Tonight We're Gonna Party Like It's 1993!

So, my brother still has my camera cable, but in the meantime I was able to borrow one...Yippee! Also, it should be mentioned that I just polished off a bottle of Merlot.

...Anyway, My new(ish) band, The Hemingers, Made a trip to Milwaukee and Chicago earlier this month. It was our first trek outta Michigan, and it was tons of fun, even though both David and I were in the middle of a nasty cold. I don't have a ton of pictures, because I was pretty hopped up on cold meds and free Schlitz, but I did snap a few.

Due to some engine troubles with my van, we had to borrow a car and rent a Uhaul trailer. The kids on the trailer are really creepy! That boy skins neighborhood cats out in the woods!



We played Frank's Power Plant in Milwaukee with White Mystery, Overnight Lows, and Slow Walker. They all kicked ass! I really dig the sign at Frank's!



There are a few nice Motorcycles on display at Frank's. This Triumph is pretty much my dream bike...if only it had a shorter fork and was painted metal flake gold-green, with red and white pinstriping.



You can see a video of us playing a cover of "Little Green Bag" at Frank's, as well as my awful white dude dancin', here.

...and Our cover of "The Zoo" here.

In Chicago, I found this neat mural of some Hanna-Barbera favorites. David took a pretttty blurry picture. He must've been coughing...there was a lot of that on the trip.



A couple days later(yes I did laundry...I didn't wear the Gonerfest shirt for a week straight), I got a package in the mail...



...It's pretty well wrapped(thank God, the post office fucked that box up!



...Hmmm...what could it be...



Why, a bunch of 45s from the heyday of Bay Area Budget Rock!



Notice my makeshift art table. My ugly couch's middle seat has a fold out table that I covered with masonite. This is where all the magic happens.



The Brentwoods! I'm a little obsessed with them. Their lone LP is one of my ultimate top ten favorite records. I still need their Estrus single, if anyone out there has an extra and wants some money or a flyer for their band or something...or, you know, June 3rd's my B-day...



These records rock so hard, they burned my hair off! Note "The Room" on DVD sitting on my table.



So excited, I Gotta Dance! You can see in the background that the Hoarder to Awesome ratio is about 50/50.



...and play air guitar like a dork(as a dork?).



Now, if you don't mind, I need some alone time with my new records!



Here's all the goodies! After buying this lot, I find the term "Budget Rock" kinda ironic.



Thanks to my buddy Chris for letting me score a whole bunch of my wants!

RIP Poly Styrene!

Grrrr.....

So, I was gonna do a big update about the really great budget rock records I just scored, and the awesome new coffee table we picked up...but it appears that my little brother pilfered my camera's cable to upload pictures onto the computer while he was here on spring break. Fuck! So no antiques, but I gotta give you guys something...so here's some of the plethora of posters I've done lately. My new band, the Hemingers, was lucky enough to get to play a couple of the shows. Overnight Lows KILL!












If you dig my stuff, be sure to go to the Chicago Blackout in May...I'll be a part of the kickoff art show on the 26th, along with Timmy Vulgar and Chris Ilth, amongst other greats! Hopefully I have my camera cable replaced by then.

The Treasures of Long Gone Ben

Well, I've been obtaining cool stuff left and right these last few weeks. I told you last post about riding this current wave of eBay addiction, and I think it's hit it's peak, and is starting to subside...which is a relief to my wallet, that's for sure. I'll show you some of the scores in a minute, but first, I gotta show y'all this painting.

I've been meaning to start a separate blog for my art, but I suffer from a deadly combination of laziness, and busyness. So until then...

This piece I just finished last night, and I'm pretty proud of it. I like painting a lot, and I don't get to do it nearly enough. This is currently hanging in my living room, and though I'm in love with it, it is for sale!



So, as I've said on here a few times, I'm a HUGE fan of the blog Gonked, Glooked, and Slurped. A few weeks back, they posted a picture of a nifty little toy elephant they picked up by artist Amanda Visell. It was love at first sight with that elephant, but I couldn't find a pink one. There's some gray ones out there, but I didn't like 'em as much. Luckily, my search led me to this amazing Amanda Visell baby-eating croc!



This Monkey/troll thing was made in 1965 by Belgian company Unica. A friend of mine found it in an abandoned house in the woods that was falling down. Apparently this house was left with everything, including food, sometime in the early-mid 1970s. I never made it out there, but I knew a guy that found over 1000 LPs in there...including some pretty killer garage rock stuff. Another friend, the one that found this guy, also found a bunch of old model cars and Ed Roth stuff. A girl I know found a bunch of journals by a girl that lived in the house in the late 60's, and wrote about records and experimenting with witchcraft. Sounds like the coolest haunted house on earth! Anyway, my buddy gave me this, it's really creepy, and I like it a lot.



Another recent eBay score was this sad eyed mop top figurine. It was made in Hong Kong by Perfekta, and I assume it's from the late 60's.



...Speaking of sad eyes...I recently finally scored a 1965 Hasbro Little Miss No Name doll. You may know her as the Sympathy For The Record Industry mascot...that's where I first saw her. These usually fetch a pretty penny on eBay, but her hair isn't perfect(which totally works, in this case), and her red patch was detached(which I've since fixed), so she was a little cheaper than some. I've wanted one of these for years! What in the hell were the Hasbro executives smoking?! This isn't even the weirdest/creepiest thing they put out in the mid-60's either...check out Peteena sometime!



Now if only I could track down an affordable copy of the Spaceshits' "Winter Dance Party"...

Busy Busy Busy...

I planned on giving an update a few weeks ago, before my trip to Florida. Of course, as usual, I got distracted by other stuff...mostly getting stuff around for THREE art shows...the big one being a solo show in Orlando. I had a real good time...if you like drinking and rock n' roll, as I do, you can't do much better than Orlando. Plus, The Mummy ride at Universal is insanely cool!

I didn't take too many pics in Orlando, but I had to stop and snap a photo of the Beefy King sign...Too cool!



This is one of the first pieces I sold. I love this one, but it went to a great home.



Here's some more of my show at Will's Pub. It was all part of Floridas Dying Records' 6th anniversary celebration. There were a ton of really great bands playing all weekend. It was so much fun, and I highly recommend catching the Jacuzzi Boys and Cop City/Chill Pillars on their US tours this spring.



The next 4 paintings were also shipped to Florida right after these pictures were taken.















The next two paintings, "Demon Dork" and "Demon Dweeb" JUST got mailed off to Victoria, BC Canada for a group show at Talk's Cheap records.







This owl necklace is what Melanie got for Valentine's day.



...Speaking of Valentine's day, these velvet-ish plastic cats were probably someone's V-day gift in the early 70's. We picked them up last month in Lansing, Michigan, while we were in town on a mission for Vietnamese food(which I fell in love with in Florida, and isn't available anywhere near my town).



The little Eskimo has 3 different faces, but the crying one is by far the best. I grabbed this off eBay for cheap. I've seen a ton of them around over the years, but they usually seem to be priced a bit higher than I feel like paying(which isn't much). The deer is from Hog Creek, a local-ish antique mall. It's the same place I found the owl necklace. I don't really know anything about the deer other than it's made in Japan, and I assume it's from the 60's.



I've had my eye on this Kreiss Psycho Ceramics beatnik for a couple years...Every time we'd hit the antique store it was in, I'd check to see if the price came down, which after a while, it did...half price even...but that was still a little higher than I could convince myself to pay. Then last week, I checked and it was gone. Bummer!

Luckily, it was gone because Melanie had bought if for me as a valentine's present.



This big-eyed lion doesn't have any marking besides 'Japan', but it's obviously made by Enesco, just like these cats. I happened across this on eBay while I was looking for something else that I found and was eventually out-bid on. Luckily, I won the lion.



Damn, eBay is addictive. every couple years, we go on a big eBay binge, and we're in middle of a big one right now. I HAD TO HAVE THIS BANK!!! Seriously. Cyclopes cave woman? Sold! My picture didn't turn out great, so I actually am posting the one that the seller posted on eBay. It was made in Japan by Napco.



I was floored when I saw this peaking out of a dark corner in the antique mall last week. This awesome, almost 3 foot tall mid-century wall hanging was made by Happy Things Inc, and is now one of my favorite possessions...and a total steal at $15!



I've been wanting some original art(that I didn't do) for my walls for some time. A couple months ago I found this CZM painting on eBay, and after a fierce bidding war, it now hangs in my living room next to my front door(though this pic was taken in my bathroom, because my living room has bad lighting). Check out CZM's great artwork here.



I'm already brainstorming my next post...and hopefully I'll find some time to do it soon...I hate all these big gaps between posts. Also, I hopefully will have some art merch to peddle on here soon.

Randomness

So, I know I have left my readers out in the cold for several months. I feel terrible about it. I've been super busy lately, putting together 2 art shows and doing a bit of traveling. Also, I was without a camera for a good chunk of time...but enough of my excuses...let's jump in it!

I honestly don't remember where I got these bobble head tigers. Maybe I'm getting Alzheimer's early. They were at one of the local antique stores a few months ago, I think, but I don't remember which one.



Melanie and I stopped in a nifty antique shop in Memphis while we were in town for Gonerfest, and she picked up this little purse with winking eyes. She has a couple similar coin purses that I'm sure were made by the same company, but I keep forgetting to take pictures of them when I see 'em...damn Alzheimer's.




Flip it over, and it's a guy. Tranny purse.



When we got home from Memphis, we were greeted by a new floor in the bakery.



My mom got me this cat for x-mas as a stocking stuffer. She doesn't know I know she got it at the local Salvation Army for $1. I think there's a matching dog around here somewhere...A bunch of my stuff's in boxes.



This Flip Wilson talking doll was my X-mas gift to myself. At $5, I couldn't pass it up...



...especially considering that when you flip Flip over, he becomes Geraldine, and hangs out with tranny purse.



This is Gaylord...he was made in 1962 by Ideal, and I found this one still with it's bone! My parents wouldn't let me have a dog when I was a kid, and I suspect that if I was a kid in 1962, they would have gotten me this instead and told me it's just as good as a real dog. That's what this toy was...something to shut your kids up when they beg for a dog...No wonder Gaylord's time in toy stores was short. The name probably doesn't help much.





These garage rocker dolls were in the same Memphis antique store as the tranny purse. I think they look like my friend Jules. I don't know where or when they were made, but they are pretty cool regardless.



I gave Melanie this poodle for Christmas, and it turned out that she had almost bought it for me. That happens every year. We got each other Charles Phoenix books, and my mom and Melanie both got me the "Cartoon Modern" book about mid-century modern animation.

I must've had tacos the day I took this picture, hence the Mexican Pepsi bottle lurking in the background.



This awesome sad eye cat picture was an x-mas gift from my mom.



Melanie got me another piece for my big/sad eye collection for Christmas...



...as well as her big sister. I dig the big eye/pin-up crossover! I also dig my bathroom's wallpaper!



Well, hopefully it won't be such a HUUUUUUUUUUUGE gap between updates next time.