Every Saturday, we’ll be posting a new illustration by David Lester. The Mecca Normal guitarist is visually documenting people, places and events from his band’s 31-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
he answers with enthusiasm and respect for both me as a person and the work I create
I think of Mecca Normal as a Petrie dish for a man and woman working together creatively for a long time (30 years). Whenever David is asked what it’s like working with me—and sometimes that question includes the wink-wink inference that I’m “difficult” or too intense or even just that I’m a feminist—he answers with enthusiasm and respect for both me as a person and the work I create, and I don’t hear men talking that way about women very frequently.
I like the way the song this week is from 1992, the embedded interview is from 2004, and now we’re all the way into 2015. It’s strange how creating work in each of the three eras is identifiable in my mind with a memory of feeling like everything had already happened. Maybe it’s more convenient to believe that there’s no point in participating because we missed all the action. But yet, it appears there is more to do and more to say. Onward!
“Not Yet” from Dovetail (K, 1992) (download):
