of older days that have long since gone by

Of the things I regret about in Gainesville, and there are quite a few, one of my biggest regrets is not trying to foster an artistic community there. We had a lot of artistic friends that did music, painting, sculptures and photography among other things. I didn't think about it at the time, but it really would have made a lot of sense to start an artist collective and try to cross promote a lot of shows and showings and try to blend these different aspects of art and bring them together in one space. This happens all the time, even in Gainesville. So I've decided to take a more active role in promoting the work of our friends. A lot of it is very good and there's no reason why they shouldn't get noticed and make a good chunk of change for their efforts.

In that spirit, may I suggest checking out the following:

Room 5 Films did a short video about us a while back. They also do many other much more interesting things and they've compiled the best of it in this nice, beautifully shot and edited reel for your viewing pleasure.

http://room5films.com/reel.html

And they still have our video up on their site too. Click on Oh No and the Tiger Pit on that site.

http://room5films.com/R5FOHNO.html

Our good friend (and kin to our drummer and future brother-in-law to our guitar player) Conor Mitchell has been a productive art machine up in the Great Northwest. He makes beautifully painted pieces of art. But in the true Renaissance fashion, the man continues to make music and try his hand at a number of things. He was once in a rock n roll band, Loaded for Bear, with our good friend Dave.

http://www.myspace.com/l4b

His latest stuff is up for sale at Mount Salvation. The site is super cool as well, so poke around there a bit.

http://www.mountsalvation.com/

And how he got the URL for that site, I'll never know. You'd think there would be an Internet savvy church out there that would have snapped that up.

And lastly (but not leastly?), Morningbell, our friends in Gainesville who gave us our first gig, are putting out a new album on September 4th. I got an early preview of the album and saw them perform a bit of it live in NYC in July. It's the best album they've ever recorded. It's different from anything they've put out. It's different from a lot of what other bands are putting out right now. And it's definitely a new peak for them. I'm always amazed at how far this band has come. I remember their Future Feels Good days, playing 3 hour cover-filled sets in Hollywood, Florida. If you're in Gainesville, go to their CD release show at Commongrounds. If you're not, go to their website below and check their stuff out. It's very good.

http://www.morningbellonline.com/

And thus, our session of plugs comes to a close. More to come in the future.