Walk For Witches

Yesterday: Michelle, Stephie, Jennyrose and myself piled into the tiny silver Hyundai and hightailed it to Redmond, Washington. The skies were dumping rain all over Olympia when we left, we huddled in the open door of the record store in trepidation. Stephie: "This is, like, Biblical!". We brought plastic sacks for our shoes, and a shower curtain for.. a picnic blanket? Blasting Dusty Springfield and Subway Sect ("Life.. Is.. Chain.. Smoking") on the ride up. I think maybe we all stepped through a little rip in the time/space continuim, becoming 15 again. The skies cleared, the moon rose over a friendly, grassy little park in NE Seattle, and then she appeared:

Though I was excited to spend an evening being a goofball with my friends, I didn't really have any expectation for this show. X and Blondie. A great pal gave me 4 free front row tickets! I took a chance on 'reunions'. It payed off, big time. Besides Clem Burke KILLING it, destroying the drum kit and all drummers to come before and after him, Debbie Harry is so COOOOOOOOOOOOOL. I don't think there is enough room for me here to draw out that 'cool' into an apt description of this woman. If I have one shred, one speck of that at age 68, I'll be happy. Oh, and she came out wearing this robe and a black dunce cap? Setting the bar, setting the bar.

We tailgated it after the show, eating chevre and figs like all punks do in the parking lot. We waited until everyone left, why not? I don't think any of us wanted to go home just yet. And tonight, I'm doing it all over again, going to Seattle with JT for Neko Case. Its a full moon and I have a raging case of emotional vulnerability (aka 'pms'), so I'm listening to her music today and practicing holding back tears, because I hate crying in public, and its going to be a challenge. If you flex the muscles under your eyeballs and squint up and to the right, it staves them off a bit. Pro tip. 

Thank you Candice P. for the tickets!

Thirty-Great

I haven't found the inspiration to post on here in a while, but all of a sudden tons of exciting things are happening! First and foremost, over a year ago I sent a plea into the Universe for a Mustang bass, and left it at that: revisit here. Tomorrow she shall be mine! From a friend, for a very very very decent price. And why do I need a solid bass, since Western Hymn is breaking up and I'm actually a guitar player? Because I have signed up for an insane project:

I'm not a regular follower of my horoscope, but I gave it a glance the other day. It said something along the lines of 'an older man will offer you an interesting opportunity, and you should say yes'. Hmmmm, says me. And what do you know: the following morning I received a message from my old pal Dave, asking me to join a 5-piece band, on bass, for the sole purpose of playing a live soundtrack to an amazing 1920's silent Soviet film, October: Ten Days That Shook The World. 90 minutes of music, mostly original (but some apt glam covers thrown in when the revolution really gets going), on stage at the Capitol Theater during the Olympia Film Fest. November 10th. YIKES. Bonus: we will be wearing sparkly Soviet-influenced outfits. Joaquin, the singer, wears hot pants. So there's that.

Couple of quick graphics jobs, a flyer for the Broho and this letterpressed jobby for a fest called OOPS:

                         

It definitely needs some red on the left to balance, but I only had time to do two passes and if you're a printmaking nerd you'll know how the yellow sun and the capitol building occupied all of that space on the Vandercook with their big square linoleum block dimensions. But if I could, I would do one more layer with some red seagulls floating around the dome. And it was a volunteer gig, but I did score about 300 pieces of chipboard for future projects.

Also, my friend and bandmate Craig is moving to Los Angeles in November, so we're playing a string of final Western Hymn shows in late October/early November.. and recording an album! Best to get everything documented. The little band that could. J-Tro gave us a nice shout-out in this post.

And finally, I'll be celebrating turning 38 this weekend with my virtual Sept. 21st birthday buds. An eclectic mix, no? Early revelry begins tonight at Blondie/X in Seattle, and tomorrow at Neko Case. Busy times! Oh yeah, and I just took on a painting commission with a tight deadline. COFFEEEEEE.