Local Music, Local Comics...

The music scene seems to be picking up in town lately. There's been two more concerts in the past two weeks (besides the usual open-mic nights and stuff). I didn't make it to either of them--the first one was a CD release party in an apartment above Gilly's, and for some reason that kinda freaked me out; the second was at a place called "The Rock" on 17th Avenue, and it was a "school's out" concert, so I figured it'd be overrun with high schoolers. Some of the regular metal shows do, too, but this seemed more for high schoolers than 29-year-olds who haven't been in school for over a year. This summer looks pretty promising, though, for shows.

Two weekends ago, Karissa and I hit some garage sales. Ironically, Karissa found stuff and I didn't. But we did discover an antique dealer just outside of Merrifield called "Southbarn Antiques". It's actually a big old barn in a farmstead, and the dealer opens it up on weekends and/or by appointment. We found quite a bit of neat stuff, and he told us a bit about the farmstead, which was left to him by his uncle. There are 2 houses on the property- the original house that was built there in 1879 (which is in GREAT condition), and a newer house which he lives in. Apparently an old Mexican couple that worked there for years still comes up once a year to stay in the old house.

Last Friday, I stopped in at Poppler's to ask them a bit about upright basses. They don't keep them in stock, and they figured the closest place to even look would be in the twin cities. My cardboard one does work, but I don't think I'm getting the best sound out of it, so I've been thinking of trying to make a wood one. It still wouldn't look professionally done, but I think it would resonate better.

I've managed to get another little comic up, this one just a short one-page comic, called "Nose Burp". I have a bit of archaeological illustration to do this week, and I'm also working on the first two pages of "Banjo", which I hope to start posting regularily soon. If I can get back into the groove I had on Golden Brown, it'd be nice--I've had a nice break, but some of this stuff needs to get outta my head.

I found my old band tape! It was in my old camcorder. I remember now that the last time I had it, we were watching some of it on Kevin's huge-assed tv, but he didn't have a VCR, so we used the camcorder. It took on a bit of moisture, but everything's working fine now.

Dylan Vs. Cash & a Cactus Jack

I took Kevin to a concert at the Guesthouse International Ballroom last nght where a bunch of bands got together and played Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash songs. The musicians seemed to want to play more Dylan, but the audience (kevin and me included) obviously wanted more Johnny Cash--anytime a Cash song was played everyone went nuts.

There was an anouncer trying to do some old-school boxing anouncing--not very well, but it was still fun to watch him anounce the 'bout' between Dylan and Cash. Peat Moss, a dude who normally plays in Big Business, kicked things off in overalls and a train engineer's hat. He was great on guitar, and even played a few of his own songs while up there.

Next up was the Hasty Ladies, a trio of girls, two of whom normally play guitar. One of the guitars kept feeding back (thanks, pro sound guy), so they knocked it down to one. To be honest, the chick playing the guitar was a much better and less-generic singer than the other two.

By this time, Kevin and I were starting to get into it. Despite being pissed about the pro-dylan-izing, the musicians were good.

After the Hasty Ladies came the Noblemen. I don't know what brand guitar the guy was playing, but I loved it! They were awesome (even when playing Dylan), and they played Cocaine Blues, which blew us away. Unfortunately, their set was just the two songs.

The Dewaine Wakeman Duo came on next, consisting of a banjo-picker and a guitarist. They sounded okay, and when the picker switched to a guitar, we were treated to a rendition of Tenessee Flattop Box. By this point, Kevin and I started getting tired. Blame it on the booze, blame on our age, we blame it on the saturation of 7-10-minute Dylan songs.

The House Guitars were the last band we saw last night (sorry other performers!) They sounded great, and just when I least expected it, they banged out Thirteen, one of my all-time favorite Cash songs, with 2 guitars & a harmonica.

We ditched off a little early, and I came home to an extremely cold bed and a sleeping girlfriend who was less than willing to share her warm covers!

One last thing: I've been taking a bit of a break from the comic stuff, but I've still been doodling around a bit--I just finished a short comic called "Cactus Jack"--it got a laugh out of Karissa, so fucking read it, why don't ya?

Drinking Crow

I found MORE guitars at thrift stores! Every time I think 'okay, I'm done now,' I see one that I find could be useful or that has a different dsign to it. This time, I found two, and neither are for me. The first one is a first act 1/2 size student guitar. We were considering getting a guitar for Isabella, but wanted to wait to actually give it to her until about X-Mas time. The price was right, the size will be okay by the time she gets it, and it actually sounds pretty good for a tiny guitar. The second one is an electronic guitar that has motion-activated "strings"--no strings at all, actually, but simulates the sounds through strumming motions. There's also rock/metal settings, and an option to play with a "band". I got it for Aiden, since he like to play mine, but now at least he won't hurt his little fingers on the strings.


We took Isabella to her last dance class of the season on Friday. Karissa's mom & sis stopped by the class to pick her up and whisk her off for the weekend, so she was very excited about that. We might have done more fun stuff that night, but we ended up being too tired.


On Saturday, we finally got out to do yardwork. I got to mow my lawn! I also got into my garage and cleaned it out a bit, clearing room for instruments to go, hopefully soon. I told Kevin I'm taking those drums of his back with me next time we're up in DL.


That night, we had a little party at our house to celebrate the snow finally being gone. I tried Old Crow this time instead of my usual Jack. I even hoisted my Jolly Roger over my garage!












Kevin suggested an interesting idea of putting lil' smokeys into sandwich buns, which turned out great, so I implemented it for breakfast as well. Karissa made a bunch of other stuff, too, like beef dip, spinach dip, a deli spread, and fruit pizza, so none of us went hungry.


It was a very fun night.

On Sunday morning, Karissa and I (not hung over, by the way) went to her mom's place to get Isabella and have some lunch.