Arts DEVO

Ghetto Tweeting So, the CAMMIES Awards Show has come and gone. Months(!) of Chico Area Music Awards madness ended with the usual hectic orgy of live music, awards-giving and Blue Moon-fueled debauchery.

There was a ton that went down, but frankly I am done. My brain is tired. I will not say CAMMIES nor any word that rhymes with it for at least six months. Instead, I turn the mic over to MCs Shecklove and Heathakilla and DJ Matt Loomis of rap crew Dr. Becky Sagers, Ph.D. via (unedited) excerpts from their live “ghetto Twitter” postings during the awards show (for the full transcript, visit the “We at the Cammies” thread on the Chico List message board at causingchaos.proboards.com):

• Sagers style live blog… Red giant loud! Host craptacular. Aubrey won award. Mamuse not in the house.

• Spark and cinder and makai win. We lose. I think we placed third.

• Oh wait we got sixth…

• Dick and jane: sweet on the uke. REALTALK.

• Psych ukulele!!!

• I wanna write something … there was a dick and jane song that was just jane and I yelled where’s the dick? But I know where it is … really I do.

• Wow tex mexing is mad hard

• Medddishun is playing. Does she know she’s in the group?

• Not a dis at all, but she could use some background dancers.

• I think she could use kid n play as background dancers.

• big moe is about to kill it. Blog later after big moe.

• Well it’s the big mo!

• Big moe with the 4-peat!!

• I think I might puke during big moe… But in a good way

• Jesse, Cody & moondog are feelin’ the love. Big moe brings people together.

• Nudity.

• SHANKERS WIN!!!!!

• Show over?

Promises were made There could be no better time for a road trip than the day after that music-awards-show-that-will-not-be-named. And thanks to one Tim “Corn Dog” Ervin (he of Mid Fi fame and, more important, one of Arts DEVO’s BFFFs) and his friendly invitation to come visit him in Portland (“I’m tired as fuck of waiting. So let’s pretend I have cancer.”), I pointed the Volvo wagon north and didn’t stop for seven hours and 15 minutes.

Ten minutes into Stump Town, Tim “Barefoot Honky” Ervin and I were on bikes headed for a two-day run-on sentence of warm, friendly consumption: First, Chicago-style dogs and pints at Zach’s Shack with Chico ex pats Mark Lore, Alexis Harmon, Kelly Bauman and Todd Steinberg, followed by basement house party (more ex pats: Pat Rogers, Liam Flannigan, Jennifer Costello, Nick Closson) with my noisy indie-pop buddy Rob Jones‘ new crew The Valiant Arms; then homemade brew till 4 a.m. at Camp Corn Dog, noon Eggs Benedict, then hipster street: a “cupping” party at Stump Town Coffee, spicy Bloody Marys while watching rain, Jandek CD from Exiled Records (run by more Chico types: Lindsey Thrasher, Scott Simmons); trapped in the rain; Bulls and Celtics and pitchers of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale; Eli‘s fast car across town; free buttons from Rachael “The Button Girl” Starkweather (thebuttongirl.com); spicy wings at Fire on the Mountain; Pendejo (feat. Thinking Fellers’ Mark Davies, and former Chico tile-master Christen Derr) doing obscure covers in obscure bar (with more Chico: Scott Derr, John Fentress); more homemade brew; more Stump Town flavor; St. Cupcake‘s toasted coconut cream; free personalized Koozies from Corn Dog’s wife, Merritt (pdxsoftgoods.com); bagels with old-school BFFF Shawna Gore and her bike-addicted hubby, Ian; rescuing the bikes from Zach’s Shack; and back in the Volvo and home. My liver hurts and I’m nodding off as I write this, but it was just the getaway my spirit needed.

DEVOtion Just got word from painter, comic artist and former Voice Magazine art director Daniel Vera about two hip and worthy goings-on this week. Vera and his group, Artist’s Initiative, are hosting two live music/art events to raise money to purchase books, graphic novels and children’s storybooks to donate to area schools.

Show one goes down Sunday, May 10, 5 p.m., at Lost on Main, and features Mute Witness, Joybook, Zach Zeller, Fera, Boy Elephant and more, and show two happens next Thursday, May 14, at Café Coda, and will include Bear Hunter, Jody Nixon, Wicked Honey and Ana Lucia. Both shows feature art by Vera, Ellen Akimoto, Little Bird and David Selkirk, plus a sliding-scale cover of $5-$10.