I Got a Letter From Terry Riley….

by

In 2010 I sent Terry Riley a letter asking him to come see my band Bongo Fury when we were playing in Oakland that summer along with a CD of a string quartet piece I had written.

To my astoundment, he wrote me back. My hands shook with excitement when I pulled that letter out of the mailbox and realized who it was from.

terry riley

What a nice letter!

In 2012 I went on a 36 hour trip to New York City and saw the premiere of one of Mr. Riley’s pieces at Carnegie Hall.

I remember standing in line to shake Terry Riley’s hand at the end of the concert. A recently graduated Julliard student  and his grandmother stood in front of me telling me how much he loved Terry Riley’s music. How his grandmother had been friends with Terry Riley since the 70’s.

Before that had occurred, during intermission, I had drank champagne with a bunch of professors from Julliard explaining to them how I liked to crossdress and took lessons in South Indian Classical music.

It was a heady affair.

And somehow or another I manged to shake Terry Riley’s hand. I got nervous, mumbled how much I liked his piece. Told him I had written him a letter once and he had replied and how much I had appreciated that. Mr. Riley looked at me with puzzlement for a second, said he didn’t remember the letter, but thanked me nonetheless, what a cool person!

Things…

by

I finished a script for what I believe will be my next short film. It’ll be a horror picture that I’m calling “Blue Skies”. I’ll post its progress here over the summer.

The second volume of my ‘zine, “The Lipstick Diaries” will be available at my table at the Denver Zine Fest 2016 on June 25! Be warned if you meet me in person, I have the crazy eyes.

The Tannex in Albuquerque

And my show in Albuquerque at The Tannex was SWEET. Couldn’t have wished for a better evening!

And the folks who came down loved my short film STONER WITCHES.

That made me very happy.

Thank you to Marya Erinn Jones for running such a great space and thank you’s to VASILLIUS,
DRY & DUSTY and RIPE MANGOS for playing!

V at The Tannex in Albuquerque

(VASILLIUS in action!)

Tomorrow

by

I always thought I would not stop performing, thought I’d do it till the end.

But maybe, that’s not going to be true.

I still plan on playing shows out of town when I have the chance.

I still intend on making music and putting out records.

And I’m still going to make and show my short films.

But I’m not going to perform in Denver or regularly anywhere for a long, long time.

Years, decades, centuries….I really don’t know.

So if you’re in Denver tomorrow night, come see what might be my last show in Denver or might not.

I’m really not too sure about anything these days.

Many thanks to Tom Murphy for the lovely endpiece. It warmed the blackest corners of my black heart.

An Old Short, Short Story From 02/26/2009

by

Note: I found this when I was cleaning out my house, written in one of my journals. No edits, just straight to the page. Incidentally, the entry before this was from February 14, the day after I saw Hot White for the first time play. They performed at Ethan McCarthy’s 25th birthday party at FunHaus (Ethan’s DIY space right next door to Jesus Saves in downtown Denver) with one of my favorite bands ever, MOM (from Sacramento, CA).

Everyone had believed the accident was not Mimi’s fault. The town had quite gone back to normal. Hardly a fuss was made of the death of three men in a remote cabin with what is believed to be an ax, though one was never found. Not much frankly was to be found in the town anymore anyways.

Yes, the town wasn’t what it used to be but no one could find fault in someone, something or maybe some mighty external cause on which to lay blame. And so, there we stood with packed bags by the town foundation, waiting for a bus as it began to heavily snow.

“Shannon told me her family is moving to St. Alberg. It sounds nice!” I said.  jumping around to keep warm.

Kiki squinted at me and moved her mouth so her cigarette pointed upwards like a cartoon character’s.

“So what?” She spat out.

I continued to hop from foot to foot. “I don’t know…just trying to make small talk, you know? Tryin’ to stay warm.”

“Oh poor Wallin, my skinny little darling. we must fatten you up someday. Unlike so flabby, layered me.” She said and pointed at her stomach.

Kiki, though she hardly weighed more than a starched napkin forever thought of herself as flabby. I didn’t argue, for over time I had learned this wasn’t a moment to speak. Instead, I looked at her and wondered what had happened in the woods those many years ago.

Some Fliers for the Last Few Shows

by

I’m going to take some time off from live performing for awhile (months, years, decades, centuries?…who knows!) but over the next thirty plus days there will be a plethora of opportunities to see me play. Here’s some fliers I made for a few of the last shows…..check out the Shows sections for the dates and locations…..

Last Tripp Nasty Show March 23 v2

wat flier

Pacman Power!!!

by

I’ll be playing in Mr. Pacman again on Friday, March 11 at The Syntax Physics Opera!

It’s the Magic Cyclop’s Sweet Sixteen Anniversary Party, or something grandiose like that.  There will be some special guests from some of Denver’s more popular bands (Munly, Slim Cessna, Snake Snake Rattle Rattle, Kip Winger, etc.) paying homage to the man, the machine, the air guitarist extra-ordinary and lover of all things Funko: The Magic Cyclops!