Bands, Band Aids and the Art of Breathing

I'm pretty sure I looked a lot like that for the last couple of months but lookee, it's Santa season and it's time to put on a good face now. I've been in recovery mode and let everything fall softly from my tree like little shaken leaves. Drift, drift till there was nothing on my plate. It was nice, but peace can't last forever and in true form I started getting busy just around the time of the holiday season. A quiet kinda busy though, I'm not sending out the press releases and trumpet calls yet!
I have some new works and one in progress but I'm unhappy with my digital camera (hey Santa, are you reading this?) so I'm not even going to shoot them right now. It's just about time to enlist the help of my photographer friend Sam Bortnick, almost all these new pieces need to be shot for the portfolio. And the portfolio needs to be sent to some galleries, and that is my big plan for 2010.
The Shapes are set to rev up practices this week, which is all my fault for slacking on...but I've been real careful about lifting stuff and possibly sending myself back to the house of pain. Stupid back! I really don't know how Keith Richards does it, say what you will about Keith Richards but the dude is old as dust and can still do stuff I am finding it treacherous to do right now. The album is waiting on artwork (also my fault!) but should be done soon.
The Lolli Dollies are in gear working on new tee shirts and getting ready for an upcoming shoot with photographer David Mausey (who did some wonderful stuff with The Shapes)and also have plans for VIDEO. Will update when it hits youtube.
Lollipop Shoppe will POP back on the scene after the Holiday Hooplah- backs still on the mend and standing around djing for hours is still not in the cards, plus it's REALLY hard not to wiggle when James Brown starts playing. Don't tempt me!
Thanks for reading this boring hoohah, a basic update...I'm still alive (this is a recurring theme of my blog hmmmmmm)and hoping everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Rain and Raccoons

Dallas has been totally rainy of late. It's kind of been hell on my back as I'm suddenly a human barometer. I can tell you it's gonna rain before the meteorologist does and of course my physical therapy was a total butt kicking yesterday so I'm non-functional today. Todays word is PAIN, which rhymes with RAIN...but that's ok. I'm dealing.
Rainy days and pain are good for reading in bed with hot herbal tea, sketching out ideas for paintings or planning new adventures. It's too bad the XBOX which doubles as the DVD player is KAPUT...theres lots of nice scary movies I'd like to catch up on before Halloween. Stupid ring of death how I hate thee!
For the longest time I would hear this strange loud purring under the floor of my kitchen (oh by the way this is a total non sequitur) and I was imagining a GIANT cat sleeping under the floor...perhaps too big to get out from under the house. It was that loud. I would only hear it during the day and when I would cook aromatic chicken soup it would get louder and happier. Needless to say I had all kinds of interesting thoughts as to what this could be. I even imagined a snoring bum was living under the house. But one evening I spotted 6 full grown raccoons slinking out from under the house and having a little masked conference in my backyard. I then saw them tear around what used to be my garden (that was short lived thanks to them) and bound over the fence for their nightly food foraging campaign. Mystery solved! Theres a heap of snoring raccoons under my kitchen floor. I was beginning to think my Hydrocodone was a tad too powerful!

Out of canvas, working on paper. Trying to work through the pain of a back injury and get my spirits back where they belong.
"Renovation"
acrylic/ink on paper w/ newsprint

The Shape I'm In

Well, I got two gigs with The Shapes...one is tonight at The Lounge on Elm St opening for the Tomorrowpeople and the other is tomorrow night at the Dallas Museum of Art. These should be fun, but I can't help but feel a twinge of apprehension as I am in INJURY mode and will probably have to sit while performing both shows. Blues style!
I know I haven't updated here in awhile but since last I blogged I sustained a back injury that has been very painful and which I'm still suffering through. Physical therapy, meds and the headache of dealing with insurance companies. BLAH! But the show must go on and go on it shall....might be the last shows for awhile though as
a. I need to heal
b. The Shapes need to release this damn album already!
Hopefully see you out and about soon!
9/17- The Lounge on Elm 9:30p we start The Shapes, Stephanies ID, Tomorrowpeople
9/18-Dallas Museum of Art- Late Night at the DMA with the Lolli Dollies, DJ Rid, The Shapes

I SUCK

It's been two years spent in a hot little room with a recording machine, microphones and redoing, redoing, redoing everything we've ever written. A zillion takes later and the cd is getting MASTERED as we speak which left us free to do this thing called PLAYING LIVE SHOWS again. So here we go and I'm totally LAME for not posting this sooner but I think everyone that reads this is in Australia and Timbuktoo anyway so whatever. A little info about the album- it goes to 11. As in it's 11 songs! Pretty much just documented to the best of our ability- all the songs we've written up to this point. We got our friend Mark Ridlen (local badass DJ and musician, read: LITHIUM XMAS, The Klogz, Quad Pi, etc)to help in production and sound layers and we're pleased with the flavor of the album. We've enlisted Reid Robinson (you may know him from the Texotica stuff as well as one of the DJ's for Sonic Assembly Power Hour on KNON)for the fun task of mastering this monster. The album is not out yet but thats not stopping us from our getting our feet wet on the stage again.
Our show is tonight at the Lounge On Elm St. Our first gig in TWO YEARS! And of course we're doing it the night that the DOMA's (big music thing in Dallas)are going on but that's how it rolls. That's how we roll. I'm really curious to see The Flying Eyes who have a bit of a moody Doors-y thing going on....and I'm curious to see who shows up to see us rise from the dead.
Speaking of rising from the dead- HAI! I'm back and I've been busy with art and music, here is the latest piece I've finished

and before that it was this monster

There is word that I'm going to be showing some work at the Capitol One building in Frisco later this month-I'll keep everyone in the loop when I get details. (Really! I will this time!) and aside from all that hooplah just working my 9-5, trying to write some new Shapes songs, dancing with the Lolli Dollies girls and trying not to melt. Hey-it's been like 105 too many times this month. This is Texas summer allright...rather be in Australia! Thanks for reading, I will try to be an active blogger again. Happy Summer to you all!

All Together Now!

Ok, I'm back from the madness of Beatlemania and am happy to report that all my hard work was not in vain. The event was really fun, although it was quite humid in the gallery/soda shop... so it was a good thing I was scoring some free soda pop to quench my thirst. There was an amazing turnout for the art crawl and our event was abuzz with people loving on the Beatles. The go-go girls did a great job hyping up the crowd and we got lots of attention from camera wielding spectators.
I sold both of my pieces in the show quickly and barely got a chance to say goodbye to them. It turns out that one of them was bought by an out of towner and he had to take the piece that night instead of leaving it up to finish out the show. So when the next one sold I just waved it off as well. Bye bye records! The octopus was bought by a fellow who wants to turn it into a tattoo! And the Beatles piece is going in a sweet little girls room. I was honored my stuff went to good homes. Vinyl is hard to paint on but everyone loved it so much I may try my patience with a few more.

Beatlemania hasn't bitten the dust

Well this is the next event I'm involved in and I'm happy to say it's right down the street from my house in my very own little hood of Oak Cliff. It's part of the Oak Cliff art crawl going on that weekend. This is going to be fun, for one thing I LOVE the BEATLES, for another I LOVE SODA! And if that isn't enough....and it is really, I have a couple little pieces of art in this show. In fact I'm finishing one and starting one this weekend. It's the vinyl record paintings I've blogged about. I really want to take a picture to show you but then where's the mystique? Where's the unveiling? The big surprising moment? I will have to post after the opening dear readers! Wah wah wah! Im such a tease! If you are in the metreoplex do stop down for a sip and a sashay as I spin Beatles tunes and my lovely go go troupe makes ya dizzy Miss Lizzy!
oakcliffartcrawl.com

Fun with Sinuses!

So my allergies and what is possibly a chicken bone lodged in my throat caused me to have one fun day on Monday. I had to go to TWO doctors offices, one my regular old quack and the other an "ear, nose, throat" specialist. That little photo up there of the scope? That is what was inserted into my nose, only that one looks a lot more high tech and the one I had probing me looked like it was circa 70. For real!
So the scope goes into your nose (after having some numbing spray squirted into your snoot that tastes like Pine Sol, you with me? PINE SOL!)and slides down your throat. Gag. GAG! The whole time I had my eyes closed trying to meditate away the scope. This isn't really happening. This isn't really happening. But it was happening and it was not fun, no not fun at all!
About the chicken bone, because I know you're dying to know. I ate some nice very soft baked chicken not too long ago. It was so soft the freaking bone came right off into my food and I ended up swallowing it. By the time I felt it poke the back of my throat there was no coughing the offender out. Then it moved a few days later to the nether regions of my throat. I am convinced it is still in there because I feel something painful when I try to sing. The doctor said my allergies and throat were so bad and red he couldn't see the bone and has me on all these meds and sprays. I have to go see him in another week and Im crossing my fingers the old retro scope sin't anywhere in sight for this! ;O Pray for me friends! This is some kind of voodoo it just has to be!