Late Night Rumblings about Music, Art and Other Forgettable Things

Its 10:30pm on Wednesday. I can't sleep.

My sleep is all jacked up from switching shifts this week from my usual 3-11pm shift to a 7-3pm shift at my day job. Its my fault, I volunteered for the gig. Starting next week I do split shifts to train in a new skill set of outputting graphic design for different products than what I currently do. Its an industry standard now, and the experience will be greatly valuable for me as I move forward in my career there or wherever I may roam. Meanwhile at home, I'm doing sketches in books and commissions for clients for the Kickstarter and private commissions. Then I am dreaming up the next page art on Starslam 3 and stuff for the Patreon stories and eventual launch. Anything to get some legs under the table of my "art career."

Meanwhile, I'm battling a new health issue: Carpal Tunnel... which has recently surfaced and is becoming a literal pain. Right now its something I can cope with, especially with the use of braces and other such devices. But does it really have to effect my right hand and arm? The one I use to click a mouse and to draw with? Universe... sometimes you play unfairly.

My mind is swimming with the passage of time, lack of stability and routine. This week I am on a major music kick, thanks no doubt to my recent weekend recording music and hanging with my friend. I realized there are some major holes in my collection of music paraphernalia and collectibles. There are some Special Edition Cds I don't have and Live DVDs I somehow never got. All gleefully added to my wish lists now, thank goodness. The hunt begins for those.

Today I am on a big Beatles kick, because of the announcement of the SE of Sgt. Peppers... a 50 year old album that signifies a major step up in music creation. The first "prog rock" album, which launched the careers of some of my favorite music. Today marks the 15th anniversary of Layne Staley's death, as well as the 23rd anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death (however that happened). It sucks that mainstream music has been utter shit since they left us. And all we can do is examine the small details and listen to the remastered versions and isolated vocal tracks. Pure genius with all of those musicians. Certainly not repeated like that since. So it goes.

In all of this, I realize that there are some albums I have always neglected to drill down on. Some of the deeper cuts or influences on these bands that I just have neglected to dissect yet. I got the music, but never bothered to scope it out. I made some new playlists, and so I will. That is a new mission I have now taken on... as if I didn't have enough self imposed things to do!

I got asked back to the same comic store I always set up at for Free Comic Book Day. But I'm bowing out because its the same weekend I already scheduled with my kids. That's fine, I don't have anything new to sell anyway. Maybe next year. Maybe never. Who knows where this new Patreon/Kickstarter/porn comics thing will lead me? Can't sell that stuff at a family establishment! Oh well.

I'm sitting here in my tiny apartment, stuffed full of things I love and the things she loves. A bunch of stuff I should be reading or playing or listening to or watching. Stuff I'll hopefully get to enjoy one day. Stuff that will decorate a home I will earn for myself very soon. I'm trying to get to everything and everyone I have had to neglect for one reason or the other.

Duties call.
Time slips by.
Life happens around you.

Some good stuff is coming up. I got a trip planned to go see my dad. Some much needed R&R as well. No agenda. Just... BEING. I can handle that I think.

Also coming up is the Exxxotica. I had to bow out as an exhibitor but I'm excited for the trip to promote Starslam and what I am doing. Maybe see if it would work for me next year.

Other than that, hard work every day. At the day job, at home, and in my thoughts and feelings. Things are better. Things are brighter today. Instead of being sad that heroes and musicians I love are gone, I am grateful to have them at all. I'm especially grateful for the art they left behind. I hope I am that something to someone, someday. I get emails or messages of praise and support of my work and you have no idea how that makes me feel. Like all of it was worth it. Like what I do and the struggle I have internally to get it done is a good fight to have. Keep making it important. Keep it going. I love creating passionately enough that no amount of hand and arm numbness or pain can stop it. No fear of the future or fatigue of the daily grind can pull me down.

I create for you, sure. But mostly and selfishly, I do it for me.

Forgive me for that won't you? But rest assured, I am not about to quit. Not on myself and certainly not you!

The music rolls on.

--T

GUNS N ROSES, ALICE IN CHAINS, CAR WOES, ILLINOIS TRIP and RINGO STARR!!!

Hey friends. An absolute whirlwind of a weekend. Let me try to recap:

Thursday, I go to see Guns N Roses/Alice in Chains at Ford Field in Detroit. The opening night of the Guns reunion tour! While waiting at Hockeytown Cafe for a table before the show, we notice someone coming in who looked oddly familiar. My friend said "Hey thats a pretty good Ringo Starr lookalike." I look again.

"No, THAT is Ringo Starr!" Ringo was playing a show that night at the nearby Fox Theater and decided to go to Hockeytown Cafe for some pre-show eats. Amazingly, no one was bothering him and he only came in with one person. All them young folks probably didn't recognize him. He was literally 2 feet away from me at one point! My friend followed him and stealthfully snapped a pic:

"I'm very happy to be here!" Yes, I have now seen both surviving Beatles in the flesh!!!

I settled down for a couple mixed drinks and a nice BBQ burger.

Then on to Ford Field. Alice in Chains took the stage at 8:30 sharp and man did they sound great! Duvaul sang Layne's parts extremely well. They played all the hits too. Sean Kinney had a drum cam which they showed often which was great. I'm a big fan of his drumming. They played old stuff, new stuff... all of it well worth the price of admission. 

Jerry Cantrell had the vintage "Honeycomb" guitar he used to record all those old 90s albums!

Finally Alice in Chains left the stage and GUNS N ROSES came on literally 25 minutes later. Like, ON TIME! WOW! and Man, they were fucking killer. 25 songs. Deep cuts and covers like COMA, THE SEEKER, WISH YOU WERE HERE jam and so much more. Awesome, awesome show. 

Reports of Axel Rose signing badly are greatly exaggerated. He sounded awesome!

Everyone needs some DUFF in their lives.

Grand finale pyro.

I'd highly recommend anyone check out the Guns N Roses reunion tour. I got some audio from the show that I will play on my podcast in the future, so look for that. But yeah man. They put on a great show for us. Amazing!

Friday, I get up early and head to Port Huron to get my son Cody. The day before I got an oil change and they said I had a major oil leak and the whole bottom of my Bat Blazer was wet. I'd need an overall tuneup to the amount of like $600-800! UGH. But they said if I put oil in the car every stop or so, I'd make it to Illinois for my trip I planned. So once returning with Cody after a 4 hour drive, we drove the 7 hours south to Carmi, Illinois to see my dad. He was in good spirits and happy to see us.

Saturday we spend all day looking at the car. Surprise: NO OIL LEAK AT ALL. I have no idea what that guy was telling me at all. But I did massively overfill the oil on the trip down so that had to be drained and we put new oil in. I also desperately needed new tires so we drove to Evansville and had those replaced. Car is good to go for another long while hopefully. It was good to see lots of my family on so short a visit. And much thanks to Steve at S&E Auto in Carmi for dealing with my car woes.

I was juggling a lot on Saturday. Emotionally, with being down there and seeing mom's grave and all those things to some drama up north at home. It wasn't a good day and I was even more stressed than possible. But I just chugged water and tried to stay calm and enjoy myself. I spent time with dad and we had a good talk. Finally late Saturday we headed back home. Cody and took the long drive all night and finally arrived home at 4:30am. I was simply mentally and physically exhausted. But now I'm home and taking care of business. I'm working on getting the Starslam books sketched and other things taken care of. Lots to juggle. But I'll make it happen. It's what I do.

Anyway, back to the grind. At least I got my son here this week to keep me company!

Cheers, T