To those of you asking what happened to my February cover– much like Bill OReilly, I did it live!

I premiered it to a packed house at my Lost Church show on Saturday…and I’m pretty sure somebody got some video. I’ll be sure to post it if I can track it down.

I’ll be posting the studio version in the next couple days, as soon as I can get the thing mastered.

To those of you wondering, I did February Stars, by the Foo Fighters.

I realize, internet, that this is a disappointment.
So, please accept this illustration instead — which was supposed to be the cover for January’s installment. It’s a redone version of this illustration from 2004 or so. I’m not sure that this is the final coloring that I’m going to go with. If anybody has opinions on this, please send them my way.
I’m trying to experiment with more minimal coloring methods.

Soon, you all will have a February track, and the March one won’t be too far behind it!

Dear friends– won’t you please come see my band play?

Corpus Callosum will also kindly melt your face with delicious melodies.

Be there!

<3

Hey there, internet! It’s been a minute.
& I’ve missed you so! Life in Starland has been…complicated, as of late.
That said– lots and lots of good changes are in play and I’m really excited for all the awesome stuff I have coming up to share!
First and foremost– I’d like to tell you about this project.

I haven’t tried to do a yearly project since the Tank Girls Calendar that I did in 2006.
That went over really, really well back then– so I thought to myself that I was way overdue to try to do something like that again. Any attempts to do a 365 photo project or even a 52 weeks project between then and now have lead to complete and utter failure, and as such, I decided a monthly project was as much commitment I could handle.

I also decided that I’ve wanted to work more on recording and music stuff this year, so it was a logical choice to do some kind of monthly song thing!

After tossing some ideas around, I decided to do a cover every month with the name of the month in it.

This month’s is 11:59 It’s January, by Scrawl.

Just in case you’re loading this from a reader, and it strips out the br above, you can listen over at bandcamp.

Here are the words if you want to follow along:

January came too soon
Survived the holidays
Without you
But who are you
You are anyone I wish I knew
And tonight I wish I knew
Everyone single one of you 

First day Champagne
Old acquaintances are far apart
Tonight Auld Lang Syne means
Leave before the kissing starts 

Last year went down the drain
They all do really
Why complain
Drink a cup of kindness (yet)
And say goodbye to our regrets
Ooooh, it’s January
Ooooh, it’s January
Ooooh, it’s January 

11:59
8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1
Midnight
Was it a good year
Do I really need to know
’cause now it’s behind me forever
It was a good year because it was such a bad year
That this year could only be better 

Last year went down the drain
They all do really
Why complain
Drink a cup of kindness (yet)
(And) say goodbye to our regrets
Ooooh, it’s January
Ooooh, it’s January
Ooooh, it’s January 

But who are you
You are anyone I wish I knew
Tonight I wish I knew
Everyone single one of you
Tonight I wish I knew
Everyone single one of you
Tonight I wish I knew
Everyone single one of you 

It’s January
Everyone single one of you
(It’s January)
Everyone single one of you
(It’s January)
Everyone single one of you 

January
(It’s January)
January
(It’s January)
January
(It’s January)
January 

This song was suggested by the excellent Douglas Wolk. Thanks, Douglas!
I had previously been unfamiliar with the original, and if you are too, here it is on the youtubes for your listening pleasure. While I wasn’t super into the track, I thought the words were pretty spot on for where I am right now, and so it became the clear winner amongst an admittedly small group of January songs to choose from.

If you have a suggestion for a month-named-song you’d like to hear me do, please leave a comment, or drop me an email!

This January was a huge amount of change all at once.
This month I:

+ Moved to the mission. My house is number 12 1/2 & I adore that so very much.
+ Got a new input device to record with. (MOTU Traveller Mk3)
+ Celebrated Chinese New Year in the pouring rain– throwing fireworks into the street as part of the Chinatown bang. I got to share this with 3 of my favorite people in the world & it felt like the fresh start that I was really needing after all the craziness at the end of last year.
+ Got offered my first solo gallery show in years.
+ Booked a show with Corpus Callosum for March.
+ Bought more furniture than I ever have in my entire life thusfar– new house pictures coming after it all ships to me.
+ Found out a story I wrote and drew for an anthology about 5 years ago is finally going to come out this year.

All in all, despite a lot of transition, this has been a pretty great month.
Here’s hoping the next one keeps going in that direction!

I’m playing a show on December 1^st at The Lost Church with my dear friend Myrrh Larsen, and you all should come.

I imagine this set will be full of things you haven’t heard from me in a long time as well as things you’ve never heard before.

Also this is my favorite venue in SF right now, and it’s only got 50 seats!
They assure me that the link for presale tickets will be up at TheLostChurch.com really soon, so check there to see if you can get tickets ahead of time.

It would really mean a lot to me if you’d come.

<3
S

[Photos by Tim Riot]

This year for halloween, I was feeling the pressure of trying to top the previous year’s costume.

I had no ideas for weeks, but luckily at the last minute– inspiration struck.

A quick trip to the nearest vintage store later, I had everything I needed to be Frida Kahlo.

If you’ve been reading this blog, and you know anything about Frida, then you know that this is probably the most appropriate costume I could put together.

I went out on Friday with Melinda and Marie, and even won the Cat Club halloween contest. 

Can’t wait to do it again next year!