happy thanks, y'all

Celebrating with family the Rockey family during the holidays has always been a daylong event brimming with a whole lot of food, a whole lot of people, a whole lot of noise, a whole lot of laughing. This thanksgiving, we sat around an amazing meal with grandparents and great grandparents at the home in which i spent my high school days. We heard my grandfather tell stories that my dad had never even heard before. We added a new moniker to his already long list of nicknames: Grampa Junie. It was such a quiet, joyous affair that eventually turned into creative wonderland. 

Just when it looked as though the evening would be drawing to a close, we were joined by my uncle Conrad, cousin Becca and some new friends who immediately found themselves lending voices to a surprise recording session taking place in the family room. After warming up our guests with a sing-along, i passed the baton to Olivia Jane who passed out paper and crayons to everyone and invited us all to make drawings.

Here's one of Olivia's incredible drawings paired with a lyric sheet that she requested of me.

My contribution to the collection of drawings. Old friends being thankful.

Olivia's great grandfather delighted us all with his masterful rendering of a horse.

Olivia then had everyone who contributed drawings (and vocals, by the way) sign this cover sheet for the collection. We continued to laugh and eat chocolate-covered delicacies while dreaming up nativity-inspired colors for an idea-pitch to Crayola. Possible crayon colors include "soft manger", "star of bethlehem", "donkey grey", "gold", "virgin white" and "becca's favorite".  It's difficult to imagine that this idea won't make millions of somethings.

Holiday traditions have come and gone over the years, but i'm thankful for children who inspire me and invite their family to create colorful memories together.

beautiful, beautiful zion

we now return to a rockey home companion

It's been a bit since i've given any updates regarding the house sitch and/or otherwise. The fact of the matter is, summer times have been just plain crazy pants. Things have been slow-going as we attempt raising the sag in our first floor with a couple of car jacks and evicting old insulation between our ceilings and roofs. We've gotten all kinds of intimate with our crawlspaces and attics. Bow-chicka-bow-wow, y'all.

In the meantime, baby jane started her third semester of preschool before the summer was even half over. We celebrated her fifth year with a string of parties and a slumber party with her pal bella. The two stayed up late eating popcorn and watching a movie about a girl named Saige who makes paintings of horses and watermelon-coloured mountains. Baby jane got inspired to continue pursuing the arts with a reignited passion. A few days later, we surprised her after school with some new paints and turned our front porch into a makeshift painting studio.

The doctor even got in on the action...

While he was discovering his inner pollack, baby jane dazzled us by unveiling her newest masterpiece...

Voila!

Family = A Big

Don't speak to me when i'm eating breakfast

Parables from portland

A few weeks back, me and my crew spent a weeklong holiday in the pacific northwest with my aunt and her family. 'Twas gorgeous and lovely and delightful and all. It was my first time ever on the west coast. It was the doctor's first time ever splashing in the ocean. We hiked a mile up the side of a waterfall. We were given free coffee by locals. One of us had a rock dropped on our foot by some kid messing around the side of a cliff. 

Living on the edge, y'all.

Side note: My aunt makes some fat coin selling antique dolls and such on these here interwebs. Somehow, because of that, these poor ragamuffins ended up in my notebook.

Designs for sale

Baby Jane's getting into the family business. There needs to be no explanation when you consider that she's creating work far superior to that of her old man.

This guy is her version of something that i was working on. I know. It's so totally rad and much more interesting to look at than the original. I don't even want to do a side by side comparison. Her drawing is that much better.

This is what happens when you show up two minutes late to give a proposal at a meeting and you realize that you're really about fifteen minutes early. I think it's the logo for a new campaign to promote letting go... 

or grabbing hold... 

or both.

The bat loses its wings

My four-year-old daughter and i collaborated on this conceptual piece of music about a baby bat who takes flight for the first time, loses his wings, and then must reattach them before flying home to be reunited with his mother. The whole idea included making CDs accompanied by activity books and t-shirts under the title, "The Bat Loses Its Wings". We did that; and it all originated in the mind of that tiny little lady of mine. Over the course of several months, the two of us drew all the pieces of our little project together. We then decided, after much deliberation, that we would christen our little creative outfit/band: Call Me Kitty. 

And it was so. 

These two tiny friends helped lay the instrumental groundwork for the flight of our titular character. They are the major players in the Call Me Kitty arsenal.

Here are some stax of bats and bat-related activities that have since been distributed to the people with whom we shared holiday festivities.

Feast your eyes upon this pair of masterpieces completed by two of Baby Jane's young pals. This is the young artist's dream realized. Voila!

And now, without further ado, please enjoy the following ten minutes of musical whimsey which we call...

Movement I: It Was a Lovely Day

Movement II: Taking to the Sky

Movement III: The Bat Loses Its Wings

Movement IV: Falling

Movement V: Searching...

Movement VI: Glue

Movement VII: The Bat Loses Its Wings (Reprise)

Movement VIII: Going Home

Movement IX: Mama's Wings

Thanks for listening.

Snow, man

Our kids dig building snowmen. Then they eat their frosty brains.

Happy snow days!

Fresh conception

Metaphor cocktails

One of the super-rad things about having kids is when they come to you with ideas that are both super-ambitious and ultra-inspiring. For four years now, baby jane has been witness to my many creative shenanigans including sound recordings, live performances, not-so-children's books, screen printed apparel, and the like. Sometime during the summer, she realized that while perhaps lacking the resources and know-how to see it to completion, surely she could concoct a project far more epic than anything her olde man could dream up. And so, in a flurry of well-placed compliments and dangerous hand-gestures she shared her vision with me: A redemptive story of a bat told through music and interactive visuals lovingly packaged together with a screen-printed tee shirt to be worn and/or shared with one's beloved. 

"BRRRRRRILLIANT!" i exclaimed with great joy and anticipation. We quickly got started on laying out the narrative of her story. Months later, we began to demo the movements of the musical composition. Now, here we are and the dawn of november and we're in the process of recording, mixing, drawing, creating, et al. 

The other great thing about kids is that they typically can't read your mind. Of course, there are those times when you have in mind a certain way that they will create the artwork for a project you're collaborating on, yet they throw you a curve and steer the whole thing in a slightly different direction. (Mixed metaphors are fun, huh?) In this particular case, my simple idea of an illustrated booklet has been upgraded to a more robust, slightly bigger, interactive activity book by the young architect herself.

So there it is. I'm working on a concept album with my four year old daughter. I can only imagine that it gets even more exciting from here on out. Although, at some point, she's going to discover that her olde man is holding her back and she'll surround herself with more creative folk than myself to help her bring her art to life. Shine on, you crazy diamond.

Labor daze

Be free, kids.

Colour forms

This one is a portrait of daddy riding a bicycle, although it appears to be a tricycle and/or a mickey mouse head and/or partial drum kit. Note the wild and wooly mane bursting forth from that electric blue hoodie! Nailed it, sister.

Fireworks layered on two sides of single sheet of college-ruled paper. Depth. Colour. Radiant. Ain't no indiana drought gonna keep these fireworks down.

Self-portrait by the artist. She appears to be performing a new ballet move whilst her golden curls dance in unison atop her happy green head.

All original artwork by baby jane.

copyright (c) 2012, call me kitty, all rights reserved

Walk on, children

Half a week after returning home from a week of teaching, singing, and catching up with olde and neue friends, i feel i still haven't recovered. We're trying to figure out where to go from here. I tend to lean toward making to-do lists. That may not be a bad move, but i've got a strong sense that it's about time to be still and listen before making any major decisions. Who knows, maybe the answers will reveal themselves in the crude whimsical drawings of a soon-to-be-four-year-olde.

Most likely.

This little dude's just figuring things out...

Five (hundred)

"The Triplets on Their Fifth Birthday"

by Baby Jane (ink and crayon)

Many many many years ago, i set out to make some sort of interweb presence what would serve as a platform for thoughts and observations to be shared with someone and no one in particular. 

Mission accomplished, right? 

In this little corner of the blogosphere, i've shared revelations, posted farewell letters, hosted podcasts, sung the praises of peanut butter toast, bragged about friends, announced new projects and babies, remembered loved ones who have passed on to the other side of death, rambled on about music we love (maybe most notably young mc), recounted travel adventures, introduced the magic of pingu, failed at properly labeling posts, constructed mixtapes, and peeked into sketchbooks. 

It's been a weird thing - this web blawgh thing. At times, i've felt an inexplicable obligation to post crap on here; at other times, i've stumbled upon something that clearly must be shared with the universe. Why? Who can say for sure? I do know that the very few of you who actually follow what we've got going on over here have kept me doing this five hundred times. So raise a glass/mug/carrot to you and let's see if we've got five hundred more left in us. Cheers.

Designated driving

Starlight sunshine children

Here's a collaborative effort by baby jane and myself. Note the colourful kite upon the doctor's blazing red sleeper. It looks as though these kids fell asleep in the sun. I believe this piece may or may not have been something created as a gift for mama jane in celebration of mother's day. However, it all becomes a little fuzzy when baby jane spends approximately two weeks leading up to a particular holiday adorning the recipient with gifts.

Regardless, here's to you moms.

Evolution, baby

Behold the evolution of propellerhead as foreseen by baby jane.

Kiddie pool

Sometimes you just gotta let the kids be kids.

Foldie gold

On the first day of 2012, whilst stopping for lunch on our way back from a cabin in the woods, my brother from another mother and i began discussing an idea for a collective video project. It was a lofty dream, but one which my cohort has not given up on over the past four months. The idea was for several old pals to create 40-second vignettes using video to be strung together into one singular piece. The catch was that each subsequent participant would only receive the final few seconds of the preceding video to inform the direction of their own piece. The following is the result of the first project. It's kind of a glorious mess which makes me smile every time i watch it.

Our second project was created with less strict perimeters, but it's pretty great. Try to connect the dots and watch for baby jane's amazing portrayal of janeane the secretary.

Tell your friends.