Mousy Babe
this is an ode to a good and strange life. we’re in a band. we work sometimes. we travel a lot. we drink coffee, alcohol and gasoline. sometimes we fight and struggle with weird problems. but best of all we meet some weirdass people.Archive for November, 2008
project Inamorati
this coming sunday will be the inaugural studio session to record “inamorati,” our little watch-and-listen holiday project. suz and i wrote and performed the song last december at the Washington Social Club’s holiday extravaganza at the 9:30 Club, and it features the beautiful voices of fellow District songstresses laura burhenn (ex-georgie james) and may tabol (pree and ex-le loup).
e.l.m.s.:
tracking will take place at eamonn aiken’s studio, keeping our fingers crossed for a release before xmas time! do stay tuned, as we’ll try to document as much of the process as we can through cell phone footage, mousybabe, facebook and twitterage updates. at the very end, we’ll reveal all the fruits of our labor right here on mousybabe, in the form of a tiny 3MB package of sound, the ‘inamorati’ mp3. what better way to usher in peace and love in the new year?
on december 25, we’ll be streaming this tune from mousybabe.com. if you would like to receive the song in your email account on xmas morning, drop us your email addy: mousybabe@gmail.com.
Sweetness, Sweetness. Bigmouth, La.
(note The Smiths reference. Exit Clov is getting ready to pick a Smiths song to record for a compilation!)
So our cousin Ellen’s in town and you know what that means – time to overeat. We have an uncanny genetic ability to appreciate food. Some snapshots of food we’ve already inhaled.
Coco Sala 929 F St. NW – a fine dessert brunch place in Gallery Place that we tried for the first time. I’m a savory treats person so I was a little daunted by the thought of sweet food for a meal. But it turns out there was nothing to fear and much to relish. Just look at this delightful dish called French Toast S’mores and warm banana compote (left). Ellen and I shared that and the Cheese Souffle with Blue Cheese Pear Salad, which I’m convinced I was quite possibly born to eat (right).
Aftermath. We done good.
As it turns out, we didn’t get enough so we also dropped by the ACKC Cocoa Bar, 1529C 14th St. NW just down the street from Black Cat. How to dee-scribe (with a pensive Chinese accent) … This was like heaven and hell melded into one candy store space. You’re surrounded by millions of sweets, of which you could only eat a decadent and sinful fraction. Unfortunately, some of the staff were not quite as sweet as the chocolates, nor even the decor. One dude seemed ready to strangle someone if they didn’t pick up the “LATTE!!!” on the counter. That somebody happened to be me 
But alas, we toasted each other to a round of decadent hot chocolate.
Sven is literally … a kid in a candy store.
The Jeffrey Bears Family
every once in a while, mousybabe features an artist (music, crafts or otherwise) doing something to add to the dazzling entropy of the artistic world. today’s feature involves a little happy family of “bears,” 
dreamed up by our friend jeffrey. by day, jeffrey is a designer of underwear patterns in new york city. by nights and weekends, jeffrey tends to his pack of bears. well, some of them aren’t really bears, more like a race of mutants, endearingly named the “jeffrey bear cousins.” for starters, meet T.V., Miqua, Quavi and Caver (clockwise from top left):
check out the rest of the family at the jeffreybears web site (complete with animated electronic postcards and games) or buy some goodies at the jeffreybears etsy shop. i am a proud owner of a jeffreybears membership card featuring little Quavi:
Whoa me golly… Armageddon!
This had Ryan jumping for joy like an 8-year-old last night as we drove to see the Drunken Sufis at DC9. It was on full blast, I had to keep trying to turn it down on the sly without him noticing. It was kind of a trip to hear Axl’s voice again. (sigh) Chinese Democracy … only in America. Kind of like Obama for president.
Chuck Klosterman’s take on the album already on the AV Club, courtesy of Ryan.
imoM Show at Rock’n'Roll Hotel!
We’re excited to announce another craft show that imoM will be a part of. It’s the DC Roller Girls Holiday Bash & Craft Fair on Sunday, Dec. 14! We’ll be one of about 10 vendors at the party at Rock’n'Roll Hotel, which runs from 6-10pm.
If you haven’t heard of imoM, it’s a fun project we’ve been doing with our mom, brother (Hedgehog), and sister-in-law Mags. Our dad, who passed away last year from a brain tumor, was an artist, so he left piles and piles of artwork that’s too great to just sit in his basement studio. So we printed them on cards and posters, and thus imoM came about! It stands for ‘in memory of Ming.’ Mags also has made acrylic earrings and necklaces in the form of his LOVE series.
Incidentally, it was a nice surprise to hear kind words about our dad’s artwork while we were on tour last week! Maybe one day we’ll bring it with us on tour.
Mags modeling a pair of white earrings 
Em with our imoM display at the Ballston Craft Fair this past spring.
It works out, as I’ve been meaning to see what all the fuss is about DC Roller Girls. 
A friend of ours, Damien, who helps with Clov promo also promotes DC Roller Girls and has been talking them up. In the spirit of supporting independent arts, check out the new company he co-founded called LoFidelity Promotions. It’s sort of an offshoot of the battle to save the local record shop Strangeland Records in Annandale, VA, these last couple of years. Alas, the store closed its doors, to rest in peace next to Olsson’s Books and Records and Orpheus Records.
Since so many promotional teams are opting to go “online-only”, we’ll continue to be those people dropping posters in local businesses, handing out fliers outside of shows and generally talking to anybody interested in supporting local music. – Damien & Ryon, LoFidelity Promotions
I Have a Dream
j/k. but i HAD a dream. a pretty nutty one too. it made me wake up laughing out loud. in the dream, susan and i were talking to this weird orphan boy for some reason. he looked a little like the kid from The Jungle Book cartoon, but even more tattered and dirty. 
in the middle of our conversation, susan ran off to some gumball machine thingamajig and bought this fake plastic model of a human upper lip with rotten front teeth. gleefully, she ran back over to where I was talking to him, grabbed the kid’s head and stuck the upper lip on him. the kid looked at me with such a look of horror and dumbfoundedness at what had just happened, the new set of rotted out plastic teeth protruding from his mouth. something about it was explosively hilarious to me. i woke up realizing i was shaking with laughter. some things in life just have no explanation.
Strangeness in Taiwan: Installment #5
Chinese people’s idea of a horror movie. A pale child with red eyes. I guess some things are universal across all cultures.
Shannon Cloud Cult’s Violin
‘It’s old and French and I love it to death.’ ~Shannon Cloud Cult on her violin.
AWOL with Cloud Cult & Mason Proper
We’re on tour at the moment so most of our updates are at exitclov.com. It’s been a treat getting to hear two fantastically great bands every night.
‘We’ll start a little family and call it our religion,
hunt for ghosts inside our house
because we’ll never give up wishing’
~ from Cloud Cult’s ‘The Ghost Inside Our House’
Connie and and Scott from Cloud Cult prepping the canvases downstairs before the show in Danbury, CT. The theme was scary people with masks and antlers growing out of their heads.
We were sorry to bid adieu to Mason Proper after last night’s show. They’re off to Durham, NH, today.
After the Danbury, CT show the place turned into a dance party! You can see Arlen, Shannon, and Sarah of Cloud Cult cuttin loose Good times!
The Making of ‘District Menagerie: The Single’. Installment #2
Day 2! Carlos and Tom set the screen up for print — drilling clamps into the table to hold the screen in place.
A nice stash of chemicals and cran-grape juice to keep us going, compliments of Tom.
Pedal junkie Patrick Bellflur provides background music while field testing his brand new toy…
Carlos (below) makes some measurements so we know where to place the CD covers.
Mixing in the paint thinner…
Time for the first test run! We load the paint…
Squeegee the paint across the screen…
And… yay. The first born.
Susan takes a turn at the squeegee helm…
Meanwhile, the installation masterpiece I’m creating in the abandoned artspace next door…
140 CD cases later, it’s time to clean off the red paint.
The boys run outside to hose down the screen on the front lawn of the mansion…
