High Holy Daze of April

Hello dear readers. There was a big fat moon riding high in the sky when i wrote this, so that must mean its time for another update in my never-ending quest to avoid boredom. And how have i been managing to keep it at bay since last we spoke? Well. Let me see.

Over the past couple of weeks, i have: attended the 'Cleveland Confidential' speaking tour at the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame; lined up an accomplice a friend to go to the Fairie Festival with; attended a friends birthday, the kickoff party for Recycled Rainbow, and the Battery Park Wine Bar - all on the same night!; begun work on a new performance outfit; joined the Pretentious Tremont Artist's drawing group for an evening; took a field trip to the Natural History Museum (where i somehow did not see the naked mole rats, Woe); held TWO meetings on the Sekrit Project; had the flu; ~maybe~ signed on to submit an imaginary album cover for an upcoming show; paid an afternoon visit to both Daffodil Hill in Lakeview Cemetery AND Eggshelland, in company with my 'nephew' Pookie Bear; did NOT drink a cocktail named 'The Kevorkian' at a closing night cast party; began designing a skeleton marionette; and started tomatoes and peppers for the garden i don't have. This is why i keep a calendar: not only to know what's coming up, but to keep track of where i've been.

So where do i begin? Chronologically, i guess, and that means ArtWalk and the Pretentious Tremont Artists. This is a group of artists who meets every Friday evening at The Literary Club - which, despite its name, is a charming little-known little bar on a Tremont side street. i've modelled for them a couple of times but this was my first time on the other side of the sketch pad. Here's what i came up with, side by side with a photo of the actual model. Now, due to it being ArtWalk, i arrived late and didn't get an optimal seat; in fact, i had some trouble seeing her as clearly as i would have liked. Excuses excuses, i know. i didn't have to go with the quasi-cartoonish styling, but so much of what i've drawn in recent years has been exactly that.

i really want to get back to drawing and painting; i've had a definite mental block whose nature i'm Aware of, and have been meaning to join them for a while as a way of breaking this. Plus its a better use of a Friday evening than just bending my elbow at some other fine local establishment, a pasttime i've grown quite bored with in recent months. This isn't the first time i've drawn from life, but its the first in probably twenty years or more. i hope to make it back again soon.

The very next night was the double parties, as well as a memorial that i didn't manage to get to. Enough confusion working out who was going to be where when. i missed the early 'surprise' part of the birthday party, tho once i did catch up to them, i really *did* get custody of the yellow mushroom. Here's proof, for those on Facebook who thought maybe i'd slipped a gear: Instead, i went on to the kick-off party for Recycled Rainbow. RR isn't our regional burn; Scorched Nuts is that - but its a Burning Man-inspired event that's grown out of a series of household 'salons' that used to happen a few years back til they got too big for one house. i've only made it to one RR so far; every year i hope to catch another. i really like and am inspired by the work these folks do and wish i could be more involved. Then again, i sometimes think in terms of micro-regionalism: they're doing their thing over there in Lakewood, while i'm involved with the Tremont/Ohio City/Gordon Square axis. And as long as there's interest to support it, why not have Their Thing there and Our Thing here?

Our thing.. *giggle*. i'm still not quite ready to spill on the Sekrit Project, maybe next blog. It IS going to be a Real Thing, even if only "just for one day". Funny how Bowie and Heroes/Helden have been weaving thru my life as a theme these past few weeks. Anway, multiple meetings should be a hint: this one's gonna be Coolest Thing Yet, or at least the most time- and energy-consuming!

Next up, Cleveland Confidential. The tour's wrapped up now, so if you didn't get a chance to see it, well, the Rock Hall is supposed to make the livestream available as a podcast, so check their website. That it happened at the Rock Hall was - kinda mind-blowing. If you don't know what i'm talking about, four guys from the earliest days of punk rock here in Cletown all have books out, and went on a speaking tour in support of them. Those four are Bob Whoozeewhasis from the Human Switchboard, Mike Hudson from The Pagans, Cheetah Chrome from the Dead Boys, and David Thomas from Pere Ubu. If you know ANYTHING about punk rock, you know at least one or two of those names.

Tickets were available by reservation only, despite being free; i was really surprised they didn't add a second show here in their freakin' home town. It was something of an Old Home Night down there, tho there were a number of faces i might have thought to see that either couldn't be there or just weren't, for whatever reason. But it was quite the time. i'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of these four being at the freaking ROCK HALL, because... aww splutter mutter! i'm just a wee bit younger and so wasn't physically around when they began their careers, but old enough to have followed them vicariously through the local free papers.

Yes, once upon a time, there were many free weeklies here in town, not just the Scene; and Scene was a far, far cry from the paper you see now. Those weeklies had an immense influence on me; they're pretty much how and why i got into punk. And not just the papers, but one person who wrote for them, specifically, Peter Laughner. At the age of fourteen, a weird, artsy-hippie outside recently transplanted from a college town with a notorious radical past (Kent State, hello?), i was perfectly primed to soak up every single word i could find from someone who was nearly a decade further down that particular path. i could (and have) written much more about this but there isn't time nor space here. Suffice to say this was something more than just a trip down Memory Lane for me, tho i'd have to put more thought into it before i could say just what, and i'm too tired/too busy for that.

In fact, i've been so busy that i never finished this post and now its already time for the next one. Ai chihuahua! So let's try to wrap this up in short order. Eggshelland: a springtime tradition that's been around as long a i have, give or take a year. One of those odd little local 'roadside attractions'. i think i first saw it after we moved to Clevo in 1970; i know for sure i took my kids when they were small. Now that they're grown, it's time to share with a new generation: Pookie Bear.

Pookie and his mom, my friend Sue, seen here surrounded by a few shots of this year's display. Yes, those are all real egg shells. Every one painted with enamel paint and stuck on a peg according to a grid pattern. Pookie, sadly, was much more impressed with the rope keeping patrons on the sidewalk, and the clasp on his stroller seatbelt. Ah well, maybe next year.

And with that, its now time for yet ANOTHER update. Which i haven't written yet. Let's get this posted and i'll see you again as soon as i can.