Liner Notes: August/Foo Fighters/Sonic Highways

I have an idea for the Foo Fighters should they ever want to unnecessarily merchandise any of their albums and songs (like KISS but more useful and funner). My idea involves the song "Congregation" from my favorite Foo Fighters album, Sonic Highways. Here's the video of the song recorded for the docuseries of the same name. This episode was filmed in Nashville and features Zak Brown.

The part I really want you to pay attention to is from 4:18-4:25.

Now that you've listened to it, here's my idea: an alarm clock, like an old school alarm clock, that features this 8ish second portion of the song. Imagine Dave Grohl screaming "Open your eyes!" at you whenever you need to wake up. The clock would also feature various other times Dave Grohl screams in songs, whether on the studio album or from concert footage. It could even feature compilations of Dave screaming like this one from their show at Wembley Stadium in 2014. People love it when Dave Grohl screams.

This idea came to me back in 2014 when Sonic Highways was released. I used to listen to this album a lot while driving around. My car at that time, a blue Ford Focus (the first car I bought on my own), had a CD player and Sonic Highways was one of the CDs I played a lot during that year. I didn't have a long commute to work, but I remember driving from south Arlington where I lived at the time to my job in Clarendon, another neighborhood in Arlington, being stopped at a light near my office and Dave Grohl starts screaming, "Open your eyes! Open your eyes! Step into the light!" and I just thought, what if Dave Grohl screaming was the voice of someone's alarm clock?

Anyway, do with this idea what you will. Sonic Highways is my favorite Foo Fighters album and it's probably the one everyone else likes the least. When I bought the album in 2014 I hadn't yet watched the docuseries yet. The series features eight different cities and interviews with musicians and others in the music industry in each of these cities. Grohl wrote each song based on these conversations. Then the band and the album's producer, Butch Vig, would travel to the city and perform the song and feature musicians from that city. They went to Chicago, Arlington/DC, Nashville, Austin, LA/Joshua Tree, New Orleans, Seattle, and NYC. Featured musicians included Zak Brown, Rick Nielsen from Cheap Trick, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Gary Clark, Jr., and Tony Visconti (you met Tony in June when I talked about "Heroes"). Even if you never watch the show, the album is fantastic.

Which is why I don't understand why they never play songs from it live. I've seen the band twice after this week's show, and I was really hoping they'd play "The Feast and the Famine," which is the DC song. The song features Peter Stahl and Skeeter Thompson from the band Scream. Scream is a hardcore band from Arlington, VA. Grohl briefly played drums in the band early in his music career, and Peter Stahl is the inspiration for the song "My Hero." The lyrics also mention "PMA," a nod to the DC band Bad Brains, considered to be one of the first hardcore punk bands. "Attitude" is one of their songs, and the idea of PMA (positive mental attitude) is a huge part of the culture and philosophy of the hardcore scene in the DMV (and beyond). There's a great discussion of PMA, Bad Brains, and the hardcore scene in the DC episode of Sonic Highways.

While they didn't play "The Feast and the Famine," they did play a 3-hour set featuring songs from their 31 year history as a band. I've been listening to the Foo Fighters for 31 years, since I was 16 years old. And I was listening to Pat Smear way before that as a fan of the band the Germs and I was listening to Dave when he was in Nirvana, so really I've been listening to the elements of the band much longer. While my 2018 Foo Fighters concert was my favorite show of the two, this concert was amazing.

One of my favorite parts of the set was the band intros. Normally, band intros are quick "this is this person over here," but this version was way more fun. Each member of the band was introduced and then the band played a short version of a song from a band they were in previously. I haven't been able to find a video of that part of the DC show, but you can watch this version from their stop in Warsaw, Poland earlier this year.

What I loooooove about this section of the set is Pat Smear. They played the Germs's song "Manimal," and if you don't understand Pat's influence on punk, rock, hardcore, and the Foo Fighters, then I can't help you. The Germs are one of those bands that was short-lived but had a huge impact on music, especially on musicians like Grohl and a lot of the DC area punk bands. Fun fact: Belinda Carlisle was the band's original drummer (under the name Dottie Danger). I don't think Pat gets nearly the amount of love he should get from Foo Fighters fans, so it was so fun to see this in the set. It made up for a lack of Sonic Highways. If you have a chance to see the band on this tour, go to do it. You'll have a great time.

The Orange Neighborhood came together nicely. I liked using the velvet, suede, and cotton fabrics together. For whatever reason, this neighborhood feels like water to me. Maybe it's the shapes I cut, but there's something lake or river-y about it. I'm also rethinking whether or not I want to add the white sparkly fabric between the neighborhoods. I don't think I need it but I'll wait until after the Purple Neighborhood is done to decide.

The final neighborhood, Purple, is up next. There won't be a post next Saturday but on Monday, August 31 to finish out the month.

And now we have the Orange Neighborhood. And yes, the base piece does look like a cat. It's vibe is very orange.

August 16 - piecing it all together.

August 17

August 18

August 19

August 20

August 21

August 22

The Orange Neighborhood

The Blue, Pink, and Orange Neighborhoods.

Two-page spread (so far).

WIPs and Other Small Joys

I've made some fantastic progress on the Jonthan Adler bargello piece. I finished three of the four sections and started on the fourth section yesterday. I hope to have it completed this weekend. I want to finish it and hang it before I start my big project (more on this in a separate section).

August 20

August 19

August 16

As always, Bea is a huge help on this piece. She likes to participate in my monthly craft meetup and provide the kind of support we need while working on projects.

I also joined my first MAR meeting this week. MAR is the regional chapter of the Embroiderers' Guild of America (EGA) that I belong to. I'm also in the DC chapter. I was asked to fill the role of secretary for MAR, and Tuesday's call was the meeting where I was introduced and they moved my nomination to the full committee. I'm waiting to hear the results of that vote. If all goes well, I'll have achieved one of things I wanted to achieve this year: more involvement in the guild. I love serving as a room host during the Woodlawn show, but that's all I've been able to do since I joined the EGA two years ago. Being part of the regional group means I'll help out at the seminar next year and be involved in some other events throughout the year. I'm also excited about hanging around with people who do various forms of needlework. They're pretty great.

I went over to Upcycle last Sunday to shop. I haven't been in since my last volunteer day back in May. It was nice to see one of the women I worked with and I found the fabric I was looking for to use for next month's Liner Notes page. I hope to be able to start volunteering again in October.

The sparkly fabric might be used next month - the black and white fabrics are the focus for September.

Bea seems to be doing well on her allergy meds. I got an email from the dermatologist yesterday about her allergy test results. She's allergic to types of mites that may form on dry food, dust, and mold. I have to call on Monday to discuss which treatment option, shots or spray, I want to go with and confirm if she has to stay on the medicine she's taking now. I guess I also have to figure out a different way to store her dry food...or I can freeze it in small bags and take it out when needed. Anyway, she seems completely unfazed by any of this and is just living her best cat life. Can you believe it's almost been a year since I adopted her? Wild.

The Big Project: The Sewing Cabinet

I made some progress on the sewing cabinet project this week. I made a decision on the design and I started removing the current fabric from the sewing cabinet. Unlike the thread collections I inherited, I know nothing about the person who originally owned this cabinet, so before I started removing the fabric, I say out loud, "I don't know you. I like the cabinet and I hope you know that I'm cleaning it up because I want to be able to use it again and keep a cool thing in the world." I hope that little message gets to the right person.

Design-wise, I've settled on using patterns from one of my favorite embroidery books, Zakka Embroidery by Yumiko Higuchi. Zakka embroidery is a combination of Japanese and Scandinavian embroidery techniques and philosophies - simple, classic designs using one or two thread colors. This book and the Sublime Stitching books and kits by Jenny Hart made up my early embroidery education. I think Higuchi's designs are a perfect match for the sewing cabinet - a little traditional but not overtly traditional, classic, and beautiful. I have a few designs selected but haven't finalized which ones I'm using yet. I'll share more about that as I start working on the exterior panels.

I started removing the current fabric panels earlier this week. I spent an entire lunch break removing both the decorative nails and the other small nails from the piece. There are about 98 total decorative nails between the two panels and I don't even know how many small nails. I have to go to Ace Hardware today to buy a slightly smaller hammer to remove some of the nails.

I also need to get wood putty and sandpaper so I can fill the nail holes and sand down the rough spots before I put nails back into the piece. I was going to try to save some of the fabric from the exterior panels but it's really gross. I may be able to salvage a piece from one of the inside covers and use it somewhere in the interior redo. That's my hope. I'm going to do some retooling to the inside as well to make the cabinet more useful for embroidery and needlepoint. It's definitely set up for someone who hand sews or uses a sewing machine. I'm going to keep the thread spool storage as is and use thrifted wooden thread spools as bobbins for embroidery thread and yarn. The other things I want to do on the inside include creating a space for hoop storage and a shelf for project storage. I think this might be where I can incorporate a needlepoint piece since I can created one using plastic canvas and the canvas can act as the shelf. I don't know if that's going to work, but I'm going to try.

Here are some photos from removing the first exterior panel. Bea wanted to help but realized supervising would be a better option.