Moldy Good Times

Hello!

The blogging may be sparse for a bit.. the holiday crunch is upon us. I've been trying to finish a million projects, namely one big commission that will hopefully be ready in time for it's recipient by xmas. This might be wishful thinking, but the Virgo in me says It Can Be Done! Really, all I want to be doing right now is cozy-ing up with a toddy in front of the fire while reading Simone de Beauvoir's 'When Things of The Spirit Come First' or perhaps just zoning out on some claymation snowman follies.. but yeah, 'When Matters of The Work Come First' is kind-of my little tome right now.

BUT, guess what? I am going on a forced vacation! Our house has been attacked by a terrible mold, which in itself is quite awful. However, as an unexpected moldy bonus, we have to vacate the premises for two days while a clean-up occurs.. time to head to the ocean! There is a cabin, a beach, two dogs, the Columbian Cafe, and getting all maxxy-relaxxy in my immediate future. Rejoice!

Wishing you a fresh, scrubbed, and mold-free 2008!

Ping-gwens!! (That's Canadian for Penguin).

Looking for a good book? Have a young one in your life that needs a special little present? May I HIGHLY reccomend:


I bought it for Justin's niece (no spoiler alert; I don't think she's hip to the interweb yet) and have since absconded with this crazy rad book to the Cozy Corner© (the left-hand side of the couch, by the lamp).. laughing, counting birds, watching them frolick in cereal and in swimming pools. The French really know how to make an absurdly awesome book about penguins! Words from the book to live by: "You live Penguin. You think Penguin. You dream Penguin. You become Penguin".

Another Project??

Yes, another project. Letterpressed/silkscreened holiday cards. I try to stay busy with my hands, making something every day.


Monday through Friday, that is.. weekends are for music, walking, thinking, talking, visiting, and general recreation. Though, yeah, I do end up at my studio a lot on Saturdays! 'Tis the Virgo in me, I confess.

Sunday is for Lovers

Oh, letterpress. Succubus of my time. I love the old-fashioned mechanics of pulling a giant piece of rolling metal over slugs of lead type so much, I tend to forget all about my other gigantic pile of TO DO. But it is so satisfying. Behold, new flyers for the Devon Williams/Mona Reels show!


Devon plays reverb-ed, ghost-pop songs of love. I won't even mention how we first met.. (ok: while sharing the karaoke mic over a rendition of EMF's 'Unbelievable!' in a spray-painted concrete box located in the middle of Ohio). Joining him in a northwest mini-tour are the great great great Mona Reels. My favorite band in Olympia. Peter David writes these incredibly poetic, biting, and downright winsome songs backed by his multi-instrumental talent and the sisters Schief on girl-group vocals. Magical. See you on Sunday? I hear the sensational Miss Sam Ott will be in town!

No Parking

Tonight, as Neil says, is The Night. Get yourself down to the QB Lounge and meet me on the dance carpet!


The Mason County Wrecking Crew (aka Justin and myself) will be playing all the non-hits, weirdo beats, and cool-aid chemists. Join!

P.S. Why does Lizard Records use a cat as their logo? Odd.

P.P.S. Record-freaks, art-freaks, genius-freaks: Check out this book if you haven't already!!

Junk Drawer-scape

Click to enlarge.

Fridge-scape

Click to enlarge.


Tomorrow: Junkdrawer-scape.

Doo-do-da-doooo!

Is that the sound of Tooting One's Own Horn?? Do-do-da-doooo? Or would it be more of a cacophonous SKRONK, or maybe a tuba's farnt, or even an ocean liner's bareeeer-UNH? Since I am about to Toot My Own Horn, I am making it a fluegelhorn, more specifically Chuck Mangione's fluegelhorn, and most specifically Chuck Mangione's Live at the Hollywood Bowl fluegelhorn: smooth and mellow.


It's FREE SHIPPING WEEKEND at buyolympia.com, home of sarahutter.com!! That's me! Get your paws on some shirts, buttons, bags, zines or hoodies and the good folks at buyoly will thrown in some free postage, till late late tonight...


And don't forget to spread the love around; visit Sam McPheeters' page for some goodness:


Or Emily Ryan Lerner:


Farnt.

Loom of Sam

How have I been? Popping. This is according to the Thesaurus, as I'm feeling bored with the word 'busy'; rather, I've been bustling, energetic, full, fussy, hectic, humming, hustling, lively, restless, strenuous, tireless, tiring. I've been out of the cyber-loop as none of my recent adventures seem quite 'blogworthy'.. there's been a lot of time spent letterpressing at Community Print, making new tiny silkscreens for future experiments, designing logos for a lady skate-snow-surf company, shipping paintings to their new homes, and also my new part-time job as flyer-maker for local drinking hole The Brotherhood. I love being the flyer lady. Perhaps one of my favorite jobs that dosen't really seem like work at all; more of a play-time at Kinko's, hogging one of the dwindling b&w copiers for a good couple of hours, sizing/resizing/cutting/pasting, fending off the normals who want to xerox mountains of bills and forms.

Back at the house, we chop wood:


And just when I was getting a little bored with the whole idea of bloggggs, here comes Sam Mcpheeters to liven things up! He just launched Loom of Ruin, kicking things off with a Sam-style review of Van Halen at Staples Center in L.A.. a must read.


Sam, among other responsibilities like running Vermiform and ghost-writing lyrics for hardcore bands, makes crazy/great art. He has an online shop on Buyolympia.com, where you can purchase this little gem:


Or his new zine, 'Patrons of the Cha Cha Lounge and Their Drinks'


Speaking of art, I finished three paintings that will be magically transformed into wallets for Poketo! They're re-workings of pieces from my last show, painted to be friendly with the rectangular dimensions of a wallet..




Re-painting can be quite informative, and definitely interesting/fun. You revisit all the imperfections of the first piece and try to make them work the second time around. You get to know your characters a little better. It's like Mondrian's tree.. he spent 40 years repainting this:


Into this:

Inventrons

Things to copyright, immediately:

1. GO-GA®. The new revolution in traffic-jam exercise. Say, when you're sitting on I-5 for an hour trying to move six miles into the Portland City Center. I've not had time to completely think this out; I do envision a soothing CD, special Goga-mat® seat cover, and plenty of stretching. Namaste.

2. PLABS©. Pit-bull/Lab mixes. More on that later.

If you've spent any time with me, you've probably heard me lament on more than one occasion how my inventions are often stolen before I have any chance to bring them to fruition. The Real Arm©, Nap-Pods©, and DoggyDNA testing, to name just a few. And maybe you've heard me shout 'Eureka!' while in the middle of a daydream. The good ideas just keep coming!

Stitches

Poor Otis. He looks like a Franken-dog at the moment. Yesterday he went in for surgery to remove the big lump (which Justin affectionately named 'Herbert') that's been steadily growing on his side for a couple of years. He's woozy and sad, and I'm at home doing some doggy daycare..


I like to call Otis a Polar Burrito due to his size, shape, and coloring. Or Polar Bearrito. Hang in there, buddy. You'll be feeling better in no time.


I moved a bit of my studio back to the house and am almost done with the new paintings for Poketo wallets! I'll have three designs coming out in their new series:



And next to me is the monster To-Do list. It keeps on growing, just like Herbert. I have been able to surgically remove a few items, but projects-projects-and-more-projects are looming over me. Right now though, I'm just going to hug Otis until he feels better.

Scorpio, Inc.

'Tis the time of the Scorpio! This weekend we had a major installment of Scorp-on-Scorp bday action..


..first up, it's Justin's bday! I LOVE getting presents for people. I have often dreamed of acquiring large piles of cash, only to be spent on people I adore.


Otis also loves presents. He gets very excited when he sees items wrapped up in paper and tissue.

He must help unwrap! Otis is oddly talented at opening gifts, though one has to monitor his enthusiasm so that the actual present itself does not end up getting ripped apart in the process.


All this tearing and gift-giving really works Otis up. He channels his excess excitement into handing Rosebud a swift beat-down of his favorite style: whisker-nibbling.


Our dogs are very, very strange. Otis has eaten all of Rosebud's whiskers. She only has small whiskery nubs now, which Otis makes sure to keep very trim. I think it's his way of shaming her. Keeping her in her lower pack position. Although, being a weirdo herself, Rosebud seems to find this whisker-nibbling business very, very relaxing. Soothing. Her eyes kind-of glaze over and it's as if Otis is giving her a wonderful foot rub. Freaks.


Another Scorpio! Dave Stone, live and direct from Los Angeles. Dave is our wonderful friend. We lived in his Sun Valley home during our L.A. stint. He is on a west-coast modular synth tour, driving a P.T. Cruiser up and down I-5, imparting astrological knowledge and playing little-known venues in Bremerton, Forestville, and beyond. Hi Dave!


See you in February!

Sexy is the New Sexy

Where have I been?

What have I been doing?


Watching giant salmon flop around in Totten Inlet on their long journey through the Sound and up the Deschutes to spawn. Walking around in the woods. Tending to more dog wounds, this time a hearty slice through Otis' soft polar bear ear, inflicted by one of three suspects (Rosebud, or neighbor pups Sola and Toby?) who all seem pretty innocent. Discussing the words 'splatter' vs. 'spatter' in a forensics context. Listening to my favorite radio show, IDEAS, on cbc radio or sirius satellite radio, everyone should listen to this show, it's on every day for an hour and is always fascintating; i've learned about the history of polio, women abalone divers of korea, the steam engine's impact on industrial England, Newfoundland's icebergs, and this week there is the best lecture series ever by Alberto Manguel. I can't even really begin to explain it.. he's some sort of historian/anthropologist/genius that manages to start with the epic of Gilgamesh and weave it into mulitculturalism, dr.jekyll/mr.hyde., Tony Blair's attempt to mandate 'Britishness' upon all citizens of England, and then brings it right back to the story from which he started. TUNE IN!


And check this out: The city of S.F. is biting my style! For a good cause, so I can't really complain. But I do think it's pretty funny. Who knew that a little tshirt design I made one afternoon at a Kinko's could morph into a city-wide marketing campaign? Thanks to my pal Stefan for the heads-up.

World Music, People.

Have I ever mentioned that I am a punk rocker? To the core. But I'm finding my musical interests in recent years have taken a turn away from what's-goin-on stateside (i.e. I'm not sure I've ever heard The Arcade Fire, Feist, et al, unless through aural osmosis while walking through a record store) and toward a whole giant world full of amazing sounds.


Last night I went to Seattle to see Tinariwen play. Another type of punk band, formed in 1982 in Moammar al-Qadhafi's camps of Tuareg rebels. A group of Saharan nomads, the first Tuareg said to use electric guitars, writing songs calling for political awakening and demands of sovereignty. And, let it be said, quite simply, they JAM. It's the real deal.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of these types of head-ornaments worn by the mostly whitey audience:


Hippie tams? Guatemalan touks? Sara Lund determined the best all-encompassing term was the non-specific ETHNO-HAT©. Kind of like the one this guy is wearing:


I mean, seriously, nice outfit! What a joker!

ed. note: just realized that guy is my boyfriend. in costume at the ren-fair. whoops.

ed. note #2: also just realized that my identification of 'stateside' au currant indie bands were exclusively Canadian. double whoops.

Crisp, Blue, Cold

We've been having our own little Fall Festival out here in Mason County (side note: did you know kids in Olympia elementaries can't have Halloween at school anymore? They have a 'Fall Festival'. So unbelievably lame.)..


Sam Ott, the Pumpkin Huntress, came up for a weekend of Kamilche fun:


We patched out.


To the max.

And here's how the halloween costumes for the Rainbow Man/John 3:16 and the Log Lady turned out:


Pretty epic!


But you know what the weirdest/creepiest part was? I grabbed this getup at Dumpster Values quickly, thinking 'this looks like a convincing Log Lady sweater'. It wasn't till later that I even noticed the giant emblem:


This is nearly the same symbol that is on Laura Palmer's ring. The Owl Cave ring. Creepy!!

Rainbow Man vs. Log Lady

What are you doing tonight?

If you live in Olympia, I highly suggest heading to the QB Lounge for some serious Halloween-y Dj action! Provided by:

Justin Trosper as the Rainbow Man (the nutty guy in the 70's that went to all sporting events because he was obsessed with being on television, then turned into a born-again Christian after being groped by some cheerleaders, and then ended up in jail for taking a hotel maid hostage during a bungled publicity stunt)..


..and myself as the Log Lady! I don't know if you've seen me lately, but I am totally sporting brown Log Lady hair these days. It's my winter phase.


Come boogie down with us! It doesn't matter if you dress up or not. My log does not judge.

Pip, Twip, Churrr

Yesterday I headed over to Buyolympia.com H.Q. for important business. Pat Castaldo, an actual Photographer with a really nice camera, shot pics of all the work from the Imaginary Birds show. We're going to turn them (plus 5 more that I need to make) into a calendar for 2009! Here's the man at work:


And the work itself: