Spenard Spring Social 2006: the after-show report

Well, if you weren't at Fiori Di'Italia on Saturday night, you missed out on the show of the year. Sorry to say, you suck. For the third year, I had the honor of being the master of ceremonies. To quote myself :

"Not to exaggerate too much, tonight will be the most amazing night of entertainment and song you have ever seen or will ever see in your lifetime.

All of tonight’s entertainment has been scientifically formulated to whip you to a frenzy of euphoria, hopefully leaving you spent and disoriented at the end of the night, but without the neck strain and overwhelming regret of, lets say a, Megadeath concert."

Truer words haven't been spoken. well by me. I've been the last five or six years and this was the tightest show yet. There were eight acts playing 15 minute sets. The highlights were:

Jacob Carpenter, who was blasted out a set playing the guitar and drums at the same time while singing and bantering the with audience.

"Coctail" Woodrow with Jared Woods and Mike Holtz. Woodrow are a universal constant. If one of the three members of Woodrow are not playing on a stage at any moment in time, the earth will be thrown off its orbit and careen into the sun. Luckily for everyone they were playing at the Spenard Social, in addition to also playing simultaneous sets at Humpies, Snow Goose and the Salty Dog in Homer, just to be on the safe side.

VivaVoom Brr-Lesque feat. Lola Pistola and the Band-o-lears who brought a full band and three of the girls from the show, Reva Lucion, Stawberry Stems, and Lala Lamour. Needless to say it was a blowout. They are going to have their next full show May 6th at the Snow Goose. I talked to Lola Pistola between sets and it will be monumentious. With just the mini-show, people were hooting and hollering, and eventually half the crowd was up on the dancefloor shaking it with the girls.

The Expiriments feat. Duke Russell. Duke got in moments before show time from Cantwell after working on Sean Penn's latest Movie, "Into the Wild." The only thing I can say about the band was that they had three rattles, bongos, electric guiar, a couple sets of drums and a didgeridoo all working it at once.

Prince Albert and the Fireweed Stampede. I just love the name. Authentic Alaskan Reggae. They asked me to say something about them. I think I said that they can cure cancer, play at Center Bowl and PJs weekly and kids love them. I don't know how much of that his true, but if I had to guess, it would be 2 out of 3.

Also, the show did have a spotlight on loan from PJs, I think just to keep our Spenard Roots.

So again, if you weren't there, you suck. Be there next year.

Nucleus : A.P.E. spotlight #6

Nucleus appears to be a phenominal gallery. They had stacks and stacks of their stuff at A.P.E and I bought the following prints. Their website has all of these and much more. Every page has something you need. Check. You have a gap in your life. Something that unsettles you. Something you're searching for. It's in their gallery. Check it out. Complete your life.

I did. Now I'm happy forever.

Jaime Zollars: A.P.E spotlight #5

(The photo in keeping with the squid theme.)

This guy had a great buisness card. Rounded edges, soft color around the edge with a little dancing bug. Damn. It made me go to the website . . . gun to the head, kidnap my first born made me have to go to the site.

What did I find . . . a lot of haunting paintings.

Oh and it appears he has a blog www.paperforest.com
all about folding paper and stuff. Cool things you don't know how to do, but that would make you cooler, like folding a paper flute of Oracina from Legend of Zelda. Yeah, it will make you cooler, trust me. Do it.

Axelhoney: A.P.E. Spotlight # 4`

Very cute, haunting art work. The think I remember most, other than the crazy, cool buisness cards were the little figurines. They haunt my dreams.

2006 Spring Social [Updated]

It's that time again. It’s the 7th Annual Spenard Spring Social. This Saturday, April 29th at Fiori D'Italia, nessled deep within Spenard. Doors open at 8:30 p.m. and its limited to 100 people, so get there early. The best part, I'm MC'ing again this year. I may even prepare a head of time.

At this point, I'm not sure who's playing [update: see the flier], but I've been probably six years running and it's always been the my favorite show of the year. It’s intimate, and consistently good with at least one surprise every year.

Picture a house party with all your musician friends trying to one up each other over and over. That is if you knew musicians and they were your friends, and they invited you over to their homes. So, if you can pull yourself away from your World of Warcraft for an hour or so, tell your mom going going out and head down to Fiori D'Italia.

I started playing around in Illustrator, trying to come up with a logo for the new Mt. View Arts and Cultural District [MACD, pro. "Mac-D"].

Here's two attempts.

Jory John's "Big Stone Head"-A.P.E. Spotlight #3

I had the good fortune to meet Jory at A.P.E. and he was the MC at the Truth Serum book release. The man defys description, or rather, I would rather you be intregued, search him out , meet him, then buy his t-shirts and mini-books. He would like it better that way.

From the mouth of Jory, from his blog at BigStoneHead.net:

What the wind has been whispering, lately
"Clean your sheets. Cleeeeeean your sheeeeeets."

This day in "Tied to the Train Tracks" history
In 1867, some dude was tied to the train tracks

Where babies come from
Intercourseland

Check out his hilarious comics in the archive section and buy an "Explore" t-shirt for your mother. As Jory put it, "It's about living your best life. It's a metaphor."

Nicolette Davenport -APE spotlight #2

I picked up a few stickers from Nicholette Davenport's booth for $0.50 a piece and just got around to checking out her website. A lot of great illustration work in a variety of styles, but best of is the Random Thought Generator, which pumps out pearls of wisdom like: "I need to be a better big sister and stay in contact more" and "Night-driving with Papa and his crew on the west side years ago is one of my favorite memories".

The site isn't complete, but it appears to be regularly updated with new artwork and blog posts.

Laughing Squid -A.P.E Spotlight #1

Pulled completely at random from the large pile of business cards and postcards in my stack from A.P.E., the first card is the Laughing Squid, "underground art, culture, and web hosting from San Francisco and beyond."

It’s appropriate that this was plucked first, as Squids were the "shit" this year, showing up randomly in comics, artwork, and t-shirts everywhere. Like Unicorns last season and the perennial Monkeys and Robots that have inspired artists for centuries, Squids and Octopus are on everyone's mind this year. I succumbed myself without realizing it, as I'm always the forefront of the artistic community . . .um . . .in the world. You, dear reader, are not.

Check out the Laughing Squid postcard series to stay abreast of the latest in squid artwork. You simply must. When you are fully immersed in the squid lifestyle, send away for some free Laughing Squid logo stickers, telling everyone you are in the know, for a little while at least.

The final word on the Truth Serum Release Party

Well folks, this is it. The authoritive report on the Truth Serum release party, complete with unreleased schedules, pictures of yours truly taking command of an audience and bending them to my will, and other, less captivating happenings. Read away if you dare.http://theuniversityofmyopia.com/bookrelease.html

Also, see the enticing window that is currently exposing the masses to the gospel of "Truth Serum" http://theuniversityofmyopia.com/window.html 

More about A.P.E.

I found some more great articles about the A.P.E. experiance

Comic Book Resources has a great overview about the number of mini-comics and new finds at the event and it links to an article at Sean Maher's Quality Control with an expansive series of blog posts about what was there. Great reading if you weren't able to go or if you're curious. 

Best of YSL #28- For the new strips, see Pixelstrips 

the "Truth Serum" speech [very funny]

Here is the speech I did for Jon's book release in its entirety. Its quite funny if I do say so myself. All you have to know is that I did meet Jon for the first time the day of the speech and he's a very nice fellow, but not an ex-con rap superstar with superpowers.

-Lee

"Jon asked me to give a speech for his book release . . . but before I begin, let me introduce myself.

My name is Lee Post and I came down here from Anchorage, Alaska. After entering a contest in the back of “Truth Serum” several years ago, Jon and I have been emailing back and forth ever since.

I do a comic called “Your Square Life” and Jon thought I would enjoy the Alternative Press Expo, and encouraged me to come down and to say a few words today. In fact, I had the opportunity to meet John face-to-face for the first time this morning. It was . . .

[Pause]

Well . . . I’ve come to find that Jon had made, I guess I would call them . . . “embellishments” about himself. I was expecting a little exaggeration, a few white lies, but . . . well, I’ll just tell you what I was told, and you can decide for yourself. . .

According to Jon, he grew up in South Central L.A. to an all-but absent father and a crack addicted mother. He said his young life was a hard one, filled with broken bottles for toys and days spent hungry and afraid.

Eventually, that fear turned into anger and drug abuse, and he got involved with what he called the “thug life”. In my day job, I’m a juvenile probation officer, and I found Jon’s story to be tragic . . . but all too common!

The name of his gang was “The Evil Snakes Gang for Cool People.” Reportedly, his gang career consisted mostly of pimping, drug dealing, vicious assaults, interpretive dance, and performing his free-verse poetry at open mike nights. From what I was able to determine, he relied almost exclusively on the last two, hence his gang name, “Lord Fancy Pants.”

Eventually he was able to pull himself out of the “La Vita Loca” as he called it and he became a rap superstar under the name “MC Karen Carpenter”. His break-through album was “Rainy Days and Mondays, Bitch” Apparently it was very well received in a few of the Balkan states, rocketing up the charts, getting as high as #47, behind “David Hasselhoff’s Partee Jamz #6”. During these wild years, he also published his original Truth Serum comic and relocated to San Francisco.

Unfortunately, he got caught up in the East Coast/West Coast rivalries between, as far as I can tell, comic book artists moonlighting as rap superstars, (apparently, there are more than you would think) and he was mowed down in a hail of gunfire . . .betrayed by two of his fellow “Evil Snakes” gang members Spanky 2-Short and “Fatty” Melvin.

According to Jon, he released two more posthumous albums, ironically titled,” MC Karen Carpenter presents: I’ve Only Just Begun” and “I’ve Only Just Begun, the Remix Album with R. Kelly”.

I guess in retrospect, this is where things started to become harder to believe. Jon told me he was rescued from the afterlife by both Dr. Strange and Thor in an epic battle against Death, in which Jon threw the decisive blow, knocking Death’s head off with an atomic karate chop to the neck. After being reincarnated as himself, he claims he was rewarded with the powers of laser-eyesight and the healing touch.

I guess I really can’t blame Jon for exaggerating the truth a little. It’s always stressful meeting new people and everything. Unfortunately for me, however, I spent much of this morning sitting at Jon’s booth watching him try to warm a thermos of week-old coffee with his “laser-eyes.”

During the hours I spent with John, I felt a lot of pity for this obviously broken shell of a man and I tried to let him know that he could drop his sad little charade, but when he insisted on demonstrating his healing touch with a jar of peanut butter and a Mexican wrestling mask, I had to leave.

But, I’m a man of my word and I said I would say something about the book, “Truth Serum” by Jon Adams. Um . . . I guess it’s best to let his work speak for itself. I got my copy about a month ago and loved it. I even bought a second copy to pass around to friends so they could check it out. I can honestly say it is a gorgeous, well-written, very funny comic, written by what could only be described as a depraved lunatic.

In conclusion . . . Leave now . . . save yourself and your loved ones . . . and may the lord have mercy on Jon’s diseased soul. Thank you and good evening. "

A.P.E. Returned

Well, I"m back from A.P.E., the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. I'm still a little sleep hung over from getting in last night at 2:30 a.m., so I'll keep it short.

It was just a great convention, full of a bunch of artists I've seen on the web, admired from afar, and a buch of new finds, in addition to the random insane people with access to a zerox machine. As I sort through all the info collected over the next few weeks, I'll post little profiles on my favorites.

Of course, the whole reason I was there was to meet my friend Jon Adams and help him out with his book release. Go check him out. I'll do a post on his book release in a few days as well.

Here is a picture of me unintentionally dressing like the poor slub in his poster for your enjoyment. 

Mark's a Great Guy

Mark Muro's 50th

Best of YSL #27 - This is one of my favorites. I remember doing a sketch of this odd creature while flying to N. Ireland to visit my wife in her homeland for the first time before the wedding.

For the new strips, see Pixelstrips.

Best of YLS #26 - For the new strips, see Pixelstrips.