I sold a bunch of stuffed animals at the Speed Shop a few weekends ago, and for the most part I was hanging out talking to strangers and loved ones but there was a brief spell where I got a little bored. But I never really get bored, so I drew a bunch of stickers for my stuffed animal business, "Lil Champ", on a roll of blank labels that I brought. I didn't think very hard, I guess that's obvious, I just got started and kept going until someone said "hi". This guy is fun to draw but he's not my mascot or anything, I think he's just passing through.

Anyway, that's what this post is today, because I gotta finish the last of these IRON MAIDEN shirts and get them in the mail!!!! And I heard you guys like EPHEMERA.

Gonna put these stickers up around town on my walkabout this week :)

links / misc

• the Lil Champ website is here but there isn't much there: [link]
• This guy can't be my mascot because he's already the mascot of one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time. I really do love this guy! [Anpanman, on wikipedia]. His character is a superhero that's a pastry filled with red bean. I can only aspire to that level of perfection.

• The sale at the Speed Shop was really fun, as was the yard sale I did the week after with my roommates. I didn't have much yard sale stuff out but I had my sphinxes, some pins, and I sold iced coffee, which was just Folgers crystals, on ice, with chocolate goo / milk / sugar. I made the coffee kind of weak but then really sold everyone on the concept-- "this is how iced coffee used to be! it's a summertime sipper, you can drink the whole thing and not feel insane! Two dollars, two dollars, nice cruise, mellow feeling...". Passersby were like "no thanks. well actually...". I like it when people are on my level, but I LOVE it when they GET on my level!

  

  Anyway I like doing sales, if there's good ones coming up in my area let me know! I want to hang out, shoot the gift, drink a loud iced coffee and a quiet cold reeb, and spend the day piling up clams like a sea otter.

• In celebration of the 20th anniverary of their European tour, Rob Francisco (Max Noi Mach) and Nate Davis (Unchained) are re-issuing their Myspace tour diary, with each missive going out 20 years to the day of its initial post.

  From the introductory salvo:

  For those unfamiliar with the early-aughts underground music climate—basically, you would go to local underground shows and meet people touring from other cities (countries), make friends with them, exchange contact info, and then write or call when you wanted to tour, asking if they could set up a show for you. If you didn’t know anyone in a particular city, you would ask a friend if they had a friend, and then write those people saying you’re a friend of so-and-so, and if they could possibly hook up a show. Often, these people in other cities (countries) would organize shows without ever hearing your music—it was more important that you were friends with people they knew. The show might be in a basement, loft, art gallery, warehouse, or bar, with an audience of anywhere from maybe three to forty people (most of whom had no idea what your music sounded like). With luck, there would be enough money to pay for gas (travel), and you could crash at someone’s house. If all went well, you may even become lifelong friends. There was no goal of making money, and no illusion of getting famous; the only expectations were to have fun (rage), freak out (inside and out), share your music with like-minded people, make new friends (enemies), and see a bit of a foreign land. In general, to be somewhere else, doing something else.

  sign up at [https://franciscodavis.substack.com/]
• and speaking of raging, my band Tigers On Vaseline is playing a show this Saturday at Myrtle, in East Providence. there's going to be vendors (including me) selling thises and thats, bands, it's during the day, it's free. With Cigarette Camp, Whyte Lipstick, and Sherman. There's a nice pizza place right across the street. The bike ride from Providence is pretty nice-- you get on the bike path at India Point park and it goes over the Washington Bridge totally separate from the cars, no problem. Or take Waterman St to the Henderson Bridge, and there's a protected bike lane there too.

  

  We'll have demos and pins. Win a chance to meet Jeff Poot!

  

• Rag Mag is an email newsletter that my bandmate Creature started, pretty much as a way to share flyers for upcoming events without being on Instagram. There's flyers and a few different columns, it's nice! [rag-mag.ghost.io]
• questions / comments / just hi-- please leave a comment! I'm loving all the comments lately, and I added a "recent comments" section in the foyer so you can check in on the guestbook and all posts, from the same place.

Archives of previous posts is here, in the coat room: [coatroom]

To sign up to get these posts in your email for free, click here: [substack]

To write me a nice message, use the contacts page: [link]

To leave a little donation to help in the maintance of this castle, OR to simply hear the sound of a large bell, which is good luck, visit the temple area: [link]

As always, if you're bugging out or need a respite from endlessly scrolling the feed, you are welcome to hang out in the castle as long as you want. :)