TABLE OF CONTENTS
ARTISTS I put this first so I could feel better about myself for wanting to feel better about myself. It's a list of artists, musicians mainly, who make work I recommend. Everyone included works hard, creates good work, and the world will benefit by watering and fertilizing this garden. I'm aware there are those that are more in need of help, and those that are less in need of help. Of course, you can also join the peace corp, or be nice to your grandma, or walk to Washington DC in a ninja costume. Halloween is a holiday and so is Thanky G, and the best part of Central Park is behind a crumbling wall that nobody knows about.
BUSINESSES Same as preceding item. Orphanages and food banks are businesses too. We benefit from them all if the people running them are doing a good job. I just want to show appreciation for these ones in this edition.
MUSIC CREATION A link to a song for The Light Switches that I'm working on and an explanation of the process.
LEARNING Ideas I've thought about and learned from while writing in my morning journal that I hired as a personal coach and therapist because you get what you pay for. It's a ghost fight on pay per view and then an art project I made because I wanted to learn how to approximate those contact sheets in the Peter Beard book and he died with honor. (in the woods)
FROM THE ARCHIVES A link to, and an explanation of an art project from a long time ago I've been revivifying because I'm participating in the culture and I want to be an astronaut, like Carl Sagan and those people that bring charcoal pencils and thin pieces of paper into grave yards to feel the quickening in time.
DAYS IN THE LIFE OF SKULLFACE Links to free association talking into the camera, video documents that are a science experiment, stand-up comedy, and a lunatic's audition to be in the movies.
MUSIC WE MADE THAT'S FINISHED Links to listen to and/or purchase the music made by the band The Light Switches.
FAREWELL Thanks for tuning in. Send me questions. Ways to share the message with your friends.
ARTISTS
Assateague is a band. I used to not like motorcycle gangs, but if this was a motorcycle gang I'd like them, because they look tough and dangerous in a lovable way but they're not too loud. The music is like that too. You get the sense that they've had good times, and bad times, but they're not about to smile or frown about it if you try and take their picture. They just move on stoically, slow, subtle, and occasionally spectacular, like how a thunderstorm comes in off the water, after a Maryland late summer afternoon.
The Blank Tapes is a band and a visual artist. They're really prolific and visionary. It's a good way to take a trip to classic California, the part that's too much of a liability for an amusement park, without having to stay up all night because someone's cackling outside your tent.
Bob Thayer is a musician and teacher. I used to think I was too dumb and uneducated to honestly enjoy poetry, (except for this one Japanese haiku book I read one time) and that stand-up comedy was as close as I'd ever get to understanding, and that music was for the people that died making vaudeville because they'll pay you to fall down the stairs but not for your hospital bills afterwards in America. As I've learned often in life, I was wrong about part of that. Anyway, the record linked here is really great music textures, and it taught me how to understand poetry better.
Dave Mihaly is a musician and music teacher. A lot of the musicians I know in San Francisco have learned how to be better from watching and listening to how he plays. You can learn how to live your life better from this music, and you can learn how to play music better from living this life. Study. Play. Enjoy. Remember those that came before and that there is no after, only sometimes, in between.
Dust Collector is the recording project of musician Jason Cirimele. They recently came out with a new record that's really good. It's the kind of music playing and singing that makes something that's really hard feel easy. I like that. It's the kind of music that always knows what the good stuff is in the yard sale, stands by the non smokey part of the fire, and stays up early in the morning.
Eric Andrew Kuhn is a musician, composer, and film scorer. He has done high quality work for documentaries, commercials, and many great bands including The Light Switches. If you need a film scored, or are just interested in listening to deep, imaginative, music, I encourage you to look around his website. Eric's the musician that the character behind the counter at the tiny, crowded record store will want to talk glowingly about long after you get hungry for dinner, but your mom and dad won't ever know, because he's not on TV, except he is. Maybe your mom and/or dad have really esoteric music appetites. I retract the mom and dad statement if that's the case. Anyway, It's my dream that one day Eric will work on a film, or a record, that is worthy of his talent and dedication. That is an imposing mountain to climb for for all the film makers and recording artists out there. And since I've been blessed with the mental illness of unreasonable self confidence, I figure I'll see if I can beat them to the top.
Erica Kane Fink is an artist, musician and graduate student. She teaches adults and children how to make art, and she makes it herself. I have a feeling somebody is going to get mad at me for how I described their work. Erica, most likely, will not. She's tolerant, positive, and very supportive. Her work is cheerful, and if it's self-conscious, it's in an inscrutable way that creates a mystery for those willing to look into it far enough to ask: Is this a landscape or portrait?
Farallons is a band that has a photographer and a steward of the land in it. That's what it sounds like, pictures of oceans and lizards from artistic angles really early in the morning when the light and fog make the work more fun.
FPOBPOD is a San Francisco band. It's the band that everyone around here respects the most. It's a band's band, but not in an exclusive way. The music is entertaining without being showy, makes fun of heartbreak without being mean, is heart breaking without being sentimental, and sounds like a long time ago without being nostalgic. I'm not going to tell you what the acronym stands for, but it reminds me of an experimental film I aim to make one day where the camera focuses on one of my favorite animals that witches are always trying to put in soups, paddling gracefully a long at the bottom of a brook, in a beam of light shining through the forest's canopy, into the clear running water, and reflecting off pebbles, like nobody's watching.
Indianna Hale is a musician and recording artist. She has some new music out. The feel of it is graceful and studied meets the raggedy edges of reporting on what happens when you've got a strong radio signal and are allergic to cynicism. You try and describe what's indescribable without sounding like a drunk newspaper writer from 1897. It's a difficult task, but she pulls it off. It helps a lot to have good taste, and great music skills, and to grow up around friends that are the cool older brothers and sisters in movies who have the punk rock record collections, but also know about Germans and synthesizers. Also, it doesn't have to be complicated. If you like really pretty singing and clever arrangements, this is for you.
Jeremy Rourke is a filmmaker, artist, and musician. He makes incredibly detailed stop motion animation movies that he plays the score to live. I described elsewhere in this section that Obo Martin is a sort of vaudevillian / bardic dinosaur. Jeremy would be the same except from the future. He loves Buster Keaton, and it shows in the comically, impractical decisions he makes during the shows to put himself in precarious positions. He stands on tipping over stools, hangs over balconies, climbs through windows, and shoots off those canons you need to have the forged signature of a clown to purchase. All of this after a beach full of hour glasses spent in a dank basement cutting up post cards several gravestones deep, to make bring back the dead, dancing in Victorian dresses, and railroad suits, playing the violin, and rebuilding a burned down house. The reason to see this performance, though you may have to travel far to get there, would be as follows: Afterwards, it'll make you want to make something, because he's shown you something spectacular, and he's shown you how he did it while he's doing it. That's what I meant by vaudevillian from the future. Or maybe it's post modern? I don't know. I'm really tired. Jeremy has definitely read a lot of books and is impossible to beat at scrabble, but you don't need to know literary theory to appreciate his work. You just need to remember how to play properly, which isn't properly at all.
Joe Lewis is a musician, teacher, and curator. Joe has played excellent bass in respected jazz bands where you wear a suit, traditional music bands where don't, and rock and roll bands that require turning one's self inside out. He's toured endlessly. He teaches music lessons. He's secretly good at drawing. He's been generous and enthusiastic towards those with whom he has labored. His current project is called Vox Tremolo, where after making other people's music better for so many years, he's making his own. It's wild, and vulnerable like a wolf through binoculars, just keep in mind the binoculars part. One last thing: He booked the music for, and operated the best music venue in San Francisco at one point in time called Bluesix. I played a show with Little Wings there and the music director of the San Francisco Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas) came to the show. Another time at the same club they screened that movie Ghengis Blues and Kongar-ol Ondar, the Mongolian musician from the movie, came all the way from Mongolia, and surprise jumped out of the darkness at the end of the film, playing the Mongolian instrument and singing the traditional singing! It was worth the whole price of admission of my weird life choices.
Jolie Holland is a musician, composer and recording artist. She's doing a Patreon, which is a subscription service. It's a fun one to follow because she films herself doing obscure cover songs on the piano and other instruments and releases oddities of her back catalogue that aren't otherwise available. If you're a student of music, this is a good tutorial on how to interpret songs, and relate to your audience, or, if you just want the key to the secret room in the old music library where they keep the good stuff, here's your virtual key that looks like the kind to get into Count Dracula's wine cellar, or Sherlock Holmes' study, or Marie Curie's laboratory, who, incidentally, were according to a literature class I spied on, all the same person. You know, like the kind of key you need a blacksmith to make, and not the kind that plays one wearing high socks for tourists in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Obo Martin is a songwriter, and a performer. There's a lot that's gone extinct the past two centuries that had been around thousands of years before the day the Grim Reaper rode in on an Orville and Wilbur air plane, or one of those fifties cars that look like fat, middle aged sharks, or in that back to the future car with the suicide doors. Vaudeville is gone. The California Grizzly Bear is gone. The circus that travels around and sets up in the field outside a small town is gone. And you'd think, the bard is gone. You know that Shakespeare fellow that goes from town to town and can tell riddles, jokes, ghost stories, and play songs all from memory and off the top of his head. There is inherently something timeless, and death cheating about this sort of character, and they won't be afraid to say so. I think that's part of the trick. Really though, aside from all the antique show business skills, the guy can really sing, write and play with the best of them.
Sean Hayes is a musician and a family man. He seems gentle and perfect which is nice. You know, it's great when someone has singing talent, and can play the guitar, and knows Appalaichian style music, and is actually from North Carolina. Furthermore, he shows up early, treats people with respect, and knows how to properly hold a tea cup. All that being said, the day I became a life long fan was the day we were outside in the country waiting for a ride and I threw a rock at a road sign. We got in a contest and he was both a great rock thrower, and really enjoyed throwing them. I think music is about what you relate to. For better or for worse, I require a light sprinkling of evil. French people call it terroir.
Sleepy Todd is a musician, and a therapist but may as well be an ethnomusicologist. No one by a long shot has introduced to me as much good music. He's out there looking all day and a lot of nights. The live performance is definitely a "you have to be there" phenomenon, but the recorded material helps you figure it out. You'll hear the musicianship, sense of humor, and relationship to objective truth of someone who sleeps with his head on a ouija board pillow, under a full moon, in the middle of the woods.
Sterling Schlegel is a musician, visual artist, and carpenter. He plays different instruments in a bunch of the bands listed higher up in the alphabetical order of this list, and he has his own band as well. He also has drawn and painted flyers for them, which are a great substitute for representing this music scene where my words fall short. I've made this list in part to share the work of working artists, and also to illustrate a collective. If it were a documentary, Sterling would be the one that would make it fun to watch. Parallel to this, if you were stuck on a deserted island, he'd be the one you'd want to bring. He has a memory sharp enough to prick the finger of someone wearing those shark fishing gloves from the middle ages. He's a great storyteller, and does impeccable impressions of the voices of the people in the stories. He knows how to play the music inside and out, how to represent it on a piece of paper, can build a house, and a boat, and knows how to sail. I'm serious. And if everything starts falling apart at some Glenn Danzig themed pajama party at a biker bar, forget about all the kings horses and all the kings men. You need to call someone who can think on their feet, but doesn't answer to the authorities.
BUSINESSES
Alivo Restaurant is a restaurant in Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca run by two friends of mine who are hard working, and have a lot of integrity. Their food is great, and they are a strong, and positive presence in their community, striking a difficult balance of being true to the local, and being kind to travelers. They're working on keeping their staff paid during the mandated closure of businesses, and ultimately during the large lag in tourism that they will need to contend with once reopening. Alivo is precisely the type of business, and entrepreneur the world needs more of. Low impact, high quality, and caring towards those that cross its threshold. For those who like to travel, and/or are interested in supporting independent, local businesses, this a great one for you to contribute to.
Down to Earth Landscapes is my friend Nathan's landscaping business. He saw the whole world in the English Navy in a submarine. This paragraph is meant to send you to Nathan if you need landscaping done, but also, if you have kids you might want to send them to the English Navy. They teach you how to do so many life skills that college simply drops the ball on. You know, like be precise, know how to read a map, make a plan, fix a tool, tie a knot, be organized, tidy up, all like your life depends on it, because it does. That makes you a good landscaper, or whatever you want to be. Nathan also has an artistic eye, and a sense of humor, which also come in handy if you want to grow a successful garden.
Eye of the Avocado is a personal chef and catering service run by my friend Jes. She also has a cookbook coming out. I've eaten the food she makes and it's carefully prepared, creative, and authentic. I mean, it's really good. However, food is like music in that as soon as people start describing it I want to go deaf, and whatever the word is for when your tongue can't taste anymore. I'm talking about when I write the words too, not just everyone else. I want to say Jes's food is what feels nice in my imagination about being in a cottage in the middle of nowhere with a thatched roof and an earthen floor... (Yeah, kill me.) ...but not just any cottage. The chef at the cauldron has to be funny and not kick you out when you steal a box of grog from the village down the hill. And you have to know the chef for a long time, so that it feels like the home that was always there and you never left, and isn't mad even though you did. One night, when I cut my finger open on a deli slicer while working at a cafe, while my friends were playing music, she helped patch it up in the back. The next morning I told the kids I was teaching at an elementary school that my finger was bandaged because I almost cut it off and a witch healed it and they loved the story. So, if you need a personal chef, an event catered, recipe ideas, or to skip a trip to the emergency room, this is your business.
Outerlands Restaurant is a restaurant in San Francisco, California. Like Alivo, they treat their employees well, provide great food, and a pleasant place to be in their neighborhood. San Francisco is a better city with independently owned, healthy, neighborhood places around. This link is a fund to take care of employees while the business is dealing with the mandated closure.
Rock Band Land is an after school, and summer program for young musicians in San Francisco. They have for many, many years provided music lessons, opportunities to be in bands, record, perform, write, and make videos for children from the ages of five to young teens. I've worked for them and can attest to the great work ethic of the founders, and how much it benefits the teachers they employ and the kids and families they serve. If you're into supporting an affordable arts education program in a place and time where it's extremely difficult to keep an institution like that afloat, Rock Band Land is great for you.
Terry Mulrooney Design is a landscaping company. Terry gave me my first job when I moved to San Francisco when I was twenty two years old. We're still good friends. He taught me how to prune trees by saying "it's sculpting with a time factor." His designs are functional, mindful of structure as it relates to space, Japanese influenced, and are meant to invite you to enjoy your outdoor space with friends and family. Also, he's a very entertaining personality, and knowledgeable about plants...as in he knows the science names for them, and won't plant one where it won't be happy in an a particular ecological niche. If you need garden design, I recommend this service.
Vanessa Verlee is a musician, yoga teacher, writer, host of a variety show, and therapist, not necessarily in that order. It is a stretch to put her in the "business" category because I know her first as an artist. That being said, all the other people in this category I know not primarily as business people but as artists too, or surfers, musicians, fisherman, and other funny titles I don't want to say here because you're not supposed to mix business with comedy unless you're a comedian, because your reputation is at stake. I respect that. I also respect that Vanessa, while immersed in an arts community with a culture that can be a little immature about being an entrepreneur, has had the open mind, and daring attitude, to make a career that recognizes her talents without compromising her health. It's quite a trick. Health, healing, creativity, and basic life decisions are all areas that sometimes we can use some counsel, and not everyone has the manner needed to get the point across safely. It involves confronting one's fears objectively, and creating a structure wherein they can be released. I might not that have exactly right, but you can ask her. She's a pro at explaining it.
MUSIC CREATION
LOOK UP THE NUMBER, 60S ORGAN VERSION I've been using the website for The Light Switches to catalogue versions of the songs we've been working on. After posting a version I list the pros and cons of whatever parts, instruments, and arrangement choices have taken place in the current version. Then I include a link to an index page with all the previous versions. I do this primarily to help explain to my bandmate Eric what I've done, so he can keep track, and know what to work on when I hand the session over to him.
Also, since in theory the website is publicly available, I enjoy the concept of an open notebook. In reality I know that this level of detail is extremely dry and boring but some might say the same for box scores of old baseball games and I'm really glad those exist. I like numbers, archives and documentation. It's part of the art form for me. The version of the song linked here I've already torn up and changed completely except the solo. I stand behind the solo. You can listen and see if you agree with that and with the self critical notes. The website doesn't have a comments section because those are like bathroom walls, and although they're sometimes funny, I don't want people getting pee on my my computer, or putting on lipstick, or doing drugs, or taking those pictures where they purse their lips and hold up the peace sign, or show their weight lifting gains, or whatever else people do in bathrooms that have a tunnel into the internet. I'm a wicked, wicked witch.
