Time Eternal

Hi Blog I've been neglecting! I have so much to tell you little bloggy. 2010 has been a rollarcoaster year thus far. Maybe more downs than ups, but very extreme in any case. Started w/ earthquakes and the woe got closer to home each passing day. Anywho, thankful more than ever to be alive. This isn't a greeting card, but I am thankful to all my friends and family, near and dear, near and far. The world seems smaller and more cozy with you in it. On the upshot, I have been playing a lot of music (generally getting paid in beer) and doing a lot of art (finished 2 altered books and 4 full pages are in Vice magazine's August "Anti-Music" issue) and I made the most of a very ruff school year. I saw Devo, Joan Jett and Rihanna! I am now mid-swing in a media blitzing campaign to be on Mad Men that will go on until my birthday. My friend/hairdresser Cherie Savoie is the photographer that took the Auto Da Fe pics that were so beautiful last year. She was bleaching my hair and suggested I try out for Mad Men. She had all the info cuz she had entered the contest last year. She styled my hair in a little bouffy bob and came over with her friend Susie's camera after I had pulled out some dresses and scouted locations. She shot like 300 pics so there were bound to be some keepers. Here's a few-

I really liked this one-

and this one, it was just so natural-

I posted most of these on Facebook and the one below is the one that was chosen by my friends. I figure they know better than me, since it is hard to judge oneself. It worked out best cuz there was no photoshopping needed (tattoo or anti-60's indicators). The competition is very stiff and I love some of their photos and wonder if they just live in the 60's in their mind. I heard an interview w/ Matthew Weiner (the exec. producer and ex- Sopranos writer) on NPR where he said that being from Baltimore is what really inspired him to do the show. He said Maryland had not changed from the 50's-early 60's era until the mid 80's. Being from Baltimore and having always been fascinated by this era, I have to agree. I moved to California in 1982 before the state started to shift stylistically. My neighbor when I was little, Pat Moran was John Water's fan club president and casting director. She had a bright red beehive and a house of french colonial furniture. It seemed totally normal to me as a kid. I loved going to Hutzler's department store's ritzy cafe w/my great grandmother to eat an ice cream on a doily w/ a cone for a clown's hat and a cherry nose and little raisin eyes or to the flea market at the beautiful 50's Edmonson Drive-In. I collected everything from matchbooks to buttons to tins of shoe polish because they seemed old and better designed. My best memories involved old artists that I knew as a child that lived in that 50's sort of idyll. Everything around them so used, so loved, so old. The country itself so verdant, so alive, so haunted. I felt like such a little urchin, sand always shifting beneath my feet while the old artists and musicians were all so solid and full of tradition and good ideas. I love going back every year because most of what I knew is either still there or being taken back by nature. Is it healthy to prefer the past to the frightening future? The present is the only thing we can truly cling to I guess.

Enchanted Forest

Many blogs ago I mentioned breaking into the abandoned "Enchanted Forest" in my hometown Ellicott City, Maryland with my cousin Ryon while on tour with Amps For Christ. At one of our shows I said that Maryland had many enchanted forests and this resonated with Animal Collective's Josh Dibbs who graciously had us open for them at El Rey Theater. Being from Maryland's woodlands as I am, he understands this to be true. There are some areas of this park far to scary to explore- Ali Baba and the 40 thieves cave with boat ride and the underground train to Alice in Wonderland with a scene of her falling from above down the rabbit hole that was very similar to the lightening flash and the illuminated hanging body in Disney's Haunted Mansion entrance room. I ordered a DVD online with footage of the park as it was when I went there- Toot the tugboat, the mountain with slide, Safari ride, Mother Goose and duckling cars, etc, etc. Here's a few shots with more to come. If this kind of warped, fairytale park appeals to you, there happens to be an unrelated Enchanted Forest in Salem, Oregon which is pretty nifty, too.

Well, it looks real nice on the looky box

I worked on this for hours before I realized it wasn't big enough to go inside our record, a CD or a wallet for that matter. It was too busy on the eye anyway. Altered it to make a nice flyer at least-

I have been deliberating on the cover art for Auto Da Fe's 2nd full length 'Emit Time'. My original drawing versus my unfinished painting versus my original idea of finishing the painting to show RayRay's eyes 'emitting time' with the trails of light coming from his eyes. There is also this unfinished owl painting for the back cover and those eyes were going to 'emit time' as well. This record has been finished since January but I have been stalled on the art for 2 reasons. First, I get teary every time I draw or paint RayRay and second, I don't want to 'finish it' and screw it up. Maybe it's easier to be satisfied with mediocrity when the alternative is overworking something into pure rubbish. Regardless, the album is great and timely considering we cover the Raincoats who are back in action. Shape up, T!!!

Zeitgeist or Heist?

Here's the art I drew (2004) for my medically themed band Blue Silk Sutures that was on our

t-shirts and on our 7" split with Silver Daggers-

Here's the art (2009) for the band Antlers (aren't there enough bands w/variations on that name already?)-

Coincidence?

Recent Music Releases

In the last week, Pukekos music blog have posted two of my former bands unreleased tracks. First was an Amps For Christ song entitled 'Empire' and the second was the record 'Ahoy Mermatey!' by my sea shanty band Aye Aye Captain with Dame Darcy. There is also an old posting on there for 2 songs by my band Blue Silk Sutures. Blue Silk Sutures have been mixing some new songs this week and we hope to oblige you in the future. I have lost complete days of my life to music blog downloads and I encourage the ripping of said tracks (with my bands' tacit approval of course) wholeheartedly.

Home is Where My (He)Art Is

Welcome to Maryland, my home state...

They don't call Baltimore "Charm City" for nuttin'.

It has illustrious places to visit, like the arts district on Charles St. where I got my first Chinese hammered dulcimer for Christmas when I was 17. The shop was one of those old timey music stores with instruments hanging from the ceiling in the basement. It was next to the Peabody Conservatory of Music where my mom went for ballet and my grandmother went for voice. She sang with Arthur Godfrey live on the radio in the 30's and 40's. I almost went to the Maryland Art Institute but went to Scripps instead.

Due to Maryland's Mason-Dixon status, it was uniquely important in the Underground Railroad. I give you the Blacks in Wax Museum. There was a slave ship and a lynching room. Boy, was it a drag being all chalky white trapsing through there.

The perils of inner city drug use. I know all about it although I only saw 30 seconds of 'The Wire' Episode 1 before the DVD froze up.

The culmination of progress. Obama looks fresh.

My hometown is Ellicott City, MD. It's a mill town dating back to the 1700's. It has cobblestones and is very historic. B & O Railroad started it's first trip here. It's also insanely haunted and now hosts Ghost Tours. My aunt ChiChi has some stories about the ruins of 'Patapsco Female Institute' that she worked to get protected. My first house 'Spring Hill' (until I was 2) was written up in a few articles as being haunted and every member of my family have tales to tell on that subject. Some that even involve me. More on that when I go back to visit 'Spring Hill' next summer.

Here's my second house, built in the 1700's by General Marriott. Mrs.Steiner, an artist, was our only neighbor. She loved to draw with me and gave me a set of lifelike little fuzzy zoo animals. Her house has been demolished and the whole area is in conservancy. Last year, I saw a dozen deer bounding all around the lawn. The lawn would get so tall sometimes when I was kid, I'd ride my St. Bernard, Duke, through it like I was on a safari. I used to love playing make believe in the woods, pretending I lived in the trees or ran a saloon or could talk to the animals. I honestly believed I was a cat in my past life without ever learning about reincarnation. When my dad would take me motorcycling, I'd see lots of deer and fox. The place did have a creepy vibe at night though.

I loved hanging on the side of my mom's VW Bug down the long driveway.

My aunt ChiChi lives in a cabin in the woods by a lake. I love her so much, we are very kindred.

My cousin Ryon, her man Eric and their wee one Gunnar live in my grandmother Mimi's old house. Ryon and I made a trip to my favorite place in the world a few years ago. 'The Enchanted Forest' was a fairytale theme park from the 50's in Ellicott City, blocks from my house. I went for every birthday or any opportunity I got. John Waters filmed parts of 'Cry Baby' there. It was beautiful and they built a strip mall over it. However, there were lots of abandoned parts of it left and we snuck in. I'll post pics once I scan them.

On Mimi's property I would follow the rows of pines for miles. I'd see lots of little effigies like in 'Blair Witch Project'. That movie really weirded me out when I saw it. Maryland's forests really are enchanted and haunted.

Sunny Ocean City, Maryland never struck me that way. We went every summer cuz my grandparents had a place on the water.

In Ocean City, God...

guts and guns are what made it great.

Nowadays, the boardwalk is chock full of bored, working Russians and tourist yahoos, like me and my pals.

Sam threatened to wear a sign around his neck that said "Open", then completely freak out.

Some of Trimper's Rides are circa 1900 and they all take me back to my childhood. I got a little wistful that I wasn't taking pictures of my own kid on these rides, but not wistful enough to have one.

Shield thine eyes children, this lady won this huge Spidy and no matter what she does, it's awkward.

Things got racy on the Himalaya where they pumped up the autotuned jams and spun us "faster and faster".

Sam, the Skaritzas and I were really feeling all the garbage we had ingested at that point.

and the Guinness-

and the steamed crabs-

and all the candy-

and...

now ya tell me!

Poppy loves his new recliner. It's like a blue marshmallow cloud.

Here's Poppy when he was a top turret gunner on the B-17s. Inside the book, I have yet to finish the shadowbox cut-out of the pages showing him shooting out of the turret during a dogfight. He flew 31 missions over Europe which made him a member of the "Lucky Bastards" flying club. He kicked live bombs out of the bomb bay and saw friends become human debris. This man deserves the puffiest recliner ever and nightly ice cream on demand.

Now we say goodbye to "Maryland, my Maryland, oh how I love my Maryland" (sang to the tune of O Tannenbaum when I was in Kindergarten)

and hello to our friend Speck in Brooklyn. She has quite a view...

and quite a cat. Meet Pumekl. He saw deep into my reincarnated cat soul.

Sam and his pops in Quincy Market, Bostontown.

Sam and pops at the JFK Museum. Two diverse architectural marvels (buildings and humans).

O to live in the days of Mad Men...

This is the era I pine for...

Except for this (look at Californie)...

H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie gave this platinum Lion of Judah to Jackie Kennedy.

Every year we try to make it to Maine to see family and clear our heads. Here is the house Sam intends to buy when he's a millionaire.

Here's the one I love and it's a stone's throw away. Guess it will be my art studio.

Saw this deer more than once that day.

Here I am on Sam's dad's back porch where I helped move logs in for Winter.

We took a motorboat to Wood Island.

This boardwalk runs for 1/2 mile across the island and through the trees.

At the end of the boardwalk is a lighthouse and its caretaker's house. Some years back, I had been pushing to move to some lighthouse on remote Galloo Island. Dash that idea. I got a real feel for how isolated and scary it could be.

Sam's up there waving.

Inside the caretaker's house were some articles about how it is haunted and the seance that had been conducted there. One of the guides was there and although she had been a skeptic, she was now a believer. She said that during the seance, the room grew cold, the medium's body temperature went down perilously, and that someone identified themselves as John, a castaway from a pirate ship that died with 10 others on the island. I definitly felt some dark presence in this house.

This closet had been identified by a former caretaker as "inhabited by the supernatural".

I ascended to the lighthouse.

Wood Island's light signal is green and white.

Notice the boardwalk in this picture.

Inside this little building, I took the picture of the house with the lighthouse and it was very forbidding. Whatever was in there, wanted me out.

On the way back, the evening twilight turned everything postcard perfect.

Back on the mainland, I whiled away the days on the little beach. O Summer!