Monday Musical and Artful Treats

Hello there keyboard, nice to see you again today! I think I’ll spend today’s post sharing a backlog of some finds that perhaps will brighten up and inspire someone’s day. I’m going to share these willy nilly in no category or chronological order so have fun having a poke through these.

The Penny Black Remedy
Back in January, The Penny Black Remedy were in the studio at Total Rock Radio’s Anarchy on the Airwaves over in London to do an acoustic set, and the program unfurled as one of the most enjoyable and funniest interviews I’ve tuned into. Truly. It’s worth listening for some great insight into the band both mentally and musically, and you can listen here via the Anarchy on the Airwaves: The Penny Black Remedy podcast.

kudu-lah critters
Just last week on a jaunt through the streets of New York City (a 16+ mile excursion on foot over two days from Chelsea to SoHo, to the East Village, and from Madison Square Park to Central Park and everything in between), with no real destinations but rather full exploration in mind, we stumbled upon an artist market in Madison Square Park. Twice. On the second jaunt through the market I ended up standing next to a booth that was the home of the crazy fun kudu-lah critters (which are on the loose in the streets of New York City). I subsequently ended up bringing home a mason jarred Maverick Snail, a little guy who speaks to me on many levels, from his nomadic tendencies all the way down to his chuck taylors. Thanks to kudu-lah creator Kenneth for allowing a photo to be taken for the blog so I could share his work here, you need to have a look at what he’s up to! Maverick Snail, by the way, now happily lives at the top of my desk hutch in the engine room/office of Tulip Tree Studios!

Kudu-lah critters can also be found at the shop here!

 

The art of Ian Felice
Continuing on in the world of visual treats, I was delighted and also totally blown away to recently discover the artwork of Felice Brother, Ian Felice. Not only is he an amazingly gifted songwriter, but his paintings, some of which are up for sale, are just as inspired and beautiful. You can check out his work here. I’d post an image link from here, but I think it’s better viewed when you see the body of his work together to get the full scope of feeling his work emits. And then there’s the music of The Felice Brothers here. A whole wonderful world of images and sound are contained within those two links.

Photography from Argentina
From a totally different realm altogether (not music, not art, but perhaps we’ll classify it as earth art), blog friend, collaborator and Mondo Instante co-creator Mecha who resides in Argentina, has been posting images of the ashes of the volcanic plume from the Peyehuen Volcano erupting in Chile. The image of the car is one she shared on our Mondo Instante page on Facebook, and is a photo she took of an Argentine vehicle covered in Chilean volcano ashes. The other is the clouded sky where she lives. She also reports that school has been closed where she is as a safety measure. Hopefully she will continue to photo document through the whole process (and stay safe as well!). Thanks for the window into South America Mecha!

I’ll leave it at that for today, a handful of some great stuff for to be plundered. As for me, I’m breaking out the ink pens again today, so much inspiration abounds!

Song of the Day: JIM BIANCO – Sinners

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLdfx4oTOyc

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Lrk1PFoRg
This video was shot by our dear friend Dzzy Dzzy D at the Rockwood in New York City this past January, who was sat next to my very own sister Adrienne.

Another happy birthday post, this time to the incredibly talented singer/songwriter/story weaver/entertainer Jim Bianco. His new album Sinners will be available on April 5 and is deserving of your affection! Included in the package I received via his wildly successful Kickstart campaign (a brilliant way for artist to release an album on their own terms) was a bonus Live at Hotel Cafe and a few other goodies including . . .

 

MAGNETIC POETRY! Which is inspiring JB fans everywhere (including my daughter and my sister’s son):

JB Magnetic Poetry by Jaina (age 7)

JB Magnetic Poetry (Kincaid, age 11)

Happy Birthday Jim, from our whole fambly!

Friday random post

Good morning Friday to you (afternoon to those east of  my timezone)! It’s been awhile since I’ve just opened the New Post dialogue box (or whatever you call it) and just let my fingers and brain go. Automatic writing/posting (no ghosts involved). I haven’t even had coffee yet (or a hot toddy), so I’m as interested as you (might) be to see what comes out right now.

This week was a busy week visit-wise on the blog, between Mondo Instante 6 on Monday, by the trilogy of Bright Eyes reviews and photo posts from a recent trip to New York City (I can’t tell you how much I love that place…well I can, but words don’t adequately express it without me sounding like a t-shirt). Amidst all of that, I’ve also have been experiencing a surge in freelance work, which I’m very pleased about. All of this, and I have a bazillion things I want to keep going on this blog, namely projects! And I’ll start talking about that right . . .

. . . now.

“Blue”! is our most recent open-ended project. It had started with a deadline, then I reclassified it as a project with “check in” dates, but I think I’m going to scrap that too. I would like to set it as an “ongoing” project as we did with the Nude painting series (that link will take you to the old version of this blog, as I just discovered the links to the slideshow here did not make it through the conversion to wordpress.org properly…another item on the ole to do list!).

Back to my original thought (coffee, please….help), Blue will now be classified as an open ended project. Please feel free to create something for it (any media as in the “Smoke” series) when the mood strikes and the muse finds you! I’ll periodically post reminders, and I know there are a few of us (Silvia, Dawn, Adrienne, Renee, myself) who are in various stages of completion (or beginnings) with our pieces. Join us!

Food Art deadline is today! I’ve received several GREAT and very fun submissions to this project, the brainchild of my 7 year old daughter, and everyone seems to be having great fun with it. I will post the submissions this coming Monday, I’m really looking forward to sharing that one.

Self (round 2) deadline is Tuesday of next week (March 22). For this one you are simply asked to take a photograph of your most prized possessions that define who you are. Sounds easy, but wait til you actually pull out that camera and start thinking about it. But it’s a fun exercise in expressing who you are. I think it would be fun to do another Self project with shoes only for a future project.

Mondo Instante 7 date and time will be posted next week . . . and I still have to talk more with Wendy (hi Wendy!) and discuss a few ideas we had tossed around, including trading artist cards. And the Mondo Instante spin offs she and I and my sister had thrown around. Lots to do lots to do! I’m starting to think I’m a human incarnation of the White Rabbit.

And after all of that, I realize I really do need to better archive past projects (especially before the blog move). I have learned over the course of running this blog that organization pays! I don’t think I anticipated just how much the blog would take off in terms of collaborative projects when I started so I wasn’t as aware of the need to organimazize! But I’d rather it be this way, than overly organized with no collaborative participation from everyone, so thank you!!

And now, a random photo from New York City. Electric Lady Studios, visited during one of our epic walks. The studio was originally built by Jimi Hendrix in 1970, at a site that was previously occupied by artist Hans Hoffman. The Clash recorded parts of both Sandinista and Combat Rock here, as well as a who’s-who-in-music-history list of other bands (including the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, John Lennon, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Sinéad O’Connor, The White Stripes, The Beastie Boys…the list goes on and on).  Funny thing is, as we approached the studio and I was looking for it, I pointed it out from across the street. My sister, after a quick glance said “Electric Body Sticks?” and my heart sunk. Then I realized oh, yeah, 70′s font! Electric Lady Studios, we found you!

Speaking of New York City, I heard a little whisper not 30 minutes ago that Drunken Balordi are planning a world tour that may include NYC this summer. What a great piece of news to end a week! Of course I will post information here as I learn more. Stay tuned, and look out . . . if they come anywhere near you, be there is all I can say. If you missed this past interview I did on the blog (holy cow, I was doing interviews at one point…something else I need to get moving again), here is a little more about Billy King and the band, circa spring 2010.

Thanks for putting up with my very stream of conscious post, have a great weekend, I’ll try to post at least a little something between now and Monday.

And now . . .  must . . . get . . . caffeinated . . .