The first night we attended the Lee Conklin Show at D.King Gallery in Berkeley where we met up with old friends Paul Grushkin and Dennis King, the authors of the The Art Of Modern Rock, a book that DCS posters are featured heavily in. Our buddy Gary Houston was there in full force and the fun commenced. We bugged out and went down the street to get some Indian food. The curry was top notch and woke me up for the rest of the evenings adventures. Johnny and I ventured down to Fisherman's Wharf to catch the scenery at night. The neon was blazing and it was a beautiful atmosphere to just hang and drink coffee.

The next day was the TRPS show. Our booth was next to Stanley Mouse and Gary Houston. Once again I found myself lost in Gary's art. The guy does some of the best posters out there today. I always gain a stronger appreciation for his work every time I get to be around it. Well crafted and expertly rendered, the posters sing of the master work that went into their creation.

Gary is one of those people I can't wait to see when I have the chance. We always have a good time just being around each other. I hadn't seen him in a couple of years and there was much catching

up to do. We made up for lost time. I promised him that I would try to make it to Portland to see his studio in the near future.

I also finally got to meet my hero Stanley Mouse. A humbling experience since he is the guy along with Rick Giffin and Alton Kelley that I credit for me becoming an artist. Mouse is a true legend in the art world and one of the kings in the rock poster genre. Just getting to shake his hand and say "thanks" made the entire trip out to SF worth it. I can't thank him enough for the inspiration he has given me through the years. He literally drew the face on my childhood and teenage years as I became immersed in music and art. The man is a legend, plain and simple and one hell of a sweet guy. The world needs more folks like Stanley around. We would all be better for it. After the TRPS show there was the Firehouse, Forbes, Malleus opening at Artrock Gallery and we all got to wish Stanley "Happy Birthday" as they served him a special cake. I can't really describe how I felt standing in Artrock with Stanley that night. It was a dream come true.

Later in the trip we got to hang with Chuck Sperry and George (of Firehouse Kustom RockArt), Urlo, Lu and Paio (of Malleus). We had breakfast at the Pork Store on Haight Street and wandered around a bit. Much fun. The gang from Malleus, who hail from Italy, are super people. I can't say enough about how talented they are. And of course, once Chuck and I sat down and started talking the conversation immediately went to printing and poster art. Chuck and I have this kinship as artists who stay knee deep in ink printing our own work. We discussed a collaboration possibly happening in the future. that should be a good one. I can only imagine what we will come up with. I look forward to going back to California and spending some time at the Firehouse getting crazy. Ron Donovan, Chuck's partner was out of town, but I look forward to getting to see him also. It's dangerous when you get a bunch of printers together in the same room. The place may explode from the ink fumes.

On our last night we had sushi with Dave Hunter, another poster artist and close friend. He brought along Soul Sister Shakti, Brenda Brewer, whom I met earlier this year via Facebook. We ate at Godzila Sushi and the food was killer to compliment the wonderful company. We spent many hours in the place enjoying each other's company, great food and copious amounts of saki.

It was a sad day when we had to leave, not to mention the hellish storm lashing San Francisco that created a three hour delay in our flight. I look forward to heading back to San Francisco. Such a great place. Real culture and real people. Screw Bill O'Reilly and his bashing of such a wonderful city that exemplifies everything good and right about America.

More pics from the SF trip can be seen in my Facebook TRPS album

Johnny and I will be attending the TRPS show in San Francisco next week. We will have lots of vintage and new DCS work for sale. See ya there!

TRPS is pleased to announce that this year's TRPS Festival of Rock Posters will be held on Saturday October 10th from 10:00 to 6:00. Once again we'll be at the Hall of Flowers in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. As always, the show will feature rock poster artists and dealers from around the country, and is the one show not to be missed by poster collectors and all fans of rock art. This year's lineup is already shaping up to be one of our best ever.

The Hall of Flowers (AKA the Old County Fair Building) is located near the corner of Ninth and Lincoln. Admission is $10 ($5 for TRPS members with card).

Mark your calendars for Saturday October 10th, and make your plans to join us for one of the best rock poster shows anywhere. We'll post the lineup of artists and vendors here as things develop, so keep checking this site for updates as they become available. We'll also be posting updates on Twitter (we're at TRPSorg), so check that out as well, and get the latest show info.

You don't want to miss this one. See you all there!

Confirmed list of Artists and Dealers:

PNE (Post New Explosionism: Emek, Justin Hampton, Jermaine Rogers), Malleus (from Italy), Drowning Creek Studios (Jeff Wood with Johnny Thief), Burlesque of North America, The Firehouse (Chuck Sperry and Ron Donovan), Wes Wilson, David Byrd (of Fillmore East fame), Stanley Mouse, Brad Klausen, Victor Moscoso, Dave Hunter, Gary Houston, Lee Conklin, S.F. Rockposters, David Singer, Randy Tuten, Alan Forbes, Justin McNeal, Marq Spusta, Billy Perkins, Paul Imagine, David D'Andrea, Bob Cohen (Avalon co-founder), Chris Shaw, Alex Fischer, Eric King, Carolyn Ferris, Tea Lautrec Litho, John Seabury, Gregg Gordon, John Howard, Cahoots Graphics (Dennis Loren), Ryan Kerrigan, fillmoreposters.com, Jim Pierce, Pat Ryan, Perry Pfeffer, Dano Kuhlken (DKNG Studios), Connected Music, Larry Freeman, Cliff Yamasaki, Vince Dugar, Political Gridlock, Sherwood Donahue, Helie Robertson, Tom Hill, Kris Mikkelson and Ron Schaeffer.

The show will feature uncut sheets of past studio work. For those unfamiliar with what an uncut sheet is, it's the raw press sheet before the posters are cut and trimmed. What makes them interesting is often times two different posters are run on a sheet creating some interesting juxtapositions like Judas Priest and Rufus Wainwright. Many have handbills run across the bottom also. Uncuts are usually limited to 5-10 sheets, so they are pretty rare items.

I have never really offered any of these sheets for sale or shown them except for the occasional festival or charity fundraiser. I decided I would like to show people some of the more interesting combos we have done over the years and let them see the light of day.

More info in the coming days at www.1819central.com