Vertical House Presents: June 29th Show 04.07.
The Snake The Cross The Crown
Grand Prize Game
Christian James and the Coyotes
The Dreaded Firefly and Sweet Lucy
The Snake The Cross The Crown
Grand Prize Game
Christian James and the Coyotes
The Dreaded Firefly and Sweet Lucy
I love late afternoon thunderstorms.
Especially in the Alabama summer.
It’s a nice relief after the sun blanketed hot day.
Mid-day or morning storms just lead to muggy and miserable days.
A vacation-esque evening begins once the sun has began to descend and the clouds roll in.
Each thunder roll shakes the insides as the rain plays the soundtrack.
All of this
seems to be intensified
sitting behind the brick walls
and huge glass windows
of a historic mill.
Looking through the wavy glass panes I wonder how many people sat here before me
during a repeated session with the sky.
Was it a cold, icy rain with harsh taps against the building?
Or did each drop of rain quickly evaporate on the arid Alabama soil?
Was the rain and thunder and flashes of electricity wanted,
or feared?
What did the rain land on?
Cotton?
Soil?
Perhaps pavement?
Of course I don’t have the camera with me
so I’ll have to do what I did before my digital days
and recap this event
with letters.
The sky is a wonderful, peaceful shade of light blue
with a darker hue shading the background.
Quick blinks of white illuminate the green of the grass to an almost neon shade,
but just as quickly returning to the saturated green
with each tear from the sky.
The rain hits sporadically along the metals roofs that line the building.
I try to sway along
with the rhythm
of mother nature,
but she’s off beat sometimes.
Then again, she always seems to create
her own unique melody
each day.
Nonetheless it makes for a soothing sound.
Glancing down I can see rust streaks
from the previous years’ moisture
coming in contact with the shiny, pristine metal.
The reds and oranges blend together to create
even the most unique brown.
The air is thick inside,
but only until a gust brings relief
to the sweat beads
gathered around the hairline.
All these great sensations don’t last long enough.
The heat traps the rain from falling and forces it out as a haze,
while the breeze backs away to emphasize the loss of refreshment.
The sky’s belches slowly get quieter
as if it has finally digested the storm,
and moved on.
The quick flashes of light that seem to come straight out of a wizard’s wand
no longer play peek-a-boo
with dark corners.
The earth loses that silent feeling and begins to rotate again.
It always seems
to
go
faster
when it starts up.
My wrist has been twitching for three days now. What does that mean?
Thomas Function at Crossroads on June 23. That’s about as far as I made it into the night.
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Yesterday, I get a call in the afternoon from Matt Bakula.
Matt: “Hey Ashley. Um. Are you busy?
me: “No, what’s up?”
Matt: “Well, I just wanted to give you a heads up. I, uh, last night I, uh, set you store on fire.”
::long silence::
me: “ok…”
Matt: “But everything is fine! Nothing was damaged…except some burlap”
me: “Well, what happened?”
Matt: “I was cutting metal, and some sparks jumped over into your space, and the burlap went up in flames.”
::mental picture of the burlap on fire, heading straight for the records and cds::
Matt: “I got the fire out with the extinguisher. Grace let me into your space to clean everything up this morning. I spent the whole day cleaning every piece of something you have in your store. I was even careful to put your Catopoly pieces back how I found them. The fire hardly damaged the burlap, but the powder from the extinguisher caused a fucking huge mess.”
::I start laughing at the new mental image of Matt cleaning each little piece of the game::
me: “So everything is ok. You’re ok?”
Matt: “Yep…everything is fine. But, if you see more powder mess let me know, and I’ll come clean it up. I’m pretty sure I got it all and placed everything back where it was.”
me: “Matt, you better be glad it was you that did this and not some random douchebag”
::Matt laughs::
Matt: “Well, I am truly sorry and I hope everything looks ok in your store.”
me: “I’m sure it does. haha. Thanks for calling…I’ll see you later on.”
Matt: “ok, sure thing.”
_________________________
So, Vertical House survived it’s first (and hopefully only) fire. I’m so glad I wasn’t there. I would have been no help. I hate uncontrolled fire…it utterly scares me. I’d be running around screaming not knowing what to do. Luckily, it was Matt that set it on fire. I know how responsible he is and how much he loves the mill. He’s a quick thinker too, so I’m sure he reacted fast. Needlesstosay, there’s hardly any damage at all. Thankfully, those burlap bags were commercial, so I’m sure they had some kind of fire-proofness to them. Besides, only one bag really was burnt…and not even that bad. The way Matt described the event, I was afraid of the worst.
See, not bad at all really. Kinda like a neat decoration! The said Catopoly game that is still a little gritty from the powder.
The mill is so photogenic. The sky was really neat again last night.
Summer + evening storms = neat skies!
Andy and I were going to go to the Stars game last night, but our apparent free ticket had be given away and Kelly said it was pouring down rain and they weren’t sure if they were staying or not. It just didn’t seem worth it to go, so we went to Wings instead. Andy hadn’t been there since he started eating meat, so off we went. With him eating meat now every restaurant is like a new one.
I like Wings’ bathroom floor. Look at Andy’s creepy eyes! This picture is weird.
Yuri is painting a ‘before & after’ of our house. The ‘before’ is done and it is absolutely perfect…it made me cry happy tears. It still does.
Now to find the perfect frame. Luckily our walls aren’t quite ready to be painted, or else I’d feel rushed to get it hung.
These are our two Most Valued Customers. Hands Down. Thanks Derek and Travis.
A few weeks ago, The Dead Workers Party asked me to be in a music video for a competition.
Here is the link to the video.
I think it turned out awesome. DWP were a lot of fun to work with…and the whole thing was shot in less than a day. Pretty rad.
Yesterday evening, Andy and I went on a walk to get inspiration for our garden. Then we proceeded downtown to Humphrey’s to see Summer play a split set with Matt as the The Dreaded Firefly & Sweet Lucy. They’ll be playing on the 29th with The Snake The Cross The Crown, Christian James and the Coyotes, and Grand Prize Game.
Here’s a clip of them playing a song. I know it’s dark, but it sounds good!
