Enchanted Forest

Many blogs ago I mentioned breaking into the abandoned "Enchanted Forest" in my hometown Ellicott City, Maryland with my cousin Ryon while on tour with Amps For Christ. At one of our shows I said that Maryland had many enchanted forests and this resonated with Animal Collective's Josh Dibbs who graciously had us open for them at El Rey Theater. Being from Maryland's woodlands as I am, he understands this to be true. There are some areas of this park far to scary to explore- Ali Baba and the 40 thieves cave with boat ride and the underground train to Alice in Wonderland with a scene of her falling from above down the rabbit hole that was very similar to the lightening flash and the illuminated hanging body in Disney's Haunted Mansion entrance room. I ordered a DVD online with footage of the park as it was when I went there- Toot the tugboat, the mountain with slide, Safari ride, Mother Goose and duckling cars, etc, etc. Here's a few shots with more to come. If this kind of warped, fairytale park appeals to you, there happens to be an unrelated Enchanted Forest in Salem, Oregon which is pretty nifty, too.

Well, it looks real nice on the looky box

I worked on this for hours before I realized it wasn't big enough to go inside our record, a CD or a wallet for that matter. It was too busy on the eye anyway. Altered it to make a nice flyer at least-

I have been deliberating on the cover art for Auto Da Fe's 2nd full length 'Emit Time'. My original drawing versus my unfinished painting versus my original idea of finishing the painting to show RayRay's eyes 'emitting time' with the trails of light coming from his eyes. There is also this unfinished owl painting for the back cover and those eyes were going to 'emit time' as well. This record has been finished since January but I have been stalled on the art for 2 reasons. First, I get teary every time I draw or paint RayRay and second, I don't want to 'finish it' and screw it up. Maybe it's easier to be satisfied with mediocrity when the alternative is overworking something into pure rubbish. Regardless, the album is great and timely considering we cover the Raincoats who are back in action. Shape up, T!!!

Zeitgeist or Heist?

Here's the art I drew (2004) for my medically themed band Blue Silk Sutures that was on our

t-shirts and on our 7" split with Silver Daggers-

Here's the art (2009) for the band Antlers (aren't there enough bands w/variations on that name already?)-

Coincidence?

Recent Music Releases

In the last week, Pukekos music blog have posted two of my former bands unreleased tracks. First was an Amps For Christ song entitled 'Empire' and the second was the record 'Ahoy Mermatey!' by my sea shanty band Aye Aye Captain with Dame Darcy. There is also an old posting on there for 2 songs by my band Blue Silk Sutures. Blue Silk Sutures have been mixing some new songs this week and we hope to oblige you in the future. I have lost complete days of my life to music blog downloads and I encourage the ripping of said tracks (with my bands' tacit approval of course) wholeheartedly.

Home is Where My (He)Art Is

Welcome to Maryland, my home state...

They don't call Baltimore "Charm City" for nuttin'.

It has illustrious places to visit, like the arts district on Charles St. where I got my first Chinese hammered dulcimer for Christmas when I was 17. The shop was one of those old timey music stores with instruments hanging from the ceiling in the basement. It was next to the Peabody Conservatory of Music where my mom went for ballet and my grandmother went for voice. She sang with Arthur Godfrey live on the radio in the 30's and 40's. I almost went to the Maryland Art Institute but went to Scripps instead.

Due to Maryland's Mason-Dixon status, it was uniquely important in the Underground Railroad. I give you the Blacks in Wax Museum. There was a slave ship and a lynching room. Boy, was it a drag being all chalky white trapsing through there.

The perils of inner city drug use. I know all about it although I only saw 30 seconds of 'The Wire' Episode 1 before the DVD froze up.

The culmination of progress. Obama looks fresh.

My hometown is Ellicott City, MD. It's a mill town dating back to the 1700's. It has cobblestones and is very historic. B & O Railroad started it's first trip here. It's also insanely haunted and now hosts Ghost Tours. My aunt ChiChi has some stories about the ruins of 'Patapsco Female Institute' that she worked to get protected. My first house 'Spring Hill' (until I was 2) was written up in a few articles as being haunted and every member of my family have tales to tell on that subject. Some that even involve me. More on that when I go back to visit 'Spring Hill' next summer.

Here's my second house, built in the 1700's by General Marriott. Mrs.Steiner, an artist, was our only neighbor. She loved to draw with me and gave me a set of lifelike little fuzzy zoo animals. Her house has been demolished and the whole area is in conservancy. Last year, I saw a dozen deer bounding all around the lawn. The lawn would get so tall sometimes when I was kid, I'd ride my St. Bernard, Duke, through it like I was on a safari. I used to love playing make believe in the woods, pretending I lived in the trees or ran a saloon or could talk to the animals. I honestly believed I was a cat in my past life without ever learning about reincarnation. When my dad would take me motorcycling, I'd see lots of deer and fox. The place did have a creepy vibe at night though.

I loved hanging on the side of my mom's VW Bug down the long driveway.

My aunt ChiChi lives in a cabin in the woods by a lake. I love her so much, we are very kindred.

My cousin Ryon, her man Eric and their wee one Gunnar live in my grandmother Mimi's old house. Ryon and I made a trip to my favorite place in the world a few years ago. 'The Enchanted Forest' was a fairytale theme park from the 50's in Ellicott City, blocks from my house. I went for every birthday or any opportunity I got. John Waters filmed parts of 'Cry Baby' there. It was beautiful and they built a strip mall over it. However, there were lots of abandoned parts of it left and we snuck in. I'll post pics once I scan them.

On Mimi's property I would follow the rows of pines for miles. I'd see lots of little effigies like in 'Blair Witch Project'. That movie really weirded me out when I saw it. Maryland's forests really are enchanted and haunted.

Sunny Ocean City, Maryland never struck me that way. We went every summer cuz my grandparents had a place on the water.

In Ocean City, God...

guts and guns are what made it great.

Nowadays, the boardwalk is chock full of bored, working Russians and tourist yahoos, like me and my pals.

Sam threatened to wear a sign around his neck that said "Open", then completely freak out.

Some of Trimper's Rides are circa 1900 and they all take me back to my childhood. I got a little wistful that I wasn't taking pictures of my own kid on these rides, but not wistful enough to have one.

Shield thine eyes children, this lady won this huge Spidy and no matter what she does, it's awkward.

Things got racy on the Himalaya where they pumped up the autotuned jams and spun us "faster and faster".

Sam, the Skaritzas and I were really feeling all the garbage we had ingested at that point.

and the Guinness-

and the steamed crabs-

and all the candy-

and...

now ya tell me!

Poppy loves his new recliner. It's like a blue marshmallow cloud.

Here's Poppy when he was a top turret gunner on the B-17s. Inside the book, I have yet to finish the shadowbox cut-out of the pages showing him shooting out of the turret during a dogfight. He flew 31 missions over Europe which made him a member of the "Lucky Bastards" flying club. He kicked live bombs out of the bomb bay and saw friends become human debris. This man deserves the puffiest recliner ever and nightly ice cream on demand.

Now we say goodbye to "Maryland, my Maryland, oh how I love my Maryland" (sang to the tune of O Tannenbaum when I was in Kindergarten)

and hello to our friend Speck in Brooklyn. She has quite a view...

and quite a cat. Meet Pumekl. He saw deep into my reincarnated cat soul.

Sam and his pops in Quincy Market, Bostontown.

Sam and pops at the JFK Museum. Two diverse architectural marvels (buildings and humans).

O to live in the days of Mad Men...

This is the era I pine for...

Except for this (look at Californie)...

H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie gave this platinum Lion of Judah to Jackie Kennedy.

Every year we try to make it to Maine to see family and clear our heads. Here is the house Sam intends to buy when he's a millionaire.

Here's the one I love and it's a stone's throw away. Guess it will be my art studio.

Saw this deer more than once that day.

Here I am on Sam's dad's back porch where I helped move logs in for Winter.

We took a motorboat to Wood Island.

This boardwalk runs for 1/2 mile across the island and through the trees.

At the end of the boardwalk is a lighthouse and its caretaker's house. Some years back, I had been pushing to move to some lighthouse on remote Galloo Island. Dash that idea. I got a real feel for how isolated and scary it could be.

Sam's up there waving.

Inside the caretaker's house were some articles about how it is haunted and the seance that had been conducted there. One of the guides was there and although she had been a skeptic, she was now a believer. She said that during the seance, the room grew cold, the medium's body temperature went down perilously, and that someone identified themselves as John, a castaway from a pirate ship that died with 10 others on the island. I definitly felt some dark presence in this house.

This closet had been identified by a former caretaker as "inhabited by the supernatural".

I ascended to the lighthouse.

Wood Island's light signal is green and white.

Notice the boardwalk in this picture.

Inside this little building, I took the picture of the house with the lighthouse and it was very forbidding. Whatever was in there, wanted me out.

On the way back, the evening twilight turned everything postcard perfect.

Back on the mainland, I whiled away the days on the little beach. O Summer!

THE Mighty Boosh

Existential poem 'Pies' by the Cap'n of cool- Howard C. Moon with his muse Vince Noir @ The Roxy 7/28/09

Amanda and I started our day @ 3 pm by hitting the Roxy to get our armbands for our free Mighty Boosh tix courtesy of MySpace. The hitch is you gotta have Mighty Boosh in your top friends and prove it. There was some stress as my iphone moved like molasses. Like clockwork, we set off for Amoeba where they were appearing for a Q&A and swag signing. My friend Shannon did a smash up job introducing them. Witty banter ensued as a monkey bear egged them on. I learned that everyone on the show are either family or friends. I was hipped to Sweet Pete, an early project of theirs which is equally as charming. I bought all 3 seasons of Mighty Boosh on DVD and I am now marveling @ the butchery of the episodes by Adult Swim. During the signing, Noel Fielding (Vince Noir and 1000 other characters) took my hand in both of his as all of the funny things I wanted to tell him turned into a stunned silence. I gave Julian Barrett (Howard C. Moon and another 1000 characters) Sam McPheeters zine 'Clog' and told him it was some funny stories my husband wrote that I thought he would enjoy. He seemed genuinely delighted. I asked Rich Fulcher (the sole American that plays quite a few roles) if he had ever been told that he resembles Har Mar Superstar. He said quizzically that he had. Note Michael Fielding(Naboo) has a mustache. People heckled and razzed him about it all night.

Next to me in line is the winner of Amoeba's costume contest, I give you Rudy Van Disarzio and his lovely assistant Ol Gregg.

Here's another Ol Gregg taking a pic of the Moon and the guy looking at me is Sam from Freaks and Geeks (John Francis Daily). I didn't know til later and he musta thought I was trying to photograph him. Smile, fool.

Scene cut and we are @ the Roxy, the line stretches around two city blocks, past the Whisky. This is like the US Mighty Boosh victory lap tour. They let wrist banders in first and we meet some other girls by the stage. All 5 of us start coordinating a crimping dance troupe which we plan to do during the show. Little do we know, once the show would begin, we would be so enthralled the routine would be forgotten.

Neil Fielding as Vince Noir-

Julian Barrett as Howard C. Moon-

Rich Fulcher as Bob Fossil-

Dave Brown as Bollo the ape-

Before the show they had a video montage of great moments from the show and between each costume change, they had new clips of the Moon.

Look at deer Noel doing the mating song of the elk.

Ol Gregg is singing his sea shanty of love-

People lost their minds trying to catch the handmade posters. This one says Fruit Boots and has a picture of legs w/ bananas for feet. I wanted it so bad I could taste the bananas. It coulda been that I was on my 6th day of fasting.

Is this the Hitcher or Albino Wizard?

This is Dave Brown who plays Bollo the ape (and others) and helps Julian write the show's tunes. All of the musicianship was great. Everyone played and played well. He also compiled their book.

Enter Rich Fulcher as Eleanor the predator-

Attack of the killer Nanas-

Noel's nightie kept flying up in our faces. My word, I do say.

That was literally one of the best shows I've ever seen. Oddly, I ran into Har Mar Superstar later that night as he was heading backstage and he told me that he goes way back with Rich Fulcher. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I may never know. We met 'Mike the Bike' after the show. He says he plays piano in front of the Bank of America everyday. He was cool and reminded me of Donny the hobo in Crack Fox episode.

Summer Daze

Last summer I fasted for 4 days, this year I did 6 days. There is light euphoria, mental lucidity a kinda acidic, toxic feel. I drink fresh fruit and veggie juices before, during and after the fast and they become very filling as the days wear on. My main problem is the insomnia. I have way too much energy.

Summer '09 thus far- Here are Magnus and Nightstalker, defenders of the cats from butcher birds (blue jays), and defenders of our ears from mockingbirds at night-

Microdot dons the ceremonial socks-

Microdot and Destroyer are showing some brotherly love...

Upset the Rhythm Showcase at the Smell. The wonderful Lucky Dragons are on-

Flames engulfed 2 craftsman houses down the street. It was started by someone w/ illegal fireworks in the garage of an apartment building. The fire spread to 4 houses via the trees.

This house used to sell plants and garden fixtures. I loved these houses.

At Family Bookstore, I saw Golden Hits set up more patch cords than I've ever seen-

They were followed by SF's Bulbs-

The night's music was very ambient and soundtracky. A Bulbs member is playing in the display window.

On July 11th, my band Auto Da Fe played at the Lotus Festival on the Echo Park lake and it was so fun and easy breezy lakeside. Literally and figuratively. After, we went to Brie's BBQ and she told us the story about seeing the Beastie Boys play at Diva Zappa's 5th birthday party on the diving board as they threw watermelons in the pool for the kids to dive for. Wha? We later went back to the festival to see the most colorful fireworks ever.

On the 4th of July, my fellow 1st grade teacher Lesley married our PE teacher Jason in a beautiful Catholic church.

We saw fireworks just outside their reception at the LA Fairgrounds and a group of little kids were screaming "Mich-ael Jack-son!" everytime they boomed. He hadn't even had a hit in their lifetimes.

Summer '08 never really was posted due to my cat RayRay passing away. I just had to keep moving, not reflecting. This year, as last year, we went to the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna. It's where paintings are peopled and vice versa. It's always an amazing spectacle.

I remember Summer '08 as being crazy hot and the Cali wildfires starting early.

The heat was one of the reasons this guy was so incredibly inspiring. I was walking up to Trader Joe's from the Claremont village (maybe a 1/2 mile) w/ my ipod, damning the heat when this guy passes me up. He was almost to Santa Monica and had taken a detour into Claremont to use the internet. He had gone through like 50 pairs of shoes and had been walking for a year!!! I gave him $10 for his travels, as he was relying on donations, although he never asked for it. He had received some media attention at that point but his website is now down. Hope he made it, it sure was a hot summer.

Bet he wished he could jump into my friend Kara's lagoon/jacuzzi.

At the Scripps secret garden, my friends Kimmy and Laszlo got married in 114 degree weather. I played my yangqin and read Rilke. A few people jumped in the fountain afterward. It was part traditional Vietnamese Buddhist and part Western. She and I were Art majors together there. It's an insanely beautiful women's college of art and humanities in the Claremont College community. We both now teach Kindergarten and/or 1st grade 2 blocks from each other in Pomona.

I went to see Yaz w/ pals (Faye, Jamii, Stacey, Tisha, me and Glennda in front).

In August, Sam and I toured the West Coast. He read short, funny stories from his zine 'Clog' and I played Chinese classical pieces on my hammered dulcimer (yangqin) and showed my documentary about music in China. I had filmed it from 1998-99 when I was there on a grant doing music research traveling to every nook, cranny and corner of that country interviewing and filming. It took me 10 yrs. to get around to editing the 60 hours of footage. I guess I was inspired to do it by the outta control Chinese Olympic debutante ball of that summer. Here's some snaps of the tour. Here Sam and I celebrating our 6th wedding anniversary in San Francisco-

The Palace of Fine Arts-

Bus stop-
Golden Gate Bridge in fog-

Klamath Falls, Oregon if you ever need to shoot your piano-

Beware of the giant that guards the township of Grant, Oregon. He steals 8-tracks and sells them at the swap meet.

Having a fine time in Olympia, Washington. This is Sarah Utter, she's a fine artist.

Meet her dog, Otis, as he digs a hole in the mud and naps in it. He can emit time from his eyes.
She and Justin put us up in their hideway in Kamilche. He can emit time, too, he just chose not to here on a full stomach.

Sitting on their porch-

We played at Phantom City Records and Dumpster Values. I am drumming up some sales. Hey, that's shoe business! Yuk Yuk!Sam read from Sarah's art studio above. He'd make a crummy Repunzel with that hair.

Who have we here? These little softies were made by Coco Howard at the Anne Bonny store we played at. Wow, such a great shop o' curios. She gave me a blue fuzzy guy. I love it so.
Here's Coco and her lovely daughter. Congrats! Coco just got married to Spencer the shop owner!
She has many great fluffy wall pieces on her site Softlife.
For my birthday we went to see the Chinese acrobats at the Hollywood Bowl-

And who should be lurking there, waiting to take our money, but David Leibe Hart of the Tim & Eric Show. He drew our portrait which oddly resembled every other drawing he had. He wants me to tell you that he needs a girlfriend and to contact him thru me, if interested.