This One's Personal

I feel so out of the loop sometimes with things going on very close to me. About a year and a half ago, I had the idea to scatter seeds in the courtyard of my once-home, Forest Arms. It never came to fruition. I found this video today, and ghosts I thought I'd exorcised were resurrected. The video is beautifully done.

The Forest Arms Hanging Gardens FEATURE from SINGLE . BARREL . DETROIT on Vimeo.

Brownout

I'm sitting at the Emory drinking alcoholic root beer in a bright blue flowered sundress while a woman who tried to kiss Scottie one night waits on us. We're listening to my picks on the Jukebox:

1. "Soft Shock"-Yeah Yeah Yeahs: This was my first one, my "I like this song and it's kinda chill" pick. Nice and floaty.
2. "Slate"-Uncle Tupelo: I almost always pick this when I'm there. The violin part is great, it's a well-built song and one of the best opening songs to an album I've known.
3. "Spiderbite Song"-Flaming Lips: Steven Drozd is a genius, on a song about his addiction. I think his genius will be appreciated down the line.
4. "Blue Ridge Mountains"-Fleet Foxes: Perfect Saturday noon song.
5. "Manoogian Zoo"-Hard Lessons: This song has more historic value to my life than any other, having lived through the Forest Arms fire and having dealt with the aftermath. This song could be pretentious, considering they didn't live there or anything, but it's too sad and true to really have that effect.
6. "So Lost Now"-Silverghost: Great melody, catchy guitar line, and I'm friends with them. Not to mention they segued into this from a Vaselines song at the New Center.

"Science makes us all its bitches."

Now I'm talking about drifting events and New Order with my new friend Joe. And now I'm drinking a Great Lakes amber. I have to go to work in less than 4 hours. Lord, I hope my power is on soon. But the A/C in here is so nice and I'm hearing things I've never heard before and I just ate half an avocado with an omelette and right now I'm thinking I could live here, sleep right in the leather booths. That's the stuff of fantasy, though, and there's a reason a lot of the best writers die of cirrhosis. Like it was reading my mind the jukebox picks Elliot Smith's "The Morning After", sending me into reprises of car theft and summer hangovers from three years past. I sit back, recounting muggings and their strange nostalgia, sip the meaty Guinness to my side, and think that I must be home. Everything's going to be okay right now. Even though it never will be.

Fartsy

I've been conjuring ideas for various art projects lately, finally nailed down a Marco Polio t-shirt image, and gathering resources for my solo exhibition in September. So now that I have two weeks off of my main job, I get time to actually work out these ideas. I just have to make sure I don't waste all that art time on America's Got Talent if It Has a Sob Story. I'm meeting tonight with my friend Ashley from North End Studios/Sparklewood, and Steve from Black Lodge, to discuss a collaborative installation project for the Aestival Festival. Cool.

I haven't been reviewing anything, but chill, it will happen.

Blackout

On Wednesday Eleanora played with Duende and The Wrong Numbers at Club Bart, and everyone tore it up. Through the magic of Jellyroll Joel's fingers, we were able to grasp the sound issues of the place, and though the arrangement of our set was a little more musical chairs-like than we thought it would be, we went over well and finally had copies of our debut EP, Recollective, for sale.

Again, Duende was sweet, and though it was about 253 degrees inside, it was worth being there to hang out with Fur, -jr, Jeff Milo, and Frank Woodman (who was celebrating a birthday!).

During the second song of The Wrong Numbers' set, the power for a few blocks radius was cut, probably due to a power surge. In this troubled time, the drummer, I imagined, thought, "This is it! My big chance! Now they can't stop me!" and it was awesome. Also at some point Frank got on stage and attempted to start a "Give Peace a Chance" singalong. The power started back up just as I left, and then The Wrong Numbers continued the show, now knowing they'd better bring it for all the people who waited in darkness for it. I didn't get to see it because I, again, had to go try to sleep and then go give myself cancer in the morn.

New Center Park Kickoff

On Monday I worked during the day and then was able to skip out to the New Center Park kickoff and saw Jehovah's Witness Protection Program, Duende!, and Silverghost. My, what an adventure. I slouched in near the end of JWPP's set, whom I'd never heard before. The richness achieved through the loops and other layers of sound was really nice, in fact to the point that I think they could be an instrumental band; it seems words might distract from that wall of sound. However, I did like that last song about thinking about freedom--so appropriate for the holiday. "Anthony Anonymous" was pouring his sweat out on guitar/vocals and "Jehan Dough" was solid and heavy on drums.

Next was Duende!, who has been on my radar for a while now, and they are always a pleasure. Like an ecstatic blues-rock bar fight, they bring something new to garage rock (really, they bring garage rock to something new). When I first saw them, I found Jeff's vocals irritating, but they've really grown on me. Jellyroll Joel is just a master guitar whisperer, and Laura is straight and animated behind the kit. They played a really nice set. Frank Woodman was being Frank Woodman, which is always both expected and remarkable. Standing near the front during Duende's set, he was the only one dancing and singing along. Luckily he wasn't alone during Silverghost's portion of the evening.

Steve (from Marco Polio) and I decided to rush the "dance floor" about 2 songs into Silverghost, but it didn't work to get others dancing as we'd hoped, at least not right away. Finally others joined, unafraid to look like drowning victims (me) or schizophrenic professors (Steve). Marcie and Deleano rocked the joint! Of note was the segue of The Vaselines' "Son of a Gun" into their own "So Lost Now". The last song of their encore was refreshingly downtempo, since a lot of their tunes have very similar beats/tempos, but it wasn't their first choice, ending on a low note instead of a rocker.

I went to the Northern Lights Lounge afterward to see The Eeks, who had played in the park earlier in the day. I thought they have some potential, with the singer being very performative, but I wasn't that thrilled with the music itself, which didn't live up to the singer's energy. I look forward to seeing them again.

I got home around 1:30 or so, my head and thighs still burning, crashed into bed, and woke up to go play with toxic chemicals for the day.

In Between

Lordy Lordy! Workin' for the man has bogged me down entirely this week. Like, I've been working from 9am to 12am every day this week. Not an exaggeration.

But anyway, I should have some time Saturday to post some things I find interesting. (This doesn't mean you will find it interesting, but I will make an effort.) Coming up, you'll find:

• Sordid details about my muppet-like dancing at New Center Kickoff
• A minute-by minute account of my sweaty baptism at Club Bart, and the mass hysteria that ensued immediately following
• A pretty decent slice of chocolate eclair cake

All that and more!

Wait, I have to write in order for it to update?

I've been busy. That's my excuse. Working, eating, drinking, and messing around on the internet has usurped all of my time.

On my end of involvement with music, I've been working with Marco Polio and the New Vaccines on images for shirts and buttons and stickers and all that stuff, which is just as hard to do as it sounds considering the personalities in the band. We have the ball rolling, though, and we're at least going to use every image I've made for something.

On Sunday, I got off work and went down to The Loving Touch, where Isles of ESP were playing. Very improv-based, very good. I got a chance to improvise on fiddle with Eric Dilworth a couple weeks ago at Club Bart, and he's like a mad genius. I like his open chord structure and the way that he changes character in the middle of songs, though there were points in Sundays show where the changes got muddled. The band after them were really good too, but at that point I was half asleep, somehow, and Scottie was freaking out (in a good way) about some cover that they were playing, and there were lights everywhere, and I had to work in the morning and couldn't move my neck because I'm an old lady.

Oh lord, I already sound like Eat This City...

Last night I went to Rock Lobster night at Sakana, where I saw all sorts of people I enjoy being around. I talked about cartoon scuba suits and the contemporary dilemma of unclear communication while Dethlab DJ'ed. And I have to say, that was the most enjoyable DJ experience I've ever had, in part probably due to my recent obsessions with No Age and The Bird and the Bee; in part due to the fact that I've had only two other enjoyable DJ experiences ever before (besides hearing Marcie and Pierce up there every month). I hope to hear Dethlab more often.

This weekend is the New Center Park Kickoff thingy, and I'm looking forward to it. The parts I can see, anyway.

My band has a show with Duende and the Wrong Numbers on Wednesday.

Sorry, I'll start posting more.