Month: February 2013

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Braggin’ on Theresa Rose

An essential thing for an artist to have is a gang of brilliant artistic friends. And do I ever! One of them is Theresa Rose. I became a fangirl way back when I first moved to town, and read an article about Theresa and the guy she used to be married to. I exclaimed, to the guy I used to be married to, “We gotta meet these people!”

What with one thing and another, Theresa and I eventually were members of a co-op art gallery, and this is us getting ready for a show.

Area Artists

Here’s Theresa with one of her life-size rock star portraits:

A Rock 'n' roll artist
She did a couple of covers for Salon: A Journal of Aesthetics, which I used to publish, and also contributed several segments of her gorgeous graphic novel “The Dragon Priest” to various issues of the zine.

Here’s one of her drawings from that period, “Khordan the Guitar Hero.”

Khordan the Guitar Hero

And now she has written a novel that is everything a novel ought to be. Plus, Golden River has made it through the first two levels of a major writing competition. Here is the soon-to-be-renowned author, just a couple of months ago.

Theresa Rose

In another role, Theresa is a muse. At a site called Cache La Pottery, you can see some of the artworks by sculptor and ceramicist Dan Slack, that she has inspired. And Theresa’s own work in the ceramic medium just knocks my socks off.

BonomapakLite#1

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Using Other People’s Stuff

A lot of people give their stuff away for free these days. Some of the best things ever said, by some of the most brilliant contemporary thinkers, turn up on Facebook and Twitter. And podcasts  – don’t get me started.

Online, people give their stuff away without even caring that anyone knows who made it. Like all those clever “memes,” the pictures grabbed from pop culture, or newly created. The words range from moronic to excellent. We make these objects, and unleash them upon the world as freebies.

meme examples

But there are times when a person wants credit. For instance, any time when they didn’t give permission for their material be repurposed for someone else’s benefit. If you publish another person’s words, pictures, or thoughts, it hurts no one to give them credit. Plus, then you have class.

When I edited a zine, Salon: A Journal of Aesthetics, it used to drive me crazy, and not in a good way, to run across something that would fit perfectly in one of the theme issues – and not be able to trace who did it. So they could be credited. I’m still uncomfortable with sharing things I think are cool, because “Did the person really mean to pass it around for free, or did someone else make that decision for them?”

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I Heart Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree is famous for free climbing, and as a setting for psychedelic experiences, which is another kind of free soloing. Mostly, it’s famous for music.

For me, Joshua Tree has been a never-ending source of inspiration, and led to the creation of several paintings, known as Joshua Tree Dreamings.

Here is a bunch of Joshua Tree music information, which is good as far as I know. Additions and corrections are welcome.

Entering Joshua Tree

Musicians Who Live or Have Lived at Joshua Tree:
This information is good as far as I know, but corrections are welcome.

Harriet Allen
Elia Arce
Rojer Arnold
Bingo Dream Band
Brant Bjork – founding member of Kyuss & Fu Manchu
Peter Blackstock
Steve “Dandy” Brown – Orquesta del Desierto sessions. “My wife and I had come to Joshua Tree when we first started dating… kept the town in our thoughts over the next few years, and we knew that at some point we wanted to live here. Bringing Orquestra to Rancho de la Luna has been one of the wisest production choices I’ve ever made.”
Eric Burdon – had a house here as early as 1968. In 2000, the “Rockin’ for Joshua Tree” Earth Day benefit concert in Palm Springs was against the Eagle Mountain Landfill
Fred Burke
Dave Catching
Robyn Celia
Dean Chamberlain – partner in Rancho de la Luna. Code Blue. Quit music to make films
Cockrobin
Dick Dale
Desert Sessions – began by Josh Homme in 1997
Donovan – spent much of the 1970s here
Fred Drake — (died in 2002) earthlings?
Steve Earle
earthlings?
Tim Easton – musician and painter
Shari Elf and the Fairy Elf Bandart queen
Bob Forrest
Buzz Gamble
Howe Gelb
Giant Sand
Golden Animal
Chris Goss – Masters of Reality, Stone Temple Pilots, Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss
Kristin Hersh – song “White Trash Moon” refers to childhood home near Joshua Tree
Josh Homme – Queens of the Stone Age
Honky Tonk Train
Deborah Iyall – Romeo Void
Duane Jarvis
Joshua Tree – U2 tribute band
Joshua Tree Didgeridoos
Joshua Tree Roots Festival
Kyuss
Mark Lanegan – Queens of the Stone Age
Brent Lewis – studio in Joshua Tree
Juke Logan
Shawn Mafia
Tony Mason
Robert Matsuda
Johnette Napolitano – moved herself and reunited Concrete Blonde to the desert and said “I specifically bought land that had Joshua trees on it.”
Mark Olson – Left the Jayhawks in 1995 to move to Joshua Tree. He didn’t work with Gary Louris again until 2001, when they got together at Olson’s desert home to write some songs. In 2005, Olson split up with wife Victoria Williams and left Joshua Tree
Orquesta del Desierto
Purple Mountain Matinee
Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf is a concept album built around things heard on the radio on a journey to Joshua Tree
Kristina Quigley
Ted Quinn
Gram Rabbit
Steve Roach – “The Breathing Stone is about the Joshua Tree area. During my last five years in LA…increasing trips to the Joshua Tree desert gave me the recharging needed to live in LA. It was after my second trip to Australis that it got to the point of no returning. I just had to leave it all behind and go to the next edge, leaving the roar of the city for the roar of the silence I find in the desert.”
Mark Nishita Ramos – “At least once a month, I have to get away [from LA]. I have a place out by Joshua Tree where I can hit the reset button.”
Rancho de la Luna – single-level ranch house and recording studio. Some of the older Kyuss records, earthlings?
Kevin Richey – Bingo Band, Rancho de la Luna associate
Rim Rock Rhythm Pushers
Mike “Razz” Russell – Bass, violin, mandolin. With Mark Olson and Victoria Williams, shunned major labels and put out seven albums in seven years as the Original Harmony Ridge Creek Dippers.
SawtoothJoshua Tree CA
Shadow Mountain Band
Thrift Store All Stars
Jesika Von Rabbit
Dusty Wakeman – started Gramfest
Wild Ass Ranchers
Victoria Williams
Nancy Wilson
Wooden Nickel
Yard of Blondes
Jackie Young

Music Videos Shot All or Partly at Joshua Tree

Jessica Andrews “There’s More to Me Than You”
Paul Oakenfold “Starry Eyed Surprise”
Allison Moorer “Send Down an Angel”
Shelby Lynne “Run Away”
Zwan “Honestly”

untitled

Other Musicians Associated with Joshua Tree:

Tommy Aguilar (fictitious)
Bartenders Bible
Bauhaus
Frank Black
Byrds – have stayed at the Inn
Camper van Beethoven
Canned Heat
Captain Beefheart — in the Sixties, with Magic Band
John Carco
Concrete Blonde
Cracker
David Crosby – Desert Sessions
Cub
The Donnas
Greg Dray
The Duke Spirit
Eagles – have stayed at the Inn
Eagles of Death Metal
Nick El Dorado
Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Marianne Faithfull
Paul Finley
Freese
Golana – Native American flutist, considers himself a “rock sitter” and often composes out in nature at Joshua Tree
Chris Goss
Josh Grange
Dave Grohl – his talk with Marc Maron is one the grandest discoveries of the year
Emmylou Harris – Gram Parsons’ singing partner and now main keeper of his musical flame
PJ Harvey
Don Heffington
High or Hellwater
Itchy Pet
Alain Johannes
Blade Jones (fictitious)
“Sneaky” Pete Kleinow – of the Flying Burrito Brothers and many other creative endeavors. His memorial service was held at the Joshua Tree Retreat Center, Jan. 27, 2007
Boomer Lalli
Jim Lauderdale
Bernie Leadon – Eagles
Shelby Lynne
Samantha Maloney – Hole. Desert Sessions
Brendon McNicholl – Queens of the Stone Age
Murmers
Craig Nuttycombe
Van Dyke Parks
Gram Parsons – International Submarine Band, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Joshua Tree was where he wanted to be, alive or dead. Here he watched for UFOs and got close to the elemental forces of nature, and expressed a wish to be cremated at Joshua Tree. After his death his manager and another friend took custody of his body and did their best to fulfill that desire. The memorial plaque near Cap Rock says “Safe at Home,” and a yearly music fest is held at Joshua Tree in honor of Gram Parsons. A book of photos, called Joshua Tree, by Rudy VanderLans, is dedicated to Parsons.
Perfect
Robert Plant
Twiggy Ramirez – aka Jeordie White
Savoy Brown
Mike Stinson
Rolling Stones — (especially Keith Richards, who hung out with Gram Parsons and supposedly wrote “Sweet Virginia” at Joshua Tree)
Leon Russell
Tom Russell
Natasha Schneider
Sky Saxon and The Seeds
Xander Smith
Speedtwinn
The Spores
U2 – 1987 album named for Joshua Tree
Dean Ween
Clarence White
Lucinda Williams – her astonishing talk with Marc Maron
Witchita

rfjt_mic

Radio Free Joshua Tree — founded 12/12/12
“Joshua Tree” is the National Park, the village itself, the surrounding desert communities and a state of being, sought around the world. The mission of Radio Free Joshua Tree (RFJT) is to bring Joshua Tree to the World –and the World back to Joshua Tree — through the voices of its musicians, artists and poets; its elders and its youth. Rising out of a community rich in creativity and natural beauty, RFJT will focus first on the music inspired by or created in the desert, including work by those who pass through briefly, as well as those who have passed before us. RFJT will gather the many different voices that have found themselves in the desert, literally and metaphorically.

Desert Rats - Joshua Tree

Visit my paintings, the Joshua Tree Dreamings

Photos

Untitled by Egan Snow
Art Queen by jkracow
Desert Rats – Joshua Tree by Jared Eberhardt
Entering Joshua Tree by The Javelina
Leaving Joshua Tree by The Javelina
Joshua Tree CA by davecito

Leaving Joshua Tree

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Joshua Tree Paintings

JT dreamings

The Dreamtime is a temporary autonomous zone where anything goes. Change is the only constant. Things are consistent through their very inconsistency. Symbolism can be traditional and shared throughout the culture or it can be very personal and subjective.

Joshua Tree Dreaming 3

The Dreamtime reconciles opposites. In the Dreamtime it can be day and night, past and present, simultaneously. Sun and stars, moon and rainbow, can coexist. Things can be seen from inside and outside, from level ground and from the sky above. Abstract and representational; spiritual and material; in the Dreamtime all dichotomies are reconciled.

Joshua Tree Dreaming 8

These paintings are called Urban Aborigine because I’m a contemporary American city-dweller who possibly used to be an Australian Aborigine in a past lifetime. I don’t know what else could explain it. The paintings are done while listening to didgeridoo.

Joshua Tree Dreaming 4

Joshua Tree Dreaming 5

Like the aboriginal art which inspires them, the paintings have no up-down orientation but can be hung any way. Also like the work which inspired mine, most of the paint was applied with twigs from trees.

Joshua Tree Dreaming 12

Joshua Tree Dreaming 10

Joshua Tree Dreaming 10 detail

Joshua Blossom Dreaming

Turtle Rock Dreaming

Joshua Tree Dreaming 11

Joshua Tree Dreaming 6

Joshua Tree Dreaming 9

Joshua Tree Dreaming 7

Joshua Tree Dreaming 13

Visit the page that contains a wealth of information about music and Joshua Tree.