Let’s not lose each other amidst the table cloth being pulled out from under glasses and dishes. Meaning: some technical jibber-jabber about claiming feeds sparks a history of these sporadic, occasional (yet somehow charming, right?) literary dispatches from hand-written XML to various blogs and feeds and meanderings. Plus, about me! My name is Dave Olson (hi, more below). So, let’s continue to spend time together shall we?
Arrived, by post “The Widow, the Priest and the Octopus Hunter” by Amy Chavez. Lovely “just out” hardback edition from Tuttle.
Amy Chavez shares stories from a secluded island, quite nearby
Stories from an inland sea island (relatively close to Tsuchida cottage) by a long time resident and very interesting human it seems.
Noting: Amy arrived in Japan in 1993, shortly after my “Japan 1.0“ era, and years later, when reminiscing about my long distant past and curiousity about the inland sea, came across her writings (in Japan Times and other outlets) and some podcasts and whatnot… Little did I know that years later, I would end up in the area again (really couldn’t have guessed).
So far, the book is absolutely exquisite both in the design and the emotional yet somehow compact and efficient prose. I’m trying to read it slowly because I want it to last a long time.
Other activities/annotations:
Pleasant conversation with friend Neal in Metchosin, Plus a new local friend name Trevor stop by for a quick visit
Wrote 6 page letter to Ichiro for 2nd birthday #io
Sneak preview listen to The Matinée’s new music (yes!)
sweet Jerry Garcia designed Keen masks arrived
edited videos of ambient scrapbook sessions (trips to Shimane & Kyoto)
now dishes & laundry
Various evidences & annotations of above:
I figure 2+ years into all of this, might as well have a mask with a bit of flair. Acquired unused but secondhand from a shoe brand I used to use a lot and designed by a guitar player I listen to very much alot.
Noting, for various reasons my videos aren’t “monetized” just for mine/your amusement so playing records in the background (which thwacks the algorithm anyway ;)) hooray for punk rawk scrapbooking hangouts
Besides a sneak preview of their music, the Matinee segment from the tracks and tracks rock ‘n’ roll train is now out… {will post, natch}
While in the barn studio, started a new scrapbook with poetic letters and extra special correspondence…
It’s almost time to make another big batch of the scrapbooks, like the scrapbook themselves as most from last batch made on Ceningan are filled up or gifted
Of course all correspondence is special but some go into postcard folios, others into a special book for festive greetings, in this case, longer/larger form items from Topsfield, Victoria, Gifu and so on.
Typhoon weather
or thunderstorm, severe or otherwise
regardless, I’ve somehow become incapable
of even the most minor tasks
Pardon my delays i’ll try again
eventually
Also: Sprucing up the jacket with a Cascadia patch. Bioregionalism seems like a pretty good idea right about now doesn’t it?
there are some other patches on this jacket I’ll show you sometime
Anyhow,… 10 years ago, I was on a train going from Vancouver to Toronto with 10-ish rock ‘n’ roll bands, CBC Radio 3, mixed media documentary film crew and other free radicals + I was on board as Svengali-like guru ;) / advisor. And finally, the documentary is coming out in chapter/band parts…, ergo:
The Matinée at the Gladstone end of the tracks blow out (i think this is my photo but if its not, just let me know)
Blurb:
“I know that wasn’t the question, but this is the answer”
The friendship and camaraderie of The Matinée is as evident as the affable gents provide cabin tours and compare Canadian landscapes to Lord of the Rings geography while wondering “what life feels like there” as places whisk past VIA Rail Canadian train’s window.
Beyond the witty banter, they play *so much* that Matt Layzell’s voice is almost tossed into the baggage car with the empty bottles ~ from 3 AM group sing-alongs, to Lightfoot/Dylan-esque poetics in the view car (including Kiana Brassett chiming in on violin), and breaking out songs sounding like summer FM radio in a convertible turned up to 11 as the throngs cheers their beers to slinging Matt Rose & raconteur Geoff Petrie on guitars, Pete Lemon switching between brushes, tables, shakers & sticks, and Mike Young swapping bass for mandolin.
Indeed, The Matinee collectively brought the chops and the charm reminiscent of The Band on the 1970 Festival Express with easy-going sincerity, swagger & style and surprises for everyone – especially for CBC host and singer of The Smugglers, Grant Lawrence who was temporary speechless for the first time in his life.
So continues the Track on Tracks rock ‘n’ roll train adventure from Vancouver to Toronto with 10+ bands, dozens of music enthusiasts, and a documentary crew who were literally climbing the walls to capture it all. Hop on board for part 5 of 10 and see you in the bar car ready to sing-a-long.
by daveo for Green Couch
me auditioning to be “The Matinée’s honorary uncle with Matt Layzell
10 years ago, I was on a train going from Vancouver to Toronto with 11-ish rock ‘n’ roll bands, CBC Radio 3, mixed media documentary film crew and other free radicals + I was on board as Svengali-like guru ;) / advisor.
It was our own 90 person indie rock Festival Express co-mingled with the usual passengers and doing ridiculous / ill-fated whistle stop shows along the way and ended up at NxNE festival for showcase and I presented a keynote talk about social media disasters…
Recursive/meta photo of a TV with Grant Lawrence of CBC showing a TV with a video of Grant, me and others on the train from Green Couch film YouTube
And finally, the documentary is coming out in chapter/band parts starting June 8th iirc. Consider yourself warned, amused and excited.
lousy photo of interesting stack of passports etc (waiting to be) in process
I’ve started modifying old passports with ink, stamps, ink stamps, fake maps & assumed espionage… this means late night eBay buying Albanian passports. Just so many weird good items to remix i cant/wont/dont stop.
The paper is so tactile / interesting & with all the visa stamps, (stapled) photos (sometimes Mom & kids in one photo), stamps, visas, details of all kinds + occasional ephemeral papers slipped in.& almost-intimate details make such a starting point for stories. {note: takes a bit of daring to desecrate at first, however lovingly}.
I ones i purchase are $10 or so. Yugoslavs are cheap. CCCP/USSR and DDR can get more expensive. Lots of Romania, Bulgaria and old Kingdom of Greece stuff. Odd (in a way) how this sort of ephemera is abundant from some countries, scarce from others.
The US ones (above) are great, via Israel… perhaps/seems Israeli citizen(s) had applied for US citizenship, gone to US and other countries and eventually returned. these ones have a loads of country stamps so interesting to speculate on story. Again, feels rather intimate and mysterious.
Several i’ve picked up seem to be “the last one before emigrating”. Now i’ll continue the story with my odds and ends and alterations and possibly put up for sale/trade to continue their journey. {i should probably do that etsy shop…}
Passport issued by The Matinée rock and roots band for Dancing on your Grave
Oh and while i’m passporting, had an extra “headband” photo so finally decorated up my The Matinee “Dancing on Your Grave” passport. Will be scribbling in poetry and usual inky stamps on the pages within.
Note to self: finish tuning up Cascadia passport from & share here
PS since i’m typing… more random passport-inspired items in archive (i have almost all of my mine from various countries) plus other related:
As i sortganize the kura (barn)/studio, so many treasures… i will document as years go in more elegant manner but sometimes i manage a snap of something extra special. Ergo:
Couple Nick Bantock (Griffin & Sabine etc etc) originals. #needframes
More special signed items coming out including: Mark Arm (Mudhoney), Tegan & Sara… (Frank Black is back there too)
… + Billy Bragg, Joe Shithead & Randy Rampage (DOA), The Matinée, many many more.
bits of international flair from Jordan, Montego Bay, Jamaica, California and Japan (more to come…)
Added as a riff on a Throwing Muses/Tanya Donnelly etc site, no recollection of context, archiving here for ummm… archival purposes
I was maybe a little “late to the party” learning about Throwing Muses as it wasn’t until 1990 and they came to play in Salt Lake City and I quickly kept looping through Real Ramona… {Realized most of my fave TM songs were primary by TD rather than KH}.
At the time I was listening to everything from Mike Watt’s firehose to following R.E.M. on Green tour and hopping on Grateful Dead bus in Eugene and disappearing on tour…
Would rock out to Buffalo Tom, Dinosaur Jr (who have seen dozen+ of times including with Nirvana opening), Green River and then Mudhoney in between Grateful Dead shows, as well as pretty much any touring reggae band you can mention. Later hitchhiked around Europe with a scant assortment of cassettes in my auto reversing Walkman including Pavement, Sebadoh, Mickey Hart’s Planet Drum, Velvet Underground, Santana, Cornell 77…
adding an image here, for no reason, not sure where it came from (Rolling Stone?) was in my “inspiration” dossier so hey, its shiny
“Grew up” with punk rock esp DOA & Nomeansno (im originally from Vancouver) and Dead Kennedys and other mostly west coast bands, but have tapped into *everything* from so-called college rock two free jazz to all the jam bands (saw Phish in a bar in Providence with maybe 75 people and little trampolines), followed String Cheese Incident around a bit, dug Widespread Panic and moe. Went to all five Grateful Dead 50 shows before “retiring”… Now live in Japan and especially big fan of Tanya’s sorta-recent Swan Song series.
Since I’m riffing, my first concert was David Bowie with Peter Gabriel of me and when I was 12, saw The Clash the next year and hopped on stage for the encore… and just kept going since then… Got backstage for Oingo Boingo, R.E.M., played in a few small tiny bands in Salt Lake and other places, saw Gwar in Germany which was legit scary, saw so many big festivals at The Gorge in Washington, tagged along as a “roadie” – although didn’t actually do anything – for the Bad Yodelers in Germany and The Matinée in Ontario.
All right, I’ve reminisced enough, have a wonderful festive everything #freehugs
“Rock Train” Cross-Canada, 2012 / mixed media collage
June 2012, i boarded a VIA with 11 bands, a doc film crew, CBC radio 3, a bushel of photographers, a handful of fans and me as onboard community Svengali – complete a Bob Marley/Hunter Thompson inspired medical kit. Across the lands we bounded, each band performing acoustically in the glass act-deco caboose in car, they played a showcase in the “activity” car, then a rousing full rocking set at the Gladstone in Toronto for CBC Radio 3 NXNE showcase.
Along the way, we made 4 whistlestop performances which all featured lateness, weirdness and rampaging small towns before escaping back to the diplomatic immunity of the train. In those 4-1/2 days, we knew we were in a magic situation and no one wanted to miss a moment. “Every Night” we’d holler after another show where we packed in, climbing the train walls for a view of Adaline Sings, The Matinee, Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party, Jean-Paul Maurice, Bear Mountain, Sidney York, Portage and Main, Shred Kelly and more – always blown away by the variety and quality.
You probably know i made a 6or7 part podcast series – tracking the trek and Green Couch are crafting a Tracks on Tracks documentary… which i think should be 10 hours long. I gathered all my paper-y bits and pieces and made another of my commemorative story boards AKA “static montage” with CDs, stickers, snaps, stubs, postcards and even a pic from my keynote address at NXNE Interactive about social media in crisis and revolutions. With John Biehler’s help, here is the static montage, hopefully in a size you can zoom in and catch each detail. Tag it up, wallpaper it, share it. Enjoy and let’s go again!
