a big shiny e!

Courtesy of Matt, Sean & Gina's son-in-law. He just went off and made it and gave it to Sean - how about that! Matt is a great guy.

kiddie e's

(Andree here) Nancy sent these along. The kids did them with tile bits that had blown about in the recent storms; Lyric painted them bright colors, and then Jaeger (top) did the full radiant E, and then Lyric (bottom) did a Robert-Smithson-"Spiral Jetty" interpretation. Aren't they lovely?

the early eighties

(Andree here) Dean found these, remember I promised them to you?

I don't know what the circumstances are behind all these Battle Ground High School photos - except for the bottom one, which was the school production of, uh, Merchant of Venice I think - in any case Erik's holding our dog Sed, who had a bit part in the play. (Dean? Help me out with details?)

eat toast

(Andree here) More vintage gold coming from Dean shortly - but let's start with this, also from Dean.

Dean here... Recently got a note from an old school chum, Tim Kohler. We made contact through the new and silly Facebook website, which is actually pretty damn cool when it comes to finding lost contacts and friends. Tim has his own personal fat slice of hell he's chewing his way through these days, with a kid with leukemia. (Andree here: Tim, I hope you'll forgive my leaving that in, but I want to give everyone an opportunity to send their thoughts and support to you too.) He had this to say:

I saw your message about Erik and his site. I am sorry to hear of his passing.
One remembrance I have is that he had written "Eat Toast" on the wall in the
light booth of Stage III. I thought this was funny and adopted it in to my
vocabulary for a while. When I went off to photo school, I ordered a rubber
stamp to mark my slides with my name and copyright. I also ordered one that said
'Eat Toast'. I probably still have it. I don't have a pic of the wall, but
I took one of the stamp...
Tim

puppies are good

(Andree here) Sean wanted to share his nice little Pocket Beagle puppies, which he adopted after falling in love with Erik's Cub. (As we all did.) Please to meet Mr. Dexter Johnson (up top in the sports jersey) and Ms. Winnie, named after the dearly loved and departed Mr. Winston.

"They are the best," Sean writes. "They help remind me of Erik."

and some more photos from before christmas

(Andree here) Yes, I know. But enjoy, won't you?

catching up on some photos from christmas

(Andree here) Yes, it's been a while since Christmas but I wanted to give you a few photos from the tree trimming gathering for Nancy and the kids. Thanks immensely to Andy and Amy Collen for taking so many lovely photos.

maatitatattoo

(Andree here) I heard from our Ron Maatita last night - he sent this pic in to the email, along with this fine message (I'm assuming permission, Ron):

* * *

Hey Andree,
I hope this email finds you well. I just needed to share my inky tribute to the man. I did it a week or so ago. It will serve as a constant reminder of what Erik has done for me and what he means to my life. It lives on my right arm (70mm x 70mm) and is in full view while I execute and question any design work I undertake. It rests against my guitar as it resonates against me is a reminder that I played for him when he needed me to. It will be there if I'm fortunate to reach old age and will ensure that I never forget him.

This pic was taken an hour after getting it done, so it's a little red. The whole process was an emotional one for me. My artist was very sensitive to its meaning and treated Bob's graphic design with the utmost of reverence.

I'm happy to be a brother in ink!

e tat fest

(Andree here)

New Year's Day saw a passel o'pals meet up at Painless Ric's in Camas to get E tats en masse. Dad's (Terry) is up above. What a nice looking bat.

"The Counselor," Steve, shows E as a compass (see below).

Above, brother Sean, and below, his First Peoples-inspired bat tat.

Above, our own dear Mike McG put the E seal on one of his not-inconsiderable forearms, below.

And here's Dean getting one on his foot. Did that hurt? Dude.

It looks like it hurt.

Nice though.

Sister Brynn checkin' hers out, adorable as always.
(Below) See it?

(Below) Adam shows the good words that kept E going through everything.

Here he is getting them in a prime spot for handy reference.

Does this give you ideas? Go thou and do likewise - if you do, send me the photo and let's share.

what erik said to marianne

(Andree here) Happy New Year's Eve, everybody.

You probably know what tomorrow is. Erik's birthday. It would have been, anyhow. One year I bought him Jim Goad's The Redneck Manifesto as his gift.

Well -- Erik's not here to party with. Not exactly. But he does keep dropping in. You recall me promising you Marianne's story? Here's what E had to say to her, in no uncertain terms:

Erik visited me in a dream. Therefore, I was not surprised when, at Erik Rising, Dad Purdom spoke of Erik having communicated wisdom about transition to him duringa dream. Likewise, I was unfazed when a grieving colleague in China wrote me about Erik visiting him in a dream, smiling and telling him not to work so hard and to take care of himself.
It made sense to me. Erik cared. Despite the fact in my dream all I got was, “Check the sizes.” Yep, that’s it. Not that I’m complaining, mind you, as apparently a relatively brief professional association and friendship didn’t warrant more than a three word directive…thank you very much. I’m not even complaining about the slightly bemused, slightly smart-assed challenging look he issued when I had told him I couldn’t check the sizes myself as I didn’t know how. The look that said, “You can and you will.”
OK, so it’s true that when I took his advice I discovered this was something urgently needed, so much so that it caused a reorganization of the entire line of product that was vital for not only our launch but our survival as a new company. (But….really, Erik….three little words?)
Then again, maybe the look spoke volumes.

Believe me, Marianne, it always did. I'm comforted to hear it still does.