Land of Songs / Lost Sound Tapes / Jim Bloom / Jean Seestadt / thelittlestillnotbigenough
Pictures and Words Magazine
Issue #2
CONTRIBUTORS editor in chief & layout designer
Jamie Walsh co-editors
Katrina Laura Ketchum Craig Peters interviewers
Mary Duke Mary Morgan Grant Scott- Goforth Angie Valetutto Danielle Walter Quickest Flipest logo
Quickest Flipest Issue No. 2
www.quickestflip.com
David Jaberi cover image
trees, vs, hats, & undies
Ash Hudson quickest flip logo
Jason Arsaga
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS:
Ash Hudson Cicely Ames Layla Durrani Penelope Gazin James Angello John Fenn Jude Lally Ginger Matthews Justin Clifford Rhody David Holt John Collins McCormick David Jaberi Nina Coloso Sergio Paniagua Cristina Mariotta Angie Valetutto Hilal Omar Al Jamal Anika Lena Fenn Gilman Ruby Bradford Reuben Sorensen Richard Wehrenberg, Jr. Katrina Laura Ketchum Jamond Williams Megan Workman Francis Kohler Heather Tate Becky Guerra Ginger Chen Maya Mu帽oz-Tob贸n
FEATURES
Interview with Aldona Watts of Land of Songs by Mary Morgan Interview with Jon Manning of Lost Sound Tapes by Mary Duke
Interview with Jim Bloom Philadelphia, PA Artist by Angie Valetutto Interview with Jean Seestadt Brookly, NY artist by Danielle Walter Interview with Philip Deniz Kumsar of thelittlestillnotbigenough by Grant Scott-Goforth
Music Cicely Ames
Drumming is the heartbeat of my music, the strings flow through me and vibrate and turn into a song. My music is my compass it moves me in so many ways. Tears fill my eyes with hapiness and joy.
Layla Durrani
Ladders
mixed media 5� x 7�
Penelope Gazin
Dolly Affinity/Infinity acrylic & ink 8.5” x 11”
James Angello
Never Sleeps
mixed media on canvas 36” x 24”
Center in Santa Barbara studying up on Lithuanian folklore and pre-Christian Baltic religion. Gimbutas did a lot of important work about the Lithuanian folk singing tradition. But the bulk of the ethnomusicological info offered in the film itself will come from interviews with Lithuanian scholars including Zita Kelmickaitė, Nijole Marcinkevičienė, and Onutė Drobelienė. They’ve all worked with the močiutės and their repertoire at various levels. My eyes often went to their necklaces. Are they wearing amber beads? You bet! Amber is big in Lithuania. There’s a popular Baltic folk tale about the origins of amber - it’s basically the Lithuanian Little Mermaid story. The mermaid goddess of the sea, Jūratė, lives in an underwater castle made of amber. She ends up falling in love with a mortal man, and the thunder god Perkūnas punishes her by blowing her castle to smithereens. To this day, pieces of Jūratė’s castle can be found on the shores of the Baltic Sea - and around the močiutės’ necks!
Land of Songs
Interview by Mary Morgan
Land of Songs (Dainava) is a feature documentary film about the last women in a long line of traditional folk singers with ancient roots. These elderly but sprightly močiutės (“little grandmothers”) in the Lithuanian village of Puvočiai are joined by a colorful cast of friends and family in weaving a story as many-layered and poetic as their songs. From mushroom-filled forests to underground bunkers, haunted swamps, and sacred dunes, Land of Songs explores the transmission of history, folklore, and memory through the generations. Land of Songs is a project of Aldona and Juilan Watts (a brother-sister duo). Aldona is a Lithuanian-American multimedia producer from San Francisco, living and working in Brooklyn.
Julian and Aldona- what a beautiful project. Julian had some background in folklore/ folklife studies. What about ethnomusicology? Or have you been able to gather the attention of anyone related to the field? Thanks! Yes, Julian received a certificate in Folklore Studies from the University of Oregon, and was a research assistant to Folklore Department Director Daniel Wojcik on a project about “Avertive Apocalipticism.” He took a class about folk ballads, but most of his musical background and interests are outside of academia. He’s always working on various (ultra secretive) music projects, most recently he’s been adapting some of the močiutė’s songs to guitar and piano for our film score. Aldona pursued ethnomusicology as a part of her interdisciplinary studies at UCLA. She also spent some time in the Marija Gimbutas Collection at the Opus Archives and Research
I read that the ladies were very excited to be the subject of your film and research. Do you have any other general impressions of its reception around the community? The amount of support and encouragement we’ve received from communities both in the US and Lithuania has been amazing. During our Kickstarter campaign, the močiutės watched the numbers like it was a lottery! They were very excited. Their families were so generous with their time and input, and the whole village pitched in during production. Since the shoot, the močiutės have been on Lithuanian TV twice, and were visited by The US ambassador! Back in the US, we’ve gotten lots of really sweet emails from LithuanianAmericans who feel connected to the project because of their own močiutės and personal histories. We’re actually in LA right now gearing up for the Los Angeles Lithuanian Fair,
where we’ll be sharing info about the project with the Lithuanian-American community out here.
While many of their daughters and granddaughters are deeply interested in carrying on these traditions, they will just not be able to do so in the same way that their grandmothers have done. Some of them may learn some songs, some may take a more scholarly interest in the traditions, but in any case it will take on a different form. On another note, we had the pleasure of filming some practitioners of the neo-pagan “Romuva” religion, whose faith relies heavily on singing the ancient dainos at ceremonies and gatherings. Their ranks are filled with young people! In fact, we shot a pack of girls singing in the woods as they made flower wreaths next to a giant cauldron. So there you go! How was the Kickstarter process for you, and what’s the current update on what you are working on or looking forward to? The Kickstarter process was lots of work! But it was incredibly worthwhile, not only because we met (and surpassed) our goal, which enabled us to start production, but for the sense of community that it engendered. The support and encouragement from our backers has been really inspiring and motivating. As for things to look forward to, we’re currently preparing for a second shoot in November. We plan to film Velines, the ancient Lithuanian holiday in which deceased loved ones and ancestors from generations past are remembered and celebrated. When Christianity was introduced, it became associated with All Soul’s Day. It fits beautifully into the themes of our film. We also have the opportunity to collaborate with acclaimed Lithuanian composer Vidmantas Bartulis. We’re hoping to raise more funds for this and for post-production.
What has been one of the more surprising or frustrating parts of your journey and process?
Would you have any pieces of advice for other people interested in documenting things of this nature in their own communities?
It’s definitely been a challenge to do everything ourselves, from fundraising and preproduction logistics to filming, and now post-production. Also, movies are really expensive! It’s been a challenge to make things work on a very tight budget. We’re taking it one day at a time, and learning as we go.
DIY!
In terms of surprises, we were pleasantly surprised by the awesome Lithuanian crew that was waiting for us in the village. Ignas Kazlauskas, Aida JK, Vilma Barysaitė, and Kęstutis Nėnius have been fantastic, we could not have asked for a better team. Do you truly feel that this group of women will be some of the very last to perform songs in this manner? I find myself wishing that one day there might be a pack of young girls singing together in the forest... This was our big question going into the project. Lithuanians have always been very passionate about preserving traditions in the face of all odds, and have done so throughout times of war, occupation, and globalization. What we found was that for various economic and social reasons, young people are increasingly leaving small villages like Puvočiai to work in the cities and abroad. As a result, traditions are changing. In Puvočiai, the močiutės are the last of their kind. They grew up together, and since girlhood, singing was a part of their daily lives, inseparable from work and pleasure.
Any other special nuggets that are just for the esteemed readers of Quickest Flipest? “Jei ne grybai ir ne uogos, šilų mergos būtų nuogos!”
Donate to Land of Songs via Paypal by visiting www.landofsongs.com and clicking the yellow “Donate” button to the right. Every dollar counts and every penny will go towards production and post-production costs.
Three-Legged Dog Jude Lally
Your bark is fierce When someone knocks on the door they may feel scared and think BEWARE OF DOG You sound so tough and menacing with your foul howl and gruff ruff Then as you hobble to the door to greet them you lick their outstretched hand; they’re relieved to see most likely they could outrun your beastly bravado Three-legged dog-you prove no impairment prevents one’s voice from causeing an uproar
John Fenn
Drawing at McDonalds: Beijing, July 2011 (statue was outside)
This one here, the man with his two radios. Here’s his radio and that’s the small radio. And that’s the man with it.
He has a private moon and private sun. That’s a colorful tree. These are different apartments and this is where very very small people go and listen to the radio. And this is his sun, his moon, the rainclouds and the rainbow.
And he’s trying to put down some more trees so they can make the fire redder. Ginger Matthews / September 20th, 2012
Justin Clifford Rhody
Untitled (Detroit Michigan), 2012
LOSTSOUND TAPES
How does Lost Sound Tapes sustain itself? By selling cassette tapes! Our expenses are fairly low so the label can be sustained while selling tapes for only $5. What is the biggest reward of working for LST? I’m a bit of an obsessive music lover, especially when it comes to bedroom recordings and unknown musicians. So I love nothing more than to be able to share music with the world that I consider to be excellent and underrepresented. What are the major challenges of keeping LST and running? I feel like I’ve gotten to a point where I don’t have too much trouble keeping the label going. It pretty much sustains itself. The thing that I do find challenging though is promoting bands and making people aware of new tapes we make. If anyone wants to review Lost Sound Tapes releases on their blog or in their zine, get in touch! lostsoundtapes@gmail.com
An interview with Jon Manning by Mary Duke
What is Lost Sound Tapes? Lost Sound Tapes is a cassette based record label that I (Jon Manning) started in Seattle, WA in 2005. We have released close to 50 cassettes and records. LST is open minded when it comes to the style of music we like but most of our releases are in the indie pop, folk, punk wheelhouse. What was the inspiration behind establishing Lost Sound Tapes? DIY record labels like Unread Records from Omaha, NE, Black Bean & Placenta Tape Club from southern California, and K Records in Olympia, WA were a big inspiration to me! Unread Records specializes in cassette tapes by lo-fi bedroom musicians which was revolutionary to me when I first heard it. BB&PTC mostly focused on one-sided vinyl records with construction paper covers. They were prolific and put out some really good stuff. K Records in the late 90’s/ early 2000’s put out some really essential indie pop, folk, and punk albums. Through them I was introduced to many of my current favorite bands and musicians.
Stephen Steinbrink “Yellow Canary Jumpsuit” Cassette
How many bands/musicians has LST worked with?
What is one of your fondest memories of working at LST?
We’ve released cassettes and records for 38 different bands but that doesn’t include any of the compilations we’ve done.
One of the coolest things for me was when Madeline asked Lost Sound Tapes to release her album “White Flag” on cassette tape. I had been a fan of hers for awhile and she had emailed me out of the blue because she thought I did a good job with the Your Heart Breaks “Love Is A Long Dark Road” tape. I’ve since released a second album for Madeline on tape called “Black Velvet” (CD and LP released by This Will Be Our Summer Records).
Some of the notables are Watercolor Paintings, iji, Blanket Truth, Your Heart Breaks, Madeline, Stephen Steinbrink (French Quarter), and Math The Band
What advice would you give to someone hoping to start their own music label? I'd say, don't be afraid to ask for help or suggestions from people you respect and admire! Other people who run record labels are usually more than happy to talk shop for a little bit and give you some tips. If you're going to go through the effort of releasing your own music be sure to create the best object possible and keep a high attention to detail. It will separate you from most of the hobbists.
Cave Babies “Green� Cassette
What is your favorite music genre? Lo-fi bedroom indie pop, I guess! That's a lot of what has been released on Lost Sound Tapes. I can find value in most music though as long as it's inspired and played with heart. Do you play an instrument and/or have you ever been in a band? Lost Sound Tapes was started in order to release cassettes for my band called Blanket Truth. It started as a solo music project inspired by Casiotone For The Painfully Alone and The Mountain Goats and then morphed into a full fledged, baritone ukuele, bass, and beatboxing band. I've released 11 Blanket Truth cassettes since 2005 but the band just played our last shows ever. I'm moving out of Seattle and broke up the band because I didn't want to start it up elsewhere with a completely new cast of musicians. Onward to new projects. You can download Blanket Truth releases for free at Bandcamp. I also play bass in a wannabe-surf-punk band called Sandy City. We'll probably stay together and play our standard 3-4 shows a year. Eli from Blanket Truth plays guitar, Chris from Jigsaw Records plays another guitar, and Zach from iji plays drums. We have an LP on Rok Lok Records, a 3-song 7" on Prty Ngg Records, and an out of print 7" that was part of the Lost Sound Tapes 7" subscription series. I'm starting a band very soon with Rose Melberg called Imaginary Pants. Look for it. I'm sure there will be a cassette tape in the near future.
Lost Sound Tapes 1122 E. Pike St. PMB 1400 Seattle, WA 98122
www.lostsoundtapes.com
Reuben Sorensen
Long Ball (detail) mixed media on canvas 22” x 28” John Collins McCormick
Untitled, 2009 ink on paper
David Jaberi
Drivers Seat
Ruby Bradford
Superman Flies acrylic on canvas 24” x 36”
Jimbloomsmalllifevideoandwallhangings
for the time being I live in philly Pa.but soon hope to trek back to Ca.... for the past months I have been focused writing.... which might be better than an interview.as in many ways it’s all right there. it’s jimbloomsmalllifevideoandwallhangings I encourage all readers to read Jim’s blog, as well as search out his artwork. Jim, as a painter, has a keen insight into the oddities of our daily human interactions. He incorporates his observations into figurative paintings that often incorporate text. Jim blends his desires as a writer into his paintings. When talking about his writings, which are his current artistic focus, Jim says this:
An unorthodox interview with Jim Bloom
by angie valetutto
while it is not really art. it is about .. what might happen to an artist considered a liability or. a “degerate artist” I take these fears very very seriously .the “story” concerns corrections of such people by mentors using New Ways of communication.
Jim Bloom, an outsider artist currently living in Philadelphia, is a prolific painter who is currently focusing on writing. Given the standard inquiry into Jim’s life, these are a few details that have been published: Bloom attended Temple University in 1988 intending to study film, but left after his introductory year. From childhood on, Bloom has been making visual art that is directly related to his own experiences, as well as his interests in film, story-telling, and the visual languages of his culture. Influences include artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, and Red Grooms, who Bloom says impacted him early on with a sense freedom and boldness of expression which he extends to his own vision and work. -Outsider Folk Art Gallery Bloom…documents an all too common sense of personal and occasionally not so pleasant interaction among people that work, live or deal with each other under normal circumstances. Utilizing somewhat impoverished materials, his paintings and collages are choice mixtures of cardboard, house paint, discarded movie posters, crayons and charcoal. -Ron Schira / Jim Bloom: stories of wit and irony, Raw Vision Magazine, #75 Bloom says he wants to make artistic images that function like television; to capture the eye and quickly convey a message or feeling that will leave a lasting impact on the viewer. -Outsider Folk Art Gallery
But if you look for information about Jim on his webiste, you will find that his bio only states, “Jim Bloom was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania in 1968.” In the “About Me” section of his blog, Jim shares that his occupation is: “time traveler, translator, inventor”. Jim is rather elusive about sharing details about himself. When I inquired with Jim about the interview, he shared with me:
Jim weaves a curious tale through his blog that is, according to him, somewhat autobiographic. His writings are as intriguing as his paintings. Jim captures his unique perspective equally well from paint and cardboard, to words and even video. Fascinated by his mysteriousness, I wanted to delve into the world of inquiry about him, his work, and his process. Jim shared with me that: i would be very interested what a writer and performers thinks of it.truly since the topics covered in “the blog” are so very much on my mind. what I have written there. has more to do with anything I would say in an interview. I hope i am not being or sounding too...uh...out there. or difficult.but it was written to somehow be a warning. in this reguard I am invested in it being read. With that, I dove head first into Jim’s blog. In a search for experiencing Jim’s view of life, clues into his art and to discover his warning, I fell quickly and deeply into his world. Here are a few selections:
it was like an AA meeting.
Saturday, September 15, 2012
but in someone’s swanky home. Valerie was near the piano ,she spoke like she was on a stage ,like she was used to talking like she was on a stage,” selective scanning and Extremely Low frequency Transmission. it sounds scary doesn’t it” she asked the group,most of whom were either in development or were members of The New Way” ,she stood perfectly straight ,and serious like there should have been a microphone in front of her.According to Valerie words like microwave and frequency turned people off especially when it concerned their brains and nervous systems,People in the room giggled. Tuesday, September 11, 2012 Words don’t really matter. Someone made them all up. the more we think in words the less we can tune into vibrations, That’s why Gary Rainy took the time to record his neurals. so we can all go where he has. all feel what he has.
has been bakcshelved to “loony” they are not just trying this stuff out on mice or monkeys. in fact much of the ‘protocal” is based on schizophrenia. as some of the intent of this innovation is to drive a person mad.in a non lethal way of course.(some of the “volunteers/subjectsare refered to as targeted individuals.. guinie pigs) there are too many. there lives are inevitably destroyed. many kill themselves.or are institutionalized.as they are in fact hearing voices. the targeted individuals are also intimidated ... Jim continued on in his response to explain his purpose behind his blog as: as for the blog. i think i wrote it not so much for entertainment as a safe way to present and represent these themes and also as some kind of visible safety.....protection for as the fictional Valerie Prentis would say “a trillion dollar industry means bizness” and if your bad for bizness u might become the bizness of people you might prefer you never meet”
When a Proxy does well ,when you think for the team.when you aren’t introspect your mentor rewards you with a brain computer interface of Gary Rainey’s Top key.IF you were introspect or disrespectful to your elders and mentors you get a down key of Gary Rainey’s neurals.A down key makes you feel sad and agitated but it makes you regard your own key you are putting into the Enway and graphing towards your mentors. Mostly I am on a mid key, just Rainy’s workaday neural patterns” “And this works for you?”I asked, “ being on someone else’s Key? someone else’s frequency?” “Isn’t that what people pray for. to feel Jesus in their brain and soul?” or look at it this way, how is it any different than taking Prozac or Xanex?” “Well i can tell you one thing Gary Rainy isn’t Jesus. And I doubt very much Jesus would have downloaded his karmic “wave’ directly into someone’s brain” He poured syrup on his pancakes and I swear he held my hand .and said “But wouldn’t it have been amazing if he had?” My exploration into the world of jimbloomsmalllifevideoandwallhangings lead me to reach out again to Jim, expressing my interest in his writings and a curiousness for which pieces tell the tale of his life most directly. Jim responded to me: I was a bit afraid my reply seemed a bit tinfoil hattish. the problem is people who write about things such as. intraneura interface.or more specifically “voice to skull” techno.or fMRI that can read neural configurations
He further explained a few of the details that are regularly discussed in his blog, such as, what Jim refers to as “New Way” or “New Stuff”: and that since one’s mind is now shared. (the movie BraINSTORM 1980 SUMS this well) and stored one can easiy be manipulated as a gang stalking mentally would purposely use one’s thoughts memories and personal biography to trigger reactions
for instance if your grandmother always wore a polka dot dress. suddenly the “theme” of the day would be polka dots strangely on several outtings you see women who REMIND you of grandma. in this same dress, or perhaps more triggering a perfume.
I would like to conclude this unorthodox interview of Jim Bloom by sharing one final piece of Jim’s writing, an excerpt from January 7, 2012: I have been told I will be monitored like this the rest of my life. it’s part of my release. if I had known I would have just done my time they often work in pairs or 3s there are shifts . bet they even thought this would be a pretty far out job workin with inmates at first i thought they were doing it to make upright citzens no.just information on like how some brain parts work. how one reacts to things like startle response degredation confusion hopeless situations and simulated insanity … i see the shrink he knows I’m part of “the process” but on my chart says in deep red letters I’m schizophrenic. funny I wasn’t before the procedure. I had to sign a waiver. to participate in a new therapy.study and my sentence would be reduced 2/3s “i need some pills I said” “why do you feel you need some pills he asked” “because “the process” is driving me fucking crazy.
Sergio Paniagua
Yo
chalk pastel on construction paper 14” x 17”
Cristina Mariotta
Happy Dream acrylic on canvas 24” x 30”
Angie Valetutto
Clenched mixed media
Jean Seestadt Brooklyn, NY www.jeanseestadt.com Interview by Danielle Walter
As an artist, what is your primary medium? I do mostly paper cutting though I am branching out into different materials. Also, the video and photo documentation of the work has become part of the process. I was a painter until just a couple of years ago. I made the switch because I felt really confined by paint and painting’s limits. I am uninterested in making work that hangs on a wall for a gallery. Describe your work and our approach. I see my work as whimsical, ethereal, hopeful, and ridiculous. I create walls and clouds that I know will fail, but suggest the possibility that they will survive. I spend hours meticulously cutting paper and leaving it on the street for people to destroy. In some ways the artworks are really idiotic. Each time I complete an installation, I hope for a moment that it will somehow last, or something amazing will happen, but ultimately each artwork always ends up in the garbage. Part of my creation is the hopeful moment that precedes the destruction. My work is not intended to be a metaphor for anything in particular. I just want to create these specific interactions, which only a few viewers will be able to experience. I want my viewers to witness and consider these impossible relationships, the kind of unstable balancing acts that we wish will work and sometimes we believe might work. It may seem naive, and perhaps it is, but it is really no different than a million other interactions we hope will last in our daily lives. Explain your process for creating these installations? I spend a frustrating amount of time trying to figure out what my project is going to be. My instinct is to push through an idea and see how it works out, so I have to really focus on trying to conceptually make the piece all the way through before physically making it. Once I have the ideas all ironed out I make the materials (cutting paper) in the studio and then bring it to the location to install. Rogue installation in public space can be risky. Have you ever had a dangerous experience? Honestly, I am lucky that I am a well dressed white girl, I doubt it would go so smoothly for any other demographic. I have been threatened to have the cops called on me and I made
several people very angry with the installations I did on the subways… But the amazing thing is how kind and excited most people are about the work! Are there any new tactics you are hoping to try in the coming year? Any new ideas you are hoping to address? I am opening up to the idea of new materials. What I enjoy most about my work is the ridiculous hopelessness of it, so I want to expand on that as a concept. Each work I install with the ideal that they last, that they function, knowing that in the end they will become trash-an artwork without the commodity. So I want to push that idea. Tell me about the path that led you to live and work in Brooklyn. JS: I grew up in Minneapolis, MN and I went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for my BFA. I knew then that I wanted to come out here to see what the New York art scene was all about after spending so much time studying it. After graduating and a year of dilly dallying in England I moved out here and started working in galleries in Chelsea. A couple of years later I started graduate school at Hunter College and I am about half way through the MFA program. What are some of your favorite spots in New York? I love my neighborhood, Crown Heights. I have never been such a part of a community and it has been a really wonderful 4 years here. I also live very close to Prospect Park (Brooklyn’s superior Central Park) which is great for frisbee, badminton, running, etc. You really need some breathing space like that out here. What do you like to do when you’re not in your studio or hanging paper around the city? I spend a good portion of my days running. I get the same high from that as I do from the meticulousness of cutting paper. It is really meditative and allows me to brainstorm about my work without distractions. Just an hour a day to think. It is a luxury most people don’t have or make time for.
saudades from terro (a) r
Hilal Omar Al Jamal
displaced from and longing for a love like a beacon of life in the horizon of an o(h)cean of failed verses; a love who weeps into the blistering psalms of her hands; a love oneiric like a bed of roses, tossing and gurning; a love like a perfume of rain drizzling over paved meants; a love like an overcast castle-tongue, lung ago pained panting candlelit, crackling, dazzling; a love like the frazzling jazz of “someday my prince will come;” a love like pianos down-pouring, trumpets solar-flaring; like a white summer’s morning mourning; like a deaf galaxy, that love permuting, like the muting terro(a)r of a singularly pan-amorous poly-verse. displaced from and longing for a love like rosewood guitars flowering, bossa nova blossoming samba bumbling, you and i loving love; love; nossa senhor de aparecida, love; a love that’s ours; a love that is ours somewhere in this distance, somewhere in the distance, somewhere in the distance—
Anika Lena Fenn Gilman
Anger
charcoal on paper 11” x 8.5”
Nina Coloso
Hackney
digital photograh David Holt
The Lion of the Senate acrylic on canvas 30” x 40”
Oh, dad who stays after school on the children’s house playground sporting athletic shorts and goofy grins chasing the kids around sprinting
up the slide turning on dimes with meaty calves and crew-cut normalcy crawling through plastic tubes standing czarist on mini-picnic tables picking kids out of wooden play towers like apples—
Turned four Richard Wehrenberg, Jr.
what is it that has made you?
I just really notice the difference, between, you know, a four and five year old, it’s so obvious.
Yes, of course, but could you explain to me please, all the things we never get answers for, all the impossible actions, all the inscrutable provenance that manifests on our faces as frowns, on our shoulders as shrugs? I wholeheartedly believe a four year old, who I begin to admonish for pulling a three year old’s hair, when he says, I don’t, I don’t know why I did it. And I almost want to believe you, dad who stays after school, when you tell me about your life, about the truths you have found about things about how becoming old is like a grey cloud growing greyer
about how we must hide what we mean to say in swaddles of deferment, in cloaks of cloth, under masks of more masks and I understand, believe you me, I know, but I can’t, I just can’t let me let me see in that way.
I keep hearing little Eliza, her boundless brown eyes and tacked together midwestern diction, elfin hands moving in solidarity with her words under the slide, charming and sincere with the girls she has come to call her friends—
When I turned four, it, guys, it didn’t feel like it, it felt like I was still three.
Katrina Laura Ketchum
Delicate Ruminations digital photograph
Interview by Grant Scott-Goforth
What’s going on with your band lately? Where did you guys tour? More tours coming? Well, we got back from our summer tour a couple of weeks ago and we feel the goals we set for ourselves were triumphantly achieved. Except for one mishap in Olympia (where the school bus we tour in almost got towed along with all of our equipment and our mighty dire-wolf-dog Link) which cost us much of our reserve fund, we had great shows throughout Cascadia. We got to play at an adorable place on Whidbey Island with Eli from Baby Island (and LAKE) and some other local acts which was amazing PLUS we stayed at a cabin on Whidbey, which is a gorgeous place. We hand-screen printed a plethora of CD sleeves and shirts and patches with images provided to us by our fans and friends... it was a superb team effort by everyone we know to make it happen. Our big bus managed to champion its way without a hitch; every time we stopped and started the engine was a huge victory.
How did you get started with the group? What motivates you to continue playing music?
Words, pictures and sounds - thelittlestillnotbigenough is a band and art collective that plies its trade from the Northern California coastal city of Arcata. Recently back from a northwest tour where they recorded an EP, thelittlestillnotbigenough plan to tour again in the late fall. Between arts, crafts, writing and touring, it’s a wonder that cofounder Philip Deniz Kumsar found time to sit down for an interview in September.
About six years ago I and Sage moved up to Arcata to go to school and were steadily writing, recording and performing as thelittlestillnotbigenough around the area. Our drummer Devon joined us many years back and now we have an awesome core of friendly faces. Along the years we evolved into a collective of sorts that added pieces and styles and art forms and has still kept going. I think we all appreciate the cathartic and awesome power of musical collaboration and the ability to create a moving piece of all our expression. Outside of our musical time together we are a happy family and have worked together in resistance and social justice for years. We inspire each other and respond to the energy we all spit back and forth. We’ve experimented with any form we feel we can yield without looking foolish, recorded it and consider ourselves bound to each others progress...and we have a responsibility to the vibrations of the universe to contribute something back.
Can you describe your sound? What would you say are your biggest influences? We play songs. That is to say, we appreciate the song craft and enjoy manipulating its popular format and its ability to be off-kilter with the right movement. A lot of our songs are long form and have extra recants and verses and thingies that make some songs, like, 10 minute epics...of what is essentially folk-rock music with lyrics we consider to be important. We have 4 people singing at times and take vocal inspiration from contemporary acts we love from hip-hop, to folk, to prog-rock and ultimately create guitar driven stuff that is nuanced and melodic. You also make comics. What kind of comics? What inspires you to make those? Yes, I have been aspiring to create quality comics lately. I’ve always been a drawing kid and have gone in and out of what my ‘thing’ is in the comic world and only now am realizing what I like to do. I really appreciate concise vignettes of scenes or ideas. Sage and I created a comic art and lyric zine for a hip-hop project we finished about a year ago called “blackhole, bye bye” which explored psychedelic scenes that tell a 20 panel story throughout the scope of the album. I compiled a short picture story called “The Listmaker’s Apprentice” which was a lot darker than expected and was inspired by the Perry Bible Fellowship comics. Comics are really the pen-to-paper form of cinema that gives the maker total creative control, which I get off on. In the coming days I hope to have a local comic compilation completed called “Future Tense” that will have a bunch of stuff by friends and local people here in Arcata, just gotta make it happen.
thelittlestillnotbigenough is: Philip Deniz Kumsar, Sage Brush, Devon Ferrucci, Lauren Dahl, Steve Dugger, Lisa McNeely, Kate Jamison-Alward. thelittlestillnotbigenough info: facebook.com/thelittlestillnotbigenough (for all updates and contact info) soundcloud.com/thelittlestillnot (listen to and download the new tour EP) thelittlestillnotbigenough@gmail.com
Jamond Williams
Make you happy ink on paper
Francis Kohler Megan Workman Heather Tate
Becky Guerra
Rag Doll pen and marker on paper
Maya Muñoz-Tobón
Mother of Many Names mixed media collage 11” x 14”
QF / Issue #2
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