i am thinking about yo la tengo this week

this song is called "Ohm". IT'S CALLED "OHM". this is what i am talking about. this was recorded 3 weeks ago. we're talking about a group of people who have devoted their lives to creating music and the feeling that making music gives them. maybe not the only thing they do that they enjoy, probably not their only interest, but who wants that? what a feeling to have for the rest of your life!

today: tapes

i recently dug out a tape to listen to in the car and on the old jambox in the studio and it had this song on it. i taped it from a 7 inch a long time ago and it's really hitting me hard these days. windows down, turning up this sweet tune when i'm next to the tough guys at the stoplight. this youtube video is lacking the fuzz and hiss of the old dubbed cassette, and i'm no audiophile, but the tape sounds a 100 times better. it's because it's tied to memory. memories of riding my bike around town in the summer with a walkman. those are fuzzy and hissy memories and an old tape makes that case better for me. and recently i've been making the move to TAPES ONLY IN THE STUDIO and i think it's because i don't know what's good for me. if i keep listening to my ipod, i'll skip around or listen to some podcast. i want to listen to things that i don't like at first, but because i keep flipping the tape and listening to it over and over, something is revealed and i suddenly get it. why not spend the summer with 30 songs rather than 300? i don't think i can keep it up, but i will try. i wonder if i have a kid, if by the time that kid is in his thirties, he will be reminiscing over MP3's, and how nice it was to listen to a whole song rather than just having it injected into your brain's emotional center by an invisible tube.

tape pros:
-if i bring a record into the studio i will spill coffee on it
-don't have to charge your device so much, just keep it plugged in, i guess
-they wear out, so you better enjoy your time together (lessons about death)
-sometimes don't sound as good, so now you have something to look for when you go to the record store: the original album
-half price books sells tapes for twenty-five cents. that's a reasonable risk to take on a random new age album, a bootleg country hits compilation, or that 90s neil young album.
-you can get blank tapes at garage sales so cheap
-making covers is fun
-you can spill coffee on them

i did a little interview and shared some workspace photos with the nice folks at From The Desk Of. it's like Cribs but for nerds who would rather talk about pencils than nice shoes.

west siding

 over in Lafayette Square, closed down fun parks provide color shape pleasantness

 meanwhile, helping hands get busy with a leaf

 skate break. decent slappy material up front.

 finally getting somewhere with this stuff. in the end, we hope to have a whole bunch of things going up, in and around  the garden and building zone.

for your important documents

sad sack

therapy

be that beat

cuts

i am working on a cut-out project at the service center. 

making friends.

rainbows with problems

here's another piece from the needles and pens 10th anniversary show, beginning of a series and other things, "rainbows with problems". what a privilege to be able to make these new things and have such a great place to show them to people. what a world!

i am only trying to mellow

want list: pascal roge LP of satie pieces

this is a new drawing that i have in the needles and pens 10th anniversary show at the luggage store in lovely downton san francisco, california

this is a close-up of a part of it. i am wanting to do about twenty of these and then put them in a room and there are people, abyss, and butts as far as the eye can see. let me know and i will come install it at your house. is there a grant for that kind of thing?

son of pierre speaks

next month there will be an exhibition of my fake fliers project at IMOCA (Indianapolis Museum Of Contemporary Art) in partnership with fine folks of the Big Car organization. on display will be all the old ones and some new ones and a video (i hope). showing in the big gallery will be the amazing "we buy white albums"  installation. i'm just letting you know! it will probably be a fun night! june 7th!

department of continuing education

let me sleep

instruction manual page four

source material:
the seven sutherland sisters
1
2

meet me at the celestial potlatch