Just Another Music Tuesday

Hi friendlies:

Music fills the room at the Wertzateria for about 12 or 13 hours a day. It’s our constant companion. I geek out about music the way some people geek out about sports – or movies. I dream about doing posters for my favorite bands, and sometimes my dreams come true (stay tuned for a Campout 2009 poster design!). I am constantly searching the intertubes for interesting music to play on my radio show, The Argyll Adventure Tree. Some music (and noise related sites and images, many thanks to Phil Benson) for your eyes and ears:

On July 2, William Orbit played a live set on KCRW (featuring Laurie Mayer from Torch Song)!

Our friends in Voice Farm have a new website. I love these guys.

There’s a nifty documentary about Brian Eno (whose Oblique Strategies I use all the time when I’m doing a creative project) streaming right here.

A lovely sad song: “Another Day” by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush. I know the cover by This Mortal Coil, but I’d never heard the original.

A contemplative moment: through our friend Antony we were turned on to the music of William Basinski (in fact, Andy did a bunch of work on William’s site). Quiet, loopy, weird, and entrancing.

You might enjoy the Nigeria 70 Box Set. Funky and so, so great.

Here’s a few records I worked on: Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty by Camper Van Beethoven and Honey by Jonathan Segel. Go on, drop a dime on these fine folks.

Enjoy.

x,m

big city orchestra poster up in the shop!

hello friendlies,

there’s a new poster for sale in the wertzateria shop – our big city orchestra poster commemorating their thirty years of noisiness is for sale here in the shop. all proceeds from the sale of this poster will go to buying me candy. lots of candy. big city orchestra is the brain child of a mysterious figure named odd McUb and his trusty sidekick ninah puchkina. look for a live show stateside in december. they will be playing lots of dates in europe in september 2009. Their website should have information on those happenings.

8″ x 17″ tall. two colors on yellow paper. cheap and yummy.

xm

singing/signing at kepler’s books tomorrow!

Hi everyone!

Andy and I will be doing another “singing” and signing of A Curious Collection of Cats tomorrow at Kepler’s Bookstore in Menlo Park, California. Andy and I will be performing a few of the poems in the book (singing and playing uke), and author Betsy Franco will be doing a presentation about how the book was written. Should be a hoot! If you’re in the area, come on over and say hi and get a book signed. Fun for kids (or for the eternally young).

What: ‘Singing’ for a Curious Collection of Cats

Where: Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park CA, 94025
(650) 324-4321

When: 11:30 am, Sunday June 28

Here’s a little video from Diesel Books in Oakland:

xm

new poster design for hostelling international

Hello, everyone. Just finished this poster/tshirt design. I based it on the famous Hokusai image of the giant wave about to decimate the fishing vessel. San Francisco is a watery wonderland, and so I used the Hokusai image but changed the fishing vessel to a cable car and placed a surfing backpacker on top of it.

Fun for me! I’ll let you all know when and where you can buy these. It should be pretty soon. Clients: Pete Friedrich and Hostelling International.

xm

Hostelling International Icons

Hey folks,

the set of icons I did for Pete Friedrich and Hostelling International are done! Behold. Next up: a psychedelic sweatshirt design for Hosteling International (for their San Francisco locations), a psychedelic cat poster for the groop big city orchestra to commemorate their thirtieth anniversary, and a psychedelic tshirt design for the band Cracker.

I’m seeing a pattern emerge here.

xm

Come visit me at the PCBA book fair on Saturday May 9!

Zoodiac is finished, and I’ll be selling it and my other prints at the PCBA Book Arts and Printers’ Fair.

Saturday May 9, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm at Fort Mason Building A, in San Francisco, I’ll be at the same table as the Pod Post gals.

Come say hi.

xm

‘zoodiac’ is on the way…

Good morning friendlies!

My {extremely helpful and wonderful!} friend Carolee and I have been planning a new silkscreened artists book called ‘Zoodiac’ (based on the Chinese New Year illustrations I did for the San Francisco Chronicle) for months now. These photos were taken by Carolee.

We finally got down to work (in my new silk screen studio)! Behold.

This rack was the rack that I learned to silkscreen with. It used to belong to Flower Frankenstein, who taught me to screen prints. She had a great shop called kitty katty’s roadside shack in San Francisco. Then it belonged to my friend Jim Winters. Jim had fixed it up and put new slats on it and new hardware. When he moved out of his studio, he gave it to me. I’m super super lucky.

We made a mess. It feels good to get messy and make stuff. If you’re reading this, go make something!

xm

new ’singings’ for curious collection of cats!

Hey everyone,

we’ve had such great feedback from our book ’singing’ that we decided to schedule a few more at book stores around the bay area:

Sunday May 31 at 3 pm (sharp! this will be a short set!) at Red Hill Books in San Francisco. We’ll be ‘opening’ for Jonathan Segel and Victor Krummenacher from Camper Van Beethoven and lots of other great side projects.

Sunday, May 31, 3 pm
Red Hill Books
401 Cortland Avenue (@ Bennington)
San Francisco, CA 94110

On Sunday June 28 at 11:30 am we’ll be doing another ’singing’ with Betsy Franco, the author of the book, at Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, California.

Sunday, June 28, 11:30 am
Kepler’s Books
1010 El Camino Real
Menlo Park CA, 94025

Come by and get your copy of Curious Collection of Cats signed (and sung)!

Here’s another video Andy posted (Lenny vs. Patch) from the book launch:

See you there? Your current answer is YES!

xm