murky demimonde, whose rambling prose was full of marginal jeremiads. Legman, in turn, was disdainful of folklorists with Ph.D.s, whom he called “Phudniks” and “cacademics.” Yet, by freely making available to them materials that academic journals were afraid to publish, he helped establish erotic folklore as a respectable subject for scholarly study.”
the book is a tremendous work cataloging thousands of dirty jokes in their original dialects and providing their lineage across time and space, all in a very erudite but readable and even charming manner. in other words, it’s pretty much perfect. in addition to being the world’s foremost scholar of erotic folklore, legman was also instrumental in introducing the art of origami to the west, and claims to have invented both the slogan “make love not war” (possible), and the vibrating dildo (most certainly false). truly a character for the ages. here’s another nice article on our man, here’s his wikipedia entry.
oh yeah, and i saw DP last night and he told me he’s got a new band called “pregnant polaroids” and could they buy some songs off of me. big tiiiiiiiime…
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!
kar trouble was right– my problem of the past few days, of fogginess and sluggishness and crabbiness and whatnot, was by and large hydration. late this afternoon commenced the drinking of many tap waters and the return of the feeling “OK”.
not that the past few were without merit– yesterday when i finally left the house me and baby bear went and got some technical pizzas ($2 smalls on tuesday), then walked around elm park looking at the new public sculpture installation, all of which is pretty great, and boy are we kicking ourselves for each talking ourselves out of it when the email arrived. boo us! my favorite piece was the small garden of enormous, striated buttplugs. also good was the three burned wooden obelisks crawling with all color of tiny insect, and the far-away listening tube for spying on park bench mashers and playground bullies. en route we saw jon “the prince of worcester” shirley, and all together we set up our own sculpture in the park, which was an artificial christmas tree we found on the sidewalk in a box. jon was on his way to look for the huge turtle that lives in the pond, and then he did look for it, and then he found it, and it was great– maybe three feet from nose to tail, with a head as big as a flatiron. we also saw several turtles of a more manageable size, and ducks, and a heron, and those fish that eat your spit when you spit in the water (you know, stupid fish). drove in with nik and jose lynn to providence, for that show at the stairwell, which was fun but as implied above, i was pretty out of it. eli keszler played solo drum set with bells and bowed cymbals, totally awesome and inspiring, as it was the last time. the other bands were on tour together, and it was a good tite jazz band called “other people do the killing”, and then that same band but with a singer, which was called “puttin’ on the ritz”. it helped that it was a beautiful night outside with fresh salad on a sidewalk table, but this second act really cleared the room, and even i eventually left– not offensive or actionable, just one joke that isn’t funny anymore over and over again, the joke being “inept lounge singer”. pretty miserable really, but the band, i thought, was great. i played not great, messing up a lot and to some degree “just getting it over with”, but there were times i forgot who and where i was and what i was doing and why, and how i got there, and that made it all worthwhile. again, super out of it, feeling better now.
about to drive in to the west for another play rehearsal, still reeling from yesterday. first, riding my bike around picking up large checks that people had for me, and putting them immediately in the bank. made some neccessary phone calls and then joanne, CK and soccer camp, came in joanne’s van to grab me and kpars, we split for providence. this is like 3 o’clock.
we visited j9 a little and started to go to the fabric store (the main reason for our trip) but then we realized that it was going to be not open, so instead we went and got coffee at white electric and i played monster bash pinball, my favorite table. then we sat in the car for a really long time trying to figure out where to go eat, which seems like a bummer but was actually really really fun. joanne has a real party wagon, in which the back seats face each other, so it was really just like kicking it in a tiny apartment. at one point a dog with funny ears passed us in a truck and we peeled into action, chasing after the truck and driving erratically and demanding a picture, which we got. just a fun jam out nowhere session, driving around laffin, pointing out other cool dogs and peeing behind things. as day turned into night they went to a party first but i went to the show at as220 (where they showed up later)- monotonic, dark meat, black pus, kites. dark meat was a 15-piece, full horns, banshee vox, barn burner, and they played “universal indians”. i got the record, despite it being $20, which is crazy, and in addition to being named after an ayler song (the aforementioned “universal indians”), it says “ayler” three more times on the packaging. OK! monotonic was next, from israel, a tite three piece in a rock vein with explosive crazy movement- the singer climbing the rafters and sinewing around, the drummer moving his drums further and further into the crowd or being held aloft with his full kit, or the singer running into the bathroom to grab the trash can and then pour it over his (the drummer’s) head. the guitarist was perfectly stoic and pointing. i broke my glasses and then fixed them, it was awesome. kites followed this and what an act to follow! he played straight-up electric guitar in long piercing lines, very feeding back, until a serious “no regard” section where all of a sudden he became the scarecrow from the wizard of oz, bouncing around as if tendons had been cut. it ruled and the whole time there was this great teenager trying to cast witchy love spells on him, fully saturated with complete nonsense. black pus was pretty great, everyone was crowded close leaving lots of space in the back of the room for mellow kickin and exploratory movement– push ups, pinching, miming, struttin’, stuff like that. at a certain point joanne ran to the car and got her double dutch ropes. shit, all of a sudden the only sound was a bunch of wigs getting pushed back. nicole and natasha went ape and definitely tore it. serious session that outlasted the band and out into the street, picking up weird dudes walking past that yell to their friends “i’ll walk home!” and jump in and we all chant “new guy! new guy! new guy!”. i was in absolute heaven. we all drove home delighted.
monday’s video show / iron chef was pretty fun, it wasn’t a pizza contest after all, and the secret ingredient was cinnamon raisin mochi– yikes. unfortunately i had to take the bus there and back, and on the way home missed a few buses and a few rides, and got stuck in providence until 4pm wednesday. i like providence and i have a lot of friends there, people who give me food and places to stay, but so closely missing so many ways back to sanctum can drive anyone plumb annoyed, even me. mike– somehow that last bus drove right past me as i stood at the stop downtown, and i had to hoof, cursing, across town before it left from the terminal. anyway i have only myself to blame and i had a good time on my extra days– traded some records to armageddon, had some soup, it was good.
records i got:
Pretty Alright photoblog
updated Fri, 03 Oct 2008
