As I go through these tapes, my ears time wharp me back to moments from the past. Today I was cruising through a Basement Collaboration session featuring just the bones of the ‘BC’: Jerry Farnsworth on guitar, Scot Halpin on bass and Kenny Wright on drums. My heart pricked when I heard Kenny’s voice pops into the mix. Kenny, dear lad, we miss you too. Kenny died a few short months after Scot passed, mostly out of the blue. Kenny was one of the finest, funniest men I have every met. I love how we go down to Kenny’s sweet little whistle. The track is “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding.
I remember when Kenny showed up at a gig with punk platinum hair. He admitted that he wanted to have fun. He wanted to feel younger. He thought that it looked good on stage. He did say that it wasn’t going over very well at the job interviews he was doing at the time. Kenny was a dear man and he is sorely missed by so many. Sadly, dear memorial blog mates, I have another sad loss to report. Our own dear Carlyn Lindsey’s mom just passed away this weekend. Carlyn was with her when she went. I’m sure Carlyn would appreciate gentle thoughts for her mom’s passing from anyone who’d care to send them.
Today’s artwork is an old favorite drawing of mine. The Man With Blue Eyes. The drawing was done in 1996 and is a pen & ink drawing, with TA coloring.
Today’s musical track is a full-length piece. I started this track out, noting a couple places where I might be able to cut the piece—keeping in mind that we’re all busy people I don’t like to go over-long on the musical entry. As I listened to this piece and listened to it grow, I became interested to hear the whole thing out. To follow along the full length of its landscape. This piece is a mini-movie soundtrack. It’s got all the parts in 16:59.
I was listening to this tune through the KA Koss headphones I bought myself for this project, and let me tell you…this piece is a brain-tuner. Scot is fully moving sound around through the use of stereo, and the effect for me personally was nothing short of brain tuning! There are so many layers dished out here. If you have the time, I really recommend that you find some stereo headphones. Turn off the lights. Lay down comfortably. Close your eyes and go where this music goes for 16:59.
Today’s artwork is an ‘Art by the Ream’ drawing. Scot and I aspired toward the meditative life. One of Scot’s absolute bibles, if he were to have such a thing, would have to be, “The Three Minute Meditator—30 Simple Ways to Unwind Your Mind Anywhere Anytime!” by David Harp. This drawing is a fun nod to our more and less successful efforts at meditation.
I wanted to journey into one of Scot’s electronic landscapes today. These tracks often served as anchors upon which Scot could weigh his efforts at meditation. This is a piece Scot did while he was composer-in-residence at The Headlands Center for the Arts in 1986. We had just heard a guy do scratch at a 24-hour portrait jam. What is a 24-hour portrait jam, you might ask? In this case, it was a friend of ours along with another guy, set up in this warehouse space, to do portraits for anyone who wanted one—-over the course of a 24 hour period.
Our friend invited Scot to come down and do some portraits for a while. Scot brought his airbrush along and his bag of French curves and stenciling tools, and set up to do free hand airbrush portraits. This was truly an amazing thing to watch him twist a fat wire into a curve, and using his airbrush and this edge, truly pull out a likeness from thin air.
Today’s artwork is an example of a technique where Scot would complete his line work, in this case with a chubby graphite stub. Once he had that, he would lay the drawing down on a burlap mat board, and then pull the graphite sideways across the surface of the mat board with enough pressure to register the burlap texture below. A brilliant example of ‘Art in a Minute’.
Today’s musical track is a live track, recorded at a local pizzaria called ‘Bear’s Place’. The management had the good sense to bring in comedy and lots of forms of real music; which meant jazz and everything cool since ‘Rose Anne’ was just starting out the on college circuit. Their Friday night ‘roots’ gig was a plum. The show started at 6 and was over by 9—we could be home by 10. Today’s track is “Carlyn Lindsey & Snake Doctor” smoking just such a gig.
On this track, Carlyn is driving the crowd into a bona fide frenzy, with the screamin’ help of Tadas Paegle on lead guitar. She is oh so admirably backed by her regular crew: Scot Halpin on bass, Larry Vessily on keyboards, Dave Witherd on sax and Tim Haas on drums. The song is “Wang Dang Doddle” by Willie Dixon. The date is March 11, 2005.
Regarding the artwork, notice the deep red of the heart on the pedestal. This was some of that deep red heart mixture that Scot made up year after year. I still have the little bottle he mixed it in. The deep red heart was one of his major symbols. What I see in this image is a horizontal Scot, tossing up a cube (his symbol for the material world), to be caught by an angel/fairy who maybe seems ready to pass it on to another angel/fairy. Love sits firmly atop the pedestal.
Sliddin’ into base. Today’s music is another “Jamula” track. We haven’t heard from “Jamula” for quite some time. “Jamula” –once again—was Tom Smith on mouth organ, Jerry Farnsworth on guitar, and our own Scot Halpin, on bass. This band was easy to listen too. They could go to this hypnotic groove spot and take you right along with them. Scot loved the improvisational nature of the project and the easy lyrical place left in the ensemble for a fat, jazzy bass line. This recording was made on August 31, 2004.
Today’s artwork is a crumby scan of a little painting that I’ve always loved. This piece was done in 1997. Scot was doing a series of graphite faces, mixed in with almost abstract bodies and backgrounds. For some reason, Scot blocked out a smaller image field. This is how it looks to me this drawing progressed. First he laid down the light pink. Next he cut out the figure with the opaque purple acrylic. He then laid the graphite figure down on top of that pigment. After the figure was in place, Scot spattered the painting with white and metallic gold highlights. I love her wide-open vulnerability.
Wanted something techno. Wanted something beyond my ‘to do list.’ Scot was a very etherial man. A lot of his energy had to do with the breath. I’m getting now that he was a man of the ether. Scot had one of those twisted astrological signs—Aquarius—the water bearer, which happens to be an air sign? Forget this confusion. To got to the ether chakra, tuck your neck. Drop your head. Create space between your neck and sternum. Allow the deep cavities of your body to open.
Today’s musical track is a full on true--jam your socks off boogey. Get ready to hear Scot do some Paraná Yama. I am conversant with these terms today because, thank you, Universe, I got hooked up today (after two years of not practicing during Scot’s last months and the year and a half that followed), with a real (for me) yoga master. After Scot died, it was next to impossible for me to quiet my mind. Every time I tried to quiet my mind—I got too sad. The quietness provided too much room for sadness. It’s not that I was afraid of sadness. I understand now that what I was really afraid of, was trying to fill up the empty space.
I personally started practicing yoga, I figured out today, some 25 years ago. In the mid-80’s, I remember heading up to the Integral Institute of Yoga (also housed in a fab SF Vic) on Dolores Street. The classes were held in the attic. The first time I went there, I can remember feeling like a visitor to another planet. All I had to go on were stories a friend of mine told me when she went there in 1974, at age 19, and thought yoga was so funny, she couldn’t do it. I can remember her writing to me about the experience, clearly unsure how anyone could take the whole thing seriously. Despite this, I was drawn there.
Today’s musical track is a recording of an original solo electronic piece, Scot put together in 2001.Today, just about anybody with a triple digit IQ can make some pretty kick ass music using ‘Garage Band’ etal. This music was actually made before all of that was really up and running the way it is now. I hope you will enjoy all the textures of this piece, including the Paraná Yamic breathing.
Today’s artwork is another piece from a series of drawings where Scot places things that were important to him on top of the obelisk. I remember watching a program Scot checked out from our local library where modern master craftsman tried to duplicate the work of their ancient predecessors ( a la Egypt—Stonehenge). These dudes could not raise an obelisk to save their lives. The whole thing left me wondering—who did it and how?
Today’s blog title comes from a find I made today. Waiting for a friend to take a walk, I noticed a piece of limestone (not a surprise considering that Bloomington and the immediate environs produced most of the limestone that was used to build the Empire State Building and most of Washington DC). The thing that was weird about this piece was that it was exactly like a shark’s tooth, down to the flesh-tearing edge, but it was not a fossil. Fossils we do have here in southern Indiana. Who needs digital photography when we have fossils?
Today’s artwork is a further study of clarity of the job Scot took on as an artist—helping all us regular folks visually boil down the stew around us. Scot’s artwork was about offering up a handle. Pointing a direction. Honoring relationships with a stoke.
That’s a little what my relationship to Scot feels like these days. Today’s musical track is a tuneful picnic basket of a song. “Whiskey Still” was written and recorded in 1980, in our beautiful (c. 1893) San Francisco Victorian apartment at McAllister and Divisidero—a micro neighborhood known as “The Do.” Scot was still bouncing tracks off two reel-to-reel tape recorders to make this recording. The song is basically about transporting contraband—which comes in multiple forms these days.
Once again, Scot is playing all the instruments on this recording. I gather this was material that was destined for Scot’s great good friend, David Kinney (per a note on the cassette), which would make perfect sense content-wise. This was around the time of “The Double Cross Band” and the early days of our club ‘The Roosevelt.” I think this song has some stand up lyrics. I especially like the part about the Coupe de Ville.
Today’s artwork is a dreamy drawing. We have here a solitary queen who raises her glass to the moon. This original pen & ink drawing is a another example of Scot’s masterful use of wash shading, but this time monochromatically (one color) in aquamarine, instead of gray. The drawing was done in 1998. People familiar with it will remember the banner Scot did for the Plaza Art Fair in 1998, the birth of this artist moon image in Scot’s logo-therapy lexicon.
Away we go. Sometimes life demands a quick march pace. I was looking for something both cheerful and upbeat. The title of today’s track is “Folk Punk Instro X.” I believe this is the third in a series of tunes Scot laid down, all with this same swooping melay of source—same cheap drum machine, same gorgeous ring of the “Kay” guitar he was playing. I have mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating, Scot would often sit down and reach for a guitar. A lot of the times he’d just noddle about, but occasionally, he’d really get into it, and go into this very orchestrated style of playing that really meshed rhythm with melody. Today’s track is repetitive, but it’s subtle under laying development is a gas.
The title for today’s blog, ‘Bleep the Bleeps’, is a reference to the trouble I was having last night, getting my track from here to there. Everything was a go until I ran the test track. Well, about every thirty seconds or so, there was this 3 or 4 second bleep. Not wanting to start from scratch, I checked my Garage Band track, and sure enough—chock-full of bleeps. I did consider running the track with the bleeps, hence the title, but got so disturbed by all the good stuff we were missing and how annoying the bleeps were, that I decided to go back to square one. I got myself into one of those horrible loops when the only thing I could get my computer to upload was a sequence that didn’t work. It had its own name, a name I did not create!
I love the word bleep though, because it reminds me of one of my favorite movies, “What the Bleep Do We Know?” I am completely fascinated by the relationship between the observer and the observed. Today’s artwork is another angel drawing. I love this little angel. He’s got two levels of dimensionalism going on. His face and hands and heart are all so round, and his yellow hat and gown are so two-dimensional. I love of Scot’s dashed off graphic style, but I also love it when he dips his brush into a more classical pot.
I actually found this song, “Bring It On Home,” by Sonny Boy Williamson II, yesterday, but wanted something a little faster, for variety’s sake. Today’s track once again features the chocolate velvet vocals of Irene, in an early “pre-Blue Jazz” that also features Nelson B. on soprano sax. I played this tune earlier in the blog, what ended up to be a nibblet of a live recording of this song, that Scot created for the demo package he was visualizing for “Blue Jazz.” This song was in Scot’s repertoire since the early 1980’s. I love how Irene is not one little bit afraid to give it over—she takes lots of chances and because of the authentic warmth her voice, she can really transform the sonic space of a song.
The artwork for today is a nice little pen and ink drawing done in 1999. Very good editorial for the song. I love the use of gray wash to create dimension. Scot was a master at this. The shadow underneath the ‘house-lady’ is so alive! Upon blowing up the image, which I’ll restate you can do by clicking on the image, you can really see the line work, and at this size I see I must add that there are hints of graphite here and there on the drawing
Hey! Let’s all lay down our burdens. Scot truly transcends the boundary between rock and roll singer and jazz singer on this track. Least you might not have realized, Scot is also playing some pretty sweet bass on this track. I remember the night Scot came home from this session. He was buoyant. Once more for the record, Scot was a product of growing up right next to one of the most humongous transcontinental waterways in the world. That’s a lot of molecules in motion. Situation: extremely fluid.
Scot had great stories about his childhood proximity to places like Davenport, Iowa—the birthplace of Bix Beiderbecke—a jazz founding father. A little sketchy on the details here, but I think that when Scot was probably 14 or 15, he played drums in a group with a guy who came out of the same scene that Beiderbecke did--so the guy was old. In this ensemble, the old guy played electric clarinet (I believe). Scot loved this morph to the jazz side as it meshed with his love of bands like "Gong" and anything Robert Wyatt.
When Scot started playing here in Indiana, he would, especially if there was brass involved, want to play songs like "Wade in Water" and "When the Saints Go Marching In." Some of the local Indiana musicians had resistance to playing this material. Here in south central Indiana (which if you look at a map is about 45 miles away from the part of Ohio that changed the outcome of the 2004 presidential election), there are plenty of folks who’ve had this stuff shoved at them, with a similar effect to water boarding, in the spiritual sense. One friend actually thanked me, telling me that Scot had helped him claim this music, which was a good thing, because he plays the most sacred (in Scot's opinion) of bass instruments: the trombone.
Scot is actually taking the lead vocal on this BC session, which features the trumpet work of a player I can’t identify today (but will ASAP). Our unknown horn man is cool. He’s obviously the real thing. For one thing, he can clearly swing, Scot's highest criteria. He’s also got taste. Bad trumpet, as we’ve already discussed, tends to stick out and kind of wreck things. This guy is cool. Jerry is on guitar and Kenny is there on drums. These recordings have become such a precious thing to me. I treasure all Scot's little whoops of joy--the ardent “hit me again!”
Today’s artwork is a beautiful little drawing done in the year 2000, which once again captures Scot’s love of music in another medium. I remember one little drawing he did called “Community Band.” I sold the drawing, opening night at the Plaza Art Fair, in Kansas City, MO. We don’t even have a file of the drawing. ☹ All I can remember is a vibe very similar to that of today’s piece, that music is one of those blessing/offering kind of things. I love Scot’s use of primary colors, how the images kind of scroll down, how the individual parts of music—the instruments, the sheet music—float among the players. The piece has its own current.
Get ready for a merciless slam-dunk--SORRY. As has happened a couple of times before in this memorial blog, I find a tape and get listening to it. Before long, come to look for the next day’s musical entry, and I find myself thinking, I want more. I want more of what I had yesterday.
Today’s track, “Ode to Dr. Kervorkian,” comes from the amazing master I mentioned yesterday. The track is one I could have saved for some bleak anniversary—like the day we learned about the tumor. What’s weird is that the song speaks so much to me now about an aspect of what Scot’s life was like for the (almost) last five years of his life. The song was actually written in the late 1980’s and recorded in 1991. It is actually possible that by this point Scot had sustained the injury to his head that we believe formed the scar tissue that became the basis of his brain tumor.
Here’s what Scot told me was the story behind this song. Good old Dr. Kervorkian was in the news a lot in those days. He was loudly touching on a nerve that has become re-aggravated in our current health care debate. How do we die? For a lot of people, any mention of this subject raises the hair on the back their necks. Scot was a fan of Dr. Kervorkian. He thought it was right to help someone who was in pain—which comes in oh so many forms—right to help let them consider a shorter journey on the above mentioned train--fewer clicks of the rail. I'm pretty sure Scot was intending the music to flow from the point of view of someone on board that train, maybe even someone in a coma or on life support.
If you listen for it, there's even more of that antenna thing going on in the track.
Today’s drawing is a simple black and white. The drawing seemed to speak of the outer front people put forward while at the same time there is this inner self that is wounded, kind of bandaged up, hoping to heal. More art by the ream, this is a ball point pen drawing done on 'buff', for a change, typing paper in 2005.
Good luck of the day to you. We are in luck. I found an important tape. This is the master tape of a session Scot recorded right before we left San Francisco. For those of you who have been following the blog you might remember that I have played a kickass version of this song in “full-Folklore” ensemble. He recorded this track after all the demos had gone out. All the booking agents in town had said, “No thanks.” All the friends who could have done something, had projects in the works already. This track is pure Scot.
I love how he set his voice up first in the mix. If you listen closely you can here him breathe. You can hear him lick his lips; something he did unconsciously when he was deep in his creative process. I likened it to a creative antenna that would come out. If you might notice that he’s changed the words—for the better I think. From “There ain’t no waltzing bears in seventh heaven,” to “There ain’t no warhorse man…” So much more meaning to me.
What he didn’t change was the fact that he wanted to roam the river. He grew up on the Mississippi. He was drawn to the ocean. He headed west young. He went so far as the leeside of Kiwahi, to meet the ocean, but at this time in his life, I could see his water self go back to river-scale. That was 1994, when we moved back to Iowa on a trial basis, and soon after that to Bloomington (IN, in the mid-west you must stipulate, there are several, including coincidentally enough, Muscatine, whose original name was Bloomington!), permanently.
I direct your attention to all the delicate little parts he’s created in the background. This song is like a Faberge egg. An elegant treasure. As for artwork, I went looking for a water piece. It wasn’t hard, but I especially loved this one for today, as it so succinctly turns worlds around. Finally, we have something other than transparent acrylic. Clearly we’ve got some nice thick, fat, opaque acrylic in the sky, or is that the water? This works wonders for cutting things out, sometimes covering over something you didn’t like. Enjoy!
Sign me up. One of Scot and my favorite scenes in any movie is the moment in “Scrooge,” when Albert Finney climbs up and sits on the mantle piece, next the huge pile of the (most magnificent ever) “Ghost of Christmas Present’s” booty. From his first sip, Ebenezer knows a good thing and wants more. Scot and I both loved the look of pure sweetness that crosses Scrooge’s face; the moment ‘the milk’ touches his lips.
Today’s artwork is a Basement Collaboration tape recorded on September 13, 2006, featuring Bobby Burns on lead vocals and guitar and Larry Vessily squeezing it out on accordion. They are doing, “Six Pack to Go,” a song credited to both George Straight and Hank Thompson. As per usual with the BC line-up, Jerry Farnsworth is playing guitar, Scot Halpin is playing bass and Kenny Wright is on drums.
Today’s artwork is a fun little piece done in 1994. James was born in 1992, and we were pretty much still riding the ‘baby-train’ when this drawing was done. The ink in this original piece is India ink. Scot loved how he could introduce water, and pull his lines. We also see more wet-on-wet washes in transparent acrylic
Today is my mother and father’s wedding anniversary. I remember we celebrated their 50th back when James was six months old. I wanted to pick a love song to celebrate this special day. Today’s track may not sound like a love song to some of you. It is a horrible old cut up mess of a thing, but I love it, and I think it’s perfect for the day and perfect for the people. “Hey girl, can I know you name?” reminds me of the stories of my mother and father meeting and falling in love. “Hey Girl,” is a “Sponges” tune that Joe Belche wrote back in 1978, when he met his beautiful wife, Stephanie. As with all “Sponges” songs Scot did most the arranging. Scot is playing bass on this track, Joey is on guitar, and Leland Monagle is the man on the drums. I guess we really were a punk band.
Today’s artwork is another wonderful pen & ink drawing on Bristol Board, colored with transparent acrylic wash. I love the sentiment of these two, reaching for one another, being part of the same story.
A friend just sent me the link to this footage of Scot playing with some of his buds out at a party in the country. Burrrrr. This jam took place in the early winter of 2004. Scot was still adapting to the physical limitations brought on by the presence of a tumor in his brain. For instance, A.D. (after diagnosis), he always played sitting down. Here we see him sitting a little away from the band because it bothered him if he sat too close to the cymbals. On this track, Scot is playing with (from right to left), his great good friend, Jerry Farnsworth, our man of local Jerry fame. Next to him is Tadas Paegle, cruisin’ it, as per, on guitar. Next to him is Dan Witherd of the slippery slide. Scot loved playing with these guys. I love how on this tape, about half way through, Tadas notices that Dan has started to blow the royal flush. He grins, switches gear, and slides it on in. Sorry don’t know either drummer or sax guy. One again, I do alert you to tune into Scotty’s funky heartbeat groove.
Today’s artwork is a piece that Scot might have intended to revisit—maybe not. This guy’s arms remind me of the six weeks Scot spent 24/7 in an orthopedic brace, right after his first bad seizure. I love how this lady offers him shelter, bare and naked before him. It is an original drawing done with graphite on Bristol board and hints of transparent acrylic wash.
Here’s a little nugget of gold I’ve saved up. Entering the sixth month of the blog—just a little past the halfway mark and so now I am able to bring out some of the treasures I have set aside. Tracks to look out for in the future will be around Halloween and look out for Veterans’ Day. Today’s track is a sweet little tune Scot used to call a “Belt Buckle Polisher.” He always wanted a song or two in the set so that the couples in the room could saddle on up next to one another a couple times throughout the night.
The words of this song aren’t exactly romantic though. Scot and I were living in Iowa City, Iowa when Scot wrote this song. We put together a big mailing of demos with this material, which we sent out to producers and publishers, mostly in Nashville. Scot was really hoping that someone would pick him up as a songwriter. There was one this one guy who sent Scot lots of encouragement, but no contract. Scot sort of followed this guy’s career and I guess he went on to produce a couple hits. Scot and I would often wonder later why we hadn’t been more persistent with this guy? Now I would be!
Scot was very much in a period of discovering Country & Western music, through Rockabilly. In this song, I’m pretty sure he was experimenting with just how far over the top he could go with the genre. The song is called, “I Cry A Little,” and has so many sweet, fun, and very plaintive yodels throughout. Some days there just end up being a lot of things to cry about.
The artwork is an adorable drawing Scot did of our son James. James is and always was, an ‘Animal Man.’ We have a dog now, and when we brought the puppy home, James announced how proud he was to “Now be a member of the Proud Pantheon of Dog Owners!” Scot wasn’t all that great at drawing animals. They all sort of look like this guy, but with slightly modified ears and tails. Rabbits, like Chihuahuas (which is what we have) have a preponderance of rapid twitch muscles. It’s what makes them so fast (and in the case of a Chihuahua, so twitchy.)
SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 2009
ANOTHER BLUE HOUSE
Blue days are lived in blue houses. It is for this reason I bring another version of John William’s original song, “Blue House.” Those of you have been following this memorial blog since the beginning will remember the second entry, another wonderful version of this song, complete with totally different lyrics. This track was recorded one night at a “Basement Collaboration” hosts “Plank Road” session. Not sure what is up with the reverb, but dig those lyrics! Be sure to give a specific listen to the bass line—some of Scot’s best.
The artwork for today is an original drawing Scot did in 1999. A lot of his artwork referenced San Francisco, which like any great city, has its iconic landmarks. Here we see the Bay Bridge and “the pyramid,”--don’t think it’s the Trans America Tower any more. That’s another thing, naming rights? I guess we don’t have the Sears Tower any more either.
This drawing was done with a soft, broad-tipped graphite pencil on Bristol Board. The color is his usual transparent acrylic wash. Scot loved wet-on-wet, which we see here in a couple places. I love this little man. He’s kind of “a guy” trying to get ready to do some business. He is still able to fly, despite the tremendous size of the tie he’s taken on, and as always though, he finds a way to get his message out.
Thinking about things that have been lost. How some things you just can’t give up on finding. Put your ear right here, hearts are like brains. I’m not lying. The most sciencey of science is only just now finding out how very much like the brain the heart actually is, and that in fact, the heart is often a better judge than the brain. However, at times standing on the side of love is reduced to being a compassionate witness. We all have things we’ve lost. We all have things we regret. But we can all make amends, just like we can all seek redemption.
Here’s some music to go along with that message. “Carlyn Lindsey and Snake Doctor” set up their soup line and dish it out, warm and hot. Time and time again I tell you about these wonderful musicians, Carlyn—sweet as a honeysuckle rose, Scot backing up her fragrance with his own flower of a bass line, Tim Haas—do-woppin’ it up on drums, grinding in the groove yard is Dave Witherd on sax and thrilling us all on the old rinky-tinks, is Larry Vessily on keyboards. This track was a benefit performance recorded live at the Encore Café on April 3, 2004.
Today’s artwork is Scot’s ‘Musician King’. For me this symbol will always represent ‘the high king’—like Arthur. A simple man, deeply rooted, who turns into a noble king. This is a graphite drawing done on rag mat board. As you’ve surely begun to notice by now, you loyal blog followers; Scot enjoyed making artwork about music.
Chugging on out of the station. Today’s recording is another track from the ONE “T. Scot Bottom & the Rockabilly Funhouse” tape I have been able to locate. Unfortunately its fidelity is bad and it cuts in and out terribly. Despite this—we still get the feeling of what was going on. I like that you can actually hear people clap and sigh on the track. The song is Jerry Lee’s rockabilly fundamental, “Whole Lotta Shakin.” The year was 1981. Our dear friend, Mark Houseal, is slamming on keyboard.
Today’s artwork is another piece about music--on music. I have titled today’s entry, “The Little Rockabilly Prince.” This come from the title of a painting Scot did way back in the eighties—a painting of a sweet little guy who looked just like the Little Prince, but with a great big pomp. This piece is another India ink piece on musical score, “Piano Concerto No. 23 in A Major, K.488, by?
Here’s the deal. Whoever is reading this blog is, I’m sure, busy? We all are. So I do realize now that it is actually deeply boring to hear how busy some body is. That said--I’ve been really busy. I’ve had a serious case of killer over-scheduling and it’s taken its toll. I do feel on the downhill of the thing and am seriously going to try and avoid taking on anything new. I want to go back and fix all the holes that still remain in the blog. I want to credit and write stories for all the pieces missing them. My credibility as a daily memorial blogger is feeling slightly dodgy to me right now. I am looking forward to the next six months. I want to take the time needed and really enjoy this amazing process that has evolved here in the blog. I can’t wait to get it out to you. Blessings to us all.
Scot and I were together nearly 30 years. Our relationship was always about working together. It's a thrill to be still collaborating.
Copyright Estate of T. Scot Halpin-All Rights Reserved
