Signage

Lately, I've been working on a sign for Hub-Bub, the hub city's cultural edge. The awesome folks up there gave me creative license, just saying they wanted hand-lettering. It was such a fun project! I learned a lot about materials and technique and I can't wait to do this again.

I didn't take a "before" picture, but you can see the blue that it was. There were sticker letters on it and these tan painted lines. Getting the sticker letters off took awhile and the lines never quite came up.

The folks at Hub-Bub suggested I go with cyan or orange. I worked with cyan a lot on a mural recently and chose orange instead because, well, Clemson, of course.

I used an old dinosaur projector to set my guides. It was really, really cold in the studio! If you look there on the right hand side, you can see some of Cesar Maxit's stencils. :)

Painting and painting and painting! My hand is so much steadier with all this practice. 

Here is the finished piece. This is a stupid cell phone picture so the color is weird; It's more orange than this in real life. I love how it looks!

Lou and Me

So yesterday morning when I heard the news of Lou Reed's death, two memories came to me.

I first listened to Lou Reed with Daddy. We didn't listen to rock'n'roll at home due to being Southern Baptist/Presbyterian. So it was a really neat thing whenever I got to ride with Daddy in his old pick-up truck and it felt sinful but safe. You know? I loved Satellite of Love and New York Conversation. It was just an old cassette tape is all.

But I have another Lou Reed related memory that's even better. Hudson and I, when we lived down in Charleston, had a perfect day. We drank sangria in the park and fed animals in the zoo. It was a slightly overcast day and we went to a wildlife preserve that you just kind of hike through. So it was very remote and private on a day like that. A Sunday Morning... Ok in my memory, that is true, not sure about reality. We found a side trail and had a picnic of cheap fruity wine and muffins. We saw bison and fed bears. And every time I hear Perfect Day, I think of Hudson and that day.

NMH

Neutral Milk Hotel with Half Japanese opening was an amazing show. The 40 Watt was packed to bursting, as you might imagine. NMH is touring for the first time in, what, 15 years? And the 40 Watt in Athens, GA is their original stomping grounds. People came from all over for this show. I went with Lucy. It was a 2 hour drive from Greenville.

We parked right behind the 40 Watt and had time to split a (cream cheese and jalapeno!) burger from the diner next to the club. Julian Koster was there, like right in front of us. And Anthony Bourdain was at the table next to ours.

After dinner, we stood in line for a full cigarette before getting carded and stamped and ushered into the dark, crowded club. We went immediately to the merch table. I didn't have much money, but I got two posters and had enough leftover for the coat check girl.

For Half Japanese, we stood about 10 people from the front, bodies pressed together, you know how it is. They played songs about love and monsters. All the innuendo was right up Lucy's and my mutual alley. I wished James was there!

When Half Japanese finished, it was our chance to scoot on up to the front. Everyone would take a drinksandpotty break, right? Wrong! Nobody moved, except to shove closer in anticipation. Luckily, we were able to make a deal with a guy and get about 2 bodies from the stage. And there we stood for the next few hours.

I can't really describe to you all that happened after that. I believe it will require an in-depth illustration to fully process. Suffice it to say, they played all the songs that I needed to hear and I left with the feeling that it was a once in a lifetime evening.

First of all, it was October.

“First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren’t rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn’t begun yet. July, well, July’s really fine: there’s no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June’s best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September’s a billion years away.

"But you take October, now. School’s been on a month and you’re riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you’ll dump on old man Prickett’s porch, or the hairy-ape costume you’ll wear to the YMCA the last night of the month. And if it’s around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.”

– opening paragraphs from Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Goings On

via

Jake and Lucy are staying with us for a while while they look for a house in the area. It's great to have their company and good for the kids to get to play with Arlo so much. It'll all be fine as long as I continue to isolate myself for that nightly study sesh!

Speaking of which, I'm kinda behind on the school front. You see, the last few weeks, I have been involved in an all-consuming mural project. It's pretty much done now and I am both glad and sad. It took up a lot of my time and I was away from James and the kids a lot. But alternately, I learned some good stuff and met some great folks. The mural is in Spartanburg where I hope to be increasingly involve in the art scene.

On that topic, I have a new project to work on. It is an outdoor sign for an art organization in Spartanburg.

You know, I could get into sign painting. Like as a thing. I'm thinking about looking for more opportunities like this and doing some field research in this area. There's so many great hand-painted signs from back in the day and a number have recently been covered up. That makes me sad and I believe this to be an art form worth reviving.

James Ambrose is Three

We are having cake and presents tonight. Too bad his birthday falls on one of my school days, else he'd have a super 3 birthday like we did for Bea. She woke up to a three pancake stack, had a party at 3pm with 3 presents, etc. It was great. But tonight will be great also! And there's real-live-film in the ol' Pentax!

all photos by James

Family Night

Isobel almost never allows her picture to be taken. Pretty!

I have the most awesome family. I'm sure of it. There are a lot of us, but every one is a keeper.

A lot of Sundays, we all gather at Irene (my folks' house) to break bread and catch each other up on life. This past Sunday, my dad's only sister was in town, so the group was slightly bigger with grandparents and all. We had such a lovely feast after which we sat around with our drinks and sang songs like good Irish folk. The guitar went around and boy did we fill that house right up. We sang our own songs, Irish drinking songs, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Peter Sarstedt.

Those are the good times. I love the feeling of being connected to an amazing group of funny, smart, nice, creative people.

Oceanic Obsession

As I may have mentioned, I'm going in a nautical direction. So this is the song I wrote in this strain. It was debuted a few nights ago with a fair reception. Ok, so I'm no Leonard Cohen. But I like it.