Case of the Missing Teapot

Saturday started out with me attempting to brainstorm an idea for the variety show in July. I tried to get somewhere, although between Buffy and the growing heat, I didn't. A few sketches were my pathetic result.

Around noon, Cali came back from escapades about town and told me about an up and coming young designer Monkey Wrench Clothing (http://www.monkeywrenchclothing.com/). Cali, being a designer herself, had traded a swimsuit for an adorable dress, right up my alley. I decided to get out of the house and drive toward Crown Center to check out the lady's booth.

Should it have not been raining, the plaza outside Crown Center would have been filled with people celebrating Kansas City Chalk and Walk Festival. However, the downpour had reduced the participants to a soggy smattering. Monkey Wrench Clothing occupied three of the, maybe, seven tents set up outside. I found the clothing to be fabulous, expertly crafted, and just my style. There were few dresses that I would have liked, but none in my size. In the end, the designer took my measurements and agreed to make me a custom dress in a teal gingham print. It pays to be in with local designers.

As it was lunch time, I headed back in Crown Center to search out some grub. Crown Center is built by Hallmark and includes a giant Hallmark store, go figure, Crayola store, as well as a small amount of second tier stores. The only large name I saw other than the previously mentioned was Victoria's Secret. The design is over done and in the end looks like a food court at a theme park. Also, the shopping area is carpeted and in my opinion, that always makes a mall look dirty verses welcoming.

The one thing Crown Center does have is food. There were at least a dozen places worth looking into for a quick bite. The one place that finally claimed my cash, was Fritz's. Fritz's is unique because your food is delivered by train and then conveyed via a weight sensitive contraption straight on to your table. It was probably the coolest hamburger I've ever eaten. Cheap too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDeYFZV4xKE&feature=related)

Come 8ish, Halliday and I went out to the Infoshop, a small venue/used bookstore that reminded me of a place back in Bremerton. I think the claim to fame there, other than shows, is their zine collection. It was extensive, massing together all of the underground zines that Kansas City has produced and any the proprietors could/can get their hands on.

There probably weren't more than 30 people at the show, but because of the small size, that was perfect. Everyone was dancing and getting into the groove. It was wicked hot, but worth staying inside for the atmosphere.

I got a free tank top from Modie Bones, a local guy just starting up, met some neat guys from the Intolerants (from Portland, http://www.myspace.com/theintolerantsband) and ended the night with great, slightly rockabilly, rocking from the Muddy Udders (http://www.myspace.com/muddyuddersband). I offered the Intolerants a place to stay at the Pistol and some dinner if they wanted it, and they took me up on it. Halliday and I showed them the way back around 1:30 after an excellent show.

Back home I started cooking dinner (the Intolerants supplied an apple pie) and Joe pulled me aside. Foundations was hosting a show with three touring bands and Joe had agreed to watch the door. Things led to other thing (purposefully being elusive) and a teapot with two thousand dollars went missing.

Needless to say, drama went down. Halliday left, a chair or two got thrown (Foundation's owner and not at anyone), trash cans were turned inside out, the Intolerants questioned (that made me angry), and the Pistol searched until four am when I told Joe to go to bed - if the teapot was still in the Pistol, it would be in the morning. The touring bands left angry and without being paid.

I took control and had to force the issue of sleep and in the end, that is what happened (I did too after some more Buffy).

Sunday

I awoke the next morning at eleven, and helped the Intolerants get their things together while profusely apologizing. When they left, I looked around the Pistol and all I saw was a mess. There were no clean dishes, a mountain of them in the sink, cat hair and dust threatening to over take the living room, and the actual Pistol still had not been cleaned up since the Sodafest. With a call into Uriah, 12:30 was the start time of what would become known as the deep clean.

For five hours, Uriah and I did every possible cleaning task we could think of without busting out power tools. I sweated to the Hearts of Darkness practicing while I sweeped out the Pistol and rearranged furniture. As I attacked a couch, I found what we'd been looking for. A little china teapot stuffed with money.

The rest of the day included resting (with Buffy), going grocery shopping with Uriah, a nap, and going on an uber long night bike ride with Uriah and his friend Jared. Multiple people commented on how nice the Pistol looked.

*Neat foot note: Jared has a pool and invited me to go swimming. Finally, water!

Monday

Again, I attempted to work on the poster, but 100 degree heat made me start feeling sick. I think I'm going to carry around a gallon jug for drinking water, I need it.

At seven I had a member's meeting at the Arts INKubator. We talked about how to turn some space into a store and how to promote the press best on first Fridays.

I came home, went for a short ride, and finished season three Buffy. What will I do now?

I need to figure out a way to work at the Pistol, the crazy heat thing is making it so I am incredibly unproductive.

I posted this from the Arts INKubator, and I might make a habit of coming down here to cool off for a few hours every night.

OH! p.s. the coolest thing happened last night. Joe's friend Kyle found an old suitcase full of vintage items from the 20's-1940's from a guy named Carl. Some awesome finds included: school notebooks, a school paper, vintage valentines, love letters, telegrams, and drawings. I traded him some Hammerpress for a few key items.

Sodafest

On Friday, I probably printed 600 things. I finished the poster I'd been working on all week by adding the final layer, a dark blue. I learned how to do some fine tuning adjustments to the grippers for precise registration. More than enough needed turned out well, although I've certainly learned how important holding the paper down to the timpin is.

Next, I printed a bunch of cd inserts and by bunch, I'm pretty sure there were 400. Those two projects comprised my day with some studio cleaning interspersed throughout.

When I arrived home, there were surprises to be found. The nicest was a care package from my momma, stuffed with goodies like dried mangos and tax returns. The other surprise was a group of guys who call themselves "Chomp Whomp" decorating the two venues. The Pistol was strung with lights and had balloons across the floor. Foundations was festooned with hundreds of streamers.

"Chomp Whomp Sodafest" - a giant show put on by a group of guys from Lawrence, Kansas. It included fourteen bands playing on two stages, free food, soda, and live artists painting.

Joe and I took a ride across the tracks before people started arriving. A daily bike ride, after work, has become a nice little habit.

Due to the heat I fell asleep and missed 5 or so bands (No ear plugs, go me!). I awoke to a raging crowded Pistol. According to Cali, who collected money at the door, she estimated 300 - 350 people came. In the end, each band and Cali were paid 80 dollars, and each venue gained 250 - The admission price was five dollars. Since the Pistol has no Air Conditioning and Foundations seems like it doesn't with that many people, it was an impressive turnout, a crazy party that lasted until easily 3 or 4 in the morning.

The bands kind of melded together for me, but the BLEACHBLOODZ (http://www.myspace.com/bleachbloodz) who I'd seen at the first show, played and they know how to give a good live performance. Most of the crowds just stood with their arms crossed, but the BLEACHBLOODZ gets people involved. The artists set up in foundation were pretty interesting. A bunch of them had giant canvases set up and were painting large graffitiesc murals. One guy had some woodcut prints for sale on a table. As everyone was packing up I offered him six dollars for one and he took me up on it. They'd been originally priced at eight.

I needed some Buffy to help lull me to sleep, then I passed out.

* Appendix
So I know I haven't been updating on schedule. The reason being mostly due to the fact I wake up at nine instead of eight, which doesn't give me enough time to write my day up. I am trying to rectify the situation. In otherwords, look for daily posts again soon.

Thrifting madness

Thursday started out with laying down layer three of the poster, a bright green color. However that was all the printing to be done.

Right now Brady is building a new wall in the front of the shop to section it off from the studio, it would seem there have been too many prying eyes wandering too close to the presses. Because of all the noise and mess, there really wasn't time to set up another project.

Instead, I helped Wendy put together a very large order as well as assemble a huge pile o' cards so we are not packaging them as they are bought. To get a card together one must fold it around an envelope and slide it into a cellophane bag. From what I am told, all letterpress cards are packaged this way, by hand, although many large producers outsource to assembly workers. Brady is thinking of going that way to save time for more important things.

I came home to find Halliday working in her studio. Originally we'd planned a night of Rockabilly together, but she needed to finish an order and it was a bit too muggy to get dressed up. Instead I plopped down for some Slayage.

An episode or two of Buffy later, Joe stated that he was in need of some new pants, and "did we want to go thrifting?" When one does not bring enough clothes to wear the answer is always "hellz yeah!". The three of us piled in my car and drove twenty or so minutes north to Smithville, where the "good" thrifting is.

The first stop was not a thrift store but some genius place called Quik Stop where the .49 cent, thirty-six ounce soda is alive and kicking. I splurged and bought one for each of us.

The second stop was another DAV and yet again I was pummeled with excellent prices. I found:
* two dresses
- one red wrap with white feathers, it had shoulder pads, but I pulled them out
- the other a 1950's-like sleeveless number with a yellow and green tropical print
* a black looped belt
* bright pink bloomers with lace and hand sewn bumblebees (1.98)
* a blue and white striped shortsleeve cardigan
* a purple v-neck knit top
total: 21 dollars and change

The last place we hit, because it was getting late and stores were closing was the Salvation Army. My memories of the S.A. are of ratty shelves lined with plastic toys, a few sad racks of clothing and lamps that had died in some 70's reality and returned from beyond the grave. In Bremerton S.A. is a place to go for cheap furniture, not clothes.

This one was not the case. It was packed, overflowing, with clothes. Upon initially walking in, I became overwhelmed and didn't know where to start. I eventually navigated myself to the dresses, but they were mostly 80's styles and the nurse's uniform that could have looked nice dyed, draped funny around my hips. I didn't look very hard through the tops because there were too many to get my head around. After prying myself off an amazing leather jacket, I did find two shirts in the kid's section.
* Orange shirt with number 10 and yellow softball shirt from kids rack
total: 1.50 - green tags were half price.

I don't think there is an item of thrifted clothing in the entirety of Washington and Oregon that is originally priced at a dollar. I left a bit speechless.

As it was nine and all the stores were closing, the three of us went out in pursuit of food. We probably spent an hour trying to decide where to eat until I finally threw down the law and drove us to some Mexican. I did find out that Godfather's Pizza still exists out here and I will have to have some before I leave. It is my very favorite pizza, the only place that makes the crust correctly.

After dinner we drove home and I watched some more Buffy before bed.

Turning the fan on full blast

Tuesday

The day started off with wedding invites, 400 of them to be exact. When one goes to Brady for wedding invites, not only do they have it created, but stamped and assembled ready to be addressed and mailed. Thus the morning of Tuesday was spent preparing wedding invites to be picked up later that morning.

Should it have been just one person, the job would have easily taken two days to complete. However with three, Jen, Wendy and I, it was surprisingly easy. We finished just after lunch.

For lunch Brady bought me an amazing taco and side of rice, in return I (stupidly?) volunteered to make lunch on Thursday (that way Wendy could join us as well). I think I'll make my traditional stirfry, that way I know I won't poison anybody.

After the wedding invite assemblage marathon Brady had me set up the press to do a promotional piece for a local design firm, they designed the image, we will print it. There were around 300 (although I only go to 200 or so) white layers to print before I bounced for the evening.

A couple came in just before five and recorded an interview with Brady and then about a minute's worth of me printing. I think I was on the nine o'clock news.

The evening held another show at the Pistol, Prince Rama (http://www.myspace.com/princeramaofayodhya), Witch and Hare, as well as a couple kids who were touring with Prince Rama were set up to play, the Nature Boys backed out an hour or so before the show.

Right after I got home, I took a bike ride over to the American Royal arena and explored the grounds a bit more thoroughly. When I felt like I was going to melt into the pavement, I took it as a sign that I should head home. I arrived just in time to see Prince Rama pile out of their van. I helped them unload their stuff into the freight elevator and then joined Cali to help her make dinner.

Cali had shown up just before my bike ride and was intending on preparing some pasta. However, when Joe and Halliday told her they were making curry for the band, she was worried her food would go to waste. I assured her otherwise and together we ate the pasta with pesto shrimp. Cali spoils us every time she come over. She said she is going to be staying at the Pistol this weekend (there is a giant show on Friday). I plan to turn the tables and make her dinner.

The show was good and the bands friendly. I'd review the music as organized noise, but people got into it and were dancing all over the place. Prince Rama laid out various shakers for the audience to play and everyone did. Audience participation which is what makes a show worth while. Good bands know this and in the end, the sound can sometimes be irrelevant.

oh, did I mention on Monday I saw a car made up to look like a giant fiberglass sub sandwich?

Wednesday

More printing! I worked further on the piece for the design firm, finishing the white layer and laying down the second, a turquoise blue.

Actually, I learned alot about printing yesterday, I would say I even leveled up. Among other things; I learned that if on is going to make a full sized poster that is in need of tight registration, one should hold down the piece of paper tightly to the timpin, as far as one is able, because a light hold will make a large difference in alignment (Chaotic good instead of chaotic evil).

Post blue layer, I finished the red layer on my alphabet poster, making a total of around five hundred prints for the day. Granted, that is nothing compared to Brady, but a personal best for me. I believe I will have a bicep when I return (just one though).

The evening was intended to be full of lunch cooking and poster mock-up preparing, but the minute I stepped out of Hammerpress' air-conditioned goodness, I was knocked over by a heat wave aimed at my existance. Instead, I passed out after a short bike ride and slept until it was cool enough to breathe - at which point I woke up to watch some Buffy.