The Verve - Blackpool - 6 Nov 2007

I'm sitting here looking out of my Phoenix window at a day that belongs in London.

I'm listening to a very good taping of the show 3 days before the show we saw in London.

I'm feeling very overwhelmed, overflowing with emotion, Life's an Ocean. Intense gratitude for life. Their music definitely is directly connected to what's real. Space and Time. I'm aware of how big little moments can be. Even though I've only got a handful of subscribers yet, and most people who've found my website are looking for vinyl art toys, I'm extremely thankful and want to shake the hands of everyone whose given me moments of their energy, their life. I know it can go unnoticed, unappreciated. I know.

But then you can connect, communicate with Life. Everything happens for a reason, a reason one might not know at the time, but a reason. To be open to that is a trick. Computers crash, garage door openers hesitate, websites show up unexpectedly. I get to paint portraits of musicians I and others love. Then I get to share them. Cool. I really do crave feedback. Not to validate my existence, just to know if I've impacted others' existence. I keep creating profiles at every social networking site I find to do just that, give others a chance to find me, to see what I do, maybe to share me with other others.

I know I'm rambling a bit, repeating myself from earlier today. But I just want to emphasize this content's connection to Life, to what's real. Human contact. Community. And with that, appreciation of individuality and uniqueness. Who are you? Tell, show the world. Open up. I'll listen, and respond.

SO, that's that. Gotta box up Willie! See him in my post from a coupla days ago, or:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and thanks for listen, no I mean, reading.

Family And Friends

Stevie Ray for my brother-in-law in Austin and Lennon for our friend down in Tucson. I love giving gifts! I'm painting these for music-lovers who share our passion, so why not give them away too? Obviously I need to sell some, and the holiday season is the perfect time to get your commissions in, but sharing the love of music is what it's all about. This weekend I'm going to try to find the ones I'll do for Free Art Seattle. More giving. I'm looking forward to participating in other shows like it. If you know about art shows in your area that you think my work might fit into, please let me know!

I also created a profile at XING, kinda like LinkedIn. We'll see what connections I make there. Also, happened upon LiveVideo, so I created my channel there too. Basically, it's a duplicate of my YouTube channel, but it'll reach a whole new group of people. I'm tellin' ya, if I ever have to change E-mail addresses with the number of accounts I have... yikes. I just want people out there to know about what I'm doing and to give you all as many ways to find and connect with me as possible. I'm hoping to get more regular subscribers to this blog, but I'll take what I can get. Just give me feedback! Also, sorta important, if you haven't seen my online gallery, please:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and E-mail or even call me. Don't be shy, I won't bite.

GIFTED - Stevie Ray Vaughan and John Lennon 11/30/07

For The Love Of...

I was listening to The Verve's live recording of "Gravity Grave" on "No Come Down" while I was painting this Willie Nelson and something clicked inside reminding me of why I'm doing this artwork. The passion that true music-lovers share for the music that means so much is powerful; a raw emotional bond that you can see in someone when they "get it". Getting moved to tears by music is a gift for which I'll always be thankful.

So it made me all enthusiastic-like, which was good timing because Herbertos on Flickr found me and let me know about his Free Art Seattle Exhibition. Pretty cool idea, to have art up for a month in a cafe and then give the art away. The deadline is Jan. 5, so I'll probably do a couple for it, most likely with the clear coat and no frame like I did for Vinyl Killers 5.

I may also have gotten my first call from a visitor to the R.A.R.E. show earlier this year! I didn't expect anybody to contact me from there because most of the "Really Avid Record Enthusiasts" consider vinyl sacred, and even repurposing unplayable discs for art made them shudder. A few, though, had thought what I was doing was cool, certainly different than anything they'd seen at a vinyl collectors' show. We'll see if a commission comes out of it!

If you haven't seen the other commissions I've done, you can take a look at several if you:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinlart.info/

and go to the online gallery. Plenty of time for holiday gift commissions!

SOLD - Willie Nelson 11/28/07

Trying Out eBay Again

The Jerry is still available that I made the YouTube video of a couple weeks ago. So I decided during the holiday buying period to try out eBay again. I've put it up for auction. It's up through next weekend. I figured people might be checking things out during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. We'll see.

Bob Marley and the Jerry Garcia that Primitive Kool had in their show sold along with the Hendrix at Wild About Music. Also, I've gotten some great response from other blogs:

http://hippiesounds.com/vinyl-art-video/
http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/records-vinyl-art-by-daniel-edlen
http://www.curbly.com/DIY-Maven/posts/3061-Daniel-Edlen-s-LP-Canvases-

so I'm glad I made those videos! I'm excited to see what ripples spread from those posts. Maybe I'll get that swarm of wasps buzzing yet! To see other examples of my work, as always:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: http://www.vinylart.info/

and scroll through the jukebox to find your memories! I'm off to do Stevie Ray Vaughan.

The Verve - Front Row In London!

Friday 9 November 2007 at The Roundhouse in London

Best concert we've been to by far! Guitarist Nick McCabe just said, too, that it is officially his favorite gig of all time. The trip was completely worth it for this show. Richard Ashcroft is incredible to watch sing and play acoustic. We were front row for the whole show! I'd never done that before. I boxed out my wife so she wouldn't get smashed against the rail. I got jostled a bit but not too badly. We were right in front of bassist Simon Jones who drives their music and he was extremely fun to watch. I feel silly trying to describe in words how good is was so here's what they played:

New Decade

This Is Music

Gravity Grave

Weeping Willow

Life's An Ocean

Sonnet

Sit & Wonder

A Man Called Sun

Already There

Stormy Clouds / Reprise

Let The Damage Begin

On Your Own

Rolling People

Drugs Don't Work

Bitter Sweet Symphony

Encores:

A Northern Soul

History

Lucky Man

Come On

I'll let that suffice. Fans'll know.

London was wonderful, cold and gloomy, but wonderful. We got to see many of the sights, including Abbey Road Studios and the famous crosswalk. So cool. The wall in front of the functioning studio is painted white and covered with scribes from people who've travelled to see it. The employee who nicely told us there were no public tours said that they have to repaint it weekly because of how many people sign it. Somebody who lives nearby could take pictures of the wall before they cover it each time and do a sweet video of it. There was a great stencil painting combining the iconic Che Guevara face with Lennon's, so basically Lennon wearing the revolutionary hat. Well done.

Nothin' new on it since last week, but if you haven't:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

Maybe a Verve piece'll show up!

Ripples From Vinyl Killers And Newport Nights

I'm trying to get to these orders before hopping the pond to London. The request for Jerry came through the Vinyl Killers show and Damian Marley came through Newport Nights at Primitive Kool. I'm working on a ZZ Top which came through Wild About Music. I also delivered the pieces to Red Dog Gallery downtown which might lead to more connections. Great place! If you're in the area you should check it out this Friday after 7pm. They're #70 on the PDF map.

We bought memory foam neck pillows and ear plugs for the flight. Next is organizing all our clothes and vital items. Getting a bit nervous about dealing with airports and public transportation in another country, but it'll be a fun adventure. Hopefully I'll have something profound to say when we get back. For now, though, (yes, I'll say it again) there're new ones in the gallery, so:

CHECK OUT MY WEBSITE AT: WWW.VINYLART.INFO

and we're off!