Tag Archives: PRPA
The Melody of Motion: Following Phish and Widespread Panic, by Carl Cole
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
Lizzy Layne’s Fuck Your Face
The origin of the poster, from Lizzy Layne: This poster started with me wanting to do a poster for MSG and when thinking of concepts. I have been really inspired by typography-heavy design lately. The term “Fuck your Face“, along with the song that has been brought out of the vault lately seemed like a perfect fit for this style poster. In the end, I decided it is a broad enough concept that it doesn’t necessarily need to be a poster that is specific to New Year’s, but can just be a solid piece of PhanArt.
The poster is a 15 x 22″ 3 color silkscreen and costs $30 plus $10 for packaging and shipping fees.
PhanFood Cookbook kickoff party 12/11 at Nectar’s
Save the date! Nectar’s in Burlington, Vermont is hosting a book launch party for the new cookbook, PhanFood: From the Kitchen Pot to the Tour Lot (SUNY Press/Excelsior Editions; December 2010; $19.95 paperback). Join us on Saturday, December 11 from 7:00–9:00 pm for the PhanFood book launch. If you attend this party you’ll also gain free admission to the show at Nectar’s later that evening, with incredible funk and jamband Dopapod headlining.
Here’s some more exciting information about the eventful evening:
• There will be a food drive, so please bring canned foods or other nonperishable items!
• Taste delicious food from the recipe book, cooked by the contributors!
• For one night only, Nectar’s will serve drinks featured in the book!
• Drink specials from Magic Hat, who is sponsoring the event!
Order a copy of PhanFood here!
About PhanFood:
Like the band they follow from city to city, Phish fans have their own history of creativity, which in turn follows them wherever they go—even into the kitchen. Edited by Taraleigh Weathers and Pete Mason, PhanFood brings together many of the recipes that Phish fans have made and shared over the years. Included are appetizers, salads, soups, sandwiches, entrées, 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. PhanFood is also a wholly nonprofit endeavor, with all net profits being donated to regional food banks and charities in the cities where Phish plays.
Praise for the book:
“A phantastic collection of goodies—baked, fried, and otherwise—ranging from the simple (yeasted popcorn) to the complex (including a few that will test your culinary mettle); organized with delightful connections to Phish songs, shows, and history; and benefiting the hungry, on many levels—a full-course of phun!” — Ellis Godard, Executive Director of the Mockingbird Foundation
About the editors:
Taraleigh Weathers is the publisher and editor of Healthy Hippie Magazine, and the Phish correspondent for WCAX News. She lives in Burlington, Vermont.
Pete Mason is a special education teacher and the author of Phanart: The Art of the Fans of Phish. He lives in Albany, New York with his dog Halley.
For more information, please visit http://www.sunypress.edu/p-5170-phanfood.aspx
Hard to Hold, a Romance Novel, featuring a Phish fan
A review of Hard to Hold, by Julie Leto
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, Mike is featured in PhanArt: The Art of the Fans of Phish with 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.
Pick up a copy of the book on Amazon
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 romance novel 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!
AJ Masthay Fall Poster Subscriptions
From AJ Masthay: www.masthaystudios.com
Update: Poster for 10/29 revealed!
Who’s up for an old school Northeast run? I am.. I am…!!! Providence, Mullins Center, Atlantic City!?! yeah, count me in. I know, everyone says we’re spoiled in the northeast, well… I agree. Think of it this way, it’s a wonderful excuse to come see the beautiful foliage.
I digress, so I’ve been getting alot of questions about whether or not Ill be doing another mini-subscription for this tour. The answer my friends is YES. I think the 2nd leg summer sub worked out very for all those involved. Once images were released I got many emails from happy sub holders who were thankful they didnt have to worry about onsale dates and times.
So this time around the subscriptions will include a minimum of 6 prints. Currently slated are Amherst, Providence, Augusta and a special triptych for the Halloween shows, but these are up for debate and may change (okay Halloweens are already completed so they wont change… a little tease of the 29th is pictured above). If you are a fan of my work, especially past Halloween editions, I guarantee you will not want to miss out on these. All subscriptions will have matching numbers and specific number requests will be honored if available. I will be offering only 20 subscriptions for this leg with a limit of 2 subs per person.
Cost for each subscription is $200 which equates to a $5 discount on the cost of the prints themselves and I’ll cover insured priority mail shipping. All prints will be shipped together once the final edition is completed.
Subscriptions will be available this Friday, September 17th at 12 noon EST. A paypal button will appear on www.masthaystudios.com/subscription
As always feel free to email me at info@masthaystudios.com with any questions, concerns, comments, etc.
AJ
Stealing Time and Meatstick shirts (the Herbert one)
These shirts, first seen on Phishook, are already garnering a great deal of buzz from fans. We found the creator through the wonders of the Internet and here they are.
We’re also going to slap the PhanArt Recommended , PhanArt Approved (PRPA) seal on them.
Grant’s first show was in 1996 at Penn St. He’s an environmental engineer and these shirts help him to pay for his continuing education. Look for his Carini and Weekapaug shirts this fall!
Shirts are $15 including shipping.
BICYCLE Arts Event in San Francisco before The Greek Shows
Update 7/23/10 2pm:
Hey all EARLY ART TCKETS are on special! We want to sell out the remaining, these tickets are limited.
Buy your Early Art tickets this Friday, Saturday or Sunday and receive a two for one admission!
THATS $10 FOR 2 PEOPLE OR 5 BUCKS EACH!
If you get your early art tickets this weekend you;ll automatically be put on the list + 1.
Update 7/22/10 2pm:
Each artist showing at BICYCLE has been asked to create new limited edition prints. They were given a theme to work on and asked to come up with their interpretation. All releases will be signed and numbered by the artists and released in editions of anywhere from 25-100. This will make them pretty rare and a very nice piece of art to own.
Since BICYCLE will be a ongoing traveling event hitting up different cities featuring different artists and different musicians over the next few years (and beyond!), you don’t want to miss out on starting your collection of these never seen before pieces. The San Francisco BICYCLE on Aug 4 is the first of these events. This makes this events artist releases the very first of their kind!
Early Art tickets will get you into the event before the crowd to grab the lowest numbers of the editions before they sell out. Early Art show starts at 5pm, General Admission starts at 6pm. That gives you a full hour to hit up all the artists, ask them about their pieces, and grab the ones you want!
Early Art tickets are just $10! And you can get them here!
This events theme is : POSITIVE VISIONS.
So far we have gotten sneak peaks at Stanley Mouse, Alan Forbes and Erin Cadigan. CHECK THEM OUT!!!
PLEASE CHECK BACK DAILY FOR LOOKS AT THE LIMITED RELEASES BY OUR OTHER ARTISTS!!!!
AS WELL AS MORE ARTISTS SPOTLIGHTS, INTERVIEWS AND NEWS AS BICYCLE GETS CLOSER!!!
Original Post:
BICYCLE is a psychedelic and visionary arts event taking place August 4th, 2010 at Club Six in San Francisco’s Mission District. Club Six is located at 60 6th St between Mission and Market.
At 5pm-10pm an art exhibit and sales showcase featuring artists: STANLEY MOUSE, ALAN FORBES, DAVE HUNTER, DAVID D’ANDREA, TRIPP SHEALY, ERIN CADIGAN, MARK McCLOUD and the BLOTTER BARN COLLECTION, KYLE CARTER, MICHAEL MATE.
I.A.M.U. Presents artists MARK HENSON, ANDROID JONES, XAVI and CAREY THOMPSON.
Local San Francisco artist CHOR BOOGIE will be live painting during this event. All artists will be releasing limited edition prints on the theme: Positive Visions.
Club Six has 2 floors and 3 rooms. Starting at 9pm downstairs on the mainstage DJ CITIZEN TEN will spin joined by MC ABSTRACT RUDE at 10. At 11pm DJ LOGIC will take the stage for an epic 3 hour set. Upstairs the second stage at 10pm. The line up upstairs is DJ SLEEPYHEAD, KAPTAIN HARRIS and COOPDVILLE.
Tickets are ART only-$10/MUSIC only $15/ BOTH $20. Tickets are on sale now through www.psychedelicbicycleride.com
We couldn’t ask for better artists or a better city to kick off what we plan on becoming a bi-annual, bi-coastal event. Our aim is to bring psychedelic and visionary art to a whole new audience, helping to drive forward the creative and cosmic consciousness that has started with the dawning of the Age of Aquarius.
BICYCLE would like to drive forward public awareness of the positive effects of psychedelics, visions, cosmic consciousness, the Age of Aquarius, the dawning of the Hopi fifth world, the Mayan prophecies, sacred geometry, crop circles and all the myriad positive occurrences that are happening in this universe and being told about through art. BICYCLE also plans to expand peoples understanding of what it means to be a visionary or psychedelic artist by holding a juried exhibit that includes poster artists, fine artists, comic book artists, illustrators, graffiti writers and really artists of any discipline who are trying to tell a positive message through their work. By linking these visual artists with musical artists of varied genres we are expanding the reach and bringing these artists to the attention of a new public sector.
BICYCLE is sponsored by Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies and PhanArt.
SPAC and Summercamp posters from AJ Masthay
From AJ Masthay: Hi all, and happy post-Memorial Day Weekend to you, back to the grind, ugh…. Well, there is light at the end of that tunnel, summer tour is literally right around the corner!
I just got back yesterday from a spectacular weekend in Chillicothe, IL at this years Summercamp. I had an absolute blast seeing everyone, hearing some great music, and of course slinging some prints. A big thank you to Jason Kaczorowski and all involved in the Mock Camp exhibition.
Okay, enough about my love of SPAC…. I’ve also added the few Summercamp prints that I brought back from this weekend to my site. If you haven’t had a chance, check out the new process page I put together which chronicles the creation of this print from start to finish. This is basically the same process I use for all my work and gives a good insight into linoleum block printing.
You can see more of AJ’s work at the 42′ and PhanArt Poster show: The Art of the Fans of Phish on June 20th from 11am-3pm at 42′ Art Gallery in Glens Falls, a short 15 minute drive from Saratoga. See more info here
Both are available now on my site www.masthaystudios.com.Please feel free to contact me at aj@masthaystudios with any questions. Hope you enjoy and I’ll see ya on tour!
AJ
Lizards/Lacoste
From Pompeii Prints, the new Lizards shirts are available in White, Grey, Light Blue and Light Green. Sizes are Medium, Large, XLarge, and XXLarge (note – XXLarge is only available in white and grey + $2.00 EXTRA)
All shirts are $11 with $5 shipping. With every sale through PhanArt, Pompeii Prints will donate $1 from every shirt to The Mockingbird Foundation. Buy via paypal sending a payment with size to POMPEIIPRINTS@YAHOO.COM
