The Sf MoMA is pretty fantastic. The architecture is great and the S0MA area in SF is pretty awesome in general. Upon entering the lobby you’re directed up stairs to the second floor where the permanent collection resides (some of it anyhow). The collection includes pieces by Matisse, Rauschenberg and even a very early Pollack piece (Guardians of the Secret, 1943). The MoMa had several small emphasis’ going on at once, one area was a showing of Matisse and the other few fauvists of the time. Another small room housed an exhibition called “Paul Klee: Social Creatures” that featured Klee’s humor in early cartoonish figures with the same bold lines seen in his other work. It was truly an experience seeing so many great works of art, some I had never seen nor heard of, but for me the crown jewel of the SF MoMa was a urinal. Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” (1917/1964)! This piece has sparked many a debate of the foundations of art and what is and is not art in my circle of friends alone. By circle of friends I mean Steve Wasson, I don’t really discuss art with anyone else. Seeing this piece up close and personal was a real treat and I can’t explain with words my excitement. The excitement soon faded when thoughts of Wasson’s departure flooded my head and I felt obligated to walk away. Not before I snapped a camera photo and sent it to a few friends though. One floor down – 3 more to go.
Archive Page 2
SF MoMA – Main Collection
Benicia in a nutshell
I’ve been staying in BEnicia California for 4 days now. I’ll be in the area for ten more and I can’t be any happier. The surrounding areas include places like Vallejo, Martinez and various towns named after nuts. Vallejo houses the ferry that goes from Pier 39 (Fisherman’s Wharf) and is apparently a pretty seedy little city that is “hit and miss” on chances of being killed or pummelled. Panorama below.
So, yeah it’s beautiful here too.
-k
Benicia, CA
I’ve been here for 2 days and drank myself happy, not sweat at all and taken some bitchin photos.
More to come.
may 22
Killing time.
Playing in Springfield tonight with some friends. Should be a good time. Nothing of any real importance to say here. The Roses and Honey Suckle are all in bloom and Summer is gonna be in full swing soon. I leave for SF in two days and am super pumped on doing so. I miss my dog already. I’ve been listening to the avett bros a lot lately. select songs mostly. Good stuff for the most part. My mom did my laundry… score. I really have nothing of any importance to say here. I’m drawing blanks pretty well across the board.
currently listening to:
Al Franken – The Truth (with jokes) – political satire with more factual information than you’ll ever want.
The Avett Bros. – the gleam II – Songs bout girls and family and home. pretty good.
Tom Waits – Alice/Small Change – legit ballads and just generally good songs (tom traubert’s blues)
Two Cow Garage – Speaking in Cursive – great songwriting. Shane’s voice is scary.
Jed Nixon
This is a song I wrote based on a letter a very good friend wrote to me about a month ago. He lives a life I could only imagine. He makes his own alcohol, has the worst/best/worst again tattoos of all time and he’s just a generally great dude… here’s to Jed Nixon.
Hello again my friend its me and I can’t sleep
this electronic life is killing me
woke up alone a sobering distance from my home
laying with a girl I barely met
Trying to find a one way to take me
straight back home feel like I been
gone for so damn long
the events the night before I can’t recall
slipped on my boots & I set off
the ground is soft underneath my aging boots
It’s storms like this I think of you
I been trying to find a middle ground tween
lonesome and insane
it’s so cliche to drink away the pain.
filling station five am and they wont sell
bought a pack of parliaments instead
8 miles back to a house that’s small and hot
guitars and ghosts are all I got
I been trying to fight the urge to
leave this goddamn town
the city’s not the same without you around
May 7
If I were Jesus (I’m either going to lose a reader or two here or they’ll go on and be curious as to why I would ever… ever begin a sentence with those four words)… ahem… If I were Jesus I’d use a fancy story to relay a message to you in easy terms so you could understand it. Generally These are called parables, but a parable is supposed to have a moral or spiritual lesson so I suppose this is more of a simile of sorts, or a comparison really… whatever.
Booking shows for a band is a lot like asking a girl out on a date… through myspace.
the girl:
You dont know much about her except what your friends tell you. You’ve talked to her a few times but never face to face. You ask her out… she might shoot you down. She looks pretty hot on the outside (sometimes too hot) and if not hot definitely acceptable for your tastes. You’re not sure if she’ll take care of you on the first date but you’re hopeful. Since this IS a first date though chances are you can’t expect much, you know? So she’s into it and says yes? Bam you go out and you have a fifty fifty chance of her using the angles and having the face of a schnauser or being heidi klum (and possibly fleeing as quick as possible into a place with locks after this initial meeting because you look like schreck). then threres her voice… ugh. End of the night you can call it successful if you had some good convo and a general good time. If you get a handy or something in the parking lot… you my friend have hit the jackpot.
the venue:
You e-mail the booking guy/girl/promoter and let them know, “Hey, I’m gonna be in your area this day in this month, I’ve got some friends who’ve been there before and they said nice things. Here’s some press about the band and some MP3’s buddy. Check that shit out.” Then you hope for the best. If they don’t email you back in a week, email em again see if they’re into it, if not. Keep looking, plenty of fish in the sea… maybe. If they email you back an offer and are into you playing… hot damn. You get in the van you get to the place, you have a fifty fifty chance of the photo on myspace being from before the riots and the PA being blown up when ICP came to town. Really, at the end of the night if you played well and had a good time it was probably worth it. If the people there liked you and you made some gas money you can pretty well call it a successful show. If you get a handy out in the parking lot after the show… you my friend have hit the jackpot.
The parable thing was pretty off base but whatever. I thought it would be written differently. These several sentences really show exactly how I feel right now trying to get regional stuff going. Any input from experienced readers in either subject feel free to chime in.
may 3
the last 4 days:
2 dudes
4 cities
3 shows
1200 miles
10 energy drinks
1 Oprah appearance
2 sunrises
6 tanks of gas
4 inappropriate jokes
1 lesson in “tact”
3 near death experiences
16 hours of sleep
1 hangover
4 sing alongs
1 man crush
0 scruples.
April 30-Taylorville IL-Playing a solo set and doing merch.
May 1-Kenosha WI-doing merch
May 2-Blackthorn, Joplin, mo-playing with cory branan and carter hulsey
May 14-finals
May 15-John Brown’s last show ever… really this time.
May 16-finals
May 22-Springfield, mo-the bootheel and cropdusters
May23-joplin-same as above.
May 24-pack
May 25-fly out of Tulsa to SF for two weeks.
June 8-return
The rescue KCMO
Went to the Rescue in Kansas city. I’ll hit the high points via a list.
walking 3 miles in Tom’s shoes and knowing it’s not even 1/100th of the walk that most Africans have to take was a humbling experience. (the kid in front of me was a moron and held us up though)
We were rescued fairly early by Switchfoot. Switchfoot held very little cultural signifigance to me personally because I’m not really a Switchfoot fan. I was hoping for The Get Up Kids.
We got rained on pretty much all day… except for during the actual march through downtown KC.
There was some guy playing metal guitar on an acoustic and successfully made me hate him.
Tornado warnings forced us into a parking garage and that was worthless. Too many kids to be stuffed into a fucking parking garage.
visual stimulation:.
