I MADE YOU 13 MORE CHRISTMAS CARDS (2018)

(click on each to enlarge, and enjoy your thing that you do at this time of year!)


I MADE YOU 10 MORE THANKSGIVING CARDS (2018)

(Click each card to enlarge, turkeynecks!)


I MADE YOU A MAGAZINE COVER: "REPUBLICAN WOMAN TODAY"


SONG & VIDEO: "HE DON'T LOVE ME" (THE DEADBEATS COVER, 1966) BY ME!

It has been a LONG TIME since I recorded any music, several years, actually. This is a shame, because I really like recording music very much. It's a process of fair challenge (I'm not a great musician in any way, nor have a studio) and sparky delight when something creative actually gets DONE, instead of other boring stuff like putting away the dishes or scooping cat poop.

So, this came about because I am a giant drooling fan of this rather obscure 45 from 1966 by The Deadbeats on Gray Ant Records (written by a couple of cool kids named Ricky Maske and Bobby Coleman). It sold approximately nothing at the time, and there's a copy of it up now at Discogs for 600 bucks if you are a cooler Paul Allen. It's my favorite combo: dirty guitar, Beatle-y melody, sweet harmonies, quirky snare drum timing, and a relentless beat. My 2018 take on it adds some weird honky synth, a hear-able bass line, and relentless handclaps.

A song also needs a video so I chose another era-appropriate fave to pull from: the classic star-crossed pair of Batman and Catwoman, from the original TV series, because I RECOGNIZE NO OTHER BATMAN OR CATWOMAN OTHER THAN ADAM WEST AND JULIE NEWMAR! Sorry for the caps; I'm pretty vibrant in my feelings about this. Please to enjoy and go do some art or music or whatever you find fun!


PHOTOS, VIDEO, & REVIEW: THE BACKYARD BUNKHOUSE BBQ BRAWL & ROCK N' WRESTLING RAGER 2, RANDY'S RESTAURANT, TUKWILA, WA. 7/28/18

(For the second year, my son, writer Evan "The Exterminator" Spellman and myself, photographer Blackjack Spellman, team up to bring you coverage of the fabulous musical and wrestling spectacular known in short as "Rager 2." Furthermore, due to Blackjack being felled mid-event by finishing-move-style heatstroke, the rest of the visuals for the show, edited into the YouTube video below, are provided by the very generous courtesy of the following attendees: Grace Sullivan, Ernie Fuglevand, Alfred Martinez, Kirsten Ballweg, Ben Winchell, Melissa Gonzalez, Jamie Felton, Jen Knight, and Stallion's own Mr. Dynamite. You guys saved the day here -- THANK YOU for your tag team action! Click on the photos to enlarge, click on the Flickr photo links for more, please to enjoy and share, and see you suckas at Rager 3! -- Blackjack)



EVENT PREVIEW & INTERVIEW: THE BACKYARD BUNKHOUSE BBQ BRAWL & ROCK N WRESTLING RAGER 2!

***OK, EVERYBODY, LISSSSSEN UP!***

It's almost time for the wildest, craziest, rockin'-est event the Pacific Northwest area has ever seen, and you had better GET YOUR ASSES IN GEAR! Yes, the 2nd Annual Backyard Bunkhouse BBQ Brawl & Rock n' Wrestling Rager is BACK on Saturday, July 28, 2018, hosted again by NWA World Champions of Rock n' Roll, Stallion! This year, this premiere music and pro wrestling spectacle will be held outside the legendary Randy's Restaurant, located at 10016 E. Marginal Way S in Tukwila, Washington, conveniently close to Seattle's Sea-Tac International Airport, for those attendees jetting in from parts unknown. Randy's is on the Metro Bus #124 line, for those attendees coming from parts known.


PHOTOS & VIDEO: THE INTELLIGENCE, THE FALL-OUTS, & TISSUE @ CLOCK-OUT LOUNGE, SEATTLE, WA. 7/13/18

BACK OFF, FRIDAY THE THIRTEENTH! You've got nothing on me! I had Super Show Powers at Beacon Hill's swingin' Clock-Out Lounge with Tissue, The Fall-Outs, and The Intelligence! Only the best of luck was in place for this live music event, where I split myself into three separate content-capturing whirls of space energy -- still photos, video, and audio -- because I love you that much. I have now pasted myself back together with rubber cement and carpet tacks in order to bring said content to this public forum. Click on the photos to enlarge, click on the Flickr set links for more, click on the video to play it, click click click click click click click, and please to enjoy!

VIDEO: MID MOD MOTION MOVIE -- "I'M WELCOME," LARS FINBERG

Sometimes I come across vintage film footage that cries out, nay, BEGS AND PLEADS to be repurposed into a fresh, modern application. This very thing happened last week as I was combing the Seattle Municipal Archives on the YouTube and found a fantastic business training animation from 1959. Its jittery modernist style, linear and surreal, immediately brought to my mind professional musician Lars Finberg, and his superb 2017 album on In The Red Records, "Moonlight Over Bakersfield." Might there be a song there that would lend itself to a pair with a thoughtfully-edited version of this wild training film? Oh yes, oh yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. (Why I just did that will make sense to you soon.)


WEIRD ALBUM COVERS AND EXISTENTIAL ANGST FIGURINES FROM THE THRIFT STORE!

It's time for more wonders from wanders to local thrift incubators and antique muskholes! My cellular communication device and I bring these curiosities to you free of charge, although if I had been charging for this service over the last 10 years, perhaps I would be wealthy enough to buy all these things and have my own Vintage Gawkery. Click on each photo to enlarge and please to enjoy!


ANOTHER CHILDREN'S BOOK NOT FOR CHILDREN: " WE GO TO THE ICE CHILD DETENTION CENTER" (2018, NSFW)

(Click on each page to enlarge. Donate to the ACLU. Vote.)


I MADE YOU SOME GRADUATION CARDS (2018)

(Click to enlarge, please to enjoy) 


PHOTOS: X__X, TISSUE, & DYED @ FUNHOUSE, SEATTLE, WA. 5/15/18

Post Punk? Pre Punk? No Wave? Nein Wave? Avant Garde? Savant Garde? Phhhhht, I say, to labels, on my way to see legendary/infamous X__X (Ex Blank Ex) on their nationwide tour, and Seattle's own Tissue and DYED at the good ol' Funhouse. On this night I am treated to humans in their '20s to humans in their retirement years (haha, just joking, no one gets to retire anymore!) taking genres and booting them out the Funhouse door, any expectations landing with an inglorious splat onto I-5. A small but enthusiastic crowd cheered on each set while I took pictures for you. Extra-special thanks to X__X's Craig Bell!

Please check out each band via the links above, support live music, and click on each photo to enlarge and click on the Flickr set links for more. Click on and please to enjoy!


ME, T1D, AND "THE PRICE IS RIGHT"


PHOTOS, REVIEW, & VIDEO: STALLION, MATTRESS, & BACTERIA @ INK KNIFE PRESS, SEATTLE, WA. 4/20/18

What do you do when the building that hosts your supercool Seattle printing business/performance space is going to be TORN DOWN by developers within days? You host a couple of fun show nights, that's what, and say bye bye in smashing style. Ink Knife Press will survive n' thrive close by, which is great news, as so many creative businesses and artists are feeling the effects of our area's real estate frenzy and leaving for far-away digs that won't leave them in constant panic that they won't be able to cover the ever-increasing rents. ANYWAY, I was able to attend last Friday night's bash, brought my camera, and now I share this visually-informative post with YOU. Please to enjoy. (Click on the photos to enlarge and click on the Flickr set links for more and such!)




IT'S POPTHOMOLOGY'S DECENNIAL! SEND ME TIN!

Guys!! HEY GUYS!!!

Popthomology today is ten years old.

TEN. YEARS. OLD.

I've spent a full decade of my life writing and creating things for this site.

That's a long time.

For some of you, this may be the very first post you've read here (and the last). Some other folks have read nearly all 2596 of them. In the beginning, when the site was named "Diarrhea Island," the readers were my existing friends and family, along with a few people from a Howard Stern message board. Then, via the magic of the Internet, people came looking for information about diarrhea (which did not exist until I wrote a post directing people where to go), then diarrhea and Chipotle, then all kinds of other stuff, from nearly every country in the world. I've even had logins from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and even the White House (they read a post called "BOOBS," no joke). Around the time when I started properly photographing concerts again after a 20+ year absence, I changed the name to Popthomology, a name that didn't suggest I ran a site for fans of fecal matter.

And I just chugged along, for many years writing a new post every single day. I didn't have a plan or a vision -- the content was just going to be whatever I felt like making that day. I thought on February 28, 2008, hey, maybe I could do this for a year. And now ten have gone by, and there is no question that my life was profoundly changed for the better because I started this blog, something I could never have predicted sitting down to write and publish that first post.

After spending most of my adult life burying my creative ideas like so many cat turds in a litterbox, I desperately needed a voice. This site became that, and it worked as this construct to keep pushing myself to do more and do better. It's staggering to me that there's been nearly 2 million lifetime page views here. Even if you throw half of that away to bots or creepers, it's still more than the five views I was expecting. It was never my ambition to be a big, important thing -- I didn't want to do ads, or obnoxiously promote myself, or, most critically, write about things I didn't want to write about. Everything here is something that was important to me, whether it was a record review, a fiction piece, something funny my daughter said in the car, a political rant, pretty photographs, thrift store oddities, fake children's books, snarky holiday cards, or about how hilarious goats are. I think I may have originated the worldwide goat meme craze, but let's move on.

Naturally, I'm not the same person today as I was in 2008. Older and wiser, one hopes, and I no longer feel voiceless. I no longer feel like I didn't do right by some of the talents I had. I've had my say for ten years, and there's something very satisfying about that. What you can't see here in the digital archives are all the friendships I now have that never would have existed if I hadn't done this. Friendships that give my life color and depth, that bring love and support, that expanded my world to all kinds of ideas and opportunities, and brought me in like family. I know "gratitude" is a bit of a hack buzzword today, tossed around with the saccharine "blessed" and the snore-y "mindfulness," but man, I am grateful, in that way when you you know things really could've gone the other way, or just remained still and stagnant and grey.

I've slowed down posting here -- WAY down -- as a matter of practicality and natural run of things. I'm not done quite yet, but my energies are focused more on my health and gearing up for some new creative challenges that I'm really stoked about. I'm also utterly determined to give Popthomology a damn proper party for its decennial, which will take place sometime this year in Seattle, and I am thinking it will be a lot of FUN. Watch this space!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read here, thank you to WN in AU who put in countless frustrating backend hours here to make this Frankensteined Blogger site function, thank you to everyone who encouraged me along the way or let me know that I did a good job or that I could do better, or who have stepped in to guest post along the way.

Ten years! Wow.






POEM: "LEMONS IN THE GRASS" (2018)

Lemons in the Grass

Bright yellow lemons on green green grass
Big sky goodbye please wait too fast
Look at you baby blue, eyeing up the past
Had the golden ticket but now stuck behind the glass

Lost at sea, lost at home
A sense of purpose never shown
Time was never yours to own
Time was never yours to know

Paper boats floating down curbside streams
Personalized cubicles and management teams
Restless minds and Ambien dreams
Sunrise washed in coffee and cream

Water sparkles with iridescent oil
Jet age dresses made from aluminum foil
Bus fumes billow, tires clouded with soil
Some of us work and some of us toil

Lying on the paper waiting to be seen
A fly shoots by, shimmering green
Hold yourself together, keep yourself clean
No reason to look up from a tiny little screen

Popcorn gunshots firecracker flutter
A lifetime's treasure sold as everyday clutter
Rain pouring out from an autumn-choked gutter
The universe is singing but you only hear it mutter

Looking searching but never found
Bicycle rides through the wrong side of town
Women walking by in cotton candy gowns
Burned to ashes or buried in the ground
Burned to ashes or buried in the ground
Burned to ashes or buried in the ground.


-- MCS, 2018


STOP THE PRESSES! POPTHOMOLOGY RESPONDS TO A LETTER TO THE EDITOR FROM LUSCIOUS LUKE!

(Today, our Popthomology office, located in Seattle-ish, received the following letter to the editor via hand-delivered Express Mail, which we are publishing verbatim and responding to immediately. -- Ed.)


SEATTLE WOMEN'S MARCH 2.0, 1/20/18, BY 15-YR-OLD PHOTOJOURNALIST GRACE TOM!

(Please to enjoy Popthomology friend and high school photojournalist/videographer Grace Tom back to this site for her coverage of the 2018 Women's March in Seattle! -- Marianne)

January 21st, 2017 was the first women's march I ever attended. It was mind-opening and heart-warming to see all the women getting together and using the voices they were given to make a difference. Fast-forward to one year later on January 20th, 2018 and I'm back at the Seattle's women's march and still blown away by the number of women, men and children that came to show support. Thousands of people gathered on that day to partake in societal change. From the hilarious signs, to the chanting and singing coming from the mouths of many, preaching what is right for our world and being a part of something bigger than themselves, brought some people to tears on this cloudy Seattle afternoon. It was clear that the energy and positivity didn't just affect the adults attending the march but influenced the children as well. 

It was very moving seeing young girls so enthusiastic and involved participating in this historical event that many will remember for a long time. Next time there is a march near you, I highly encourage that you join in for change, inclusion, and justice for all.