Lefty

More Museum Antics or "Get Your Freak On with Dan DeacOn"

Is this bird attacking the other one, or mating with it? It's kind of hard to tell. I wonder if the museum workers ever snicker when setting up the exhibits?

Over the weekend I went to see Dan Deacon and his 13 piece ensemble at the Wonder Ballroom. I brought my sketchbook in an attempt to draw him during the performance and include that drawing in this post. I was unsuccessful. However before he came on, me and Stephanie tried to sketch some of the other concert goers at the show. This was difficult, but we eventually ascertained that the typical Dan Deacon attendee might have all or one of the following: thick rimmed glasses/crappy eighties sun glasses, headband, mustache/beard, handkerchief in back pocket, ironic t-shirt/sweater, american apparel hoodie. Here's a telling picture I found online:



Audience members aside the show was a lot of fun. I was curious to see his frantic, cartoonish, and mania inducing electronic music performed by a live band and I have to say it was pulled off quite well. The most notable members were probably the three drummers that it took to replicate the beats on his latest album "Bromst."

If you've been to a Dan Deacon show before you know that it is a very unique experience. Due to his ensemble he no longer performs in the center of the audience, but he still engages the audience in as much communal participation as he can. It's a great way to loosen everyone up and really produces a feeling of camaraderie. A few of his MC tactics:

1. fancy dance off in the middle of audience circle
2. snowball effect high fiving while running in a circle
3. archways
4. audience sing alongs

I was restrained at first, but by the end was moving around with the rest of them with wild abandonment. If you get a chance to check him out on this tour DO IT and remember you can get in for free if you provide him and his crew with 5 gallons of vegetable oil for his bio-diesel converted school bus.

Sorry the drawing had so little to do with this post. Peace!

Photos are a good source for inspiration ....

which is somewhat obvious, but I'm glad that I'm getting some use out of the hundreds of photos I took during my travels last year. Ornate historic buildings and museum exhibitions don't make for very engaging pictures after the fact, but can be quite useful as source photos for drawings. Such as the magnificent beast you see below. Do not be alarmed, for this creature is not alive. Nor was it when I photographed it. This ferocious creature resides at the Hungarian Natural History Museum in Budapest and proved to be a great model and helped to fuel my recent fascination with BEARS.



The museum also held many "non-bear" related wonders including a mummified baby mammoth that was recently discovered and on display. For some reason they felt part of the mammoth should be displayed in jars. Apparently the Hungarian government has a much more lenient stance when it comes to kiddie mammoth porn.



And of course what institute of science and history would be complete without a small scale replica of Noah's Ark.



(what??)