Corporate Art, Izenmania Style

I don't generally consider myself an artist, at least not in the conventional sense (by conventional I mean visual... I participate The Arts, primarily as a musician). I'm a mediocre sketcher at best, and I rarely draw anymore, with occasional exceptions. I certainly don't paint or sculpt or anything. But heck... sometimes an idea just sort of strikes you, and you run with it.

So SiteCrafting, where I work, is getting new business cards. This, combined with the fact that I never ever give out business cards, means I have a whole crapload (probably in excess of 500) of outdated cards. It seems a mighty waste to throw them all out. So I grabbed a stack (about 105) and brought them home, and here's what happened...

We're Not Conquerors. We're Just Nerds. Nerds With Sandwiches.

Something has been bugging me for a couple weeks, ever since the Driscoll Incident. Dan Voelpel started it. Driscoll carried it on. Neither of them can really be blamed, though, because since then it just keeps going and going, popping up nigh everywhere. To quote Voelpel's Trib article:

Fired up by the inspiration, some in the crowd decided they needed to act to take back Frost Memorial Park, next to the North Park Plaza parking garage, from the ne’er-do-wells who hang out there.

Ever since then, the phrase "take back the park" has been bouncing around the feed like mad. Everyone's saying it, from participants to academic observers. And, quite frankly, it's just making us look like idiots. Any outside reader with a little bit of neighborhood activist experience is going to look at this and say "What? You can't drive off unwanteds by eating lunch in a park on a sunny Friday at noon." And they would be absolutely right. If we really were out to get "ne'er-do-wells" out of our neighborhoods, the lunch hour is not the time to do it. How much criminal activity or whatever was really going on that we somehow foiled? Probably none. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong places, but I haven't seen a lot of crack dealers trying to cash in on the lunch rush.

I mentioned in an earlier entry the group of elderly women who set up a card table on a drug-ridden street corner and played bridge in the middle of the night. That's how you drive off criminals... go to a place where they are, when they are there, and plant yourself. The notion that the same thing will be achieved by what we did (and will continue to do) is ludicrous.

So what were we doing? When Patricia first brought it up at the Go Local event, her reasons were fairly clear: word on the street suggested that the city was looking at constructing a fence around the park to discourage criminal use. Unfortunately this has the side-effect of discouraging legitimate use as well. However, as it stood, the trade-off was an easy one to make because there simply weren't enough law-abiding park-goers. The goal, as I understood it from Patricia, and passed it on to the feed, was to demonstrate use, and thereby prevent the fencing off.

Unfortunately, once one article latched onto the "take back" notion, everything got twisted around. Driscoll took Voelpel's statement and, curious to see what "taking back the park" was like, went down there. I would have been curious too, if I hadn't organized it to begin with. The fact is, even if we had been there in force that day he would almost surely have been unimpressed. We aren't demonstrators. We aren't vigilantes. We're barely even activists at this point. We're a bunch of businesspeople and residents using a park the way it ought to be used: eating lunch, socializing, networking.

I fear that a lot of this is just shades of the "flash mob" debacle from last year... one person uses a phrase not recognizing that it doesn't fit the circumstances, a couple other people latch onto it because it's catchy. Those being described object at first, but eventually pick it up as a joke. Eventually it has entered common use and everyone has forgotten that it has very little to do with what was actually going on.

I'm all for taking back the park. Any of them. If anyone feels like meeting in the same park at 1 AM on a Saturday morning, I'll show up, guitar and all, and lead a frickin' sing-along. I won't do it by myself... stories of this working demonstrate that it is most successful with a group large enough that the aforementioned goons and dealers recognize that they won't be able to intimidate them. I don't care how afraid you are to walk around by yourself at night... nobody is going to attack a band of 10 bystanders just so they can sell a rock or two.

But I'm also all for what we're doing now. Because I think it is important. But it's also important to understand what's really going on. The fancier our label, the loftier we make our goals seem, the less impressive our effort becomes. We did a good job of using the park as a park. But if you pretend we were trying to reclaim it from villainy, we just look like a bunch of misguided incompetents.

And here's the kicker: it really is largely my fault. If I had thought of all this before everything got started, I probably would not have gone with:

We can keep the dialog going and start retaking our public space at the same time.

In my head I was thinking much more eagerly of the idea that one meeting wasn't enough, and that getting everyone together with whatever excuse would be good to keep up the dialog. Unfortunately I didn't think my phrasing through and now this "take back the park" catch phrase is rattling around the blogosphere, when it really shouldn't be. We either need to ramp down the rhetoric to match the action, or ramp up the action to match the rhetoric. I know which makes more sense to me. How about you?

Wright Park Fusion

Okay, so as far as music goes, you'll mostly hear me talking about the now-mostly-defunct This Shirt Is Pants (probably in an effort to unload some of our pile of CDs on you... it's true, I'm shameless) or Out Of Sight, Out Of Mind, the group of my dad's that I've been playing with (March 27th, 7-9 PM at Rhapsody In Bloom, by the by). But in truth, my musical heart will always be in one place: Mr. Fusion.

I started playing and writing with my buddy Erich nigh on 8 years ago, in the Spring of 2000. Over the years we've played a small handful of shows, recorded one album (admittedly demo-quality) and accumulated a catalog of (apparently) 40 tunes. I'm sure we could have a lot more, honestly, but it's been a very off-and-on process, with large gaps (months, nearly into years sometimes) where one or the other of us will be busy with school or work or some other thing.

However, we've finally reached a point where we both have quality full-time, fixed schedule jobs, some spare time, and a large build-up of creative energy, so Mr. Fusion is happening again. Unfortunately I live in an apartment, and Downstairs Man is not always pleased to hear us a-rockin', despite our best efforts to keep it quiet. Saturday, however, we had a brilliant idea. The weather is starting to be more reliably decent (or at the very least dry), and so, after the latest request to keep it down while Downstairs Man graded papers (can't fault him for that), we decided to pack it up and head out to Wright Park (a whole block away).

It worked out great... we found a spot right by the park's cannon, just off G, sat down on a couple rocks and played to our hearts' content. It is always good to have a chance to up it to full volume... I'm a fairly loud singer, and the doumbek can rattle a room a bit, if given the chance. Better still, we had a chance to entertain a few passers-by, be they walking their dogs, carrying groceries, going for a jog or just looking for someone to talk to (and my, wasn't that an interesting conversation...).

Anyway, we both had a lot of fun, and, weather permitting, I suspect it will be turning into a regular thing. So if you're ever wandering around Wright Park on a nice Saturday afternoon, don't be surprised if there's music in the air... it's probably us. Taking back the park for acoustic musicians everywhere. Or something. You may even start to see us elsewhere... Frost Park? Tollefson Plaza? Who knows? If there's a couple places to sit and no-one to complain about the volume of our un-amplified guitars, anything is possible.

Also within the next couple months I'll probably start posting samples of our renewed recording efforts. Good times to be officially had by all.

Izenmania: Now With More ART!

This fine piece of Tacoma cartoon commentary (originally seen here) is now a permanent fixture in my home:



It looks down at me from above my computer/blogging station/recording studio to inspire my own personal blogger uprising.

The Tacomic birthday party at the Helm was, like so many of these little gatherings, a joyous cluster of the Tacoma blogland community... everyone from TacomaChickadee to TacomaMama to Girlfriend In Tacoma, plus of course Clan Freitas, the Urbanist, and His Nachoness himself. And many others that I am leaving out because I only feel like making so many links per entry.

There were also quite a few people walking by, presumably leaving Barber of Seville, who peered inside and then scampered off, clearly not brave enough to join us (probably because by the time they got out the show was winding down. I do wonder, however, if maybe a sign on the street that said "ART SHOW: More then 100% free!" or something to that effect might have drawn strangers into what may have looked like kind of a private party (what with everyone talking to everyone as if they knew each other)

Ownership of Change: Part A

(warning: this is another example of what happens when I "participate" in forums and discussions; I go, I watch, I listen, I say maybe one thing and then I go write my arse off)

I attended the Go Local Or Die event/form this evening. Attendance was great... a core of Tacoma bloggers, business owners, artists and other concerned citizens. A lot was said by Jim Diers about what it takes to build a neighborhood and a community (and I do mean a LOT... he really could have talked for a third as long and gotten all his points across). We then got a rundown of the general opinions and positions and panelists, which, quite frankly, can be found by reading the blogs or going and getting a haircut at Embellish, it seems.

I'm sure, considering the attendance, that others will do a better job of pure reportage on events. I want to talk about a single point which made a remarkable number of appearances in the discussion. The question was put to the panelists and to the attendees: what one action or mindset change would you like to see everyone in this room take up? One gentleman spoke up on the litter and general garbage problem, and pointed out that the city is good about handling things when told. His point being that rather than walking by and going "the city should do something about that", it is perfectly reasonable, and indeed our responsibility to call the relevant authorities and give them a chance to do their jobs.

Sue (thanks for the assist, RR) from the 100th Monkey parties then spoke to the lack of racial diversity at the event, something she had noticed at the Monkey events as well, and made the very valid suggestion that the best way to combat this is for the people who notice it to go out of their way to invite people from other groups, be they religious, ethnic, or whatever.

There is a common theme here, wrapped up in a comment from our own Urbanist, panelist Erik Bjornson. In a nutshell, he challenged the room, a room full of people full of ideas for change, full of enlightenment and energy, to make their own change. Gandhi said it best: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." When you see a gap in your community, it becomes your responsibility to fill it. And if you don't take action to fill it, you lose the right to complain about it. You can look at graffiti, or drug dealers, or even something as simple as lack of greenery in your neighborhood, and you can go a couple of roads. You can sit with your friends and neighbors and complain about the uselessness of your government: "Oh, they really need to do something about this/that/the other thing." Or you can take a long hard look and ask the much more important and much more useful question: "What can I do about this?" Any time there is a failing in a society or community, it boils down to one thing: nobody stepped up to fix it. And if we cast our gaze around and see the government or the established community failing to move forward, the only responsible thing to do is step up ourselves.

There are some people who are doing this already, of course. Erik and Morgan believe in the streetcar movement, and are pushing to the forefront on that issue. Kevin saw a need for aggregation and information exchange, and thence came feed tacoma. And obviously the organizers of this event are making strides toward a larger scale of change.

Diers's presentation was chock full of examples of this. A man in Seattle concerned about youth crime and graffiti devising an alternative to criminal sentencing: putting the perpetrators under the supervision of professional artists painting murals on the very warehouse walls that were being tagged. A group of grandmothers who set up a card table on the street corner and played bridge in the middle of the night to keep the drug dealers away. Whole neighborhoods taking advantage of city fund matching programs to build parks, playgrounds, community centers.

Here's what I think: I think everyone has a crusade in them. Everyone has a cause, however large or small. Some people think that their neighborhood needs better streetlights. Some people complain that there is no good coffee in walking distance. Hell, some people just wish there were other folk out there who love to watch Project Runway.

And you know what? Some people call Tacoma Public Utilities. Some people open their own damn coffeeshop. Some people find a few other bloggers and organize a weekly girl's night in. But there are so many other people who would even think of doing these things. They'd stay in their well-lit house at night, drive to Starbucks every morning, and spend their evenings pining for a community of friends that they don't have.

So you all have a bit of change you want to see in your world, on some level. And here's the thing that people need to come to grips with: never think that your cause is too small to be worthwhile. And never believe that your crusade is too vast to be accomplished. And above all: never assume that someone else will pick up where your thoughts leave off. Take ownership of your vision, and then make it reality. Want change? Make change. Cause change. Be change.



If you get the impression that I'm being fairly non-specific and staying away from my own vision for change, well... I am. It's late and I have work tomorrow, and anyway, I doubt people want to read too much of my rant all in one sitting. But stay tuned for slot B. I'll get there soon enough.

Freedom Of Art In Tacoma

A couple different diatribes have come up recently in the Tacoma blogland, and they've got me thinking a bit (as I am wont to do, from time to time).

The first is a Matt Driscoll interview with Girl Trouble's Bon Von Wheelie over at Spew. The main focus of the interview is on the world of pay-to-play, and the battle against it. This is something I know a bit about. This Shirt Is Pants played a few shows for Big Time Entertainment, one at Studio 7 and three at Hell's Kitchen. We, I think, had an advantage over some bands, in that we knew exactly what we were in for. A couple of the guys had worked with them before, and so we were under no illusions. But we were also one of the older bands on the bills (in our early 20s)... I saw a lot of junior high and high school kids desperate for a chance to play on a stage. It's likely that they ended up there the same way we did: we could get a show at a decent club with no resume, no demo. That's the attraction, even if the end result is an empty pocket and a sour taste.

Honestly, in those shows, the worst part was not Big Time themselves. The worst part was the treatment from venue staff, particularly at Hell's Kitchen. The sound techs were well aware what kind of show they were doing, and it showed. They clearly didn't give even the slightest crap about the quality of the show. The lease was paid, and it was their job to watch and make sure nothing exploded. And I really think they were missing out on a great opportunity. Yeah, there were some crap bands. But there were also some remarkably talented kids. And how many of these kids were discouraged by poor treatment from venues? This is the biggest harm that I saw come out of pay-to-play.

The second blog that caught my eye was a rant about the lack of genuine art in Tacoma from Voronoff the GhostCritic (also known as Aaron Trotter). Growing out of the aftermath of Steve Craig's passing, Trotter's vision is of a Tacoma where artists nurture each other, where art happens spontaneously at the true whim of the artist, rather than living on conventional gallery walls.

I went out and did ArtWalk Thursday night. I had (embarrasingly) not once set foot in the new Tacoma Art Museum or the Museum of Glass, after a childhood of going to the TAM three or four times a year. So I finally went to both. I started out with a lap around, and they are pretty cool buildings. But upon entering, I found myself utterly unimpressed. I am by no means an art critic, or a visual artist, so maybe I was missing something, but I've seen a decent amount of art. I've seen art that made me think, made me wonder, genuinely grabbed me by the [insert anatomical bit of your choice] and made me feel. And this weren't it. Oh sure, there was a lot that was pretty, that held some level of aesthetic, but that, to me, does not make art worth my time.

The only work that I saw that genuinely gripped me in any way was one large piece by Mary Mann at the UWT Art Gallery. It wasn't visceral or anything, but at least it caught my eye and my interest.

The fact is that both of these articles speak to the same issue, the same need. For any artistic community to flourish, be it visual, musical, theatrical, anything, it needs both artists and patrons. Artists can come together and work, draw and paint, play and sing, encourage and inspire each other, but all that creates is art for artists, and that's simply pointless. Art is a means of communication. Artists can talk all they want about not caring what people think of their art because it's personal expression, but the fact is that they wouldn't be expressing at all if there wasn't something they wanted to get out there. And if they are limiting their audience to simply other artists, then they are, frankly, useless. The best thing a song can do is reach the heart of a non-musician. The greatest goal of a painting should be to grip the soul of a passer-by who has never once laid brush to canvas.

Unfortunately, to do this there must be an outlet. This is why musicians need concert venues, and why making these places utterly uninviting to the unknown band can utterly kill a local scene; why artists need galleries, and why restricting them to a few contracted and conventional painters rips the soul away from an art community. What Tacoma lacks is any other option, though. A place where unknown artists can walk in the room and slap something on the wall. A place where a few friends can get their bands together and put on a free show for the rest of their friends. A place where we aren't restricted by ticket fees for all but a few brief moments. People people shouldn't be appreciating art in two-hour-a-month increments, but in every moment that they have available. Musicians should be living music, whether they are sitting at work programming computers or sitting at home blogging nonsensically. And artists should be living art. But more importantly, everyone else should, too.

So what do we do? Does a property owner downtown step up and offer his space, as Voronoff suggests? Do established local artists who needn't worry about their ability to get shows like Von Wheelie carry on crusading against pay-to-play? Or do all the people who suffer most, the people who are being fought for, step up on their own?

I don't really know what I'm suggesting. I'm more fishing for ideas than anything. There is always talk of co-op galleries, musician-run venues, but they all suffer from a lack of groundswell and group organization. A co-op can only survive with a large number of people to spread the load. Likewise, regardless of intentions, two or three local musicians starting a venue often fail because two or three people who just want to play music are rarely capable of managing an operation like that. But we need something on all fronts. Something to maintain the creative fire that keeps starting, sputtering and dying. There are sparks where there ought to be continuous flame.

Anyway, I think I'm done for now. I fear that if I go back and read this I will discover that it actually makes no sense whatsoever. (I also fear that I may have only written it as an excuse to speak academically and seriously about people called Voronoff and Von Wheelie). So I shall defeat my fears by NOT going back and re-reading it. If it is nonsensical then so be it. I spend much of my life trying to confuse people anyway, so it's all good.

Art Your Little Heart Out, Tacoma

Like art? Movies? Music? Theatre? Then Tacoma's the place for you this weekend. There seem to be a remarkable number of different events all converging on these next few days. I'll do the highlights, and let you look into particulars yourself (lunch break isn't THAT long, after all)

Art

What's today? Thursday. Which one? The third one, of course! That means it's ArtWalk time in downtown T-town. Per usual, all the museums, galleries, etc from one end of downtown to the other are free to all. Highlight this time around? I'd say the Renoir as Printmaker exhibit at the TAM. It opened on the third Thursday of January, but I was on my way to Toronto, so I missed out.

Music

Everyone's blogging about it. It happens every year. If you don't know about it, you probably just aren't paying attention. Wintergrass!

One of the largest bluegrass festivals in the country, this marks the first year for the festival in the Hotel Murano. Which means very little, because it's been in the same building (the former Sheraton) for years. Mostly just means that there will be much more glass surrounding everyone. Already this morning I could see people hopping on the Link or walking up the hill carrying guitars, fiddles, mandolins and what-have-you.

My act of choice for the weekend? Pearl Django. I've heard these guys' spin on the hot jazz genre a few times before, and they are beyond solid. They'll be at the Marriot at 5:50 on Saturday, and the Varsity Grill stage at 7:45.

Theatre

The Northwest Playwright's Alliance are having their first fully-staged festival over the next two weeks at Theatre On The Square. I spent four summers volunteering at the now defunct Pierce County/South Sound Playwright's Festival, and it's great to see something step in and fill the void. This year's festival features three full-length plays and a number of shorter pieces. And fortunately for those of you distracted by other art forms this weekend, everything is running again next weekend, as well.

My play of choice (if I only go one night): Brent Hartinger's Geography Club. Hartinger's novel of the same name achieved 1) a lot of critical acclaim and 2) a place on a number of school banned book lists for "promoting the unsafe activity of meeting people on the internet to young people" (translates roughtly to "Crap, if we say we don't like it because it's about gay kids, they'll jump all over us. What other excuse can we whip out?").

Movies

To top it all off, the Grand Cinema is hosting their annual Oscar Party at the Rialto on Sunday. Anything make this more special than previous years? Well, for one thing, four of the five best picture nominees have been at the Grand in the past year (heck, three of them still are). But more on that later.

Also running at the Grand is the opening of animated film Persepolis. A French language film about the revolution in Iran, it promises to be very interesting fare.



That's all I've got for now. I'll come back later and turn more of these things into links.