Shari's Blog: it's been 3 weeks on the road, michael, here's where i've been

hello michael! i'm having a really good time on "shari's big tour" this summer.

i'll catch you up on stuff, it has been almost 3 weeks since i began my trip.

the first stop of my tour was a sunday afternoon concert/talent show/pot luck, july 5th, at the home of my highschool pal, elizabeth (james) johnson's house in stevenson ranch, north of los angeles (that's her in her back yard there to the left). we hadn't seen each other since monica (riecke) morakis' wedding about 20 years ago. elizabeth said she owed a bunch of her friends a party and this would be a great way to see them and see me and be part of my big tour. here are some pictures of the lovely friends of elizabeth johnson's family.

about 50 people showed up, and almost half of them children. i enjoyed gearing my set even more for kids (as if my songs are not already kid-friendly). after some brave youngsters broke the ice, more came up on "stage" to share a talent, play my guitar, and tell jokes and stories. fun was had by all, it seemed. i was most complimented when 3 of the 8 year old boys later told me that my show was really fun and that they really liked the "randomness" of my songs.

"like when you met jesus in the parking lot of the hardware store, that is so random." it was fun to be understood and appreciated by such bright and creative home-schooled youngsters.

well, michael, this is a fake shot of me pretending to be performing. my camera and it's operator do not take good pictures in the dark, it was dark when the show started.

here is my lovely assistant preparing to pass out instruments for the seamstress song. i really enjoyed her hanging out on stage with me, unfortunately she had to go home to go to bed before i got to play the seamstress song.

that was the first stop on shari's big tour.

i had fun staying with my friend marian treger in los angeles and making art all day monday for a back yard garden party and art sale at joyce davis' house in culver city, tuesday, july 7th.

michael, here i am making art in marian's living room. she chose the name "magnetta" for her art pen name. for short, she's "mags" and i'm "shags". i have a lot of nicknames. sometime i'll list them. i'm sure a little mystery is fine, too.

you can see magnetta's art on her book shelves behind me, she is my protege, and she even sold 2 of her peices at joyces garden party.

i usually try work 10 hours a week on my art and it was really fun to work 11 hours on art on this day. mags worked on her art and display.

here is my favorite piece of the day.

thanks to joyce for the lovely snacks (pigs in blankets, home made cookies, iced tea and lemonade and lots of other goodies) and hospitality!

here is "cousin joyce" with some of her elfs. i am "cousin elf" because of a sale we had some place where i was supposed to be related to her. that is another one of my nicknames, michael, do you have a lot of nicknames?

here are some pictures of the lovely folks that showed up for the garden party.

this is erica and gabriella with "life in the slow lane"

and here is the lovely krishna, who showed up a day earlier on joyce's door step and
then wondered if she was a day early. joyce loved the surprise visit by krishna (baby due any day!) and gave her a fresh-out-of-the-oven oatmeal cookie. krishna took goldy locks and the bear! and those flowers i really liked and the woman with her purse.

here is the lovely deb lacusta who used to buy art from me at the santa monica airport flea market, i'm happy she searched and found my website recently and is adding to her elf collection.

joyce's happy back yard in culver city.

here is my table of art.

well, those were the 2 first official events of shari's big tour. as you know, michael, because you were there with randal, the first unofficial event was the practice concert/potluck/talent show at my little cabin in morongo valley on july 3rd.

here are a few pictures of that event before i go off to work in portland, making some fun art with the stuff joanne and i got at the goodwill "bins" yesterday. they have lots of good crap to make art with in portland! i found more today at the sellwood baptist church's annual basemet sale. have a lovely day and remember,

micahel blackwell, something good is gonna happen to you today!