RETURN TO CURRENT "NEW NOW" 11/30/04 This is a job I have going through Modern Postcard at the moment. Hey, gotta stay entertained somehow. 11/29/04 Rain and wind in the usually sunny SoCal. Been staying busy in the kitchen (3.3meg gif). 11/24/04 FOB and fellow skate vet, Darin Bendall, with a mute somewhere in Japan last weekend. Check his site when you get a chance. Maybe after you get tired Thursday night... ...then you can look forward to the past, as well. Happy Holidays all. Be safe. 11/23/04 Sorry about that over the top plug yesterday. It was meant to be funny, but I guess I'm just not feeling funny these days. Maybe I should put a slice of baloney in each shoe... See what I mean? Lame. 11/22/04 OK, the Bend Store now accepts all major credit cards through CCNow. There are paintings available now, and soon the Wrench Pilots and other random items will be up. Please visit. Then send everyone you know to visit after you tell them have to check it out. Perfect for holiday gifts... or for any occasion! Ugh. This morning I got a "fuck you" that was quickly followed by an "asshole" from an elderly lady. Funniest thing. This lady was driving a late model sedan (anyone use that word other that cops?) and zooming into the school parking lot where my son goes. She proceeded to pass the line for the drop off point and cut to the front. Now, in this line are a bunch of coffee toting parents stressed about getting to work on time while their kids search their backpacks to be sure they remembered their homework and lunches. This woman pulled just in front of me and all of those behind me. After the drop off I had the perfect opportunity to confront her as we waited at the stop sign in the two side-by-side lines. I motioned for her to roll down her window — she actually did — and I said, this — really — with no angry tone, just a bit of inquisitive sarcasm... "Did you know there was a line of people that you cut off back there who are in as much of a hurry as you?" "FUCK YOU!" That was it... that was all she said. The woman was probably about 65 with wild, snaking white hair, disheveled clothing. Her eyes were half afraid and half furious as she looked up into my truck and then side to side. I may have unknowingly giggled at this point. "Whoa, whoa, lady... next time take a look before you barge and cut everyone off." "I don't know where you came from, ASSHOLE!" At that point my eye brows raised, and I think my hand was over my mouth, as giggles escaped. I felt like a jr. high girl watching an uncomfortable, but hilarious situation. She then speed off like a bat out of hell in the opposite direction. 11/19/04 Updates at the Bend Store, which is, for the time being, not credit card or Paypal friendly. Email me if you are interested and I'll get you a pricelist. In the meantime I will be hooking it all up to a credit card system very soon. Oh, and a couple more paintings will be added in the next few days as well. You can still get the signed, limited edition, "Fontside Air" giclee prints over at the Crailtap shop... and they will take your credit card. You can also get one of my pocket, spiral-bound, notebooks over on the Ruby Republic store (click under "signature items"). Apologies for all the pushing, but a man's gotta eat. Work in progress (2.7meg gif). 11/18/04 The Quiet Life has started posting their Camera Club shots... first three up now. Happy birthday to my good friend, Megan Baltimore. Check out her site, Ruby Republic. 11/17/04 Spent another day in Burbank eating sushi and painting a mural. Still more to do. Sushi eating, of course. Updated the MX Problem. 11/16/04 Back to the Burbank Active today for a little more work on the "mural" or "giant collage." Watched a shiteloada nothing on TV until midnight last night. Not sure why. I sort of just melted onto the floor and left my thumb do the moving for a few hours. I could find nothing of substance to report on. But I guess you probably already know that. Am I wrong to assume? Oh wait, the people eating ten live slugs each on Fear Factor was kinda cool... or the OC Christian conservative mother going to live with the liberal East Coast jews and "blessing their socks off." That was something. ...or the "In Praise of the Abrams Tank show" on the History Channel. Clips of a pre-game football fight reviewed by a bunch of former atheletes and sports pundits. Kobe Bryant's fall from grace. Something about NASCAR. 11/15/04 I stopped getting Harper's mag recently. Just got tired of how damn cynical the vibe is. Ever read the Harper's Index? Usually makes me want to curl up in a fetal position. But every so often a powerful piece surfaces. Like this one by Mark Slouka, "Quitting the Paint Factory; On the Virtues of Idleness." "When I was young, my parents read me Aesop's fable of 'The Ant and the Grasshopper,' wherein, as everyone knows, the grasshopper spends the summer making music in the sun while the ant toils with his fellow formicidae. Inevitably, winter comes, as winters will, and the grasshopper, who hasn't planned ahead and who doesn't know what a 401K is, has run out of luck. When he shows up at the ants' door, carrying his fiddle, the ant asks him what he's been doing all year. 'I was singing, if you please,' the grasshopper replies, or something to that effect. 'You were singing?' says the ant. 'Well, then, go and sing.' And perhaps because I sensed, even then, that fate would someday find me holding a violin or a manuscript at the door of the ants, my antennae frozen and my bills overdue, I confounded both Aesop and my well-meaning parents, and bore away the wrong moral. That summer, many a wind-blown grasshopperwas saved from the pond, and many an anthill inundated under the golden rain of my pee." Brilliant stuff. Couple of songs (mp3) from the weekend: > "The Circle," One Cylinder (3.9mgs) > "The Genius of the Crowd," One Cylinder (3.3mgs) "The Circle" samples snippets of Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" and "The Genius" is the Charles Bukowski poem of the same name — seemed very timely. Enjoy. This is great stuff. Both the site and the music. Billy Harvey. 11/12/04 Mr. Mueller has no idea how to stop... here's his latest show: "Sixspace celebrates its second anniversary in Los Angeles with Snapshot: a look at Los Angeles photographers with Heather Cantrell, Elizabeth Daniels, Steve Diet Goedde, Andy Mueller, and Lori Frances Schindler. This exhibition opens on Saturday, November 13 with a reception from 7-10 pm. All artists will be in attendance." Tha Art Dump started a "mural" at the newest Active store in Burbank. It's due to open next month. I'll post shots of it upon completion. This guy was driving about 75mph on the freeway... the coolest thing I've seen in a while. 11/09/04 There are still people left in this country who are not afraid to speak their minds. "We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you. "Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? "They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. "And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them." —Hunter S. Thompson, from "Kingdom of Fear" 11/08/04 Rough week last week. All new today, though. I'm not too much for spoken word poetry... mostly because I'm not much for poetry. Why? Most of it is crap. Why? Because crappy poets are not shy about publishing and reading. BUT, I like Eric Matthies and he's good at everything he does. This may be worth a shot: Aught for Poetry on Nov 11th at Brand Bookshop, 231 N. Grand in Glendale. 7:30... sorry, don't mean to be so negative, Eric. Well, maybe I do. How was your weekend? I did this song with Emmet: Sweet Little Kid (mp3; 2.9megs) Andy Mueller's weekends are always tapped. The Quiet Life is on a rampage w/ new stuff both off and online. WOW. From Crailtap. 11/05/04 Some things to do on a Friday: • Make only right-hand turns on your way home. • Walk home. • Skip lunch and just drink water. • Change your first name to Favio — just for today. • Stay off the internet. Oops, too late. • Write about something you know nothing about. • Call a friend and arrange a meeting. • Think of something you would rather be doing. • Do it.  Artist Sam Flores has a really nice little book out with Upperplayground. He's also opening a show, "It's All Gold" down here in Culver City at The Lab 101 Gallery. His work has a really nice and relaxed feel about them... tranquil people with heavy thoughts on their minds — literally. Good stuff. The opening reception is this Saturday, November 6th. Former Art Dumper and current Crownfarmer, Bob K, also has a new book out. It's photo based and Antisocial in Vancouver is throwing a book launch dealy this afternoon between 4 and 6pm. 11/04/04 Well, shit, we might as well check out the Corn Palace Web Cam.... (from Staci G.) 11/04/04 Hurray for corn! (from Lew) 11/04/04 Jeremy sent me this link. I remember skating the Nude Bowl back in the day and someone had spray painted "eat the corn out of my dookie" all the way across the deep end. Funny shit. So to speak. I may be losing it. Yeah. I'm losing it. 11/03/04 Oh well... more work for Will Ferrell. Best cussing in a movie (recent history): Bad Santa. 11/02/04 Voting at lunch today. There must be two Jordan Cranes... after dipping further into jordancrane.com and reddingk.com, I'm pretty sure these are two different people. 11/02/04 Lewman sent me this link. Way beyond Warhol. Or is it? 11/01/04 Put the costumes away already. Wallride #9 in full swing at Girl. Featured will be the Art Dump and Girl team What Logo? and What Tour? events from Australia last month. Good man, Mike O'Meally went and shot it for TWS... I snuck this shot off one of his proofs. That's Mueller with me and Emmet at the Sydney space. Thanks Meals. I've been getting emails asking whether I have any wooden OGs for sale or not. Well, I don't, but I will. A couple dozen are in the studio right now getting ready for the Art Dump show at Antisocial (Vancouver) in March next year. Maybe I'll put some up on the site before the holidays. I didn't actually paint any for the What Logo? shows, I made these tables instead (that's an O'Meally photo too). If you're interested in one, email me and I'll give you the details. Check out Jordan Crane's books and prints at reddingk. Great, great, great. I think about Randy Leybourne's drawings every so often and I grin. Lookforwardtothepast. 10/29/04 The campaigning begins way too soon. About a month ago I was already sick of it all. So many words — and numerous implications upon implications, tainted with accusations — in every one of them. Sound-bites, context, rumors and spins, microscopic scrutinization... ugh. Let's get this shit over with. With that in mind, this clip is still pretty funny (or scary?), though you've probably already seen it by now... Bush's "one fingered victory salute." And I caught this link at Computer Love. Huh? Can't forget this one. An old friend, Eric Matthies, runs this pretty cool website, Human Powered Transport. He's deep into cyclocross. Good to hear from you again, Eric. 10/28/04 Seen the new iPod Photo yet? I guess the next version will actually take the pictures as well. Watched a couple of good movies in the last week. Gus Van Zant's "Elephant" and Hal Hartley's "The Book of Life." The two couldn't be any more different in style and content, but both touch on the current human condition. Recommended. Hobbits are real. 10/27/04 Crailtap is carrying a limited number of my "Frontside Air" Giclee prints for $75. Signed and numbered, folks. And yes, unlike the current Bend Store, they take credit cards. Thank you, Mr. Tap. 10/26/04 I've never met Tucker Nichols, but I like him. I have a handmade postcard of his on my wall. People see it and think I'm a Christian. I just smile and let them think I'm nuts. Tucker has this upcoming show called "Hero Glyph" at Post in L.A. on Saturday, November 13, between 6 & 9pm. I like Rick Myers too. He has a pretty unique traveling exhibition; "Funnel Vision." It is a "constantly accumulating and changing body of work housed in a portable wooden museum." Wow. I'm still going to that Starbucks® where the girl knows me. So akward. I've decided that today I'll just answer, "Jesus was right" and see what happens. 10/18/04 The girl at Starbucks® called me by name yesterday and gave me my coffee for free. Time to stop going to that Starbucks®. 10/15/04 "Drowning in the frowns of a million clowns.' —Mike Watt There is no easily appropriate way to break the news of someone's passing from this place. It is difficult because you know the pain people are going through. And there is no way to ease that pain but with the passing of time. Our sincerest condolances to those close to artist, Rebecca Westcot, who died in an auto accident yesterday. Godspeed, Rebecca, stay strong, Jim. 10/14/04 I found this link over at Racer X believe it or not... comes recommended by their AD, Langers. Pretty amazing resource site. Arts and Letters Daily. Not too sure what to think about this... not such a great idea for moto. Check their main page for a couple more quicktimes of test footage. 10/13/04 "The heart is heaven and the brain, hell." —Tom Waits, Real Gone I wanted to mention this great exhibition we were lucky enough to catch at the Melbourne Musuem of Contemporary Art last month (when Larson took over Sanger's column on crailtap a few weeks ago, he gave it a blip). It was a retrospective of South African artist, William Ketridge's work. You can see a little of it on the MCA website, but there are also several books worth looking up. Very powerful stuff that evokes several emotions at once. Art Dumpers Mueller and Abeyta are both vigorously working on the finishing touches for their exhibitions this weekend. Andy shows at Ghetto Gloss on friday night ("It's All Around Us") and Rob with his sister, Edith, at Walled City ("Hungry Ghost") on Saturday. 10/12/04 New paintings will be up in a week or so. Also hoping to make credit card purchses available. A big thanks to the newest Art Dumper, Eric Anthony for shooting the work. I picked up a sponsorship from Smith Optics (MX goggles) for 2005. Thanks for the opportunity, Mr. Smith — ah, I mean Denny Stephenson. The Motocross Problem starts today. 10/11/04 Thank you for all the emails, people. It's good to be back on the digital dirt path. FOB Mark Penxa sent in this link which answers my question from last week; Do birds get lost in fog? Brought home a second over all from the MX race yesterday at Starwest. I actually won the second moto with a come from behind charge — that was pure fun. I should've won the first moto as well (ha, ha), but I took an unintended time-out to wrestle mud in the first turn: I high-sided the bike when the holeshotter (is that a word?) dove down into my inside line. I went rolling like a pig then curled up fetus-like to avoid being run over by the pack. It worked. When I got up, a flagger was asking me how I was but I didn't answer him, I just ran to my bike yelling, "Fuck... FUCK!" (you see, this has happened to me so many times, I'm becoming notorious for it). I got going fairly quickly, but only managed a 4th. Which is funny because there were only 4 racers in my class yesterday. HA! But I wasn't about to turn down a second place overall. And, a moto win is a moto win. When I got home, I realized I had locked my garage keys in the garage. So now I'm hauling he bike around during the week like a goon. I'm typing this in my office sitting as stiff as a dried twig with ice on my neck. A couple months back I met one of the artists from Consolidated, Todd Bratrud. Here's a peek at his personal site, Burlesque. You can find more Bratrud art over at Fecal Face.  10/08/04 Do birds get lost in fog? I don't think too many people knew I did a show in Portland that opened on April 1, 04 (and closed a couple of weeks later) — Ugly Beautiful Fool. Pretty low key. Well, I just found this on the Compound site which sort of documents it. It'd be cool if they sent me at least one of those limited posters... come on, Rodg. This is not me. Thomas Campbell's Sprout will also be showing in LA at the Egyptian on October 17th at 3pm. Check out the trailer here. 10/07/04 "If I was a bed, I'd be an unmade bed." —Tom Waits, Baby Gonna Leave Me / Real Gone. Thanks for the copy, Staci G. There's an amazing documentary, Horn and Halos, that is a must see if you care at all about politics, politicians, the search for redemption, scams and monster publishing vs. the indy sort. Hell, even if you consider all that as crap, you'll be pleased with this. It's a human story — stories — which "...captures the unlikely connection of three men — an ex-con turned celebrity biographer, a janitor cum underground publisher, and U.S. President George W. Bush — whose paths to power and popularity become tangled in a controversial book." The codirector is Michael Galinsky, whom I met through Bend and Dirt mag many years back when he was in a band called Sleepyhead. Horns and Halos is showing at Cinespace in Hollywood all through October on Saturday nights at 6pm. My thanks to Dan Field for telling me about it.  Thomas Campbell is showing his new surf film, Sprout, at the Moonshine Film & Music Festival in Laguna. He's good at what he does. Check it out on October 10th. Brother and sister artists, Rob (Art Dumper & Supreme Mundaner) and Edith Abeyta are showing new works under the title, "Hungry Ghost" at Walled City in San Pedro. It runs from Oct 16th-Nov 28th, with the opening reception on Saturday night on 10/16. 10/07/04 Hey, we're back. I began this new incarnation of Bend about a month ago, but then I left the country for this (quicktime file, 6.3 megs) and any thoughts of the re-design stayed stateside in San Pedro. I'm including a post I wrote back then (below). Why? I don't know... maybe because I'm a huge fan of MX Champ, Ricky Carmichael, and MX has been what inspires me the most lately. As a motocrosser he is utterly dominant, and as an athlete he is practically unmatched, having completed two perfect seasons (that's 22 overall and 44 moto wins) in the last three years. In the year he wasn't perfect (2003), he only lost two races. Dedication, execution and heart. We could all use some fraction of what RC has. While we're on the subject of MX, I almost ran over Kevin Windham's wrench, Jonathan Hyland, (Honda is in the same neighborhood as Girl) in the parking lot of Quiznos at lunch today. That wouldn't have looked too good on my moto resume. If you take a look around Bend you'll see that all the old content is still around — somewhere. Just click about. Personally, I'm sick of looking at it all which is probably why this hiatus came on a few months back. But whilst in Australia with FOB's Monster Children, I got the web bug back. Thanks Cam and Chris. Best Spam Subject Lines for this week: >> Married Whores >> Are You The Naked Person? >> Betsy Buddhist >> Regulation of Mood >> Eliminate Your Bills the Christian Way From Lewman: "Is this part of Sole Tech?" edtempleton.com Friend of Bend, Darin Bendall, is stuck somewhere between Tokyo and Oklahoma.... Tokyoklahoma.  I took the photo above on 9/11, the day before the final 2004 AMA Outdoor National in Glen Helen. Ricky Carmichael had just come back in from a practice. I think he already knew he was going to complete his SECOND PERFECT SEASON the next day. This was his last race for Honda. RETURN TO CURRENT "NEW NOW" All words/images ©2004 Bend Press and Andy Jenkins All Rights Reserved |
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