Buttons!!!

I got some buttons made. You should come to 8 off 8th at Mercy Lounge tonight if you want one.

Kelli Shay with Ice Cream

I Miss Rock Camp

Burning Heart-Shaped Pinata

Powder

Ian Playing Pool

Renee at Casa Burrito

Tonight: Me as Phil Collins

I took the easy way out for my own flyer: a scan from a children's book, text, colored paper. Done in five minutes.
This will be the debut of me as a lead drummer/lead vocalist. It's going to be weird.

Kelli Shay Puts On Good Parties

Getting Ready for the Party

Kelli Shay admiring the backdrop she made for the show at our house.

They keep asking me to make flyers

I know that octopi are indie rock flyer cliche, but someone recently told me that if you have an octopus in one tank and fish in the other, the octopus will cross the room to the other tank to eat the fish. I thought that would make a good flyer.

Cheatham County Fair

You can do it yourself...


Or watch the professionals do it...



Two things I don't understand about this video:

(1) The dude's car catches on fire, YET HE CONTINUES TO DRIVE IT
(2) The crowd boos him.. for what? for getting out of the burning car?

Don't worry though, a quick spray of the fire extinguisher and he was back in the demolition derby.

Unicorn Horns

The Unicorn Horns will be playing with me in September! This is a seperate musical project from the one where I'm playing drums.

I Gotta Go

Single-occupancy, single-sex bathrooms suck.

Did You Close The Door Behind You?

Record Company Closed

Instant Haiku Records, the fake record company of The Rachel Nevadas, is now officially closed. At one point it was an attempt at forming a multi-city pop scene along the East Coast, but by the time the band broke up, it was only good for getting hilariouly bad (and a few good) demos mailed to my apartment. Those have long since stopped coming, so there's no point in having the site up anymore.

Recording with Seth

I went to Seth Moore's house today and helped him with his recordings for eight hours.

Shower Curtain

I keep seeing halves of faces in the shower curtain.

Sametime

I made it into another one of Michael Lease's photo projects. This is his picture of me from the July 27 update of Sametime, where he and his friend Brad each take a picture at 7:15 every day for a year. I wanted to put a picture of Michael up here since this blog is supposed to be for my pictures, but I don't have any photos of him.

Band Practice

New band playing August 30: me on drums and vocals, Matt Sullivan on guitar. No name yet.

Tomato Festival

Today was the day of the Tomato Art Festival in East Nashville. Since this is also the time of year of the Watermelon Festival in Richmond, I can't help but compare the two in my mind. That comparison always reminds me of the Lemon Tree episode of the Simpsons when the kids in Shelbyville have to drink turnip juice because Springfield has the lemon tree to make lemonade.

Daniel Johnston

I've been a hater lately about Nashville's food, so here is something nice. It's great living in a town that has big name acts like Daniel Johnston come through. Elvis Costello and Devendra Banhart will also be here soon.

The Veggie Cafe

I walked up to The Veggie Cafe for lunch. It is right around the corner from my house, which is great, but for right now it is just a trailer in a dirt parking lot. They are working on opening a real restaurant in a few months. They are all-vegetarian, but I was not really impressed. The menu consisted mainly of wraps made of salads and beans, and unimaginative tofu dishes. There was nothing that would compare to Harrison Street's tempeh artichoke sub, Skylight Exchange's veggie ruben, Veganopolis's vegan BLT, or the Red Rose's home-made black bean burgers. In fact, this place commited vegetarian restaurant sin: they had Boca burgers. Seriously... I can buy those in the grocery store for a dollar a piece.
But they are now one of only two non-Indian all-vegetarian places in Nashville (and the other one is closed during the summer). So I will support them and hope that when they move into the actual restaurant building they will expand their menu.
One definite plus: the employees were super super rediculously nice. Harrison Street Coffee doesn't have that.

Pliers in the Shower

At Lin's house you have to use a pair of pliers to turn on the cold water in the shower.

Fire Hydrant

Do you think it sprays fruit punch into the street?

Touristy Family

My dad, step-mother, and half-brother were in town yesterday and today. We did all sorts of touristy things like going to the Hermitage, The Grand Ole Opry, The Country Music Hall of Fame, The Parthenon, and this crazy restaurant called Aquarium that had fish tanks for walls.
P.S. - This is what I will look like in 30 years.

100 Oaks Mall

100 Oaks Mall is so creepy. It is outdated and dead but it looks like it was given a fresh coat of paint as a last-ditch rejuvination effort. So it looks great on the inside but almost all the stores are closed and there's nobody shopping. The piped-in music eerily echoes down the empty hallways as if it's playing for the ghosts of the last generation's teenagers.

Forget music - I'm becoming a jeans model

I brought a bunch of stuff back from my mom's house to sell on the internet in order to stay busy and hopefully make some money while I don't have a job. If this picture doesn't sell some jeans that are too small for me, then there's something wrong with America.

I'm Back

I'm back in Nashville. Richmond was great - I saw everyone I needed to see and didn't see anyone I didn't need to see.

I saved Harrison Street Coffee from burning down

Emaleigh and I got lunch at Harrison Street Coffee today. I had a tempeh artichoke sub and she had an egg salad sandwich. I have missed Harrison Street so much - there is no equivalent in Nashville. It's all vegetarian with unique recipies and when you order they ask if you'd like it vegan.
After we were done eating, we were sitting there talking and I noticed the reflection of fire in the drink cooler. I was confused at first, I thought maybe they were flame-broiling something in the back. It's not every day you see a raging fire. But after a minute it was still there, so we got up and looked and the stove in the kitchen was engulfed in flames. The staff was all sitting around a table in the front of the restaurant so they hadn't seen it. They rushed everybody out, grabbed fire extinguishers, and called the fire department. By the time the fire trucks got there, the fire was out, but there was still alot of smoke and everything. One of the girls who was working there offered us free coffee for seeing the fire.

So, yes, Harrison Street, even though your employees have been rude to me over the years, even though you were gruff and short with me, even though you gave me an attitude and made me feel like I wasn't cool enough to eat at your restaurant, even though I once went in with a girlfriend and on the ticket to tell the waitress where to bring our food (that I wasn't supposed to see) you wrote "guy with glasses and dyke in t-shirt," I still saved your restaurant from burning down.

Radio Radio

I played some songs and did some interviews on WRIR yesterday and WDCE today. Here's Lee Harris doing his show either before or after my segment... I can't remember which.

Mock Chicken and Broccoli

Here's another thing I can't find in Tennessee: mock meats at chinese restaurants. Some places will have tofu dishes, but there's nothing like the textured vegetable protein goodness of some mock chicken from China Panda.

A Great Garden from Stuffy's

The Great Garden sub from Stuffy's is one of Richmond's finer points. The sweet peppers are extra, but they are the best part. Why can't I ever find sweet peppers in Tennessee?

Cleaning Out Stuff at Mom's House

I'm in Richmond at my Mom's house cleaning out my old things. Keep, trash, sell, keep, trash, give away, keep, trash, keep, sell, trash.

The saddest part of this process is that all of these Dungeons and Dragons characters (that I found in a Trapper Keeper!) will die lonely and forgotten in the recycle bin instead of heroically in battle against an orc who got lucky with his d-20 roll:

Rock Camp Day 5

Southern

Rock Camp Day 4

Girls

Rock Camp Day 3

Rock

Rock Camp Day 2

n Roll

Rock Camp Day 1

Camp

The Tryals

I played in Frostburg, Maryland last night at The Tryals. This is a series of house shows that the guys from Jon Felton and his Soulmobile put on. The performer plays two sets and the audience members submit questions on slips of paper. It was really fun. I got more comfortable answering the questions as the night went on so my answers got better. For one thing, I got used to it from answering so many questions. Also, after the sun went down, I couldn't see the audience anymore.
(Photo by Jon Felton)

For the Lack of Words

I've been traveling a bit and I made it to D.C. to see Michael Lease's outdoor art installation. I am a fan of his photos anyway, but I have to admit I wanted to go see it because it included a picture of me.

It was very good - at first it seemed like random photos thrown together, but after a few minutes I could see repeating themes and patterns.
However, it appears that somebody in D.C. considers me an enemy:


Here's what Michael's original photo of me looked like:

Unicorn Palace

People here name their houses when they put on shows. This weekend I played at the Unicorn Palace with Priscilla Lynn and Jump the Tracks. It was a backyard party with a bonfire. Everyone who went is now covered in chigger bites. If you don't know what chigger bites are, they are SHEER AGONY.

I Sold My Car For Pesos

This is such a long story, but I'll try to condense it. A mexican dude bought my old car on ebay. He was stuck in Franklin, Kentucky and wanted me to drive the car up to him. That seemed pretty shady but I wasn't sure because he paid half the amount to me through paypal immediately. My entire weekend consisted of him calling saying he'd be at my house in an hour then calling back three hours later telling me he was still stuck and asking if I could drive the car to him. Finally at 7am Sunday, he made it to my house but he was running out of dollars, so he paid me the remaining amount in pesos.

One Year Later

As of about right now I have lived in Nashville for one year. I thought I should commemorate it somehow. This is what my house (that I've since moved out of) looked like on the first day.