Just Drawn That Way

Two Short Films

2011-07-24T13:33:00.001-04:00

You are the Magnet and I am Steel

2011-07-20T19:06:00.001-04:00

Swing

2011-07-07T14:07:00.003-04:00

Dancers dosey-doing it on the new dance floor at Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing last night. The music was by Hot Club of Cow Town and the eclectic crowd proudly displayed that it takes all types to do the Texas Two Step in New York City.

Body of Work

2011-07-01T10:22:00.006-04:00

Jose Manuel Carreño took his final bow with American Ballet Theatre in New York City last night at the Metropolitan Opera House.

This drawing features all the roles jose danced with ABT; it was modeled on a photograph by the amazing Rosalie O'Connor.

For the Fans

2011-06-29T09:00:00.011-04:00

Alicia Keys played a surprise show last night at Joe's Pub for her fans. The show was announced in the morning during her appearance on Good Morning America and then via Twitter. Some tickets were distributed at the Good Morning America appearance and another hundred or so were sold at the Pub--one per person with a valid ID.

Ms. Keys has played the Pub before, many years ago when her career was just starting. In fact, one of the essential early shows in her rise to super-stardom was a showcase at Joe's about the time she originally released her debut album, Songs in A Minor. Since yesterday was the re-release of the album and since Joe's is closing for a few months for some interior re-design, Ms. Keys had the notion to return to the scene and celebrate the moment with some lucky fans.

Accompanying herself on a piano alone on a candelabra-decorated stage, Ms. Keys delivered a tour de force celebration for her admirers. With a voice at times ragged from the grueling demands of her album-release schedule, she nevertheless offered an unforgettable and generous night of hits, influences and favorites to a small crowd composed mostly of folks who woke yesterday morning with no idea of the way their day would shape up.

Bonnaroo

2011-06-24T08:33:00.008-04:00

(The photo-pit during The Head and the Heart's Bonnaroo set.)

A few weeks back, I was invited to Bonnaroo to do some drawings. Most of the 35 drawings from the weekend were posted in several photo galleries over on the Bonnaroo Facebook page during the Festival weekend, which was kind of the realization of a dream for me--covering an event in real time with drawings posted almost as fast as I could draw them.

I was drawing and uploading so many so quickly that a few of them fell through the cracks and didn't get posted and so I include them here, but check out the full galleries over on Facebook (with drawings of Eminem, The Decemberists, My Morning Jacket, Robert Plant, Bela Fleck, Daniel Lanois, Mavis Staples and many others).

It's a hot, dusty, amazing and funky (in all senses of the word) couple of days and, if you ever get a chance to go, you should jump at it.

(Jim Henson's Stuffed and Unstrung Muppet improv over in the comedy tent.)

(The Low Anthem at Bonnaroo)

(Cheer Up Charlie Daniels)

The Cunning Little Vixen

2011-06-22T12:59:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, I got to sit in and watch the final rehearsal for The New York Philharmonic's whimsical production of Leoš Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen which opens today. It's a lovely transformation of the space over at Avery Fisher Hall, and I reckon the scenery and Doug Fitch's magical costumes--which are at once representational and ad-hoc, a fantasia of fabulous junk which transforms a delightful cast into forest creatures--will be missed in the international radio broadcast. The glorious score and singers however will be well represented.

It's an absolutely delightful production.

There are a few more drawings from the rehearsal over on the Facebook page for Just Drawn That Way. You can check them out via the link to Facebook on the side of this page.

(Isabel Bayrakdarian as the cunning little fox at the center of the show.)

This Guy Can Shout

2011-06-07T16:51:00.001-04:00

The Tableau Vivant

2011-05-26T10:24:00.009-04:00

On Tuesday night, Greg Walloch invited me to see and draw Sarah Small's Tableau Vivant of the Delirium Constructions (a live exploration of implausible interaction), an event billed on the program as a "performance, party, experiment and wedding." Presented in the bank building at One Hanson place in Brooklyn, right next to the Atlantic Center--a building familiar to most folks nowadays as the sometimes home of the Brooklyn Flea Market. Small's Tableau was that rarest of things--a singular, extended but ephemeral experience that defies description. If you don't know what a Tableau Vivant is, you can check out Wikipedia's summary over here.

There were a lot of folks present who took pictures and I know the whole experience was filmed (aren't all weddings filmed nowadays?), but I doubt anything can do justice to the sheer experience which was beautiful both visually and aurally, moving and sublime. (The New York Times gives a shot at reviewing the un-reviewable here.)

The complete set of my drawings from the event are posted over at the Facebook Fan Page for Just Drawn That Way (link over on the side). Anyone who I drew and wants to tag themselves should feel free to go over there and do it . . .

Scents and Scentsability

2011-05-20T14:35:00.005-04:00

So, the other day Mayor Bloomberg--the billionaire leader who prides himself on riding to work on the subway most days--chastised a reporter asking a question by saying that there aren't that many panhandlers left on the subway.

Well.

I'm not going to debate the point except to say that he's right only if you don't include all the folks asking for money.

The very night Mayor Bloomberg stepped firmly onto his tongue and shoved his foot down his throat--ok, I might debate the point a little--I rode home from Joe's Pub late. I managed to get a seat on a fairly crowded late night train (late night trains are fewer and further between nowadays, so they're a lot more crowded than they used to be). Upon taking my first breath on the train, I abruptly realized that seats were plentiful due to the presence of a homeless person and their accompanying funk.

Rather than complain and leave, I looked up and drew the above and I dedicate the sketch to Mayor Bloomberg's vision of the MTA. It's a nice story.

Visions and Legacies

2011-05-11T12:18:00.000-04:00

There was a time when I drew a lot of dancers.

I spent about two years of that period in the studio with the Martha Graham Dance Company as they sought to emerge from a crippling series of lawsuits and work stoppages that characterized the decade following Graham's death. It was a thrilling time for me--I met a lot of great people and I was exposed to an amazing vocabulary of movement and concepts that inform my work to this day.

A lot of friends have been sending me the link to today's Google masthead which celebrates what would be Graham's 117th birthday with an elegant, simple and simply terrific animation by Ryan Woodward. I love it. (Also--if you haven't seen it--you should check out Woodward's animation to a song by the Weepies--a band that has a completely different video, Red Red Rose, that debuted this week in which--coincidentally--I and my work have supporting roles.)

The image that accompanies this post is a montage of some of my Graham drawings that I put together a few years back for a show at the Fall Cafe.

I don't draw dancers as much as I used to; the Graham Company today is different from the company I worked with; The Fall Cafe is in its final days. The life of an artist is like the life of anybody--we live out our days by negotiating our way through successes and failures. We do the best we can. Martha Graham created an entire art-form in her dogged insistence on pursuing an idiosyncratic vision of what dance could be despite an entire universe of resistance. Martha did alright; Martha changed the world.

I salute her on this, the anniversary of her birth. She remains an inspiring figure.

The Reason

2011-05-07T10:07:00.002-04:00

I moved to New York City a little over eleven years ago and have filled hundreds of notebooks with drawings in the time since. These notebooks sit in a locked cabinet in the studio I share with the photographers Allison Michael Orenstein and Bernie DeChant. They just sit there.

A few weeks back I saw a stop-motion animation for a song by the Yellowbirds called The Rest of My Life, made by the song's writer and Yellowbirds mastermind, Sam Cohen. I was knocked out by it and invited Sam to come by the studio and help himself to any of the drawings in my cabinet as source material for another video. He spent a couple of days going through my sketch books and I spent a couple of days scanning, printing, coloring and re-scanning and this video is what we came up with. It debuted today over at NPR and I couldn't be prouder and more excited about it.

It's funny timing really for this particular project. This period of drawing started when my Mom died and my life changed directions. It so happens that this weekend marks the twelfth anniversary of my mother's passing and so, I dedicate my portion of this work (as I often do) to my Mom as a Mother's Day present.

I miss you, Mom. This is what I've been up to since you left.

On Broadway

2011-05-03T08:54:00.002-04:00

A few weeks back, I got to attend and draw the final rehearsals and previews for Priscilla Queen of the Desert as the cast and crew readied themselves for Broadway.

Over the years, I've had the privilege of sitting in on a number of Broadway rehearsals. It's always a charged atmosphere, a potent mix of talent, adrenaline, ego and anticipation moving forward to a common goal that is the stuff of showbiz legend; a Broadway Opening Night.

The Tony nominations were announced this morning and Priscilla was shut out and that's too bad. They're a fine bunch of folks--the best Broadway crew I've had the privilege of working with and I salute them here in my small way with a small sampling of the drawings I created as I watched them work.

Some Comics

2011-04-25T15:01:00.003-04:00

I've been really in to comics again lately in a way I just haven't been in a long time. I reckon it has something to do with going through a bunch of my old comic books from the storage unit. Poor things haven't been out of their bags in eleven years.

Twittering

2011-04-01T14:28:00.003-04:00

Andy Borowitz, appearing as part of The New Yorker presents The Big Story at Joe's Pub. Borowitz is currently leading in the polls for the lead Twitter account "shaping the conversation." That said, on opening day of baseball season and wearing a Yankees T-shirt, Mr. Borowitz asked the invited crowd if the Yankees had won their opener. That said, the audience proceeded to tell him that the Yankees prevailed, so the question did at least shape the conversation.

You should go vote for him.

Pluck

2011-03-18T12:33:00.006-04:00

The grammy-award winning, bluegrass-banjo-player and composer, Steve Martin performed three shows this week at Joe's Pub with the Steep Canyon Rangers in honor of their newly released album, Rare Bird Alert.

I could write here about the fine musical chops of the collaboration, how Mr. Martin brings all of his comedy training to bear in his role as the evening's host, mixing charming self-deprecation with a comically inflated ego, channeling the spirit of Jack Benny and his violin but twisting it to fit an imaginary version of Steve Martin, a rich, comfortable dilettante with talent.

I could go on about how the band serves as both gifted accompanists and comic foils serving Mr. Martin's music with the respect and joy it deserves while, with tongue-in-cheek winks, performing the roles of annoyed hired hands.

I could do all of that, yes. For he is a great man and his show is a great show.

But, whatever.

Instead--and this is both deeply personal and perhaps inappropriate--I take the opportunity here to point out that Steve Martin is the pen and ink artist's nightmare, a pasty white man with white hair in an off white suit holding a banjo (the only instrument that combines a perfect circle, a white drum skin and a long straight neck--a trifecta of freehand challenges).

Mr. Martin is a master of many skills, several of which come to bear in his current act, including his restless inability to be pinned down.

Just saying.

The Cabinet of Wonders

2011-03-14T17:00:00.011-04:00

(Eugene Mirman and his theremin.)

I've had the good fortune to perform some live drawing a few times with John Wesley Harding and Eugene Mirman's Cabinet of Wonders, late of La Poisson Rouge and more recently appearing at City Winery. The show is a combination of Wes and Eugene's music and comedy respectively (and sometimes combined) with an array of remarkable musicians and writers. The level of talent and celebrity that appears at a typical Cabinet show is a testament to Wes's ability to gather greatness around him and let the players play. That said, this last weekend's show was exceptional even by the exceptional standards Wes and Eugene have established. Josh Ritter, Tift Merritt, Kristin Hersh, Andrew Bird, David Wax Museum, Paul Muldoon and Jonathan Coe performed individually, together and with Wes's backing band, The English UK. (Updated video: David Wax Museum w/ Andrew Bird from the show.)

You can read about the show here and here and you can watch an iPhone video of Josh's Cabinet performance of Galahad here (and, of course, the animated video I made for Galahad here).

I got to hang out during sound-check and backstage before the show and managed to catch a few drawings. If I can't be at SXSW this year, this was a nice way to socialize and enjoy a bunch of great music all in one place . . .

(Josh Ritter at sound-check.)

(Robert Lloyd, in the green-room.)

(Andrew Bird at Sound-check.)

Drag Lines

2011-03-08T14:56:00.003-05:00

I've spent the last couple of weeks, sitting in on rehearsals and previews of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which opens on Broadway on March 20th. I can't share those drawings yet, but this is a page from my sketchbook, drawn on the train as I rode back and forth from Brooklyn to Midtown . . .

New Yorkers

2011-02-16T14:27:00.003-05:00

David Remnick and Malcolm Gladwell in conversation at Joe's Pub as part of The New Yorker presents the Big Story, a new monthly series in which New Yorker editors and writers discuss their work.

The Poison Tree

2011-02-13T13:47:00.003-05:00

Steve Salett of The Poison Tree at Pete's Candy Store Friday night. The Poison Tree album comes out on March 15th and is getting all kinds of advance buzz and breeding interesting videos that are getting attention from prestigious places and stuff, so if you're not excited yet, become so forthwith.

Galahad

2011-02-10T09:57:00.001-05:00

For the full post, check out the article over at The New Yorker.

Cultured

2011-01-10T13:55:00.005-05:00

Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal, making their US debut during globalFEST at Webster Hall yesterday. The duo play an astonishing and beautiful form of Chamber music and epitomize the type of wonder one finds all night, spread out over each of the stages of globalFEST.

Everything Old is New. Again.

2011-01-09T15:11:00.002-05:00

Uptown 6 train, Thursday night.

If you wonder where I've been, well, I've been working on a video (with John Ivy) for the amazing and talented Josh Ritter which should be appearing very soon and I've been traveling and performing a lot on my own and with Balthrop, Alabama. I'm gonna try to get back to this here blog, which continues to get a good readership even when I'm not putting new things up for perusal. For now, let me simply say (despite the sad events of the last 24 hours), Happy New Year. Let's keep trying to be better than we are.

Live from Lincoln Center('s lobby)

2010-11-24T09:18:00.002-05:00

Balthrop, Alabama is making its Lincoln Center debut this Christmas. Lincoln Center has a great new performance space over there--the David Rubenstein Atrium--with an amazing projection system built right into it and I aim to draw all over it. If you're in town you should come on along on December 16 at 8:30.

Then, on December 17--just one night later--we're taking the show over to Joe's Pub for a late night Christmas romp. We're gonna bring along some friends for the second show and it should be a blast.

I made this video using the iPad Brushes program. I've been playing with the drawing programs on the Ipad a lot lately since I got one for a conference on Creativity in Oklahoma last week. I've been thinking a lot about this drawing tool lately, but not enough to write anything about it yet. I'm interested in what folks think though, so if you are so inclined, drop me a note . . .

See you at Lincoln Center! And Joe's Pub!

Honey

2010-11-07T21:34:00.004-05:00

Last night I got to be part of an awesome charity event with the Honey Borthers over at the Williamsburg Music Hall in honor of--and material reward for--the Open Space Alliance. Everyone who turned out helped raise over ten thousand bucks for Brooklyn Parks and Rangers.

Also, some of them drank. One of them climbed right up on stage and demonstrated just how much. She was adorable.

Also, Andrew didn't lose his ranger hat. He almost did but he didn't. Which is good because he used to be a ranger and that hat's important to him.

Two of the Bandana Splits were there singing along. People liked them a lot. What's not to like?

I got to draw on stage with the band and this is what I came up with during the set. It started as just a tree, but the branches filled up.

Padded

2010-10-31T11:02:00.003-04:00

Caithlin DeMarrais on the final night of her co-residency at The Fall Cafe in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn with Chris McFarland.

Lady Rizo and the Assettes performed a bloody Halloween extravaganza at the Highline Ballroom . . .

And late Friday night, a group of musicians and producers gathered over at the Saltlands and jammed late in to the night. Rumor is that I even put down my drawing pad and picked up a guitar. But don't trust rumors . . .

Night Off

2010-10-21T12:55:00.004-04:00

My Morning Jacket is in town, playing their entire catalogue, album by album. Last night was their first night off in ten days but most everyone in the band and crew came over to Joe's Pub for bandmate Carl Broemmel's solo show. In a set filled with looped harmonies and swirling solo guitar parts, Broemmel played his sweet seventies-influenced material to a crowd of folks who were also looking for something to do on their night off from seeing My Morning Jacket's extended New York residency.

A Life In The Theatre

2010-10-19T08:54:00.003-04:00

A few weeks back, I got to spend a couple of days with Patrick Stewart, T.R.Knight and director Neil Pepe as they put the finishing touches on the Broadway production of David Mamet's two-hander A Life In The Theatre. I was asked in by the producers to create some opening night gifts for the cast, director and playwright as well as some cards for the first night crowd.

1000 Years of Mind Wandering

2010-09-06T12:56:00.004-04:00

Saturday night at Joe's Pub. Banana Bag & Bodice's production of Beowulf - A Thousand Years of Baggage and the second of Black Francis's three weekend solo sets.

During his set, Black Francis reconceived Where is My Mind, delivering a slow-paced six-plus minute version over a miniature pump organ and restrained guitar attack, a self conscious, yet completely engaged re-imagining of the song that simultaneously recognized it as a classic while delivering something completely new. And that's pretty much what Banana Bag and Bodice did to Beowulf.

A Night Out

2010-08-20T16:39:00.006-04:00

Ute Lemper celebrates the work of Charles Bukowski this weekend at joe's Pub.

The first performance was last night and it was also my first stop on an unplanned, meandering evening through the city. I had intended to stay at the Pub all evening but Bill was headed up to the Lincoln Center Atrium for Bibi Tanga's American debut, so I tagged along. We picked up Morley along the way and took the train uptown to greet the French ambassador of funk, walking along the bottom of Central Park to satisfy Morley's longing for some trees.

The David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center appeared subdued but completely engaged, except for a pocket of dancing fools whose joyous enthusiasm had spread by the end of the show.

After a quick dinner of dim sum, Bill, Morley and I headed back downtown to the Pub to catch Sean Lennon and Charlotte Kemp Muhl's new project Ghost of A Saber Tooth Tiger. It's a delicate and melodic collaboration and I look forward to hearing the entire album when it appears in October.

Fought the Power

2010-08-16T16:49:00.002-04:00

Public Enemy at Summerstage, Sunday August 15.

Broken Records

2010-07-29T08:22:00.003-04:00

The guys at URDB were on Jimmy Fallon last night but on Tuesday, they returned to Joe's Pub, bringing all their eager friends from behind the scenes of late night television to reap glory and satisfaction out of the act of achieving what has never been achieved. Like setting the record for the most fart sounds made on an Iphone while Sarah Palin's Going Rogue audio book plays. Or drawing the most covergirls from Us Weekly while singing the chorus of Jay-Z's Empire State of Mind in Pig Latin.

What can I say? Some people are born great. Some people achieve greatness. And some people have greatness thrust upon them.

And some folks, it might be said, just want to have fun.

By the way, every month, the URDB and I auction off my show drawing to raise money for worthy endeavors. This month, the drawing was sold to benefit the New York Special Olympics.

Do You Realize?

2010-07-27T14:55:00.004-04:00

After ten eventful days on the road with Balthrop, Alabama, you'd think the first thing I'd want to do after getting home from tour would be to climb in bed for a week or so. Instead, I showered, shaved, threw my things in the closet and headed over to The Flaming Lips show at Summerstage. Titus and Douglas Sneade joined me, so I'm not the only lunatic in the group.

Soon after arriving, I was hustled in to Wayne Coyne's dressing room while the artist formerly known as Tofuhut conducted a ten minute interview with the head Lip while I drew. When asked what city parks meant to him, Mr. Coyne scrambled to answer, observing that Oklahoma was pretty much one big park. That said, he added, his specific memories of parks mostly involved tripping, smoking weed and a profound youthful encounter with a badly injured man at the site of a car wreck. How this information will be turned in to a promo for Central Park remains to be seen, but it was deeply honest and offered graciously.

About the show, there is not much I can say. I had the extreme privilege of sitting in the pit between the crowd and the band, so I was fairly close to a great deal of unadulterated joy on every side. If you've heard simply that a Flaming Lips show is a good time, you might well be taken aback by the explosion of weird beauty the band delivers.

As for me, last night was hands down the best way to spend the final night of the best tour I've ever been on and I only wish the rest of the town had gotten to come along.

Higher Def

2010-07-14T14:56:00.004-04:00

John Ivy and I made this video for Sxip Shirey's Brooklyn Bridge Song. I drew it and came up with the basic notion and John animated it and came up with notions I never dreamed of--to go with Sxip's beautiful little tune, from his forthcoming CD, Sonic New York (Aimee Curl shares vocals on the song).

I approached the New York Times with the project when the video was about two-thirds of the way finished and they liked it enough to include the finished version on their Opinionator blog about a month back. Because of the vast amount of material the Times presents and keeps available in their archive, they compressed the file we gave them (which had already been compressed before they got it) and, regrettably, some of the detail was lost. That was a drag, but we were very grateful for the exposure and support. There is no better professional satisfaction I have experienced than seeing my work appear in the Times and I look forward to working with them any time they'll have me. But I really wanted folks to see the cleaner, less compressed master.

And now, the Times has kindly allowed us to post the video ourselves over on our various YouTube channels, and so Brooklyn Bridge Song gets another debut.

If you like it, share it. We're very proud of the collaboration and are currently at work on a follow up or two). Stay tuned for more details!

Just Drawn That Way

2010-07-12T12:47:00.002-04:00

Harvey Pekar, 1939-2010. I'm glad I got to draw him at least once while he was alive. I'm especially grateful that it was for such an amazing project.

In The Ocean of the Stars

2010-06-25T11:36:00.000-04:00

Peter Salett, last night at Joe's Pub.

Bridge

2010-06-24T14:15:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, Pascal, Bernie, Chris and I watched America vs. Algeria under the arch of the Manhattan Bridge in Dumbo. There might have been a better place in the city to watch, but I couldn't say where it would be.

I'm learning more and more about the game as the stakes get higher and higher. When the winning goal went in, everyone leaped to their feet and cheered so loud I expect folks riding the rumbling Q train in to Manhattan 200 feet or so above us probably looked around to see where the noise was coming from.

Later, Chris and I sipped a vodka lemonade in Brooklyn Heights and watched an Algerian soccer fan wrapped in his flag at the bar.

"He's gotta be bummed." Chris said.

"It's a lose-win for him," I pointed out.

"How so?"

"He's bummed as an Algerian, but he's an American too. He wins."

Smoke

2010-06-16T14:44:00.004-04:00

Chris knew this place. He always knows these places.

It was late last night, and we were wandering the West Village after watching the Celtics fall apart in game six. The air inside was thick with the smell of cigars and cigarettes. I ordered a scotch because it seemed like the sort of thing one was expected to drink in a place like this and we found some space in the back to reminisce about Tweet and the nooks she always found to hold her candy.

"I wonder how they get away with smoking in here?" Chris mused as he sipped his boxcar.

"They probably wouldn't tell us if we asked," I replied as I pulled out my pen and paper.

On the other side of Chris's head was a row of lamps I couldn't see. "Why didn't you draw the lamps?" Chris asked. "They're my favorite thing about this place."

The waitress brought us another drink, I turned the page and watched the smoke curl around the lampshades like a past that was no more.

Taking A Break From All Your Worries

2010-05-17T13:27:00.012-04:00

If this sounds like a love letter to Joe's Pub, then so be it.

I hadn't planned to stop by the Pub Friday night, so I didn't have any pens or paper with me, but Arati and Caro were only in town for the weekend and Bernie and Laura wanted them to see the place. So, finding ourselves in the neighborhood, we slipped in for a quick visit, just to show the folks from out of town where we spend so much time.

And that's where we encountered PJ Morton and the people who love him.

We took our place up in the booth just about the time his first set was ending, so we were there at Last Song and Encore Time--a song called, "I Need You" which echoed the build of Prince's Purple Rain until switching gears seamlessly into a sing-along cover of the Theme from Cheers which in turn became an impromptu gospel workout.

I borrowed a ball point pen from Kevin and started drawing on the back of an equipment-inventory sheet.

A few days earlier I had asked Sara and Alex what was coming up soon on the Pub calendar that was an absolute Do-Not-Miss. They both rolled their eyes, sighed and complained that everyone always wants to know that and that there's so much potential for amazing every night, there's so much that they look forward to booking and sharing, that it all sort of blends together. They didn't mention PJ Morton, but he was exactly the sort of thing they weren't talking about.

Alex and Sara have what we call "Good Problems."

Bernie, Laura, Caro, Arati and I had intended to stay just for the last couple of songs, but we remained where we stood (and Lauren joined us) for Morton's late show. It would have been impossible to leave, to step out on a show that built to that type of finish. The crowd was testifying and texting, singing along and sending pictures to people who were missing it.

"I want you to know my name!" declared PJ Morton as he worked his way from I Need You into the Cheers theme for the second-set crowd.

A choir that had been a crowd responded in song.

I'll tell you what.

PJ Morton played a set so good at Joe's Pub, he made me use a ball point pen.

Reasons

2010-05-13T21:49:00.012-04:00

Clare and the Reasons, last night at Joe's Pub.

It's been a while, I know, but I moved studios, Laura and I moved apartments, I went through all my stuff and packed it and then I unpacked it; except for the stuff I got rid of, the stuff I left behind, the stuff that was part of my life but isn't now. Because you can't keep everything if you want to live in New York City. Especially when you're trying to fit two lives in to one apartment.

I used to put a lot of arrows in my drawings. I thought they were neat.

I thought they were an interesting way to add movement to a drawing. Plus, they're sort of a challenge to draw free hand, to get good and pointy and to get the proportions right.

Then Kimberlee told me they weren't neat and she didn't like them and I realized she was probably right. Plus, they were a pain to draw, to get them nice and pointy, to make the proportions work and stuff.

Besides, frankly, they were a cheat.

I was drawing a lot of dancers at the time and, as a graphic representation of motion, well, arrows were a pretty clever cheat. Still, when it came down to it--and either Kimberlee knew this or she just had a thing about arrows--there were better ways to draw movement and I would figure them out.

So, I used to really like to draw arrows, but I don't anymore and I don't miss them.

Last night, Clare and the Reasons ended their set at the Pub with their cover of That's All by Genesis.

I used to love Genesis.

Back in college, I used to love Genesis.

I saw them live in concert a few times and I remember thinking--when the album with That's All came out--that I didn't like Genesis as much as I used to, that That's All wasn't a very good song and Genesis wasn't a very good album and I probably started listening to REM or 10.000 Maniacs about then.

Last year, when I first heard Clare and the Reasons' version of That's All, I grinned from ear to ear because they had found something wonderful in a song I hadn't much cared for and they had turned it into something truly special.

As far as I'm concerned, Clare and the Reasons now own That's All. (Although, I bet Banks, Collins and Rutherford charge them something for the privilege.)

Now, I liked Clare and the Reasons from the first time I heard them a few years ago singing Pluto, their song about how we got rid of Pluto, decided it wasn't a planet we wanted to keep and tossed it. I like how they said the New York Times reported it and so it was true, but that Pluto shouldn't take it so hard.

It was a great song and I made everyone listen to it. I put it on mix CDs and stuff at the end of that year and gave it to folks and told them it was one of my favorite songs from the then last 12 months.

Right now, I think Clare and the Reasons are better than Genesis. There. I said it.

Also, last night, in honor of their new album, Arrow, Clare and the Reasons wore shirts with silver arrows and jeans with a black tape arrow which meant I got to draw arrows for a reason other than cheating. And that's new.

There's all this stuff we carry with us in life, and there's all this stuff we leave by the wayside and there's all this magic sitting in places you never expect to find it. Arrows can be direction markers or shortcuts, always pointing us one way or another. For good or bad, that's what they do. We can obey and go where they say. We can try to draw them like we know where they should aim. Or we can aim to move forward like a perfect point at the end of a line and hope for the best.

That's all.

ELO

2010-04-12T13:08:00.003-04:00

Ethan Lipton and his Orchestra, celebrating the release of Honker--their new fan-financed album--at Joe's Pub, Saturday April 10, 2010. Brownies were served. Fans were satisfied but requested more. More was given and appreciated.

Everyone should experience Ethan Lipton.

Easter Rising

2010-04-07T08:57:00.002-04:00

Justin Bond and Taylor Mac celebrating Easter Sunday at Joe's Pub with an inspired duet of Were You There. If you weren't the magic can also be seen over here.

The Last Word

2010-04-02T09:48:00.002-04:00

Titus and I went through all the Balthrop, Alabama videos from the Texas tour and put together a little memory reel. This is what we mostly looked like on the road to Texas and back.

Life On The Ranch

2010-03-30T09:59:00.003-04:00

Down in Austin, we had the night of our lives with the Theatre at the Ranch gang, enjoying an after the show hootenany with some of the best folks we've found.

Our first Austin show was a benefit for POPWORKS, which is "a new venture created for raucous, mind-bending, foot-stomping, heart-breaking artistic events and media. POPWORKS is always looking for creative, ambitious, enthusiastic accomplices to help realize our particular brand of practically impossible performance."

And--I guess to prove their point--they turned their driveway into a concert hall, their yard into a bourbon-lover's paradise and at least one bedroom (Thanks, Sam!) into a five night sleepover spot.

"I'm so happy," Jemison beamed somewhere in the night that included David Garza strumming and playing in the living room and driveway, with me, Georgiana and a stand-up-bass-slapping Douglas Snead joining along for a song or two. Chris Searles was there as well, getting us two thirds of the way to a full on Twang Twang. A few days later David was inducted into the Austin music hall of fame, so it was mighty kind of him to drop in. (By the way--Twang Twang makes their New York debut at joe's Pub next week.)

After the Balthrop set, Reese tickled them ivories like he meant to break a land-speed record and Westen played every instrument he could reach down and get his hands on while Adriene sang like a depession era angel. It was about as fun as fun can be.

We aim to go back because once you've seen fun as fun can be, you've gotta go back, you've just gotta. Mad thanks to Sonnet and Sam and Adriene and Westen and Reese and David and Chris and everyone else who made the stay so hard to leave!

Vanity Piece

2010-03-25T03:53:00.003-04:00

They didn't make the cut, these two.

First of all, that does not look like Lou Barlow. Secondly, I used the musical note thing in the Watson Twins drawing. Done and done.

The rest of the drawings made the cut, but these two didn't. To see the 19 other drawings from SXSW 2010 that I drew for Vanity Fair, click here.

Piano Man

2010-03-05T17:09:00.001-05:00

Jamie Cullum at Joe's Pub, Wednesday March 3.

Sessions

2010-03-03T16:08:00.003-05:00

Chris Buckridge on bass and Bernie DeChant on camera at recent sessions for Lauren Balthrop's solo record over at Saltlands Studio.

A few days later I returned to Saltlands where Lauren, Josh, Jason, Annie, Steve and I recorded a song I wrote a while ago that's gonna go on the album. It was pretty cool, but Bernie wasn't there and I was busy singing, so there's no real evidence that it happened.

Until the rekkid comes out . . .

Through the Cracks

2010-03-01T16:58:00.005-05:00

For the last couple of weeks, Bernie and I have been moving the studio from the Gowanus area over to Dumbo, I've been working on the Velveteen Rabbit designs, we've been getting stuff ready for a couple of Balthrop shows (and upcoming tour) and I recorded a song for Lauren Balthrop's upcoming solo album.

It's been a busy, crazy, exhausting time.

But, as a consequence, I have a bunch of drawings that I haven't had time to post. So, I'm going to play catch up a little and post a few of the ones that slipped through the cracks.

Like, for example, this drawing of author and storyteller, Dan Kennedy.

A couple of weeks ago I was hanging out backstage at the Bowery Ballroom, waiting to go on with Nicole Atkins. The dressing room was pretty packed with the various writers and musicians and friends of the writers and musicians who were performing that night. I was sitting over on the couch, a little nervous and doodling--trying to get warmed up--and I quickly drew this little portrait of Dan. I meant to post it in Facebook and tag him, but he's not in Facebook (though he tweets in Twitter), and I didn't get to scan it before I took apart the scanner for the big move, so here it is now, a quick drawing from a packed green room.

And here's the video from the show, me and Nicole Atkins and David Byrne . . .

Nicole Atkins & David Byrne, Neptune City from Nicole Atkins on Vimeo.

The Velveteen Rabbit

2010-02-26T10:58:00.004-05:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been working on drawings and designs for the Manhattan Children's Theatre production of The Velveteen Rabbit which opens this weekend. My friend Chris wrote and directed it and he asked me to design it and it's been a ton of fun to work on.

The set is a pretty simple (and dang elegant) notion, but the back wall is a big projection screen and there are all sorts of surprises which I won't say much about because then they wouldn't be surprises. I will however shout out because the technical director, John Ivy, has created some UNBELIEVABLE animations out of my drawings. Seriously, I never imagined that my stuff could look so cool!

I'll also posit that the crew over at MCT has done an amazing job of turning my hare-brained design notions into real and wonderful theatre. Finally, I'll swoon and giggle and mention that Chris's script (and his original score) has taken a classic melancholy children's story and injected fresh feeling and joy. Aw heck, while I'm at it, I'll say that the casts are great and the whole thing has been a lot of fun.

So bring the kids and check it out!

Blizzard

2010-02-11T17:03:00.002-05:00

The Poison Tree, live at The Living Room, February 10, 2010.

Benefits

2010-02-08T18:21:00.011-05:00

Last night, The Drama League hosted its annual star-studded benefit up there at the Pierre Hotel. A year ago, I sat in on all the rehearsals and did some drawings that were sold at auction to raise some money. I guess it went well, because they asked me back again.

This year, I wasn't able to hang around as much as I would have liked, but I did get to spend a good day watching some of Broadway's finest leading men --including Cheyenne Jackson, Chad Kimball, Derrick Baskin, J. Bernard Calloway (among others)--work on a musical tribute to Angela Lansbury and I spent a lovely couple of hours drawing while Donna Murphy worked out her big number.

It's always amazing to me to watch what professional Broadway stars can accomplish in a limited amount of time with good will, fear contained in humor and the knowledge that when the curtain goes up, they'll be in front of people with high expectations so they'd better be as close to ready as they can get.

No one puts up a show on the fly like the good people of Broadway.

As I left the studio, I found myself surrounded by a throng of young men entering a room across the hall for a cattle call casting audition. It was hard to move in the crush of bodies working it for their big break. The hopefuls looked behind me, star-gazing at the room full of former Tony winners and nominees on a break, checking messages, grabbing a quick bite and catching up with old cast mates. One of the hopefuls looked at me, smiled and gestured towards the room they were cramming into. A piano played "There is Nothing Like a Dame" and guys stretched and nervously went over routines.

"Want to come audition for South Pacific?" he asked me.

I put away my drawing pad and laughed. "Not in the slightest," I lied.

Casting Shadows

2010-02-05T09:47:00.006-05:00

On Wednesday, I joined the lovely Nicole Atkins on stage over at the Bowery Ballroom for an acoustic set of tunes. The evening was part of the Stories in High Fidelity series and also featured readings by Alan Light, Dan Kennedy, Jason Gordon and a talk by David Byrne.

And then, as a special--well, amazing--thing, David joined Nicole and I on stage for a version of Nicole's Neptune City.

"That was a very New York night," said Laura in the cab on the way home.

I've said before that I never dreamed of living in New York when I was a kid and it's true. I didn't come in to the New York experience with any expectations. If you had told me ten years ago when I packed up my stuff in Austin, that I'd be drawing in front of people on stage in New York with people like David and Nicole--let alone that I'd be doing it regularly as a member of Balthrop, Alabama--I'd have thought you had a spectacularly active imagination.

"Yes." I said, smiling, as I looked out over the city from the Manhattan Bridge. "Very New York.".

Photos by Laura Wyatt. Thanks to Laura and Liz and Nicole for making this happen!

Be My Valentine!

2010-02-01T17:46:00.004-05:00

It's unlike me to become sentimental and mushy, but I guess this year I'm just in the mood to be romantic.

Balthrop, Alabama is playing a special early evening, Valentine's Day show at Joe's Pub this year and I'll be drawing on the big screen just like I do at all the shows. This time around everyone in the band has come up with a new song and we're practicing a few covers and word on the street is that I might even sing one that I wrote myself.

Upon further reflection, that last bit may not be a strong selling point, but it's better when you know that it's a duet and Georgiana Starlington (Lauren Balthrop) will be singing half the notes.

In honor of the event, I made this video to go along with the Facebook invite. Enjoy and spread the word, This Valentine's Day, Balthrop, Alabama at Joe's Pub is the place to be!

Records

2010-01-22T12:13:00.003-05:00

This week, I went and set a record for drawing the most world record attempts in a single sitting. It's the sort of thing the Universal Record Data Base people recognize and it's about time somebody did.

When I was asked to do it, I was initially reluctant. "What do I have to do?" I wondered.

It was explained that I would have to come to the show that the URDB is now doing monthly at Joe's Pub and draw it.

"Let me get this straight," I asked. "In order to set the world record for the Most World Record Attempts Drawn In A Single Sitting, I have to come to a show at Joe's Pub and and draw it?"

"Yes," I was told.

Well, that seemed doable--in the sense that it was something I often do--so I did.

Beyond all the glory--the piles and piles of sweet, sweet glory, god I love the smell of glory--the event allowed me to video the whole process, making this the first portrait drawing I've got any footage of. If you're wondering who all the record holders are and what their big achievements were, here's the list:

* Most Goodfellas Quote Exchanges With A Puppet In 1 Minute - Pat Sauer

* Most Insulting Tweets Directed Toward One Person In One Minute - Streeter Seidell (College Humor)

* Longest "Oh, Man" Response To A Crowd Interruption - Cory Cavin (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon)

* Longest Time Hula Hooping While Standing On One Leg - Ella Morton (Rocketboom)

* Longest Time Not Talking About One's Cheating Whore Of An Ex-Wife - Dan Evans / Thomas Middleditch

* Fastest Re-enactment Of The Shining's "I'm Gonna Bash Your Brains In" Scene - Esther Crow (lead singer of The Electric Mess)

* Most Boob Wiggles - Rachel Sklar (Mediate, The Huffington Post)

* Most Post-It Notes With Adjectives Written On Them Affixed To One's Body - Opus Moreschi (The Colbert Report)

* Most TV Shows Named In One Minute Where One Word In The Title Is Replaced With The Word "Horse" - Kumail Nanjiani (Michael and Michael Have Issues, David Letterman)

* Corbin "The Rustler" Day vs. Josh Golding in a "Longest Tape Measure Extension Toss" Battle Royale

And the evening's hosts were the gentlemen in yellow, Dan Rollman and Corey Henderson.

Check it out:

Hooded

2010-01-21T16:32:00.002-05:00

F train, late on a recent winter night.

Active Culture

2010-01-16T15:21:00.005-05:00

The Under the Radar Festival invited Balthrop, Alabama and me to play upstairs at the Public Theater's LuEsther Lounge last night. Normally, the LuEsther Lounge is a rehearsal hall and sometimes theatre space where Shakespeare in the Park and other Public Theater plays practice. But for the UTR Festival, the room gets transformed into an after hours party palace.

After the Balthrop set, I stuck around and drew on the big screen during DJ Acidophilus's set as well. DJ Acidophilus is the nom de guerre of Bill Bragin, director of outdoor programming for Lincoln Center and the former director of Joe's Pub. Bill's musical tastes and curiosity are eclectic and relentless in the best way possible. Anyone who follows Bill on Twitter will soon find that he's a man on the constant prowl for something new or the current manifestation of something excellent and established or an idea or notion that swirls the cultures of the many into a new blend, that he's thinking about whatever he's looking at and listening to and that he is always ready to move on to something cooler than whatever it is you're doing.

ALWAYS.

So, when he asked me to draw while he played, I said I'd love to, because following an idea by Bill Bragin has never steered me wrong.

"Maybe you should give me an idea of a theme or something for the drawing?" I suggested to him earlier in the evening, before we began.

After the briefest moment of thought and flashing a smile he replied, "Just go where the music takes you."

It's that type of thinking that gets a person like Bill Bragin to the places that only a person like Bill Bragin gets to. You could even say that it's a mighty sound philosophy.

A World of Music

2010-01-11T15:29:00.008-05:00

(Burkina Fasa's Alif Naaba making their American debut.)

Last night Bernie, Laura and I met up with John over at Webster Hall and took a tour of the world.

With fours stages of music, 13 or so different acts and five hours of celebration potent enough to pull anyone out of a winter funk, Globalfest was back in town. Every year, New Yorkers reap the benefits of hosting the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference, for APAP brings a crew from across the country to New York for an extended booking binge and a host of talent eager to jump into the marketplace and bringing their best. It's a win-win for everyone and a chance to see music experimentation and traditions one might otherwise miss.

It's also about as cool a music experience as one is likely to find.

(above and below: François Ladrezo & Alka Omeka from Guadlepoupe)

The atmosphere is congenial and festive and most rooms feature folks packed in like dancing sardines. My favorite band--or at least the band that surprised me the most by combining styles I never imagined I'd hear together--was Namgar, a band I didn't get to draw. Namgar is from Russia and combines Mongolian folk singing with a sound you wouldn't be surprised to hear emerging from Iron Maiden's amps. Namgar was lush, epic, gorgeous and completely unexpected, which is exacly the sort of thing I have come to expect from Global Fest.

(Caravan Palace from France, making their American debut. They're like a cross between French swing and a disco apocalypse.)

(La Cumbiamba eNeYé from Colombia and the United States)

At the end of the night, I was left with a vision of a smaller world with infinite possibilities, I was wearing a big smile, and I had music in my head that I couldn't even imagine a few hours before.

I had, in short, been to another Globalfest.

The Sun King

2010-01-09T11:07:00.003-05:00

Richie Havens at Joe's Pub, Friday January 9, 2010.

Memphis in the Mean Time

2010-01-05T13:15:00.005-05:00

The City Champs at the Hi Tone in Memphis last Sunday afternoon.

I've been wanting to see the Hi Tone since I first wandered through Memphis with Balthrop, Alabama, but we always end up playing somewhere else. If anything, starting a new year of music by spending an afternoon at the Hi Tone with Laura's dad (who seems to know everyone and to whom all table-wanderers wander) only makes me want to get up on the stage there and draw with the town even more.

We got there kind of early as the City Champs began their Booker T-influenced soul set. As we were sitting there, we were joined by a variety of folks, including sax-man Jim Spake who set down his instrument, leaned back and took it all in, before joining in on the third set.

The City Champs are coming to New York next month with the North Mississippi Allstars and I expect I'll try to see them again then and I'll bring my memory of a cold afternoon in Memphis at a great club along for the ride.

"The sound here is just great. It always is," said Laura's dad like a proud poppa. I hope we get to find out for ourselves one of these days . . .

Happy New Year

2009-12-28T23:20:00.001-05:00

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T18:28:00.002-05:00

Cookie Monsters

2009-12-21T08:57:00.006-05:00

For the last week or so the apartment has smelled like ginger and butter and fresh baked goodness as Laura has been preparing for the great Cookie Takedown.

The Takedowns are the brainchild of Matt Timms, the man, the legend, the celebrity-craving genius with the hand-painted heart of gold. Matt's a friend and neighbor who consistently beats me at Facebook Scrabble and then gloats like an evil villain in a Bond movie about it, not that I'm bitter, no, that would be wrong. Matt's notion of the Takedown started with a Chili Takedown and has moved on to Bacon Takedowns, Lamb Takedowns and countless other Takedowns in a growing number of cities across America with a growing legion of sponsors and supporters and an increasing focus of media attention. Matt's Takedown will no doubt expand to global domination because Matt Timms is a driven dude and he knows that people both like to cook and like to share and if you set a table, they will come.

And so it came to pass that the holiday Takedown call went out to cookie makers and here my worlds collided, for I happen to live with and love a pretty and sweet baker who likes to hand out cookies. Laura had never done anything like this, but she jumped in with both feet and made a run for the gold.

In order to perfect her recipe--the top secret Dark and Stormy Cookie--Laura tinkered and experimented with ingredients, cooking times, temperatures and cookie sizes. "What do you think of this one?" she'd ask and I'd eat another cookie and try to think if it was better than the last one I'd eaten. It was a burden, yes, but I carried it because . . . well, I got to eat a lot of Laura's cookies.

Laura was one of the first contestants to arrive, so she had her pick of where to situate herself at the long table. I recommended that she grab the center--number sixteen. Soon, all the places were filled and the sold out tasters were swarming over the cookie trays. Gloved hands handed out cookies and people jockeyed for first place--"vote for me!" they'd say as if their cookies didn't say enough.

It's kind of a sugar-rush blur, what happened next. I remember that I grabbed a glass of egg-nog spiked with bourbon and rum and filled a plate with cookies from the table. There was a bacon, peanut and pecan cookie and there was a "nacho-momma" cookie. There was a cookie that looked like an egg-roll, stuffed with brownie mix and drizzled with an espresso reduction. There was something called "The Stoner Cookie" which scared me, but I ate it because I ate everything like a damn stoner. There was a ginger snap cookie and something called the Chocolate Decadence and oh-my-lord-there-were-so-many-cookies-I-might-be-sick-for-a-week-no-seriously.

It was, to be frank, a hipster feeding frenzy.

When the dust had settled and awards distributed, sadly, it happened somehow that Laura did not take home the hundred dollar first place prize. It should be noted however that the top prizes went to the contestants on her left and right, so I wasn't completely wrong in my advice on where to set up; I was just slightly off.

I sampled a lot of cookies yesterday, perhaps more than I've ever tasted in my life. But I reckon I didn't eat any cookie better than Laura's Dark and Stormy. There's probably a lesson there, but I'm not going to tease it out any further than to say that Laura's cookies are the cookies I crave and home-baked is best.

Also, it should be noted that Matt Timms is a mad genius. He'd want me to end this that way, and so I will.

All the Hits

2009-12-20T12:26:00.002-05:00

Our Hit Parade celebrated the year and the decade with two shows last Wednesday night.

Our Hit Parade is the most consistently amazing and inconsistent cabaret show out there--and, to be clear, it's mostly way out there. Murray Hill might have said it best in his toast to the show when he described it as one of the last shows that isn't afraid to become a hot mess. Hosted by Kenny Mellman, Bridget Everett and Neil Medlyn, Our Hit Parade can be outrageous, sweet, polished and at times so rough it looks like the only plan planned on was getting to the stage with or without clothes and, by the way, does anyone know where we put the microphone? It's not for everyone, but in a world more perfect than ours it would be.

The first show of the new decade will be January 27.

Bridget Everett

Magnetic Fields, getting cosmic.

Neil Medlyn

New Rules

2009-12-11T09:02:00.005-05:00

I've had a general rule of not posting drawings from the live shows, mostly because I believe Show Drawings are like theatre--things that happen in the moment and are unique experiences for the folks present at the event.

But rules are made to be bent and broken.

On Wednesday night, I sat in with Michael Leonhart and the Avramina 7 and drew on the big screen while they played their mix of heavy funk psychedelia. The day before, Michael had finished the final mixes on his new album, The Seahorse and the Storyteller, so he was ready to show off.

After Soundcheck, Michael and I sat down and talked about some of the narrative and notions behind the music. The concepts are dense and the musical images vivid, so I spent a couple of hours letting them bubble beneath the surface while I wandered the city doing Christmas errands and other things. When I got to the Pub, I had absolutely no plan for the drawing, other than to try and draw the musicians and maybe capture some of the images swirling around the music.

But plans are made to be bent, broken and laughed at by the gods.

What emerged instead was the drawing above and I don't have much to say about it because it seemed pretty magic to me. It looks like we'll try to do this again a few more times, these concept concerts of funk and ink. We'll set up and play and let the music and the story take us where it will. As plans go, it seems pretty solid.

The next show is at Joe's Pub on January 9th.

By the way, the current issue of Covers magazine has a feature on Michael and his music and another on me and my drawings. Check them out; the P-funk revolution has begun!

Happy Ending

2009-12-03T13:18:00.004-05:00

John Cameron Mitchell read and sang as part of Amanda Stern's Happy Ending Music and Reading Series at Joe's Pub last night.

Earlier in the day, the New York State Senate had voted down the Gay Marriage Bill. "They'll all be dead someday," Mitchell sighed and shrugged, before unfolding some crumpled pages and reading aloud from a journal he kept during a trip to Russia for a screening of his film, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The screening had been part of the first gay and lesbian film festival in Russia, a festival shut down before it could screen any film and driven underground in a land still emerging from underneath it all. The memories read aloud were bittersweet and poignant, and sadly less distant on a day when even the most impassioned hopes could not move the mountain of fear.

All participants at the Happy Ending are required to take a public risk and, for his, Mitchell concluded by singing a lullabye in Russian. In days gone by, he explained, the song he chose was broadcast every night on Russian television as a sort of transition between the broadcast day and the evening news. Mitchell talked about how everyone in Russia knew it and sort of hated it as a fossilized artifact, a dust-covered tune incapable of being new.

He sang it sweetly and beautifully and the room was as reverent, attentive and fiercely present as the room gets.

It was a same old song that almost no one there had ever heard before. It once signaled the end of a day that would start again, the same, tomorrow. It was sort of beautiful and sad and I can't tell you what it meant, but it will stay with me for a while.

Selling Out

2009-12-01T16:27:00.002-05:00

I've just listed these and a couple of other prints for sale over at Etsy. There's a very small number of them available, so if you are interested, head on over there and check out the Inklines Etsy store.

Sweet Home, Chicago

2009-11-26T13:04:00.003-05:00

Last year I missed the big family Thanksgiving in Phoenix for the first time in about twenty years.

This year the family moved the celebrating from the chill of Arizona to the temperate climes of the greater Chicagoland area to be with my Aunt Pat, because she hasn't been up to much traveling of late. Pat is the last sister of my grandmother's generation. There were originally five sisters and one brother and they had seventeen children amongst them and then that generation gave birth to my generation.

As anyone who has been reading this blog for a couple of years will know, we're a close family and our Thanksgiving dinners usually have tables set for between fifty and seventy five folks. We're lucky enough to all enjoy each other's company; seems it never matters who you find yourself standing next to, you're just happy they're there.

So, anyway. Chicago.

This is where we're from, the Mervis clan, but it's been a very long time since we celebrated here, so I've been looking forward to the trip for some time.

When I was a kid, we celebrated holidays, birthdays, weddings and pretty much every weekend together on the banks of Honey Lake in Barrington on what was left of my great grandfather's farm. We ate together, swam together, laughed together and all the rest of it. We were well fed and there were always candy bars and soda pop and caviar and little clab craws and if it seems like a dream, it probably was. But memory makes everything better than it was, even the bad stuff, and our collective memory wears the nicest pair of rose colored glasses you're likely to find. The farm's long gone and we've spread out across the country, but we like any excuse to get together and make new memories.

So, this year in Chicago.

Then, a few weeks shy of the holiday, Pat passed away, leaving us without a member of her generation for the first time in our lifetimes. And that puts an air of sadness over everything. But this group, tends to find joy in sadness and I guess the lives of those that have passed are all the more reason to cling together and keep on churning out the good times.

So this Thanksgiving is for Pat. And Joy and Pook and Jack and Merv and Tweet and Babe. And Carolyn and Peter. And Nana and Grandpa. And Carl and Norm and Buddy and Milt and the Judge.

And for all the younger folks and new members of the clan that didn't get to meet everybody, go make enough new good times for the future generations to talk about.

It's Thanksgiving and we have so much to be thankful for . . .

Help

2009-11-19T15:19:00.005-05:00

The Medicare and Social Security Office, 26 Federal Plaza, Manhattan, 31st floor, Room 120, Wednesday around noon.

Face Dances

2009-11-18T15:46:00.003-05:00

Stay With Me

2009-11-13T15:44:00.003-05:00

Ian McLagan at Joe's Pub last night.

It was one of those nights.

I'd been looking forward to this show for a while. I'm a big fan of McLagan's and I admire him. He's played on some monstrous tracks in some tremendous bands with some hugely talented people and seems to have gone through his life living it precisely the way he has wanted to, with abandon and a healthy recklessness that you can practically hear when he plays and sings. He was in the Small Faces and then The Faces, he's played with the Stones and the Who and Dylan and continues to tour frequently with Billy Bragg and with his own Bump Band. And every week he plays a free show in Austin for tips and has a grand time doing it.

As I took my place in the back and the lights went down, I began to smile with expectation. Soon after the show started, Elvis Costello snuck in and took a seat in the booth next to mine. "I didn't tell him you were coming," said a friend of McLagan's to Costello and Costello just smiled and watched from the dark this unassuming legend of the keyboard, continuing to do things his way.

The Man Who

2009-11-11T18:02:00.004-05:00

Fran Healey, singer and principal songwriter for Travis, last night at Joe's Pub.

Healey and his bandmate, Andy Dunlap, have been in residence at the Pub for the last few days, playing songs, telling stories and showing slides of their adventures along the way. It's a little bit of Brit-pop nostalgia and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that, but Healey's a gifted story-teller and the show is generous and good-spirited. There's another show tonight and then they finish up their run tomorrow.

Risks

2009-11-05T15:36:00.002-05:00

Janeane Garofalo performing as part of the Kevin Allison's RISK! podcast series at Joe's Pub last night. Full episodes can be downloaded at ITunes or through the RISK! website here.

Running Up That Hill

2009-11-04T15:20:00.004-05:00

John Forte with special guest Carly Simon and band at Joe's Pub last night.

The Field

2009-10-29T15:28:00.003-04:00

We used to live in an apartment within walking distance of Wrigley Field.

This was back before Wrigley had lights so all of the games were played during the day. I was a Cubs fan as a kid and I went to many a game with my Mom's room-mate Annie and her boyfriend Rocco. One of the best days of my childhood was when my grandfather talked to his buddy, the legendary Cubs announcer Jack Brickhouse, and managed to get us out on to the field before a game. I will never forget the thrill of walking through the gate and past the guard near the dugout and being introduced to Pete Rose at the plate as he was warming up to take on my Cubs. He extended his hand and the vivid memory I have of that greeting is looking down my tiny arm to a lost hand swallowed at the wrist by the grip of the largest fist I've ever seen in my life.

For the most part we were Bleacher Bums and my love of baseball will forever be tied up in the memory of those afternoons spent at 1060 West Addison.

Now I live in New York and we have two teams here just like we had back in Chicago. I'm not a huge fan of either, but I've been to a couple of Mets games and I do like it when my home team wins. Last night Chris and I watched the opening game of the World Series at his place and ate some take-out and we saw the Yankees get their hats handed to them.

It ain't over till it's over and the fat lady hasn't sung yet--she barely seemed to warm her voice last night--but I'm looking forward to watching some baseball in the coming weeks and remembering the day my grandfather became my hero by walking me out on to the grass at Wrigley Field.

Voices

2009-10-23T12:51:00.003-04:00

Adam Matta, the human beat box at Joe's Pub. It was a night of exceptional voices creating exceptional sounds.

Masai Electro joined Matta for the opening slot.

My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden joined Adam for a song and then Black Sea Hotel started their set with Shara out front on ukelele.

Shara Worden tends to create magic whenever she sings and last night was no exception as she entwined her song with the four harmonies of Black Sea Hotel.

Things that Fly Away

2009-10-22T13:31:00.002-04:00

The Star Man

2009-10-19T10:37:00.002-04:00

Color by Isabelle Weber.

Open Studio

2009-10-16T17:04:00.004-04:00

This weekend, I'll be participating in the open studios sponsored by AGAST (Annual Gowanus Artists Studio Tours), so if you ever wondered what my work space looks like, now's your chance to see. I'll be selling prints of many of the pictures you've seen on this blog and originals of many drawings never before seen outside the studio. I also have a large selection of dance prints that were made for the various books I've put together over the years and these will be available at very low prices. Also, there's a bunch of very large drawings that don't fit on my scanner that no one's really ever seen. I share a studio with photographer Bernie DeChant and with Laura's help, we've made the place look great, so come on down to the Gowanus and say hello.

As an added bonus, the AGAST folks have hired free pedicabs from Jay street because the F train isn't running.

I hope to see you this weekend. For more info, click here.

Pekar

2009-10-14T16:21:00.002-04:00

I was asked to contribute a drawing of Harvey Pekar's head in honor of his 70th birthday and I was right honored to do so. The original idea was to have 70 artists draw him, but as you can imagine, a lot of people wanted to be involved. You might even say that any cartoonist worth his or her salt wanted to give Pekar a little head for his birthday, but that would be wrong and you shouldn't.

To see the entire gallery check out the Pekar Project over here.

Big Band

2009-10-12T15:10:00.002-04:00

Michael Leonhart and the Avramina 7 brought their big band funk to start a Fall/Winter residency at Joe's Pub with special guest star Yuka Honda last week. Leonhart has two more shows at the Pub--one on November 4th and one on December 9th--and word on the street is that that big screen behind him (which always has interesting video and films when Michael plays) might be filled with the pen and ink stylings of yours truly at one of them. Stay tuned for details.

Practice

2009-10-07T13:45:00.012-04:00

Last night's practice was the last one at Castle Anthrax. Seems the neighbors went and put a wall where our window used to be. That new wall blocks the view and the intake on the central AC, two things the town of Balthrop, Alabama had been right fond of. The thing they gave us to make up for the central air looks kinda like an R5-D4 droid without a fan and it doesn't do much of anything when it comes to cooling. Luverne 'bout passed out last time we practiced.

To be honest, the view of the BQE and this truck out front that some gypsies lived in was about all the place had going for it. Well, that and memories, but we can take memories with us and go build some new ones. In retrospect, we should have paid attention when the gypsies left; no one ever does.

Anyways, it was a small crew that showed for the big musical send off. We had gathered to get ready for the MOTHERLODGE Festival this weekend, but at first it was just me, Jemison, Titus, Aurora and Luverne with a lot of pizza and a couple of bottles of wine.

So the four of us ate some and drank some and started playing.

The first song Jemison started to sing was a new one. I reckon you'll hear it one of these days, because we all liked it and it sounds good when he sings it. Then he played a real old one that sounded new. Luverne knew it and got all weepy because it brought her back some, but she played along with a smile.

Aurora had to play a bunch of the horn parts on her own because a bunch of the horn-part-players were off playing somewhere else. Benton Whitehall was at practice with Cotton Tyler Guin, getting ready for next week's show at the Mercury. Douglas Sneade was off elsewhere seeing his buddy Lou.

And that's not all. Babbie's over there in Paris, France, getting cultured; she's the youngest resident of Balthrop, Alabama ever to learn something and we're proud of her for it. Clanton "Lake" is traveling the highways and byways of Europe and these United States, playing along with Dawn Landes. Grant Fyfe found God or some-questions-about-God-worth-asking, so he's up West and up early most days seeing to it.

Georgiana was babysitting, so she came late.

But the band played on, these good songs worth singing, and got ready for another show and a move on to someplace else.

We'll see those of you that are coming on Saturday night at Goodbye Blue Monday for the Mother Lodge Festival. Wear something pretty and we will too.

And don't forget to drop by the Fall Cafe and take a look at some of my art sometime this month. It looks nice in person.

Smoke Break

2009-10-06T13:14:00.003-04:00

Last week, Chris and I had a slumber party, so I spent the night in Chelsea. On my way to the train the next morning, I stopped for a cup of coffee at a place on 18th near Sixth Avenue. There was a woman sitting a few stools down from me at the table that ran the length of the window, looking out. We both drank coffee and gazed across the way to some guy watching the street activity between us.

The woman pulled out a camera and I pulled out my drawing pad, so somewhere there's a companion composition to this drawing. The photographer and I looked at each other and smiled, but she didn't ask to see the drawing and I didn't ask to see the photograph.

And then I caught the train and went home to Brooklyn.

Show

2009-10-05T10:59:00.003-04:00

There's a show of my drawings over at The Fall Cafe on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens for the next month or so.

Included in the exhibit are the original drawings for Mike Viola's Good Ideas Grow On Trees video and Jamie Leonhart's Who Says Words video. Come on along to the reception or any time you're in the neighborhood.

Chelsea Morning

2009-09-28T12:27:00.003-04:00

The UN was in session last week.

For a couple of days, New Yorkers had to share their streets and air-space with presidents and dictators, diplomats and spies. I don't know how often Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops in where you live, but if he has, you know what a pain it can be on a commuter schedule.

On Friday, I ended up wandering around Chelsea with my cousin Chris. I had meant to be somewhere else doing something else, but the city got in the way, so we rolled with it, sat down outside at the Standard grill, ordered a dozen oysters and a glorified pitcher of sangria and watched for quiet moments on a windy and warm Fall day.

Lost

2009-09-18T12:49:00.004-04:00

Bryant Park Station, FVBD downtown platform.

All You Need is Love

2009-09-13T11:14:00.003-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Laura and I headed out to Flushing Meadows for an afternoon to watch some US Open qualifying matches. This drawing was originally intended to be a part of the Summer In The City blog post I did for the New York Times, but at the last minute, the editor and I decided it didn't really fit with the others.

The Way It Is

2009-09-09T20:19:00.006-04:00

CBS News invited friends and colleagues to remember Walter Cronkite this morning at Lincoln Center. I went along as a guest of Bill Bragin, head of Outdoor Programming for Lincoln Center and he managed to get us great seats. Among the impressive speakers were President Clinton, Buzz Aldrin, Leslie Moonves, Andy Rooney and Tom Brokaw. There were also musical performances by The United States Marine Band, Mickey Hart, Jimmy Buffett, Michael Feinstein and Wynton Marsalis. President Obama spoke last, spending the morning of the day of his major speech on health care reform before Congress, praising a man he never met.

It was a good speech and worth reading, if you are inclined. The President's other speech tonight--quite rightly--will be the one most folks will be talking about tomorrow, but I'm glad I got to hear this one as well, a reflection from the Commander in Chief on the importance of those who tell the truth and a testament to the individual who was once the most trusted man in America.

The Conversation

2009-09-01T13:09:00.004-04:00

A couple of weeks back, I was on the A train late in the evening. It was a stupidly hot night and as we passed through lower Manhattan, this guy got on, sat down and started singing "A Change Is Gonna Come."

Anyone who lives in New York and rides the subway frequently knows that this is one of the "go to" songs of the un-trained train singer, but this guy wasn't looking for hand outs or donations, he was just singing and telling it like it was. I know he was telling it like it was because he told me he was telling it like it was. He told the guy next to me too and may have mentioned it loud enough so that everyone knew.

He kept looking at me looking at him from across the seats and started telling everyone that it may have seemed like he was the one doing all the talking but in fact I was the one driving the conversation.

"This man here," he said gesturing to me, "he's saying more then me, saying more than any of us and he isn't even opening his mouth, isn't saying a word, but he's got some eyes that are looking and they're making me sing."

And he sang some more.

The Captain

2009-08-24T07:35:00.002-04:00

Kasey Chambers, her husband, Shane Nicholson and her father, Bill at Joe's Pub last week.

(re-)Passing Strange

2009-08-21T08:49:00.003-04:00

Just slightly over a year ago, I got to sit in on the final day of filming for Spike Lee's take on Stew and Heidi's Passing Strange. Now that the movie is out and getting all sorts of rave reviews, I thought I'd share a link to the original post.

Medal Winner

2009-08-16T16:09:00.003-04:00

Chita Rivera and a few other luminaries were awarded the Medal of Freedom this week. I thought, in honor of her getting a new piece of jewelry, I'd re-post this drawing from a few years back.

I got to draw Ms. Rivera during the final weekend of the Broadway run of her show, A Dancer's Life. Prints of the drawing were given as Closing Night presents from one of the producers to the cast.

Earlier this year, my path crossed Ms. Rivera's again, backstage at the Theatre Guild Benefit. She was holding a paper plate from the make-shift catering table and talking to the drag queens and showgirls in the dining hall we were using as a green-room below the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center.

There's something truly special about watching the mundane world of backstage chatter when it features a living legend. Yesterday at the gym, when I looked up at the television and saw the President of the United States tying the Medal of Freedom around Chita Rivera's neck, I flashed back to the woman sitting on a fold-up chair and smiling, turning her head to greet another well wisher, a grand dame of theater, still waiting for her cue, perpetually ready to get on stage and hoof it.

Tour pics

2009-08-13T10:53:00.007-04:00

So, for most of July, I was out there on the road with the town of Balthrop, Alabama, drawing on the big screen while the band played all the hits.

(You can click on the Facebook sidebar over there on the right if you wanna catch up on our many video updates from the trip. Georgiana Starlington got real serious about her role as a talk show host and was all the time making these videos about what our favorite things were--the Balthrop, Alabama Facebook page is full of them.)

During the trip, I decided it would be fun to try and draw a journal of the road from the car. I have to admit, I wasn't too diligent about it, but it was fun while it lasted. It started strong enough as we left the Northeast, but I was pretty much over it by the time we hit California (the road drawing, not the tour).

We had a good time as always. Everyone in the band gets along so well; we mostly laugh to pass the time. It helps that everyone's clever and kind and you couldn't ask for a better group of folks to cozy up to for a seven thousand mile drive around the country. Sometimes we smell bad, that's the truth, but the less said about that the better.

You meet a lot of interesting people out there in America. In the Midwest, this woman who ran the club we played, came out to watch as we were strapping some of our gear to the top of the van. "Sounds like you're whipping jews out here!" she declared. We must have looked at her funny, because she quickly tried to defuse the situation, by saying, "It's OK--I made out with one last week."

I gotta say, we put on a pretty good show. Don't take my word for it though--there was this guy that came up to me after one performance and told me, "That was the best three dollars I ever spent! Seriously, that there was a ten dollar show!" I guess we're still trying to find our price point, but in troubled economic times, it's nice to offer folks a bargain.

We like to swim every chance we get and have been known to detour miles for a good swimming hole. In Montana we jumped into a mountain stream that was about the coldest water I've ever dipped my delicates into. Chris lost his sunglasses in the current, I left some shorts in Chicago, Jason left an air mattress cover in a hotel somewhere and Pascal had to buy a fancy new bathing suit in Phoenix, but for the most part we returned with what we had, plus a tan. Josh was peeling from his sunburn after California, which he'd never done before. He still looks like Josh, only one layer of skin less and darker.

One of our favorite nights was the night we got to Amarillo about the same time as a Texas thunderstorm. For the last mile or two it looked like we were racing a tornado to town and we might just lose, but we got there in time and had a great show.

The evening ended in a recording studio owned by the guy who ran our sound that night. He had a bottle of good tequila--which he drank exclusively because beer has too many calories--and a bunch of talented friends, and he was generous with both. So we stayed up late--but not too late--listening to music and being inspired. It was the kind of night that makes the madness of touring seem completely worthwhile. Maybe, we're just lucky, because, out on tour, we have a lot of those nights. Or maybe we're just blessed to have a rabbit farmer that goes beyond all reason to take a town on tour.

I'm not gonna try to figure it out, I just count myself as a fortunate man.

Anyways, we went to a lot of places I've never been and I wish we'd had more time to see more things, but, for the most part, the trip was a joy and I miss everyone now that we're back, despite the fact that I see most everyone in the band fairly often.

We'll probably do it again one way or another. There's a lot of swimming holes we missed and there were a couple of places we played where the four or five folks who showed up promised to bring more friends next time we came. In the meantime, we have a few shows closer to home and it's nice to be back in New York City.

This last drawing was started the first night of the tour in Pittsburgh and I finished it up in Athens, Ohio on the last night. It was my warm up sheet, the doodle page I played around with while I was focusing the camera and adjusting the screen. It was background to the band sound-checking and collecting the gear and if it looks like a crazy swirl of activity, then there's probably a reason for that.

Wall of Sound

2009-08-10T10:15:00.008-04:00

Last Wednesday, 200 guitarists, 15 bass players, four section leaders and a visionary composer gathered over at FIT to prepare for the rain date of Rhys Chatham's Crimson Grail. Last year's scheduled performance was reluctantly called when a day-long downpour left the power cords leading to the 50 watt amps submerged in puddles and the guitarists vulnerable beneath the saturated tree branches of Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park.

2/3 of last year's participants returned to try again, wandering in to the great conference center to mingle with the new recruits. The guitarists were directed to four large, separated rooms, to learn again their tunings as well as the symphonic vocabulary and conducting cues they would need to perform the piece. All were given new Ernie Ball guitar strings and a place to set up and everyone collectively began practicing and hoping for a clear sky.

The guitarists were divided into four groups--alto, tenor, bass, soprano--and then subdivided again and given specific tunings. For two days a vocabulary was established, a communication system was worked out and a leap of faith was taken that the whole would be greater than the sum of its parts, which, given the number of participants and the complexity of the conception, was both a great leap and a large sum. The four section leaders, primarily guitarists themselves joked good-naturedly as they worked at being conductors.

On Friday night, the entire group assembled in the main hall and gave The Crimson Grail its first full run through since the final practice a year earlier. Designed for an outdoor performance, the walls of the room struggled to enclose a sound that possessed a life of its own and a palpable desire to be let free in the world.

Saturday ended up being one of those glorious New York summer days, with low humidity and perfect weather. As the afternoon wore on, clouds appeared but did not threaten, and the players assembled again in Damrosch Park.

The performance itself was unlike anything I've experienced and I won't much try to describe it. I put my head down and drew until the finale of the piece lifted me from my seat along with all the rest of the crowd. I will say that catharsis in theatre and music is rare and highly valued and I understand that a little better now than I ever have before.

It's a poor substitute for being there, but if you want a sense of the musical power that drove the drawing below, you can check out the finale of the piece over here.

Road Stops

2009-07-19T23:33:00.004-04:00

Some days I feel like I'm in showbiz more than other days.

Right now, for example, I'm sitting in the downstairs green room of a burlesque club in downtown Portland, waiting for tonight's show to begin. About half and hour ago, I was climbing around on a Go Go platform, looking for a place to plug in my projector. We have to make tonight's set quick because the real show starts at 11:00 and my equipment will need to be off the platform by then.

We've been landed in Portland for the last three days, getting a little resting and relaxing in before turning south through California. In the week and a half before we hit Portland we drove across the country, singing (the band), drawing (me) and entertaining folks (all of us) from Pittsburgh to Spokane. If you haven't been following the story, it's all available on the Balthrop, Alabama Facebook page in glorious full-color photos and video.

Anyways, here in Portland, Shannon Busby loaned us a house she just bought. She hasn't moved in yet. So, we set up our air-mattresses, walked over to the Safeway a few blocks away and bought us some frozen lasagnas and Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Life on the road is really all about whatever the opposite of glamor is. That and doing your laundry when you can. But it's all worthwhile because we get to put on a show most every night and the folks who show up tell us they have a good time.

So, come see us in San Francisco or Atascadero or L.A. or Phoenix or Tucson or Albuquerque or Oklahoma City or Athens, Ohio. Check here for details.

Black and White and Read All Over

2009-07-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

This weekend, I made my debut in the New York Times. I've gotten many emails through this blog and the website and it's been overwhelming, humbling and, well, awesome to be out here on the road, reading through them. I'm gonna try to answer as many as I can, but tonight we're camping out in a National Park in North Dakota and I'll see how far I get before my battery dies.

The drawing above is a doodle page from my recent stint at ABT, one that didn't end up in the article. It's from the first day, when I was trying to get my pen moving to remind myself how to draw dancers.

If you haven't seen the New York Times piece, you can check it out here.

Good Ideas (still) Grow on Trees

2009-07-11T10:02:00.001-04:00

I'm reposting this video I made for Mike Viola because a lot of people are coming here for the first time today and, well, I just wanna.

I'm out on tour with Balthrop, Alabama right now. We're driving across the country, headed to the West Coast right now. Check here to see if we're doing a show near you. Come up and introduce yourself if we are. I hope to see you in Minnesota or Montana or Oregon or Seattle or California or one of those other states out there on this long, amazing road!

In the meantime, here's what we look like when we were out there in March. I know this is also a re-post, but when the Old Grey Lady links to you, a lot of people stop by to take a look! Hope to see you out there somewheres . . .

Writer at Play

2009-07-06T11:03:00.003-04:00

Suzan-Lori Parks performing in the workshop production of Father Comes Home From The Wars (Parts 1,8 &9) at the Public Theater.

Nina

2009-06-28T22:35:00.005-04:00

Nina Ananiashvilli retired from American Ballet Theater Saturday night. You can read all about it here. This drawing includes every ballet she danced at ABT and was presented to her Saturday night.

Booker

2009-06-11T13:18:00.003-04:00

Booker T and his band at Joe's Pub last night, promoting his new album, Potato Hole, which he recorded with members of The Drive By Truckers.

"You hear the words?" Booker T asked the crowd after one of the loudest seven or so minutes of instrumental, organ infused rock the area around Astor place has ever experienced. Every song Booker T plays has a story to it; it's in the title and the music and if you can't exactly hear any words, that's OK, that unmistakable sound will get you by.

When the band swelled into Booker T's classic Green Onions--three songs into the set--he introduced it humbly by saying simply, "Here's a song I wrote when I was fourteen."

The performance that followed was intense, subtle and loud, abrasive and smooth and as economical and alive as the day he first recorded it with The MGs.

Any Day of the Week

2009-06-04T14:07:00.002-04:00

Mandy Moore returned to Joe's Pub last night, performing songs from her new album, Amanda Leigh with her collaborator, Pub-favorite Mike Viola. The Pub was packed, the crowd enthusiastic and the music sweet.

"We're not putting you to sleep?" Moore asked timidly after a string of quiet pop songs with simple string, piano and guitar accompaniment. By the end of the set, the crowd was thumping the stage, demanding one more song, which she delivered in the form of a completely re-conceived and off the cuff ("Should we bring the strings out again?" Viola asked before running off stage to gather them) performance of her teen-hit Candy.

Moore will be on Jimmy Fallon's show tomorrow night, backed by Mike Viola and Kelly Jones (if you missed her appearance on Leno from way back when Leno hosted the Tonight Show).