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 32-year run, with text by vocalist Jean Smith.
Hi Michael (Scholar, theater director),
Yes, the Angry Woman In Rock series is basically self-portraits. There are seven, but I may do more. I’m glad you’re getting one!
Would Friday at 4 p.m. on The Drive work for you? Dave and I are rehearsing until 3:00, then I figured we both come—if he can make it. We sent out a media version of the Mecca Normal Newsletter Update last week and I sold seven paintings in one day, and I’m getting quite a few interview offers that I need to schedule in. Crikey. I’m trying to fit everything into my normally extremely quiet life.
We’re excited to be doing three shows with the Julie Ruin (Vancouver, Seattle and Portland). We haven’t seen Kathleen for years, but strangely enough there’s another “fan” in the band! The keyboard player, Kenny Mellman, is half of Kiki And Herb who split up some years ago with a final show at Carnegie Hall. Actually, they got back together recently for a short run of sold-out shows in NYC. I missed the whole Kiki And Herb thing at the time. It’s basically cabaret with political commentary. Wikipedia: “drag cabaret duo. Bond portrays Kiki DuRane, an aging, alcoholic, female lounge singer. Mellman portrays her gay, male piano player.”
So, Kenny is evidently a fan of ours—he recently bought one of my paintings (very much like the one your wife is buying). Back in his younger days (in the early ’90s, I guess) in San Francisco, he was in the audience calling out my name while we were playing!! I’d forgotten about all this until he recently told me about it (on Facebook). We haven’t met in person yet, but I want to talk with him about some ideas I have for The History Of Mecca Normal as a theatrical production—to include the origins of riot grrrl, DIY, trying to change the world, etc. Not sure how to frame it—the set could be a classroom where the main characters are imparting some punk-rock history to students. Simple—something that can be replicated on a two-person tour.
We’ve done quite a few classroom presentations in the past 15 years with our event How Art And Music Can Change The World, and more recently, I wrote an adaptation of a few chapters of Dave’s graphic novel The Listener (about Hitler’s rise to power), which we presented on a Vancouver-to-Toronto tour when his book came out in 2011. I “played” a couple of characters, and we relied on a PowerPoint backdrop, integrating related Mecca Normal songs.
Anyway, I’d like to run some of this by you when we meet—just for 10 minutes or so, on the off chance that it resonates with anything you’ve got happening.
Jean
“The Observer” from the album The Observer (Kill Rock Stars, 2006) (download):
