Beats Me What To Call This Post

I hope I did it justice, this painting of Thunders and Johansen on an album the guy sent me from Canada. It was the one he played into the ground, so I'm sure it means a lot. It was pretty dang difficult to find a picture good enough to use of both band members from the right time period, blasted punks, ;)

I still feel so scattered, unable to focus on things which require any. Let's see... I got the truck emissions checked, mowed the backyard, weeded, did dishes and laundry... I need to send money so our oldest dog stays legal... oh yeah, that was what I wanted to talk about: we're going to Vegas! We're supposed to do things that would usually make us happy, and, oh boy, The Verve are playing The Pearl at The Palms! They're only playing a few gigs in the U.S. and it looks like this is the smallest venue at 2500. This time we bought tickets with assigned seats, looks like pretty good ones, so we won't be as close as in London but we'll be more comfortable. The acoustics are supposed to be excellent, so it should be a great show. Hopefully they'll play some more new songs from their upcoming album.

Sorry these posts are rambling, my mind isn't working right... but, um, right, the new photo setup. I just got this Tabletop Photo Studio through SkyMall. I'm hoping it'll eliminate the spotlight glare streaking across the records. I'll take a shot of what I'm using now, as well as taking shots of a piece in both setups. I figured it was worth a try. I might even be able to take pictures of them framed too!

Another new toy I got from SkyMall is the iRecord magic white box. So far I've updated the firmware and downloaded the settings program. I was surprised I was able to follow the instructions for the firmware given my current mental state, but I did it without messing it up completely. Next I've got to check the internal settings, and then figure out how to hook it up to record my vinyl. Hope it works. The company supposedly provides good customer support, so they could help me tweak it if there're any hitches. We'll see.

Last thing is the show in Canada had over 100 pieces! It's so cool that people are finding a creative use for records. I hope mine stand out because I paint the recording artist on their own album, but I love seeing the compositions of other artists. I wonder if mine sold?

Gotta go do something... it'll come to me.

SOLD - New York Dolls 03/28/08

Reluctant Enthusiasm

More paradoxicalness. I don't think that's a word, but in any case, another pair of opposite feelings acting simultaneously. I'm getting great feedback on Flickr about my pieces for Art on Vinyl 3 and I am excited about the show in New York, but at the same time I'm still struggling with the demons brought on by Jason's death. So it's hard to really focus on my artwork while trying to find acceptance.

Maybe I can look to Dylan and Lennon. Both resisted being iconic figures in New York, but both continued doing what they did, figuring out a way to accept the unwanted role. I liked finding the new photo of Bob from a promo poster for his book, "Tarantula". Made for a nice pairing with the one of John. Maybe somebody'll buy both together at the P/Art Show. Like pretty much all the paintings you can see in this blog, they're also available on commission.

Speaking of commissions, I already got the New York Dolls album from Canada to paint for the guy I connected with in The Vinyl Engine Forum. Now I've got to find a good picture of the pre-punk rockers. I also found the Grateful Dead album to use for my contest winner's piece on eBay for cheap and it's on its way. So those are next.

(Pain)ting, Despite

Here're 4 for P/Art. Couple more to go.

Art And Music Together

Whew. Rodrigo received them up in Canada. That's him holding my James Brown. They've gotten some comments already on Flickr, so hopefully they'll get a good response at the show. It's been publicized in Juxtapoz, which I think is a pretty big deal.

I've started on the ones for the Part Art Show in Manhattan's Lower East Side. I'll throw up a couple photos tomorrow. I think I'm going to do 8, including Mick Jagger and Lou Reed.

Another blog has posted an interview with me, pretty cool to be approached for free publicity! Nicely written intro too.

On a different note, I'm looking into a way to transfer my vinyl to MP3 files. In the SkyMall catalog that I perused on the way to Austin I found the iRecord, a little white box that takes the normal RCA inputs for audio/video and outputs to USB storage devices, including iPods. I think it'd be more useful than the USB turntables because we could also use it for audio and video cassettes. Other than CNET I couldn't find much about it online that I'd consider reliable. Has anyone used this magical blinking box?