Prog Digest – An Xperience Column

Prog Digest – An Xperience Column – by Klyde Kadiddlehumper.

Writer’s block sucks.

There – I said it.

Now, gentle readers, I can hear you saying to yourselves, “But Klyde, with all those voices in your head, how is that possible?”

Besides the fact that they are all yelling at each other – what, you think they all get along? You have GOT to be kidding me.

Well, without going into too much detail, this has been a year. And, from time to time, as you are all aware, things get to ya and make it a little tough to focus.

Without the really gory details – and there have been a number of cringeworthy moments – it involves the following:

1. An internal body part that decided to just flap around.

2. Lots of needles to poke at things, take blood, put me under (oooo – reminds me of a Dream Theater song), and generally torque me off.

3. Inert gas (C3F8) bubbles.

4. Silicon fluid.

5. And my Andromeda Strain moment.

Constant Companion and I have not had a ton of fun; shows have been at a minimum. Flying completely out of the question (still is) and – good lord, is this old body not liking the “positioning.”

Needless (or is that needles) to say – it’s put ol’ Klyde off his game.

In a soon-to-come piece, we’ll go over the import, in one way or another, of a number of folks who’ve passed in the last year, but one occurred this week (these articles get to page a couple weeks before release – you do the math) that we all know, if not in name.

Drew Struzan.

Movie posters, movie posters, movie posters.

You went to a movie – you saw these in the lobby all the time.

“Angels in the Outfield.” “Big Trouble in Little China.” “Back to the Future.” “Blade Runner.” “Harry Potter(s).” “Hellboy.” “ Raiders” (and “Indys”). “Wrath of Khan.” “Star Wars” (like, the original three).

From the ‘70s to very recently, his images helped define what we saw. How we saw it.

That ’75 oil of Alice Cooper in a black tux – Drew.

Commercial work aside, Drew was an individual first and an artist second.

There’s a lot of artwork in our household. Heck – we don’t have the walls for all we really want to display. Some originals, many limited edition – like the two Mark Wilkinsons. For those not aware of his work, he’s the illustrator of Iron Maiden, Fish, Judas Priest, and Marillion. Logos and all.

There are concert posters here – including my coveted original, banned-by-Radio-City-Music-Hall, Grateful Dead 1980 Halloween run poster. Tower of Power, Zappa, Todd Rundgren, Willie Nile … and the beat goes on.

For Drew Struzan, his idols were the likes of impressionists Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Cezanne. I implore you all to check out museum listings for exhibits. We are big fans of MOMA in NYC – just take a day trip if you must, and go there.

Remember those 12” albums I keep raving about? The artwork was half the reason many of us picked up a record to hear what was inside. Remember the Ohio Players? This 15-or-16-year-old boy was drawn to “Skin Tight,” “Fire,” or “Honey” because of the cover art … then there was the funk on the inside.

We eat not only with our mouths, but our eyes.

Drew’s family really said it well: “Life should be full of love and beauty.”

Until next time.

Klyde

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