Strange Days

...and Fast times. Relax and have a "beer" or a "light beer". That's what I've been doing. What a weird position to be in. To be done with school, and to be home. There's always things to do, but it's just different. You have to drive places, and find a way home, or sleep in peculiar spots, rather than being able to walk to your place after 15 or more genesee's and pass out in your small apartment bedroom. Even just those simple transitions would be enough to make one feel.... off. Yet, there's more. Strange, unfortunate things have been happening. Some of which don't call for this (or any) blog post. Although one event I do feel needs recognition here for whatever reasons. After a healthy game of stump, or nails (whatever floats your boat) at Mike Underwood's house on Saturday night, Mike Kelley basically lost the tip of his middle finger to the claw end of a hammer. I heard the sound, and saw the blood. The hammer was stuck a decent way into the log with his finger underneath it, just about where the bottom of your nail meets the rest of your finger. He didn't scream. As a matter of fact he didn't say anything the whole 30 minute car ride to the hospital except... "I'll never be able to play guitar again"... which was absolutely heart breaking... We all know he will... Granted he had been drinking a decent amount slowly all day, but still, what a fucking champion. He was even cracking jokes in the hospital with the nurses. When the doctor decided he was sober enough for a percocet I thought, "Hmm, I could use one too, doc". He spent the night there in an ugly green hospital gown and we made it home at about 4:30 a.m. Mike Underwood was asleep at the fire and hardly woke up. I took his spot and slept for about two hours. Then woke up to a huge snapping turtle about ten feet form me and could only think of Mike's fresh chickens. That night started with Ian and I arriving, and Mike Underwood being so excited he puked on Ian during their hugging embrace. Weird night... Funny, earlier that day Mike Kelley was complaining about the lack of blog post's lately. I didn't even know anybody read these. Thanks y'all. I think Mike likes them because his lifestyle is interesting enough to always have something to write about. A few days before that I got in a small accident hauling a trailer in my new truck. We were moving sculpture from Saratoga to Salem Art Works, (which I've posted about many times by now). No ones fault, especially not mine, had to slam on the brakes due to some idiot making us stop to tell us about a car on fire up the road. And I jack-knifed with the trailer. It sucked but the whole ordeal could have been waaaaaay worse, and I repaired the damage to almost as good as new. The idiot even stopped at my sideways car and told me about the burning vehicle... I could have popped his little fucking pinhead right-then-and-there. A few days before THAT, I had to bury my sisters dog, who had a very unfortunate death. R.I.P... I am sleeping in a somewhat large bed with my little brother Rudy. Yet he is more than somewhat large and this proves to be difficult. I plan to clean out the shack and move back in....

But, for some reason with all of this new free time I don't seem to have time to do anything. The power went out last night, all night, and it's still raining. I just want to be able to build some shelves in my living room so I can set my record player up and listen to some old Dean Martin, but I need it to not rain for that. For LOVESICK NOMADS Chase is doing a blacksmithing workshop at Haystack, a magical artist residency on an island in Maine. (copy paste http://www.haystack-mtn.org/index.php ) Dan is a receptionist at a doctors office or something and a professional beer drinker. Really though... I plan to make it down to BK before my trek to Franconia sculpture Park ( copy paste http://www.franconia.org/ ), and we will play some shows and hopefully get some more recording done. Sorry for the delay in a post, and for not having a picture of Mikes finger posted above, and for beating everyone who participated in the nails game so bad... AND I sure hope luck picks up. CHEERS!

FUN,FUN,FUN... without a T-Bird.

Mike and Dizzy, the start of the best weekend in a long time, Friday April 13th, 2012, about 3:00, just before Michigan's. I can't imagine a weekend can be any better than this last one was. And I have tried to, since Sunday, imagine what could possibly do it, and I just don't think there is anything. Friday night I got crowd surfed and poured beer everywhere at midnight to celebrate my birthday... thanks y'all. Chase, Dan, Kelly, and Smitty came a little late but made an awesome entrance after the long drive up from the city. Dan's eyes were all sunken into his face.... I missed that. Saturday morning we made a big breakfast of failure (mostly just my potatoes), played a radical game of stick ball in a field and somehow did a flip-and-roll avoiding Jeremey at first base. The senior BFA exhibition followed at 3. It was a grand old time, I was way less nervous than I thought I'd be, due to a fair amount of wine. The speeches were great, the show looks great. Overall, a swell time. We made our house look like a venue/crack den soon after due to blanketed windows, and a living room with nothing in it. It was real tight playing in the kitchen between the fridge and the cabinets, but we made due. I filled in for Tim (who is in Spain having more fun than us), for a swift Choking Beaver Project set. I may have missed one or two of their set's ever, but every time I was present, I was close enough to them boys that I could feel their breath coming out of their noses. This time, it was a completely different feeling being behind them all and having them look at me for transitions. Just as exhilarating, if not more. Everyone loves those songs, they will never get old. Thanks Mike, Mike, Garth, Aaron, and Tim... Chase, Dan, and I hadn't played at all since Hurricane Irene... I couldn't help but think about this time last year when we played in the same kitchen under different tenants... Chase stood on the rickety-ass counter and Adam and Matt threw beer everywhere. It was a wild time. This time wasn't too different, maybe just a lot more frosting was involved. I seemed to successfully inebriate myself while we were still playing which added some slop on top of the runny frosting all over my hands and body. The frosting was this runny to hide a Smirnoff ice inside a birthday cake for me during our set, thanks Chase. I think we played the Rolling Stones for a minute there too. The night continued with the dropping of a Brooklyn Dark Chocolate Stout Cheesecake that Jenny made me (which was a devastation), more frosting everywhere, chalk drawings all over the walls, people getting trapped in the bathroom for way too long due to a broken door handle, Riley and Jenny sleeping in my bed, Mike Kelley losing his belongings (no surprise), but out Ian's window (surprise), and other things that I can't remember.... Awesome birthday.... Event, after event, after event, not to mention it was gorgeous out after raining all week. Went to an amazing diner Sunday morning with a crew of about 25 I think... Whodda'thunk that they'd have Smirnoff Ice there? Oh yeah...Dan would. Thanks Dan, the cold bubbles went so well with the Sausage Gravy and biscuits in my stomach. It's hard to not feel like that was the end of the year, which also means the end of my (and many other of us') undergraduate degree?? Only a few more weeks here in the northcountry. Lets make them good.... Just not as good as this past weekend, I think I had a little too much fun... Looking forward to swapping the transmission in my old Jeep Wrangler at home, and doing hay and stuff like that. Also, going to the city a bunch to record and play some shows (a good one coming up with Eleanor whom I've posted about before, at Death By Audio, date TBA). Also looking forward to driving out to Minnesota in August to live and work at Franconia Sculpture Park until November... Although the end of something is near, I (and we) have stuff to look forward to for sure. I think I will be good at transitioning. Just a change of pace, that's all. CHEERS!

HOW TO BE COOL

Get a stick and poke by Chase Winkler.

taking pictures while driving

in da NEWZ

This is what it looks like when you record music. Rather, this is what it looks like when you take a picture in the dark with an old camera phone of someone recording music. The reason that is cool is because it hasn't happened in a while... for us. The reason it hasn't happened is... well, there's many reasons. Regardless, we are slowly getting back into the swing of things. I just found out what my summer will be like, and it was good news to us that we will have a little bit of time to play some shows and record a bit from May to August. I plan to be down in the city with Chase and Dan a bunch and we'll update when we get going on recording more and what we plan to do with the recordings. In August, I am going to drive out to Minnesota to stay there until November at a Sculpture Park. www.Franconia.org. Franconia Sculpture Park is a large-scale outdoor Sculpture park and residency.... it is going to be a radical time.

When you see people in the grocery store, or in other "normal people" settings, what do you talk about? The weather is a great topic, especially when you end a statement about the weather with, "there bud." The reason the weather is a good thing to talk about today is because last week it was in the 80's for a few days up here in almost-Canada-northcountry-Plattsburgh. Today, it is snowing a little bit. Weird.

That Day Then, I Saw

Hi, it's been a while. So to get to the point of this post; four days ago (Wednesday the 29th of February, on the last year of the earth) I took a break from sculpture and went upstairs of the building I work in, where there is an outlet (to charge my computer) and a couch, to listened to "Someday Soon, You'll See". It's hard for me to take breaks, and I hadn't really in a while. So this one was particularly good. The janitor walked by and said "Hey, you're finally taking a break, huh?" And I came to realize the lack of spontaneity in my life as of late. Which is ok, I like working... but what I'm saying is that I needed something like this. Upon reaching Chase's new bandcamp page, this first thing I saw was the album art. A picture of Dan and I, during our tour (either three summers ago, or two can't tell which one), walking ahead, most likely to explore something we thought may be interesting on the side of the road. How's that for nostalgia? How's that to rub in my face for lack of spontaneity? So I thought to myself, "oh boy, this is going to be a fuckin trip". Headphones uncomfortably stuck as far into my ears as they can be, to feel the panning and hear it how Chase wanted me (or you) to hear it. What a fuckin trip it was. The oldies brought me back, each to a different point. I thought... Chase has been sitting on this album for years, and ever since we started playing together, it was obvious that Chase was the most likely to release a solo effort, simply because of his song writing, and story telling skills. He's good enough at that to give you constant butterflies... at least to me. So Chase has been writing songs for years and I always felt like he could put out 6 albums with all of the songs he has written, and I always thought that they would all be fucking amazing. But, he waited. Dan released "Synthetic Resonance", "Noises of the Woods", "UmbrellamoonProtectme", and (most recently) "The Snowless South", all of which are prominent signatures of their times. All of which portray Dan's skills in composing and writing to the fullest, and have you (at least me) at the edge of my seat in excitement. I released "i know you better than you know yourself" with honesty and lack of guitar playing skills, selfishly for only me. And Chase, who was the whole time (as I said before) the most likely to put out an album in the first place, waited. Rightfully so, this album proves. The title and of the album, and the artwork completely back my above argument. Each song brought me to a different time. The suite at Potsdam, Even bowman hall, or Smitty's house (SO FUCKING LONG AGO), driving around and trying to get lost, or last year at my house...And the new songs brought me somewhere that I don't know, and don't think I could explain it even if I could tell you where it was. Somewhere new, and in the future contrasting the old times. You have to find out yourself. How can you fit years and years of our lives on a 9 song album? I don't know. And now I wonder if outsiders... you, will feel as nostalgic as I do. I sense that the feeling will be there, even though you won't think of what I thought... It still may feel like he's singing inside your head, rather than into his computer. So holy shit, thanks Chase. Cheers.

http://chasewinkler.bandcamp.com/ LGR 010 2012. (lovesick nomads)


ALSO, crazy good weekend. Surprised at my opening with Chase, Dan, and Kelly showing up and kidnapping me to Syracuse. Shout to Hannah and her room mates for taking on unexpected guests. Awesome time, got to see an awesome show. Sarah and Half Sister. Check them out.

http://www.reverbnation.com/halfsistermusic

2012