Red Chuck

Jazz Music

Last night, Harrison was sitting at the kitchen counter eating a bowl of ice cream while I was emptying the dish washer. We were chilling out after a long day of outdoor stuff. I had the ipod on shuffle and we were listening to Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Harrison said:

"Dad, you know the thing about Jazz music? Jazz music makes line drawings happen in your head."

Do You Like My Party Hat?

Yes, I like your party hat.

Me too!

I Click My Castanet In Your General Direction

rollover

Though the celebration isn't until this weekend, today is the day. . .

Happy Birthday Harrison!

New Banners + Pepe Exegesis

With Easter upon us, I thought it'd make some updates here at Red Chuck, so I dumped a bunch of new photos into my roating image directory. (Don't worry I'll put the pictures of the kids back up soon.) For this new look, I chose a very special collection of photos. These new banner images are all close ups from placemats. You might remember that Katherine used these amazing placemats as backgrounds in last year's highly successful, 2 part, Flikr-bound children's story, "Pepe's Easter Adventure."

Hello Pepe.

Revisiting Pepe's story yesterday, I realized that there was one thing that was missing - a proper introduction to Pepe. So take a hard look because here he is. Pepe is an easter chick. Pepe is on a quest. Pepe is searching for a home. Pepe's quest takes him through many exotic landscapes. OK, so many of these landscapes are placemats but some are extra special locales - like the cabbage leaves in the scene where Pepe meets a marshmallow peep or the inside of the basket where Pepe meets the Virgin Mary. Anyway, through the magic of digital photography and the power of Flikr image hosting, here, once again, is the coyly amatuerish yet heartwarming tale of Pepe's Easter Adventure:

Pepe's Easter Adventure - Part I
Pepe's Easter Adventure - Part II

View As Slideshow:

Part I
Part II

Happy Easter Pepe! It's good to see you again!

Daydream Nation Makes 2005 National Recording Registry

Glancing at the list of this year's 50 additions to The Library of Congress's National Recording Registry I was surprised and pleased to discover that Sonic Youth's 1988 masterpiece, Daydream Nation, made the cut. Well alright!

It seems this was a banner year for the LOC audio archives. When you get a chance check out the inductees - Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Lester Young, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Gil Scott Heron. . . there's quite an interesting array of artists and recordings that made it into the vaults. It's good to know that someone in Washington DC is doing something right these days.

I also applaud this quote from the Librarian of Congress, James H Billington:

“The National Recording Registry represents a stunning array of the diversity, humanity and creativity found in our sound heritage, nothing less than a flood of noise and sound pulsating into the American bloodstream.”

Wow. Billington's verbiage makes him sound like a cross between Walt Whitman and Kim Fowley.

Google Calendar

Google Calendar launched yesterday with some very cool AJAX-ish features. Dig it. Plus it imports from iCal. One problem, it doesn't play well with Safari. Oh well. I should be hanging out with Firefox more anyway.

Free Shrimp?

I don't know anything about this event other than what is stated in the PDF pictured above. This was forwarded to me today from the Little Rock Free Press. Here's what the flyer says in case you're having trouble reading it:

"The Voyage of Food Independence" will deliver thousands of pounds of wild shrimp to the public in this massive giveaway to highlight the plight of the Gulf Fishermen. Millions of pounds of cheap food goes unharvested in our oceans because of the loss of boats and of the infrastructure needed to process it. Come join us to meet and greet these fishermen as they begin their voyage to DC to plead for help to preserve America's food independence. 5,000 lbs. will be given away in Little Rock.

This giveaway is sponsored by Public Eyes TV, Survival of the Seas Society, United Commercial Fisherman's Association, Louisiana Shrimp Association and the Green Model Project.

Googling "Voyage of Food Independence" didn't bring up any info about this group's trip to DC. Also, most of the listed sponsors don't have web pages. I did discover that Public Eyes TV is run by the same people that established the "Survival of the Seas Society" and the "Green Model Project."

But I ain't gonna let undocumented sources scare me away from some free shrimp. Even if it's rotten bait they are handing out, it should be an interesting event.

Download PDF

Links:

Tijuana Ceasar

Rim a tall glass w/ fresh lime juice and cajun seasoning. Fill the glass w/ ice and add 1 1/2oz gold tequila, 1 tsp worcestershire sauce, 1/2 tsp chipotle chili sauce(such as (tabasco), the juice of 1/4 fresh lime and 4 to 5 spicy clamato. Stir to mix. Garnish w/ a marinated chili.

via Drexel.

Run Williams Run

Here's my embarassingly out of focus and woefully under lit (auto flash, where art thou?) shot of Williams pretending to hop the fence with his bass in tow after the backyard party the Boondogs played Saturday night was shut down by Little Rock's finest. Hey, I didn't think we were playing that loud but my ears as well as my eyes, nose, and throat are completely clogged with pollen these days. And yeah, I guess midnight is a little late for a band to be playing outside. And even though the party's hostess said that she would happily pay the fine for the noise violation if we would please keep on playing, we politley informed her that we would rather not go to jail. (Sorry ma'am. Parks closed. Moose out front should have told you.)

Oh what fun, I haven't played at a party shut down by the cops since high school. The three officers who appeared in the yard were not amused by our "low-watt avant-pop." They didn't come by to say we needed to turn it down. It was a very stern "why are you playing now?" followed by a "make sure you apologize to the neighbors" that once spoken thus became the closing remarks on a fun, lively, late night, outdoor soirée.

That said, the Boondogs survived the brush with the law and are readily available for bookings - private parties, outdoor receptions, barbeques, crawfish boils, May Day Parades, Literary Festivals, etc . . .

New Work

At long last, here's the new art. I lost a bunch of photos last week after I disconnected my new camera without dismounting it correctly. This set of Harrison's drawings was lost in that batch and I didn't get around to re-photographing them until yesterday. Anyway, here's samples of the new theme that he was talking about in my last post.