Haunted Hive

The best parts about today, so far:


Claws.


Actual mail!


Costume parts..


..and treats too!


Calendars galore.


The beginning of a raccoon triptych for Kenny and his family. WACKOONS!

AND, the tiny corner that is FORKS, WASHINGTON is about to go off, twin-peaks-north-bend-style. Can't wait!!

Foxy Brown

So guess what's getting ready to print in Port Angeles by Mike Kunka as we speak?


That's right.. it's the Fox In Clover shirt! New for my shoppe on Buyoly. With special glow-in-the-dark eyes! This is not the actual product, rather a computer collage made with this pants-less american apparel model. Trust me, when it debuts on Buyolympia.com, there will be pants.

That's just the way we roll.

I Can Has Epic Shave-cut

Okay.. I stole this pic of Kime's cat off of her bloggg because he is so CRAZY! I mean.. look at him! Just chillin' in L.A. with his wacko haircut and a laptop. Someone needs to LOLcat this guy, stat..


He's like some sort of shaved muppet! I think Kime's kitty and my Ringo, in all of his newly-shorn glory, need to make a POSSE.

Winos Forever

Yesterday J.T. and I trekked to Mt. St. Helens.. it was a perfect day.


We went to a special 'Volunteer Appreciation' thingy to celebrate Justin's summer work.. 143 hours of volunteer Mountain Stewarding! Here's Mt. Adams, peaking over the fog:


On the way home, we stopped by a winemaking party for the micro-winery that is Deux Punx:


Aaron and Dan! Here we have Adam and Brandt sorting the syrah grapes that those winos trucked back from Eastern Washington (note Brandt's ability to multi-task by texting and sorting simultaneously)..


Morgan, my old neighborhood pal from the 70's-80's, is cranking the squisher/crusher machine:


I remember being really, super bummed in 1984 that I didn't get to go to Purple Rain with Morgan and my brother Erik and all the older boys for Morgan's birthday. It was Prince! And rated R!


And here's Aaron, une de les deux punx. Oui! Trois ans de l'ecole francais et je suis tres mal! J'ai faim.

We Support Our Vets

So, as is the usual around here, we've had some visits to the emergency vet lately.. our pets HEART going to the doctor in the middle of the night!


The good news is, everyone's fine now. Ringo has a shaved hind end, much like a baboon, that he is parading proudly. Be glad I am giving you the side view. He had a whopper of an abscess hiding under that fur and a temperature of 104! Poor guy. A week later, and he's cone-free. Back to his ways as a stealthy rodent killing machine. Just heads and stomachs on the welcome mat every morning, the rest is apparently a tasty snack.


And then there's this guy! Still stuck in cone-land as he managed to remove part of his front paw's pad through obsessive licking/chewing.. OUCH! Now he has a cone, a sock, and a ridiculous baggie (sometimes Grocery Outlet for a touch o' class) rubber-banded around his foot for our daily walk in the woods.

Animals!

I've found that the best way to keep Otis happy in this situation is to blast the new Metallica, remove his cone, and let him go bonkers on a raw bone. Video to be uploaded shortly.

Put My Toes in the Sand

When visiting southern California, there's apparently only one way to roll..


..in a P.T. Cruiser! The guy at the rental place thought he was giving me a sweet upgrade from my reserved Kia Optima, and could not understand why I was like 'No. No No No.' when they drove it out from the garage. And then he just got kind of irritated and told me it was a P.T. or nothing. So cruising P.T.-style I would be. And guess what? It grew on me. I embraced my inner ZZ-Top and gave special 'awesome PT!' waves to all my fellow Cruisers of LA. Of which there are so, so many.


Hey look, it's Margaret! She got to roll in the PT. I took her to Griffith Park where we accidentally did some serious mountain scrambling.. we had to get vertical when we lost the trail to the Observatory. Clinging to craggy limetone while the shale slipped underfoot and broken glass threatened to gouge. Sorry Margaret! It was kind of my bad idea. But we made it!


One thing I like to do when I visit LA is go to friends' workplaces and bug them, as everybody has to WORK all the time down there! Crazy. So here I am bugging my pal Deanna in Santa Monica..


..and Angie of Poketo at their Downtown headquarters.


And then I went to Family and bugged Dave Stone while he was at work playing a show! It was a really beautiful set. No modular synths, just guitar pedal washes of sound. We hit up Canters afterwards, total 1995 style! When I first used to visit LA, I met Dave Stone and a bunch of us would go to Jabberjaw and then Domiano's for pizza or Canters for borscht or french fries. Rad past blast!


And here is one of my great hosts, Joanne aka the Joanimal! We kind-of had a neverending slumber party going on at her place in Koreatown, catching up on adventures and exchanging tales of teenage follies. And our great pal Tamala showed up one night, which is when we staged this secret photo shoot of Joanne and the Ewok.


Over at Kye and Julia's I attended a dinner party, celebrating Kye's bday.. Julia whipped up a delicious veggie feast and I tried to absorb the awesomeness of all their crazy collections. Like these guys:


..and that's just the tip of the Stuff Iceberg!


I was stoked to see that Kye has made a band called 'Isthmus', because here in Olympia we have an actual Isthmus of Controversy in our downtown, with developers trying to build 'luxury condos', while the rest of us try to talk some sense into the City Planners. Isthmus is the great Olympia buzzword of 2008. And now a band from Solano Canyon!

isthmus |ˈisməs|
noun ( pl. -muses )
a narrow strip of land with sea on either side, forming a link between two larger areas of land.


I took Joanne on a Valley adventure one sunny afternoon.. we went to the Brand Library in Glendale..


..and to the beautiful and delicious Wat Thai temple in Sun Valley. Fried Sweet Potatoes! Thai Ice Tea (aka Crack). Something called Beef Ball Soup, which Joanne declared totally tasty. I love all the altars.. bright bright colors, elephants, incense.


Then on to the American Way thrift store in Burbank, which is always Out Of Control! We picked up some black tshirts to do a craft/repurpose exchange. I bleach-dyed the one I made for Joanne and added some painted geometric patterns... and there was no shoplifting for sure with this crazy security motorhome parked outside!


Joanne lives in this really neat old building in Koreatown, where Marlene Dietrich used to come to get her clothes embroidered! I love weird L.A. history.


I passed along the Sarah Style Spartan breakfast plan.. coffee and A Egg.


And then it was time to roll on out of sunshiney, tshirt-wearing, palm-tree lined Los Angeles.. back to the soggy Northwest autumn (which is beautiful, but WET! and COLD!). I gave the P.T. a hug (well, a mental one) and then jetted back to Sea-Tac with some new records and a fresh haircut. And two pounds of Baklava. Which, as of 5 days later, has been completely devoured by the Kamilche Adventure Crew. Hope to see you in the springtime, L.A.!

Oh MAN!

So Jessie Frances, purveyor of those beautiful Everyday Fancies, totally pulled a fast one and 'tagged' me.. which is apparently a blogging term for making one feel compelled to answer personal questions for no other reason other than to forestall the guilt you might experience by ignoring their invitation. It's kind of like an online version of 'Jinx', that junior high thingy where you have to stay silent until someone 'unjinxes' you by saying your name. Or something.

So here are the rules:
• Link to the person who tagged you.(check)
• Mention the rules. (mentioned)
• Tell six quirky yet boring, unspectacular details about yourself.(crap)
• Tag six other bloggers by linking to them.(sorry in advance!)
• Go to each person's blog and leave a comment that lets them know they've been tagged.


1. I've never been on a waterslide


2. I was part of the World's Longest Banana Split at the Lacey Cinemas parking lot in 1985. With my brother and this guy.


3. One time I met Gene Simmons and he curtseyed to me; odd. Incidentally the three images that scared me most as a child were KISS, Darth Vader, and Debbie Harry.


4. I like the new Metallica Record. Except James H. really needs to move away from personal, therapy-style lyrics and back into more conceptual 'Sanitarium'-like ones. Just saying.


5. I have a hard time saying the word 'peninsula', which kind of blows as I actually live on one, the Olympic Peninsula. It has also been pointed out to me that my pronunciations of 'garbanzo' and 'penguin' are weird as well.

I tag thee:
1. Natalia from Lost Teeth
2. Allison/Jeremy from a&j
3. Melanie from Coloring Outside the Lines
4. Helen from Orange You Lucky
5. Allison from The Lark
6. Fawn at Fawn Gehweiler

What word is hard for you to pronounce?

Leaving Los Angeles

Greetings! I'm BACK!!


I had a warm, hilarious, delicious, and relaxing time in Los Angeles. I never thought that city could make me feel so restored! I'll post some pictures soon, but in the meantime I just thought I'd share what's coming up in the tshirt shopppp. If you're ever in Glendale, and visiting the amazing Brand Library (there's a link over there to your right), ask to see the old World's Best Logos books from the 70's. If the nice librarian is working she'll dig them out of the basement storage! And then you can go to Kinkos and make things. Like foxes with glow-in-the-dark eyes..


Upcoming!
P.S. Check out UTTERWORLD for a bunch of updates!

Bloghopping

Check it out! I posted a photo diary thingy over on the Poketo blogg here, to celebrate the release of my new wallets and print.


Today I'm off to the copy shop to make a flyer for an upcoming Pierced Arrows show, and then I need to find some new flip-flops because I'm off to L.A. tomorrow and it is SUNNY!


I will be:
1. eating 5 pounds (give or take) of guacamole
2. hugging all my pals
3. visiting the Poketo HQ
4. going to the DSS/No Age show
5. dancing at Part Time Punks?
6. hiking at Griffith Park
7. free thursday at MOCA!
8. haircut
9. culver city art safari
10. main library branch downtown, brand library in glendale
11. baklava!

Start the Presses

Lookee here!


Could it be?? A calendar on it's way to print?


YES! Thanks to the diligent work of Pat at Buyolympia.com, this proof copy is slated to hit the presses in the coming week. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Hoot Nanny Hoot!

My camera is busted! Lame. It's still suffering from some sort of post-camping malaise. But! Mariella was sweet enough to lend me her camera for the week, so i could do a little photo-diary thing for Poketo, all about my new art show that's opening tonight!


HOOTENANNY! There are three of these tambourines.. penguins, swans, owls. Plus five other paintings. If you're in Olympia, please come to the opening tonight! It's at Room 30, 408 Washington Street. 5 - 10 pm, and did I mention there will be complimentary HOT NUTS?! That's what I'm talkin' about..


Out of this mess comes the HOOTENANNY!


Yeah, the Stevie Nicks lady from a few posts back definitely inspired me. Hope to see you tonight! And a big P.S. and Thank You to Design for Mankind, which featured my owl wallet today on their awesome blog!!