I’ve been tabling a lot the past couple of weeks promoting Endless Canvas, Paper Politics, and various screen printed goods that I make. Endless Canvas is a website (EndlessCanvas.com) and a zine that features a lot of my street art photography. You can pick up a copy from EndlessCanvas.BigCartel.com. Paper Politics is a major collection of contemporary politically and socially engaged printmaking, showcased in a full color book. It features one of my three layer linoleum cuts and was just put out by PM Press.
Most of the tabling dates were with the Citizen Fish (members of Subhumans) / Star Fucking Hipsters (members of Choking Victim) / Molotov Compromise (Punk/Ska) west coast tour. I had a lot of fun and am thankful that they invited me to come along. I did the album art for Star Fucking Hipsters new album Never Rest In Peace along with my friend Fly.
We spent Halloween in Portland Oregon. It was surreal. One of those places where Halloween actually exists like in the movies. The air was crisp, the ground was covered with orange leaves, every house had a white picket fence and carved pumpkins and kids were running around in costumes with out fear. I guess that’s normal to a lot of people. Most places I’ve lived have been to hood or to spread out and there just aren’t seasons like that in California.
I liked the Seattle and Reno shows a lot, because people traveled really far from super small towns to see them. It was common to talk to people who drove eight hours from Montana or Canada to see their favorite band. One kid with a huge red mohawk drove to Seattle from Idaho. On the way his friends were making faces at cars and someone flipped them off and called the cops. He got pulled over and arrested for “reckless driving.” They put down all the money they had to bail him out and get to the show in time. I gave him a free anti-cop patch.
Gilman in Berkeley was by far the best show. It’s funny that we traveled so far and the most epic show was right at home in the East Bay. It was nice to sleep in my bed for a night before continuing on to Los Angeles. It was also the last show that BEME the rapper was traveling with us. He was rapping though a song with Citizen Fish and you could just see it blowing people’s minds. You can hear some of his stuff at myspace.com/bemerules. He was a good addition to the team. Roberto Miguel, the trombone player for Citizen Fish, also played some of his solo stuff… myspace.com/miguelfromoakland.
Los Angeles was good and Pomona was a great last show. I ran into a good amount of old friends. Now I’m in Orange County debating whether I should drive back to the Bay and drive back down to LA for the 20th or just kill time down here. I’m doing an installation at the We The People Festival in LA. I think Bad Religion and Suicidal Tendencies and playing. Murs played last time and bad mouthed all of the political bands that played before him, so I have no respect for him. This year will be better.
If you’re down here hit me up.
