Saturday at the Underground Events Center

SUPPORT HONK!: HONK! Fest West is a free, non-profit, and community supported music festival devoted to marching bands, drum corps, samba lines, and the like. This year will be HONK!'s fourth, and even though the Festival isn't until May, the work has already begun to raise the necessary funds to cover permits, venue rentals, food for the musicians and volunteers, travel costs, and all the other line-item details that come with putting on a music festival. Not only can you contribute to their Kickstarter, but you should attend their first fundraiser this Saturday with performances by VamoLà, Tubaluba, Bucharest Drinking Team, The Garfield High School Drumline, and Orkestar Zirkonium. Drink and dance for a good cause.
Saturday 8:00 p.m. // Underground Events Center // $10 - $20 Sliding Donation

Read the rest over at Seattlest.

Support HONK! Fest West!

Some of you may know that I help organize HONK! Fest West. It's a three-day, non-profit, community-supported music festival that focuses on marching bands, drum corps, samba lines, 2nd line New Orleans Brass, and anything acoustic and mobile that can make a ruckus (we also love jugglers, magicians, dancers, and street performers of all stripes).

We are a volunteer-run festival. We draw no salary. We do it out of love for the music, the moment when the audience melts into the performers, and--of course--dancing in the streets.

This year will be the fourth time we've held HONK! in Seattle, and the first time we've run a month-long fundraising campaign through Kickstarter.

We're looking to raise $5,000 over the next 30 days. This money helps cover our permits, venue rentals, food for the musicians and volunteers, travel costs, and all the other line-item details that come with putting on a music festival. If you can, please consider supporting us. Every dollar helps. (And I wouldn't say no to you forwarding this on to others you might think interested.) Would you like to see our video? Yes? Well, good, cause I was gonna put it here anyway.



As you might imagine, putting on a festival requires help of all sorts. If you can dontate a service--food, printing, venue, transportation, and so on--or your time or work for an organization that would like to table at our event, please get in touch with me at info @ honkfestwest . com.

I am extremely excited to put this event on again in Seattle, see old friends and meet new, and--of course--dance in the streets. Hot damn do I love dancing in the streets. I hope you can come out and join me.

So, do you?

HONK! Fest West is approaching! May is not that far away. And we're hosting two fundraisers before it! Hot damn! Want to be part of this crazy adventure? Get in touch!

Sharpening the Point

Ed note: this has been sitting in my drafts folder FOREVER.

Yesterday, I used the word sisyphean. Wasn't trying to be pedantic or anything, it just felt like the best descriptor of my general environment and obligations at the time. Last year came to a close with a hard December finish, and 2011 kicked off directly into my bathing suit area, and it all has seemed more difficult than usual. I tell you this not to complain or make a play for your sympathies, but because sometimes it can be helpful to think about the choices you made at some point that got you to your present location. A Recognize Your Agency exercise. And this brings me to a fabulous woman named Deirdra Kiai.

I met Deirdra through HONK! Fest West. She plays sousaphone in Orkestar Slivovica, a mighty fine balkan band out of Vancouver, BC. In addition to her bouncy anchor work in the OS, she's also a programmer who recently leveraged kickstarter to fund an independent game called Life Flashes By:

Charlotte Barclay, a novelist of moderate success, one day finds herself in a car accident while on her way to the next leg of her book tour. She then wakes up in the hazy world of her own memories and, accompanied by an impish pixie-like creature called Trevin, finds herself whisked away on a whirlwind journey to relive various vignettes of her life so far. In doing so, Charlotte attempts to make sense of who she is and who she’s become, as well as who she could have been had she done things differently.

Life Flashes By is a video game about success and failure in following one’s dreams, about finding love and losing it, and about feeling isolated and out of step with the rest of the world. It is a story that is at times clever and fun and at times melancholy and introspective. Most notably of all, however, it is a story best told non-linearly, which lends itself uniquely to the interactive nature of games. As a player, you won’t just be watching a plot unfold, you’ll be shaping and affecting it in a way unique to you alone.

She sent out a call for voices a while back and I responded with an audition tape for several characters. I was selected for Dr. Stewart. That's right. Somewhere right now I'm giving a very dry reading as a snobbish therapist in a game about life choices, and if I was a person who believed in signs it would be very hard indeed to ignore this one. Mostly though I'm glad for the opportunity to be a poor man's Dr. Katz.

Many thanks to Deirdra for that. Give her game a whirl and the next time you're up in B.C. go see Orkestar Slivovica. They're amazing.

Valentine's Day Hangover

Like most, Slap & Tickle celebrate the day after Love by shaking it off like a begging dog. We kid! In fact, we are excited to have one more chance to celebrate romance in all its forms. Moreover! We are absolutely pleased to be doing so at the Little Red Studio, a fabulous venue full of dark corners and high-backed booths, the kind perfect for stolen embraces and furtive kisses.

Speaking of soft touches, Landlord's Daughter and Honeybear are joining us sandwhich-style for a sweet-meats reuben, heavy on the sauce. No wonder that dog keeps staring at us, drooling.

8:30 p.m. // Little Red Studio // $5 (All-Ages)

Slap & Tickle Tonight

This post will go live on Blue Note in about an hour, but you, faithful blogger reader, you get to read it early. That's the sort of premium rewards we traffic in here at NWN.



Tonight, Cafe Racer will host "A Night of Romance" with acoustic performances by Landlord's Daughter, Pillow Army, and Slap & Tickle. Not only can you swoon to the music, but artists Billis Helg and Carl Nelson will be on-hand to draw pictures of your love, a ring, or as many roses as you would need to close the deal. (Remember the rule for imaginary flowers: take the number you would usually buy for your partner, double it, then start buying drinks and hope for the best.)

It's a promising beginning to Love Season. Remember to only shoot within your weight limit.

8:00 p.m. // Cafe Racer // FREE

P.S. Slap & Tickle will also be at Avanti Art & Design around 6pm, if you'd like to catch us twice or have an early night.

Wherein I link elsewhere

Didja know I occasionally write for Seattlest? It's true. I'm going to start linking there to here every so often, just so youse don't forgets. In today's edition, I play up important events of the weekend!

YOU SPOON FORK: Local heavies Titanium Sporkestra are a renegade marching band featuring members of Infernal Noise Brigade and TchKunG!. They're planning a trip to the great state of Texas for the first ever HONK!TX in March. (Look for Seattle's own HONK! Fest West in May.) Since the cost of getting a score of musicians and a ton of drums across the country is not inconsiderable, they're throwing a party to raise funds and announce their Kickstarter campaign. They've invited Brownstone, DJ DubTek, Aqueous, and k¥Le bija to stir up the floor and you to get stirred.
Saturday 8:00 p.m. // Fonda La Catrina // $10-20 sliding scale donation at the door (21+)

Read the rest here.

Now, don't you feel informed?