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.