Category Archives: Craft Sessions

usually in the kura barn studio, just hanging out, playing records, making scrapbooks, tidying up, maybe painting or typing

Craft Sessions, Records

Tidying Up Vinyl Records in the Kura (find the right neighbourhood to spark joy

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All these records bring me joy so i am tidying up in the wake of a super enjoyable visit from Rice Field Records and a used record fair in nearby Ushimado.

Tidying Up Vinyl Records in the Kura

So, I putter along talking about how i organize the records into “neighbourhoods” so they have pals to hang out with, pull out some box sets, try to find where i put that “one thing” and where *exactly* this one fits best while wearing an moth-eaten cardigan and noticing my beard is compensating for my thinning noggin (still cute :)).

Finishes with flipping through some 7 inches while playing a live clip recorded at Ubud Jazz festival.

So name checks for fave artists including Courtney Barnett, Bill Janovitz / Buffalo Tom, Buffalo Springfield, David Bowie, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Joe Jackson, Talking Heads, Lone Justice, Ramones, Pixies, Weakerthans, more more more… and extra affection for compilations and soundtracks from Nardwuar, Flipside, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Urgh a Music War, Life in European Theatre, Easy Rider, Times Square (movie) etc infinity.

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Craft Sessions, Scrapbooks + Journals

Sort-ganizing Ephemera by Post (with Royal Dudes & the Muffs)

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Yup, i ramble on about items arrived by post and think you should hang out (i’ll make tea)

Opening a big santa sack of recent items by post including aerogrammes/ aerograms, passports, international driver’s licenses, documents, hotel letterhead, records (namechecking recent interview on Rice Field Records), postcards, etc from Nepal, Monaco, East German DDR, probably i dunno… Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, United Nations, others i don’t quite understand.

Also mail from Ukraine which allows mention of intrepid postal workers delivering despite war and displacement, + blabbity blah about guest coming to visit, feeling discombobulated after #MECFS “crash  mode” – that’s it except the parts i forgot. Argh prob a ramble about the “passport forgery project” {recalling i riffed about taking “intimate documents” and adding life to them}

Bonus: Rice Field Records Interview

{this should and will be a separate bonus post but in the meanwhile…}

Continue reading Sort-ganizing Ephemera by Post (with Royal Dudes & the Muffs) →
Craft Sessions, Scrapbooks + Journals

Postal Art cards hang out (in kura barn with Bill Janovitz tunes)

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Just remixing some passports from Romania and Albania.

Ambient views and vibes of making a series of 4 very different postcards ~ fiddling with stamps (postal and inky), various pens, scissors, glue and other crafts odds and ends in kura barn in provincial Japan

Stamps and items from: Gibraltar, Malaysia, Diego Garcia, Nepal, Palau, Tuvalu, Japan, Tahiti, Antigua, Sri Lanka, India, BOIT, Newfoundland, CCCP, Canada, UK, & featuring Fredrick Varley, Ichiro Olson, Baden-Powell, Capilano suspension bridge, rabbits and many other notable details and destinations.

No chit-chat or narration, just hanging out.while listening to Bill Janovitz’s great album Walt Whitman Mall (used w/o clearence) on vinyl with admiration.

Craft Sessions, Scrapbooks + Journals

Forging Passports, so to speak (“life during wartime”)

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Just remixing some passports from Romania and Albania.

Remixing expired passports from Romania and Albania into “dossiers of mystery and tactical intrigue” complete with endorsements, visas, assignments, sightings, safe houses, maps, aliases, poetry, ephemera, snippets, stamps – both ink and postal – musings, memos, codes, secrets.

Completely usual behavior – carry on with your diligent efforts.

Checkpoints include: Sri Lanka, Nepal, Diego Garcia, Vatican, Athens, Kyoto… etc + green beavers and diligent dogs

Continue reading Forging Passports, so to speak (“life during wartime”) →
Craft Sessions, Japan Cottage Musings, Post'd (cards + letters)

Festive Greetz Cards Scrapbook Time (backwards)

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In front of a wood stove, Dave stashes cards from the “string of honour” into archival book while recounting tales of the wonderful folks who sent greeting cards and letters to Tsuchida Cottage.

Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.

Along with banter about:

* having several scrapbooks on-the-go at all times

* special collections and on-going correspondence

* topsy turvy start to the year

* “lap projects” like mending and scrapbooking

* thoughts about last year (lots of paperwork!)

* theme for this year (letting go)

and usual digressions, meanderings and anecdotes (i.e. hanging stereo speakers and maybe something about solar panels). Oh, there is a Dymo LabelMaker in action.

Very grateful for your friendship and lovely correspondence.

Meanwhile I’m trying to tidy up the room a little bit so here are albums of postcards/greeting cards etc., duly annotated by Dymo label.

PS if I’ve missed sharing your card I probably shared under separate cover / somewhere else, or will do another time (thinking of you Astrid in Germany who’s art is already hanging up).

Craft Sessions

Transcribing Poetry Diaries in Kura (ambient video w/ tunes)

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Monday morning-ish, getting head spinning fluidly by riffing with ya

Just transcribing poetry notebooks, journals, diaries, and so on on a “typewriter-style” computer input device (a gift from Dome Wonderland) and date-stamping pages when done sometimes, while listening to The Matinée’s new album in kura barn studio in provincial Japan – sometimes squinting, something showing the notebooks (trying to maintain momentum).

Poorly lit, no narration, mediocre posture – working on poetry/musings book: “Circumnavigation, of Sorts” Nov. 2022, Tsuchida, Japan. That’s the full real deal.

Bonus: Circumnavigation, of Sorts “Postcard from Gravelly Beach” pod

Craft Sessions

Accordion-style Postcard Scrapbook hangout (with jazz and sage)

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various beloved correspondence, mostly post cards, cards and whatnot, taped and glued with affection, maybe from you

Hangout in the Kura barn while i light sage, spin Ornette Coleman and fill up an accordion-style scrapbook with postcards and other postal treats using various sticky corners, washi tape, double-sided tape, envelopes and odds and ends. No chit-chat (not even my lovely beard), just ambient craft session.

Grab a chair if you want some company or otherwise have a notion.

Craft Sessions

“Space out & look at notebooks” (to maintain momentum on poetry book)

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Monday morning-ish, getting head spinning fluidly by riffing with ya

Working on establishing rhythm / maintaining momentum by not overthinking + rocking a routine (incense, meditation, tea, lighting, music) and staying on course by writing mantras, keeping great books (both form and content) at hand (Gord Downie, Jack Micheline, Larry Harper, Jason Emde, Isabella Mori, Jack Kerouac), recalling the importance of exploring new forms (recalling REM’s Fables of the Reconstruction), flashback to Grateful Dead, Eugene 1990, and remembering why i am doing this (for Stanley, for Me, for Pals / you) – not like anyone else is obliging me right? – whilst in the Kura barn studio, working on poetry/musings book: “Circumnavigation, of Sorts” Nov. 2022, Tsuchida, Japan.

Craft Sessions

Typing Liner Notes in the Kura (with Joe Strummer vinyl)

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really, that’s it, just typing some small items while listening to records

Ambient hanging out typing liner notes (on an Olivetti Lettera 34) for mixed CDs and cassettes while listening to Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros box set and War on Drgs vinyls in a kura storehouse barn studio in provincial Japan.

looks sort of like this once it’s all stamped up and decorated

Yes, lousy typing technique, non-ideal posture, nice elephant dung paper, great hat, hemp shirt, easy vibes –0vaguely ASMR clackety clacking if that’s your groove.

Craft Sessions

Circumnavigation (poetry book) ~ Let’s make a start

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oh, let’s talk aloud about rather obvious topics, it’ll be fun!

From my barn studio in provincial Japan come spontaneous annotations about undertaking a new project. In this case: compiling a collection of poetry (working title “Circumnavigation of sorts”), mostly from works already written over years of rambling… Plus riffing about first setting up the right environment (lighting, incense, tea station, workbench), remembering to meditate, stretch and enjoy, finding the middle ground between “this is the best ever” and “this is really quite terrible” and thinking aloud about “what connects all of these works together?” and more talking to myself about process and limitations .

Kinda like a slacker version of #nanowrimo2022 (National Novel Writing Month campaign) except #poetry and less diligent cause i have dishes to wash, laundry to fold.