So the one and only Mike Gaughan comes in yesterday to say goodbye for the summer. He’s been out here since last August doing what Mike does best: “Making wherever he lives awesome as hell.” That’s Mike, and Portland, you are lucky to have him. But he’s shipping out. He’s on his way back to Minneapolis to teach summer school to a group of lucky little devils. I mean, can you imagine having Mike at the helm of the class? Sign me up!

So he comes in, with his little buddy Toby the Chihuahua (hard one to spell!) and I’ll be damned if he didn’t bring me possibly the greatest thing I’ve ever seen, ever. Ever.

He made a drawing of me, and of Gary, and the building.

I mean, it’s just fucking incredible. I love it with everything I’ve got in me. And, it’s weird as hell…like…it’s my big, gross head, right there and it freaks me out! I mean, what do I do with this goddamn thing? Frame it? Then what? Put it up on my wall? Hard to say. Perplexed.

Here’s where this thing might end up:

01. On Brad Scheuffele’s living room wall. It’s big, so make room.
02. On my “About” page, cemented in stone.
03. On my parent’s living room wall.
04. Right smack dab above Nakamoto’s desk.

One of these places.

Nevertheless, I am right here writing these words. A big, hairy pile of flesh and bone and I’m telling you: Mike Gaughan is it.

I gotta tell you: This kind of awesomeness just flat wears me out. Mike, warn me next time. And be ready for the call too. I smell a commission coming from all of us in the shop. You can bet on that one.

Thanks, Mike. You continue to amaze me on so many levels, and I’m a lucky man to know you.

(Click all the Mike links above, and prepared to be blown away. We warned you.)

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MIKE’S MET HIS FAIR SHARE OF LUMINARIES, TOO: Here he is meeting Kool Keith.

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WAIT, GO BACK: Look at little Gary there! Flying up Stark street all cute and small and shivering. You just want to eat him, he’s so fuckin’ cute. Or throw him off the top of the building. That kind of cute calls for drastic measures. Okay, there.

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ALWAYS LOOK OUT BACK: “The Typography of My Garage” by Eric Tufford. Holy hell. Get in there. Right now.

You could write a book about this image alone. I just might.

This is the kind of link that makes me go, “Man, I love this stuff so goddamn much. Here’s a guy who went out and shot the stuff in his garage for the rest of us.”

I get kinda choked up because it’s like he rescued the stuff or something, or, put it out into the world to share. This is the kind of stuff that crosses my mind when I go through a set like that.

Okay, back to work.

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DAYWRECKER WARNING: The Old Car Manual Project. Oh man, I wish I had more time today to play around in this one.

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ON THE PLAYER TODAY:

01. Bob Mould - Life and Times
02. Juno - A Future Lived In Past Tense
03. Mark Kozelek - Finally LP
04. Bruce Springsteen - Working On A Dream
05. Lambchop - Aw C’mon / No You C’mon
06. Ice Rod - Your Body Is A Skatepark