WMC 2013

Ruth and I attended the 2013 Weapons of Mass Creation Festival in Cleveland, Ohio last weekend. It was a blast! Held at the Cleveland Public Theatre (great space!), the WMC Fest is primarily for designers and bands. What was super wonderful about Ruth and I attending was that, unlike when we go to Fringe Festivals of theatre-related stuff, at WMC we were not part of the design community. I dabble in illustration and cartooning a bit, but Ruth doesn't at all. We were like strangers in a strange land and that made it all the more exciting. Most of the speakers were great, many giving really inspiring talks about the creative process in general.

I rented a car and drove out to Cleveland from Dallas. Stayed at a hostel in downtown Nashville to split up the drive. It was refreshing to get up and chat with a New Zealander over coffee. Hostels are good reminders of how big the world actually is. Ruth flew in to Cleveland on Friday night and I picked her up (she had to turn in grades).  

It was so nice to get out of town. Compared with last year, we have been somewhat sedentary this year. No big trips and just a handful of jaunts off to gigs out of town (Austin, OKC). It sure was  a big reminder of how much we miss traveling. We plan to take care of the time and money issues that have prevented us from jetting about, so next year is filled with big adventures like WMC.

They had big chalk in the "beer Garden" next to the main venue so I added Little Goldfish to the landscape.

Ruth and I enjoyed lots of good drink, music, talks, arts and eats.

Timothy Goodman did a talk called "I Want to Get Away with Sh*t"... totally a highlight!

Des Ark was awesome!

I bought this sweet print by AirType Studios

The Cleveland Public Theatre was an awesome venue!

Other highlights included F. Stokes rapping freestyle in the center of a pulsating circle, Jacqui Oakley talking about developing one's style, Caroline Moore discussing what she's cribbed from the DIY punk scene, and especially Brandon Rike's talk about just putting your head down and getting to work.

In fact, the whole WMC experince was a nice bit of icing on the cake of a whole mess of creative thinking I've been doing lately. I have several awesome projects in the pipe line, some well outside my comfort zone. The festival was a nice reminder that, yeah, it is a good thing to live your life putting things out into the world.