Tacoma Here There Everywhere.....

Again up to Antique Sandwich for Tuesday night Open Mike......I'm a poet and you know it...... The enigmatic David Fewster and Heidi Fosner, Folksingers in Hell, showed up because Mark asked them to go and sing....please..... and they did.

What Tacoma lacks is respect for "The Other Side Of Life".
The vitality isn't really from Russell....yawn. The vitality is from people who LIVE LIFE !
(oh boy am I in trouble now...)
People such as Steve....and not Bing Crosby.....
Reluctantly, Dale.....only because , as Fewster said:

Today I took my daughter to the Bridge of Glass!
Boy, was she disappointed. She thought the actual
bridge would be made of glass/So we could see traffic going by
our shoes.

David sang, on Tuesday night, The Ballad of the Blogger and he reminded us once again, that the archives of Exit 133 will live foreverrrrrrrrr........witness this:

ensie, there are several different layers of professional artist. there is the ‘fluff’ artist which is a favorite of Tacoma arts commission funding or who make pretty glass fruit bowls… and then there is the category of artists whom bring the inanimate into the realm of the living and or forge their will upon the world.

I am not trying to undermine the importance of the fluff artist since they provide a valuable service distracting/pacifying the civilian populations THEN provide a nice contrast when the serious artist reveals him or herself to the world.

Also, if you ever encounter a person claiming to be an artist and willing to ‘donate to the community’ beware, you are in the presence of a fifth columnist.

13 | Posted by RR Anderson | Apr 5, 02:32 PM

And then Claudia replied:

Re: RR:“there is the ‘fluff’ artist…” David Fewster is as fluffy as it gets. A real Easter bunny….... “Real” and “non-real” – what an elitist idea. Let the artist speak for her or himself. Categories such as real and non real or good and evil should vanish for good (or for real). Celebrate complexity. 14 | Posted by Claudia | Apr 5, 02:52 PM

That was not an attack against David at all, that was a response to RR calling Tacoma Art Grant Recipients FLUFF. My point was that David was NOT fluff – obviously stated clumsily. I do hope we all know David is NOT the Easter Bunny. Aapologies to all who took my comment in a fluffy way… 19 | Posted by Claudia | Apr 5, 04:33 PM

David Fewster and Heidi Fosner recently produced a concert at Barefoot Studios. I was really pleased by the quality of the work and proud to be able to have them perform in our space. Tacoma benefits from having diverse and unique artists like David and Heidi active in the community. P.S. 10X10 this Friday at 7:30 20 | Posted by paul | Apr 5, 04:38 PM

And that is what the Exit 133 archives will yield Up!




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So the Beat goes on. I am suspicious of applying for Art Grants....How can I truly explain what it is I do? I almost can't even conceptualize it in my own mind..I just DO!

People used to ask me what kind of place is Rampart.....With its Irreverent Attitude...Its loud GAY Disco Music......What the hell does a 50s Pink & Gray Sewing Machine have to do with a 70s vintage Schwinn, vintage restaurant dishes and 60s hanging lamps, and a hand-embroidered Kitten Playing with Pink Yarn picture (damn you Steve)...... All I can say, Then and Now, is it is Stuff For Living. It is not Sunset Magazine or Better Homes and Gardens.
So, I got my ass soundly taken to task this week....on my Blog and from my neighbors. My crappy neighbor, not my nice neighbors.
Since the day I got here, I've been cleaning the sidewalks and sweeping the parking lot and trying to weed and plant my Dirt Spot.... It's not my job....but it is my responsibility. I've picked up buckets full of garbage left here by the folks who come to Dome Events....the city DOES NOT clean up after our "guests". The Streetsweeper comes by, 2 times in the last 8 months (I think)
I'm OK with the City not picking up the garbage, but one of the reasons that Tacoma has languished, A JEWEL in a Broken Setting.....is because The City almost always does a half-ass job of everything. For instance..... They build a dome, sponsor events and don't clean up, don't enforce parking laws, and don't fix the streets.....But they do provide Police to do Traffic Guidance to channel "vistors" to the Pay For City Parking Lots.



If it will, rawly, make Money, the City will likely do it. If it doesn't put money in their pockets immediately, Fuggedabout it.....But what Tacoma's Arts Commission does do, is to TRY to get Art around town.....and they did give Fewster a Grant to write a book of Poetry.....and Art in Your Face, makes you a better person. It's like a WorM in Your BraiN. It goes to your happy thinking place in Your Head, and that makes you a better person. And tries to undo the damage done to you by that University you attended....and the Arts Commission does some other things like those goofy metal Palm Trees in my n'hood. Why palm trees? Why? I do love me some palm trees....but I wouldn't have chosen that. But it did get chosen, and that's the point I suppose. We get and need......Fewster and Metal Palm Trees.