What's Up This Weekend?

Ah, the creative process. This week I had two cards to make; one for Mom's Day and one for a close friend's birthday. Once you've gone down the path of making cards for people, you can never go back. And it's a tough road requiring a new idea for each trip. The four cards every year for the parents usually get thought up and created Sunday morning before we get together for brunch, which is always a bit of a miracle that requires some faith to believe I can actually plan to do that, especially considering how my Saturday nights go. Uncovering the idea is a bit of a seductive enterprise. I can't just jump it's bones. I have to be a little coy and engage in a little foreplay like " I really don't know what to write or draw but just let me fondle the notebook and pencil a little while and see what happens." Then I relax and leave myself a little vulnerable to being approached and, pretty much without exception, something slips in...my consciousness, that is. Once the seed is planted, it seems to grow in a genetically pre-determined form. It is the miracle of the birth of an idea that gives my cards their value, not so much the amateurish art and poetry.

Thursday, tonight, Couch Forts opens at Bourbon Street for Small Pox & the New Vaccine and Tavo Carbone.

Friday, the first appearance of the weekend for The Spikedrivers and the release of their new CD at the Rumba happy hour before they head off to the Willie Nelsonville Music Festival. But you would do well to just to stick around at Rumba for Matthew Hoover and the Supersaints CD release also featuring the best new act I saw this year, Hayseed, and the lovely and talented Ericka Carey and The Calamaties.

Saturday, The Spikes return to Rumba for an evening show. Jared Mahone, The Floorwalkers and Matt Munhall are at Skully's.

It's the thought that counts. mark