Concert Review: Chomp Chomp Attack!

As previously stated, Chomp Chomp Attack! looks very young. They do not sound young. A lot of their instrumental work is really sophisticated, and it is all delivered with range and power. However, another part of them that may seem young is their energy and enthusiasm.

Band members were wandering around throughout the entire show, some doing so more after their sets, or more before. (And many band members took turns working merch, because they didn't really have entourages.)

The members of Chomp Chomp Attack! seemed to spend the most time out on the floor. I was especially impressed with singer Mike Silentts, who was an active audience member, watching the other bands and dancing along. In general all of the bands were supportive of each other, giving shoutouts to the other acts, but no one else was as obviously appreciative during other bands' sets.

Once they took the stage, that was amplified with all of the members showing an enthusiasm and positive energy that was impossible not to enjoy. I want to call out Bass player Dustin Heroin in particular, because bass players are often low key, and he really showed exactly how much of a performer a bassist can be.

Other band members are Omer Valentine and Nick Nightmares on Guitar, and Aiden Scared on drums. (Yes, I suspect the last names are stage names.)

No one is listed specifically for keyboards, but they add in beautiful keyboard work, especially on the short but lovely "For a Loss of Words", which is also a good example of their ability to build drama within a song.

The sound of it is very different from their other songs - "How Do You Like Me Now" is probably a better general example, but the overall craftsmanship is consistently good, vocally and instrumentally.

After the set they were very excited, calling it their best show ever. I think it was their first show played in the United States, so there could have been a special element to that, but based on their schedule it seems more like this is their first US tour, but Portland was not the first stop on it. Regardless, I can totally imagine a trajectory for them where every show feels better than the last one, and it is constantly heading upwards.

Sometimes when I am reviewing a band, I feel like I should mention that they are good looking, but it feels so shallow, and then usually I forget it once I get into the actual writing. Still, it may draw some fans, and these are talented guys and they seem to truly appreciate everything good that comes their way. So, I'm just going to throw out there that on stage, one of them really seemed to resemble Alex Gaskarth of All Time Low. If that inspires anyone to check them out who wouldn't, so be it.

https://twitter.com/CCAOfficial

https://www.facebook.com/chompchompattack

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/how-do-you-like-me-now/id563330130

http://www.amazon.com/How-You-Like-Now-Explicit/dp/B009D4N6VO

Concert Review: Kissing Candice

In preparing for the show, in my mind I grouped Farewell, My Love and Chomp Chomp Attack! together, as the bands whom I already had some loyalty to, because they followed me on Twitter. Therefore, I grouped Kissing Candice together with Snow White's Poison Bite, as the bands who were completely new to me.

With Snow White's Poison Bite, there were reasons to associate them with The Misfits, from the skull makeup to the participation of Michale Graves on one track. Without that, I don't know that I would have made a Misfits connection with Kissing Candice, but one way or another I did, mainly on the basis of movies.

First of all, every track on their debut, Murder, seems to have at least one movie sample worked in. They are not all strictly traditional horror movies. If I have it correct, movies referenced are The Great Outdoors, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Gummo, Scream 2, and Hellraiser.

Actually, based on the Kissing Candice Facebook page, one of Joey Simpson's specific goals when forming Kissing Candice was to do something more theatrical. Formerly of Dr. Acula, where Simpson played keyboards, his skill at sampling can definitely be heard in the new creations.

While Joey does lead vocals here, one of the band's strengths is using the voices of the other members, so there may be harmonies offsetting Simpson's growl or shout. There is more of an industrial sound in many of the songs, possibly achieved by sampling, but at the same time there is often a basic rat-a-tat-tat attack to it, reminiscent of Metallica. While it is often driving and powerful, it is also thoughtful and perhaps contemplative.

There was also a fair amount of stagecraft to their presentation. They were the only band to use smoke, which especially makes sense with "Rampage", and while all the bands had some form of makeup going on, most of it was in the more gothic or supernatural vein. Kissing Candice members looked like they had been mauled by a bear, or perhaps something less specific but still catastrophic (possibly involving bath salts).

I have to say, they were also the band that looked the most grown up. I had mentioned in their review how young Farewell, My Love seems, and that is even more true with Chomp Chomp Attack! (With Snow White's Poison Bite, the makeup leaves me with no guesses on age.) I don't think the members of Kissing Candice are necessarily that much older, but they do seem more seasoned, and maybe more buff. And everyone was putting on really good shows, but I would guess that Kissing Candice has more experience.

I did talk to Joey and one of the guitarists briefly at the merch table, and everyone was affable. They did not have any CDs available, but they had the best shirts. If I ever wore band t-shirts, I would have gotten one of theirs (probably the Marshmallow Man one). Only a small selection of that is available online, but there are some at http://merchnow.com/catalogs/kissing-candice.

The negative thing I will say is that I did not like the existing video for "Rampage". The production is decent, but there is a sort of nasty vibe to it that seems like it should make sense, but I do not get that vibe listening to the band or watching them perform, so it strikes me wrong. It may be personal taste. At any rate, I only get that from the video.

Murder is supposed to be available via iTunes but I could not find it. It is definitely on Amazon. A teaser on the Youtube page looks like there might be new material coming out.

http://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/99070284/base.html

http://www.amazon.com/Murder/dp/B0078XLZD8/

https://twitter.com/Kissing_Candice

https://www.facebook.com/Kissingcandice666

http://www.reverbnation.com/kissingcandice?page_view_source=facebook_app

http://www.youtube.com/user/Kissingcandice666

Creativity and the Past

I had mentioned earlier that Panel #9 was not what I expected, but it was still interesting, and I want to explain a little more about that.

Part of my confusion was a misunderstanding of how the panels were arranged. There was an overall title, which in this case was "Self, Memory, Perception". Below that were the names of a moderator and three participants with papers they had authored. I guess I thought that the names of the papers were there more as identifiers -- this is why we are having them talk about this -- but actually each author presented from their paper, and then after all three had done so, the moderator opened it up to questions.

So, since I had recently been thinking about how our memories affected our self-perception, and having drawn one of my memories and gained some new insights via that process, that was what drew me to the panel, with hopes that there would be more on the therapeutic aspects.

(That train of thought was pretty well covered in http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/05/badly-drawn-girl-my-first-comic.html, though the link to the comic itself no longer works, having only been good for thirty days.)

Anyway, that is not what the panel was really about. The individual parts were as follows:

Real Memories, Surreal Experiences: Autobiographical Tensions in David B.'s L'Ascension du haut mal, presented by Jennifer Anderson Bliss of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Rewriting Ethos of Vertigo Comics, or, Critical Perspectives on Memory-Making, Canonization, and the Logic of Fields, presented by Christophe Dony, Université de Liège, Belgium

The Spatiality of Voice: How Joe Sacco's Palestine Takes Up the Ethos of New Journalism, presented by Josina Robb, University of Winnipeg, Canada

They all had their own points of interest, and at least a few things that I want to read now, but the one that stuck with me most was Dony's presentation about Vertigo.

Although I had read a few titles, I hadn't really thought about their specific impact until January, when Twitter erupted over Karen Berger leaving. There is a pretty good article on that at http://sequart.org/magazine/17537/karen-berger-to-leave-dc/.

Much of the reaction then was a sense of loss about someone who had treated creators so well, and certainly about the impact of raising the expectations of what comics could do, along with their respectability. Here was a new focus on how Vertigo drew from past traditions, with many of the titles reviving previous characters.

This was especially interesting because something that had been frustrating me a lot with movies is that everything has to be an existing property, where it's a remake or reboot or sequel or adaptation. That has seemed very cynical to me, where they don't trust themselves to make anything good, or trust the audience to try anything new, and it results in a lot of movies that I have no interest in seeing.

Here was Vertigo, pioneer of originality and innovation, and they were in fact doing reboots, and Dony was absolutely right, I had just never thought of it like that.

I think the difference was largely in the support of the creators. First of all, many of them were allowed to do their own new things along with the work on existing titles, and a move towards creator-owned, but more than that I think it was the freedom within whatever title they were working on.

I mean, Vertigo was not afraid to try new things itself, with ongoing limited run series, and different art styles with different looks, and respecting its pulp roots without letting go of intelligence or quality, so there was that, but mainly the memories of the artists seemed to be a delight in the creative freedom. At least that was the impression that I got.

And that was something that came through in some of the other panels too. There are very creative and independent writers who have been able to feel very comfortable working with DC or Marvel, because they are being respected, and able to do work that is satisfying. And perhaps there is a wide variation among editors, or there are pendulum shifts, because we have a completely different example recently with Paul Jenkins leaving the Big 2 to work for Boom!

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=45745

So, that's what I've been thinking about. I don't know that I have any good answers. I believe in art for art's sake. I also know that people need to eat, and businesses need to pay their employees, and so there has to be some practicality too.

But then you think about a fast food franchise, and fast food was ultimately about removing the variables, so you didn't need anyone who was highly trained or at all individualistic, allowing you to keep costs down, keep every human involved replaceable, and make sure that you have a product of remarkable consistency and sameness, and "franchise" seems like a really bad word to apply to any artistic endeavor.

Sometimes it works out, but there are pitfalls. Do a lot of franchises only have two good movies in them, or did they have four, but you can't keep the actors committed, and that's why the third installment ends up bloated?

And in it's own way, that just reminded me with some of the issues related to having unending titles, so I am going to post this one again just for fun:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/08/pros-and-cons-of-trade.html

Social construction (or the broader world of geekery)

In addition to the ad for ICAF, the Stumptown program had ads for other conventions that I had not been aware of. They were not comic book specific, but they fit into the "broader world of geekery", as described by Benjamin Woo, of Simon Fraser University, in his lecture as winner of the John Lent Award, "How to Think About Comics as Social Objects".

It was pretty interesting. His study centered around a large Canadian city that he would not name (but I was totally picturing Toronto), and via comic book shops and conventions and events, he was tracking the social relationships that were created in this world. (And "broader world of geekery" is in my notes, so that was his term, not mine, but it resonated with me. I don't think either of us are using it in a negative sense.)

There were a couple of things that were interesting about this. First of all, just the path of building relationships, and interconnectedness, but also I found it interesting that many of these people had dormant periods, and when they would talk about their trajectory of getting involved, they would use the passive voice, like it was something that happened to them, not something they did.

Probably the thing that got me thinking the most, though, was something that came up in a question, when one of the listeners got hung up on how that was not his experience, he could not find people to share it with in person, and all of his comic-related interaction was happening on the internet.

Woo made the reasonable point that this sort of research does deal in generalities, and will not cover every single case. I was thinking mean thoughts about how the guy was putting way too much of himself into the question (which he did more than once), and what was he talking about anyway because he was sitting there with people, in person! (Realistically, they were probably people he had met there.)

Anyway, it occurred to me that I don't really interact with anyone about comic books, and I wouldn't even have thought about that too much, except that I kept having these conversations about comic books there, and it was so nice!

I wasn't expecting that. I thought I would learn interesting things, and get a few signatures, but also, I occasionally talked to people. They were very nice, but beyond that there was this thing going on where one of us would start to say something, and I would see their face light up, or feel myself light up, because we knew what was coming before it was said, and we were on the same page. That felt so good. That happened with a Belgian graduate student and with someone from marketing at Dark Horse, and there were other conversations with others where maybe there wasn't the same level of synchronicity, but they were still so interesting.

That was great. It did sort of reveal a lack in my current life, but at the same time I was there listening to someone who studied the phenomenon, and wrote a paper on it. I don't necessarily have time to add a new social area to my life, but okay, there is the internet, there are conventions and comic books shops, and there are people out there who are interested in the same things, and are like-minded. It's worth remembering.

So, does this mean that whole social anxiety/insecurity thing cleared up? Yeah, right. No, there were really great conversations, and then periods of concern that I was being annoying, and then sitting alone nervously tapping my feet waiting for things to start, because once I am listening and taking notes, I have something to do and I am fine, but waiting alone is hard. My regular hangups are all still there, but in this venue there were moments where they were transcended, and it was delightful.

So, back to those other conventions. On the way home Saturday, there were a bunch of cosplayers on the train, and I realized it had to have been one of those. In fact, it was WonderCon.

It was a group of six teenagers, and the costumes seemed to be focused more on gaming. There was one boy and five girls, so for a boy gamer those are great odds. And no, they didn't really seem to be about that, but where the gaming world today can be so plagued by antisocial misogyny, this seemed encouraging for the future. More to the point, my strong thought watching them was let your kids be geeky. Be glad if they are.

The costumes were great, and so you know they have been sewing, woodworking, painting, and there are so many worse things they could be doing. There is this accomplishment, but there is innocence to it too, despite the weapons and fake blood. They were excited about their giant scythe, and the things they had seen and done, and it is so important to have things that are exciting, in adolescence and adulthood.

I am a fan of passion. Being passionate about things makes life and people more interesting.

There is a lot of passion in the broader world of geekery.

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/11/geek-joy.html
http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2012/05/geeknerddork.html

International Comic Arts Forum: The source of the next few posts

A couple of weeks have gone by, but even so I am having a hard time getting my thoughts organized about the Forum. There was so much there that resonated with me, and some of it sent my mind off on tangents that no one there spoke about directly, but that were still inspired by it, and then some of the thought processes are more direct.

However, one thing that I am fairly comfortable assuming is that my regular readers will not really know what International Comic Arts Forum means. I only learned of it in March, I think. It was pretty much luck that I even found out then. One of the twins (not my sisters; this will be explained) was answering a question about his schedule, via Twitter, and he mentioned being in Portland in May. Stumptown was April; Rose City is September, and I think that other, new one, was February, so what was this? I asked and he gave this link:

http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/index.html

And I was like, wow, there is even more stuff in Portland than I realized! And I could go to that! And then it looked like it would overlap with the Italy trip, so I thought I would miss it, and then I had it scheduled so that I would get back the night before, but I had the next two days off. But then, between exhaustion, missing luggage, and technical issues, I ended up missing Thursday completely, and only catching about half of Friday and Saturday, but it was still really cool.

(No, I am probably not done being a fangirl yet.)

The forum itself is yearly, but held at different locations, which is probably why I had never heard of it before. I might have learned about it even without seeing the tweet, because there was an ad for it in the Stumptown Comics Fest program, but I might not have gotten back Wednesday night if I had not seen it before then.

(We had to be in Vicenza on May 21st either way. I think we picked good days based on that, but if other flights might not have lost our luggage, that could have been nice.)

Just to give an overview, the talks and panels were fairly evenly mixed between the more academic and the more creator led. I admit to having a harder time staying awake in the more academic ones (for which I still blame the exhaustion), but even so, there was not a single presentation that did not give me food for that, or other ideas for things to read. There were many that I wanted to attend and did not make it, and I still wonder if I should have chosen Academic Panel #9 instead of #10. 10 was not what I expected, but still valuable. 9 sounded really interesting, but I chose 10 over it because of my expectations. I think you see the problem.

Anyway, here is what I did attend:

Panel Discussion: Beyond Auteurism -- Creativity and Collaboration in Comics, with Gabriel Bá, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, Charles Hatfield, and Ben Saunders. (Qiana Whitted had travel delays and could not attend.)

The John Lent Award Lecture: How to Think About Comics as Social Objects, by Benjamin Woo.

Film Screening: Comic Book City, Portland, OR, USA

Panel Discussion: An Evening with Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon, moderated by Matt Fraction

These are the twins, or the Wonder twins, but people usually call them the twins, as they are twin brothers. I think this nomenclature may be a way of avoiding the accent marks in their names. I know I will write more about them.

Academic Panel: Self, Memory, Perception, with Jennifer Anderson Bliss, Christophe Dony, and Josina Robb presenting from papers, and Stanford Carpenter moderating as it was open to questions.

Panel Discussion: Comics and the Pacific Northwest, with Megan Kelso, Greg Rucka, Chris Roberson, and T. Edward Bak, moderated by Ben Saunders

Plenary Speaker: Sculpture, Stasis, the Comics, and (oh yeah) Hellboy, by Scott Bukatman

So, the way I believe the next few days will go is that I will be writing about my thoughts from these on Tuesday, Wednesday, and then next Monday through Wednesday, and then I will move on to a different topic, though comics will still be a part of that Monday's post. Or, maybe my thoughts will be so drawn out and chaotic that the forum will need another week. I'm not always succinct.

(Music posts will definitely be Kissing Candice and Chomp Chomp Attack! this week, and either next week will be about the rest of that concert, or I will take a break from that to write about New Politics and Fall Out Boy, whom I will see on the 18th, and then circle back to the rest of the concert at the Haunt, with information on the venue, the two local bands, and of course, Snow White's Poison Bite. It just depends on whether giving the FOB concert extra time will deaden my writing or allow me to do it justice better.)

Concert Review: Farewell, My Love

Okay, we are starting with Farewell, My Love, and whether I finish covering the rest of the show next week, or require additional time, I will figure out as I go.

The first thing I need to acknowledge is that whoever is running the band's Twitter did a pretty good job. When they first followed me, and I followed back, I was sometimes a little irritated by the multiple rounds of messages encouraging me to follow each of the band's individual members and to check out their video, and to ask who was coming to what shows. Now I have to admit that it worked.

Obviously, I did end up seeing a show that I could go to, and getting a ticket. I did end up watching the video. More than any of that, though, even before I gave in and followed each member, I had each one connected with a name and a picture in my mind. Therefore, as I was on the floor waiting for them to come on, and they would wander around, I was having these flashes of recognition: Oh, that's Röbby. There's Logan.

It helps that they have such distinctive hairstyles (well, Charlee and Chad have kind of similar hair), but mainly it was those dramatic photos, sent out many times. Chomp Chomp Attack! followed me shortly after, so I have been following them for about the same amount of time, but I had no visual image of them. It may seem unimportant, but that kind of connection increases the fans' investment in the band.

That being said, the strongest impression from seeing them wandering around was how much younger and, well, maybe smaller isn't the right word. More vulnerable? Anyway, they definitely looked younger, which makes me wonder how young they would look without the hair and makeup.

The show itself was pretty good. The sets were all pretty short, so it was just a few songs and then they were gone, but it was nice seeing the interplay, and there were things that were interesting about it. For example, guitarist Logan Thayer walks and poses for pictures with the swagger of a frontman, but on stage he is all about the guitar, which is worth it. Fronting is left to vocalist Ryan Howell, whose regular charm is augmented by a South African accent.

Also on guitar, Röbby Creasey manage to be more of a ham, interacting with the audience via facial expressions and mouthed lyrics. With a fairly small stage to work with, we didn't get to see as much of bassist Charlee Conley and drummer Chad Kowal, but it was adorable when Charlee laid his head on Ryan's shoulder towards the end, and Chad did more interacting at the merch table than the others. Also, I learned some things about managing picks from watching both Röbby and Charlee, so that was cool.

Moving onto the music, their initial offering, A Dance You Won't Forget (2011), is pretty good, but I feel like 2013's Mirror, Mirror is superior. One of the things I admire about the band is the diversity within their songs. Starting off with the title track, "Mirror, Mirror" is frantic and anguished, the sound of tortured souls, and then they immediately go into the delicate bells and sweet beauty of "My Perfect Thing". That's different tones, and themes, but there is nothing incongruous about them being together. Farewell, My Love maintains its own sound without being monotonous; that's a band with a clear sense of identity, but also with ability.

On the earlier LP you can see the potential there -- I think "The Glamour" is a good example of that -- but it feels like they have blossomed into something more.

Sadly there is not much available in the way of video, but they have this tour going on now, and will be supporting Blood on the Dance Floor after that, so they're on the rise. Music is available through iTunes and Amazon.

https://twitter.com/Farewell_MyLove

https://www.facebook.com/farewellmyloveofficial

http://standbyrecords.net/artists/farewellmylove/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/mirror-mirror-ep/id597201993

http://www.youtube.com/user/FarewellMyLoveVEVO

Concert-going music-writing update

I feel really bad for not having a band review for today. The deal is that I am going to a show with four bands tonight, and have been listening to all of them in preparation.

I considered writing about one of them today, pre-show, but then what if the show completely changes my opinion? I also thought about throwing in some completely unconnected band, but I don't know if I could do anyone else justice. Also, there are some reasons for doing a general update.

First of all, tonight is significant in that this is the first time I will be seeing bands who have followed me on Twitter before writing about them. I am seeing Farewell My Love and Chomp Chomp Attack!, along with Kissing Candice and Snow White's Poison Bite. Obviously my tendency is to favor Farewell My Love and Chomp Chomp Attack!, but I will try and treat everyone fairly.

In terms of what gets posted when, the tricky part is that it gives me only three days to cover those four bands before my next concert. I may combine two, but I don't know. It's cutting it a little close, but sometimes that's interesting. We'll see.

Anyway, that makes tonight interesting, and then I have an exciting next few concerts coming up. I will even be attending some with other people. Let's reference my last post on this topic:

http://sporkful.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-year-of-magical-concert-going.html

That takes us through Fall Out Boy, and their show with New Politics is why I worry about how I am going to fit in everyone tonight. Since then, I have tickets for three additional shows, not counting tonight. In October, my sisters and a friend and I will go see the Pet Shop Boys, and in September a similar configuration, but with a different friend, is going to see Adam Ant. That's quite the spot of 80's nostalgia, you may be thinking, but that is not the most important thing, because July 16th, I am going to see Jimmy Eat World.

Yes, that is correct, the missing 5 concerts that grew out of the original missing 3, where so many spots have just been filled in over the past few months, is getting an important addition. That really only leaves Maroon 5, which, again, ambiguous now. I am leaning more pro than con right now, because when people do get mad at Adam Levine, it is always for stupid reasons, and it brings out my protective side. That's not important now.

The important thing is that I am going to see Jimmy Eat World, and I called it! I said July. And it was more than calling it actually, because they posted some tour dates, and Portland was missing, but it fit in really easily, and I sent them a tweet. I said I wasn't mad, but they forgot Portland and it would fit in really well on the way down from Vancouver.

They didn't reply -- I don't know if they even saw it -- so I'm not saying I made the date happen. I may have psychically predicted it though. Or yeah, maybe I made it happen by sheer force of will. The important thing is that it is happening.

So, where does this leave us for other concert needs and wants? Well, obviously August is still a blank, so it would be nice for something to happen there. It's probably too early for Revenir, but November looks promising for Reggie and the Full Effect, which would be another first, in seeing a band in concert that I have reviewed just based on listening. Maybe Revenir could come in December. The truth is, I have no idea on lead time for planning a tour. It probably takes longer with larger venues.

The little drawback is that I seem to be loving Alkaline Trio, and they are actually here on the 8th, and I don't even think it's sold out, but I am so overloaded that I can't do it. They seem to reach Portland on a regular basis though, so I may get a chance. I am listening to "Mercy Me" in rotation with "Own Worst Enemy" by Lit. Maybe Lit will come. It's easy to be optimistic about good bands coming right now. I've been really lucky.

Drawing in Italy

I always forget something obvious when I go on vacation. On the cruise to Alaska, I forgot my hairbrush, so I had to buy one there. They did not have a wide selection. This time, I forgot to bring comic books.

I said yesterday that I did not want to be reading in English, because I thought it would make keeping my Italian up more difficult. Also, my brain was fried, and I wanted it to have a chance to rest up, but I still wanted to be doing something kind of productive. I obviously was not going to bring the guitar, but I thought I could work on my drawing.

I remembered the sketchpad, pencils, and even a little pencil sharpener, but despite having it written down, I did not remember to bring the comic books that I was going to sketch out of, working on my comic drawing. I thought about drawing from my head, but I ended up drawing the furniture.

Yes, I was in Italy, the land so full of inspiration to so many artists. Yes, Vicenza is rich in the architecture of Palladio. Wandering around would have been a concern for my aunt, though, and not worth the hassle.

More to the point, her apartment is rich in art. There are prints from Picasso, Gaugin, Modigliani, Da Vinci, Seurat, Monet, Van Gogh, and lots of others. Her husband was very cultured. Still, those were paintings, and they were above my level, and I don't know, drawing the furniture seemed like the right way to go.

It was educational. There were things that looked more accurate by being less accurate. With the books underneath the radio, the set has eight books, but I only drew seven, or it would have been too crowded. I could not draw all of the glassware in the hutch, or it would have looked overcrowded. It wasn't overcrowded, but it would have looked it.

Some of that is probably me not getting the proportions right, but I remember at the Killers concert there were things I could see clearly, but could not get a picture of, and I decided it had to be that my two eyes were giving me a picture that the single lens of the camera could not manage. But some of it is probably the drawing too. I mean, there's a reason that the Simpsons only have four fingers.

It was not just furniture, because I also did details from the wallpaper and the light fixtures. I can tell you that the moldings and fixtures and paper have a strong Art Nouveau influence. That is probably from renovations done when Nereo's parents were separating the house into apartments. The furniture is more modern; somewhat streamlined but it seems very big. That's probably from when he and Elda were married.

I can tell you how little things change from visits years apart. My aunt will do a lot to avoid getting gifts, but anything she does take is there forever. It reminds me of other homes of elderly people I have loved, where certain objects may not be elegant, but they seem so much a part of the place that you depend on seeing them there. This is Grandma's. There are the elves. There's the panther lamp, and the cow cookie jar, and the picture of the old man praying, and together they all mean "home".

I also did draw out of my head a little, which is why there were some sketches of a rat. That was unfortunate because my mother was looking through and she was enjoying it until then. She loathes rats. That was like the one thing that I need for the comic book that I thought maybe I am ready to draw now, but I am not.

Besides the rat, Mom was impressed. I thought she would think it was weirder than she did. My aunt said they were perfect. She also loves me and doesn't get to see me that often, so is probably not impartial.

I see the flaws, but some of them are not too bad. My freehand lines are reasonably straight, and people can and do use rulers for things like that. I need practice with perspective. I can get there. Mainly, there were two things that I got from it.

One is the reminder that there are a lot of things to draw. I have worried about drawing people, but there are buildings, furnishings, and all the little objects that make up life. People wear clothes, and they don't automatically come out right when you draw them. So maybe I do need to sketch landscapes and bowls of fruit and fashion layouts and all of those things.

The other thing is just a lesson in seeing. The word that kept flashing on me was "sensitive". I think I have heard some artists described that way before, but I hadn't really thought of what it meant. For me, it was feeling these things, and the emotional attachment to them, and bringing them out from the background to the foreground.

I don't think anyone will buy a sketch of an old-fashioned radio or dresser, but it's a part of the place that I love. It has a history. Someone designed that wallpaper and created it. It's just being more aware, and not taking anything for granted. At least, that's what I'm going for.

And, that is a good segue into the International Comic Arts Forum, which I shall start writing about next week.

Language barrier

My Italian family is very direct. Everything they say is with love, and the first time you meet them they are just taking you in and getting to know you, but then after that opinions come out. There were two things I was told by multiple people: I had lost weight and my Italian was better.

With the weight, it was asking me if I had lost, and then saying my butt was smaller. Both Luciana and Olimpia said it, so it must be true. I'm not sure how I feel about elderly ladies checking out my butt, but obviously I'm relieved that it moved in the right direction.

For the language, I felt like I was doing worse, but I think I know why. What frustrated me was that my grammar was so simple. Everything that had happened was said in past perfect, and everything in the future was going plus infinitive. There were only two verbs that I could do anything more complicated with, and only because I had heard them recently. So I was feeling like I was speaking like a small child, but no, children pick up those things -- I was speaking like a first year language student.

However, I think the reason that my grammar was bugging me was that I was coming up with other words more easily, and phrasing more complex thoughts.

I like to do some preparation before I go. That has involved reading in Italian, or watching Italian movies, or doing something to get my brain into the groove. I had no time for that. I took some magazines in Italian and an old dictionary, and I would try and read a couple of articles in the morning and at night, but otherwise it was just talking, and I guess I did okay.

The real test was the last day, because I was translating for my brother and his wife, and sometimes just my brother without Mom around, so I had no backup.

I had been worried enough about switching back and forth that I did not take any English reading material, even though I was really behind in my reading. Well, I took Silent Spring, and I read it on the plane and in airports, put it away once we touched down, and did not open it back up until the trip back. I had to be focused! And there I was, going back and forth, and it went fine.

Actually, I did better than Mom, because she would forget to switch, so turn to them and speak Italian, and turn to the cousins and speak English. I think a lot of that is that I studied Italian formally. For Mom, her life was mostly Italian, and then it was mostly English. She can speak either one easily, but translating is a different process.

So that was encouraging. I want to be better, and I have some thoughts in mind for that, but for now I have successfully conversed about the legal system, boutique businesses, and Portland's Naked Bike Ride, which I actually knew all the words for. Now, if they had asked me to explain why it happens, for that I probably would have gotten stuck.

There were a few fun things that came up, so I am just going to throw those out now.

One is that there are certain phrases in every language that stick with me. The expression seems more satisfying, or there was some emotion attached where it made a stronger impression, or something like that.

For the most part I did well at speaking Italian and thinking Italian, but there was one Laotian expression that kept coming back. I can only kind of approximate the pronunciation, because it has its own alphabet and it's tonal, but it's "Eem leow!" And it means "I'm already full."

I know the Italian expression for it: "Gia aposto!" I could usually manage to say it, but first I would think it in Lao, because going back to a time when people were always trying to make you eat, and sure that you had not had enough, and really wanted you to eat more, I have just said that a lot more in Lao. And still the issue is not really language insufficiency, but they are just not going to believe you, or they don't want to believe you, but seriously, I've had enough! Really!

There weren't even any of the really big family meals like on other trips, but it still comes up. Sometimes you can get away with it, sometimes you can't. I thought I had successfully deflected several offers from my aunt one night, and suddenly she brought me crackers with marmalade. I'm not a fan of marmalade, and I don't think I would put it on saltine crackers anyway (though I have a certain fondness for jam on crackers from MREs back when my father was in the National Guard), but I ate them, because that's what you do.

That happened not at a meal, but when we were watching television and she was just worried I had not eaten enough. I think part of the problem was that the show wasn't very interesting, so it was not making enough of a distraction. She will cheer or yell. I remember her going "Bravo Walker" once for Chuck Norris, but we didn't really see any American shows this time. The news always paid off though, and I learned one new word, "Schifo!"

Every time Berlusconi was mentioned, or there was a picture shown, "Schifo!" I don't remember her hating him so much last time, but he has done a lot since then. I remembered that one of my cousins, Gianluigi, really liked him though, and I wondered if he had been disenchanted.

Well, he hasn't been, but he also thinks that one day we will all realize that Bush was a great president, and he specified that he meant W, not the father, so you may want to keep that in mind. The point is, I know because I asked, and my aunt was in the kitchen, so I was hoping she would not hear, but she came out. "Schifo!" And they were off.

Actually, that conversation, and another she had with Carlo about the missing luggage, showed me that I really am only half-Italian. Sure, I talk with my hands, and I was painfully aware of it at this conference that I will be writing about next week, because both times I asked a question, it was like I was kneading dough in the air. I see it, and know it is ridiculous, and I can't stop. But I am nothing compared to them.

They talk with their entire bodies! It is amazing to behold. This is one reason I can't really do phone conversations in Italian (I had a short call with Valeria). If I can't see their gestures, or make my own, how are we going to understand each other? And we were talking about that with Carlo, and he pointed out that also,  you only have one hand on the phone, and then he made a gesture to indicate unless you have a headset. And he is right.

I guess phone skills would be one thing to work on, but they said next time they want to get me speaking dialect. We'll see.

Amore

I did think about calling this "That's Amore", but it was just too cheesy.

When we were on our first layover at San Francisco, I was heading to our gate, and I heard a flight announced for Paris, and I inhaled sharply and thought, "Paris!"

I do want to see Paris someday and I expect to love it, but I will probably never love it the way I love Italy.

It was a long and stressful trip to get there, and then not finding Mom's bag did not help. Still, there we were heading towards Vicenza, and the rain started to pour on the already flooded vineyards, but there were still those beautiful rolling hills, and I was heading towards people who love me. I was home, and I did that sharp inhalation for Italy too.

It's not that I don't love Oregon, and I am probably more strongly attached to Oregon, but I still spend most of my time here. Italy is the home that I can only visit sometimes.

It is beautiful. It may not hurt that in some ways it is very similar to Oregon. A lot of the plants are the same. (I sort of knew it anyway, but realized it even more once my allergies kicked in.) This is the second time I have been there in May, and both times there have just been poppies everywhere. One vineyard had a rosebush or a cluster of flowers at the end of every row. There were a lot of roses.

There were also a lot of flowerpots on the balconies of brightly painted stucco buildings that are over a hundred years old, and porticoes and old architectural styles going back hundreds of years. That part is not so much like Oregon.

Also, there is my beautiful, warm, funny Italian family. That is the most different part of all.

With my father's family, it's not like they wish me any harm, but my mother's family loved me so much and so immediately. Embracing someone is pretty literal when you do the kiss-kiss thing anyway, but it's sincere too. I have some great friends here, but there has never been anything like that.

I was thinking about it with my aunt. Sometimes there are really endearing things about a person, and you will think "This is the reason I love them." I love my aunt because she loves me, and she is generous, and because she's family and on that side of the family you just love each other. She also worries about everything and frets and she can at times get very peppery. That is not a reason that I love her, and I am not even sure that I love it about her, but then somehow when it is happening, and she is being completely unreasonable, I feel love for her, and I smile, because it nonetheless is something about her, and she is someone I love. And honestly, I love it when she yells at the television.

I was worried about the day we would have with my brother and sister in law, because sometimes they can be kind of difficult, and there were so many things up in the air, and I just wanted everyone to enjoy each other. Should I have warned them about the kiss-kiss?

It really ended up being fine. First of all, they had been in Italy for two weeks; they knew about the kiss-kiss. I mean, shopkeepers don't do it to you, but somehow they seemed conversant with it. Maybe the tour guide showed them the ropes.

It started out awkwardly. The plan was that they were going to take the train from Venice, then a cab to Zia Eldas's and should be there around 12:30. Carlo went to the station around noon to see if he could intercept them so they would not have to take the cab. He could not find them. Actually, they had gotten there earlier and hooked up with a local tour guide, but then they got to see the sights of Vicenza, which was good because cars were going to be an issue.

Their cars are small in general. My brother and his wife are both tall, and he is broad also. He could only go in a front seat, but Mom's legs don't bend and she needs to be in front too, and with a driver, well, we were never going to get five people in a single car, and it was a Tuesday, so the only driver who was not working that day was Carlo. So initially it was just us upstairs at Elda's looking at old photos, with her trying to get them to eat and drink, a lot. Also, their return train tickets were for 7:30, but people don't start getting home before 7. I just needed to have more faith, because Carlo was on it.

He asked if they would be okay with changing their train tickets, and found the available times. Then he shuttled Lance and I over to Giorgio and Isolina, returned for Mom and Lynn, and then went to the train station to change the tickets.

This started a different round of visiting, and it kept expanding. First there were the six of us, and then Carlo back with the tickets, and then eventually Piero and Betti joined us, with more and more phone calls going around, but also, this meant we had more cars.

We headed into Il Centro for everyone to gather. Piero, Lynn, and I walked around taking pictures, while the rest had drinks. By the time we got back, we had also gotten Valeria and Marielena. It wasn't everyone, but we had a good mix. We walked to a pizza restaurant, and had dinner, and then we walked them to the train station. They were flying out from Venice at 6 AM, and we were flying out from Verona at 10 AM, so this was goodbye.

The thing with "amore" is that we don't really use it. Tomorrow will be about language, but this is where it falls short for me. Technically, "Ti amo" is "I love you", but you don't say that to your cousin. I tried anyway, and Betti replied "Ti sentiamo"  which I think meant more that she understood what I was trying to say. Mom said you can say "Ti voglio bene", but that doesn't sound right either.

Actually, I can't see that they say it. They feel it and mean it and show it. When we hug goodbye, and there is the kiss-kiss, but then the hug doesn't end and we get choked up, because who knows how long it will be this time, we know what we mean. When I told Carlo that he's done too much for us, and he denies it, I think we know what we mean. I'm a word person. I want the right words for it. But it's still pretty good that we know.

Band Review: An Honest Year

An Honest Year does not actually follow me on Twitter, but their lead guitarist, Stephen Morrell, does, so good enough. They get a review, and I like them, so it’s even better.

Also, they inspired me, because their ReverbNation bio indicates that they started out with Skype rehearsals. I have actually considered doing that, but it seemed impractical. I’m sure it still is for long term, but that you can start out that way seems kind of hopeful.

Stories are cool, but it always comes down to the music. Musically, An Honest Year comes with an infectious sense of fun. They’re pretty solidly within the pop genre, although more on the alternative/punk side. It is upbeat, it is danceable, but also, there are some edges there. The opening to “Starting Over” is pretty hardcore, honestly reminding me of Metallica a little, but is just a few bars.

Perhaps it is this underlying power that keeps them from cloying or getting annoying, or that there is variety in their songs, or their energy. It just feels important to clarify—I am not in any way using “pop” negatively. On some of their pages they list as similar to All Time Low, Taking Back Sunday, New Found Glory, and Yellowcard. I tend to agree, which does reinforce the pop punk/alternative punk argum

If I were going to judge them, it would be for the Taylor Swift cover (“I Knew You Were Trouble”), but they do a pretty good job of it, and I’ve admitted before that my hatred of her is not logical. They also do an Avril Lavigne cover (“Here’s to Never Growing Up”, which I like considerably better), and a Coldplay cover (“Sparks”).

That leads to a pretty good point. For purchasing, you can go through iTunes, Amazon, and Bandcamp, but you will generally find three songs available. Going to the Youtube channel will give you the three covers, the three widely available for purchase songs (“You and All Your Friends”, “Starting Over”, and “Second Guessing”), as well as an official video for “Liar & A Thief” and a lyrics video for “You And All Your Friends”. (And to get an idea of their fun, check out the photo with the Taylor Swift cover.)

While I do encourage you to buy some songs, obviously you should also go to Youtube. It also seems reasonable to believe that there is more on the way, and if the last two are newer, it shows a sound that is maturing and improving, but it still really fun. So, check them out.

http://www.amazon.com/An-Honest-Year/dp/B009B2SXT8/

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/an-honest-year-single/id562153808

http://www.youtube.com/user/anhonestyear

https://www.facebook.com/#!/anhonestyear

https://twitter.com/AnHonestYear

http://an-honest-year.tumblr.com/

http://anhonestyear.bandcamp.com/

http://www.reverbnation.com/anhonestyear

Band Review: Amarante

I wasn’t sure where to start with Amarante. They describe themselves as Indie Folk, but there is a much more exotic feel to the music than that would suggest. Then this video helped a lot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIt4ER0PElc

First of all, the music that you do hear (“The Wanderer”) is fairly representative of the sound of the album, Udana Prana. Beyond that, I just felt like I understood them better afterwards. This is the ethos of the band: two parents, collaborating together, joyfully involving their children, and very based in the home. There is still that feeling of exoticism, but it is grounded in the home life.

I would say there is also a connection to nature, and not just because of the bird sounds on “The Travelers”. Some of it is the instruments used, and the harmonies. It feels like there is a Far East focus on harmony, including harmony with nature and between each other. There is sort of a meditative feel. It is too lively for meditation, but could work well for a soothing background.

It looks like the only purchasing options are currently through Bandcamp, though you can link via either Facebook or the bandsite.

http://amarantemusic.com/

http://soundcloud.com/amarantemusic/

http://www.youtube.com/user/AmaranteMusic

https://www.facebook.com/#!/Amarantemusic

https://twitter.com/AmaranteMusic

Passengers in time

The reason I don’t like talking about this is because it is not really about me. It’s about Mom, and there are conceivably people who will read this who know her, so I’m hesitant. However, I do feel it. It’s a part of my life too. And, it might help someone.

Mom has been having some memory issues. Her mother had Alzheimer’s, and one of her sisters does now, so there is that risk. Some testing has indicated that she does not specifically have that, but a cognition test put her right at the borderline for having some dementia.

She doesn’t forget herself. Like, with her sister, Giovanna has periods of just seeming far away, and then when she is there she keeps forgetting where she is and where she lives. Because of that, she has a tendency to wander away from her apartment, which is scary for everyone. Sometimes she does not recognize her husband. Also, she forgets to clean, which is so unlike her. She is probably going to have to be put into a nursing home just for safety.

Mom has not been doing any of that; she just has a hard time taking in new information. I think a lot of it is that she does not pay attention. She asks one question, but instead of listening for the answer she is thinking about the other things she needs to do, and to ask, and so she will ask that one question five times.

The really frustrating thing is that sometimes she will get false information in her head. I think the sees something that she is not sure about, so she tries to figure out how it happened, and she constructs an explanation that is wrong, and very hard to get out of her head.

Still, she can get some things in her head, and I think if she could make herself focus more, she would do better. That’s why I want her to take tai chi; I think it will help her be present in the moment, instead of trying to pin down all future and potential moments. I am breaking down her resistance to tai chi, but it took me six months just to get her to try Indian food.

So there is a lot of repeating, and I am fairly patient with that. There are other things that are worse, like getting ready for this trip. She would forget we were going, and panic, and I would have to convince her over and over again that various things would be fine, or were covered, and that gets exhausting. Because this was extra stress, that was extra work, and no small part of my getting worn down. Still, at least she knew who she was.

The time in transit was very hard anyway, but I guess the travel itself was disorienting. She kept forgetting where we were and where we were going and where we had been. She said we were taking a really roundabout route, but then I found that she thought we had been in Canada, and that we were going home, or that we would see the dogs when we landed, when we were just getting to Verona.

That actually lasted through the trip, having to remind her which day it was, and which day things would happen, and that she did not have any clothes in her carryon, and that I did not have any moisturizer to lend her, and on through the trip home.

The worst part happened on the trip out though. It was during the taxi on the last flight, and she said something about going home and I was reminding her that we weren’t yet, and she was confused about where we lived, so I told her. She looked at me like I was teasing her. “I don’t live in Aloha, Oregon.” And I nearly started to cry.

And then the plane took off into the air, and it startled her and I reached for her hand, and a minute later she said, “I know I live in Oregon” and she really started to enjoy the flight. There were other reminders and confused moments, but that was the worst.

I think part of the problem was that in addition to the usual stresses, both places are home. We were leaving where she lives for where she grew up, and her children for her siblings, so maybe some confusion is natural. She’s doing pretty well now.

Still, hearing that, and then seeing Giovanna and how she has changed, and how others have declined, there was a lot of sadness. Things aren’t the way they used to be, and there’s still a lot of good, but there’s loss too.

And there’s some dread too, because what if Mom does get worse? That moment on the plane didn’t fade very quickly. And what if at some point I lose myself? I don’t know.

For now, I am grateful that she is better, and grateful that my cousin and his wife are so patient with my aunt. I am grateful that my widowed aunt and uncle’s children are so good to them. I am grateful that my other widowed aunt, who has no children, is remembered by her nieces and nephews, though she does not make their task easy. I am grateful to know that there is more to the soul than our time here.

Mainly, I am grateful for love, so that’s where I’ll pick up next week. It gets better from here.