that's what today was.
home alone with e-mails phone calls e-store errands and a trip to make passport photos for tokyo. a whirlwind of a day.
including several conversations with the man who has taken up where axel* left off with my parker signature model guitars. since he needs his privacy for now, I'll call him D.
despite D's full workload (a real job and more) he has managed to take axel's design another step into the future. the new AB model will be simpler to work on and will come with schematics and a manual D is writing.
it's not that complicated to play but should you have to repair something and you don't have joe glazer in your trunk...
now I feel confident that axel's genius (as well as ken parker's) will be carried on by yet another. thanks D.
in the afternoon the AB parker beguiled me for a few hours by myself in the studio.
man, that was fun!
tonight was like another day.
after a trip to my favorite downtown spot J. Alexander's where I doused myself in lemons and guacamole I went home inspired. for the first time in a long time I finished a painting! I'm so happy.
the painting had languished unfinished in a hallway downstairs. it's the one I wanted to use for the cover of side 4. but I knew it wasn't yet right, so I went to work.
using the fripp suite as my painter's studio I added and subtracted layers of things until poof! it was done.
tomorrow I'll take it downtown to have it properly scanned along with the back cover painting.
a good day.
* for the story on axel see The Odyssey parts 1 and 2
That you're a painter too--it makes so much sense. Your music has always inspired the visual in me and it's terrific to relate to you and an artist in two distinct ways. Adrian, could you tell us about when you started painting? What did it take for you to take brush to canvas?
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that your Parkers are moving along. I just bought a PM-20 and I love it. I can't imagine what a Fly must be like...
ReplyDeleteKathleen, here's the story of how Adrian took up painting, in his own words, taken from a fan update he submitted to his website in January 2004:
ReplyDelete"In June 2002 for no apparent reason I craved an old farm truck. Something in which to haul rocks and mulch for our flower gardens. Eventually I found a beautifully beat rusted-out green and white pickup truck. A 1965 Chevy pickup. Yeeha! A few years ago at the Ma Maison Hotel in L.A. a bartender who recognized me (with the urgings of the Swidler brothers) gave me a beer tap with a brass bottom. The beer tap (which was for a beer called "rhino") looked like a rhino horn. I bolted the rhino horn onto the front of my beat-up pickup.
Monday July 15, 2002 around 8 in the morning I was driving the rhino truck on N. Green Hill Road, a tight winding back road when suddenly a dog darted in front of me. I missed him, but then a second dog darted right between my two axles. There was no way to miss him. In the rear-view mirror I saw him spinning in the road. I turned around, pulled over, and found he was dead. After dragging him to the shoulder of the road and taking his collar there was no indication of an owner so I returned home. In tears, I told Martha the story and suddenly it was like a switch had turned on in my head. I knew I wanted to paint an abstract painting of what had happened. I have never painted in my life and have zero training but later that day I went to an art store, asked lots of questions and returned home with 2 canvases and some acrylic paints and tools. Then I painted my first two paintings. The first one is called DEAD DOG ON ASPHALT."
I believe that this painting is the one on the cover of Adian's album Side Two.
Sounds like a busy time of year for you also. It's been crazy that way lately.
ReplyDeleteI'm totally excited about your new siggy guitar but how can it possibly be prettier than that gold one? That baby is HOT.
Oh, and on your next trip out west, I will make the best guacamole - served with a bunch of other spicy stuff - you've ever had!
Yeah, I love the look of that yellow Parker too. It glows. The Fly is probably the lightest guitar I have ever picked up!
ReplyDeleteI have been playing a Parker Nitefly for about 10 years. Back when I bought it, I had my eye on another guitar and went to the store with cash in hand. I saw a Parker and gave it a try. I knew I had to have it. I couldn't believe how good it felt. The neck is amazing. They only had a blue one in stock at the time. So I bought it. I would have preferred a red one, like Bowie had back then, but my blue one has served me very well over the years. I think Ken Parker did an amazing job of engineering.
I can't wait to see what the Belew signature model looks like.
Adrian - though the Bears' "Cafe" DVD concert was awesome, my absolute favorite part was the tour of your basement studio. Gawd, I love watching that! You are so cool. My question is: how can I buy the Construkction of Light painting?
ReplyDeletei'm looking forward to seeing and hearing side 4
ReplyDelete