***: Interchangeable Hearts Mix

This mixtape was created for you by the ever-amazing artist Mr. Bonard Hughins and yers truly ... He and I have an art show called "Interchangeable Hearts" at Boutwell Studios in Homewood, Alabama and the opening reception is THIS Friday, July 30th 5 - 8P ... Come out, look at our brand new paintings drink free beer and hang out with us!

This mix was fun to make because, like many of the pieces in the show, it's a collaboration ... I picked out some songs and Bo picked out some songs ...And it's truly a "random" compilation because lot of them were picked simply because the title had the word "heart" in them ... haha ... It's also a very diverse playlist just because it displays the musical tastes of 2 different artists ... we certainly hope you enjoy it!

Thanks, Bo for not only inviting me to share the art show with you, but for assisting me in getting this week's mix together!

You may now download it RIGHT HERE.

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All righty ... well now that I've already told you all about the "I.H." show, have a gander at the flyer:

You can also view the official facebook invite for the show HERE.

Here's a photo of a lot of my painting contributions in a VERY primitive state:

And here's one of the collaborative triptychs before Bo added his magic:

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In "home front" news, I recently learned that after 4 1/2 years of delivering Black & White magazines every other Thursday, I've been sacked. Wow. The times they are a changin! Part of me will miss it, part of me will not ... Apparently I was not only sometimes delivering the wrong amount of bundles, but also not reporting the correct amount of returns (leftover magazines) ...

Here's an excerpt from the email my boss sent me explaining my termination:

"The risk to B&W comes when extra copies are left at a stop and an
advertiser, who either owns that stop or is simply a customer, sees unused
copies thinks that the same scenario is being repeated all over town. This
can cause him to eventually pull his ad because he thinks it isn't being

seen by as many people as he is paying to reach.

I want to make it clear that I don't think you did such a bad job. But B&W
pays its drivers more than the nationalaverage in return for complete

accuracy. Thus from the company'sperspective it would be irresponsible for

me not to try a new driver if he can deliver more accurate results for the

same pay."

So now it's just paintings that are putting bread on the table ... again ... Wow.

On a completely different note, I'm not the hugest fan of Summer (especially THIS part of Summer = we're approaching the dreaded "dog days"!) but one thing I always like about this season is the fact that I can wash my clothes and hang them in the backyard and they'll be nice and dry in only 2 hours or so!

witness:

Also on the home front, my incredible cat, Charley got really sick with tapeworms and totally worried me to death, lying in the back room and not moving at all much after took her to the vet ... She had to take a pill every day for a week, but to my complete relief, she is now back to her wonderful old playful self!!!

Three cheers for a healthy Charley!!!

Speaking of wonderful, my boyfriend Ryan came to visit for a couple days, which always makes everything better! He was growing out his beard, but as seen below, he suddenly decided that his mustache days must go on:

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In softball news, Bad News Bearons dominated the weekend ... Lafayette's own Krewe of Doom team drove down to the Ham to combat us in the 2nd annual Steel City Showdown.

Friday nite, Eileen hosted a welcome party for them (happy birthday, Eileen!) and there was plenty of B.B. gun shooting action, just like last year! I did my 1st ever "redneck tequila shot" (you place the beer can in the yard, shoot it with the B.B. gun and once the beer's gushing out of the hole, you grab it up and suck the beer out!) haha ...

Here's Alley being Annie Oakley:

Here's Will being John Wayne:

The next day, Dama hosted a brunch for both teams ... there was lots of delicious food and many hangovers ... Some of the folks went swimming in the river afterward ...

Finally, that evening the game happened ... There was a cookout and everything ...

Here you see Dama laughing at one of Katie's dirty jokes:

Merrilee brought delicious fruit-filled Sangria for everybody to enjoy ... Here we see her with Tasha and Daisy:

Sometimes Colm can be rather creative in the dugout with his baseball cap:

So the game began and it was pretty damned epic! There was much sweat and dirt and alcohol ... Bizarrely, the weather felt JUST LIKE when we visited the Krewe in Lafayette a year ago ... It really felt like they had somehow brought their insanely hot, humid weather with them!

So, the game raged on ... at different points I overran third and got filthy trying to get back to it, I made it home once and I slipped in the outfield trying to catch a fly ball but ended up blocking it with my body (!) ...

The Krewe ended up beating us 11-6 ...

Here's both teams and some of our "fans":

And after all was was said and done, Justin looked at the record book ... Supposedely, there was some scandal in that, according to the books, the Krewe only played 7 innings and we played 9 ... what?! haha

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Sunday, Chris Lawson invited me to play the "dancing pig man" in his upcoming short film "Theory Of Moths" ... it was crazy and fun

That's me in the middle ... haha:

photo by Seth Newell

Here's Sarah, Preston and Chris himself right after the shoot:

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And this week's video news, (as always it seems lately) is chock-full of eye-popping wonder-treats!!!

Let's kick things off with this acid-laced Neon Indian video:

Since things are already a bit trippy, look at this new one from Ducktails:

Jesus Christ this Zach Hill video ("Sacto Smile") is SOOO mental!

I can't get enough of Micachu & The Shapes ...hope they put a new album out soon!

This old Pavement song came on at Bottletree the other day and I suddenly remembered just how GREAT this video is (the headless singer always cracks me up!) :

Roy sent me this via facebook ... I've always loved Penguin Cafe Orchestra but had NEVER seen them perform anything live ... what a treat! (Thanks, Roy!!!) :

Every now and again, I'll find myself getting on a Hidden Cameras kick ... well, I'm on one again ... Here's their beautifully silly video for "Mississauga Goddam" ... it makes me long for Halloween :