Nailed in Place / Shuffling Shoes
“Emma?? EMMA!??....SOMEONE!?”
The pain wasn’t anything I was a kin to. Broken bones, split elbows, slivers and the occasional stubbed toe? Sure. But this, THIS!...was something entirely different. I felt helpless, betrayed by my own equipment, and the fear of being glued / tethered / stuck to that table, forever, was something at the forefront of the swirling bathtub of thought that was quickly running out my ears.
I had been building a table for my tape machine earlier that day and was in the process of putting the top on it. As I was nailing, with a 16 ga finish nailer, the top of the table on I hit a knot in the wood, and it just so happened that my finger was next to the knot in which the 2 ½” finish nail decided to travel away from. As the nail avoided the knot in the wood it shot out of the side of the 2x4 , into my pointer and finger and then wrapped back up and finished it’s location in the top of the table, completely pinning my finger to the table. The shock hit quickly and I had very little idea of what one should do in such a situation. And so, like I assumed I should, I screamed. Emma came running in…
“Should I call 911? Should I grab a saw and start sawing at the nail!?”
“NO!!! Don’t do anything with a saw, and don’t call 911, just try and…find something to get this table top off with…Unless we get the top off I am stuck here to the table..”
Emma quickly found a flat head screwdriver and within 30 seconds I was able to pry the top of the table free and slide my finger off of the nail, letting the hole that it had left fill with blood. All of this madness and mutilation for the pursuit of a mental dream. The beauty of recorded music.
The Tape Machine Table / Fear Driven
Shot through / Finguh.
Recorded music has been a vital part of the upbringing of my heart and mind. Though rock n roll was the ugly stepchild that my parents wanted out of the house, I was convinced that the experience of listening could change me.
I suppose it did.
Over the past seven years I have been enthralled with the ability that we have discovered to capture the sounds that can cause an emotional overload in the bodies of other human beings. The process has taken me longer than (probably) most, and by no means have I arrived to the place that I feel is sufficient, but I have taught myself, through MUCH discussion (with wiser, more well “seasoned” recording veterans), online readings, and a heavy helping of trial and error, how to record music. I have been doing this (recording) in the upstairs of Willamette MTN since I moved here 6 years ago. With the coming of children and the need for a separation between home and hobbie I decided, about 6 months ago, that I would try and turn the upstairs into a separate creative space, where I would be able to record / produce / sing / create / and exist in the realm of mindlessness. I feverishly drew plans and made notes on what I would like to see change in the studio. It was overwhelming to discover what went into the building of a recording studio and 4 months ago I decided that I was going to do it.
The whole thing started about three months ago. We tore out walls, closets and ceilings; we cut into walls and made other walls twice as thick. We covered the ceiling with cedar, built chandeliers out of cow hips and caribou skulls, we sanded, wired, cut, pasted, caulked and cured the things that we wanted to see change. We covered the floor with pine and built an environment conducive to the creation of music and the like. The whole thing began to go to bed with me, it would travel with me to the mountains, it would be in the shower and in my shoes. It tattooed itself to my skin and I started to notice that I had become impossible to shake the overwhelming and all consuming project of “THE STUDIO”.
As I suppose we all do, I underestimated the time it would take to finish what I had hoped to do. It has now been three months and I, like a fool, had allotted 3 weeks for the project. It had / has stolen most of my thought, and time, causing me to trade my singing for a saw blade. As the time quickly approached for me to return to the road of travel and music I had yet to complete the things I had hoped to do. I found myself completely consumed with the “FINISH”, I procrastinated many of my self imposed duties and responsibilities. I could hardly sleep for fear of not finishing what I had begun. The hour has arrived for me to embark on yet another adventure, away from my children and lover, away from the pseudo-finished studio and into the arms of the wild and wicked I surrender myself.
Floor Tear / Early Day
Window Maker / Willamette MTN
Finishing Pine / Window Ender / Willamette MTN
Table Top / Closer (Stage Uno) / Pre TOUR
Day Before Tour / Closest
As the tour was approaching I had the BEST OF INTENTIONS to have a design made and then to proceed to have shirts pressed for the small Midwestern run. But, as it has seemed to do, time betrayed me and left me with 4 days before the tour begun. There was absolutely no time to have a design made, let alone having the appropriate window of days to have them pressed and so I took a different approach to T-shirts for this tour. My lady and I headed to the local thrift store and scowered through the racks of used T-shirts, there were hundreds upon hundreds to choose from, but the variety for which we searched was specific. NO graphic. NO design. NO nada.
Lino Carver / Stress Recharger
We purchased the 30 or so T-shirts and headed home. From there we took a linocut that I had done last year and pressed the lino on each of the T-shirts. The said design came out looking better than I had anticipated. We have plans of selling these at the following shows:
December 8th Empire Arts Center Grand Forks, North Dakota
December 9th The Basement @ Des Moines Social Club Des Moines, Iowa
December 10th Iowa City Yacht Club Iowa City, Iowa
December 11th Studio Winery Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
December 12th Gravel Road Concert Minburn, Iowa
December 13th Schubas Chicago, Illinois
Be Kind or DIE / Hand Pressed / Hand Carved / Thrift Store Tour T-Shirts
It will be nice to escape for a moment from the tyranny and demanding tone of the studio. I am happy to be with Evan out on the road, but will miss Timmy and Isaac, but the run only called for two of us boys. If you are in the area make a stand. Come out to the show, and give a hand (shake).
It’s getting later and I haven’t packed.
Joshua