shawn avery

this weekend the spots played in the annex/gallery space at rojo during a benefit-silent art auction to raise money for the (shane) hulsey little river trust . alison, duquette and all of their/our mutual friends were there last night... everyone putting their best efforts toward raising money and gathering up some excellent and diverse art work to present for auction. i donated this simple photo of a black dog at dusk... taken on the beach near kennebunk, maine this past august. something about it resonated with me as being right for the auction. i was humbled to hear that shane's mom put in a few bids on this photograph. it sold for around $70 i think? [click on the image below to enlarge]. the spots were initially going to play in the main space at rojo but at the last minute we were moved to the gallery/bar-annex and it was a better choice. we played great. it was one of our best shows. as for generating quality ideas and focus... it may have been our best. what a fantasti...

this weekend was incredibly action packed. thursday night, jen and i went over to ashby's house for a four way pumpkin' carvin'. christine, ashby, jen, and i did up 5 different pumpkins... all of them rocked... we took pics... friday jen and i got comped tix (thanks amber) to the alabama theatre for the rocky horror picture show halloween ball. very cool venue for this kind of thing. i've seen rocky horror on halloween all over the country, and this was the best production. amber got her camera stolen, only to later find the abandoned purse/ wallet of the thief. a trade was made early saturday. some people are so stupid. the rocky horror crowd... i edited some more of the album. I'll probably be saying that phrase well into my 40's. went later to the nick where i hung out with what is coming to be defined as the "nick group." james, jody, his girlfriend, amber, judah and some others... until well after 5am. saturday was comprised of sleep, shower, and ...

i had a pretty interesting weekend, scene-wise. friday night i went to see the pierces at workplay. they are a sister-singer-songwriter duo, presumably from birmingham, but now based out of nyc. great voices. before checking out the duo, i ran into sidewalk ceo / og-mtv-vj, alan hunter . we talked about opening night at sidewalk and agreed that the editing of silver city could have been better. we spent some time pondering donnie darko , and ended up chatting about his new feature film, dreamland , the possibility of me providing film score material down the road... and the lifeless yet brilliant music of photek . alan is a great conversationalist. a dying breed. after seeing the duo sing some incredibly moving songs, i relocated to the workplay bar, where i struck up a conversation with graphic designer / filmmaker carl ross. we also talked about the festival, the films, zombie movies, " shaun of the dead " , local filmmakers and the annual sidewalk scramble , for...

i went to the opening night of the 6th annual sidewalk film festival . sidewalk film festival. according to ex mtv vj, and current ceo of sidewalk / hunter films, it is now one of the top 10 film festivals in the country. there was a lot of talk about improving our image as a state. forget it. it will never happen. we should embrace it anyway. besides, other film towns aren't perfect. seattle/vancouver is packed with artisans hooked on smack. hollywood is in the same town that produced the film known as the rodney king beating video . what about their race riots, marches and problems in the 1960's? but i digress. the opening film at the alabama theatre was silver city , sort of the "primary colors" as it applies to dubya. pretty funny. chris cooper plays a stupid rich politician with grammer issues being strung along by greedy land developers. sound familiar? before the film they gave an honorary award to the woman who wrote the 13 ghosts stories. fabulous ...

i had my bday party at the coffee shop / art gallery, downtown last night. all week ivan the terrible had been threatening to literally rain on my parade. but he came and went pretty quick. i never lost power at my apt. ivan knocked around all day thursday and fucked up some trees and left over 1 million alabama residents without electricity. friday was a different story. perfect weather. i remember this happening growing up in florida. the night of the hurricane you pack for the beach. because the next day is going to be excellent weather. but back to the party... i ended up having about 25-30 people including jesse and ashby performing some acoustic songs and aaron and shep throwin' down their usual excellent dj umm..."skillz." the cake was killer, the upstairs loft was chill. the entire band made their way there by 10pm. new friends, old friends. i can't complain. the only bummer was not being able to play my version of under the milky way tonight because we onl...