Talking with Tim

A major way that my son, Colin, and I have always bonded has been through music. So last year, when I discovered the podcast of Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child (a show from Valley Free Radio [103.3 FM, Northampton, Massachusetts]) both Colin and I were pretty darn happy. The show, recently also picked up by 93.9 The River, is hosted by Bill Childs along with Ella, his daughter, and (sometimes) Liam, his son. As detailed at the show’s MySpace page: “We play both music that’s officially for kids (e.g., Dan Zanes, Frances England, CandyBand, Lunch Money, Asylum Street Spankers) and a lot that’s not (e.g., Pixies, fIREHOSE, Beatles, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, and again the Spankers). And we start and end every darn show with They Might Be Giants [TMBG].” I recently caught up with Bill for an email interview.

Tim O’Shea: How did you first come up with the idea of Spare the Rock, and was it hard to get Ella to speak on air?

Bill Childs: We had moved to Northampton in the summer of 2004 for me to take a job teaching law school. At a local cafe, I came across a flyer for Valley Free Radio seeking programmers and people to help get the station started up. I had done radio in college (WMCN, 10 blazing watts of power) and was looking for a community-related activity, so I decided to apply for a show. I rapidly got involved on the policy side as well; I have dropped out of that role for the most part for quite a while, as there was some unpleasant infighting that seemed unproductive to me.

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Two items of interest to point toward.

First, I thought I knew everything about music worth knowing. Boy was I wrong. I stumbled across a show, Sound Opinions, that apparently has been around in Chicago for almost a decade. In more recent years, the show was picked up by American Public Media/Chicago Public Radio and is getting national distribution. Fortunately for me, while Atlanta’s public radio station does not carry it, the show fortunately makes podcasts downloadable.

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Every once and awhile, I hear someone understandably questioning what we get for all the taxes that U.S. citizens pay (for those of you reading outside the United States, sorry for not writing to you). Any time I run across a government service, I always assume that my taxes have paid for a big chunk of whatever it is. And I’m happy to say, most of the time as delusional as I may be, that thought makes me feel just fine.

Look at the following picture:

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I don’t know about you, but the Britney Spears 24/7 channels are getting to me. Fortunately, I can turn the TV off.

But in an election year, at a time when we have actual stories of consequence being ignored for more “interesting” celebrity news, I seek the rationale and reassurance of traditional media outlets.

My local library has The New Yorker among its periodical holdings. And to make things even better, this particular library system allows you to check the magazines out. Tonight I found myself reading David Denby’s essay on the films of Otto Preminger from the January 14, 2008, issue.

To help ward off the legions of TMZs that seem to be doubling in size every day, The New Yorker is of help in many other ways. In addition to the magazine, The New Yorker offers online content, blogs and even audio confort in the form of podcasts. For example, a click here will offer listeners “The New Yorker’s poetry editor, Paul Muldoon, [as he] talks with Matt Dellinger about rock and roll and the state of poetry.”

If I can always find forms of media that engage me, rather than seemingly killing off brain cells as a victim of poor taste pop culture, I’ll be fine. At least that’s what I tell myself.

First off, I was remiss last week in not mentioning the return of Tony Kornheiser to the radio. He’s grumpy, sure, but few are more funny than him. And even fewer can jump from politics to pop culture to sports with such ease.

AiT/PlanetLar made it in the news, not in the way that most publishers may want to, but I have to give Larry Young (full disclosure, he came up with the name for this blog) a tip of the hat for handling the coverage with candor and grace.

In the folks I would not have heard about otherwise, thanks to Scott Dunbier for directing his readers to the Dave Karlen Original Art Blog where Karlen recently wrote about Frank Godwin. Godwin was a contemporary of Hal Foster, Milton Caniff, and Alex Raymond but never received the level of attention that it appears his work should have warranted. He did two strips, Connie (which ran from the late 1920s to the mid-1940s) and Rusty Riley (which ran from the late 1940s to the late 1950s). The latter strip is the focus of Karlen’s post. Be sure to stroll around Karlen’s blog, there’s plenty of wonderful art to look at, and interesting info about myriad artists, including folks like Frank Robbins.

I love to go looking through You Tube for musical performances. In the past few weeks, I ran across a beautiful string arrangement backing John Cale on his cover of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah (be sure to check out Cohen’s live rendition as well). Another gem I found was Cocteau Twin’s Elizabeth Frazer & The Blue Nile’s Paul Buchanan collaborating with Peter Gabriel on Downside Up.

Speaking of covers, Brian Ibbott recently did an all Warren Zevon episode of Coverville. Man, I miss Zevon. Enjoy every sandwich, as Warren once advised.

To gain and keep your interest, I understand the importance of a consistent schedule. So please consider my apology for the delay with the Friday entry. This blog will always be a work in progress. Rather than merely being about interviews that I find of interest, going forward these “of interest” posts will cover any items from the week that I find of interest to me.

First on the list of interests, Friend of Talking with Tim (FOTwT) Curt Holman sparks an interesting discussion when he details the bonding time he and his daughter enjoyed recently watching a majority of the DC animated series, Justice League (and its later Justice League Unlimited incarnation). Curt is a great critic and arts journalist, but for me, his best stuff is when he writes about his lovely family. (more…)

I first became aware of Arvada, Colorado-based pioneering podcaster Brian Ibbott when his show Coverville was mentioned by USA Today’s Whitney Matheson in her Pop Candy blog. After several months of enjoying the show, which focuses on covers (succinctly and aptly defined by Ibbott as “a new rendition of a previously recorded song”) and features a variety of musical genres and artists, I contacted Ibbott for an interview. Ibbott also produces other podcasts, including Lyrics Undercover, Today in Music History and The Wii Show. While the majority of the interview focuses on Coverville, we also discuss his other podcasts.

Tim O’Shea: As you quickly approach your 400th episode (as of today [January 7, 2008] he’s up to podcast 408), from your perspective, in what ways has the show drastically changed and have any parts remained (other than the show’s core premise) essentially the same?

Brian Ibbott: I think the overall feel of the show has stayed consistent, but I’ve become so much more comfortable with the microphone. It’s only taken me 400 shows to get there!
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Michel Gagné is a visual storyteller with a cultural reach and creative appeal that very few of his contemporaries enjoy. I first became aware of him through his Spore story for DC Comics in 2003. I have an immense amount of respect for the depth and variety of mediums that Gagné explores to tell his tales. No matter what realm of pop culture you may favor, it is likely you have been exposed to his work in some way in the past several years.

Tim: It’s been a few years since we last did an interview. When we last spoke, a majority of your printed work was self-published. So I was surprised to see in more recent years that you have been participating in the Flight anthologies. What drew you to allowing your new Rex installments in Flight, rather than published by you?

Michel: I have a tremendous amount of respect for editor, Kazu Kibuishi and his vision in putting together the Flight anthology. When he asked me to be a part of it, I couldn’t refuse.

To date, the experience of being involved with Flight has been nothing but positive. All the artists involved are so talented and encouraging. I look at their work and I get inspired and hopefully they get inspired looking at my work too. We all feed off each other’s creative energy.

Since I started with Flight, a few publishers have voiced their interest in publishing the graphic novel of the completed story (the final chapter will run in Flight 7) so I’ll probably let somebody else publish that as well. To tell you the truth, I’m probably going to work more and more with publishers in the future. I enjoy self-publishing but it’s very time consuming and time is something I don’t have enough of already.

Tim: How much has your participation in Flight broadened your audience?

Michel: Flight has now become the bestselling comic anthology in America so Rex gets a heck of a lot more exposure then if I was publishing it myself. A lot of people are discovering my work through Flight which is awesome.

Tim: In that same vein, how many new doors of creative offers opened in the wake of your highly regarded and high profile work on Ratatouille?

Michel: Everything I do gets me some exposure in one way or another. Hopefully, I proved to Pixar that I could integrate my own brand of hand drawn animation in one of their movie. I’d hope to do that with The Incredibles but it didn’t pan out. I’m glad we were successful with Ratatouille. I’d love to do more work with Pixar if we find the right fit.

I’ve been very fortunate in the animation industry to work for and meet the right people. I always give my very best on every assignment and I am devoted to creating work that’s original and interesting. The word always gets around and every year, I receive offers to do the type of animation I consider really fun. I’m doing six shots right now for the upcoming Horton Hears a Who movie that are just totally the kind of animation I love to do.

Tim: Music has always been a major influence and/or role in your creative pursuits. How did your recent collaboration with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir go, and will you be collaborating with them again?

Michel: I was very proud of the work I did for the project although; the actual show for me was a bit of a mixed bag. In one hand, the musical performance was astounding, but the shadow puppet part was under-rehearsed and not to the level I would have liked it to be. Every one did the best they could but the resources were lacking. The problem when you work for the “arts” is that the budgets are very limited and most of the people involved work on a voluntary basis. To get things to look the way I had them in my head, we would have needed about 10 times the budget and 10 times the time.

As far as working with them again… Yes, I’d be totally open to it. Perhaps we can keep perfecting The Spectre’s Bride and make it really shine.

Tim: Did your upcoming 2009 work with the Vancouver International Jazz Festival result from your work with the choir?

Michel: Actually, I’ve been working on getting things going with the Jazz Festival for over a year. That’s way before I was approached by the Victoria Philharmonic. I’ve got a lot of stuff planned with them including some truly ground breaking animation projects. One of these projects is already completed and will have its premiere at the Festival in 2009. We’re talking about premiering the film by projecting it on the side of a skyscraper in downtown Vancouver! I can’t talk too much about all this because we’re still raising the funds to achieve everything I have in mind but I can honestly say that it’s going to be one of the coolest things of my career.

Tim: Am I correct in thinking that ZED is produced on an annual basis, and if so, when do you expect to finish the next installment?

Michel: I love doing ZED but it’s pretty tough fitting him in my schedule. ZED is for all intent and purpose, a hobby. I do it for fun. I’ve already started issue 9 and it’s coming along nicely. I’m planning on having it done for the summer of 2008. Then, issue 10 will be release the following year, and that will be a wrap. The complete ZED series will be 10 issues.

Tim: When was the first time you found out folks were getting tattoos made based on your work? Were you surprised by this development–of your insane character designs is there one that sticks out as one you hope you never see come to life in a tattoo?

Michel: I started seeing people with my artwork tattooed at conventions. At first, it took me a bit by surprise. One time, I walked into a store in Seattle and the girl at the cash register had one of my drawings tattooed on her arm. I didn’t expect that! Another time, I got an email from a guy who tattooed most of his upper body with my artwork. He didn’t want me to put his picture on my website though.

If people like my art and want to put it one their skin, that fine by me; any of it.

Tim: What can you tell folks about the potential for a new film project in 2008 and/or the video game you currently are developing?

Michel: The video game is called “Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet” and I’ve teamed up with an amazing crew to produce it. I’m designing the visuals and doing a lot of the animation myself. We haven’t signed with a publisher yet, but we should have a deal ironed out early in 2008. You can watch the trailer at http://www.insanelytwistedshadowplanet.com.

Starting in mid-January, I’m going to be production designing an animated movie produced by Gary Kurtz (Star Wars, Dark Crystal). I was contacted by the writer, Sabina Spencer, about a year ago and since then, the first phase of financing has come through which will allow me to begin the design work. I really like the story and I see a lot of potential there. A friend of mine, animator Richard Bazley (The Iron Giant), is also involved. All four of us, Gary, Sabina, Richard and myself, hung out in London for three days to brainstorm about the project and we’re all very excited. I really can’t say much more at this point except that the film is a perfect match for my design sensibilities.

If I was going to start a blog interviewing pop culture, I would have to start with my old friends , Tracy Van Voris (aka Queen Pirate) and Richard Coker (shown in this photo), who make up 50 percent of the Atlanta-based pirate punk band, Crumsy Pirates. This Thursday, November 29, they have a show (along with such bands as Era of the Stereograph and The Young Antiques) at Sweetwater LIVE, located at 2920 Old Norcross Road in Duluth, GA. This struck me as a good time to run our interview. Fortunately for us, this email caught them on a day when they decided to be funny. After reading this interview, be sure to visit their myspace page to listen to their music.

Tim O’Shea (TOS): How did the band first form, and how much has the lineup changed over the years? And with the changes in personnel, has there been any change to the dynamics of the band?

Tracy Van Voris (Queen Pirate): Basic band stats:

Crumsy Pirates formed in 2002

• Richard Coker - guitar
• Sean Hanratty - drums
• Ayman El Dinary - bass
• Tracy Van Voris - vocals

Ayman parted ways with us - amicably! - in the fall/winter of 2006.

Jennifer Thompson joined us on bass in the spring of 2007. She had played in a former band of Richard’s and offered to help us out until we found a new bassist. At our first practice, she learned four songs and one cover. We had no more need to continue our bass search.
See www.myspace.com/crumsypirates for more band bio info.

Other Crumsy Facts:

• all songs are fast and short, under 3 minutes
• we never perform the same set twice
• since many of our songs are topical, they have a sell-by date, so this encourages us to continue to write new material
• every member of the band is a writer

TOS: Politics inspire and shape Crumsy’s work somewhat. If Al Gore had won in 2000, would there be Crumsy songs like “Greenhouse Gore” or “Al, The Sanctions Are A Stinkin’”?

Pirate Sean: Speaking of Global Warming. I learned from a documentary that the earth was once a molten ball of lead. Then a lot of asteroids with water hit it. Then it froze.

Pirate Rich: But then it got warm again. I saw the same documentary. After it got warm again, it formed land masses that all clumped together.

Pirate Sean: And then it froze again.

Pirate Rich: And then there was life when it got warm again. But then most of the life died.

Pirate Sean: Because it got cold again.

Pirate Jenn: I heard a story about the Prime Minister of Australia who walked into the ocean and was never seen again. He was missing for a few days before anyone noticed he was gone.

Pirate Rich: He was eaten by a Portuguese man-o-war.

Pirate Sean: Or a Great White.

Pirate Rich: Oh yeah…and Al Gore sucks.

Pirate Queen: So yes, sometimes we write about politics. We’ve got a conservative, a liberal, an anarchist, and a libertarian in our band. Guess which one holds the mic?

TOS: In the days when you played at 10 High, given the unique size and nature of the venue can you remember any truly odd or unique venues that come to mind?

Pirate Jenn: Well, we’ve all played in a lot of places over the years in different bands. Personally, I was so thrilled to play 688 several years ago, to have been able to play on the same stage that some of my own heroes had played on was very thrilling to me.

Pirate Rich: Most of the places in Atlanta are funny shaped or weirdly designed. They’ve always been that way. Dottie’s was like someone’s basement with drop ceilings and beat up pool tables. I think that I liked the design of the Somber Reptile best.

Pirate Sean: The 513 Club was a lot like the Somber Reptile. No frills. Big stage, four walls, ceiling, and floor. Not like the Metroplex which had poles and fences and stuff. The Masquerade is just too big.

TOS: You got to play at ISP right before it closed, do you think another venue of this kind might be available in the near term?

Pirate Rich: If only!

Pirate Jenn: That place was definitely special. Justin really cared about music more than anything else. We had lots of fun there.

Pirate Sean: The bathroom was particularly special. One of a kind. Nothing else like it anywhere.

Pirate Queen: Strap in, my rant mode ON: I think the Atlanta club scene is going through a Greedy Phase right now. It’s happened before, and it will happen again. The emphasis right now is on MONEY, not music.

Currently, we’ve got some damn fine Atlanta bands who won’t play because they know they won’t draw on a week night and they don’t want to damage their reputations AND bands who are so confident in their reputations that won’t play unless the club owner guarantees THEM money….and then there are bands that just want to freaking play and put on a good show - like the Crumsy Pirates do - who are coming off looking like Union Scabs because they are working for nothing. Yep, it’s all about the Music BUSINESS and the artists are getting screwed… as per status quo.

But, oh, wait: there’s always MetalsomeMondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayWeekend!

Live band karaoke! Cover bands without lead singers! Who needs those cranky musicians who actually spend time on their art, perfecting their performance, writing original music? Let’s go see Sorority Sue and Fratboy Fred drunkenly warble through yet another rendition of “Born to Be Wild” or “I Ran”! THAT’S entertainment. NOT. Boring American Idol wannabes.

So what’s the solution? House parties, is what I am thinking. Forming artistic collectives of like-minded souls. Performing “impromptu” drive by shows in public places. I’m open to ANY and ALL suggestions.

Pirate Rich: The reason why ISP was special is because it was run by *musicians*. The chances of musicians opening up their own club in the near future are infinitesimal because most musicians are poor. Those that have money would rather inject it into their arm than do anything constructive.

TOS: When you wrote the song where Dave Matthews apologizes to the city of Chicago, did you fight the urge to send it to Dave’s management?

Pirate Rich: The reason I like waffle cones is because it makes my teeth hurt.

Pirate Queen: I’ve got no urge to deal with Major Music Corporation Management, but on a related topic….one of our earlier songs - which since has been cut from the roster because it was too topical and too long - was about that fuckwad Eric Rudolph. In spite of being a homegrown terrorist, he was able to exist in the North Carolina mountains for 5 years before being caught. I’m sure he had help. There are evangelical nitwit Christians who even consider him a folk hero today.

The Atlanta Journal/Constitution did a story about some jackass who wrote a song about how Rudolph was a great Christian man and should be an inspiration against all who would murder the unborn. I was greatly annoyed and wrote to the staff writer that the Crumsy Pirates also wrote about that bastard and that he was welcome to come to one of our shows or practices to hear it. He did write me back, saying that he was intrigued, but he never followed up with us. Oh, well.

TOS: Onstage Band Refreshment: What’s in YOUR bottle?

Pirate Rich: The tears from all of the unfulfilled dreams of children…no, wait…I think that it’s just filled with God’s Tears.

Pirate Sean: I like to recycle my own urine. Like in Waterword. It’s Environmentally Correct and there’s a drought in Georgia right now.

Pirate Queen: Intoxicating substances have included red wine, brandy, and pineapple or coconut rum…I mean, we’re PIRATES. Non-toxic substances have included green tea, ginger ale, grape Koolaid, or just plain H2O.

Pirate Jenn: B & B! But I also like to share the coconut rum with the Pirate Queen.

TOS: How did the cover version of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb come about?

Pirate Sean: We wanted to see if we could play one of the world’s longest songs in under two minutes.

Pirate Rich: In Ramones style - no solos, just chords. Classic rock is tedious and we wanted to cut out all that pretentious guitar hero junk. Plus rock music should be a little bit faster than a funeral march, so we sped it up.