So I had to make all the little stand things for my paintings today & I managed to get it done as well as finding a new piece of appropriate cloth to put over my card table display (you’d think tablecloth, but I don’t have that kind of money). Also found a jar to use to let people do a fish & sort mini-comics experience. Got to the gallery, re-did my display with all the stands. My pieces seemed a conversation starter by sheer volume (49 paintings all on two inch by three stretch frames) & visitors kept getting directed to me while I was busy drinking beers & talking to people. I actually sold a painting too (the silver one with a bunch of diamond slashes in it & a little comet on it for those of you keeping track). It made me feel pretty successful. I did the paintings as series that kind of tell stories (helped along by narrative text) & I may try to make some of them into comics. Anybody have a CMYK laser printer with good front to back registration that wants to help me out?
The past three days I’ve had two social events besides my typical Silber oriented socializing & it makes me feel good to get out of the house a little & see how “the normal humans” live.
There’s this ongoing conversation that I keep having with people about music, comics, & fine art. Basically all three of those communities (to which I am associated to a certain degree) are very insular & made up of poor artists trading money back & forth. For the communities to really stand a chance at survival we need to import money from the folks who make money. We need to make art for lawyers & computer geeks & accountants instead of waitstaff & college kids because we need fresh money in the system. The two groups I’ve come up with targeting are antique doll collectors & classic car collectors. Now all I have to do is figure out how to make art targeted that way. This paragraph is approximately 50% joke.
So I saw this video today that’s going around:
I’m not sure exactly how I feel about it. I mean clearly it is pretty awful in a certain way. But it makes me think that maybe all of the horrible singer-songwriter stuff you see on an open-mic night might be the performers & not the songwriting. & also it reminds me that when the music & lyrics are thoroughly separated that most lyrics are pretty freaking awful (as I’m sure mine are). & it reminds me that I was never impressed with the music on The Wall. & that if you are going to do a cover song & don’t have the chops or equipment to pull it off, you should alter it into something thoroughly your own. I don’t know, I get the vibe that the bass player should be singing the song & the drummer should be there & no guitars at all. Strangely a few years ago I saw a band at this quality level playing a bar & my feeling after seeing them was overwhelmingly positive because I realized that despite being a hack musician in certain ways, I am really pretty happy with what I do now & have no interest in working in a cover band made up of people in their fifties. It also made me feel happy for the fifty year olds that get to play in front of people & for the people in the crowd that have a good time regardless of the music playing. Because music isn’t the center of the universe whether it’s good or bad. Music is about communication & even if the music you hear is awful to you, if it makes you start talking to somebody about it then it has helped to make the world a better place.
Talked to Brian McKenzie (Electric Bird Noise) a bit today & I’m going to be getting more in touch about finishing up everything on the new Remora album. There’s one song he’s flying over to me because I am 100% dis-satisfied with the vocal performance. It was the last song written for the record & I didn’t even have a demo with vocals recorded to listen to fifty times to figure out exactly how it should be sung. Even now I’m still not sure. The song is called “Protector of Builder of Airplanes” & is a narrative sequel to “Nevada Smith” & I’m not sure how you sing a song to indicate that you are 30 years older than on a previous track. Maybe I’ll smoke some cigars before singing it or something.
Last Night’s Dream:
My hands are covered in probably an inch thick coating of red wax. I’m trying to peel it off, but it’s hard because neither hand is free. As I finally get my hands free I realize that I’ve been pulling off the skin & they are now just a bloody mess of unusable flesh at the end of my arms.