Paul Klee, “Twittering Machine” 1922
Oil transfer drawing on paper with watercolor and ink on board with gouache and ink borders

I, along with so many others recently, have been wow’ed by Jimmy Fallon’s spot-on Neil Young impersonation. Even the camera crew appropriates the style of the 1971 Neil Young performance of ‘Heart of Gold,’ complete with superimposed vignettes from multiple angles. On top of that, Fallon’s covering the Fresh Prince makes for a wonderfully bizarre few minutes. Check it out -

And then watch ‘ol Shakey himself - with an endearing introduction as he fumbles for the right harmonica and then plays ‘Heart of Gold’ -

I went diving through a spindle full of old discs today and came up with a scan one of the first collages I ever made.  I was hanging out late one night with the Dismals at Studio By The Tracks in B’ham, and before I knew it I had scissors in one hand, modge podge in the other.  It opened up a whole new world for me.  I just wish this first one was actually good.  But, you gotta start somewhere and its fun to think back to so long ago.

February brings a big show for Uncle Marv - a two-man exhibit with pal Chris Lawson at an old amusement park turned art colony outside of DC.  We’ll get to turn out all our monster-mashes and gruesome-twosomes, and today I clamped down and added 5 pieces to the list of gory tales that shall be told:

Dear Friends,

November flew by didn’t it?  In fact, it flew by so quickly that here we are a few days inside of December with little to show for our creative output or otherwise here on the site.  We’ve been busy, I promise.  Joey’s got big plans for the new year. Uncle Marv is making a go at being a real-live artist and is currently showing collage work in DC, New Orleans and Chicago, with more shows coming up in the new year.  We have a few marvelous projects on the horizon, including a hopeful redesign of the site before the year’s end.

We were really encouraged last month by the interest taken in our story and our work by ink-stained lifer, music blogger and Birmingham Magazine writer Carla Jean Whitley.  Upon hearing about us during a Greyhaven event in Bham last spring (where our best pal Madison Blount gave us a big shout-out from the stage), Carla Jean took a look at this-here blog and decided she’d write about us.  Quite nice of her to do, huh?  The piece was featured in the November issue of Birmingham Magazine, and you can read it here: THE MARVELOUS COLLECTIVE by Carla Jean Whitley.  Ms. Whitley succinctly tells the story of our love at first sight and the five year romance thats been nothing but sunshine, roses and gentle pats on the bottom ever since Joey belted out a cigarette lighter love song right in the middle of a little ol’ Helena, Alabama coffee shop.  Gets me misty-eyed just thinking about it.  Its amazing to also think about about how next week will be the fifth anniversary of our collaboration here at tmc.com.  Thats a lot of collages and blogs about debbie cakes.  I’d say we are gonna do something great to celebrate, but I’m plum out of ideas and I’m saving my money for Joey’s Christmas presents (I’m going all out this year and gonna get him a FurReal Friends Biscuit My Lovin’ Pup, Guitar Hero: Mötley Crüe, and some bananagrams for his stocking - ssshhh, don’t tell), so we’ll probably just let it pass and look forward to another great go around the sun.  I’m pretty sure itll be a hallmark of a year.

Too fast for love,

Uncle Marv