Keeling Group

What happened this year? I thought about doing some top 5 lists but nobody wants to read those and people always want to question them and get all judgmental. Does anyone who looks at this blog care if I loved Inglorious Basterds or can't think of any good albums that came out this year off the top of my head? Here is a multimedia chronological look back at some of my memories from 2009. First, I traveled to our nation's capital with my good homie Joe (A.K.A. Bitch Ass Darius) to try to look at the inauguration. This is about how close we got: Joe and I returned home and got real serious with our glockenspiel band, New Kids On The Glock: As a gigantic icicle melted outside our building, our office flooded the week before Dre Day! Ain't no punk ass icicle gonna stop us! Survived yet another brutal winter in Hoth Minneapolis: We rang in another SXSW with our second DO IT TO IT vinyl record, release party, and promo video: Eric Inkala, John Grider, Isaac Arvold, and Keiko Yagishita rocked our First Amendment Arts gallery with their Almost Homeless show. Syl Johnson put on an incredible performance at Numero Group's Eccentric Soul Revue in Chicago: I got to design the poster for the show as well: Traveled to Vancouver BC for a DJ gig and was floored at how gorgeous the city is. My Kidrobot Alphabet keychain series was finally released and I couldn't have been more excited: As part of Walker Art Center's ""Don't Sleep On It"" 24 hour art-making marathon, we led a roomful of high schoolers on a 3-6am adventure filled with building a wall of giant speakerboxes, overlapping video and slide projections, and plenty of BASS! Went to Sedona Arizona for my brother's wedding, stayed for the crystal healing sessions, wizard potions, and magnetic spiritual vortexes... brah. Added another Bonnaroo poster to our repertoire: One week after Michael Jackson died, I was in New York and ended up at an MJ tribute night hosted by the great DJ Spinna. It was one of the best all-Michael DJ sets I've ever heard and one of the most intense experiences I've ever had while listening to a DJ spin. I'm talking like... religious experience level shit here, people. Had to switch gears from Michael to Prince to DJ at the Purple Rain 25th Anniversary dance party at First Avenue. We were honored to have Minneapolis' Mayor R.T. Rybak attend, share his thoughts on Minneapolis' rich musical history, and then hand First Avenue a custom-made key to the city! I spent a year staring at international postage stamps and used all that inspiration to design the packaging for my buddy BK-One's new CD ""Radio do Canibal."" Autumn kicked into gear and things like this happened: The whole BRLSQ team helped put together a crazy art installation at SOO Visual Arts Center for the super cool ""Non-Consensual Constructivist Post-Dada Cerebral Warts"" show with Haze XXL and Aesthetic Apparatus: King Otto and I rocked the crowd at 7th Street Entry for another Halloween night all-oldies Monster Mash dance party! The art school at Illinois Wesleyan University hosted Wes and I for the weekend as we installed and opened our largest gallery show yet, simply titled The Screenprinted Work of Burlesque of North America. My dude Emynd released a digital EP of my music on his Crossfaded Bacon label. ""Ready to Rock"" is my first ever solo EP and I made a video to promote one of the choons: We cut our teeth in the craft fair scene at the No Coast Craftorama. Expect to see us at many more arts & crafts-related events in the near future! We bout that craft, son! 2009 was a year of big changes both good and bad for myself, Burlesque, and my friends. I'm looking forward to a clean slate in 2010 to see what great things will come for everyone. LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!