Last year Thaddeus called me up and said we'd managed to piggyback ourselves onto a Klez Katz (sometimes spelled Klez Kats in the press...) gig at the Seattle Academy of Fine Arts for their annual, all day long "drawing jam." Since that time the school has changed its name to Gage Academy of Art, but the drawing jam goes on.

I had a blast last year and was really looking forward to this year as well. It didn't let me down.

In the first place, this gig clicks right in with my personal fantasy™.

I blog about my personal fantasy™ quite a bit and have finally gotten around to doing a "static page" about it. If you've never heard/read the explanation before, check out the link at the top right of this page.

You can stream an mp3 of "Goddess Kring" in a lo-bandwidth or a hi-bandwidth format or even download it (the download is the hi-fi version).

On the way home from the gig the conversation between Thad and I turned briefly to science fiction conventions. In a way this gig is like a convention (at least, back when I was going to a lot of them... about a 10-year span with probably 40 or so I attended in that time).

For one, at an SF convention you're immersed in a world that you enjoy. Pretty much everybody at the hotel is there for the con, costumes and artwork abound, giving you the visual cues and much of the conversation is SF/Fantasy related.

For another, there are people that you will only see once a year at a particular convention, even if they happen to live right in your area.

Much the same this year.

The Klez Katz had to go on shortly after we arrived and I had some free time to roam about. On the top floor, as they did last year, there was a wine/beer bar and a "cafe" room set up. Good munchies and the nice folks gave all of the musicians tickets that you could exchange for same. I got a cup of vin ordinaire and wandered towards the end of the hallway (which they have set up with round tables in true sidewalk cafe fashion) to listen to the Cedar Beam Conspiracy. This is the same two cats I'd met last year, in about the same spot (other side of the hallway though) who were playing the... well, not "free jazz", which tends toward atonality but definitely on the experimental side.

I listened for a while and got this pic of them jamming away.You can see part of the "sidewalk cafe" thang in the background there and the paintings on the wall are from their "Alumni Show." Very good work.

What really kills me about this pic is that I took the digital camera down there with the express purpose of asking someone to get a few pics of Snake Suspenderz (i.e. Thad and I). I even got it out and snapped a few pics of CBC... and then completely forgot to take any pics of the Klez Katz or have anyone take any pics of us. I will ask you to remember that I was having a grand ol' time playing music and forgive me this lapse.

Last year we played in the "nude" room (which is directly behind me as I snapped the above pic). That's where Shannon (aka Goddess Kring) was modeling. This year they put us in the "Jester" room and when we arrived there was a bunch of artists drawing folks who were posing in superhero costumes. But by the time we got to go on they were back to nekkid folk -- y'think they're trying to tell us something? -- and there she was again! Last year she snapped this pic of us together (just outside the main entrance) and I'm posting it again because it's one of my favorites.

(BTW... you can click on any of these pics and get a full-sized popup of them.)

While I didn't get any pics of the Klez Katz you can go here and see a full-length concert of them in Real Media format. Bear in mind that neither the bassist nor the flautist was there with them and they had a lovely lady named Sarah Funk on violin. Yep, that's Sarah to the right.

We ended up having part of our set be a little jam session as Sarah sat in and one of the artists there (a fella named Andrew Hare) asked if he could sit in on drums and proceeded to do some very tasty brush and snare work. We exchanged contact info and are going to get together for some jams. Suddenly we're a four-piece combo! w00t!

I tried to find info online about Andrew and it looks like he's a Science Fiction fan himself as I found this pic of him taken at an SF convention. Interesting bit of synchronicity, eh? And I think that the artwork here and here also belongs to him but I'm not 100% on that. Andrew, if you're reading this, leave a comment and let me know!

All in all, a great night living in my personal fantasy™. Thanks much Harvey, Thad, Gage and all the great artists and musicians there. Hope we can do it all again next year!