Category Archives: Checking In

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Good bye Tulip Tree Presents . . . hello Mental Beans!

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Congratulations! You have just defied space and time constraints and have slipped through the wormhole leading to Mental Beans! Global Project Factory. It’s basically the same blog as Tulip Tree Presents, but with a brand new name, and an even greater emphasis on collaborative projects.

Basically, Tulip Tree Presents has been broken down into three sites, each of which will focus more on one thing. Tulip Tree Studios will remain the place where all of my “solo” artwork will reside, the music related posts (photography, interviews and artwork created while on the road) has already moved to the Two Sisters and a Show site, a hugely enjoyable collaboration between my sister Ady and I that has sort of exploded in the past year. That leaves Mental Beans! which will become the new home of Mondo Instante and other projects that are developed with our ever growing community.

Looking back on the very first post I ever made on Tulip Tree Presents, and re reading the About page, I am floored how much that was accomplished and the amount of really cool and talented people that I’ve come to know. I’d like for Mental Beans! to give us even more room to make some creative noise together.

I’m in the process of moving all content over here, so in the next few weeks (possibly months) there will most likely be some hiccups and errors, which I will work on. Once all files reside here I’ll be shutting down the Tulip Tree Presents url. Features like Gadjo D’Rome–Marianne’s gypsy/punk radio show out of Rome, Italy–will remain linked here at the top (be sure to check her site out weekly for her incredible show). Archives of Joe Rebel’s Trash City Radio Show–the Clash heavy/70′s/punk/glam/reggae genre hopping ride out of Exeter, England–will also be housed here from now on (starting with this week’s show that will be recorded today). There is a tab at the top for that that will take you to the most recent posts here that contain the files for you to access.

I’ll also be streamlining the presentation of past group exhibitions, and Mondo Instante also will remain a major force here, with its own tab in the menu at top for easy access of current and past events. MI14 photos will be shared shortly, and we’ll start talking about the next event, MI15 that will take place the end of this month.

Finally, you can follow Mental Beans! via Facebook, where new blog posts and project updates will shared frequently.

Waking from a slumber

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Yaawn, stretch, back arch. Yeah! I’m sitting here with an afternoon cup of coffee almost dazed by the post screen right now. It’s been a while. The summer was fast-slow, meaning there was so much crammed in that it went by fast, but looking back it feels like June was a million years ago. A lot happened, including several trips, many live shows, and the birth of a splinter blog from this one.

I’d been hinting at doing this for sometime, but over the summer my sister and I got our groove going with travels and show going and are now funneling this energy into a new site, which is linked up at top, Two Sisters and a Show. Which is exactly what it sounds like. As we meet up and travel to shows together she totes her snazzy jazzy camera and hones her photography skills while I lug my sketchbook and art box and use the travel experience as fodder for drawings and illustrations. We’re also moving any music related posts and interviews over there, as well as any video we shoot at the shows. We’re still setting up shop but there’s a backlog of content that we’re using to build the site. We’ve also set some ground rules, thanks to some input by our hermano loco artiste friend Todd Marrone, that being all reviews on the site will be done in either haiku or limerick form. The first to appear will be a review and photos from the My Morning Jacket Show last night at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, PA. Photos are up, review will be posted there later tonight. The site has received great feedback already and we plan to have some fun with it. More about the Two Sisters site can be found here.

I’m also reviving the audio capture of Trash City Radio Show and will be posting archives here now that I will be at home a little more regularly. Yesterday’s Joe Strummer Birthday Tribute show will be posted here very shortly.

And one more in the audio department, Marianne’s amazing Multi Kulti Pandora’s Vase feature here will now be replaced by her Gadjo D’Rome podcasts…amazing music streaming your way each week. I’ll post the links as they go up. Really worth your time listening especially for those who love music of the gypsy/balkan/romani origin, as Mari knows her way around the genre and it’s history like no other. I’ll be making a separate post for that today as well.

Finally, on Friday you can expect the Mondo Instante group exhibition post to go up. It’s amazing to think this project is headed toward it’s first anniversary of existence. Looking forward to sharing that and moving on to Mondo Instante 11, which I will devote much more time to promoting, thanks to everyone who helps me with that.

Again, with the move of music related things to the Two Sisters site, I will be focusing much more on my artwork and group projects here, though I will still be doing Song of the Day here when the mood strikes, as well as link over to anything posted on the Two Sisters site when I feel it suits this side of things. The Two Sisters site will remain embedded through a direct link at the top though, so you can always check what’s happening on that side of the tracks.

note to self plus some walking onions

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I need to sit down and draw. Or stand and draw. Or paint. Something! Just putting it out there in print so it weighs on me.

Sparse post, yeah, but hopefully one that sets off a chain reaction to get me moving…

Just to make it worth your while for stopping in and reading basically what is otherwise just a short personal journal entry, here’s a photo, some of the crazy Egyptian walking onions that are growing in the Darwinian garden this year.