AD.

WALKING ON THIN ICE

Postcard post

February 18, 2012 1 Comment

postcard by Lady K – foto Smith

Lady and I handmade some postcards for a local show opening Friday. Here they be.

Press Release:

Possibly the last postcard Show
Opening February 24th, 2012, 5pm-7pm

The United States Postal Service has hit some hard times but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun while it still exists.

Postcards mailed to the show will be displayed so that both sides are visible, when possible. The image side will be displayed unless
otherwise noted by the artist.

Works will be for sale so please include a price and the percentage split you desire on the card. Any and all revenue to the gallery will
benefit future operations of the aforementioned space.

Gallery Wolfy Part II
2676 West 14th Street
Cleveland, Ohio 44113-5216






postcards & fotos by Smith

Zero Man

February 17, 2012 1 Comment

Zero Man – foto Smith

That’s the Plan, Stan

I’m going to become Zero Man
paint a big 0 on my nude body’s hairless chest.

I will fly around and do nothing
thus saving the world from too much something.

I will be parsed and faultered
part and parceled

both in name of game
and asp of Academia.

Yet I will unbundle
hopefully prepaid.

And prosper.

— Smith, 2.17.2012




more Zero Man possible chest emblems – fotos Smith

Rest Room Rue

February 16, 2012 1 Comment

Kitchen sink – foto Smith

Rest Room Rue

The round black hole of nothing
in the square white bathroom sink of something
swallows toothpaste
clipped beard
shaved head
eyebrow pluck
anti-bacterial soap
withdraws dirt and squirt and spurt.
It does its job.

I look into the mirror
wonder
am I doing mine?

— Smith, 2.14.2012

I was on Blackbird’s blog on MySpace on Valentine’s Day and read her challenge to write a poem in 5 minutes or less on the topic of “withdrawal and the bathroom sink”. So I did. Thanks for the spark.


Bathroom sink – foto Smith

Booze Lose Blues

February 15, 2012 No Comments

Booze – foto Smith

Was going to record a country song yesterday so I spent the night before on YouTube with Hank Williams, Kris Kristofferson, Hank Thompson, Roger Miller, Buck Owens, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash et al seeing what I could beg, borrow and steal for my own deal.

Well I should have spent time with Captain Beefheart and Dr John instead cuz for sure this ain’t no country song, least wise no country I know. Not sure what it is . . . maybe Gravel Rock.

Anyway, here’s Booze Lose Blues at reverbnation.com/play_now/song_12214737.

Music, mix and recording by Peter Ball of Apartment One; voice and words me.

Here are the lyrics; had to chop the original poem and add a chorus to make it fit. Think I like it.

Booze Lose Blues

Oh I gotta small brain, no social skill
frequently off aim, caused a lot of ill
dog’s in the pound, my gal with better fella
I totter around, trying not to teeter
but the one thing I can claim as my crown
I got the longest short term memory gap in town

The liquor cuts a whole in my pocket
while packing pounds on my frame
people whispering I’ve lost it
chasing high instead of game
and they’re right, I’m going down
on the longest short term memory gap in town

   Oh I’ve mastered the stumble in tumble and fall
   and I’m extra expert at messing it all
   but to tell you true I ain’t got no clue
   bout these back breaking booze lose blues

That thing I said that I can’t remember
came back to haunt my future en mass
my misses I cover, the rest reassemble
I stink of self and resemble an ass
my sins replicate clones of their own
in long term short memory grasp of the groan

Got holes in my knees from concrete crawling
weepy cheeks from tear beer crying
it’s hard to walk cuz I keep falling
if I said this was fun I’d be lying
but I keep losing truth like a clown
living in long time short term memory gap town

   Oh I know how to stumble and tumble and fall
   and I’m extra expert at messing it all
   but to tell you true I still got no clue
   bout breaking these booze lose blues

There are 39 Ball & Smith songs at reverbnation.com/mutantsmith.


Eveland – foto Smith

Smith 0, Lady 2

February 14, 2012 No Comments

Reincarnation – foto Smith

Two short poems, same title, same subject, from one couple, 45 years apart, one written at 21, the other at 39.

~ ~ ~

reincarnation

born again
worn again

— Lady K, 2.7.2012

~ ~ ~

Reincarnation

How weary do I journey on my way
Travel metered not by mile but by day
Seeking naught the moment signing this way’s end
But instead the mending of my last way’s wend

— Smith. 1967

~ ~ ~

She won that one. This one too.

Yesterday as we were starting our walk I stopped and stooped to fix my shoe, saying, “If we’re walking down that hill, I have to tighten my laces.”

“What, too loose to trek?” she quipped to my shortened stature.

Smith 0, Lady 2.

Happy Valentine’s Day to my love. In this one we both win infinity to infinity.


9 lives – foto Smith

Longest short term memory gap in town

February 13, 2012 1 Comment

Pour vor – foto Smith

“I’ve got the longest short term memory gap in town.” – Smith

I’ve wanted to use that line for thirty years, even though I stopped drinking 21 years ago. Always thought it’d make a great country & western song. Or blues. So I finally broke down and did it. Hopefully be recording this with Apartment One tomorrow.

I had a LOT of memory gaps in 1981-85 living mostly on alcohol illegally on the 4th floor of a downtown warehouse. Had 3,000 square feet, four 12 foot windows overlooking Lake Erie and nine more facing downtown Cleveland, Terminal Tower five blocks away — for which I paid all of $300 rent.

Booze Lose Blues

I may have a small brain
and limited social skills
am frequently off aim
done caused a lot of ill
but one thing I can claim as crown
I got the longest short term memory gap in town

Lost my dog to the pound
my gal to a better feller
I totter around
trying not to teeter
but there’s just too much losing ground
when my main line memory map’s down

The liquor cuts a whole in my pocket
while packing pounds upon my frame
people whispering I’ve lost it
chasing the high instead of the game
and they’re right that I’m going down
with the longest short term memory gap in town

I forget my excuses cuz there’s no one home
lose out on sex cuz there ain’t no bone
introduce myself to folks already known
forget how many friendships I’ve blown
in the school of fool I’m cap and gown
the longest short term memory gap around

That thing I just said that I can’t remember
will come back to haunt my future en mass
my misses I cover and the rest dissemble
I stink of self and resemble an ass
my sins replicate clones of their own
in long term short memory grasp of the grown

Got holes in my knees from concrete crawling
weepy cheeks from tear beer crying
it’s hard to walk cuz I keep falling
if I said this was fun I’d be lying
but I keep losing truth like a clown
living in long time short term memory gap town

— Smith, 2.13.2012


Bad advice – foto Smith

Pieces of Smiths

February 12, 2012 3 Comments

Tinkerbell, 1997 – assemblage & foto Smith

A few pieces from last Friday’s Smith family art show — Sacred Pulp: Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths. Will post more of the 64 pieces over the next few weeks


Wins of War – assemblage & foto Smith

K59, 2006 by Lady K – foto Smith

Downstairs, 1996 – assemblage & foto Smith

Gotcha, 1999 by Mother Dwarf – foto Smith

Gotcha, 1999 by Mother Dwarf, detail – foto Smith

Offworld V, 2007 by lady K – foto Smith

Parent, 1982 by Cat – foto Smith

Parent, 1982 by Cat, detail- foto Smith

Pharmacy Duchamp, 1986 – assemblage & foto Smith

Corridor, 1999 by Mother Dwarf – foto Smith

1999 by Lady K, 2011 – foto Smith

Parking Only, 1997 – assemblage & foto Smith

Self Cemtered, 1994 – assemblage & foto Smith

nowhere always goes somewhere

February 11, 2012 No Comments

snow steps – foto Smith

Fallen sparrow tracks
In the snow lead nowhere
Follow anyway

Smith 2010


step snow – foto Smith

a baker’s dozen or a dozen bakers?

February 10, 2012 2 Comments

“Like a bird on a wire . . .” – foto Smith

“Things are in the saddle, And ride mankind” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It doesn’t pay to beat a dead hearse.” – Smith

“It is better to be at odds with the whole world than, being one, to be at odds with myself,” – Socrates

“Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

“When truth is replaced by silence, the silence is a lie.” – Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Lauren Bacall to Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep: “Why did you have to go on?” “Too many people told me to stop,” he replies.

“The doing is the essence, the done but distant dream.” – Smith

“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” – Socrates

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
— Walt Whitman, verse 51 of Leaves of Grass

“Rain rots what is kept wrapped, but not what is uncovered.” – Buddha Tathagata

“If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern.” – William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” – Lao Tzu (600-300 BC ?)

“The pursuit may well be the goal in disguise.” – Abdul ben Camel


detail of Corridor by Mother Dwarf – foto Smith

detail of Future Fact I by Lady K – foto Smith

Hope to see you at the show tonight.

4th Dimensional Smith Family Art Show
64 pieces from 1969-2012

Sacred Pulp
Two Dead Smiths, Two Live Smiths
featuring
Mother Dwarf Smith, 1926 – 2005
Cat Smith, 1957 – 1987
Lady K. Smith, 1972 – ?
Steven B. Smith, 1946 – ?

February 10 – March 10, 2012
Mastroianni Arts
2688 W 14th St, Cleveland, OH 44113
(in Tremont, 2 blocks south of Lincoln Park)

Scene blurb 4 2morro nite’s Smith family show

February 9, 2012 No Comments

art by Lady K – foto Smith

“Sometimes you have to play a long time to be able to play like yourself.” ~ Miles Davis

Received a blurb for our show tomorrow in this week’s Scene Magazine.

At the Tremont Art Walk: A Family Affair
by Joseph Clark, Scene Magazine Feb 8-14,2012

Steven B. Smith, Tremont’s assemblage artist, poet, and “fotographer,” brings his family album to Mastroianni Arts. Sacred Pulp: Two Dead Smiths + Two Live Smiths distinguishes itself as an exhibition both elaborate and personal. The four Smiths in question are the artist, his wife Lady K, his late mother “Mother Dwarf” (Florence Elizabeth Smith), and his late brother “Cat” (Vincent Allen Smith). Sacred Pulp displays the family’s multimedia collages, more than 100 of which are kept in Steven’s apartment. “It’s one of the finest shows I’ve ever seen,” he says. “It’s basically what I see every day, and I wanted other people to see it.” What viewers are in for is an evocative — sometimes provocative — experience, thanks to pieces like Lady K’s Mona Squared (pictured), which takes an icon as a starting point. An opening reception is set for Friday, February 10, from 6 to 10 p.m., during the Tremont Art Walk. In addition, Steven and Lady K have interwoven their visual and written works into poetry. The two will host a reading March 3 from 2 to 4 p.m. with Kate Sopko and Cavana Faithwalker. The exhibit runs though March 10 at 2688 West 14th St. Call 216-235-6936 or go to mastroianniarts.com to learn more.

Actual blurb at clevescene.com/cleveland/on-view-this-week/Content?oid=2818592.

Hope to see you there. This is one I’m proud of, hence this week of shameless self promotion.


Lotus Blossom, 2000, 14″ x 9″ – assemblage & foto Smith