Harptallica: On Tour!

Enjoy the hard sound of Metallica but desire a lighter version for those less tumultuous mood swings? Look no further: Harptallica has arrived (last year, actually). More interesting, more genuine and much less "produced" than other classical forays into metal territory, Ashley and Patricia have taken their giant harps on the road. They've also released their CD of Metallica compositions!

Signs

Our pals Micki and Harley just returned from their honeymoon in Japan. Harley didn't speak Japanese, but the English signage helped guide him during the trip.

Elsewhere

Long-time Anti-Bummer artist and friend, Ms. World Book (a.k.a. Irene), has recently been dispatching news from the Elsewhere Artist Collaborative in Greensboro, NC. It is a place exploring a great concept:

"Elsewhere is set within a three-story former thrift store housing an immense 58-year collection of American cultural objects amassed by one woman, Sylvia Gray... The collection includes thousands of toys, books, periodicals, clothing, fabric, games, trinkets, bric-a-brac, furniture, antiques, army surplus, and historical documents. These objects, none of which are any longer for sale, now circulate internally, composing an evolving installation of objects and artwork while providing a continued resource for the cultivation of new creative processes and works."

Ms. Book is currently one of the many long-term visitors who inhabit the compound on a rotating basis. Transformed by Gray's grandson, George Scheer, the Collaborative now invites archivists, filmmakers, journalists, scholars, artists and others to spend residencies in the vast consumer time-capsule. They feed them and house them, giving them time to tinker with stuff from the past - the entire collection at their disposal for use and re-use. Ms. Book's work, as always, is both subtle and striking.

The Collaborative's website is navigated in much the same way one wanders around in a gigantic thrift store: overwhelmed, but curious enough to forge ahead, sometimes for hours, slowly uncovering little gems.

An Elf Lived Here

According to Big Time Listings:

"Heavy metal vocalist Ronnie James Dio has sold a three-bedroom, 1,981-square-foot house in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills for $1,110,000... Dio had purchased that house in 1988 for $440,000, according to public records... The house that Dio sold, at 3633 Lankershim Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Hollywood Hills, was built in 1945... Features in the house, which had been listed for $1,500,000, include a spacious formal dining room, a master suite with views and beamed ceilings, balconies, a deck, a garden patio, and a pool, according to listing information. Other features include three air-conditioning systems and top-of-the-line appliances, according to listing information.... Dio long has owned several houses in the L.A. area, and public records show that he continues to own three other properties in the region."

Funny they didn't mention the dungeon.

What's He Building in There?

Andrew Scott makes cool creepy-crawleys.

Agrifolk Art Movement

PART 1

On an recent artist-hunt, Google-Wunderkind ODA "discovered" a new and exciting movement sweeping the South: Conceptual artist Jonathon Keats exploits the last true folk artists remaining: 50 leyland cypress trees. Watch the drama unfold as these trees, outfitted with easels, paper and pencils, communicate through art.


PART 2


PART 3

Nuts No More

This past January, Elizabeth Tashjian - the one, the only Nut Lady - died in her room at Gladeview Health Care Center in Old Saybrook, CT. Her story is a long one and the final chapters are rather depressing. A few of us who knew Tashjian in her final years recently got together for a de-briefing of sorts (I hadn't spoken with her for a couple of years when I got the sad news). We talked about our first meeting with the eloquent octogenarian, our slow rise to near-friend status with her, and our quick but inevitable fall from grace with the notorious Nut Visionary. As with many truly original personalities, Tashjian was difficult to access and maintain, which is probably why we're drawn to her. However, while potentially known to millions through her former Nut Museum and appearances on late-night TV, not surprisingly only about 15 people attended her funeral service. Now, her museum is gone and a new tenant resides in her room at the nursing home. A complex and mysterious individual, in her absence we are left only with her unique message - one that she may have preached more than she practiced.

Vinyl Comfort

At the end of a long, hard day at work, what better way to unwind than listening to some old favorites on the turntable?

Lost, but not forgotten gems...

that make Dan want to laugh... or cry?

We're all truly just visitors in Christopher Guest's world.

I ran away...

...to join the circus this weekend. I'd heard that one was passing by not too far from the Stinky Town borders, so off I went. I've always loved the road and those who live on it - even part time - are inspiring. In particular, I went in search of the black sheep of the traveling circus: the sideshow...


As I wandered through the vast fairgrounds, I wondered WHY they always put the livestock exhibits near the food vendors. But who doesn't like the smell of fried dough and Italian sausage mixing in the air with sheep dung and diesel fumes spilling over from the grandstand racetracks?


Baked potatoes, pizza slices, candied apples, apple dumplings, ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn, knishes, onion blossoms, funnel cake, chocolate covered bananas with or without sprinkles, donuts, homemade fudge, french fries with salt & vinegar... all pass by in people's hands.


After spotting the sideshow on the map, I took a shortcut through the arts & crafts barn - often the best and most sincere of all the fair exhibits.


I inevitably found myself amok in the no-man's land of stuff that can only be found at local fairs or along the margins of flea markets. Surrounded by endless rows of Slipknot Ts, leather wristbands and "authentic" dream-catchers, I spotted an exit with bright lights beyond...


Screams of teenage girls high above aboard the Ferris Wheel, Avalanche and Zipper (my all-time favorite) finally lead me to a back lot of the fair, just northeast of the rumbling midway...



"World's Smallest Horse," "Monster Rat: Alive!" and "Giant Man-Eating Alligator." All the signs told me that I was in the right neighborhood...


Finally, I saw the bright banners of the World of Wonders Sideshow and heard the same voice that thousands of other carnival-goers have heard for the past 61 years...


Ward Hall! Known as the "King of the Sideshow," Hall has been involved with the mobile circus since he was 13 (first official gig: clown). Recently emerged from retirement, Hall operates what is said to be the last traveling sideshow in the country. He's had many freak show greats on his stage, including "Priscilla the Monkey Girl," "Sealo the Seal Boy" and "Abdul the Arabian Giant."


Today, on the inside of the tent, the freaks of the past have been replaced by young fire-eaters, sword-swallowers and contortionists...


And the occasional illusion of the born freak of yester-year, like the "Tarantula Woman" or "Cobra Girl!"


Some things haven't changed though: like the classic "pickled punks" (for the extra cost of only $1.00) behind the back curtain...


And Pete Terhurne who, for over five decades, has been performing around the United States with Hall as "Poo-Bah the Fire-Eating Pygmy."


Although Hall told me that, due to the rainy weather, it was a "slow day," I counted more than 50 curious folks paying $2 per head to enter the sideshow tent in under an hour. Not bad for a "dying pastime."


However, in the end, I fell asleep in the bleachers watching the Pennsylvania monster truck tournament. When I awoke the next morning in a cold puddle of melted ice cream and beer, the circus had left town with the World of Wonders Sideshow in tow. They must be in Georgia by now... Maybe next year?