In his next life he will stay in the grass and not hop six feet into the air and land in a lucky spider's web
Hey everyone. I need to break out this bad habit of only updating every couple of weeks. I keep meaning to post little things here and there, but I have trouble finding the right moment to sit down and actually write something. It didn't help that I spent last week on Cape Cod, to squeeze in one last visit and a few days' of swimming before summer officially ends. Anyway, I really want to start posting more often, so expect more frequent, shorter posts where I share whatever thoughts or updates I might have. This doesn't mean less longer, music-centered posts -- just more posts in between them. This will be one of those posts. Recently I started painting.
Our paint splatters on roof of the Juice Bar in Orleans MA, circa 2005.
I am not good at visual art. It's not just my lack of technical skill. I am a poor visualizer. I cannot look at my materials and piece together an image to recreate. I hated visual projects in school because I could never make anything that looked good, and it pissed me off that I had to be evaluated that way. (Although in 12th grade AP english, I did manage to get an A on a presentation where I used an LP sleeve as a posterboard). Thankfully, the idea of abstract art exists in part so novices like me can release our creative energy, make a piece of art, and take comfort in the fact that it doesn't have to "be" anything.
Heather and I did a little painting a few months ago, so with the materials available, I decided to take another whack at it. My approach for my first painting was to just to fill the canvas with whatever came to mind.
16x20" canvas or something huge, too big!!
One thing re: the pictures in this post. I've tried to capture the color as accurately as possible, but it's hard to take pictures of paintings. Also, sorry about the picture formatting extended past the margin. I promise I will learn how to fix these things.... Anyway, my technique for that painting is pretty straightforward if it's not too obvious. Put a color here, another here, layer new color here, etc. Most of it is the same back and forth brushstrokes. If nothing else, it is fun to look at and I found myself imagining myself in different parts of the painting would be like. This became my motivation for painting, to create landscapes of different colors and shapes, that invoke a new, but sometimes familiar, world. So I kept painting:
12x12"
My second painting. I experimented a little by leaving the circle in the middle, and I started to vary my brush strokes more. I started by painting the whole canvas the light yellow you see up top, and that remains my approach, to quickly paint some kind of background I then build upon. From here on, I started to do more blending:
12x12"
I really like brushing wet paint over the drying paint, it adds a lot of texture and brings extra dimension. I haven't nailed down my technique though, sometimes there is too much paint on the brush or my hand is too heavy. I need to master the basics so my technique is purposeful and not incidental. Too many times I look at a finished painting and wonder how I did certain parts. Here are the rest of my paintings, continuing in the order of when they were painted.
7x9" canvas panel
7x9" canvas panel
Collaborative painting I did with my friend Matt. 12x16" canvas or thereabouts
7x9" canvas panel
That's it so far. Well, I did do another painting a couple days ago, but I am going to paint over it. It went from having lots of white...to lots of light blue...add some pink... now it is a bold mess of red, white and blue that looks like a French flag from hell. That's what happens I guess. I will post my new paintings every so often. Feel free to leave a comment with any suggestions or maybe an idea of something to paint. Also if it seems like I haven't updated in forever, let me know! I could use a reminder when I might be spending my time unwisely. I'll wrap this up with a Leatherface song, been listening to them a lot and they have been a big part of my painting soundtrack. Till next time...
Beauty is more than skin deep and you don't have to say a word
Well I want to know what's inside of you and you don't have to say a word
That's one of my favorite lines from Scarface. It's on TV tonight and I just made Heather watch some of it with me while we ate dinner. Fun flick.
Bitch. Lesbian.
No specific subject or theme of this post, I felt like sharing a few thoughts and updates from over the past week. I'm 42 days out from my transplant which is a long way away from where I need to be, but is an impressive number in its own rite. Moving forward at least.
Earlier in the summer, Heather told me about three older women she saw in our neighborhood who all wear homemade dresses, big floral mumus. A few weeks ago we were taking a walk and I got to see them. One woman in a big green mumu and the other two wearing pink ones. I can only imagine they are related and maybe two of them are twins or something. Very bizarre. When my dad was visiting me yesterday, we took a walk and I tell him about the women. Five seconds later a big white Cadillac drives towards us and in the front seat, two pink mumus, and in the back, one green mumu. Heather and I saw them again today in front of their house, with a big orange cat.
Baby asparagus from tonight's dinner
While we were watching Scarface there was a commercial for some drug called Lyrica and it made me think how the names of drugs and the names of cars are pretty similar. Seinfeld did a bit where the car companies "mangle a positive word into a car name." He names Integra, Supra, Impreza. Well you can add Lyrica, Viagra, Mirapex, etc. Drug companies must have the same approach. After dinner I did the dishes and as I was rinsing out the tomato sauce can, I was overcome by a horrible smell. I smelled the can. Smelled like fish, disgusting. Just a heads up to all you chefs out there.
Heather just got accepted for a research position at a lab while she attends graduate school this year. Congrats babe! Now that she and Zack will both be working in labs, it is appropriate that I end with one of my favorite songs (and Zack's anthem). Expect a post on this album in the future. Until next time...
You just punch the clock, too scared to punch your boss
No, not Generation Records in the East Village. REgeneration in Allston Village. Regen opened in 2004 as Regeneration Records & Tattoo, with half of the store dedicated to records, zines and other merch, and the other half set up as a tattoo parlor. They booked shows regularly before closing, renovating and reopening as Regeneration Tattoo in late 06/early 07. This post is going to reflect on shows and record shopping at Regeneration Records & Tattoo.
As it was
Don't ever start a blog. I just spent 15 minutes switching the order of these pics to maximize the dramatic before/after effect, and cut+pasting my text to correlate. Anyway, the above pic shows Regen the record store taken from a similar perspective as the first pic, facing the front door. You can see the couch in the background on the left, which was across from the cashier. Pretty much every time I stopped by, there would be people chilling on the couch just hanging out. It was a cool atmosphere that you only get at an independent record store. I am surprised that major music chains never put a couple of couches or chairs in their stores to try and replicate that feeling. It's the same sort of setting Starbucks stole from independentt coffee shops and they did pretty well by it.
Co-owner Ross sang for this sweet band in like 99/2000. Crusty hardcore punk with an almost NYHC style groove
Regen came along at a perfect time for me. I was a freshman in college and it gave me a cool place to go and continue my punk rock obsession in the city. It was great for everyone though -- Boston's previous punk record store Second Coming was no more and Regen regularly booked awesome shows, making it one of the few punk destinations in the city. For a while, anyway. Noise complaints forced them to stop doing shows in June 2006 and the record store and shows were gone by the end of the year. It was sad to see the record store and shows go, but at least the business itself is still there and hasn't become a cupcake shop like Second Coming.
Shopping at Regen was awesome they had a good selection of new records, used records, and the occasional oddball DIY release. I used to be really into old school emo, and I found lots of out of print stuff there, like the Navio Forge 12" and the first Lincoln 7" for like $6 and $3 respectively. Emo fans can get away with cheaper prices for their rare emo records at a lot of punk record stores because emo remains a pretty obscure genre for most people, and the records tend to be obscure enough anyway, so they aren't under the same sort of scrutiny as, say, a 1st press Warzone 7". Of course, record stores that scour ebay to determine their prices are beginning to have an idea.
Navio Forge. Listen to the dude actually cry at 5:15 in true emo fashion
Great, moshy hardcore but there's something else going on here. Listen to those drums.
Play this for anyone who questions emo's hardcore origins.
You hate to look at CDs when you're going record shopping, occasionally I made some great discoveries. In the used bin I found an Excessive Force CD, and one day Zack and I were browsing and immediately noticed a CD that had a Confederate Flag/swastika design. Turns out it was a CD reissue of an old early 80s Louisiana punk band called Toxin III. This is some damn good punk, bouncy and catchy with an incredible singer. Again, listen to those drums.
Do this, do that, I've had enough of that
Then listen to these drums:
You said you'd always be true, but you're a weak
motherfucker and you never had it in you.
As for shows, I remember lots of great local bands like Blank Stare, Fruit Salad, Mind Eraser. September 2005, Toxic Narcotic played and it was insane. One of my favorite bands and the critical band during my middle school years (as well as the TN/Unseen split being the first 7" I ever bought, but that is for another entry). It was my first time seeing them. They were supposed to play on Cape Cod in like '99 or 2000, but they did not show. I tried to see them another time around then in Boston, but the show got shut down before they could play. So when it finally happened, I went nuts. Hands down one of my favorite shows ever.
I am third from the right
May 31, 2006 was Unholy Grave (Japanese grind) and Magrudergrind. Zack and I got to the show early and were hanging out outside alone. My obsession at that time was Infest, and I couldn't stop listening to "Where's The Unity." I said to Zack, wouldn't it be awesome if Magrudergrind covered that song. Shortly after, the singer from Unholy Grave came up to ask and asked us where's the nearest Chinese food. A little while later, Magrudergrind plays and the singer lets us know, "This is a cover." And they immediately start playing "Where's the Unity?" It was so bizarre and will always stick out to me as one of those weird, cosmic moments and my favorite memory of Regen.
A few years ago, Armageddon Records opened up a shop in Harvard Square, so the city once again has a cool place to hang out and check out our kind of music. I hear good things about Regeneration Tattoo and maybe I'll get my LIFE IS WAS PAIN tattoo there when all is said and done. Honestly I don't know if the same people are at Regeneration Tattoo, but if they are I wish them the best and hope they look back on the record store years with the same fondness I do (probably not).
Thinking of something good for next post. Till next time...
