Sir Grump Munch

May 15, 2007

HHH07 Recap, The Wedding Job, Off to LA

Broken promises: that I was going to update more frequently and less lengthily. Still a goal I'd like to reach, but apparently not this month. Too much has been going on and it hasn't seemed like a priority.

When I last left off, it was around the time that Draplin and Ryan came down to visit and we kicked Appalachia's ass for 3 or 4 days. Great times and good company. Draplin did a few writeups: Day 1,, Day 2, Day 3,, and Day 4, and you can see about 800 of my photos of the trip on Flickr. From those you should be able to follow along pretty well and get the gist of what happened from his writing and the captions to my photos. Some gems that don't appear in either place, the Quotes. The verbal gold, paydirt. What I live for when there are two sharp-tongued friends sharing a car/motel. A few nuggets:

"You need to spit or somethin after you unleash some of that dialog."
-Aaron to Ryan, RE: Ryan's use of the word "tamarra"

"You'll get a fuckin' square-toe [cowboy boot] in your mouth." -RS
"Ooh, aren't you a hardass, drivin' around in a German sports wagon." - AD

"I'm not much too hungry right now." -RS to the waitress in Cumberland Gap, a quote which provided endless material [spoke in his best Wilford Brimley] for AD for the duration of the trip

"12-foot high cedar fence in a cul-de-sac..." -RS, improvising alt-country lyrics about AD's life, sung in a Willy Vlautin voice

"Sorry that the monk's wage doesn't allow for an upgrade from the Kellogg's dishes." -a particularly astute and cruel jab from AD to RS in a heated debate on capitalism, material goods and "selling out"

"Because he is a big man, he need a big room", "He is your father, doctor?" and "You and your stepfather..." -old Greek proprietor of Mountaineer Inn Motel to me, when I went to check in with Draplin (who is about 3 years my senior)

"What's YOUR favorite, Shaolin Seven, Return to Half-a-Shit Mountain?" -AD to RS in a discussion of great movies (Aaron's is Shawshank Redemption)

"This 'RUN.' Whatta you haulin', soybeans?" -AD to RS, commenting on Ryan's colorful, trucker-inspired postcard prose
"I'm haulin' a load o' asshole." -Ryan's response

"Watched by 43 people, loved by two." -AD to both Ryan and I on our frequent quoting of and reference to the obscure made-for-TV 1970s movie The Pride of Jesse Hallum starring Johnny Cash as a proud-but-illiterate Kentucky bumpkin who struggles to adapt to city life in Cincinnati

And I'd like to share a few proud drawings from the boys, on Field Notes no less:
1) Ryan's (NSFW!)vision of Draplin and Jay Farrar's collaboration album
2) Aaron's rendering of Ryan's soundtrack to our trip
3) Ryan's drawing of an album Aaron might like, the forthcoming Lonely Old Roads by Don Henley (seen in context with some quotes).
and last but not least...
4) Ryan's observation on the body of the typical Louisville female

Thanks to both of these gents for a fun-filled week and lots of great memories. Still haven't posted the photos from Draplin's earlier visit OR the photos from after Draplin left, hopefully I'll get to that soon. Been adventuring with these two for almost ten years now.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Angela had driven us to Lexington for an afternoon to meet up with my grandpa Tex (the truck driver, still at age 70+) who was in town for a convention. Got to spend a few pleasant hours chatting and interviewing him in his motel room (I'm trying to do biographical interviews with all of my grandparents and elderly relatives for posterity and my own interest). It's always a treat to see him, and his hilarious, no-nonsense, tell-it-like-it-is opinions are always refreshing.

The big work news in the last month is that I just wrapped up a fairly massive endeavor in the form of designing and printing a fun little wedding invitation mini-poster for fellow MCAD alum Sarah Wert. She lives out in San Francisco now, works for a cool book publisher called Blurb, and is getting married to a nice guy named Joe at her family's farm in the hills of eastern Pennsylvania on 07/07/07. After getting quotes from a couple of local screenprinters I decided that this project was going to be the impetus for me to finally get a squeegee back in my hand and purchase some real screenprinting supplies (Gocco is great for some stuff, but size DOES matter!). After a little bit of reading-up online on DIY home screenprinting scenarios, I gathered the supplies I needed and set to it. And the results were pretty good! I've documented the design process somewhat in this Flickr set, from sketches to lettering to color ideas to printing.

I could definitely use a paper cutter and some drying racks, but I'm quite excited about getting back into this and being able to produce posters, cards and stickers that I can sell online or in shops. Got lots of ideas for self-directed projects, but first I need to finish some RAMBLE-related projects:

1) Finish the goddamn journal-writing, before I forget everything or die of old age

2) Do the packaging for the thank-you gift I'm sending to the kind people who put me up, made my day or helped me out in some way

3) Compile some of the writing and a bunch of the photos into a book that I will publish this year with Blurb (mentioned above) in a small quantity, as a gift to some family and closest friends, maybe also to sell at-cost to other interested parties (more details later when I know about pricing)

Hell, I never even mailed out most of my holiday cards last year, so don't hold your breath, but hopefully those will happen soon.

Lastly, speaking of the RAMBLE, I'm flying to Lost Angeles tomorrow to spend a week with Craig and Evan working on their scooter documentary Scooter Nation, which the footage I shot on my trip will be a sizable part of. I'll be helping them wrap it up, maybe do a few more interviews and some kind of graphics/packaging for it. It will be exciting to see what they've put together, I shot about 12-13 hours of footage and never even watched most of it, so it will be like re-living the trip in a way. Will also get to spend some quality time with Tal, John Hudson and other LA friends. Looking forward to it, I'll be sure to take a lot of photos.

Oh, and I finally got a decent bicycle, a green Motobecane frame with some mix-and-match other parts. I dig it. $125 on Craigslist. And I almost forgot, I got that motherfucking thing removed off my face. The dermatologist was a pro; quick, easy, painless and a big relief. Many thanks to him. Oh, and one more thing though: MCAD buddy Andy Beach has a sweet new Blaaug called Reference Library. You better check it every day because he posts all kinds of word shit with regularity, it's amazing. Hopefully he'll never let it go to pot like this blaaaaaug has. Hell, in a couple weeks it's already better than the sum of all my posts since 2003!

Posted by pj at May 15, 2007 02:06 AM