"Spkg of Art: Surprised the story of Mingering Mike was never posted"
Saw a sidebar on him in a recent issue of Smithsonian and thought 'hot damn, that'd make an interesting Lesson post.'
Anyhoo... some kid in DC (the artist remains incognito, at this point by choice) in the '60s and '70s created his own sould discography from scratch; the only thing missing was the music. Cardboard LP and 45 sleeves held painted cardboard records with grooves pressed into them. He wrote reviews of his non-existent music and attributed them to real musicians and critics. He did cut some a capella home recording demos.
Then Mike lost his records, and some diggers found them in at a flea market and published them. Now they're in the SMithsonian. I hope Mike has made some money out of this.
I'll be checking out the Mingering Mike website in greater depth at my leisure:
7. "Seems the story's been developing for some time now" In response to Reply # 4
starting in digger circles. The acquisition by the Smithsonian (while surprising, to me) obviously gives it a nod from the Academy as legitimate Outsider Art... probably a different sort of stratosphere. That's why I said I hope Mike is getting some cash off this somehow - I mean, the record collectors' names are in all the articles, but the guy who made the art is hiding out in his ma's basement or something.
12. "the picture of Mike in disguise is cracking me right up" In response to Reply # 10
and to be clear i am not laughing AT him. It's really great that if he had to lose his stuff, it fell into the hands of some people who appreciated it and could expose it to others who would as well.
13. "RE: Yours would obviously have to be 'cassettes,' instead of 'vinyl'" In response to Reply # 6
Tapes, vinyl, and Cd. I bet I can do some great graphics on the computer. I also plan on doing this with my own Cd compilations. I like how the guy in Nick And Nora's Infinite Adventures did his compilations.
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