Consignment Crazy

Willie's going to Wild About Music since they sold the last one I sent. They also sold Zeppelin and ZZ Top! Raw Style sold Dylan and Primitive Kool is putting on a School of Rock show at the end of August. So I've gotta get cracking!

Also coming up is the Waxploitation show. I'm starting to get some visitors who've searched for it. So the poster is ready just in time! Hope they get a good turn out.

Peace.

SOLD - Willie Nelson 06/23/08

What Do You Want From Me?

Let the tweaking begin. Now that I've overhauled my website and modified my blog template to match, my obsessive perfectionist tendencies are making me itchy.

It's about you though. By "you" I mean those who have found me, discovered what I do, maybe bought one or told a friend, and continue to be interested in what I have to show and say. I need your help.

What could I do to make it even better for you?

As this blog serves partly as a journal for me, this is a question directed at myself first. I'm generally my worst critic (aren't we all?).

But if you can beat me at that, I might just have to give you something for your trouble.

Peace.

Good And Bad Blues: What Else Is New?

Did this one of The Commissioner for Waxploitation today despite a three-way family trauma yesterday involving a hernia, car wreck, and job loss. What a roller coaster Life is, huh? All are ok, thankfully.

The one cool thing that happened was a request for a donation of my work to a silent auction for "An Evening of Art & Blues" put on by the Alabama Blues Project. So exciting, the first time an organization has sought me out!

Almost have my redesigned main site ready! Maybe tomorrow, we'll see.

Peace.

Era Vs. Genre: Are You With It?

I was trying to figure out who to paint for the Waxploitation: Lost in Transit show happening at the Hip-Hop Theater Festival on Monday, July 7th. More and more, it seems people are suggesting artists from the 70's: Peter Frampton, New York Dolls, Lee "Scratch" Perry...

I know I'm a child of the 80's. I grew up listening to Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, Talking Heads, Culture Club, Eurythmics, Twisted Sister, and Devo. But before you say, "You poor thing!", the sometimes outlandish music that was pop in that era did leave me very open to other music as my taste developed. What I mean is, that even though the radio hits were of questionable musical worth occassionally in and of themselves, the language of the music of that time has had a lasting and valid impact on both my musical sensibility and what has come after the aftermath of disco.

Languages always fascinate me, whether they be spoken, played, or painted. As a result of what happened to the language of American pop music during the 80's, I've ended up responding to progressive rock, heavy metal, electronica, hip-hop... you name it. If I think about it, the only type of music that kind of missed being included in my internal musical library is country pop, mostly because country wasn't really pop then. It's cool to see how the culture you grew up in has affected you.

So then, when I started to explore less mainstream music, what I liked ended up fitting somehow into that weird mashup of genres as they were in that era. This isn't to say that my initial musical framework didn't change. As I developed and changed, my individual taste changed. But everything was consciously or unconsciously compared to what I'd heard as a pre-teen. If "That sounds like..." had an answer that I knew I liked, I'd listen more. If not, I wasn't ready for that music.

I think era can influence genre and vice versa. What's popular during an era, what defines it when we look back on it, influences genres of music as artists seek to fit in to the mainstream. They also stay true to their roots though, so each unique artist and those that can be grouped as a genre influence what is created during an era. This creates what we end up using to define the era.

I think this makes sense. I don't know if it means anything. It's just something that came to mind when I realized that I have several Eminem CDs today while I still don't have The Beastie Boys first album or anything by Public Enemy. Put another way, I have a special place in my heart for Michael's "Beat It", but I don't even know the name of the song by that dancing guy, what's-his-name, that all the girls love today.

What is your music, your culture?

Peace.