Look What The Mail Brought, Modern Sainthood, Koogmo And A Collage from Ryosuke Cohen

It's amazing how receiving a few pieces of mail can change my outlook on the day and make me happy. This past Thursday that very thing happened to me. It's not as if I was sad or angry or anything along those lines but just receiving what you see below certainly made my day.

This is the cover over Modern Sainthood zine as well as a postcard of art from editor (and writer) Eva Marie Solangon. Eva did an amazing job on the artwork, the layout and the color scheme for this issue. It's such a great job that I'm going to check out her other artwork.

So if you're asking well what's so special about that it's because for the first time ever a story of mine has been published. I'm happy to have accomplished something with my writing and am looking for opportunities to do more. As a matter of fact I have two more pieces that have been accepted in other zines and am waiting to receive them.So I got that going for me.

At first I thought a brown envelope was junk mail from on of those life insurance companies pandering to anybody they could get to respond. I was about to rip it in half when "Japan" jumped out to me. It was from Ryosuke Cohen, an artist who makes collages from drawings, stamps, pictures, etc that are sent to him. Once completed he sends a copy put to each person who has contributed. My little drawing is in the lower left corner. My wife thinks we should put it in a frame and I have to agree. This collage is really cool and interesting to look at. Perhaps in the near future I'll submit something else to Mr. Cohen. As you can see he is a fantastic artist.

Lastly is Koogmo zine.When I sent out my zines in search of other zinesters wanting to trade this is one of the last to respond but it was worth the wait. This is a great zine that I want to read more of. I devoured all of the issues rapidly and it's one that I can highly recommend. I need to step my game up. Let's see what comes in the mail next. Hope it's as good as this batch.

Tulsa Sewer Graffiti Art

This past weekend my wife, son and I decided to go to Riverside park and go into the sewer there to check out the graffiti, some of which is artistic and some, well, not so much. We went at least a quarter to a third of a mile in before turning back. We even met some fellow adventurers on their way in as we made our way out. This is some of what we saw.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.

On Saturday night I was able to see Will Hoge for free at Mayfest in Tulsa. To see an artist of his caliber let alone for free at an event like this is incredible. I missed the first few minutes of the show because I couldn't find his location. As it turned out there were two separate areas in downtown Tulsa that had streets blocked off and I wasn't in the one I wanted to be in. After I found where he was playing I was finally able to reach my wife by cellphone and she and our son found their way to me. My son enjoyed the music but by the time it was over at 11 PM he was more than ready to go home. 

 

At that point we had been there for about five hours and even though we missed the hottest part of the day (92 degrees) it was still plenty hot and we had walked around a good bit. There were lots of vendors there selling everything imaginable under the sun and lots of interesting looking people as well an exhibit of cars as art. After the sun went down it cooled off nicely which made listening to the music all that more enjoyable. This was the first time I've ever gone to Mayfest but if they keep bringing quality musicians like Will Hoge I guarantee it won't be the last.

Written and Published by Don Leach. May not be used without permission from the author.