People With Their Cars Notes
The idea of the tour and shows was primarily to have our friends who were all musicians, get involved in what we were more interested in at the time: photography and art. With the organizational skills and venue knowledge acquired with my job at Dischord Records, selling my book, Banned in DC and booking both bands and art at d.c. space, I eventually organized three years of exhibitions each with a two week to one month run. Pat also helped with booking bands and venues and making flyers, distributing and promoting. Because galleries planned their exhibition schedules years in advance we opted for using empty spaces, cafes and clubs for our tour, as there was availability in short notice. I devised a special packing system with instructions and was shipped primarily through UPS (A box got lost once and found later so the show in San Francisco was not complete.) Each city required special individual promotional focus. This was at the advent of email yet websites were not yet in use. Flyers were made for each show and mailed to friends in the exhibition city to distribute. I made stickers of the tour itinerary that I would post on lamp posts and bathroom walls while traveling on the Interstate. Friends, who working primarily in the punk music scene, found space to exhibit or would either hang the exhibit or I would meet the exhibit and hang it or come at the end of an opening reception or closing reception. For example, I met the San Francisco show and had a closing reception and took it down, then drove the entire exhibit to Los Angeles, where I hung it and had an opening reception. Basically, there was either an opening reception or closing reception but never both for each exhibit. Bands performed at many of the openings. Some of the receptions neither Pat nor Cynthia attended due to the cost and distance of travel to attend, but the venues were excited to be involved with pulling people in from the music community around an art show, which at the time had not been done within this scene of musicians.
Highlights of the tour were:
- Bellingham, Washington: Pat had become friends with a young band named Modest Mouse. He asked the singer/songwriter, Isaac Brock to perform in the musician’s home town of Bellingham, Washington where the show was exhibiting.
- Los Angeles, California: Michael Stipe and photographer Julian Wasser were in attendance.. the band who performed was Tom Grimley on Guitar and Petra Haden on violin.
- London, England: The show also exhibited in London at the ICA in December 1997 and also at Rough Trade Records in London.. to promote the exhibit at the ICA. Make Up: Blue is Beautiful film showed the night of the opening.
- Cincinnati, Ohio: The exhibit opening in Ohio was with filmmaker James Schneider where we showed the film, "Make Up: Blue is Beautiful".
How the photo series "Musician from DC with their Cars" started:
"Musicians from DC and their Cars" (or later renamed "favorite mode of transport") was first created for the Chicago based and nationally distributed ‘zine, "Speed Kills" in about 1994. I wanted to contribute to my favorite ‘zine at the time, called Speed Kills, of which its’ topics usually covered indie and punk music and old cars. I owned a 1963 Ford Falcon, and at the time, my musician friends were all buying old cars. I then decided to create a photographic body of work that included the obvious: musicians from DC who owned old cars. I showed the original exhibit of about 13 images in Sidney, Australia in December 1995 and also at the Washington Project for the Arts in 1996. When I exhibited my show in Sidney, I created a small postcard packet of Silver Gelatin photographs in a set made to be used as postcards. I liked the idea so much, that when I returned from Austrailia, I worked with a printer in North Carolina, using non bleached recycled paper, and newly introduced soy ink, to create ecologically sound postcards in an edition of 1500. As the tour with Pat continued, I created in all, four sets with seven images each, all of which sold out. You can see images of these cards here here on my website: under the Postcards heading and described as "As Seen in Speed Kills".
Tour dates of Cynthia Connolly's "Musicians from Washington, DC with their favorite mode of Transport" (as seen in Speed Kills) and Pat Graham’s "Photos of some of the same People Live! in their Band"(as seen in many a zine)
- January-March 1996: Milwaukee Wisconsin at the Fuel Cafe
- April-June 1996: Chicago Illinois at the Logan Beach Cafe
- End of June, 1996: Bellingham, Washington at the Show Off Gallery
- July 1996: Seattle, Washington: Vox Populi
- August 1996: Olympia, Washington at The Capitol Theater
- September 1996: Portland, Oregon at Fellini’s
- October-Nov 6th, 1996: San Francisco, California at Muddy’s
- November- mid January: Los Angeles, California at No Life Records
- mid-January 1997- February: Tempe, Arizona at Stinkweeds
- March - mid April, 1997: Austin, Texas at Sound Exchange-21st and Guadaloupe. 512-476-8742.
- April 13th- May25, 1997: Athens, Georgia at Guaranteed at 167 East Broad Street 706-208-0962.
- June 1997 : Miami, Florida at Space Cadette
- July 7th-late August, 1997: Maryland, Mt. Rainier at Joe’s Movememt Emporium
- September 2-October 11, 1997: Washington, DC-9:30 Club-815 V Street, NW
- November 28th- December 5th, 1997: London, England, Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Opening: November 28th. (and also at Rough Trade Records before to promote the exhibition at the ICA)
- March and April 1998: Pat Graham and the photos toured with The Make-Up in Europe (in a book you could view at the "merchandise" table)
- March 12th to April 30th, 1998: Ohio, Cincinnati- The Comet at 4579 Hamilton Avenue
- July 1998: Arlington, Virginia: Borders Books at 1301 Hayes Street right near Pentagon City. Opening was July 1st at 7PM with Sea Tiger playing.
- August 1998-January 1999: Washington, DC: DC/CD 2423 18th Street, ,NW 202-588-1810. Hours of operation are: Monday-Thursday 11AM-12 midnight, Friday: 11AM-2AM, Saturday: 10AM-2AM, Sunday: 12 Noon-10PM. Opening Monday, August 10th at 8PM. Sea Tiger and Boom play at 10PM.