Mingering Mike

[Bags]

Seems like this exhibit would be right up the alley of some of the folks on here.  I'm going to see it on its last day, Sat, July 28.
 
 Find out about it  here.
 
 ...two record-collecting bargain hunters snatched up what they found, nearly 200 fake LPs and 45s stashed away and mistaken for actual vinyl records, and they went searching for the creator of this treasure trove: the mysterious Mingering Mike...Mike quickly became an intriguing character in the record collecting community, and now that his artwork is being shown in a gallery setting, Mike is fast becoming a figure in self-taught visual art as well.
 
 Mikeâ??s world of pretend vinyl covers (and rough-cut acapella home recordings on headphones) line the walls of Hemphill in full color, finally bringing Mike to the adoring audience he always imagined. Itâ??s a gold mine for audiophiles, soul aficionados, and outsider art groupies, displaying replica album covers complete with paper liners to protect the "delicate" surfaces of his cardboard records, detailed liner notes, and extensive catalogue numbers of an imaginary system. He forged grooves with marker, crayon, or pencil â?? each held by a hand-scrawled album cover, drawn with careful thought and wild imagination. His cover art, line drawings, done in now-fading marker scribbles, show Mike and his entourage of characters acting out the star life.
 
 Mingering Mike visualized an entire rock 'n' roll persona for himself, making use of commonly used marketing jargon here and appropriating well-known song titles there. This discography-on-parade is complete with gatefold covers, specifically cut dust sleeves, and a number of production sub-labels such as Sex, Decision, and Ming/War, Fake Records Inc., and Mother Goose. The color card jackets usually provide a track listing, an inventory of never-recorded songs with intriguing titles like "I Get Caught Up In My Rhymes Girl When Iâ??m Rapping To You." Sometimes heâ??ll announce the popularity of his unheard albums â?? a homemade sticker proclaims a record "bound to be another greatest hits album of the future."

[thirsty moore]

Now I know what I'm doing on Saturday.  Thanks Bags.

[Chip Chanko]

I remember there being an article about this a while ago when they first bought the collection at eastern market or somewhere like that.

[thirsty moore]

This was really awesome.  I also had the gallery to myself.  The only other person there was some staff person.