J. Crabb

2011-01-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

Something to do after sanding a wall.....

2010-09-08T01:26:00.000-07:00

The Indie Media Show Auto Updates....the show below is always the latest
Jim
THE INDIE MEDIA SHOW
Mike Johnson
Street Punk Productions

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BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by: Jennifer Welkker

Make it happen..donate if you can...pass it on if you can't

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2009-12-02T23:13:00.000-08:00

Danni Rosner Update

12/29- Jazz Club Firenze

9PM

Via Nuova de’ Caccini, 3

50121 Firenze, ITALY

http://www.jazzclubfirenze.com/

12/12 - Matt & Phreds

8 P.M.

64 Tib Street

Northern Quarter

Manchester, UNITED KINGDOM

M4 1LW

www.mattandphreds.com

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BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by: Jennifer Welkker

Make it happen..donate if you can...pass it on if you can't

=============================================
Jim

2009-11-13T01:19:00.000-08:00

Bess and Chris

may the server hosting this video out live me....Please

Seriously this is just awsome

2009-10-14T01:16:00.000-07:00

I Know Things:)

Two days a week I'm a janitor...I know things:) The preceding sentence brings to mind one of my favorite movie quotes; the movie: "High Heels and Low Lifes". The quote (as I remember it) was delivered by Minnie Driver to her boy friend as she was throwing him out of her apartment (n life); "Ray...you shouldn't have your head so far up your a--, I'm a nurse I know these things!". Yes, I do know little dumb things; hopefully you will find at least one useful or interesting.

First up Spiders. One office I have been cleaning for almost nine years and depending on the season I know where the spiders show up at. For the most part mine are very tiny cob web spiders and seem to prefer the same spots...I'll vacumn them up and next week others have moved in...like someone put up a for rent sign. The biggest spiders in your office you will never see. The live behind your bookcases and filing cabinets. Every now and then I manage to vacumn one up...but there are some that (probably another generation) I have never managed to get. These usually come out at nite or on the weekends. The exception is during mating season and they will wander farther from thier places of safety. This building has high walls, 18 -24 feet high. So at those times of the year there will be some really huge spiders up above. Most people never notice, but the world being as it is it could cause quit a distrubance. My solution: heavy duty rubber bands! I loop one end of the rubber band on the end of my right hand index finger and pull straight back with my left hand, sliding up my right arm...aim and if I'm real lucky I will knock the spider down on the first attemp. Generally it takes me a half dozen tries but this always works...good idea to have the vacumn hose attachment at the ready and machine on. The other office I clean is a dentist practice...needless to say I go to extremes to minimize the risk of a spider showing up...basically dusting high everyweek...the top edges of the wall and were the walls meet...and everything in between. No Webs No Spiders.

Some little things I've noticed. It seems once somebody starts using kleenex they are hooked. I may be way off base here but if you examine the area around a box of tissues that have been used all week on a dark desktop you will notice this really fine dust...nose...dust...??? Go figure.

At the dentist office I keep things dusted so well that at some point I just don't look at the flourecent light fixture lens (this what they call that the plastic: lens). So not very often I will find a note reminding me...which is good. Can you imagine using high speed equipment on a tooth and a bug fearing patient notices the light above...for a janitor bug free lites equal job security.

Keeping ground coffee in the freezer is a common practice these days; both at home and work. I have one frig. I clean and found that if you use your vacumn hose attachment the grounds that might (or do) get spilt come right out. Try it.

Something to think about whether you have a cube in the basement or view on the 22nd floor...

there is something that can make a janitor really nervous....usb flashdrives. I'm talking about towers on the floor...this usb drive sticks out and the socket it is pluged into is hooked to a printed circuit board. Now if a vacumn cleaner just happened to hit it just right your whole mother board may need to be replaced...I haven't hit one yet but they do make me nervous. Anyway that is the janitor stuff.

Bed time again,

Jim

=============================================

BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by: Jennifer Welkker

Make it happen..donate if you can...pass it on if you can't
=============================================

2009-10-12T14:39:00.000-07:00

Danni Rosner- Vocals/piano

Markus Huber- Bass

Bryan Dawley- Guitar

Rico Allen- Drums

Picture from "The Bitter End" 10/10/2009

UPDATE

DANNI ROSNER AT

THE BITTER END VIDEO!

An amazing live video ...Thankyou Danni n' Crew!

Follow Dani and band on Facebook

=============================================

BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by: Jennifer Welkker

Make it happen..donate if you can...pass it on if you can't

=============================================

2009-10-08T23:56:00.000-07:00

Danni Rosner
"and her kick ass band"

At the historic "The Bitter End"

Saturday, Oct. 10, 2009

Indie Music Examiner

October 5, 2009

I'm typed out this week but the above says it all...
Jim

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BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by: Jennifer Welkker

Make it happen..donate if you can...pass it on if you can't

=============================================

2009-09-26T22:15:00.000-07:00

"I sound like a housewife, I am a housewife"

from the song; Anchorage, by Michelle Shocked

"I sound like a groupie, I am a groupie!?

from a sudden realization, Via my brain, by Jim Crabb

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I remember the first time I heard Michelle Shockeds' Anchorage...it was on the David Letterman show. It was recorded on a walkman (seems like either France or England) and came out perfect! It is a story about a letter Michelle sent to a friend (partly fact n' partly fiction?) as she was out singing and traveling the world. She sent the letter to Texas and the reply came from Anchorage, Alaska. Her friend was describing her life and at one point remarks; "I sound like a housewife" and in a moment of self relization the next line is; "I am a housewife." I'm visual artist that has dabbled in writing...short rambling prose and song lyrics. In another land and time I was sixteen with an electric guitar and had an idea I would become the next Brian Jones (first rythm guitar with the Stones). I was in a three cord cover band in what is now the Silicon Valley and I loved it. As far as singing goes after the first year of not quite playing as a togeather group we hired a pro to listen and find out where and what we were doing wrong. We started playing and singing and before we really get started he yells; "STOP!". He then had each one of us sing alone...I got about three or four words out and he says; "that's it!". So I didn't sing backup anymore. Our lead guitar player was glad, we shared a mic and I had a habit of spitting...not glad just plain happy! Anyway I lasted two more years. got drafted...the band lasted a total of five. I wouldn't trade those years for anything. A little history there, opened for the Gollywogs (began Creadance Clearwater Rival), they were the second band. The headliner was the Count Five...they had one hit the now classic Phycotic Reaction. I was writing lyrics and had a song togeather but we never played it as a group. So over the years off and on I write, sometimes put some music to the storiies.Did one Album cover. But I suddenly realized I have become a groupie (I use the word losely-maybe avid fan?). The internet makes this possible and Twitter makes daily contact or just info. possible. Right now I'm following Danni Rosner, and Bess Rogers. Danni Rosner is playing somewhere and anywhere...this girl loves what she is doing and is also playing the Bitter End (NYC) only on Oct. 10th 2009. All are really down to earth and very real. But what should I do...I might do an EP, my stuff...then I would at least be a wanna be...and of course every young singer would have a point of referance, "I'm better than that!"...who knows someone might see beyond the noise and do a cover. But Actually being a Fan is a GOOD thing...an IMPORTANT thing...being any kind of artist that chooses to do thier own thing, like the above, isn't always glamorous...it is a lot of hard hard (not a typo) work, raman noodles,strange motels, trying to sleep while driving all night to the next town and a little insanity and believe it or not isolation...so if you love someones work let them know![That EP idea, the seed has been planted...umm...SoundCloud...are you scared?]
Jim
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You can help make it happen:

BEYOUND THE RIBBON

Donate if you can-pass it on if you can't

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2009-09-19T00:29:00.000-07:00

Interview and Preformance by Danni Rosner

on FOXDC Morning show

Friday September 18, 2009

2009-09-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

BEYOND the RIBBON

A documentary by Jennifer Welkker

Filmmaker, Writer, and Activist.

The film is about Soldiers, Refugees and the cost of War.

It also follows a homeless veteran to show just how war has forever
changed his life. more...

BEYOND the RIBBON is in production, and could use your support

in bringing this story to you and the world. I feel this is really important

and a little bit here and there adds and you can say "I helped pay for that!"

So do what you can...pass this along....

Jim

2009-09-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

"Jaded"
by Danni Rosner

2009-07-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

BABY SEAGULL

It has been at least three months since my last post....seems I think constantly...write in my head so to speak...but putting it down down on paper or electronic format is something I haven't done much of since the 80s...wrote some songs in 89 n 90...I have been taking the camera out more. The above picture is from a set I took this Sunday on the way home from work. I take the bus to work because the last third of a mile is up a very steep hill and my old legs just don't think much of it...but I do walk the 1.3 miles home...anyway for three years now in the summer I have watched the seagulls nesting on a building across from the transit station. Sitting n waiting for the bus to leave I noticed there seemed to be some young ones...never saw them before...so on the way home I walked across the vacant lot in front of the building and took this picture. I didn't know gull chicks had spots!...guess it makes sense...if this one had not been on the peak of the roof I wouldn't have seen him from a distance. Also got a pretty good shot of Mount Rainer from the 4th street bridge. In the past month I have shot a blue heron and a monarch butterfly...the monarch was amazing...it wanted to land on me and I had to encourage it to land on the flowers...I really want to get a shot of the blue heron downing a fish...it does it so fast...also trying to get the perfect (in my mind at least) honey bee picture. Watching n listening to Strickly Global on PBS at the moment. Learned the chords to KT Tunstalls' "Suddenly I See", the phrasing at the end is a bit hard for me...so Nokia is for sale to the highest bidder...can't help but wonder if Nokia didn't give George W n crew a hand...I guess money has no morals...what? I know money doesn't corupt people do it to them selves...babble babble...anyway peace be with you,

Jim

2009-04-11T22:31:00.000-07:00

All the Spidermen are Going Home

It seems we all live alone or togeather in little bubbles. I hear people who talk about coffee and all its various incantations, surtainly not my bubble. I love just plain old dark roast strong coffee and am not in the special coffee bubble. I over heard a conversation about the best places to panhandle amongst a group of six people or so...best sign reads, "Need Gas"...doesn't matter if you have a car or not...not my bubble either, but for the people in that bubble this conversation was completely normal. Here in Olympia, WA (The Olympian...local newspaper...you'll find the best and the worst here) there is a strong green movement. Now one day a week looking out my window come at least 2 dozen bike riders (the kind with pedals)...it is around fourthirty or five o'clock in the afternoon. Mostly men and all dressed in what looks like spandex from head to toe and reallly colorful...I imagine them to maybe state workers...just looks so
strange to someone who in not in that bubble...men in tights...on bikes...all the spidermen going home. Another note of interest...I enjoy it anyway...don't always understand it all but artkrush is back...a bi-monthly newsletter that brings art from an international viewpoint to your desktop...have fun,
Jim

2009-03-10T00:23:00.000-07:00

21 Degrees

Not me, only three...but that is what it is supposed to be outside here in Olympia, WA by the end of the night...and I know we will have a couple of weeks of warm weather this summer (maybe) and forget the other eight months...a young women on the bus last Friday was showing some friends the great deals she picked up at a thrift store going out of business sale (the economy is hitting the slightly upscale thriftshops now) and she pulled out this slinky pastel I can see totally threw the thing summer dress...I mentally nicknamed her "Hope"...because somebody really believes in summer...babble... It seems I was still "active in the 20th Century"... Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ...I have emailed the update...I AM ALIVE...BLAH BLAH...but seems they don't believe me...The annex gallery has some of my early prints the 70s...they weren't quit sure if I was a spirit or not...they have actually picked up all the work they have of mine from collectors and even on estate sale...guess I am getting old...Recieved my electric bill today...another month of ramon noodles n cheese...I've been fanticizing about a couple of pork chops with really wide strips of fat...gosh...my cholesteral is perfect...my wieght for my age great...but it is hard to find a piece of meat with some real fat...

I enjoy a lot of different types, forms, schools, or creative visual experiences...sometimes a poem is worth a million visuals...but rarely do I run across an artist that blows my socks off...found a couple of images on Zazzle where I am putting my stuff up for sale...(I imagine a few collectors and dealers will wilt when they see my lil' bear...I like the bear...and like to eat and stuff like that...I figure they had thier chance and I am grateful appreciate the past but the present dictates a different approach...framed a show two years ago and figure it is going to take three more to pay it off...so never again will I frame anything for a gallery...they want it they buy it up front...just reality).

Anyway where was I?....It has been a long long time since I have seen a body of work of this calibre and this large and by such a young artist. Some of the images might be a bit distrubing to some...back in the 80s I had (still have) a friend who is a collector and a dealer who had an incredible collection of his own plus he would find homes for pieces collectors had grown weary of or just wanted something new...my friend had a habit of bringing out one piece from the 'vault' and sit it down in the den...usually there were three of us; myself , my friend, and his wife... we would sit and at some point the silence would break and we would talk...well one day B took me to another room and sat me down in front of a David Salle piece...about 4' x 6' if I remember stretched canvas...no frame...the whole of the canvas was painted grey maybe val 6...and on this ground were a figure of a women sitting in a frontal position nude with her legs spread...this figure was repeated in bold charcol very loose and nothing even approaching detail...you just knew what you were looking at...really sort of banal...as much as I didn't want to say it was a good painting it was...perhaps it is my training...but somehow really good work transcends the obvious...anyway this young artist has 'it' and consistantly....(didn't find anything banal)...critics (art forum) will bore you to death trying to explain what 'it' is ... but I have never found words that work, anyway check check out Ash Sivils(aka amptone.

Ah two post in the same week...anyway enjoy,
Jim

2009-03-03T17:08:00.000-08:00

Random Thoughts and Passing Moments

March 3, 2009

I'm looking out my window....I live at the very end of the East Bay. The sun is setting and the tide is out, the mud is shiney like the top of fresh frosted brownies...I guess I'm hungry. About three weeks ago I was walking home from work...half of it is downhill...I take the bus up the hill, anyway I was on the Fourth Street Bridge and coming up was over a dozen young people...seemed to be TESC students...all were upbeat...interacting...smiling...nodded or replied when I said, "Hi.". I continued down the bridge and made a left onto State Street and this car of young men drive by and one in the backseat has his head out the window and is yelling as loud and fast as he can at me; "**** you! **** you!". Contrast ... made the chance meeting on the bridge special...anyway...

All that shiney mud brownie stuff has made me hungrey so it is off to make my ramon noodle cheese and tuna cassaroll...takes less than ten minutes...maybe I'll post the recipe....(for give the spelling)

Have Fun,

Jim

2009-02-11T02:29:00.000-08:00

34 degrees

(feels like 34 degrees)

Still cold here...giving up paint pencil n' press and going digital...soon to come jcrabb cipher branded coffee cups...pondering scateboard design...I'm having fun...fun is good...also in the works a movie that never was poster...hopefully I can have more fun and pay the rent...anyway I just had to write something for 2009...so have fun...

2008-12-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

34 0F

Feels like 28 degrees...I've never seen a gree...let alone a bunch of grees...still dialing for bits and bites...could be a dsl in the near future...I'm thinking that Harry and David escaped from Santas' workshop and went into business...who else could stuff so much into such little baskets...love is love...love...is...good...(Minnie Driver)...Mendocino Tubold's private reserve home brewed root beer...good stuff...just google it...miss Olympias' Black Front Gallery...glass ants...thinking about D.O. and smiling quitely...so LDC I'm snowed in...will send art...until next year...

jim jimmy james

2008-09-13T00:59:00.000-07:00

So where is the tin man...silly cat watching the flying egg...while purple dragon flies munch on fat mosquitoes...blender feeds...bring your own celery and carrots...the face in the mirror looks so much better...when I take my glasses off...made a psuedo telephone pole from mesh...minnie drivers' "Beloved" plays in my head while...fleas snack on my half numb ankles without fear of detection...cleaned nine stainless steel sinks...one bathroom sink...one toilet today...it cost me ten dollars to buy the stuff that removes the stains from stainless steel...go figure...across the street in EastBay Park weary souls try to sleep...or drink tall cans of strangely named...beer...before the police show...this while joggers with cell phones and pepper spray...run past...oh yea...never...ever...tell a MH professional that doesn't know...you...that you are reaaallly tired...trust me on that one...I reaallly am tired...and...the fleas have had thier dinner...good nite my friends...

2007-11-04T00:29:00.000-07:00

"Again...and A..."
J. Crabb 2007

The clock goes back an hour...time...time...waiting...flat paint over patched nail holes...little bits of impasto on a semi-gloss finish painted...on the interior of my nest...my box with windows...the clock went back an hour...time...time.
J. Crabb 2007

2007-07-26T12:31:00.000-07:00

again

resurfacing from the rust and dust

airbrush in hand

a new tool

the dinosaur learns new tricks

as racoons walk on the roof

at night

J. Crabb 07/26/2007

2007-04-30T17:10:00.000-07:00

I Made It...

Somehow...I got from here to there...precisely stated....my blog has become a google thingy...really don't mind...hope to be back online by mid May...am I really talking to myself...I really don't mind that either...

2006-06-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

"No Deposite, No Return"

J. Crabb, 1976

2006-06-26T22:26:00.000-07:00

Again...and a.....

The print is taking shape...the plex intaglio (hate wiping the thing) is roughly half edition...the small etching has been ready to edition for a year now...and soon the litho. I'm getting a 12" wide by 3" dia. brayer due on Wednesday...what this means?....11" x 12" of band of ink without a lap mark! I am considering adding text to the litho...I'm really hung up on this image...it makes me angry that I have to do it...I would rather be doing escapist art that is just for the imagination or just life stuff...but feel compelled to complete this image and some how get it out there...anyway...

2006-05-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

BUSH

During the first gulf war (Bush 1) I started working on this image...titled "again...and a..." and after all this time I am finally getting ready to pull the editions...now W wants to start a war with Mexico...or at least get out all the support he can from the bigots he can...divide and conquer...any thing to distract from this administrations total incompetance and criminality...the "free press" finally figures out thier phones are monitored...duh...your either with us or against us...since Ws ratings are down to 29%....this must mean the other 71% of us are down and dirty terrorist...and have no rights...period...this is getting all to real

2006-04-25T00:29:00.000-07:00

Again....

A summer like spring day...the sun came up and then went away...slipping on the horizon between tree trunks...crimson...a flitting inferno...natural drama...I caught mouse and set him free.

2006-04-13T11:04:00.000-07:00

Found this on the inside of a matchbook that I had written in the 80s:

"How to turn Yellow into Midnight"

That's all.

2006-03-29T23:25:00.000-08:00

So...I'm 59 years and 23hours, 35minutes old....and so it goes...tick tock...tick...tock...Bill the horse let me clean the pine tree needles out of his tail yesterday...Bill is 16 and considering he is not my horse this was a break threw...he considers me his stupid human. His owner comes for 15 to 20 minutes each day and feeds Bill and his pasture partner, Gator. Bill is in charge...I've learned that you have to acknowledge Bills' position because when I was not Gator was getting nipped just about everytime I walked out to the fence...so now that Bill and I have an understanding it is a lot easier to spend some time with Gator. Stupid Human...every morning...morning = one hour after I get up...I split an apple with Bill and Gator plus some dried bread pieces I cut up the day before...Bill gets the last bite...ALWAYS....this is really important...anyway if my morning is closer to their afternoon feeding they will walk to the feed bag and bowl and turn their back sides to me...at first they would repeat this...to them I've two legs and two arms and I should be able to walk into the barn...so I get the stupid human treatment...I was supposed to work on a painting today...somehow today is 22 minutes away from becoming yesterday...has not happened yet...did stack some rocks....

2006-03-27T00:14:00.000-08:00

So much for the mouse...it will be spring soon and I will hopefully be able to trap and release it...before others discover its exsistance...I found the tamp transcript...thirty four years old now...so the task is to edit or not edit...you have to remember that was before spell checkers...I finished needling a new plate (etching) and have started another plus have a second state of another to proof...means I have to unpack the press and the ferric chloride...Soooooo how do you impeach an administration...babble on Jimmy...but no...I think I'll sleep on it...good night.

2006-03-04T23:52:00.000-08:00

A Mouse

A mouse. Two words taken on there own could conjure up any number of mental images...but this mouse has decided it wants to live in this house. It did not bring a cage, feeding dish, or a water container...nor bedding...nor its own food. So I am considering eviction...the means still eludes me...I like to think "I come in peace"...and so does the mouse...a fellow traveler on this swirling, spinning round ball we call earth...a mere speck (the earth) in what we know so far of this thing we call the universe. A mouse....bedtime for me...breakfast time for mouse...tbc...

2006-01-12T18:50:00.000-08:00

August 29,2001

J.Crabb 2001

Wandering, stumbling, sometimes running...

Through the cob webs of my mind

Finding little things stuck to the silken thread

I smile softly

In the distant, a flower, a feather, a golden star

Beyond and above glowing day and night

You...smiling softly

(For Dina)

2006-01-09T17:50:00.000-08:00

"the sky in the bottle was cloudy."
Donna Marie, June 15, 2211

Most people here tie ants to the leaves of their banana trees for luck during the rainy season. No one remembers why this is done. No one in his or her right mind would dare to question it. This is just how it is here.
It was only last year that Ted decided that ants were just too difficult to tie to the leaves of the banana trees. They wiggled, fell apart and some of the larger ants did bite. Ted had many trees. His wife was very clever with her hands. Ted talked her into making the glass ants yet just below the surface of her thoughts was a feeling of dread. So she made many little ants from glass beads and the whiskers of the countless mice caught in Teds' well placed traps. Ted would then let the mice go which lead to many rumors about whiskerless mice invading the dome.
"Ah" thought Ted, his glass ants tied and true for the day, nothing to do but relax. Maybe he could reorganize his zialic collection. This was not to be. On the third night of the second week of ant tying Ted fell down the basement steps...backwards. His wife found him, his neck broken and covered from head to foot with hundreds of zialics and glass ants.
She ran from the house screaming, "The glass ants! The glass ants!" She would never be the same. Some say she took every bead she had ever made and buried them somewhere deep in the forest. The old folks just sat around and shook their heads. They all had many stories of those who had chosen to find a way around the ant tying. The endings all tragic, yet...there must be a way!

2006-01-07T15:03:00.000-08:00

T.A.M.P. #3

Artist: J.Crabb
Title: T.A.M.P. #3
Media: etching and aquatint
Image Size: 6" x 5"
Papier:De Arches Cover buff
Size:15" x 11"
Edition: 1/20 - 20/20 A/P:1/1
Misc. Info: 2 plate colour

plates destroyed

2006-01-06T01:26:00.000-08:00

The TAMP manuscript is still lost in a maze of cardboard boxes. Still other things are happening and of course in cyberspace one is almost expected to wander in the confines of ones own mind and just let things ooze out...like that word...ooze...even looks interesting...lets try it upper case: OOZE...that is even better!

Well maybe I’ve just had to much free time to stare at clouds or something like that….but the question that keeps popping up in my head was (has) the NSA been rearranged as was the petiagon…when folks disagreed there a handpicked special unit was created to match fact with fantasy…and has since vanished from view. The NSA could be worse…my mind wanders to the last election and the “your either with us or against us”…that would make any oppostion to this administration “a threat to national security”…the dots may be fuzzy but given past excesses of this president and the NSA top secret status on documents and activities…it concerns me.

2006-01-02T23:29:00.000-08:00

The Trans-Atlantic Mud Puddle...once it was...then the sun came out...it reappeared as mindless prose and later became a site title for my visual art works (works of art...some were work...some never worked and the rest seem to come and go). So I had intended to reproduce the original prose but having just moved haven't been able to find it (yet). So this is the first post in a blog...for me...so from here I wonder where it will go. 2006 who ever thought...

Jim Crabb...aka J. Crabb