Ape Face Rockefeller By Gentleman Brothers

Fall Art Scene happened a couple of weekends ago here in Rockford. Even though I'm not a visual artist, I had been hoping for about a decade that I would be invited to participate in a show at one of the venues. Then two years ago, I was, and what made it better, and worth waiting all those years for, was I got to show with almost every other artist in town that I respect and follow. The show was organized by Andrew Davis, and had no particular theme. Just artists that wanted to show their works and hadn't been invited to do so elsewhere. It was of course the best show in Art Scene that year. 

This year most of us showed again, at Lucette. Among other things, I heard Andrew Davis was making an action figure of his comic book character Ape-Face Rockefeller. I am a big fan of Ape-Face Rockefeller, and one of the world's foremost collectors of Ape-Face Rockefellers, so I was really excited about this action figure. When I saw pictures of the work he was putting in on Facebook I knew it was going to turn out magnificently, and I messaged him asking if I could have the first opportunity to buy it. He put me off, saying it was not nearly finished yet. I had the feeling either he didn't want to sell it, which I would have understood completely, or that someone else wanted the piece, too. As the show neared I saw an almost completed version of Ape-Face and once again inquired if he had settled on a price. He was once again evasive, and said he had not. I took the clue and backed off.

On Friday, the opening night of Art Scene, I stayed with the kids so Jenny could do a show at her gallery. Later in the evening I saw a picture that broke my heart. It was a picture of the Ape-Face Rockefeller action figure with a sold a sticker on it. I was sad, but I figured either he had decided not to sell it, or someone out there really wanted it more than me. 

On Saturday we made the rounds of Art Scene and ended up at Lucette for our own show, We went over to see Ape-Face in person and I once again lamented that someone had bought what turned out to be an awesomely cool piece. It was then that Jenny revealed that she was the one who had bought the piece. She has contacted Andrew and bought the piece when I first saw it. And that is how I became the world's foremost collector of Ape-Face Rockefellers.

Ape-Face Rockefeller action figure by Andrew FoodStamp Davis of Gentleman Brothers

Reunited and it feels so good. See more from FoodStamp Davis on Threadless

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Unwitting Outsider Poetry From Thursday

I wrote a poem I didn't write today. For some weird reason I had this flashback to a bartender I worked with almost two decades ago who was always telling me about this goof she was dating. She died suddenly, and I had this bad feeling for her that the end of her life was wasted. The title came to mind and I immediately decided I wouldn't write the poem because I've been there and done that on the foul language and poetry about terrible subject matter. Instead I wrote on Facebook about how I thought of the title then decided to do something else, and my friend Andrew reposted what I said in poetry form, and it seemed like a poem to me. Not the one I was going to write, but a perfectly valid poem about why I didn't write the poem I was going to write, which you now know the story of, too.


Her Last Few Fucks Were Wasted

I just had a sudden urge to write a poem titled
"Her Last Few Fucks Were Wasted,"
and even ten years ago
I would have too,
but instead I walked
to the bathroom,
trimmed my nosehair,
and decided this poem need not exist.
You're welcome.


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Castaways On the Rock and Zombie Night

This is the logo for Castaways On the Rock, the bar my brother opened in 2005. Maybe it was 2004. It's right on the Rock River in Rockford, Illinois. I think this logo was done by either Andrew or Ryan Davis, and we just used it like dicks because I honestly didn't even know how things like that worked back then. I, Thomas L. Vaultonburg,  have about a billion stories from this bar, but I'm not going to tell them. I was the General Manager there for three years. The Rockford Rage Roller Derby league was formed there in the ladies restroom. The Downtown bars sure did steal a lot of my ideas back then, and it was amazing that we were able to get a crowd of the young, hip, and culturally aware to cross the river and walk into a dive bar under a bridge. I'm proud of the work I did there, creating events like Zombie Night, and attracting creative and bright people. Getting 250 people on a Tuesday night to go to a bar they never heard of to watch a movie like The Stuff, Hard Rock Zombies, or The Story of Ricky O is no easy task. But we did it. And others imitated. 

Poster for Zombie Night, created by Andrew Davis. Those days were sort of my Camelot. Brief, but powerful, and filled with moment. 

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