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houseofvans · 5 years

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SKETCHY BEHAVIORS | INTERVIEW WITH NICOLE MOMANEY

Through beautifully depicted and realistically rendered images of flora and fauna, LA based artist Nicole Momaney’s paintings are both dark, peaceful and highly symbolic. Interested in ideas of death and transformation, Nicole’s paintings are meditations on death and dying, and through her process of creating this art does it become not an idea to be feared or avoided, but rather something that is natural, approachable and beautiful. With works in La Luz de Jesus’s 33rd annual group show, Laluzapalooza, opening Friday, March 1st, Nicole is busy busy, so we’re excited to catch up with her to talk more about her art and process.

Take the leap!

Photographs courtesy of the artist.

Introduce yourself. My name is Nicole Momaney. I work under the name Spirited Animals as a painter in the lovely city of Los Angeles in a rad studio space called Bill’s Bar with several other artists.

What’s your background as an artist? Were you self taught or did you attend an art school? I went to school for Illustration at MassArt in Boston.

How would you describe your work to someone who isn’t familiar with it? What would you say your art is about? Or rather what topics and themes do your works tend to touch upon? I’d describe my work as a little dark and highly symbolic. Everything I paint is based on reality, mainly flora and fauna, that I reconstruct/reorient in ways to drive home the meaning of the painting. Most of my artwork deals with death and transformation. I feel that culturally the western world has essentially swept death under the rug. This is, of course, a privilege many other people in the world don’t have, but it comes at a great price that directly feeds our disconnection to the natural world and encourages insane levels of fear based thinking. We don’t openly grieve. We barely discuss it. We have neat little gatherings where hardly anyone cries, and we make perfectly curated speeches about our loved ones that may or may not reflect the reality of who they were. And then we are buried under the ground in a box where, rather than feeding the milieu and cultivating new life, we quietly decompose, completely separated from the place we came from. (I am speaking generally here of course, I recognize there are exceptions.) Through it all, there is this shadow lurking in the corner waiting for you to acknowledge its hand in the situation, and even honor it, because someday that hand is going to touch you, too. Most of my paintings are my way of trying to come to terms with this and meet death in a place that I find approachable and beautiful in a sense.

What do you think made you gravitate toward painting as a medium? What about painting do you enjoy overall perhaps other mediums? Maybe the paint chose me? Hahaha. I guess for me color is HUGE. I love color and paint is the ideal way to express that. I also really enjoy linework but in the context of a rendered image. Nothing makes me happier than taking that tiny 0 round brush and adding the final flowing detail lines to an image. It’s seriously my happy place. Lana Del Rey, Cadmium Red Light and a 0 round brush...heaven.

Is there a medium you’ve yet to try and you’d love to one day explore? Tattooing actually! I love the idea of the body as canvas and marking it with something permanent. The entire process is very alchemical/ritualistic to me. I love getting tattooed and am really into the idea of experiencing the other end of that exchange.

When you’re working on a new piece, what’s the process like for you? Do you work from sketches or models or various references? My process starts out a bit scattered. Sometimes I have a particular animal or plant that has a connection to my personal mythology I’d like to explore. Other times I’ll have a specific idea in mind and will research flora and fauna that appropriately supports the concept symbolically.

I then source images and do a bit of digital collage and painting. This is how I create the initial image. I then transfer that image onto canvas and start painting. Sometimes the finished painting will look almost exactly like the digital, sometimes I’ll make tons of changes during the actual painting process.

In your studio or creative area, what type of things do you keep around to inspire you or keep you motivated? Currently I have a nautilus shell, a beautiful emerald green scarab I found, a few crystals, a mini taxidermied leather elk, a deer leg and my Tibetan prayer flags I got in the Himalayas. I’m also lucky enough to be surrounded by other artists and their work which is energetically inspiring. I worked alone in my room for years and years. Having a studio space with other people has been awesome.

What’s your best art tip you can share with folks? Best art tip - if it isn’t working don’t force it. Don’t be afraid to change something.

What kind of advice would you give someone who is interested in becoming an artist? I’d say do whatever you can to put yourself in a place where you’re doing something artistic as much as possible. I can’t overstate that the more you put in the more you’ll get out. For me that meant making a lot of sacrifices and opting out of a lot of comfortable situations. Art is uncomfortable. Growth in general is uncomfortable really, so art is fantastic for people who want to continually grow and push themselves.

When you’re not making art, what else do you do that you find creatively satisfying? Or how do you just like to spend your quiet time? I love hiking. Spending time in nature, particularly the mountains, is essential to staying balanced for me. It’s like a recharge. I also love going out and supporting my friends in their creative endeavors–music, art, food, drink etc.

What are you constantly inspired by? And who are some of your early and current art influences? I’m forever and always inspired by nature. Early art influences (and still very relevant to me): Mark Ryden, Odd Nerdrum, Dave McKean, Joe Sorren, Walton Ford. Current influences: Allison Summers, Lauren Marx, Martin Wittfooth, Elizabeth McGrath, Tiffany Bozic, Adrian Baxter, Aaron Horkey...tons more

Who would you love to see interviewed for our next Art School? That’s a tough question! Keep it coming with the ladies though. It’s awesome to see so many women being recognized and lauded in the art scene now.

What are your FAVORITE Vans? Definitely slip-ons. I lived in checkerboard slip-ons for years.

What do you have coming up that you can share? I'm showing paintings at Laluzapalooza at La Luz de Jesus opening this Friday 3/1 from 8-11 pm. I have a few paintings I’m working on for upcoming shows in 2019. So keep posted!

FOLLOW NICOLE | INSTAGRAM | ETSY

#Art #Vans #Vans Girls #Vans Art #Nicole Momaney #Painting #interview #Nature #Animals #Mystical

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tvmecaps · 6 years

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1. who is this guy why is he in a fucking nascar 2. WHAT A WEIRD FADE TRANSITION 3. “my background is in racing.” “i love? racing??” 4. emily seems like a gem 5. emily: “where did you come from? 😊” arie: “haha!” 6. if someone said that to me i’d be like 7. idk the limo 8. i wish corinne came back

9. emily: *doesn’t say i love you back* arie: “i just felt, in that moment, that she loved me”

10. chris harrison: “you flew to charlotte” arie: “i flew to charlotte” me: “he flew to charlotte?!” 11. SHE DIDN’T READ THE JOURNAL 12. how embarrassing

13. “i was gone probably 200 days a year, avoiding the pain and heartbreak” imagine having that luxury 14. omg that baby is huge 15. omg I love when the couples are real 16. chris harrison saying arie is the best kisser they’ve had on the show is weird 17. wow a single mom that’s an original take 18. wow a weird amount of realtors 19. “gotta get a boyfriend first” WHA TA WIERD THING TO SAY 20. “i’m jealous one day i’ll find love!!” she says to the bride and groom 21. these girls are so WEIRD 22. SOMETIMES WE GET PEOPLE WITH BULLET WOUNDS 23. is this raven’s friend 24. from weiner 25. “we kind of have to make our own fun” *shoots a gun* 26. AT LEAST HE HAS A JOB 27. I LOVE RAVEN 28. they seem like they’d be sorority sisters 29. KENDALL 30. his tongue is like, so huge

31. WITH TAXIDERMY, I CAN KEEP IT FOREVER 32. if i ever met anyone with a stuffed polar bear I would immediately murder them and go to prison for life 33. I LOVE YOU SEAL 34. WHAT THE FUCK

35. omg another mom 36. oh she’s a nanny 37. “im a mix of gentle and nurturing” babe what’s the difference 38. i hope marikh beats the shit out of kendall

39. coach crystal 40. this is the worst thing i’ve ever seen 41. KRYSTAL WITH A K 42. IT GOT WORSE 43. SHE’S JUST RECORDING HERSELF JUMPING ON THE BEAHC 44. BECAUSE MY BROTHER IS HOMELESS 45. IM SCREAMING 46. aw this is kind of sweet tho 47. if i had to pretend to prance into the ocean while abc productions filmed me i would throw myself into the sand and let the water take me

48. this limo full of bachelor girls < a single cab full of jersey shore girls 49. i wish they had a jersey shore bachelor crossover 50. i wanna see sammi sweetheart on the bachelor 51. chris: “so you’ve tried to fall in love multiple times and haven’t 52. arie: thanks 53. maybe we’ll both be off the market I want to kill myself 54. chelsea’s entire face looks fake 55. but ok 56. sienne is not a name i’m sorry 57. aw the cufflinks 58. i hope she wins and he proposes wearing them 59. i already love tia she’s said 2 words

60. she 61. she got him a little wiener 62. “please tell me 63. you do not already 64. have 65. a little wiener” 66. arie: “I like her”

67. i want to punch chelsea in the face 68. who tf is bibiana 69. “then i think about like oh my god my babies would have blue eyes” 70. bib, do you… do you knwo punnett squares 71. he caught a softball “i’m so impressed with you!” 72. omg the nice butt bumper sticker 73. “i don’t have a very big butt” 74. wow they’re really giving krystal quite the entrance

75. “in this moment we’re ready for the adventure to begin” 76. she has a giant bowtie on her ass 77. ARIE GOES 78. “i needed that”

79. “there have been a lot of girls coming through,” one girl says suspiciously 80. as if she’s never seen the bachelor 81. “BEAUTIFUL. GIRLS.” chelsea says, murder in her eyes

82. LMAO I’M SCREAMING BEKAH PULLED FOF 83. AND ALL I SAW WAS HER HAIR IN THE CONVERTIBLE 84. AND I DEADASS THOUGHT 85. “who is this??? kris jenner??????”

86. i don’t know jenna but i love her 87. is she drunk 88. “and also maybe someone to take over the world with me” i love her

89. imagine someone brought you a rock 90. is she 91. is she gonna make him propose 92. why are they playing star wars music 93. WHO WAS THAT 94. why are there so many laurens 95. DID THEY SEND ALL THE LAURENS OUT IN A ROW 96. “any more and i’d be like, am i on the wrong show? *another lauren comes in 97. chelsea is a psycho 98. “nothing like a good icebreaker talking about all the dicks you’ve seen in your life” 99. ew 100. pit stop joke 101. HEY BABE, WANT TO SMELL MY PITS 102. I LOVE RIHANNA 103. this bitch in a mask 104. of course her name is annaliese

105. “i’m the only one in a costume so far” i miss alexis

106. THE GIRL WHO WAS SPECIFICALLY INTRODUCED TO ONE-UP BEKAH’S CAR ENTRANCE 107. I LOVE THIS BITCH 108. THE SHEER D R A M A

109. “sorry i’m late,” she laughs, CASUALLY STEPPING OUT OF THE RACE CAR

110. “she came in fast and furious, she came in last, maybe that’s how she wants to finish!” omg I HATE this bitch 111. he’s literally a generic handsome man 112. they cannot get over how generically handsome he is 113. she handed him a drink what a kissass 114. nysha i’ve never seen you in my life 115. CHELSEA STOLE HIM LITERALLY FROM THE TOAST 116. I HATE HER 117. i can’t stand this 118. what’s wrong with her face 119. why doesn’t it move

120. i’m the girl who said “where did you get your race car”

121. i’m sorry are they racing toy cars 122. HERS IS SO SLOW LMAOOOO 123. “brittany and him kissed. i don’t know why she’d do that.” i HATE chelsea

124. i’m the drunk girl talking about making people look cool with spas

125. aw i like annaliese 126. “how is the first night going? i would say great” “good so far,” arie corrects 127. chelsea’s gonna fuckin get it isn’t she

128. “can i talk to arie for a second?” “i literally just sat down” “but can i have him?” “i just sat down” “just for a minute” “but i just sat down” THIS ENTIRE EXCHANGE WAS MADE BETWEEN SMILES

129. omg she’s gonna talk to him AGAIN i hate her 130. omg they’re like really kissing 131. i really can’t like arie for this 132. this is so boring i just want to punch chelsea 133. there are too many girls for me to care about anyone who goes home

134. three things that make me excited to be alive? easy, death, dying, and the inevitable murder of donald j trump

135. arie: “excitement” 136. bekah: “excitement makes you excited”

137. CHELSEA 138. FUCK CHELSEA 139. first rose ceremony and the only girls i know are bekah and lauren numbers one through four 140. imagine he calls your name but then another last initial

141. no one will ever top alexis’s “move bitches”

142. thank god bibiana got a rose, honestly 143. fuck chelsea for staying instead of all these bitches 144. i’m both the girls watching the jets makeup through a telescope and the bitch making out with him on a JETSKI 145. I HOPE SOMEONE PUNCHES CHELSEA 146. i can’t wait for beech’s inevitable nervous breakdown 147. SOMEONE’S GOTTA BOYF

#the bachelor #bachelor s22

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the-gay-prometheus · 3 years

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28, 60, 45, 65, 70, 88, n 100 ❣

28. Mythical creature

>As I said for mist's ask - phoenix, dragon, or creature of my own creation

60. Autobiography Title

>I've actually been thinking about this for a while and I'm still no closer to an answer.

45. Fun facts

>Hmm... Did you know that when a rabbit feels exceptionally happy or excited it will do a special bounce/twist known as a 'binky'? It's very cute 😌

65. What's your vibe?

>Chaotic yet soft. You give off the same vibes as my rabbit Aggie gives off - looks and acts like will fight you or cause trouble, really just wants to be loved and given attention (in his case specifically head pets)

70. Collections

>Bones, pelts, taxidermy, crystals/rocks, shiny things, stickers, enamel pins, tarot decks, and cool sticks

88. What would I be?

>Either a moss or lichen, or some kind of bird.

100. Take a moment.

>🥺 Thank you ;~; I'm hoping to start writing shortly once this plane finally takes off 😅

#ask games!

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villainship · 6 years

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[On the theme of “Home”]

A cross-post from the Pillowfort.io SWTOR community ~ I filled out a Q&A for 2 of my characters:

> Tarskal > Kirryl

[Full Text]

Tarskal

> Where was your character born?

A pretty well-developed, urban planet within the Empire; it wasn't THE political hub that Dromund Kaas or Korriban would be, but commerce was good and it wasn't decimated by the war the way Balmorra is.

> Where did your character consider home while growing up?

Well he had a "good home" with two parents of middle/upper-middle class means and "dignified" employment. He didn't particularly care about it.

> Where does your character consider home now? / Where would your character like to call home?

Not a one-answer kind of person, but he spent a long time on Korriban and appreciated it when he was young. When he came into money (from looting many bodies & doing dirty work on his way to Lordship, of course) he bought a gaudy house on Nar Shaddaa for hosting trashy parties.

When Cianna asked him if he would want to consider her secret hideout-home on Manaan to be /their/ home together, he accepted.

Eventually they also shared a home on Voss to raise their kid(s).

> How did your character feel about leaving home the first time they did it?

uuuuuuh he was pretty keen. 8); Wasn't sorry his parents were dead -- but he gets bored in one spot and was ready to go meet some fellow Sith.

> Does your character get homesick?

It takes him a very long time to get to that point. Eventually: yes, sort of. (I think when he’s an old man, he starts to understand.)

> What was your character’s very favorite place they’ve lived?

Nice cottage-home on Voss; private & cozy with a big yard, places for the Large family pets to roam, 2 kids and a wife, the wife's garden, and lots of big game to go out and hunt on a whim, PLUS a bunch of fun-colored weirdos (who like to get high and experiment with the Force) for neighbors.

> What makes a house feel like a home for your character?

A giant statue of something ridiculous.

> Has your character ever had their home destroyed?

(I'm not actually far enough in the game to have seen this part of the story, but my g/f Dani knows)

> They say you can’t go home again. Has your character ever tried to return to a place that used to feel like home after leaving it behind?

He sure did go back to Korriban. No doubt it felt very different.

> Some people say home isn’t a place so much as a person. Who feels like home to your character?

That's definitely C i a n n a <3 :') !

... He doesn't have a comfortable relationship with the concept of "love", or with using the word, but he wouldn't hesitate to admit that she's a life-constant who he always feels good returning to. It is really a better/more accurate conceptualization of their relationship than just saying that they are "in love". MAYBE THEY ARE...-! But still.

> How does your character like to decorate their home?

Here's an example of the vibe when he's collaborating with Cianna, which greatly increases the amount of taste+class in their shared homes.

... On his own: tacky animal products/weird taxidermy, gilded nudes, and glaring neon holo-images as far as the eye can see. A shitpost of a living space.

> Does your character prefer living alone or with other people?

He's very social. This doesn't have to translate to round-the-clock sharing his space, but usually it does (when there's someone willing to put up with him). If he lived alone, he'd have a stream of guests during the times he wasn't out & about.

> Does your character prefer urban living or rural life or something else?

Some of everything. He can be flexible, and mostly just values variety. A spaceship was a decent option (being able to move his house around to different environments).

Kirryl

> Where was your character born? / Where did your character consider home while growing up?

I HONESTLY DON'T KNO. 8) She could be a native of Mirial. . Although I've thought it might be interesting if she were born on Corellia or Coruscant.

In any case, she doesn't think back much about it.

> Where does your character consider home now?

. . No-. . where. . . ? It sounds depressing to think of it like that, but I'm pretty sure she feels that it's a good sign to have reached a zen-like detachment about such a thing.

In a practical sense, she lives out of a ship and appreciates the refuge of her bedroom.

> Where would your character like to call home?

Also nowhere, really. She's a big fan of Tython, but not the local or general jedi politics. Alderaan is pretty but even MORE overly political. Most of all I think she fell in love with Yavin IV -- it just isn't a very 'home-y' place to stay.

> How did your character feel about leaving home the first time they did it?

Tiny child Kirryl was very young and (secretly) very scared to go with the Jedi. She didn't enjoy it. On the other hand, she knew a bit about what to expect and understood it to be a great honor according to her family, so she wasn't even a little bit resistant.

> Does your character get homesick?

In the past I am absolutely sure she did. It seems like another thing she would shrug and say that she's "gotten over". Of course that's a lot easier when you don't connect closely to any particular place anymore.

> What was your character’s very favorite place they’ve lived?

Haha. Makeb? (Temporarily.) It was an exciting place and an exciting time.

> What makes a house feel like a home for your character?

IF she were to try to put together a home (such as the apartment she shares on Coruscant for conducting business there), she'd always feel better with a meditative object in the space. Something that makes her feel connected to the Force and/or to the Jedi legacy. Also: a comfortable purple bed.

> Has your character ever had their home destroyed?

It's possible. If she really DID live on Corellia as a child, then. . . . yes.

> They say you can’t go home again. Has your character ever tried to return to a place that used to feel like home after leaving it behind?

It's against her instincts to dwell on personal past situations. She prefers to move always forward.

> Some people say home isn’t a place so much as a person. Who feels like home to your character?

WELL she does have to admit that T7 and C2-N2 are a big comfort. Possibly her biggest soft spot is for these loyal droids.

Also, generally, the Jedi Order is her 'home' more than anything else is.

> How does your character like to decorate their home?

Serene, a bit minimalist, but vibrant with the hints of color she includes. A single work of art on a wall, a planter of flowers here and there (placed sparingly to highlight the elegance of the plant life). . A featured holocron or carving or glowing crystal in a place of prominence. Her opinion is that the pursuit of "focus" doesn't mean things need to be cold or lifeless. In fact that seems counterproductive to her.

> Does your character prefer living alone or with other people?

Just her and the droids, honestly. That'd be her first choice. Roommates aren't a huge challenge for her; Elenir and Arameis are respectful and responsible on Coruscant. . . But being alone is just so relaxing.

> Does your character prefer urban living or rural life or something else?

A semi-urban situation with plenty of nature integrated & around it.

#Tarskal #*Kirryl #raikari post

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yousaidminkey · 7 years

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Old Tour Stories

The Always A Bridesmaid Tour (June 7th - June 22nd 2006)

The Pictures

The Mission: Take up to 15 people (10 to start... 5 people would not be joining us until June 15th) to the North Country Fair in Driftpile, Alberta... then go and attend/play/best man at John Guliak and Christine Ferguson's wedding in Edmonton. Between the 15 people, we could create at least 6 full bands... Carolyn Mark and Her New Best Friends, Hank & Lily, Amy Honey, Clay George, Hearse and The Dave Lang Band

The Cast: Vehicle #1 "Gwyneth Paltrow" (a 1980 Dodge Ram Van) - transportation for Tolan McNeil, Hoff, The Goose and Clay George. Vehicle # 2 "Freedom" (1990 Dodge Caravan) - transportation for Hank Pine, Lily Fawn and Emma Crow Vehicle #3 "The Hong Kong Lady" (1992 Toyota Camry) - Transportation for Amy Honey, Carolyn Mark and Andrew

June 7 Vancouver - Osoyoos 10-4 Good Buddy, We've Got Walkie-Talkies Things look good. It's a sunny day. Most of the Victoria contingent (everybody but me and Amy) arrived in Vancouver early. We've bought some walkie-talkies for communication reasons (only Tolan has a cell phone)... and The Goose's Dad reaffixed the front license plate to the Hong Kong Lady. In fact, everything went smoothly until it was time to leave. Tolan and crew are going to be late... the free van he got for the tour has some paperwork issues that were not apparent until the last moment. He has to spend the afternoon running all over Victoria getting shit signed. Consequently, although the first two vehicles hit the road by 2:00, Gwyneth won't even be getting on the ferry to Vancouver until 5:00. Anyway, the big plan is to stay in touch via the walkie-talkies (we have radio check times and nasty handles... Carolyn is "Bouncy C-Word", fr'instance, and Hank is "Fuckyou Killjoy"), and hook up for some camping in Osoyoos. We hit the road and try our radio check... nothing. In fact, except in one case, for the whole trip, the walkie-talkies would do nothing except eat batteries. The drive was mostly uneventful; the only excitement was that near Princeton, we were stopped by some police at a roadblock who were looking for an escaped murderer. Also, around this time it started to rain. Every day of the tour (except for one) it would end up raining, everything from scotch mist to full on thunder and lightning storms. Upon arrival in Osoyoos (approximately 8:00) we scoped out the camping spots in town. It looked like trouble... all the camp grounds were full of the elderly, golf shirt, sandals and socks crowd and/or the younger, screaming kids, golf shirt, sandals and socks crowd. It didn't look as though they would take kindly to 10 rowdy drunks disturbing their vacation... and we were sure as hell not going to want listen to their whining (nor deal with the inevitable cops). Hell, those are the people you get out of town to get away from. After checking out all the available possibilities (which, by the way, came across like suburban neighbourhoods where you can actually see and hear your neighbours), we (Amy, Carolyn and I) decided to tee up a hotel room instead. Up to this point we had had no contact with the other two vehicles. Phoning Tolan, we found that his new van had overheated in Chilliwack, and they had not yet managed to leave the Lower Mainland. Their ETA in Osoyoos is around 2:00 AM. Radio check for the Hank and Lilymobile turned up nothing until suddenly we started getting very garbled messages. Apparently they were also in town, looking for us. We pulled into the parking lot of a likely hotel called The Spanish Fiesta (or Spastic Fiasco), and suddenly Hank and Lily came in crystal clear... they were parked about 50 ft. away. Things worked out pretty good, and it seemed as though we had the hotel to ourselves, so we retired to the beach for wine and beer and smoking. Later in the evening Carolyn broke my car key off in the door of the car. No worries, as we had a spare. Always have a failsafe, that's what I say.

June 8 Osoyoos - Nelson Plastic Gardening Clogs R Us (Well... Them, Actually) In the morning we found that Gwyneth had managed to make it all the way to Osoyoos, and her crew had slept in the van in the hotel parking lot. We all made some informal wagers at that point as to which if any of the tour vehicles would make it all the way home without a major breakdown. They all had issues... Gwyneth's were readily apparent by that point, but Freedom was also desperately in need of a new fan belt, and was gouting out huge clouds of exhaust whenever it was started. The Hong Kong Lady, we had recently heard from our mechanic, could happily use two or three grand worth of mechanical repairs. But what's life without adventure? That's the question we decided to ask ourselves instead of dealing with our shit. Upon arrival in Nelson, we immediately sought out the thrift stores (for Amy and Carolyn), and the excellent coffee store (Cafe Oso), for me. There was something very odd about Nelson, a fashion thing, that cut across all sectors of society... men and women... geezers and whelps... squareheads and fleabags... the brightly coloured plastic gardening clog. Perhaps the ugliest piece of footwear outside of putting plastic bags on your feet when it rains. Even pretty girls can't rock them. In Nelson they are everywhere. I wanted to ask some of the people who look like (clogs aside) they should have a clue; what the Hell was going on, but in the end I figured that I really didn't want to know the answer. Since I'm mentioning fashion... let me talk for a moment about The Goose's white derby hat. It was one of his prized possessions, and an essential part of his on stage garb... part of his shock and awe... and it really tied his whole look together. Looking somewhat like an egg, The Goose usually treated as if he were a mother hen (or a Mother Goose, heh). This morning he had broken with tradition and let Lily Fawn play with it. Once we got to Nelson, Goose (and Lily) had the sickening realization that it was still in Osoyoos. Fortunately Lily, being so small and cute, was about the only person on the tour who could get away with losing it. Soon enough, we hooked up with our "friend in town", Laoh, a Victoria expatriate, who was going to be able to put some of us up for the evening. Laoh had only been living in Nelson for 6 months, but already seemed to know everyone there. I knew Nelson was a smaller town, but even still, knowing everyone there would be a bit of work. Laoh is just one of those guys who can do that. Hell, I had never met him before, and after ten minutes, we were yakkin' along like old buds. The show, at the Royal, was a ton of fun. A lot of people showed up, and regardless of their age, they seemed to like their Rock... or to be a bit more accurate, their Cowpunk. Amy had one of her best shows of the whole tour. Tolan was on fire on guitar... and Hank and Lily were really fucking amazing. Hank and Lily added a really interesting element to all the shows. Carolyn Mark and Clay George could most certainly be described as Country (of various speeds), and Amy can be anything from Country to Metal, but with a definite populist edge that opens a lot of doors. Hank and Lily are much more of a travelling freak show, with costumes, personas, smoke machines and quasi-nightmarish songs about things that lurk in the dark; yet everywhere they went, they didn't seem to weird anyone out, even in the most taxidermy encrusted small town farmer bars. In fact, they often got the loudest applause, and the most audience participation. Just goes to show you that no matter where you go, people just like a good show. I don't remember much of the rest of the evening, but I ended up losing my glasses at Laoh's house. No worries, as I still had my contact lenses. Always have a failsafe, that's what I say.

June 9 Nelson - Slocan Valley This Bug Spray Doesn't Work For Shit Tried to get a new key cut for the car, but found that my replacement key had apparently been made by "someone who was drunk or stupid, or both" and copies made from it were nonfunctional. I hate not having a failsafe. Today we would be heading up to an isolated Eco Lodge in the Slocan valley, run by "hippies", but "not the annoying kind, you know". There would be a BBQ and the bands would play in the living room / concert hall. Laoh knew the best butcher in Nelson, and he set me up with some specially marinated Buffalo steaks. Things were looking good. After a long drive up a dirt road we found the Lodge, and in the beautiful sun it looked like the best place in the world. Outside of the guy who operated the place and an eccentric mystic lady from Buckinghamshire, a nice lady from Quebec and a sinewy traveling cyclist from who knows where, the place was deserted. I asked Carolyn who the bands would be playing to. She said it was a really weird thing... every time she had played there before, the parking lot would be empty, but people would "just come out of the woods". At the end of the evening, they would return to the woods. We had some time on our hands before the show, though, so we amused ourselves by playing badminton, flying kites and in Hank's case, going swimming. On our way to the river we ran into a very pale Hank returning from his swim. Apparently there were leeches in the water and he ended up with one on his scrotum. We decided not to go swimming. Around this time we figured we were running seriously low on beer, and Tolan and I volunteered to take the Hong Kong Lady into town to get more. We cranked the CCR and drove like the Dukes of Hazard. We came very, very close to hitting a deer, and the gravel road did some serious damage to the muffler. For the rest of the trip, at city speeds, the Hong Kong Lady would sound like she was gargling Drano. We made it back just in time for dinner, and The Goose showed another one of his many talents by BBQ-ing the Buffalo steak to perfection. It was one of the best meals I had ever had, but only the second best one of the trip. It was around this time that we all collectively realized that the bug spray that we had been using was of little to no use. Mosquitoes were eating us alive. Hoff, Hank, Lily and Carolyn were all particular favourites of the little monsters, and after a short while, they all appeared to have contracted chicken pox. Just as Carolyn had said, after dinner, people started "coming out of the woods". Even more to my surprise, I actually recognized a couple of them. They were two brothers who used to play in a Vancouver band, The Way Out. They were attending some Eco-camp "over there" (with that statement they waved vaguely in the direction of the woods). Soon enough there was around 50 people there, and the show commenced. The Lodge had a decent stage and a good sound system, and the show was great. All the people there were very attentive, and Clay George especially seemed to have a good show. The right music for the right people in the right place. He even sold a few CD's. Here is as probably as good a place as any to mention... Clay was actually the only person on the tour who had his shit together enough to bring any CD's with him.

June 10 Slocan Valley - Nanton R.I.P. Lolita We all left the Lodge at different times, but somehow we all managed to arrive at the retro thrift store in Creston at nearly the same time. Unfortunately there had been a tragedy. Hoff had received a phone call from her roommate informing her that here Chihuahua, Lolita, had passed away. She had been ailing a bit, but it still came as a nasty surprise. The Goose said it well (at least from my point of view) when he stated that "Lolita was the only little dog that didn't annoy the shit out of me". Apparently, Lolita's remains were then kept in the freezer for Hoff to deal with when she got home. Seriously. It was a pretty long drive today, and probably the most dangerous one, as we had to go through the Crow's Nest Pass, and near dusk, around the town of Elkville, suddenly there were elk all over the place... including the road. We had to drive very slowly, but we still got a number of scares. Dark brown does not show up too well against a gray and black background. The cool moment of the drive was passing the Frank Slide, which buried the town of Frank, Alberta in 1903. 103 years later and it's still pretty impressive. As the drive continued we began to become concerned that our host, Ali, was going to be inconvenienced. We had initially informed here that we would be arriving around 7:00, but it appeared that we wouldn't be getting there until midnight. Ali lived on a farm half way between Nanton, Alberta and Vulcan, Alberta. A place that could quite easily qualify as "the middle of nowhere". The driving instructions we had included the final missive... "pull up the driveway, and don't run over the puppy". Upon our late night arrival, we were immediately greeted by the puppy, a three-month-old blue heeler / border collie mix named Cash (after Johnny, of course) owned by Ali's neighbour, Wayne. He was kind of bitey... but cute. Wayne and Ali, we found in Ali's kitchen, very drunk (they've been drinking in expectation of our imminent arrival since 5:00), and surrounded by the mostly eaten appetizers Ali had prepared for us hours ago. After making our apologies for the late arrival, we thought it polite to get as drunk as our hosts as quickly as possible. Once again we are eaten alive by bugs, but Amy seems to have come up with a repellent that actually seems to work, Ungava. Once I started using this, I hardly got any bites.

June 11 Nanton The Big Gun Fight Today we were faced by a tough decision. In one direction lay the town of Vulcan, who were celebrating "Spock Days", an annual event honouring all things Star Trek. Vulcan really riffs off its vague association to the show. It even has a statue of the starship Enterprise downtown, as well as a Star Trek themed science centre. Some years, for Spock Days, they even get someone from the show (one time it was Councilor Troi) to come and preside over the festivities. In the other direction lay the town of Nanton, where the bands would be playing that evening, which featured an excellent vintage store (Buffalo Gals) that was also about to close, so everything in it was for sale at discounts ranging from 80 - 100%. Needless to say, the ladies of the expedition had no interest in going to Vulcan. I always like to suck up to the ladies, so I volunteered to drive them to Nanton, while the rest of the gang went to Spock Days. From their later report it sounded like an anticlimactic visit to Spock Days. All the cool stuff had happened yesterday, so all they got to see were the pancake breakfast and a home run hitting contest. Now, I like shopping as much as the next guy... well, probably slightly more than the next guy... which means that I have a tolerance for it that lasts somewhere between 15 minutes to an hour (depending upon the store). Buffalo Gals turned out to be a very pleasant surprise, though. There was a lot of really cool men's Western gear, as well as an interesting selection of generally cool knickknacks. The prize find in my books was an antique, 1940's Hungarian made, crack action pellet gun. Amy was unimpressed... very unimpressed and showed visible relief when I was told that the gun was not for sale today, because it might be included in a bulk sale to a theatre company. But I could put in an offer and pick it up the next day it the theatre people didn't want it. I was crestfallen, but Dreanne, the lovely lady who ran the place, seeing my distress, asked me if I liked "things that go bang". Upon my sullen affirmation, she handed me over a big box of vintage Hand's fireworks from the 1970's... which included the Burning Schoolhouse. Free. It was about the best thing ever. Between all the thrifting we had all been doing, plus all of our regular luggage and the musical equipment we were carrying, space in all three vehicles had become very, very cramped. Our car was so full, that in order to fit Carolyn in, we pretty much had to grease her up and take a running start. The show at The Auditorium that evening was great. The bar was really old school with taxidermy all over the place, and one of the local farmers, Lance, joined the bands on stage with his pedal steel guitar. Lance apparently plays in a lot of bands, but only when they travel through town. He's an amazing player, in fact of the best I've ever seen, and the coolest thing was when he played with Hank and Lily. Despite the fact that he had never seen or heard them before... and despite the fact that they play a kind of music that is, in my opinion, not a type that I would immediately associate with pedal steel... Lance fucking smoked! I don't think I've heard a pedal steel played like that before, and I stood in awe.

June 12 Nanton The Best Steak in the World It was a day off. We were all feeling kind of bad at what we had done to Ali's house. When we arrived, everything was as neat as a pin. Minimalist. Spartan even. Now ten people worth of stuff had been dumped all over her living room and ten people worth of empties had clogged up her kitchen. It seemed good we would be leaving tomorrow, as we had definitely imposed ourselves sufficiently upon Ali's hospitality. Fortunately, she was gracious enough to take it all in stride. After some grocery shopping in Vulcan (which, as a town, kinda sucks actually... I way prefer Nanton), we came back to Ali's. We played with the puppy, did some Hula Hooping, and prepared for a big BBQ. Someone, who shall remain nameless to avoid Amy's wrath, took a trip into Nanton, and much to my surprise/elation, came back with the pellet gun for me. Lance, and his wife and daughter came out to the festivities, and brought with them some steaks from Lance's sister's farm. These were the best steaks I have ever had in my life. Hands down. It was akin to smoking the cigars cigar makers smoke, or drinking the whisky the distillery owner drinks. It was just that good.

June 13 Nanton - Calgary Grid, My Ass Ali joined us for the trip to Calgary... probably she just couldn't stand the mess we had made of her house. Calgary, I used to like... but she has become such a boomtown that on this visit it was hard to see the things that had initially attracted me to it. It was like seeing an old girlfriend who used to be all wholesome and winsome and girl-next-door suddenly all dressed up like a creepy real estate agent wearing too much makeup. Not having any personal connections in Calgary, Amy and I had decided that we would get a hotel tonight. It was not to be. We searched all over town, but were told (often smugly) that there was not a room to be had. A big oil and gas expo was happening in town ("the biggest one in North America"), and at one place we were told that the nearest available hotel room was in Red Deer. Maybe. Fortunately, Carolyn's friend Diane (who was also going to be playing bass for some of the bands that night) proved amenable to taking on a few more guests. Despite the fact that Calgary was all supposed to be laid out on a grid with everything being easy to find, it took us a real long time to find her place. Consequently, half of us ended up arriving kind of late for the show. The bar that the bands would play at was a new one, The Palomino, and it seemed pretty decent. The main floor was a Western styled Bar bar, and downstairs was another bar, where the live music happened. Calgary has some strange smoking laws. You are able to smoke inside a bar, but you cannot smoke on the patio. It was very reminiscent of the good ol' / bad ol' days of rampant smoke everywhere. Even as a smoker myself, I found it somewhat overwhelming. Calgary fans have historically enjoyed a good rockin' show, and Amy managed to wow them with her tribute to Black Sabbath song, Sabbath! Hank and Lily, as always, impressed, and Carolyn played the fastest paced set I had ever seen her perform. Lance even showed up to play some speed pedal steel guitar. After the show, it was raining again, but a local good ol' rockabilly boy offered to give us all a ride home in his gigantic pickup truck. He managed to transport thirteen of us, although about six people had to ride in the rain in the back. They seemed to enjoy it.

June 14 Calgary - Edmonton Goilers! We headed to Edmonton where we picked up another five people (who together comprised two more bands). Dave Lang (Regina) and Garth Johnson (Toronto) who are the main components of The Dave Lang Band, and J. McLaughlin and Grayson Walker who form the excellent Victoria band, Hearse. Dave's lovely partner Laura and another of our Vancouver Island friends, Sylvia, also came along for the ride. There was mayhem in the air when we arrived in town. It was game 5 of the NHL playoffs, and the Oilers were on the brink of elimination. When we drove down Whyte Avenue, there were so many cops it looked like martial law. The show was to be at one of the all time great live venues, The Black Dog. The only drawbacks were that a) the Black Dog was on Whyte Avenue, and therefore would be super packed with people... b) they would be showing the game on televisions there, and the show would not be able to go on until the game was over... and if it went into overtime, it could conceivably last for hours... c) if the Oilers lost, the crowd might get ugly. Fortunately, although the game did actually go into overtime, it ended fairly quickly, and the Oilers won. Whyte Avenue exploded into revelry. I decided to take a walk along the street to see just what was up. I don't know exactly what had happened after other games (apparently some broken window, bonfires in the street and other assorted drunken hooliganry), but the cops were taking no chances. They seemed to be everywhere, herding people along the sidewalk, pushing people off the actual street, and giving everyone the hairy eyeball. In my short walk, I saw them arrest one guy who wanted to debate whether on not he was allowed walk in the street (he's wasn't) and I had about a million people shout "Goilers!!!" in my face. I saw lots of people driving around honking their horns and yelling... often, if they had a pickup truck, they had a giant tinfoil Stanley Cup in the back. I was also required to give out lots of high fives, which I did until I came across the guy who gave me such an enthusiastic high five that he nearly took my arm off. After that I walked down the alley instead. The Black Dog was packed to the point of insanity which made for some difficulty in moving around and, more importantly, buying beers, but the place is blessed with some of the greatest bar staff this side of the Railway Club. By the time I was lining up to buy my second beer of the evening, the bartender already recognized me, and would have my beer of preference open and ready for me by the time I got to the front of the line. Which was a good thing, especially because the place was so damn noisy that even screaming at the top of my lungs, it was hard for anyone to hear me. Once again, it was a really good show... jam-packed, elated, drunk Edmontonians really know how to have a good time. And as an added bonus, we ran into Jerf, one time drummer for Red Cat Records label stalwarts, The Doers. For those who know him, and miss him, he asked me to tell you all that he's doing great, playing in a band called Field and Stream, and has no intention of moving back to Vancouver.

June 15 Edmonton - Driftpile Attack of the 6 Ft. Kimonoman The goal on this day was to drive 4 hours North of Edmonton to attend/play the North Country Fair. It's held just outside the township of Driftpile, Alberta, (near Lesser Slave Lake) and was a 3-day Solstice celebration. We were warned that there would be rain and hippies. We were arriving a day early so that the bands could play a special show for the volunteers. Needless to say, these events are usually chaos during the actual event... to arrive a day early ensured that things were really upside-down-town. Hell, they were still constructing a road to where people could park. The Hong Kong Lady took even more undercarriage abuse as a result, but we took solace in what was to become the tour mantra (at least as far as the vehicles were concern), "ahh fuck it, it'll be fine." Amy, Dave, Laura, Garth and I pitched our tents in the performers' campground, "Shady Hollow". It's always tempting when camping to start drinking before you set up your tent, but Amy and I had discipline (and, as I said, we had been seriously warned about rain), so we quickly cobbled together something that looked like it would probably "do", and then set out to find where the others had camped. Tolan had taken Gwyneth to the farthest end of the campground, far away from other campers, but close to the stage were tonight's show was to take place. His camping posse included Hoff, Carolyn, Clay, Sylvia, and Goose, and they had opened up Gwyneth's side door, and strung up a tarp that extended out from there to cover a seating area and a (against Fair rules) fire pit. The beers were cracked, and Black Sabbath was cranked. With one of my last lucid thoughts of the day, I started second guessing the rainworthiness of our camp ground, but when I went back to check it out, I found that Garth and Dave (who love doing shit like this), had taken down our crappy tarp set up, and instead constructed a sturdy tarp-opolis that covered all three of our tents. We then all sojourned back to Gwyneth to continue drinking and camping and awaiting someone to come by and tell us when the show was to go on. Here is an important fact that escaped all of us. Driftpile is pretty fucking far North (compared to, say, Vancouver), and around the Solstice the sun does not set until well after midnight. Consequently we drank and smoked and hung around in the assurance that, somehow, it was perpetually around 9:00. This illusion was somewhat dispelled by a shaggy, intense, old hippie guy in a kimono who appeared at our campsite. Apparently he was the stage manager of the stage that the bands were supposed to be playing at. He was upset that it was well after midnight and no one had played yet. We informed him that no one had told us anything, and anyway, we had no idea where half of our musicians had wandered off to. This didn't mollify him in the least, and he proceeded to inform us that some "professional musicians" were impatiently waiting for us to get going... apparently they were a "smoking blues band from the city". We said, that since we didn't know where everybody was, "the smoking blues band" might was well take the stage whenever they wanted. Then we returned to drinking. I won't go into the gruesome details, but after hearing some garbled comments from the stage about "professionalism" and "courtesy" and "smoking blues"; we were treated to some of the most pedestrian, wanky, bullshit blues you could ever imagine being subjected to. If you have seen the movie Ghost World, conjure up image of the band Blues Hammer. Blues Hammer would have been preferable to the craptacular display that was M64. Fortunately Gwyneth's sound-system could mostly drown them out. Eventually it actually got dark, but I have no idea what time the bands finally took the stage (late, late, late, that's for sure)... it was by far the drunkest show of the entire tour, kind of a trainwreck in places, but no one seemed to mind and the bands didn't stop playing until it was light again.

June 16 Driftpile Shore Is Muddy While we were sleeping, it rained. Hard. Dave and Garth's tarp-opolis worked wonders, and we all stayed dry. Amy and I were woken to the sound of Garth shouting that we should all get out of bed, and that we were lazy bastards, and the kitchen was cooking up breakfast and there were "big bowls of bacon", but we'd have to hurry because breakfast was nearly over. We dragged our sorry asses over to the performer's kitchen area were there was a big spread laid out, but there were no (and there never was to be) any "big bowls of bacon". The rain (which continued off and on all day) turned everything to mud. I was okay, as I had thought to bring a straw cowboy hat, at big military trench coat (which Amy hated, but easily held six beers in it's pockets) and gum boots. Some of the other were not so fortunate. Clay for instance started drinking before he set up his tent, consequently he had not set up a tarp to protect his tent... he also neglected to bring a sleeping bag (he had to use his dirty laundry as a blanket)... and he left his regular shoes and his gumboots outside his tent, so they filled up with water. He cut a miserable hungover figure when he finally emerged for the day. Hank Pine had been more forward thinking with his camping arrangements, but his major malfunction was that he had neglected to use enough bug spray. Whenever it wasn't raining, there were tons of giant mosquitoes and no see 'ums. At one point he lifted up his shirt to show a ring around his torso about thee inches wide that was composed of around 50 bug bites of various sorts. The visible parts of his body were almost as badly off. Today was the official start of the festival, and as the day continued, tons of people started arriving. Considering the weather, it was quite impressive. Unfortunately, when it came time for Carolyn to take to the main stage and kick off the Fair, it was discovered that 1) the soundboard had gotten soaked overnight 2) it was also missing a major component that it needed to be functional. Soooo... while they dried out the board, someone had to be contacted in Edmonton to drive up the missing part. Things finally got started 4 hours late. Once it began, it was a great evening of music, and we were even treated to the reunion of Carolyn Mark and Her Roommates (Carolyn, Tolan and Garth). Carolyn and Hoff especially deserve kudos for rocking the "long evening dress with six inches of mud around the hem" look all evening.

June 17 Driftpile - Edmonton The Shabbiest Wedding Guests Evar We really tried to get going early. I just wanted to say that for the record. Hank, Lily and Clay were staying at the Fair, but the rest of us had to attend the wedding of John Guliak and Christine Ferguson. I had to get to Edmonton especially early (3:00) because I was the best man. With this in mind, we did our best to hit the road by 10:00 (counting on a four-hour drive and then an hour to clean up and make ourselves presentable). Didn't happen. We got going around 11:30, and even though I matted it, we didn't actually arrive in Edmonton until 3:00. When we arrived, we were a mess. It's amazing how quickly one can degenerate from (vaguely) civilized to a smelly, dirty, bearded caveman... covered head to toe in mud. Amy was not much better. After what amounted to a quick hosing down, we tore off the wedding, which took place in the Guliak/Ferguson backyard. I will state for the record here, and for all time, I was a terrible, terrible best man. John, if you ever read this... I'm terribly sorry. When I arrived at the lovely family event, I was wearing a badly wrinkled suit... a mud and blood stained shirt... muddy, scuffed combat boots... I had a patch of beard the size of a toonie on my chin that I had missed when I shaved... and I had bumped my head on the trunk of my car, and there was blood trickling down my face. On top of this I was hungover, burned out, stupid and had a hacking cough from all the cigarettes and campfire I had inhaled at the Fair. Amy was not quite the freakshow I was, but later in the evening she finally realized that one of her shoes was a significantly different colour than the other. The reception featured a table full of Edmontonians glued to the Oilers Stanley Cup game on a portable TV. They did a pretty good job of not yelling and swearing too loud while the speeches were going on. The Oilers won, and once again Edmonton exploded. Even though we were well away from Whyte Avenue on this occasion, you could still hear all the horn honking and general brouhaha. The reception also featured the long awaited reunion of The Fixin's, a band that John had been in with Carolyn, Dave and Garth back in the olden days. At the end of the evening, I got chewed out by Christine's mother for not having had the courtesy to introduce myself. She was right to do so, most best men can do better than that.

June 18 Edmonton - Edson At Least It's Not Raining I was very pleased to find out, when I woke up, that I was now sick. Yesterday's cough was not entirely attributable to smoking my face off; it was actually a precursor to a foul illness. At least we are on our way home now, and although it will be a long drive, we were all promised a couple of evenings in a luxury ski chalet near Kamloops with a hot tub. Our plans, as you might have guessed, were of the pipe variety. About two hours out of Edmonton, in the middle of nowhere, we blew a tire. No biggie... we pulled over, and I set about getting out the spare tire (which was a real spare tire and not one of those stupid tiny ones). Unfortunately, at this point Amy and Carolyn noticed that there was a lot of steam coming out from under our hood. A quick inspection revealed that simultaneously to blowing our tire, our radiator had developed a large crack. We (well, the ladies, actually) were soon able to flag down a guy with a cell phone and we were able to get BCAA to send out a tow truck. Don, the tow truck driver informed us that we would need to go to Edson, the nearest town. He also informed us that as "basic BCAA" members the first 5 kilometers of towing was free. It was approximately 80 kilometers to Edson. Although expensive, Don's company on the tow was pretty cool. He was widower who just drove a tow truck all day long, and when he wasn't driving the truck he tried to "drink Canada dry". He told us stories about hunting foxes in Virginia ("the poor hounds would come back from the hunt just covered in ticks"). He also told us how, when he was younger and was doing some farming in Alberta, he killed two (or perhaps three) birds with one stone by running a big water hose into the gopher holes on his land and thereby irrigated his field at the same time as he drowned the gophers. Those that didn't drown were easy to shoot. We got into Edson (Home of the Giant Squirrel), dropped off the car at a repair shop (which was closed for the day) and left a note telling them what we required. We found a hotel, The Odyssey (We Sell Sleep), and fortunately got the last room, although we were informed that no rooms would be available tomorrow (big oil patch convention, or something). With nothing else to do, we bought booze and watched TV. As we lounged around, we did our best to look on the bright side of things. In this case, the bright side was that, for the first time on the entire tour, it didn't rain a drop all day long. Still, there is the nagging suspicion we should be in a hot tub. Gwyneth's crew is.

June 19 Edson - Hinton Gimme A One Way Ticket To Hinton We got the call first thing in the morning. The repair shop wouldn't be able to fix our car for a couple of days. Apparently they needed to order a new radiator from Edmonton. It would also cost around $600. Considering we wouldn't be able to get a hotel room in Edson tonight... combined with the fact that we sure as hell didn't want to stay in Edson for two more days, we decided to call all the places in town. A bunch of brain dead yokels basically told us the same thing... 2 days, lotsa $$$, and really they had better things to do. Carolyn, on a whim, started checking a bit more afield. In Hinton, the next town down the road, there was a guy who specialized in radiators. He figured that if we could get the radiator out of our car, and bring it to him... he could fix it, and for significantly less money. When we told him that getting the radiator out of the car was beyond our abilities at the moment, he said that, in our case, he could probably take the radiator out himself. All we'd have to do is get the car to Hinton. Once again, BCAA was called. I tried signing up for a Premium Membership, which would have entitled us to 100 kilometers of towing, but they're smart, upgrades don't apply to preexisting conditions. So it was a 100 kilometer tow (first 5 free) and the tow truck driver wouldn't take all three of us. Carolyn and Amy went with him, and I hung around town until I could catch a Greyhound bus to Hinton. I've been a lot of places in my life, but they don't get much worse than the Greyhound bus station in Edson, Alberta. When I finally got to Hinton, I found a note stuck to the door of the Greyhound bus station there informing me that Larry (the radiator guy) would not be able to repair our radiator (stupid plastic radiators), but he would be able to replace it... he could have it done before noon tomorrow... and it would be about half as expensive as any other quote we had gotten. The note also said that Amy and Carolyn were holed up with some beer and wine at a hotel not too far away. We spent the evening drinking and watching the Oilers lose the Stanley Cup on TV. We should be in a hot tub... Hank and Lily are in the promised hot tub tonight.

June 20 Hinton - Sun Peaks Finally, The Hot Tub Larry was a man of his word, and at 11:00 AM; the Hong Kong Lady was once again ready to hit the road. After a couple of days of enforced inertia, it was really good to get back on the road again. We were going to take the Yellowhead to the ski chalet, because at this point we were damned if we weren't going to get at least one night of sitting in a hot tub. The Yellowhead is a great drive. The mountains were beautiful, and we saw lots of wildlife, including two bears (one a Grizzly) and an escaped bull that was just walkin' down the highway (he also had the largest balls any of us had ever seen on a living creature). We arrived at the chalet, for which we can thank Bob, the local golf pro, who has connections everywhere. For instance, he helped scare us up a show tomorrow that Carolyn and Amy could snake their way onto. Luther Wright and his buddies, The Shiftless Rounders, were to be playing the opening show for the volunteers at the Salmon River Roots and Blues Festival (ever wonder whatever happened to Ten Years After?... they're playing at the Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival). Then we hot tubbed, and it was good.

June 21 Sun Peaks - Salmon Arm The Best Connected Golf Pro In The Valley Another good drive through the Shuswap, and when we arrived in Salmon Arm, we found that Bob (who is amazing) has teed us up rooms at the best hotel in Salmon Arm (don't laugh, it was fucking amazing). Our room overlooked a bird sanctuary; we looked right down on an Osprey's nest. Pretty damn cool. Amy, Carolyn and I were getting kind of worn out, and we made a beginner's mistake... we forgot to eat, but we didn't forget to drink. Still, it was a fun evening, and it was cool seeing The Shiftless Rounders for the first time. Good ol' hobo bluegrass.

June 22 Salmon Arm - Vancouver Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die It has been a long and tiring couple of weeks. Personally, I was looking forward to sleeping in my own bed. It was a pretty subdued drive back to town. We managed to drop Carolyn off at the Ferry Terminal in time for the last sailing, and then headed home to die.

#Old Tour Stories #2006 #Driftpile #Alberta #nostalgia #vans #Carolyn Mark #Amy Honey #Clay George #Hank & Lily #Dave Lang

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theseventhhex · 7 years

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Stevie Parker Interview

Stevie Parker

Photo by Bison

Music about lost love, longing and the melancholic beauty of simple existence - Stevie Parker manages to impressively capture a range of emotions with her songs. With her sometimes smoky, scratchy, sometimes crystal-clear and sweet voice, she creates moody and poetic images in the minds of her listeners and creates an appealing, almost intoxicating atmosphere. Combining her reserved style with her extroverted tracks, Stevie’s pulsating, shimmering synths and reverberant sounds work enchantingly alongside atmospheric turns and her profound lyrics… We talk to the delightful Stevie Parker about self-discovery, performing live and finding peace…

TSH: With the piano being your one true love with instrumentation, does it serve you well when you often start from a blank canvas?

Stevie: Yeah, certainly. I always start with piano, it’s my favourite musical texture and I'm most fluent with it, so I can sort of just play around fairly easily and come up with a good starting point.

TSH: With regards to your excellent record, ‘The Cure’, how key was the aspect of self-discovery for this album?

Stevie: Firstly, thank you! Yeah, it was definitely key - I wrote the album over a very long period of time, as one naturally does with their first outing, and so it does cover a lot of emotional ground. With that inevitably comes a long and twisting story of growing up and self-discovery.

TSH: Also, knowing you went from being a carefree person to becoming quite a serious person in a short space of time, how did this impact your songwriting?

Stevie: I think I just became a little more obsessed about coming up with the goods. I became a bit more fixated with a ‘finished product’ and general efficiency. I’ve sort of come back around to wanting to do it for fun, which is absolutely what it should be!

TSH: Furthermore, how liberating is to have a collection of songs with ‘The Cure’ that document feelings from a variety of perspectives?

Stevie: It’s very liberating. As you mentioned earlier it is kind of an example of self-discovery, it just happens to be one I can look at and touch and listen to, which is so tangible and satisfying.

TSH: What sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘Fall’?

Stevie: ‘Fall’ was actually quite an empowering song to write. It was the last song I wrote about a pretty grim breakup and a very pivotal relationship, and sort of acted as a goodbye letter to mourning that whole situation/person. I also wrote it in the autumn, which is partly the reason for the name. Everything changes in autumn, kind of like you shed a skin and start seeing things differently, at least that’s how I always feel, summer is never that good a time for me.

TSH: Moreover, as you fleshed out ‘Blue’, were you looking to imply a certain type of energy, or was the process more freeform and organic?

Stevie: ‘Blue’ kind of came out of nowhere actually. It was the song that made me consider writing more electronic stuff as before I wasn’t really thinking in that realm. It was energetic from the start, really exciting to write and very organic.

TSH: Was ‘This Time’ the natural choice as album closer?

Stevie: Yeah. It was the last song I wrote for the record and it felt like a bit of a jam - I quite liked the idea of ending the record on that note, it almost feels like a ‘to be continued’…Thematically, it’s also empowering. Most of the songs are written from a scorned or unrequited perspective and it was fun writing with the boot on the other foot. I like ending the predominantly gloomy tone on that slightly sweeter note.

TSH: Do the sounds being formulated commonly dictate the way you choose to decide on your vocal delivery?

Stevie: Yeah, completely. I like to use my voice quite instrumentally, especially live. So the parts of the music that are spacious or conversely quite thick and complex, I like for them to be a bit more vocally freeform.

TSH: Why do you feel you generally write better if you’re coming from a place of sadness or emptiness?

Stevie: I think it really depends on what kind of song you want to write! There’s a time and a place for everything I reckon. I think I enjoy writing most when I have lots of energy and am feeling very inspired, naturally. But I think some of my better lyrics have come from intense sadness.

TSH: What sort of aura and energy do you hope manifests when people are watching you live?

Stevie: I just hope the audience can see that I’m very into it. I get very involved and find it hard to concentrate on the fact that it’s supposed to be a performance. And I'm very shit at the between song chat, haha. I hope the music is intense and that it’s just a very involving and all-encompassing and dramatic spectacle.

TSH: Does getting away from the city noise and unplugging from technology help you to have more of a singular focus?

Stevie: Yeah, I’m really not into city life. Bristol is OK though! And I live on the outskirts anyway. I grew up in the West Country so I still haven’t really acclimatised. It definitely helps me to focus being somewhere quiet and peaceful.

TSH: What were your favourite parts in the movie ‘Boyhood’?

Stevie: I liked the whole film a lot. I thought the earliest scenes when he was really young were the best. There was something naive and blissful about the earlier scenes even though there was quite a lot of discord going on. It’s sort of how children see the world really.

TSH: Talk us through what led to the following tweet ‘I want to meet all the dogs’…

Stevie: I just love dogs and simply can’t get enough!

TSH: How impressed were you with your trip to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History recently?

Stevie: It was wonderful. I love that sort of thing. I just wish a lot of the taxidermy was still living and breathing.

TSH: Amidst all the bedlam in the world, what gives you most peace?

Stevie: I think stillness and quiet time. I find I need a lot of time to just chill out; I get quite antsy and restless and have to force myself to sit down sometimes. Love and people are also completely vital - isolation has always been something I naturally gravitate towards but has been responsible for so much of my psychological bedlam at times in my life.

TSH: What kind of intent do you have for future music?

Stevie: I’m not sure yet. I'm sort of discovering that at the moment and trying a lot of new things - I guess watch this space!

Stevie Parker - “Without You”

Stevie Parker - “Pillowtalk (Official Audio)”

THE CURE

#Interview #Stevie Parker

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