Aj Fischer heads north of Traverse City Michigan
Ah,
Michigan.
Dearborn, Ann Arbor, Traverse City, Leelanau County, and The Upper Peninsula. I have been writing since I was old enough to bang on a typewriter. In the upper apartment at my Grandmother' house in Dearborn, I was given recycled paper and an old typewriter to play with. Since the paper had weird titles like, " Patient History", and "Operating Procedures", my fingers banged out stories of Doctors dropping instruments, losing patients, and I adored playing "secretary" with my Grandfather who referred to me as, " Miss Phyt". I didn't know I wasn't suppose to really peel the grape. Ann Arbor, Michigan Early teens I took classical guitar lessons and later came up with a really bad idea of playing at a school talent show. I thought I was gonna die as I panicked through " The Ashgrove". Afterwards, Tina Schiller came up to me saying, "You think you're so cool", which dealt the final blow, ack.ack. The guitar playing stopped right there. She was one of those girls you just had to look good to. Traverse City: Five years later while spinning pizzas into a commercial oven in Leelanau County, a guitar found its way back, Tina faded away with the sixties, and the absurdity of bar life burst into song. That same summer I picked up a hitch-hiking woman on US 31 named June Soper. She was a crazy, ( as in smart ), American Indian woman living in a Wigwam behind a State Park and she says, "You look like you could live in the woods, why don't you build build a Tipi?" I told her that I had never seen one, but it sounds awesome. No more roommates. Ya, OK.. ! Two days later, we're off to a Cedar swamp with an axe, bag of potato chips, and a six pack of Pabst, June's favorite beer. (Pabst and Pall Malls were June's staples), and later my Father would provid the ten acres of solitude for the new Tipi homestead named "Crow". She was made with 54 yards of canvas shipped from Chicago, three seams of stitching to seven strips, and laid a brand new sewing machine to waste. What a beautiful site she was. Iin the night, a glowing tipi orb, dwarfed by a surrounding Grandfather Maple, Beech, and Elm trees. For years to follow, I played and sang to crackling fires with trees a-glow, sparks ascending, and we just never imagined life being any different than it was. But I wasn't the only one living soft on the land....see books like, " Rob Roy's Cordwood Construction", and " Handmade Houses". It was perfectly normal to meet various people building their dreams far into the woodlands. Sand Tires, Bale houses, Gunnite domes, Yurts, tents, anything to sustain life in the woods. But I owe it to the Wolf Spider for convincing me to build a cabin. After studying the " coffee table standard of the day", " Shelter", a massive collection of hand built housing, with "The Owner Built Log Cabin", pounding questions & drawings in front of my extraordinarily gifted friend, Bob Jackson, a plan was set. And a concept from Rob Roy's books really grabbed my interest, one COULD built something by hand with no electricity, with the loving help of loving friends. And one day, two summers later, there it stood - a Cordwood Masonry Cabin. It wasn't long after that I caught the largest Brown Fishing Spider ( 5"diameter ), I had ever seen, so it just goes to show ya, We're on THEIR TURF...cabin or NO cabin. But I did learn to build walls, set nails straight and mix a damn good mud by hand.  Photo from the Original Book of Shelter Summers kept me working in Traverse City at an old Victorian house called Shield's Restaurant. "The Keller", a stonewalled bar under the house, was known for it's pizza, Ceasar salads, and peanut shucked covered floors. Thousands of business cards covered the low ceilings. It was also home to some fabulous musicians - which I listened to while waiting tables. After several open mics and panic attacks, I secured my first performing venue. A rather astute customers notices the calluses on my palms and said, " What the heck have you been doin', buildin a house?" Ah... Michigan. |
Forward to 1994-2007
Gulfport, Mississippi * Stonemice * Stonehousemusic.org