Wertzeen #037: Mars, Record, Shop 🎧

Wertzeen. Issue #037. July 2021. Good Hello.
This is an inbox zine from Illustrator Michael Wertz.
View the archive.
+++

Friendly Furry Freaks,

are you all vaxxed up and ready to come out and see some ARTS? Me too!

You are cordially invited to Mars Record Shop in lovely Oakland California for a show of prints and posters by yours truly. I'll be showing a variety of reasonably-priced prints (see a preview here) for your perusal and enjoyment, and I have a feeling Steve will be spinning some of our favorite albums as well. It's lovely to have my first show in a long while at a record shop, since music is my first and continuing inspiration. And! Speaking of music! We’ll have a very short set of live music at 7pm-ish by trio Special Ghosts (Michael, Isabel Samaras, and Andy Cowitt).

Lately: I've been working with cut paper stencils and crayon drawings direct on screen. You’ll see a few of those as well as a set of beautiful prints pulled by Nat Swope at Bloom Press. Mars Record Shop is run by Steve Adams, bass player for ALO (among other bands)!

The opening of the show is July 24, from 6-9pm, and the show will run through September.

Mars Record Shop is located at 4125 Piedmont Avenue, Suite #7 Oakland, CA 94611

Hope to see you all there.

, Michael

This is a new set of artists stamps there were created in collaboration with the Portland Stamp company, who did a nice little interview with me about these right here. You can get your set through Buy Olympia. Here's the original images.

I spent pride making this bandana for the Google (thank you Shannon!), dropping off artwork for the Pride Show at the Harvey Milk Photo Center, and celebrating the new Empress of San Francisco Juanita MORE! in this video by New Pornographers. I also swam in a river with Taylor Mac and Walt Whitman. This video by Jack Plotnick (featuring a hung-over Mary Blair) made me laugh until I cried.

And Now. More stuff for your peepers and ear-holes. 

• I have been hosting a monthly Sound Experiment (it's an experiment, because we don't know what's going to happen) for Mountain Yoga the past few months, and it's been really wonderful - to take the time to really sit and listen to music (rather than just consume it). You can learn more (and join in) here, and you can listen to this playlist of the music we've heard so far.
• Here is a little lesson in gratitude.
• This fellow has been making beautiful artworks to survive Guant ánamo (he has never been charged with a crime).
• I spent a little time in Joshua Tree, and it is a place worth preserving. If you've never been, you should go. If you have been, you might enjoy Desert Oracle Radio and consider donating to the Mojave Desert Land Trust. We took a drive down to the Salton Sea and it was mind-boggling. One of the people who introduced me to this place is Victor Krummenacher, and he could use some help.
• We saw Summer of Soul and the Sparks Brothers and they were both so good. It feels good to support Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre. Here's a Spotify playlist based on the Summer of Soul.
• I have been vibing with the videos of Dereckvon. Here he is vibing with John Hassell.
• Another (in-person) event was had at The Chakra Chimp Research Kitchens.
• My friend Michael has been archiving his old punk show fliers.
• Rest in Peace Jambi, who has mekka lekka hi'd his last hiney ho. Here is John Paragon being a genius as part of the stage show. Here's Paul Reubens (!) wishing our recent graduates well.
• Songs to Aging in Peace, an ode to our precious California by my friend Jeff.
• I am thinking about you, Nance O'Banion.

The Wertzeen is an effort to connect and I love it when people write me back. Is there something you'd like to see in the Zeen? Want your work featured here? Let me know. If you know of someone who would enjoy this zeen, please send them this link. Thank you.