Friday, October 21, 2011

They See Me Rollin'...

Cool article on Boston.com yesterday about artists using skateboards as their medium.  I haven't been as diligent regarding my drawing as I had hoped to be.  I may be taking on too many things, or I just need to organize my time better maybe.  With all of the new music, writing, and artistic endeavors I'm taking on, or want to take on, it seems there aren't enough hours in the day.  It doesn't help my scheduling ability that my day job doesn't have a set schedule.  I'm hoping that will change soon (as always).  But the skateboard-as-canvas things is really interesting.  We all used to have skateboards that had graphics on them.  Among mine were a Santa Cruz Rob Roskopp (the one on the left), a Skull Skates Hardcore deck (couldn't find an image online for that), and a Skull Skates Gang Green deck.  All but the Hardcore deck remain, the other two having been stolen.  Alas.

You can get blank skate decks, and maybe I could organize a group of folks to get together to have an arts and crafts day involving skateboards.  Might be fun.  Maybe Secret Society will give us a showing.  And that reminds me to throw in another plug for my upcoming solo gig there on November 13.  It's the opening for their latest show featuring mixed media work by Rosemary LeBeau.  It'll be my first appearance in public playing the mandolin, so please be gentle if you come see it.  I'll also have the whistles and bodhran at the ready.

Speaking of plugs, the Gobshites have a Kickstarter campaign going to raise money for the Ireland trip project.  We've got Richie Ramone (of the Ramones) and Cait O'Riordan (original Pogues bass player) as the rhythm section, and the CD will consist of all original songs.  The working title is "The Whistle Before the Snap."  If you can, click this link to pledge.  If not, I understand, you don't have to avoid eye contact with me.  We're trying to get $5,000.00, and we have 14 days to go.  If you do pledge, there are a lot of cool premiums depending on the amount.  Please check it out if you can.  Unfortunately, scheduling and finances prevent me from going over with the rest of the band, so I'm going to have to record my parts back here.

I think I might have mentioned this before, but I'm seriously considering building my own bodhran.  There are a few sites online that have instructions.  The only thing I need now is time and materials.  My dream drum is way out of my price range at this point, and I think it'd be a fun project.  Just have to figure out where to get a decent goat skin, and what kind of wood I want to use.

Went to a really great show last weekend in Providence to see the Usual Suspects and the Uprisers, featuring Todd Radict on vocals, as well as former members of the Bruisers.  Didn't find any video for the Uprisers, so I'm going to close with this old Radicts video from the 80's.  Don't let the door hit you in the face...

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