i'll see you when i rise

phoenix is a town in nevada named for a mythical bird.

this bird, at the end of its life cycle, builds a nest, and then the bird and the nest light on fire, and a newer, younger bird is born of the ashes.

phoenix is, thus, an apt place to (almost) end this tour (we have one more date in flagstaff after). let's burn this bitch down, and watch it be reborn. in the case of the crate lung co-op, it will likely be reborn in the form of more tours, for longer and shorter periods, in different regions, and certainly an etsy account. stay tuned for it all.

in the mean time, crate lung built its end-times phoenix-nest @ the trunk space.

phoenix participates in "first friday." it is an event where the entire art district shuts down and galleries fling open their doors in welcome, and there is much rejoicing. i come from salt lake, and we have "gallery stroll," which is the same by design but not in practice. the difference is in salt lake's gallery stroll the doors of art galleries are flung open and there is even booze to draw people in in many cases, and much art, and sometimes even DJ's spin outside of galleries, and people trickle in and out of galleries clutching their plastic cups with one cocktail napkin nodding in approval, or doing the big-eyes at each other as if to say WTF HOW IS THIS ART?  

in phoenix the art district was swarming with people-- hundreds and hundreds of people. not only were there crowded galleries, but it overflowed onto the street in the form of booths and tables, and clotheslines between trees. it was amazing to see. i don't know what makes the difference. it isn't that salt lake has less artists-- someone @ a show recently told me they read somewhere that SLC has the second highest per-capita amount of artists, after new york (i haven't fact checked that, but i have repeated it to everyone). but we're noticing a lot about salt lake. for one, it's hard to get people to come out to shows you do there. is it the urban sprawl of SLC? that was one theory i had, not wanting to drive the distance of it. but phoenix sprawls, worse maybe even. so who knows. but SLC needs to get some shit together in terms of supporting the arts, and i mean, grassroots-level support. i mean just come to our show @ kilby court. and go out for gallery stroll. etc. but i digress.

so we were no where near that first friday action. we were a 20-minute walk from that. let it be said now, that i did not book this show. we were a 20-minute walk from the action, and few people came into the venue, and no one bought anything. and the guy who runs it was really condescending and snappy the entire time. 

but our merch looked lovely:

and we had time to read about ourselves:

so we got a couple mentions in this phoenix new times article. it's sweet of them, and all the many alt weeklies across the nation, to mention us, let alone write an entire article. this one, however, echoed the general tone of condescension we were getting from everyone in phoenix. the cliffs notes version is: "art from salt lake? yeah, i couldn't believe it either. in fact, it might be a joke. but if it's not, they're at trunk space, and you should go, because it's cold outside and it could be interesting."

my response is: SLC may have its problems, and Utah may be less progressive than this phoenix place, but SLC ain't that bad. i mean hell, we are the first touring art collective anyone has seen @ any venue we're going to, and we came out of SLC. the tour is a fresh enough idea to prompt almost rude responses like "wait... so he's the dj... so you just, like, draw?" or, my favorite, "you're a writer? awesome. so, how come you're on this tour?" 

but we had fun. and it's been a success-- we sold art, generated interest, and made major contacts everywhere we went. granted there are certain venues we'll never return to, but that doesn't mean we won't find a better place in the same city next time around.