owenewowen

Miami was good and bad, lots of work but I got to see a fucking TON of art. As is usually the case with seeing a bunch of art, most of it was not good, but that which was was phenomenal. I discovered a couple of new artists (new to me) that I like and their galleries just gave me catalogs of their work. If you're curious, they're Kendell Geers and Francesca DiMattio. The fair that I had work in looked really good, though they hung one of my shaped piece sideways. I was able to fix it, but not until after the opening reception. Oh well. I think the best part was swimming in the ocean at 2 in the morning and making out. Really that place is weird as fuck though and it was really, really time to come home. Now it's snowing.

The residency in Finland is going to be extended by a couple weeks which is a great opportunity, but may interfere with going to see Hole in the Sky and Wacken among other things. I'd also planned on seeing some friends in Berlin and Stockholm as well as visiting a bunch of family in Sweden, but we'll see what happens. Either way, it's going to kick ass. The extra couple of weeks should allow us plenty of time to get the installation done exactly how we want and will hopefully make for a little bit more relaxing stay.

Also, just recently bought my ticket to visit my pal in Puerto Rico and am looking forward to it. When he finished college he got a travel grant to go to Mexico and do a bunch of research, then took the money and bought a motorcycle along with matching leather jacket and boots instead. He's awesome. We'll be traveling all over the island for a week and a half or so on the cheap in a truck, so get at me if you want to hit the beach with us and ride around in a truck bed.

Hm, Immortal just posted tour dates with a show here in NY again. This time rather than BB King's it's at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple toward Clinton Hill where I lived when I first moved here. It's the same venue where the Sunn/Earth show was, there's no noise restriction there so it was loud as fuck. I saw them here in 2007 when I lived in Boston and it was one of the best shows I've ever been to, I can't wait.

Finally, I leave for Spokane this Monday and will be there for a week. It's always funny visiting there for a number of reasons. I feel that I've changed so much over the past four years that I'm really out of place whenever I visit. There are always people I'm happy to see and that are happy to see me, but then there are people I'm not happy to see and that are not happy to see me either. It's a funny situation. I just don't want to spend all my time in the same shitty bars that I spent the first half of my twenties in this time around. I'll always have a soft spot for Spokane, but likely always get pissed off by it, too. Maybe that's what having home towns is all about.

Which brings me to Portland. I didn't want to spend my 30th birthday at Mootsy's among other things, so I'll be in Portland from the 28th to the 2nd and am looking forward to it. It's going to be bitter sweet this time around as I wouldn't have even thought about going if I hadn't intended to visit Michele while I was there, she was actually sitting right about where I am now when I booked the flight. There will be a lot of positive things that will happen, a lot of people I care about and that care about me and I'm getting tattooed with one of my oldest friends while I'm there, and it will be good to be able to be around people that knew her and saw her regularly. Still, that city will never be the same.

Hope that the end of the year and the winter solstice are good to you and yourn. Let's make this next year better than the last one.