Reid Genauer, long known as the voice and guitar behind Strangefolk and Assembly of Dust recently published his first children’s book, Jeffery’s Jungle.
The 24 page book for kids ages 4-9 was written by Genauer and illustrated by Alan Close and tells the story of a young boy who turns up the thermostat while his mother is off running errands and a jungle sprouts in the midst of his living room.
Reading through the book, the rhyming story builds in a Jumanji like way, compounding the jungle that grows through his house with each creature that appears while the temperature increases. The excitement and suspense of the book is perfect for reading to kids and allows their imaginations to take the story to another level.
The illustrations are vivid and perfectly visualize the story and convey the emotions expressed in the story. The art pops off the page, evoking AJ Masthay through his animals plants and Bob Montana’s ‘Archie’ through Jeffery.
A natural story teller through his music, Genauer channels Shel Silverstein, Jerry Garcia and Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter through the origins of Jeffrey’s Jungle:
“All of that said at a young age I found that creativity – for me specifically writing – is a place where sensitivity is rewarded. It’s an activity where you can unleash your senses and let them scream. I would not have had the words to describe it back then but after reading Shel Silverstien’s “Where The Sidewalk Ends” at about age 9, I was inspired to start writing. Even though most of Shel’s writing is funny, there is emotional presence within the playfulness that I found familiar and inspiring. So at the age of 9 I started writing Shel Silversteinian rhymes as a creative outlet and I’m still doing it.
“With Shel, Hunter and Garcia as role models I have spent most of my life trying to channel myself into my writing as a way to connect with the world with the intent of being emotionally present but stylistically relevant. For 20+ years I have focused publicly on expressing myself through song and I intend to continue. But my journey started with trying to imitate good ole Shel Silverstein.”
Welcome to the Fourth Annual PhanArt Holiday Gift Guide! Since we don’t have Shakedown to hit off to do our Holiday shopping (remember Fall Tour?), PhanArt brings you the best of the lot here, compiling great art and deals for Phish fans. Get everything you need for family and friends, as well as phamily and phriends. Stay tuned for great deals as this page will be updated throughout the holiday season.
This year the Gift Guide is broken down into Seven Categories: Special Deals, Posters, Books, Shirts, Pins, Jewelery and Stickers. There are also select items that benefit The Mockingbird Foundation, including limited edition posters.
SPECIAL DEALS
Cody Schibihas free shipping on all orders and free prints when you spend $15 or more
Nate Duval’sholiday sale includes free shipping through 12/14 and deals for different days of the week
TRiPPis offering 25% off and free shipping on all orders Tuesday 11/27 through Wednesday Night and 25% off orders until Wednesday night with code “wassail”. From 11/29 through 12/31, code rudolPH will work to give you 20% off, plus if you spend $100 or more you get free shipping through 12/31. Don’t forget to check out holiday cards and limited edition archived prints.
TRiPP also has Mystery Tubes with 5 random prints for $50 (GD Family, Phish, WSP or Colorado)
Doctor Fluff Tees is offering holiday specials store-wide. Use one of their two coupons to get even greater discounts! 20% off on Cyber Monday with code GIVETHANKS and 10% off with code PHANART through 12/31 (but you can only use one code on Cyber Monday, so go with GIVETHANKS)
Among other deals, Tube, Tweezer and Doctor Fluff posters are all 25% off!
Plus all Tie-dye Grateful Dead shirts are 25% off and you can pre-order these onesies pictured below.
Four posters for $40 – With a great deal of posters donated to PhanArt to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation, there’s a ton of great posters to get and for $40, you get FOUR prints, with the $40 going to benefit The Mockingbird Foundation for music education. If you want to request a tour or a specific artist (who has been featured on PhanArt.net in the past few years), we will try to honor your request as best as we can.
Branden Otto has four prints just added to the site, and if you Buy 2, you get 1 FREE. Click over to see Branden’s latest and pick up some incredible art. He’s had an incredible year! All orders will also receive a promo code for 25% off Otto’s NYE poster that will be released in early December.
The PhanArt ‘Read the F#$%ing Book Club‘ has reviews and links to buy all 14 books written on Phish, as well as reviews by members of the Phish community. Prices vary.
PhanFoodcookbooks, the first cookbook by Phish fans for Phish fans is available for only $20, with net profits benefiting the Chittenden Food Bank in Burlington, Vermont. PhanFood features appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, entrees, desserts, drinks (with and without alcohol) and a variety of other concoctions that Phish fans enjoy while they are in the lots, at the site, or just sitting at home waiting for the next tour to be announced.
The Woods Tees in three colors are now discounted to $18!
Indigo
Count 8 Festivals shirts are only $10 each, with just TWO remaining! These shirts from Festival 8 features Count von Count in sizes Medium and Large only. Free shipping on orders.
Of course, there are Golgi/Google, Tweezer/Twitter shirts, plus “Me No are no Nice Girl” shirts for ladies (only sizes left are: 1 small, 1 large, 1 XL and 1 XXL – shirts run a little small). All shirts come with a free sticker and free shipping. Order in the PhanArt Store.
Also, the pre-order for YEMSG shirts and hoodies has been extended until 11/30! Pick them up in the PhanArt Store because they are only available on pre-order. Free YEMSG sticker and NYEMSG 2011-2012 sticker with each order! Shirts ship in mid-December (free shipping too!)
PINS
Phanbadge MSG Subway Tokens and Manhole covers are $15-16 each or in a three pack with a free bonus pin included!
Pin Me Down has your the freshest new pin designs on the market, offering Phish, GD and many more designs. Pins cost $8-35, with a few pins costing only $5 during their holiday sale. As always free shipping on orders over $30.
Crazyredbeard has a number of pins for sale, notably his new Birds of a Feather Omnidirectional Love pin. This pin is an original design by Jonathan Blake, a raven and an eagle interlocked in the center by a heart with the four directions of the compass symbolizing love radiating outward in all directions. This pin is only $15 plus $3 shipping.
Zenster has Phish, Grateful Dead, Nug and Lebowski pins for sale. With each purchase, get a free pin!
JEWELRY and MORE
Jennifer Kahn’s 2012 Commemorative NYE NYC MSG Token pendant is available in Sterling Silver or Brass. Her 3rd token, this design features an upward spiral emanating from the big apple. Take the New Year’s run energy and grow, expand, move forward and reach out in the coming year. There’s nowhere to go but UP!
Glowstickwars.com is having a Red, Green and Blue sale. From now until Boxing Day (thats December 26th to you and me, tubes of Red Show Sticks,Green Show Sticks, andBlue Show Sticks can be ordered from the GSW online store for as low as $6.49 per tube of 100 8″ glowsticks, with 100 bracelet/necklace connectors included. That’s a 35% discount! And remember, 10% of all Show Sticks sales are donated to The Mockingbird Foundation. Take advantage of this great limited time offer and MAKE IT RAIN this Holiday season!
STICKERS
Stickers are a great stocking stuffer!
Jiggs stickers include Kuroda / Laser Pointer and Stop Analyzing
Also, conceived by Andy Cary and designed by Jiggs is the runaway sticker design of the summer, “My Other Car is a Second Set Tweezer”, available in the PhanArt Store
YEM Family Decal stickers – A spoof of those stickers we see on the back of cars detailing who is in the family. Well, this one is for phamily, via Glowstickwars.com – less than Three Dollars!
The Mockingbird Foundation and Backbeat Books, an imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation, today announced that they have reached an agreement for a new edition of The Phish Companion, the definitive guide to the band and its music. The Third Edition will give fans an updated hardcopy reference guide, and will be accompanied by book-related mobile apps and e-book editions. It will be available in the Spring of 2013, and will cover Phish’s history through the end of 2012, with pre-orders beginning late fall 2012.
The print and electronic versions of The Phish Companion’s Third Edition will continue the mission of the nonprofit, fan-run Mockingbird Foundation, which was incorporated to develop, disseminate, and protect collected data about Phish for the benefit of charity. The Foundation’s proceeds will fund music education for children through a highly competitive, two-tiered application process that has so far provided more than 220 grants in 43 states totaling over $700,000. “There are also special grants addressing music programs impacted by natural disasters and communities impacted by Phish tours,” as explained by Board President Marco Walsh. “Due to low overheard – no salaries, staff, or office – the Mockingbird Foundation is able to disburse more than 98% of its gross receipts to charity.”
As with previous editions, “TPC3” will be written and compiled entirely by volunteers through Phish.net, a community-driven history project begun in 1991 and adopted by the Foundation in 2000. “For more than two decades, Phish.netvolunteers have developed the gold standard of information about the band,” said Executive Director Ellis Godard. “Far beyond mere lists of facts, a record of what the band has performed live involves thousands of creative decisions related to song titles, song transitions, song notes, show notes, presentation, and the annotation of teases, quotes, and jams, among other matters.” The resulting proprietary database already serves more than a dozen websites through an API library, as well as various partners’ mobile apps through licensing agreements.
Previous editions of The Phish Companion (in 2000 and 2004) drew from those same resources but in their entirety, and topped 920 pages and 4.2 pounds. “The Third Edition will feature a completely new design, a more portable format, and a more strategic selection of contents, while incorporating nine years of additional history, as well as related content developed and researched by the Phish.net team over thousands of man-hours since the publication of TPC2,” said Group Publisher John Cerullo.
For more information about the Mockingbird Foundation, please visit mbird.org. For more information about the band, please visit phish.com and phish.net. For more information about Backbeat Books, please visit backbeatbooks.com.
Phish is a band that has generated a great deal of press over the years, with reviews in papers in the towns the band and their fans travel to, as well as articles in magazines and dozens of websites and blogs dedicated to The Phish from Vermont. Over time, the band’s history and fans have led to a number of books about Phish. When asked this summer by a non-Phish fan how many books were written about Phish, I couldn’t come up with an answer and the idea for a Book Club of sorts was born. Not a Book Club where we all sit down and have tea or something and discuss books, but an online Book Club where fans can find out about Phish books, read them and share their thoughts online with other fans. An interactive web-based Book Club with nothing but suggestions of books to read given and opinions shared when the books are read.
As a teacher, I felt this would also help to promote literacy, always a good thing at any age or level of education. Over the next few weeks, we will be bringing you The ‘Read the Fucking Book’ Club. There is no cost to join. In fact, you are already a member just by reading this. Welcome to the club! There will be a page here on PhanArt.net that has all the Phish books written over the years. Click on a book and read a review by one of our primary reviewers and places where you can buy each book. Fans will be able to share their reviews of the books in the comments section of each page and discuss the finer points of Phish Lit.
Included in the ‘Read the Fucking Book’ Club will be:
The Phish Companion (volumes 1 and 2) by The Mockingbird Foundation
The Pharmers Almanac (volumes 1 through 6) by Bernstein, Steele, Chasnoff, Celentano, et.al
PhanArt: The Art of the Fans of Phish by Pete Mason
The Diary of Bobby Steiner: Tour Tales from the New Milleniumby William Traveler
Mr. Miner’s Phish Thoughtsby David Calarco (coming this holiday season)
The Melody of Motion: Following Phish and Widespread Panic by Carl Cole
Run Like an Antelope: On the Road with Phish by Sean Gibbon
PhanFood: From the Kitchen Pot to the Parking Lotby Taraleigh Weathers and Pete Mason
Mike’s Corner: Daunting Literary Snippets from Phish’s Bassist by Mike Gordon
Phish: The Biographyby Parke Puterbaugh
The Phish Book by Richard Gehr
Go Phish by Dave Thompson
The Phishing Manualby Dean Budnick
Stay tuned for the launch of the ‘Read the Fucking Book’ Club in early October few weeks. include authors and where to buy each one. If you are interested in submitting a review of any of these books (that you may have previously read), please email Pete at phanart (at) gmail
Buy The Melody of Motion: Following Phish and Widespread Panic as a Hardcover, Paperback or E-book at lulu.com
Book Review
This book takes me back to the start of my journey with Phish in the late 1990s. The Melody of Motion: Following Phish and Widespread Panic is a very fun read and the pages turned rapidly as the story got more complex and developed with easy relatable characters. The main character of the book, Melody, “had arrived at the everyday parade” at Oswego in 1999 and provided the backdrop for an accurate telling of the bonds forged between fans of Phish by the characters sharing their stories with each other. In the first 50 pages, even the casual fan can quickly identify with any of the well-thought out and elaborate personalities, capturing the Phish vibe and how it relates to their individual lives. The characters of Melody, Nathan, Phil, Lucy, Kale and Jessica are powerfully correlative as to what a microcosm of the Phish community looks like from the inside out. This glimpse of one group of friends is connotated by Cole with attention to detail of the lot, so much so that you can visualize Oswego’s life on the runway, falling in love on tour, the tribulations of Phish tour, all captured in a slow-building glorious payoff.
Melody’s character brings to mind girls from years past who hopped on Phish tour, found the vibe they were looking for and took it not just to heart but made it one with themselves. Her youth and beauty are well written and accurately captures the many aspects of Phish, both on and off tour: falling in love, back stories each fan has, and most importantly (and impressively), the relationships built spontaneously that last years, coupled with the feeling we get when the music begins. The Melody of Motion dissects the differences between Phish and Widespread Panic very simply and clearly, citing the firsthand knowledge of someone who appreciated and understood the intricacies of both bands, rather than a fan of one band with a fleeting knowledge of the other.
One of the significant highlights in the book is a first-hand account of the shock Widespread Panic fans received in April of 2002 when it was revealed that Mikey Houser, the namesake of the band, was diagnosed with and dying of pancreatic cancer. Shared clearly and with great detail is the police crackdown at Oak Mountain in Pelham, Alabama in April of 2001 and again in Memphis in November of 2002. The first Bonnaroo’s heat is felt through a blistering retelling, coupled with attending to medical needs while at a festival and falling off tour due to frustration. Panic’s summer 2002 tour with the loss of Mikey, the moment of candles at Fiddler’s Green, pregnancy and marriage are all breached and evoke powerful emotions for even the most casual, if not skeptical Widespread Panic fan.
Life as we know it happened in between the 1.0 and 2.0 incarnations of Phish, and likewise between the 2.0 and 3.0 Phish eras, as well as the McConnell years of Widespread Panic and the break the band took in 2004-2005. A remarkable gesture by the band – free tickets given to Widespread tour regulars for the final show before hiatus on 12/31/03 in Atlanta, is shared and shows a generous nature of the Panic community. With both bands on break for a few years, life off of tour during that time showed many growing up; those young kids who met at Oswego and fell in love over Phish, they grew up too.
New Years Eve 2009 in Denver saw once fractured and divided relationships that were strong enough to withstand not seeing someone for years at a time, showing that capturing the same feeling that you get from Phish shows is attainable from Widespread shows (yes, it’s true). What has been brought together again is broken prior summer 2009 when Phish reunited and the characters find themselves back with each other, bringing life full circle with Phish playing the soundtrack to this new chapter of their lives. Finding meaning in every song as it is played, the reuniting of friends and a band, and growing up at Red Rocks in 2009, the main character, Melody, finds what she has been looking for. Ten years removed from Phish and seven years since her last tour, she finds what she has been looking for with a little help from her friends and Phish. Although some may not agree with the lifestyles and choices that the characters make in the book, they are well developed and taken from real life, easily identifiable to any number of fans. Melody is an amalgamation of girls and friends I have known on tour over the past decade or more. This is a must read for any phan who has spent any amount of time on tour or amongst the Phish and Widespread Panic communities.
Finding meaning in phish again, meaning in life, identifying with lyrics in ways they never had before, this is what Phish does to and for the 30-something crowd looking for answers to the next step of their lives. Reading the book was painful at times, only in the sense that Carl’s words were eerily reminiscent of what had transpired in my life and that of many friends Phish returned two years ago. Cole captures the scene perfectly, saying “Since the dawn of civilization there have been traveling gypsies making a circuit through the sedentary people. As usual, those stable people were baffled, excited, and a little scared by the nomads who roamed the countryside.”
This book is PhanArt Recommended, PhanArt Approved. It is a great read and a fantastic story.
Carl Cole has spent the last 15 years sporadically and spontaneously involved in the tour scene of Phish and Widespread Panic. He sometimes made a living quasi-legally vending food in the parking lots. He was also a protege’ of Daniel Quinn, bestselling author of Ishmael, publishing a weekly column on Ishmael.com. Carl first saw Phish and Widespread Panic in the spring of 1997, having seen well over 100 Panic concerts, 50 Phish shows, and lived countless other musical adventures.
Buy The Melody of Motion: Following Phish and Widespread Panic as a Hardcover, Paperback or E-book at lulu.com
Once upon a time, there was a phan, and he met the girl of his dreams. They dated, went through peaks and valleys, took trips throughout the world and eventually settled down and got married. But like all things Phish, the story behind this relationship is not easy to explain to others not in the know. For Mike Davoli and Anne Miller, their true story is the focus of the new romance novel by Julie Leto, Hard to Hold.
Now I know what you are thinking – why is a romance novel on the PhanArt Blog? Well, two reasons. One, Mikeis featured in PhanArt: The Art of the Fans of Phishwith the art he created in the late 90s through Coventry, plus he’s a great friend. That and his story sets the tone for what many Phish fans who moved forward with life, despite not having their favorite band touring for much of the past decade.
Hard to Hold is a love story centering around a Mike, a Phish fan with over 200 shows under his belt, and his wife Anne Miller. They met by way of coincidences – first at a Jeff Tweedy show at The Egg in Albany, NY (the town where much of the book is set), then Mike moving into her building and finding Anne able to walk his dog Sirus while he transferred his life from Oregon to New York. Living in the same building leads to their relationship, as well as putting the past behind them and moving forward towards their respective futures.
The complexities of their relationship is detailed in Hard to Hold, an easy to read, weekend on the road book that keeps the reader focused on the next chapter. Having known Mike since he moved back to Albany, even I was turning the pages looking for the next part of their story, filling in gaps of what I had observed in the past couple years. There are of course, the sexy sex scenes, per all romance novels, and while not as tawdry as a Fabio-front-covered book, they do add a bit of reality to the book. What relationship doesn’t involve some hibbity-dibbity? A boring one. This book and true story are nothing short of the opposite.
Added to the mix are Mike’s Tourette’s Syndrome, which has an impact on the relationship early on, as he reveals to Anne something that he has lived with his whole life and wanted her to be aware of and understanding towards. Coupled with that is the impact of Phish at Red Rocks last summer on their pending marriage and wedding plans. I was honored to be invited to attend the wedding, forgoing Red Rocks. Mike and a few others did not skip making a trip out to Morrison. And that’s where some of the drama of this story develops.
Fans will enjoy this book for the coming of age story many of us faced between August of 2004 and the return announcement in October of 2008. We grew up, jobs turned into careers, dating gave way to relationships, and we still had to reconcile our changed lives with the return of Phish four years later. Some went ahead with life and made phish a small part, some returned phish to prominence in their lives, and others are still sorting it all out.
This book is PhanArt Recommended and PhanArt Approved
Come meet the real characters Anne Miller and Michael Davoli on
November 9th from 7-9pm. http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/event/69190
Barnes and Noble Bookseller–Park Slope
267 7th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
From Mike Davoli and Anne Miller, stars of Hard to Hold
My Phishy Romance Novel, by Michael Davoli
In nearly thirty years Phish has become one of the most popular modern bands in America selling millions of tickets each year. Yet you would barely know it if you only followed mainstream media. While there have been the occasional mention on a few teenage sitcoms in the early 2000s and of course the unforgettable Simpson’s episode, Phish has rarely made it out of the alternative music world. That is about to change.
Last month HCI Publishing released a new novel featuring a Phishhead as a main character. To be precise, they released a new romancenovel featuring a Phishhead.. The novel is a fictionalized account of the real relationship between my wife Anne and I and our beloved Weimariner Sirus. Hard to Hold, by Julie Leto, went on sale in bookstores nationwide and online in September.
Anne and I first met in October 2005 at a Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco) show in Albany. I was in Albany for a job interview and decided to catch the show while in town. Anne and I chatted briefly before going our separate ways. It was a quick but memorable meeting. I would be moving to Albany in a few months and I hoped that at some point I would run into her again.
In February 2006 I was loading boxes into my new apartment building when I heard a voice say my name. It was Anne. To my surprise I was moving into her apartment building. This is just one of the many remarkable coincidences in the early days of our relationship and are told in detail in the pages of Hard to Hold.
Hard to Hold covers how we met, first dated, fell in love and eventually married. The novel captures the challenge of a Phishhead marrying a non-Phan from the announcement of the Phish reunion in Hampton to planning a wedding while the summer Phish tour rolled across the country.
Before sharing with Anne the extent of my love of Phish, I shared with her a very private but important thing about myself that she needed to know. I have Tourette Syndrome—a neurological disorder that causes uncontrollable muscle tics.
Hard to Hold accurately depicts the very moment when I shared with Anne the extent of my Tourette’s and of my Phish fandom. Would this be the end of our relationship? The novel tells the story.
When Anne and I got engaged in July 2008 Phish was still broken up with no signs of reuniting. The novel captures how soon after the announcement of the Hampton Phish shows Anne quickly began to realize what life would be like if she married me. While the Tourette’s may be a pain sometimes, it would not take over our lives like the way Phish would.
Shortly before our wedding a writer for the New York Times decided to write a story about our relationship for the Sunday paper. The story, which ran on the last day of the summer 2009 tour, featured the potential conflict that arises when a Phishhead marries a non-phan. After the story appeared HCI Publishing reached out to us and asked if we would allow them to publish our story.
Last spring while I was busy planning my summer tour, I also spent hours emailing Leto all the details she needed to accurately tell our story. The hardest question to answer was one that I imagine many of you have faced yourself. Why do we follow Phish? For Leto, understanding why I fell in love with my wife was easy but understanding why I love Phish so much was much more challenging.
Nearly a year later the book is for sale. Beginning this fall Phish and Phishheads will enter a place in American culture that very few musicians and their fans, if any, ever have. From now on, people will never look at Phishheads the same way. After all, if one of us appears as a main character in a romance novel, how strange could we be? While I thought that being included in the New York Times wedding section was the ultimate example of mainstream acceptance, I never imagined a Phishhead being featured in a romance novel.
Hard to Hold is part of a new series of reality based romance novels being published this fall by HCI Books and it is sure to leave you smiling. Anne and I are excited to share our story with the Phish community and the world. But be warned—there are some steamy scenes in the novel, and I am not referring to the Drowned>Cross Eyed from Red Rocks.
So to paraphrase Trey, be sure to READ THE BOOK, Hard to Hold by Julie Leto. You can read samples from the book at http://vows.hcibooks.com. Ask for it wherever you buy books. With your help we just may be able to get the story of a Phishhead onto the New York Times Best Seller list!
