So I was out walking Max yesterday, amazing azure sky, strong breeze defeating any hint of heat, cloud 9 sort of day. But heavy copter activity quickly became apparent in the area. ‘Somethings up’, I thought ‘big wreck on I-5?’ But we walked on, ran into Jason’s new girlfriend, talked with her for quite a while, then heading home, I saw a cop sloppily parked, pretty much blocking an intersection, though there was also a technician working on a pole, so I figured he might be an escort. ‘Shit, hope the net isn’t down when I get back.’

So a bit later I headed out to go to a Willamette Week party, that is mooch their free grog and grub, as my boy Trevor was an employee and invited me. But heading to the train it was obvious something was definitely going down: cops blocking off sections of major roads and rush hour traffic frustrated, chaotic and trying to figure new routes through the spontaneous maze. As I waited, I could tell the main area they had blocked off, but it was hard to see all those blocks away, figure out what had happened. ‘It’s quite windy, maybe a limb or sign came down.’ I speculated with fellow passengers but no one seemed to have solid answers. I went on to the shindig, ran into an old friend from like 1st grade(!) and generally forgot about it, until it occured to me to look for info later that night/morning.
Turns out these three numbnut boyz decided to rob a liquor store and had set off a highspeed chase and ensuing manhunt trying to escape. The funniest part to me is I’ve been noticing/complaining about all of the scummy white people you find out here. Now this is straight up elietism I’m talking (and true, I’m no ‘Brad Pitt crossed with MENSA’ myself), but when it’s about your own race I think it’s acceptable. Coming from the south, obviously I am familiar with a broad spectrum of rednecks, but I swear – something about the urban pressure of ATL or who knows what exactly, instills even the most would-be obnoxious, NASCAR lovin’, Bush worshipping, bible banging caucazoid with some level of style and grace superior to the lumber jack descended stock of mutant ass white freakies you encounter out here. True, there are statistically higher rates of mental health issues and whatnot, which ties into the state’s healthcare policy and other politics I don’t want to go into now; and sure, the long rainy season leaves everyone a bit ‘moldy’. When I’ve tried to bring this up with friends, they sort of look at me like I’m Hitler or something, but I think ol’ peckerwood DJD’s mugshot speaks volumes in defense of my case.

Comicbook guy sez: “Lamest attempted armed robbery ever!”

west coast visual artist, talk of Gen X mainstream and indie comics and adaptations, his development as a working artist

 

 27. Martin Ontiveros [63:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I haven’t done any single track mountain biking in more than 10 years, and wasn’t very serious about it back when I did. So I’m really out of touch with the latest, but on Oregon Field Guide tonight was caught up with the free riding phenomenon: crazy jump stuff you would expect, but also this insane log traversing and over tiny laid track. Some examples in what follows – it’s really hard to find clips with tolerable music, not that I know who this is…

It’s the anniversary of the death of the musicologist Alan Lomax. He and his father did great recordings which captured various folk musics in the United States and also elsewhere in the world.
It’s weird to look at the history of recording and broadcasting and to see where we stand today, the sorts of music people make, that which they choose to listen to and how they get the recordings. We live in a ‘time of plenty’-

So before making my way to this mega-”here come the cops again” summer houseparty, I went with Fasil and Trevor to see Talkdemonic at the Aladdin. Interesting stuff some of you will be taken with, in the vein of The Rachels, or defunct Asa Nisi Masa. I missed the openers, but I’d check out the headliner again. You can hear an MP3 here, or more at Myspace, including the super cool ‘Indian Angel’ (which sounds more Japanese to my ears…).

I was sent the link to this site, it’s all in Japanese but I’m trying to figure out translation software, at least for the text bits. You can see many trailers linked here, again, no english subtitles, but it’s really cool stuff. My education continues…

Ganime is also the name of a kaiju mutant stone crab, controlled by Space Amoeba.

A few weeks back, I was with a friend in Oxford Comics in ATL and got some small press stuff. I was really taken by Jeffrey Brown’s ‘Feeble Attempts’ and as there are various coincidences in his path and my own I decided to write him. Not only did he write back, but agreed to do an email interview, since the podcast isn’t feasible for now. Here’s the result:

-When you were younger, what were some titles, both hero and indie/small
press that you really loved?

I started off with X-Men and every X-related comic – Wolverine, X-Force,
Excalibur, New Mutants, etc – along with a healthy dose of other Marvel
titles like The Thing, Spider-Man, G.I.Joe…from there I moved on to a lot
of the European comics coming out of Heavy Metal, especially Moebius, and it
wasn’t long after that I got started on my first alternative comics,
Eightball and Dirty Plotte.

-What was your experience like working with McSweeny’s? How were you asked?
How has it gone so far in terms of your ideal expectations?

Chris Ware edited the McSweeney’s comics issue, and so invited me to
participate. Since then I’ve had the opportunity to meet and work with some
of the people there like Eli Horowitz, Ed Park, Andrew Leland…that issue
of McSweeney’s still manages to introduce people to my work, even though
it’s been a few years, so aside from having been a fan of McSweeney’s for
the past 7 or 8 years, it’s been a good experience that continues to pay
off.

-What was it like working with TAL (This American Life)?

That was another great experience, and my first introduction to really
working with an editor. Jonathan Goldstein was the producer worked with, who
happens to be a pretty good writer himself. We spent a few months working to
translate scenes from ‘Clumsy’ into prose that would read well on the radio.
It was actually a good way to somewhat deconstruct my writing style.

-In “Feeble Attempts” you reference working in a video store for a while.
Any other shlep jobs you’ve had to endure and would care to comment on?

I’ve had three jobs basically: a paper route in high school, working for
Barnes&Noble since I came to Chicago(managing the music department for about
five of those years), and in between I worked for the Wooden Shoe Factory &
Holland Bowl Mill in Holland, Michigan. My job there was to run the gift
shop while spending most of my time decorating Dutch wooden shoes and wooden
salad bowls, woodbruning windmills onto them and painting tulips on the
toes.

-Are you now able to maintain your lifestyle entirely on the fruits of your
own creative labor? If so, I think that’s completely amazing! If not, how
far are you from this?

In the past year or so I’ve made the transition to making my living from the
books. I guess it helps that I’ve got so many out…

-What was it like to come to Portland and do a reading for Powell’s? Other
impressions of Portland?

I actually did the reading for the Powell’s location here in Chicago, which
was a fun time actually, since I ended up improvising that after my original
plan to read something else got sidetracked by equipment problems. I did
sign at a store called Counter Media in Portland, and that was the last time
I’ve done a poetry reading. I had a good time in Portland, very laid back
and lots of nice people.

-Who do you think are some of the hottest indie comic makers today?

Anders Nilsen, Paul Hornschemeier, Gabrielle Bell, Kevin Huizenga are the
four that come to mind immediately, although there’s plenty more who maybe
aren’t as well known who are poised to make the move to the list, like Dan
Zettwoch, Dash Shaw, John Pham…

-Other than “Star Wars”, what are some films that turned you on?

David Lynch’s ‘Dune,’ everything from Terry Gilliam, ‘Evil Dead’, ‘Bottle
Rocket’…lately Michel Gondry’s films are among my favorites.

-What music are you currently loving? What is some music you’ve loved for a
long time, and maybe some stuff from your past that has fallen by the side?

Currently the new albums from Metric, Andrew Bird, Lavender Diamond,
Polyphonic Spree…old favorites would be Microphones(now called Mount
Eerie) and Neutral Milk Hotel. Fallen by the wayside would have to be
Fugazi, the one band from the distant past that made it on to my ipod if not
into heavy rotation.

-How did you get hooked up with Top Shelf, and what has been your experience
there?

Top Shelf initially passed on publishing ‘Clumsy’ but offered to distribute
for me. The book started selling too well and I didn’t have enough copies
left to meet demand, so Top Shelf took over publishing my books altogether
at that point. I’ve been pretty happy with Top Shelf…there’s been a couple
of times I’ve gotten a little upset with this or that, but in the end
they’ve really supported me and helped push my books a ton, leading back to
the ‘maintaining my lifestyle on the fruits of my labor’ issue…

Here’s a link to some other Jeffrey info and the Top Shelf site.

I love the idea of couples keeping it real with world travel! You can follow their adventure via Jasonaut:Foolish Mortal in the blogroll to the right. Viva viagatorri-