| Current mood: |  jubilant |
| Current music: | Iron & Wine |
Bumber? Shoot!
Monocol went to Bumbershoot on Saturday. Bumbershoot is Seattle's annual mosh pit of humanity, featuring hundreds of bands, crafts, readings, arts, and cultural crap. We don't use the word "throngs" liberally, as "throngs" is an uncomfortable word, but at any Bumbershoot you will inevitably encounter and wade through throngs of people, many of who seem to be going nowhere slowly, sweatily, and haphazardly.
This particular Bumbershoot had great potential for entertainment and enrichment.
First there was a talking and singing event featuring Dave Eggers (author, and founder of the great McSweeney's, the Believer, and Wholphin), Sarah Vowell, Lemony Snicket, John Hodgman (author of the best book ever, "The Areas of My Expertise," and also "Giraffes? Giraffes!" and "Your Disgusting Head") and some music type folks. It would have been great, but we missed it.
Then there was the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy show Asssssscat. UCB is/was a bizarre and underrated comedy troupe, with several hilarious seasons of sketch comedy television under their belt (until they were cruelly canceled) and a regular improv club on each coast. Highlights included the Little Donny Foundation, the story of a boy with the serious medical condition of having an Enormous Penis and Not Being Aware of It. We missed it.
So we ran across the Seattle Center to catch a reading by Chuck Palahniuk and Charles Burns. We missed it.
Comedy band "Tinkle" lead by David Cross? Missed it.
All this missing-of-things was entirely due to the throngs of people. They were just everywhere, those people. People seemed to stand in endless lines that went nowhere, just in hopes that perhaps they might end up somewhere entertaining and enriching. And usually they did, but other times the lines looped in enormous figure-eights, a kind of mobius line. Those people may still be in line to this day. We had no patience for such waiting, and subsequently missed many potentially entertaining and enriching events.
Save one:
Flatstock!
Flatstock (the 10th) is/was a huge band and concert poster show. Huge! Thousands of posters and their artists, all screenprinted and for sale. We spent hours browsing the booths, slack-jawed, dispensing praise like kittens and incoherently spreading the word of Monocol. Well, the potential of Monocol. Everyone was very nice though and did not doubt that Monocol would have its own booth next year.
Some of our favorites:
Diana Sudyka (Bought an amazing Modest Mouse poster from her. She was very nice, and listened patiently as I blabbered on about Monocol and how infinitely cool her work was.)
Push Me Pull You Design
Dan Stiles
33rpm Design
Ramen Royale (Bought a great poster called "Apocalypse Pittsburgh" of a giant fly attacking a building.)
Flatstock made the day worthwhile. It was incredible to see so much talent gathered in one place, and to have the ability to go up to and talk to the artist of any piece you admired. It was also inspiring - most artists also began small scale of course (well, perhaps not in musty possum-infested basements), and hearing them speak of their processes and successes was exciting.
Monocol will grow, we will make more neat things on paper and fabric, and maybe someday we can have our own booth at Flatstock. A young man or woman will approach, struck dumb by the Infinite Awesomeness of our posters and crafts, and they will stammer on about their own makeshift screens that they print in their dusty spider-infested attic, and how they and one of their best friends are starting an art collective called "Robot Poop." And we will glance at each other, nod, and smile knowingly.
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monocol) wrote,
