Weekend in New Orleans

Since I’ve been back in the US, I’ve been traveling with my friend Jayson and his sideshow gig, Ming Donkey’s One Man Band. Spent Saturday and Sunday in New Orleans, that fantastic hobo city of pirates and saints. Everyone has a story there, and all the stories are the same: “hopped a train, had a plan, landed here (that wasn’t the plan)”

I’ve loved this city forever, spent my life escaping three hours south, along the world’s most crooked straight line. Nothing like chasing tattooed clowns. Anyhow, the story starts here:

Donk was playing a farewell party at Saturn Bar, a classy little dive on St. Claude. Our friend John is leaving for Afghanistan. He’s already been dispatched twice to Iraq, and he has a lifelong fear of cannolis, which it’s better not to get into. But his girlfriend, Tami, brought a whole table of cannolis, muffalettas and mac & cheese from the Italian restaurant her family owns. So I ate a cannoli and washed it down with whiskey. This plan could have backfired. Luckily, it didn’t.

Speaking of Punk Rock and River Cities…

True Sons of Thunder rocking it with a yoga-savvy mannequin

Memphis and music are synonymous, yes. But for many people, Memphis means motown and Stax or Elvis and Sun. About three decades ago, another sound—rawer and ruder—began to fester in the noxious, sun-blanched fumes of the Mississippi. And a dive called the Antenna Club—Memphis’s answer to CBGB’s—firmly pinned River City on the word-of-mouth-and-mail (wtf, long distance calls were expensive!) punk rock touring map. Now the legacy fuels Goner Records, Gonerfest and a slate of shows that, being three hours away and working a day job, I mostly miss. Big sad sigh.

One Man Band Alert

From writer David Breland, in the Mississippi State student daily paper:

Jayson Triplett is a Starkville original. An artist that makes his way living, preaching, teaching and playing his art. Better known to some by his alternate persona, Ming Donkey, Triplett has been a fixture in town for the past few years. He is a prolific artist, creating in various mediums. Arguably, Ming Donkey’s one-man band is as much performance art as it is raucous, driving roots music.

His latest release as Ming Donkey on Ultra Low Fidelity vinyl epitomizes the one man approach. Touted as “written, performed, recorded and designed one July weekend in 2009,” the album is down-home gold. The A side to this back-woods release is “Lil’ Cross-Stitch Bitch” followed up with “Waiting On The Georgia Line” on the B side. What you hear is what you get on this recording.

Keep reading at The Reflector.

Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, part 2

This is the second part of my interview with owners of Atlanta’s Young Blood Gallery, Kelly Teasley and Maggie White. With backgrounds in art and social work, they began Young Blood as a D.I.Y. gallery in their living room in 1997. Following media hype (Lucky magazine and the Handmade Nation documentary, among others) and much community support, Young Blood Gallery and it’s complementary, all-handmade boutique now nestles among a bike shop, a bakery and an all-vegan restaurant in one of Atlanta’s hippest neighborhoods. Part 1 of this interview lives here, and I’ll post part 3, the final portion of the interview, soon.

Jolene, the three-legged Young Blood mascot

Keep reading at Juxtapoz.

Living Walls Conference, part 2

Part 1 lives here.

Friday afternoon and evening, there were panels and lectures (and one amazing cake!) at Georgia Tech. There was a lot that was awesome and a little that wasn’t about this part of the conference. Awesomeness #1: the lectures were packed, right up till the end of the night (10:30-ish). And yeah, some of the people were Living Walls affiliates, artists and such, but there were also a ton of Georgia Tech students and sundry other locals.

Keep reading at Juxtapoz. For more pics of Living Walls, check out my Picasa page.