Eat Real Festival vs. Carmageddon

Eat Real: 1, Carmageddon: 0

On the fateful weekend of “Carmageddon,” the fearless ArtistsPalooza crew braved the 405 closure to throw down some beats and eat some tasty treats at the Eat Real Festival in Culver City. I guess everyone got scared off the road, because the 10 freeway was appallingly traffic-free – it was preposterous.

Some unfathomably good musicians stepped onto the Beat Garden Stage (and the Main Stage, of course) and shared their talent with the all the good people gathered at Helm’s Bakery for a weekend of food and fun. I had no idea that ArtistsPalooza had the hookup with such seriously skilled singers/songwriters/musicians/bands/whippersnappers – color me surprised!

The Beat Garden Stage was absolutely sublime. Under a beautiful pepper tree in a rare spot of shade, the stage was in a prime location and tons of people came to chill in the shade and listen to great music. The vibe was perfect.

Up on the Main Stage, at the epicenter of all the Eat Real happenings, some truly excellent bands made some sweet music: The Devil’s Box, FuDogs, Vinyl Soul, Suicide Cowboy, Common Rotation, and our very own Allison Geddie! Apparently there were all kinds of food related shenanigans taking place during the interlude in between the musical acts – DIY food demos, food craft demos, a butchery contest – but we all know what the crowd was really gathered for.

If you are anything like me, you were probably scurrying around the festival like a woodland creature getting ready for winter. Luckily, the price for each delicious dish was capped at five bucks. And I had the best and only gelato-cookie-sandwich of my life. Yes. It was magical.

Basically, I wish this festival were every weekend. Good music, good food, good people…what more could you ask for?

Our photographically inclined intern Marissa was snapping some phenomenal photos during the festival – they’re posted on Facebook so go have a look!

For those who missed this epic event, I feel for you. Don’t look at the pics on Facebook because they will only make you sad.

Be sure to check it out next year, my friends…rumor has it that ArtistsPalooza may be back for an encore.

A Bit of a Long-Winded Meta-Blog About Love, Hate, Nighttime Teeth Grinding, Art, and Writing

Warning: Being that everyone here is an artist of sorts, I am writing a somewhat disjointed and chaotic blog about writing. Maybe we can connect over our mutual struggle of artistic expression, assuming that the struggle is, in fact, mutual. As the writer of this blog, I just thought I should warn you before subjecting you unwittingly to my whimsies. So consider yourself warned…

I hate writing. I really do. I’m not one of those wishy-washy people who say they hate something but they really actually love it. Or maybe I am. If I were to get philosophical, I would guess that love and hate are the same thing, you just feel them differently. But that is beside the point.

This is the point: Writing is art. I am not brazen enough to say that I hate art because that would mean that I hate beauty, blood, life, love, death, and God. And I don’t hate those things. There are few things that I can say that I hate: genocide, infanticide, human trafficking, dead puppies, etc. I can say I hate those things, because those are things that should be hated. That kind of hate cannot be confused with love. Unlike the way I hate writing.

I’m in college. Can you tell? I guess that means I’m allowed to be pretentious and annoying for those four years of undergraduate education. I took a year off school after my freshman year so I guess that makes me a cheater because I get to have five years of pretentious tomfoolery.

In approximately 6 months I will have to write a 40-60-page manuscript for my senior honors thesis. Thinking about this makes me violently unhappy. But being the masochist that I am, I chose to do it. Here’s a dried-up cliché for you: What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Ugh. Even looking at that aphorism makes me feel slightly ill. It seems like a consolation prize for suffering, like when your parents used to say, “Well, when you have your own kids you can do what you want.” Not helpful.

It seems illogical to me that I write to become a better writer so that I can write some more. I guess that right there is the thing that I keep trying to reconcile…

Writing is good for me. Not in the same way that vegetables and flax seed and yoga and exercise are good for me, but writing is good because it is hard. And all things that are good are hard…or is it the other way around? It doesn’t matter. I have spent the past 22 years trying to find something that makes me happy. I can’t say that writing is that thing, but sometimes when I write I feel like life gets to make sense for about 10 seconds before my world of words threatens to implode under the pressure of reality. Too much? Yeah. Writers are so melodramatic.

I have heard people call writers liars, but I think those people are confused. Writers are just trying to be honest. Here’s a bit of honesty for you: I have been writing this blog for what seems like hours and I have been editing it like crazy. If I didn’t edit it and cut out about 60% of what I write, you would see all kinds of colorful neuroses. For example, I’ve written a paragraph about my fear of balconies on high-rise buildings, the rattlesnake I found in my backyard last week, and the way I have been grinding my teeth lately. Disclaimer: you are about to read a self-indulgent paragraph about my teeth-grinding problem. If you couldn’t care less, skip ahead. This is a choose-your-own-adventure.

I’ve been grinding my teeth lately. Apparently I’m eroding my precious enamel. I don’t have dental insurance so I’ve been trying to control myself but I can’t seem to stop. I just want to gnash away. My dentist – Dagon Jones – he’s Swedish, I think – recommended a nighttime bite guard to prevent enamel erosion. He estimates said bite guard will cost $694. Not going to happen. I don’t really think it will help anyway since I can feel myself doing grinding my teeth when I’m awake. Maybe I don’t even do it when I am asleep. But I know that’s probably not true. I imagine that when I am asleep at night I just go to town, grinding my teeth to kingdom come.

Nobody cares. I don’t even care. Why would I even write something like this? Maybe because it is the truth, it is what I am thinking about right now. I’m even gnashing my teeth as I type.

So here I am, writing about writing, blogging about blogging. What is it called…breaking the fourth wall? My creative writing professor hates this sort of self-referential meta-narrative brouhaha. Homie don’t play that, he says. He wants to dive in, disappear, devour, dissolve – Let the story be, moan about your own issues later. But I feel compelled to break the fourth wall, to partake in this particular artistic obsession. Look at the camera. Exit the page. Understand art in a different way. Everything is fake and real at the same time.

I’m afraid that no one will understand what I am saying. I am afraid that everyone will think that I am childish, untalented, frivolous, and dumb. I don’t really like anything that I write. Nothing is ever good enough. Ever.

Now that you know how crazy I am, I feel like we are friends. Although considering that I have no idea who is actually reading this blog, I guess I feel like the general Internet blogosphere is my friend. Strange. When you share your writing, your art, or your music with someone, you create a certain intimacy that is beautiful and unique. Or maybe it’s horrifying and embarrassing. Or maybe it’s everything at once: empowerment, humiliation, life, death, love, the big bang theory, hearing, sight, smell, taste, touch. There I go again with the melodrama. Maybe art just is.

If I were a rational person, I would say this to myself: Just accept that it what it is. Enter that selfish state of mind. Entertain the thought that you matter, you have incredible talent and self-worth, and you have something fantastic to share with the world. Delude yourself into embracing this seemingly foolish notion, and eventually realize that it is the truth.
My favorite thing about writing is finishing something, throwing in the towel, ending the last sentence with a period. Even if the piece is some kind of long-winded whimsy, in its final moment it feels whole. I feel like I have accomplished something for a quick moment; for now, I have earned the air I am breathing.

So here it is: my favorite moment. I love it, I hate it. It is what it is. Period.

ArtistsPalooza's July Featured Artist

The accordion has to be one of the coolest and most underrated instruments around. You don’t often see someone lugging around a huge bellows-driven-free-reed-aerophone-windbag-piano-squeezebox, but the accordion makes the most wonderful music. Just ask our July featured artist, a 92-year-old accordionist named Bob Souza.

Bob had worked for Dave’s dad for years before Dave discovered Bob’s extraordinary musical talent. A hard-working and detail-oriented office worker, Bob Souza didn’t seem like a man who could play the accordion like nobody’s business. As it turns out, Bob has been playing the accordion for over 60 years and is a wonderfully talented musician.

When Bob’s health started failing him and he ended up in hospice care, Dave headed up to Oakland to film Bob playing his accordion. Dave and Marissa, one of our ArtistsPalooza interns, have done a fantastic job putting together this beautiful video celebrating Bob Souza’s musical talent.

So ladies and Gentlemen without further ado, Bob Souza, ArtistsPalooza’s July Featured Artist!

Co-Founder Allison Geddie on Chinese TV!

Allison discovered this sweet video the other day. Apparently the music video for her song “Fixing Me” was featured on a Chinese TV show. Does anyone out there understand what the hosts are saying? Check out this sparkly gem…

Check out ArtistsPalooza on blogtalkradio.com!

MyTalkabout and Artists Palooza 07/01 by Peter Marcus | Blog Talk Radio

Last Friday two of our fearless leaders, David Lockhart and Allison Geddie, connected with Peter Marcus on blogtalkradio.com to chat about current projects, future goals, and recent happenings within ArtistsPalooza.

Anticipating the upcoming gastronomical and musical extravaganza known as the Eat Real Festival, Allison and Dave discussed the fantastic and talented musical lineup that ArtistsPalooza has been busy putting together. In case you haven’t heard, the Eat Real Festival is on July 16th and 17th at the Helm’s Bakery District in Culver City and promises to have both epic music and delicious food. It’s going to be amazing.

Carlos Cymerman from Social Co-op also called in on Friday to show his support for ArtistsPalooza and talk about the inspiring effect of being around creative people – essentially, the domino effect of good vibes. Carlos is passionate about helping people live their dream life and sharing the message of ArtistsPalooza.

One of the key and most interesting topics, in my opinion, was the idea that passion, music, art, and dreams are ageless. Regardless if you are a teenager or 90 years old, it is never too late to make music and to find and do what you love. Our July Featured Artist, for example, is a musician named Bob Souza – a 91-year-old accordionist who has been playing his whole life. On the show, Dave talks about Bob Souza’s inspiring story and wonderful music.

The radio show also heard from a New York singer/songwriter/musician - Ollie Boy Lester of The Undigables – who talks about how he started his musical career later in life. Ollie Boy’s message: It’s never too late! Older people have just as much to offer as young people and when it comes to music, age is irrelevant. Music is about passion. Listen to the show to hear Ollie Boy Lester’s new song “One More Love Affair."

Allison Geddie also shared her story and passion for music, talking about how music became something powerful and undeniable when she was 23. When the dream of being a musician seemed beyond reach, Allison realized that music was her passion, her contribution, and it was her purpose to nurture and share the gift with other people. Keeping this in mind, Allison’s work with ArtistsPalooza has been geared toward giving space for people to believe in themselves and to share their art with others. Basically, she works to empower artists to empower the world...

Here is what I got out of the conversation:
Do your thing. Share it with the world. There is no expiration date.

Thanks to Peter Marcus for having us on blogtalkradio! We’ll be back for another episode on July 15th!

Click on the link to listen to the whole show!

MyTalkabout and Artists Palooza 07/01 by Peter Marcus | Blog Talk Radio