Fucking Life

In June of 2008 I curated a show entitled Fucking Life for the Sporeprint Infoshop. Artists included Andy Hinton, David Leighty, John Malta, Andy Plank, Carlos Ruiz, Ben Scarbro, Stacie Sells, Nichole Senter and, in a fell swoop of narcissism, myself. Lisa Dorazewski, Sara Drake and Randy Hunter were supposed to participate and did not. Cars Can Be Blue, from Athens, Georgia, played music.

Wes Flexner blurbed about the show, which was also a release party for Punk Zine, on Donewaiting.

I remember constructing a fake wall with Ben for the show and it being laborious but "worthwhile" - a good learning experience. I was surprised by how nice everything looked together, which these photos hint at. I didn't document the event properly and apparently the only person that did was Kari Jorgensen. She just sent me these photos. The rest of them are after "The Jump" as is the flyer.

High School Bedroom!

DRAKKE

TALKIN 2 ALMA

This post is of a Facebook Chat conversation I had in February with my friend Alma Vescovi about artist statements - sort of as a literary form. It's after "the jump."

BUTTONS

I made some new ones, including a series of famous dicks.

I have a predicament with these buttons. I want to start selling them at more venues besides the Wexner Center Store and the Columbus Museum of Art. To do that though, I need some sort of name to call them, a "brand." And unlike my really good band names (I Wish I Was Dead) I can't think of anything to call it. I used to call them "Jimi Baby Buttons" as a pun on Jimmy Buttons proper but that would be unseemly and overly confusing if I started selling them in a variety of places. This is especially important since literally anyone can do what I do - all you need is a button maker and some spare time. The difference, I guess, comes from the type of references you highlight - most of mine are a lot like my "artwork," lots of politics, art history references, recontextualization of visual ephemera, etc. But if you put those in a bowl next to some others, it's admittedly hard to tell the difference. My plan is to get little circle stickers with the name of the "company" and attach them to the pin backs. It makes sense too since each of these pins are one of a kind to attach them to a bigger concept. IDEAS? Also, if you want some of these, let me know. You can see more on the Deviant Art page I actually have.

AUSSI:
Amelia gets two show reviews; second 'seems' written by "Hipster Runoff," I feel. : One.  Two.
I've made it into Quimby's!
Stealth advertising campaign for "THE ROAD" on Weedsteeler.
The Lantern stole Vitamin Water's "look."
Sort of content with our Senator?

ROY G BIV Artist Talk / Amelia

HERE is the link to a mp3 of my artist talk from earlier this summer. It is an (muffled, tangential, incomplete) explanation of a show that was at the ROY G BIV gallery during July of 2009.

This is the link to photos of the show.

And this is this (FROM):

 

We're (Amelia) playing D.I.T. Fest in Kent, Ohio on September 12th. Here is the lineup:


Friday Sept 11th, 2009 @ 6PM
@ the Vineyard (154 N. Depeyster, Kent, OH 44240)
6:00-6:20 – Zax Kelly
6:25-6:40 – Gabz Ciofani*
6:45-7:05 – Adam Klopp
7:10-7:30 – Ancestors
7:35-7:50- Ben Ryant*
7:55-8:15- Gabe Wolf
8:20-8:35 – Jordan Castro*
8:40-9:00 -General Ledger
9:05-9:25 – Toby Foster
9:30-9:50 – Nicholas Megalis
9:55-10:10 – Ryan Eilbeck*
10:15-10:30- Richard Wehrenberg Jr*
10:35-10:55- Letters to the Moon
11:00-11:15 – Matt Whispers*
11:20-11:40 – American War
*denotes poet
@ the Kent Stage Alleyway @ 11:45PM (175 E.Main St, Kent, OH, 44240)
11:45-12:05 – Bobby Stevens
12:10-12:30 – Andy Cook and the Wanderloons
12:35-12:55 – Pheramones
1:00-1:20 Annabel
Saturday September 12th
@ the Vineyard 1PM (154 N. Depeyster, Kent, OH, 44240)
1:00-1:20 – the Ghost of Asa Phelps
1:30-1:50 – Ashley Brooke Toussant
2:00-2:20 – Two Hand Fools
2:30-2:50 – Playoff Beard
3:00-3:20 – Signals Midwest
3:30-3:50 – Destroy Nate Allen
4:00-4:20 – Higher Fives
4:30-4:50 – Positive
5:00-5:20 – Dustin and the Furniture
5:30-5:50 – Saintseneca
6:00-6:20 – Busman’s Holiday
6:30-6:50 – Reverse the Curse
7:00-7:20 – Asinine
7:30-7:50 – Bethesda
8:00-8:20 – These Aren’t Candles
8:30-8:50 – the Menzingers
9:00-9:20 – the Sidekicks
9:30-9:50 – Underdogs of Nipomo
10:00-10:20 – Amelia
10:30-10:50 – Endless Mike and the Beagle Club
11:00-11:20 – Delay
11:30-11:50 – No Target Audience

Chop-Chip

ARTIST TALK

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 2:30 I'm giving an "artist talk" at Roy G Biv gallery for my show. I think maybe 5 people will be there. I'm planning to thrill those 5 people with stories about how my main influences are Wizard of Oz, the 60s, and thinking about drugs. And talking about the socioeconomic implications of the Xerox print. I'll be wearing non-prescription frames.

Maybe someone will film it and I'll put it here. It will be really embarrassing though because I'm trying not to be ironic or coy. Saying what you actually think about something is always a bad idea.

THE IV

Berea Fest Trailer from Jamtron on Vimeo.

My roomies put on this little DIY music fete once a year in Berea, Ohio called....Berea Fest. I think because they get a package deal on Browns training camp tix or something. It's happening on the 17th & 18th of July this year, the fourth year of its existence... a picture of me at the first:















Notice braces, stupid hair cuts - it was the summer of 06.

The haircuts are maybe better now. Here is the lineup for this year:

Friday - 6PM

6:30-6:50 Letters to the Moon (Columbus, OH) 6:55-7:15 Positive (Solon, OH) 7:20-7:40 Le Vansona (Zanesville, Columbus, OH) 7:45-8:05 No Target Audience (Kent, OH) 8:10-8:30 Pheramones (Columbus, OH) 8:35-8:55 The Read (Cincinnati, OH) 9:00-9:20 Pink Houses (Bloomington, IN) 9:25-9:45 Asinine (Lakewood, OH) 9:50-10:10 Cheap Girls (Lansing, MI) 10:15-10:35 Annabel (Kent, OH) 10:40-11:00 Underdogs of Nipomo (Olmsted Falls, OH) 11:05-11:25 Super Bobby (Boston, MA) 11:30-11:50 Lemuria (Buffalo, NY) Saturday - 12:30 12:30-12:50 Reverse the Curse (Hiram, OH) 12:55-1:15 Ghost Town Trio (Oberlin, OH) 1:20-1:40 Saint Seneca (Columbus, OH) 1:45-2:05 Tin Armor (Columbus, OH) 2:10-2:30 Submarine Spaceship (Athens, OH) 2:35-2:55 Sack Lunch (St. Louis, MO) 3:00-3:20 Seizure Fist (Columbus, OH) 3:25-3:45 Two Hand Fools (Cleveland, OH) 3:50-4:10 Ghost Mice (Bloomington, IN, Gainesville, FL) 4:15-4:35 Thousandaires (New York, NY) 4:40-5:00 The Max Levine Ensemble (Washington DC) 5:05-5:25 Slingshot Dakota (BrooklynNY, BethlehemPA) 5:30-5:50 Mountain Asleep (Louisville, KY) 5:55-6:15 New Creases (Columbus, OH) 6:20-6:40 Halo Fauna (Brooklyn, NY, Bloomington, IN) 6:45-7:05 The Dopamines (Cincinnati, OH) 7:10-7:30 Spooktober (Athens, OH) 7:35-7:55 Amelia (Columbus, OH) 8:00-8:20 The Sidekicks (Lakewood, Columbus, OH) 8:25-8:45 Goodluck (Bloomington, IN) 8:50-9:10 Delay (Columbus, OH) Be apprised that Amelia is playing. That's great. However, the whole thing is hosted at a church due to a lack of accommodating spaces in Berea so I'm going to have a lot of Grove City street punk flashbacks and nervous sweats that I'd rather leave in a deep recess of my unconscious. Other anxieties: having to play out of a bass amp and being surrounded by people I know without really wanting to talk to any of them. It should be fun though. And our tape split with Pheramones is coming out then too. Notice also that Max Levine Ensemble is playing. Could we see a rehash of this insubordination hot mess????? AUSSI: There is a blurb on this blog about my show at ROY. It's the only thing I've seen where someone has written something other than promo material for it. "High Street Art Blog." Choice snippet: "He displayed posters and flyers for local punk bands that played in various private house parties. It takes a real scenester to know any of these bands..." Me, a real grownup scenester... I feel accomplished. THIS JUST IN: Libby Zay blogs on Bust.com about Berea Fest. And don't forget. July 12th = 15 Bands at the 15th House.

I LIED

It actually looks like this:




















Other Updates:

Cult Ritual blew my fucking mind.














Photo from How Much Art Can You Take's Photostream from a show in Dayton. I can't wait to see some shots from the other night. I think I rambled about this performance to over twenty people in the succeeding days. Mainly I was recounting the moment where dude was tracing circles on our floor with the mic, the solitary spark that was emitted, and the flash back into full convulsive fit of everything. An amazing sequence and there are mic scratches left in our floor to remember it by. Other than that, every band was legitimately good; body rot used feedback so nicely, Vile Gash was as emotionally stunted and temper tantrumy as the worst memories from childhood, and Times New Viking was Times New Viking. The post show proceedings around the house were replete with war on Vietnam drifters, alcohol poisoning, criminal mischief... and I saw Midori jump the roof gap. It was nice.

ALSO:

The Max Levine Ensemble just blew apart Ben Weasel to his own fanboys at the Baltimore Insubordination Pop Punk fest and released this seven inch to go down in HICKEY/VOODOO GLOW SKULLS infamy forever. The record is in retaliation for Weasel calling Max Levine "The worst band ever" on his radio show. And complaining, bizarrely, about the singing style and lack of musical cohesion in MLE... which coming from the dude from Screeching "I hate you" Weasel is a bit confounding.

Record Cover:

THIS DUDE

This dude (Russel Howze) is coming to the Wexner Center Store Friday at five on his book tour for STENCIL NATION.















But, wouldn't you know it... I don't think there will be any of his books there. I've only flipped through this particular book but I see quite a bit of these "STREET ART" compilations coming through the Wexner store. In general these things seem to get printed because they don't have to pay royalties to anyone but that kind of cheapo spirit usually permeates the rest of the book in its cheap pages, cheap covers, bad design, and worse writing. And with 90% of street art (or tattoos, or punk flyers, or record covers, etc) being complete tripe it's usually worth it not to waste your time. But I always do. Because I got this book from the library when I was 16 and shit blew my gasket. Just the imagery of late seventies, early eighties New York is a bit spellbinding. Everyone looked legitimately cool. And then there are the full subway pieces on the entire line. And the colors were all candy pop sugar gum. It made me start using spray paint in my paintings for no defensible reason until I realized my mom was right about the no ventilation in my basement being maybe bad. I still (this is serious and not an over exaggeration) feel like I haven't even been as sharp as I was mentally before I spent some time getting to know spray paint.

Anyway, dude is staying at the Monster House Friday night so feel free to stop by during our show and chat him up about stencils and graff and the internet and book tours that jump from the Trumbull Plex to the Wexner Center.

ON A DIFFERENT NOTE ENTIRELY:



I just finished all 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers. Swoon.


Aussi:
Scotty burned this into my mind.

99 & 100

I guess the Monster House is having its 99th & 100th shows this weekend. This is not a startling amount. What is startling is that it isn't the 999 & 1000th. It's just constant. And a bit grinding. But I am just as culpable as everyone else. It's hard once inertia sets in to re-evaluate the way things happen - if it's for the best, if it's still interesting. Especially difficult when you live with 10 people and they all book shows. I don't really know? Personally, I'd prefer our house to be painted in hi-liter hues, for each band to be required to play to strobe lights and for the Screamer House skate ramp to be resurrected. And instead of punk shows - dance parties, lectures, book tours, films, art shows, and dice nights. . . Key parties, Russian roulette, and pass the needle. I'm also developing an interest in cricket? We all get old.



















Dave Grohl appresh flyer by Kari Jorgensen. It's her farewell show. It makes me sad. It feels like just yesterday she was sitting behind me at a screening of Killer of Sheep and noticing I was laughing at the wrong parts. 2 years goes I guess. I would go to though. Someday.........

SHOW INFO:

115 W.10th Ave.
Starts at 9PM.
All Ages. Donations.


#99 Friday June 19th in the Garage (THE PICKPOCKET) behind the house (115 1/2)
Paul Baribeau
Toby Foster
Maryn Jones
Ryan Star-in-sky
The Boy Who Could Fly

#100 Saturday June 20th in the basement
Noise Noise Noise
BUST!
Levi Funk
SOK!
The Creatures

I recently designed the record cover for Toby Foster (who is playing Friday) and Evan Gornik. I just saw the actual record jacket printed out last weekend in Lexington. Look at it:






































I don't feel 100% about it. Maybe 90%. While I was making it everyone pointed out that is was illegible, which it is, but I stubbornly decided it "looked cool." It doesn't. I find the color scheme strange... not put off by it necessarily but I've also never made anything that looked so October/November. The little dots being the same size was a big idea. The girl is asymmetrical. And somehow doesn't convey what I saw in the source material which is this photo booth shot I found tucked away in a molting book on the shelf of disused titles in my French classroom in Paris. I decided Gabriel Simony wouldn't mind if I snagged it.



















(Looks like Lisa Bare)

I like the back of the record cover better but it's still too much the anxiety of influence with all those Psychedelic Horseshit albums and the CDR things. At least, I feel it's too reminiscent. I don't know - I still feel unsettled about it. And I didn't feel perfect about how the Delay/Monikers split came out so I am still looking forward to getting an album cover correct as it is the total pinnacle of my aspirations in design/art.

And, anyway, you can buy it here if you feel so inclined - Keep It Together Records.


Aussi:
Fashion Plate

OH, YOU KNOW.

More grist for the mill.* I did these today and one more... the first salvo in a fifteen day fight to have something to put in the gallery space.


Also, my band AMELIA received our mixed demo from that engimatic conjurer of things aural - Kari Jorgensen. If I knew how to post it here I would... We play in Athens on Wednesday (June 17th) with New Creases.



* ....er Chill

Aussi:
Someone is trying in a big way to not become a member of this Wiki portal of a particular brand of infamy.
As governmental affairs in Iran go from bad-repressed-crazy to maybe-good-irrepressible-crazy.
MR MCFETRIDGE, I LUH U I DON'T CARE WHO U WORK 4 $$$$
Fav Band

THE PROMOTIONAL ADVERT FOR MY "ART SHOW."

I feel obligated to say I didn't make it. The left portion is a detail of my"piece" called Working With the Police. It is a schema of one room of Howard & Babette Sirak's house in Bexley which used to contain "The Sirak Collection." That conspicious consumption is now the cornerstone of the Columbus Museum of Art's European Modernism collection and the Siraks are remembered "great patrons of the arts." Rick Ross, of course, is the dude on the GET RIGHT MIXTAPE who says "working with the police" ad infinitum as some sort of don't-snitch-you're-lame-cause-you-talk-to-cops-thing. Well, anyway, dude was a corrections officer. That is exactly how I feel making artwork and trying to work in arts organizations. Shit is totally sold out and dependent on everything I hate. My recent internship doing data entry of the donor class for the development department at CMA didn't help matters. I helped pave the way for a Huntington ATM to go inside the museum: Awesome! But "Working with the police" is also a good way to think about changing/challenging meaning with existent imagery. And most of my show will be pictures of authority figures getting worked.

Also, I had them change my named from "Jimi" to "James" on the card. I'm not sure if it's worse to have a misspelled eleven year-old boy's name or to be pretentious and self-involved enough to have someone go back and change something like that.












AUSSI:
Je suis Marxiste
Soaked in lithium mineral hot springs, pennyroyal tea, doused in mud, sopped in bleach, cherry antacid and laxatives.
Soviet punks looking just as bored.