ISSUE FOUR
Edited by Mike Arellano and Iain Oldman
Photograph by Andrea Bianchi
MAY
Photograph by Cara Walton
WORST WEEK EVER Well folks, May is here, and that means the annual- wait, holy shit! Is that the sun? Oh my God, it’s the sun! I think we finally broke through that brutal winter with minor cabin fever casualties and a brand new appreciation for mild weather.
Photograph by Andrea Bianchi
Of course, you know what the changing of the season brings with it. You had better warm up to the idea of constantly being exposed to people’s weird looking toes in flip flops, and if you hate the song “Wagon Wheel” being played on ukuleles as much as we do, it might be a good idea to invest in some ear plugs. May is the month of violent labor strikes, global war atrocities, and Mother’s Day, but you know, the sun’s out, so that’s great, I guess. This is the Worst Week Ever.
All poetry, short stories and artwork are submitted by people that live here in the Harrisonburg area.
Edited by Mike Arellano and Iain Oldman
Photograph by Cara Walton
Photograph by Cara Walton
Gluttony of Minds I carry warnings in my throat; acidic words of horror burn my vocal chords. Don’t trust! I say. Trust is paramount for survival, but I am numb to that truth. I crowd my lips with chains of cynical consonants, and sing songs of caution to my conscious mind. Nothing is stagnant, I know, but I wish for lulls anyway. A singular instant of clarity, or flash of sanctity. Anything to blur my inhibitions. Why must angst and panic occupy my days and exhaust my nights? I am caught in a squalid abyss, oozing dastardly imaginings that poison all who are around. And so I tarry in this labyrinth of shadows, hoping only for an arrival of amity that fails to show its face. An all knowing doctor says I’m suicidal, citing my inability to hush this inward flow of insults as proof, handing pills across his slab of oak. I don’t inform him that his analysis is correct, opting for incriminating taciturnity. Don’t trust! I say to my stubborn mind. With that, I am acid again, burning away folds of skin, rooting out truth. By Naomi Scoville
MAY 2014 EVENTS YOU CAN’T MISS Artwork by Zach Gesford
Yellow Button “OVER MY HEAD”
May 2nd 5-7 PM
Art Installation from Elwood “Trip” Madison
“The modest collection of playful renderings of familiar downtown structures represent Elwood Madison’s recent return to watercolor and pen. Elwood’s decision to jump in to each image with ink instead of sketching it first with pencil yields subtle whimsical results. Working this way, he accepts the errors as they come and incorporates them into the finished piece. Extra windows appear. Vertical lines lean in or out from their proper orientation, yet the drawings seem to benefit from the mistakes. Elwood plans to continue roaming the streets of Harrisonburg, as he invites familiar surroundings to the sketchbook party.”
Daniel Suter
MikeArellano
May 2 @ the Artful Dodger 6 PM Joining in on May’s First Friday activities is our very own editor, Mike Arellano, displaying his talent in collaboration with one of Worst Week Ever’s very first contributors ever, Daniel Suter. The juxtaposition of Suter’s oddly dark, completely unique subject matter and representation with Arellano’s seamless combinations of stencil work and asymmetric design will leave you viewing a completely unique installation. Soak it in on May 2, starting at 6 o’clock at the Artful Dodger. We’ll be there, duh.
WORST WEEK EVER BOOKING PRESENTS
Pathogenesis, Vomiting Dinosaurs, and Savage Kenny
May 4 @ the Artful Dodger $4 Prepare your body for a great night of Virginia metal! Blacksburg death metal band Pathogenesis drives up 81 to play at the Dodger on May 4 with fast-as-fuck Winchester grindguys Vomiting Dinosaurs, while Harrisonburg’s own Savage Kenny (we love these guys) round out a great night. Warning: maybe don’t go if you’ve just gotten fillings put in.
May 8 @ Blue Nile 9 PM $3 Appalachian Prison Book Project Benefit Show Helping out the disenfranchised never sounded so gooooood. Come join Harrisonburg’s Shenandoah Alley, flanked by Appalachian music revivalists Dog & Gun and Abe Po’ Ugly and the Hired Guns, to help raise money for a great cause. Your entrance fee helps get essential books to those in penitentiaries right here in the Appalachian region, and local artists will sell their wares, with all proceeds going to APBP. If you’d like to donate your art to the cause, please contact moss.d.aaron@gmail.com for more information.
May 13 @ Blue Nile $2 Maple Union, Will to Survive, Sleep Talker Maple Union returns to the Nile on May 13th, returning from a year long hiatus and bringing with them almost a decade (!) of experience playing throughout a laundry list of Harrisonburg’s venues. Locals Will to Survive and our favorite new solo act, Sleep Talker, open up for the night, and with only a $2 cover, you’ll be short on excuses for not being there.
May 17 @ Cabaret at Court Square Theater $10 advance/ $15 door 8 PM Babes, strong men, and the Judy Chops: what else could anyone want? Luckily for all of us, all three will be on full display May 17 at Court Square Theater, as they host the third installment of Skullhand Production’s Cabaret. Come for the burlesque style entertainment and stay for the pin-up costume contest. Either way, you’ll have one hell of a night!
WORST WEEK EVER BOOKING PRESENTS
May 20 @ Blue Nile $7 Whitehorse, Pneumatic Slaughter, Sinister Haze, Thrones of Deceit Hailing from the OTHER SIDEOF THE WORLD, Whitehorse comes exploding into the Blue Nile with their own unique brand of super sludgy death metal. And if you’ve ever wondered “what does grindcore sound like in the Southern Hemisphere”, because I know you have, don’t worry, because their brothers on tour, Pneumatic Slaughter, will gladly show you. Oh, and they’re playing here just TWO DAYS before they tear it up at Maryland Deathfest! Come see them with Richmond’s super heavy stoner metal group Sinister Haze and Harrisonburg’s Thrones of Deceit on May 20.
May 30 @ Veterans Memorial Park Harrisonburg Turks Opening Day Since summer is, like, sooooo close, what better way to celebrate than take in the local offering of America’s favorite pastime, baseball? Come cheer on Harrisonburg’s finest, because they’re an institution, dammit, and you betchyer ass they’ll have some badass fireworks poppin’ off. Show up early to get the best seats. They open up May 30 at 7:30 at Veterans Memorial Park against the New Market Rebels. BOOOOOOO New Market BOOOOOOO!
From “OVER MY HEAD” Elwood “Trip” Madison
FIRST FRIDAY APRIL 11: *5:30 | Costume Bike Parade and Film Festival! Face painting by Larkin Arts. Parade departs at 6:30. *5-8 | Spitzer Art Center Quilted Wall Hangings by Anne Miller *5-8 | Arts Council’s Darrin McHone Gallery Collection of paintings by live painting troupe: Artery *5-7 | The Yellow Button Over My Head: new works by Trip Madison *5-8 | Ten Thousand Villages Free Caricature Drawing by Susan Edelman *5-7 | Ruby’s and The Patio at Clementine Sculptures by Dr. James Sease *5-8 | Oasis Silent Art Auction and new works by Julie Clay, music by Blue Stone Sky | Wilson Downtown Gallery Visual Noise: Photography by Zach Sensabaugh *5-8 | Larkin Arts - Miller/Miller: painter Ashley Miller and woodworker Joshua Miller *6-9 | Artful Dodger Works by Daniel Suter and Mike Arellano *5-8 | Blue Nile Upstairs Bruce Rosenwasser’s Shenandoah Wildwood Design *7-9 | Blue Nile Basement - Prints by Stephanie Williford *5-8 | Over the Moon | Make a Happy Place: works by muralist Kelly Flora-Brownell *9:30 | Court Square Theater - Rocky Horror Picture Show!
“Pelican”
“Storm Shadow”
Artwork by Paul Kobler
Celebrating Life:
The idea is to choose a random existing holiday each month. I’ll do a call for interest, then document the activity celebrating the holiday to share it with the world (as far as I can reach). --Brandy Somers
www.friendlycitylens.com
The Tweet Life
Armed with inspirational travel time, this instagrammin’ fool found herself passing through Richmond with an idea of a way to celebrate April’s holiday: Draw a Bird Day (it’s real).
Part I
An instagram post by Richmond based artist and friend, Tim Skirven, grabbed my attention. He posted a photo that his fiancĂŠ/fellow artist, Ali Croft, shot of him hanging his art show at 821 Cafe on Cary Street in Richmond. The show was a simple yet bold collection of black birds on white square panels. They stood out nicely against the exposed brick walls of the cozy cafe. I shot these two love birds a message and within moments, I had a bird drawing session to photograph inked into my calendar.
www.friendlycitylens.com
Part II
It’s no secret in these parts that Lynda Bostrom is BOSS when it comes to doing her artistic thang. I have to admit though, I chose Lynda based on instagram also. I swear I have real life connections with people but being a strong visual learner, seeing something burns it into my memory. When I had the idea to do this post, I immediately remembered some photos Lynda posted over a year ago. She was working on a series of birds that fondly reminded me of Charley Harper’s work. Simplified animals with blocks of bold color and modest, deliberate lines. So beautiful.
READ THE FULL POST HERE
“Courageous Coward”
Alyssa Partlow
Artwork by Zach Gesford
“Drink Anytime”
Alyssa Partlow
Photograph by Cara Walton
An Uncommon Love: Ode to Lithium Yes, I understand this kind of love is complicated. You wouldn’t weigh its worth unless you needed to carry it around-how heavy the earth feels atop a broken mind. This isn’t about me dying for another; it’s about me really living because of it. It doesn’t breathe but it gives breath. It doesn’t speak but, because of it, I regrew a tongue. This is something I reserve a pouch of soul for. These things aren’t elementary if you’ve ever needed to do the math. I have witnessed their care in action; my raveled fibers and veins now normal and invisibly plain; my reflection births two rising suns the earth, renewed; these pills gifted my soul an earthly mother and how can I love anything more than something that gives me an entire world and only asks that I play a part in my own life in return? (c) 2009-2014 Angela M. Carter.
Memory Chose a Woman’s Body Author: Angela M. Carter Genre: Poetry/Memoir Publisher: Unbound Content
Book Launch Event (reading and signing)
with photography exhibition, based on themes from the book, by Brandy Somers Photography 5pm-7pm reading to begin 6ish
Music: Shenandoah Alley Refreshments served Friday, June 6th Spitzer Art Center Open to the public
www.angelacarterpoetry.com
Join Angela and others at The Rocktown Poetry Circle every 3rd wednesday at Greenberry’s for live poetry readings.
Photograph by Cara Walton
Game Show Winner I don’t like being in love. I hate the mess it makes. It creates exquisite vases in the windowsill; where there is no water to keep a thirsty stem alive. I don’t like being so me. Homely gapped teeth and wide eyes drunk with self-doubt— too much skin can be pinched underneath my soul, and it weighs my chances of happiness down instantly. I don’t like it when you pretend to look at me. Never for me. That vision, when the eyeball seems straight and focused on my lips; yet, the groin’s foreshadowing wading heavy against my hips; your pressure-cooked tongue never cools down to savor any one taste. I don’t like to hear you sing. Or should I say, try to. I envision you in the shower, game show morning tune, where I win the new car, but it never goes in first gear; It leaves me stranded in the driveway as the neighbors admire its shine. I don’t like wanting anyone. I hate the metallic taste it leaves on my newly brushed tongue; I crave safety even inside the fat of my cheek. The empty heart remembers to growl; yet, seems to forget everything else. (c) 2009-2014 Angela M. Carter.
Photograph by Andrea Bianchi
Where the Pussy-Willows Grew Throughout my childhood, I dutifully followed my towering father as he walked the black soot-like soil to the secret place where the pussy-willows grew. Secret, so those coal fields seemed, at ages five through nine. Those dystopian mining lands that we ventured to, sometimes searching for fossils, other times to clip, carefully, the pussy-willows. The curved-blade shears weighed heavy in my oversized coat’s pocket, but our mission was sacred when we ventured to where the pussy-willows grew during the weeks and days prior to Easter: to choose the fullest branches for Mama’s ornate ceramic vase. My father examined, clipped, and then placed the branches
in my young arms, and I held the willows--the “verbas”--tenderly. As I grow older in my adulthood, I miss the dismal coal fields where the pussy-willows thrived. Our Easters have replaced the willows with leafy palms, which die and dry and pale; eventually the leaves shrivel, crumble, but I remember how the pussy-willow remained unwavering, firm from one Easter to the next, as they hung behind the icons, or stood tall in Mama’s ornate ceramic vase.
Poetry by Nicole Yurcaba
Photograph by Andrea Bianchi
Artwork Ben Fraits
Old Southern money, Cyrillic for a new lover that’s his legacy. Poetry by Nicole Yurcaba Mine? A mysterious line of spiritually and physically hardy --yet monetarily poor-immigrants who poisoned their lungs inhaling the Earth’s black bowels for six dollars a week. His family’s farm passed from generation to generation since pre-Civil War. My family’s farm confiscated by the Bolsheviks, returned to the state, for the betterment of the collective. He calls me “Marichka” not by my given first name of “Nikol,” and says “Write my name in y’all’s alphabet,” so I pull the ever-present felt-tipped pen, from my purse, and carefully draw the ancient alphabet letters: a C-figure for the S, the bold B-shape for the V, and the hard H representing N that seals his name.
Photograph by Cara Walton
WORST WE
ALBUM R
EEK EVER
REVIEWS
Photograph by Ross Figlerski
Written by Michael Steele
Que Va “Appear/Reappear”
I was handed a copy of “Appear/Reappear” on cassette and the first thing I noticed was the artwork that appears simple, but is layered to reveal something more. At first glance, it just looks like the back of two hands, though if you look a little harder, you will see a face looking right at you. The artwork is a great representation of what Que Va is doing with their tunes: quick and simple post-hardcore tunes with tiers of emo and hardcore. Taking from 90s bands such as Drive Like Jehu and Slint, Que Va have compiled four songs that kick back to a sound that has come and gone in Harrisonburg, and it is a welcome return. “Appear/Reappear” is kept fresh with dynamic changes through its 10 or 15 minutes of listening with a stripped down sound that is the perfect length. If the short duration disappoints you, luckily Que Va is local, so go see them at a show!
Sleep Talker “EP II”
Written by Iain Oldman
Andrew Puffenbarger’s second EP from his Sleep Talker solo act offers ample evidence of the depth of his songwriting skill. Throw aside what you have come to assume from solo artists: Sleep Talker is different. Dark and powerful, “EP II” rings through with a beautiful, boxy tone from Puffenbarger’s guitar that helps his subtly emotional vocals plant themselves within the song. It’s not either/or regarding his lyrics and accompaniment on “EP II”, it’s both, and the exciting thing is that you can actively feel the potential that looms in the three songs. Look for Sleep Talker to really explode in the coming year.
Written by Iain Oldman
Z Plan “L’egg Mann”
Okay, so let’s put Z Plan’s brilliant album title aside for a second and take this opportunity to fully appreciate the whimsically pleasant tone of their new album “L’egg Mann”. Hehe. Okay, I got that out of me, let’s go. The 4-song album jumps around, like, A LOT, from songs that remind you of early Ben Folds (Egg Man) to that early 90’s Athens sound (Katie), and eventually even an 80s car commercial (Background of the Song). Somehow, Z Plan pulls it all together and creates a soundscape that is impossible not to love. Every track is undeniably poppy with subtle hooks, and the album as a whole has promising ambition and incredible production, all the while keeping a jovial and humorous overtone. “L’egg Mann” is just a joy to soak in, and I promise that you’ll keep it in the queue on your preferred method of listening for the summer.
Now booking shows for local and out of town bands, contact Michael Steele at
worstweekeverbooking@gmail.com
Written by Iain Oldman
Worst Week Ever Tracks
Lil Huffy “Polar Vortex” - click to listen Harrisonburg’s local four-piece Lil Huffy just released their new track “Polar Vortex”, and luckily, it’s just in time for summer (oh my God is it summer already?). The track is a pleasant amalgamation of fuzzy, dreamy notes that seriously, and I mean seriously, float around in your head. Happy little guitar notes pang in and out while the drum bangs out hollow beats, with the bass crooning in with varied volume, and it’s all very neat to listen to. It’s one of those songs you can picture yourself hearing over WXJM in your car while getting bathed in sunlight filtering in through your open windows. If that doesn’t help, imagine Mock Orange fucked an art band, and there you go.
You’re Jovian “Share Yer Moon” - click to listen The single off of You’re Jovian’s new “Demos Cassette” release is one of those songs where you’re constantly confused as to whether it’s a happy song, or one about shooting heroin after a bad break up. It’s simultaneously complex and satisfyingly simple, foreign and familiar. The pop that You’re Jovian is trying to get through is certainly there, but it’s clouded over by their heavy fuzz, while Elliott Malvas’ wispy, thin vocals wrap everything together like spider’s silk. Buy their new “Demos Cassette” from Harrisonburg’s own Funny/Not Funny Records to get the full effect.
Written by Iain Oldman
Worst Week Ever Tracks
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