STRESS TEST

Whatever the assorted causes may be, life has been stressful as of late. It''s often hard to discern what exactly it is that's got my nerves all tensed and twisted. I've been doing alot of freelance work lately, spending long nights seated in front of the computer. So that, as one contributing factor, can take its toll.


Pictured: Team Sleep (L to R): Chino Moreno, Rick Verret, Todd Wilkinson, Zach Hill, & DJ Crook.

But the work has afforded me the opportunity to talk with some interesting people. And not to do a laundry list here, but it's more a personal checklist for me to visualize what I've churned out these past couple weeks:

Team Sleep interview: Just wrapped up this feature for the local alt-weekly City Paper. I interviewed Todd Wilkinson, Team Sleep's guitar player. Although I was somewhat hesitant about the album at first, it's really kinda grown on me. The track with Rob Crow from Pinback is really good. The article was fun to write (once the writer's block subsided) and I'm stoked to see them play live. [article drops weds.]

Last week I finished up a feature article for UK music/culture mag Straight No Chaser. I cover outsider art for Chaser and interviewed my pal Florencio Zavala. I also help coordinate the gallery section when I contribute. So Flo hooked up a real nice two-page spread of Christian Marclay--his personal musical hero. [article drops in July].

Just prior to that, I interviewed a talented fella named Jonathan Keller for Swindle Quarterly (the new mag by Shepard Fairey & Roger Gastman). Jonathan makes these incredible robots from empty cereal cartons and cracker boxes, creations he aptly refers to as: Boxbots. [Not real sure when that one drops].

And, I also have a feature in the latest issue of Atomica, the "cinema" issue. Experimental cinema and projection artists were the subject of my piece, and I interviewed and interesting group of folks: Eclectic Method, Motomichi Nakamura, and Takagi Masakatsu.

That's all for now. I had more to say, but have to attend the staff "copier training" session down the hall. Because, as you know, it's incredibly difficult to make copies, so training is recommended.