Exposure and Mail Art are Stuck in VT

WRUV's Exposure [21]
Mail Art [22]

I gotta say that I really enjoyed shooting both of these vlogs. I had never been to the Billings basement to see WRUV before and now that they are moving, I am really glad I got the chance. Jeremy and Scottum are so chill and The Hero Cycle are a great band (John even made me a little cheat sheet with band member names, awww).

It is so cool meeting hard working, dedicated, creative people who are doing what they LOVE, not for any reason besides the way it makes them feel inside. After Exposure, I walked home across campus totally amped and hyper, like I had just been to some amazing show that no one knew about but me.

Friday I drove out to Barre to meet the Mail Art ladies. I was late and drove really fast and arrived feeling guilty. From the moment I walked in the door, Gabrielle and Delia (and her dog!) had me laughing my head off (how to hold the camera steady!?) and feeling totally inspired.

When you meet people so full of life, guts, art and creativity, it is impossible not to feel hopeful about the future and the present. It is a great show and everyone should go to see it Friday in Barre at Studio Place Arts:

Friday, April 27, 5:30-7:30 PM
Opening Reception for 3 new shows at SPA

Main Gallery: Window Jazz Inventions: New paintings by James McGarrell
Second Floor Gallery: Mail Art Show
Third Floor Gallery: The Need to Conceal: Works by James Juron

More and more, I am realizing this vlog is about creativity, obsession and happiness. Why did Gabrielle and Delia mail each other dog toys when they were neighbors? Why do the 7 members of The Hero Cycle cram into a tiny van and drive across the country for pennies? Why do Jeremy and Scottum spend 5 hours every week untangling cords? Why do I pull an all nighter once a week to finish these vlogs when it is surely shaving months off my life?

The answers to all these things are, of course, something only Anais Nin really knows:

Living never wore one out so much as the effort not to live.
Anais Nin

The dream was always running ahead of me. To catch up, to live for a moment in unison with it, that was the miracle.

Anais Nin

There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.
Anais Nin

The Hero Cycle Rocks WRUV

I have long heard tales about WRUV's Wednesday night show, "Exposure" (90.1FM, Wednesdays 8-10pm) and finally got the chance to check it out for myself last night. Walking across the UVM campus in the warm-ish weather, I got one of those surges of happiness that only spring and college campuses can inspire.

I rode my bike downtown earlier in the day and felt rusty and out of shape but glad to finally be out of doors. It looks like Spring is finally, knock on wood, almost, sort of....here?!

The Hero Cycle (MySpace) drove up in a green van nicknamed "The Cage" which is outfitted with lots of Mad Max style mesh grating to keep their equipment safe whilst they are on tour. Sadly, it didn't do the trick and on their last tour they got their GPS ripped off (it has since been replaced with a handy dandy compass).

The Hero Cycle is effervescent indie rock at its finest and their new album, Lakes and Ponds has an Australian distributor which is sure to get them the exposure (no pun intended) that they deserve. 6 guys and 1 girl will be hitting the road this summer, crammed into The Cage along with all their all equipment (I still don't believe this is possible) - they sleep sitting up with pillows on their laps. You should definitely check 'em out if they come to your town (or get proactive and book them in your town).

Jeremy and Scottum are the masterminds behind Exposure, a show which brings local bands live to your airwaves. Exposure is a labor of love and Jeremy and Scottum obviously dig what they are doing despite how exhausting it can be at times. Wednesday was particularly rough - cramming 7 band members into a tiny cord-covered room and using every single one of the available 16 tracks to make 'em sound awesome.

The WRUV space is currently in Billings basement and is distressed in the best sort of way with every inch of space covered with a sticker, a poster or graffiti. The walls are lined with hundreds of albums and CDs which are carefully labeled by genre. It's a well-lived in and well-loved space and I hope the magic isn't lost when they move to the new building.

Once all the sound checks were finished, The Hero Cycle exploded into 2 sets of delicious bubbly music. It felt like being in a club, a very private club with two empty fluorescent lit corridors on either side of you. As Scottum said, "It is like having bands come and serenade you."

When Jeremy was interviewing the band on air, he asked them about their lives and their day jobs. They all agreed that you have to love what you do since the pay is usually non-existent (I can relate) and that they think of their time playing together as a vacation. The best kind of vacation with long nights, sweaty, claustrophobic van drives and hours of setting up and breaking down equipment.

Last night was one of those shows that reaffirmed why I love making Stuck in Vermont and the core of what the vlog is about (which seems to organically be evolving over time). At its heart, Stuck in VT is about people who obsessively love what they do - usually without monetary gain. People who are fixated and hard-working and have a clear vision of what they are making/creating.

In a world where so many people are depressed, aimless and addicted to TV - it is refreshing to find motivated people who have found that secret happiness button and are pushing it repeatedly. I guess that is what Stuck in Vermont does for me. Like the very best kind of morphine drip - push, push, ahhhhh.

Exposure and The Hero Cycle will be Stuck in Vermont next week on Tuesday. Check it out! In the meantime, listen to the 4/18/07 Exposure show of The Hero Cycle here! Read Casey Rea's most awesome article about Exposure here! PS Thanks to Jeremy and Scottum for letting me visit and to The Hero Cycle for rocking us out (and for the t-shirt which I am wearing right now!).