Selling one more tonight before I start making a page for this on Sunday. Gordon Lightfoot! Brilliant little picture! I’ll be selling a 4×6 and an 8×10 photo for $15.00CAD and $20.00CAD respectively. All prices include shipping. Don’t worry about the “Donate” button. Just click on it to buy!
Gordon Lightfoot 4×6 Print
$15.00 Canadian
Gordon Lightfoot 8×10 Print
$20.00 Canadian
Hot diggity-damn! Photography print! For sale! FOR CHEAP SALE!
I’m still getting used to this paypal thing and messing around with some stuff as well as taking MORE photos, but right now mommy needs some cash and hopefully YOU need something to put up on your wall. So as a test, here’s one photo that’s up for sale.
Now…the button is a “donate” button, but really the price is set up at $5 Canadian which includes shipping (told you I’m still getting used to this). I’ll be releasing other photos for sale later on, but I just wanted to see if this would work…
Moonlit Fire:
4×6 print: $5.00 CAD
For some reason I’ve really been in the mood for The Ramones tonight. And The Jesus and Mary Chain. And The Fall. And an energy drink, but that’s another matter. Anyways, here’s some thoughts from tonight…
Take A Picture Now
It would be interesting if there was a site where at a random time during the day it would send a text message or an IM or something to people who have signed up and all it would say is “it is now [whatever time it is in the reciever's time zone]. Take a picture now.” and the receiver would have say, 2-5 minutes to take a picture, no matter where they were, and send it to the site. Obviously this would be ideal for cell phones with internet access, but a person with a camera and computer near them could take part too. Hmm. Perhaps even give them an hour.
Notebookery For Music
When I was thinking of Notebookery I had thought of a version of it for musicians. Basically it’s the same idea except mail around a flash drive. When the person gets it they have a week to write and record a song which they will then turn into an mp3 and mail forth. Or as an alternative, just do a site, sign people up and at any chosen time they have exactly a week to create music and e-mail it. At the end of the week there will be a nice playlist to listen to. For the more ambitious this could be a regular weekly thing, although it may lack in diversity if the same artists are playing week after week.
Essays
Just people writing essays/papers on subjects that interest them. Dump it in to a blog and every two week or a month Zinepal will create a pdf of all of them. Would make some very interesting reading…
Anyways, that’s it from me for now. I’m not going to bed as I am far too awake, but…yeah.
One of the few images I developed in the darkroom. First time using the darkroom, so I’m quite happy how these turned out!
So after a a few requests, I’m going to be extending the contest deadline to October 31. This is a bit more suitable, I think and will give people too busy to get it done by the 11th plenty of time to crack something together.
In the meantime, I need your help. If all of you reading can help plug the contest. That wonderful hunk ‘o man over at Weaponizer already has. Are you saying you’re better than him?
In the meantime, I’ll be posting up some of the entries over the next couple of weeks. This Skeletor was done by Mr. Jack Crowder.
It’ll be up soon, but here’s my article on AWMusic.ca
I should admit, I didn’t find the Sweet Hollywaiians. They found me. Anyone who uses twitter knows that sometimes you can say something like “my god I love raspberry jam” and about ten minutes later you’ll have a jam reviewer following you. It’s the way ads work there, I suppose. Anyways, I was talking about hula music in one of my “tweets” when all of a sudden these guys started following me. I went to their myspace page, learned about them and heard just the most…INCREDIBLE music. And thus began my love affair with the Osaka based Sweet Hollywaiians. What must have been a month or so later, I received a package with four of their albums including the latest, Ticklin’ The Strings (which I am listening to while writing this).
I love this group because they really seem to inherit the spirit of Hot String music and manage to sound authentic. They’re right on par with the original groups of the time such as Ray Noble and His Hawaiians or other revivalist groups like R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders and The House Rent Serenaders. Listening to them is like being transported to a 1920s kitchen jam or a small club. They’re just amazing.
What’s more amazing, it seems, is that the Hollywaiians are from Osaka, Japan. A place that sounds so unlikely for this music to thrive enough to form a band as talented as the Hollywaiians. But I suppose that it is further proof that the power of music knows no borders, regardless of genre. The Hollywaiians have played with members of the Cheap Suit Serenaders Robert Armstrong and Tony Marcus. They have received praise from Robert Crumb himself as well as legendary filmmaker Terry Zwigoff who has said that they “have probably the best feel for this 20′s music of any string band working today”.
Here’s a small e-mail interview I did with Nobumasa Takada (aka Mario) of The Sweet Hollywaiians.
The most common reaction from people regarding the Sweet Hollywaiians is surprise that you come from Japan. How did your interest in this kind of music spring up?
In our young days,we were collecting Yazoo Records.Because we were interested in album jackets which were illustrated by Robert Crumb and Robert Armstrong.The music were based on 1920′s,30′s blues,jazz and hawaiian.
What appeals to you most about this type of music?
We can feel nostalgic and sound is comfortable and soft to the ear.
How big is Hot String music in Japan? Is there a community based around it?
Very small.There is a community but very small.Majority of people don’t know about this type of music.
I understand that you all were pursuing solo careers and through an accident you formed the band. What was the accident?
All of our member were at the intersection crossroad.We were all crossing from different directions to each other and all of us crushed at the center of the intersection.It sounds like fake story but It’s true story.
You guys have a European tour coming up, right? Will this be your first time in Europe?
Yes but I have been there so many times in my imagination,Ha!
How did it feel to get high praise from the likes of Robert Crumb and Terry Zwigoff?
We are very glad and so proud of ourself.Because we respect them so much and it’s our pleasure to accept such comments from them.
After the tour, what’s next for the Sweet Hollywaiians?
We’ll come see you.Can we?
And there you have it. A great band with a great sound just doing what they love. That’s the musical dream, right? Remember these guys. You’ll be hearing a lot more from them soon.
Here’s two tracks from their latest album and a video of them playing My Girl From The South Sea Isles.
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ellis March
The Sweet Hollywaiians – Ten Tiny Toes
Have you been to Weaponizer yet? You should. It’s a great way to see some brilliant works by emerging and established writers and artists such as the brilliant Will Couper, the lovely Will Ellwood and the baby-kicking Andre Navarro. And the man who runs is it a friend of mine and I TRUST HIM with sites like this to make my eyeballs sweat and my mind need a bit of a lie down. This is some excellent stuff.
Here’s what they say it is:
We publish Flash Fiction, longer Fiction, and ongoing Serials.
We also publish a diverse range of Nonfiction, including interviews with artists, film-makers, writers and musicians, plus devastating opinion pieces from our Staff Writers. We host thrilling poetry and short films on our Video Channel, and anything else that we like. We also blog about whatever we’ve been wasting our time online with today.
Anyone can contribute to Weaponizer.
Subscribe to the WPNZR Feed for regular updates on new content.
So any writers, photographers, artists, whatever. Contribute to this. They’re always looking for someone! And most likely you’ll find a new favorite artist!
