1st of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS! Hope it's a goodun!
As you may or may not remember, last March my great friend and fellow artist, Chris Lawson and I went on a Nowhere Trip with no maps or plans or destination/expectations ... Eventually we found ourselves in Monroeville, AL where Harper Lee penned To Kill A Mockingbird ...
Well, the trip ended up being such a load of fun that we thought we'd maybe take a Nowhere Trip every season ... but alas time is a strange creature with a secret agenda of its own and we didn't take another Nowhere Trip until a whole year later in May!
Aaaaanywaaaay, this time was a very different yet very similar experience from the last trip, and chock full of random nowhere goodness ... The mix contains a lot of the (oftentimes silly!) audio recordings we made during the long southward stretch, along with a choice sampling of the music we listened to on the road ...
And now with no further ado, may I present "Nowhere Trip 2" (blasted Youtube rejected it cuz it's over 10 minutes long, but thankfully Vimeo said yes ... however, the video's prolly gonna get all chopped off-looking so go HERE to see it all of it's black and white glory):
Well, it was kind of an eventful week ... Bad News Bearons were victorious over the team I'd Hit Hit and I finished several more commissioned paintings ... See two examples below:
Speaking of art, the opening of Wes & Byron's art show at Boutwell Studios, Sofa-Sized Paintings was last Friday ... you should swing by there and check it out!
And NEXT Friday (June 4th) there will be the opening of an amazing collaborative art show at Bare Hands Gallery called "Strange Bedfellows" ... it'll feature collaborations between:
Pinky Bass & Jonathan Purvis
Doug Baulos & Ila Faye Miller
Michael Bonadio, Andrea Paschal & Daisy Winfrey
D. Spider Bradford & Chris Lawson
Shea Goodwin & Chris Stewart
Wendi Flowers Goodwin & Tracie Noles-Ross
Wes Frazer & John Lytle Wilson
Lucy Jaffe & Jane Marshall
Janice Kluge & Brad Morton
Tracy Martin & Byron Sonnier
Exhibition: June 4 - July 17, 2010
Opening: Friday, June 4 from 6-10
Gallery Talk:Saturday, June 19, 2pm Loft: Collaborative Quilt Project by Lillis Taylor & Friends
WC: WC Conversation - create your own collaborative art in the WC
Courtyard: Courtyard Conversation - blank canvases, blank books, and art supplies in the
courtyard - all are invited to create and collaborate throughout the exhibit!
That date also happens to be Bare Hands Gallery's 14th anniversary ... so come out and join the celebrations!
A fantastic video by one of my new favorite bands, Small Black:
I love this ... that is all:
Chris sent me this recently ... if yer a Hitchc0ck fan, it's particularly fascinating:
Flying Lotus = yes:
This next band (Tame Impala) is so damned great ... it's like John Lennon singing for the Stone Roses, plus the video is pretty mind blowing as well (the part at 3:12 makes me laugh every time! haha):
Okay ... WARNING: this next video is an absolutely terrible thing to watch ... it made me cry, actually ... but it needs to be seen so people can be made aware of the fucked up cruelty involved in the meat/dairy industry ... okay I'll get off my soapbox now ... but you have been warned = there's NOTHING pleasant about what's in this video:
This rockin mixtape was created for you by the marvelously musical Christopher "Lance" Hays ... It's an extremely energetic playlist, perfect for zipping down the highway with yer windows rolled down or blasting it from yer livingroom as you get shit done around the house or whatever the occasion may be!
I was, however a little curious about how the title of the mix came about ... and in case you are too, here's Lance to do a little explaining:
"The Secret Dessert playlist was born in a tiny little Mexican restaurant when Scotty Lee ordered some fried ice cream and ended up with a treat he wasn’t prepared for, THE SECRET DESSERT! Still to this day he has no idea what he ate but was happy that the waitress had opened his mouth to the unknown. “It was like she threw a rainbow of shit in my mouth” Scotty thought.
Peace. Love. Respect...The Secret Dessert."
Wow. You may now indulge RIGHT HERE. Mmm-mmm ... Thanks a ton, Lance!
Ah, Summer is definitely on it's way! The Bad New Bearons scrimmaged against some random baseball dudes this past Sunday in 94 degree heat! We kicked their butts, too I might add! haha ... If you wanna see us live and in action, we're playing TONITE against a team called I'd Hit It!
... Speaking of heat, it's finally "dry yer clothes outside" season! witness:
Andy Stewart recently turned me on to the astounding music of one Robert Alberg, the autistic son of a multi-millionaire ... his back story is beyond creepy ...
Oh yeah ... here is a photo of my stuff hanging at the ALIAS group show, which is currently up right now, along with a ton of other great works of art at Litebox Gallery in Pepper Place:
Speaking of art, this past week I finished a few commisions ...
Here's one I did for Brad Lightfoot of the 60's folksinger, Odetta:
And Brian Teasley wanted me to paint these metal snowmen cutouts ... Now they serve as the OPEN/CLOSE signs for Bottletree:
This mixtape was created for you by the amazing Mr. David Hickox, who just happens to be one half of the Birmingham musical duo, Broken Letters (the other being last week's mix-maker, Brad Davis )... You'd think that we'd planned it out for them to do mixes a week apart, but NO! it was actually pure coincidence! Seriously!
David's awesome mix (dig that cover up there!) stands out to me especially because it is the very 1st ALL VINYL mix to hit the Psychic Tuesday airwaves ... congrats, David! I now feel very inspired to follow his lead and dig through all of my LPs and 7 inches ... you just can't replace the exquisite sound of a needle touching grooves on wax ... I've always had a soft spot for those good ole record crackles, too ...
Here's David himself with some words on the creation of this fine mix:
I started this mix with the idea of using tracks exclusively from my neglected record collection. There are so many songs in those stacks that I never take the time to hear because my listening patterns have shifted to the computer and I don't own digital versions. I started pulling records, choosing songs that meant a lot to me and that I thought others wouldn't really have heard. The resulting mess was incoherent and made no sense to me initially, but as I started to arrange the tracks a story began to emerge that matched pretty perfectly with a confusing week full of twisted and conflicting emotions--the sort of dichotomies that work well in the religious narrative. Looking back on it, this mix tells it so well.
May I now present to you a 100% VINYL experience! Cheers, David!
Okay okay, I did say last week that THIS week I would have Chris Lawson and I's new "Nowhere Trip" movie ready for yer viewing pleasure ... well, I LIED!
I decided that it would be more appropriate to "release" it on the 1st Tuesday of June because that in fact will be Chris' BIRTHDAY! Ha!
So, for anyone who's very eager to see just where we ended up on this particular Nowhere Trip, here's a little teaser trailer:
Speaking of movies, I finally got around to finishing the new Bad News Bearons softball promo! It's the 5th one I've made and probably the most ridiculous ... because we're a pretty ridiculous team if you wanna know the truth ... but ridiculous is FUN! Just see for yourself:
Remember way back at the start of the year when Danny Gamble told me that my portrait of Alabama author Albert Murray would be presented to the president of the Alabama State Council On The Arts, Al Head? Well that happened! Word has it that he was rather pleased with it:
The Alabama Writer's Forum wrote a News Flash about the event:
The Alabama Writers’ Forum celebrated Al Head’s 25th anniversary as executive director of the Alabama State Council on the Arts at its May 14 Board of Directors meeting by presenting him with a portrait of Alabama author Albert Murray by Birmingham artist Paul Cordes Wilm and a framed broadside of an excerpt from Murray’s 1971 book South to a Very Old Place. “These gifts are very meaningful to me,” said Head. “Albert Murray is an important artist from Alabama…. As I travel around the country, I’m often asked about the Forum. In many ways, this program is a model which other states envy.” (photo by Steve Grauberger)
On that note, my very good friend John Wendel, who's been teaching English in Korea sent me the following in an email:
My Dear Friend,
I just noticed that you've done a portrait of Albert Murray.
His book "The Omni Americans" and a couple of essays I've read of his on aesthetics, related to notions of jazz, have been greatly influential to my thinking. Art is not sociology, especially not on a base statistical level.
A great American voice.
OK he convinced me ... Now I have to actually READ some of Albert Murray's literature ... thanks, John! I'm already a big fan of Southern literature in general, so I'm very eager to dig into this.
This past Friday was the opening reception for a group art show ALIAS (in which I had 2 new pieces) at Litebox Gallery, and a ton of folks came out! Laura Ledbetter had 3 very wonderful photographs in the show, too ... It was great hanging out with friends on the lawn furniture at the closed interior design store next door ... it was almost like a secret hide out!
Hey look! that's David Hickox down there (next to Brad Davis) on the right at the opening! Brad was serving some of his and Kate's tasty "black ale" that they home-brewed!
On a slightly sad note, remember back some months ago when the city chopped down the huge shade tree in front of Peter & I's apartment? Well, after that Peter had planted a rosemary bush in the center of the hollow stump that was left there and, in time it grew to be a very full and beautiful plant ... Life was growing out of Death, so to speak
Until now ... the other morning I awoke to the grating sounds of machinery and looked outside to find that the city was now destroying the stump as well and the rosemary bush had vanished ... presumably tossed into the trash somewhere ... UGH ....
Witness below the end of our beloved stump ... R.I.P.
This mixtape was created for you by the extremely talented musician, Brad Davis. If you're a Birminghamian, you may be familiar with his rather awesome band, Broken Letters ... He's also part of the noise art group, the HoWaYaDa Klann and has another music project called Pyradyne ... something he referred to as his synth crap but I think it's quite engaging to the ear ...
Speaking of ear-engaging, this mix is the shit! I personally love to drive to it ... it somehow makes perfect travel music ... and in case you're wondering exactly what is krautrock, I found a pretty decent description here:
"We were trying to put aside everything we had heard in rock 'n' roll, the three-chord pattern, the lyrics. We had the urge of saying something completely different."
All right already, it's time to get yer KRAUT on!!! Thanks a ton, Brad!
A LOT of stuff happened during this past week and weekend ... the week consisted of Chris Lawson and I's 2nd Nowhere Trip, which I will officially devote NEXT WEEK's Psychic Tuesday to ... it was that jam-packed full of nowhere goodness!
The weekend started out with the opening for Elise's "Bits, Bytes, Shards & Parts" show at Naked Art Gallery (with Constance Ehrlich) ... Elise and her family came all the way up from Mobile and it was great to see all of them ... Her functional art, jewelry and puppets were amazing as usual ...
Here's Elise getting a tattoo from the karate kid!
Drop by Naked Art Gallery and check it out Elise's stuff ... NOW!!!
Oh yeah, speaking of Mobile, my parents live there as well and THIS particular Psychic Tuesday is my stepdad, Bobby's birthday! Happy Birthday, Bobby!!!
Here's Bobby with my sister Ramona and her 2 daughters Catherine & Sarah and my beautiful Mama:
The rest of the weekend consisted of me travelling to Montevallo, AL to witness the grand opening of the Stranded Art Cooperative:
It was great seeing the owners, my pals Jess Marie Walker, Patrick & Tanya Mayton along with a ton of other friends ... There's a LOT of cool items at Stranded from original T-shirts and art and jewelry and crafts by local artists to music CDs and vinyl by local musicians ...
Speaking of local musicians, that night the sidewalk outside of Stranded became a stage for 4 really amazing performances ... I recorded them all, actually ... you can download selections of the night right HERE ...
1st up was a bit of beauftiful tribal insanity by Them Natives:
Then Cedro Denado & Karst filled the air with their sweet & somber Southern gypsy songs:
3rd came the magic of none other than Mr. Walker Yancey:
And finally we all witnessed the extraordinary sounds of the HoWaYaDa Klann (Hey, that's Brad Davis down there! Who knew?!):
