Gridlords, The Chromatics & Stumptown comics my style

So I am at Hollywood Theatre to meet most of the presenters & performers to check projection, check sound and pre assemble some sets the friday before The Gridlords show. Everyone was so beautiful and in awesome form and Rad mood! Everything got handled with ease and then I went and ate Pizza with Emily, Wally & Alex of Marsuplala. After Pizza we ran over to a photo copy ring to print some handbills real quick and while in there I spied a handsome dood with an what just from his side looked like an older Chromatics tour shirt. I hadn't seen it and wanted him to know I thought it was rad! He politely said thanks, showed it off a little and hustled out. No more then 5 minutes later he pulls back up tells me he's in the band & they are leaving for Portugal the next morning.  Then He asks if I want as many Chromatic t shirts as I want and any copies of the records for free that I don't have or more if I like, and that my friends could take what they wanted as well. I went ballistic and melted all over the disco waves of generosity! Everybody got shirts & records & everyone left smiling with joy! That was a great start to the Gridlords Vibes! 

Stumptown Comics fest was one of the best ever for me. I opted out of doing the festival as a whole except for being fittingly on a panel under the guide and curation of Chloe Eudaly & side by side with mega pal Julia, Daniel Duford, and Jon McNaught. The panel was a rad one called TWO FACED ARTISTS LIVE DOUBLE LIF IN SINGLE BODY. It was about what it means to be involved in what is commonly divided as comics and illustration & then fine art, & if there is a difference between the two, or if maybe the term fine art is in fact an old fashioned term built in times of similar classism as ours current. It was a pretty good discussion overall, but it would have done better to have been given much more time. 45 min wasn't enouph to cover much & I didn't get much into the depth of things. I felt like Daniel had a lot further to guide us as well. He and I both surf territories of expression in art that fit within many labels of art at once. I wanted to talk in particular about performing arts & how its blend with my comics work functions. There's lush territory for understanding labels in there. Ultimately though I firmly believe Like Laurie told us, "Language is a virus"and like Tina  said:
"Words in papers, words in books 
Words on tv, words for crooks 
Words of comfort, words of peace 
Words to make the fighting cease 
Words to tell you what to do 
Words are working hard for you 
Eat your words but don't go hungry 
Words have always nearly hung me".

Anyhoo, with my pass to be on the panel and in the company of Andrice I went in briefly to the fest and just said hello to buddies mostly and reminded everyone about gridlords that night. Everyone seemed so excited for it which made me feel so good because I had worked alone to organize it and it was our biggest show yet! There was so much love in everyones faces over it! I met a few nice people that were from out of town too which was fun. I got new books by one of my favorite dood Cameron Hawkey, some short stories by buddy David Lasky, a couple fake zines by big publishers of Dash Shaw comics. Andrice and I bolted and ate & tried to relax before the big show.

About 8pm Emily picked us up in the Emilymobile and we swung over to The hollywood Theatre. There we were met by smiling faces ready to help me put on the show! The only bummer was a really lame Ametuer indie film fundraiser full of tan body builder men auctioning off there t shirts & short skirted ladies wearing too much perfume hobbling in heels under pounds of mac club. They went 30 minutes over there allotted time and we got pushed to start late. But we got awesome and set up as fast as we could! The lobby of the theatre was buldging with people to see the show in no time flat! Everyone was so delightful and in the raddest show mood! It was truly like being on the muppet show! I felt like Kermit racing around trying to keep an eye on everything and having a whole other behind the scenes show of antics! Pure magic!
A picure is worth a thousand words but the picutres taken at gridlords hardly cover what went on. But you were probably there and it was amazing right!!!
The audience was just about 200 people which is only 100 seats under what that auditorium can seat. If there was time to cry with joy I would have been! PURE BLISS OVERLOAD!!!! No show in the history of time to my knowledge was ever radder & I dont have a clue (except for this one thing I wanna do) how to top it!
Afterwards it was about 1am that we left the theatre and met up at Wally (that he shares with many of my other friends) of marsuplala's house with Erin Tanner, Katie Obrien, Max, Elysia, Chelsea Kamm and her band mate Alisa  and we drank beers and burnt off all that excited energy playing silly games and getting awesome until about 5am! What a wonderful night! I wish it never ended! Man reintegration back into the world of reality and going back to my awful job was a FUCKED UP feeling. HEAD TRIPLORDS!!!! I gotta find a way to get awesome everyday! Planning the greatest event is already hard and then going to this place where you are belittled for 8 hours to pay rent is just clearly a weird ballance.
Anyway, check out all of the excitement on the gridlords page! YEAH! Oh and stay tuned for Video of most of the performances:)


below is Wally that night at like 2am still getting rad in part of his costume with the rest seated at the fire place. These photos were taken by Andrice Arp.