Dinner with Decker

Yesterday got off to a rough start for me. I woke up with an upset stomach and couldn’t keep any food down. I’d intended to record a few station Ids and return some messages bright and early but immediately resigned myself to go back to bed in the hopes that I could sleep things off. Unfortunately, while I was successful in that regard, I dozed a little too long and, thus, found myself rushing out to a dentist appointment with an empty stomach only to have a hole bored into one of my teeth. Thankfully though, I was out just in time to do dinner with Decker; which brings me to the point of this post.

If you read my previous entry about my first book review, you’ll know how much I enjoyed Shawn Decker’s book, My Pet Virus [Official, Borders, Barnes & Noble]. So I was really stoked to have the opportunity to meet with him last night to talk about what he’s doing. I was a little bummed that my jaw felt like ass and my lip was all swollen up, but it was really cool to sit down with Shawn, his wife, Gwenn, and his cousin, (my best friend and favorite photographer) Bonnie Moses. Over the course of the evening we talked a lot about how he and Gwenn got into the lecture circuit where I was first introduced to them, and what it’s like for them to live on the road. Shawn gave me some insight into the publishing world and I learned that Gwenn manages a kick-ass band called Bella Morte [Official, Facebook, Myspace] and is also really tight with Lauren Hoffman [Official, Myspace] whose song, “Interplanetary Traveler” has been stuck in my head for days. How cool is that? It also turns out that Shawn and Gwen recently got the latest Super Mario Bros. game for Wii so we might have to reconnect for some goomba-stomping action soon. It’s nice to know that super awesome artists and educators, like Shawn and Gwenn have a little Nintendo fanboy in them too

Here‘s a picture that Bonnie took of Shawn and me last night. Please don’t mind my swollen face. Shawn posted this on his Decker’s Daily Coffee Flickr page with this super kind caption:

“Tonight’s Coffee Sponsor: Mason Taylor of the band, a’tris, who totally rock. And I’m not saying that because Mason hooked me up with a tall cool one, either. The band has a sound so refreshing that it makes my iced mocha jealous. Check out the a’tris song, “Automatic Doors”, and watch them do their thing: vimeo.com/3438892. Support indie artists who support iced mocha fiends with HIV, and buy the song, “Automatic Doors” on iTunes so bands like this don’t go away. Hell, buy their whole album, entitled Lensing.”

Shawn also had some super kind thing to say about what the guys and I are doing in his blog post, Decker’s Daily Band of the Month: a’tris. In it he writes that we are the “first ever Decker’s Daily Band of the Month” so we’re pretty stoked about that. It’s not every day that one of my favorite writers blogs about a’tris! Feel free to check out what he had to say on his official blog or on Poz Magazine’s website. Yesterday turned out to be a pretty awesome day after all.

Hope this finds you feeling healthy!

-Mason

My First Book Review

Okay, so this isn’t a review so much as it is a recommendation. But I thought “My First Book Review” would be a catchier title so I went with that. I hope my intuition was right because I believe that everyone would benefit from reading Shawn Decker’s My Pet Virus [Official, Amazon, Barnes & Noble]

I discovered Shawn’s book a week or so ago over dinner with my good friend Bonnie and her super-cool husband William. Bonnie and I first met before I went off to college. She was studying photography in Boston and a mutual friend of ours named Jimmy suggested we get together while she was in town. I am still grateful to Jimmy for making that introduction as Bonnie not only helped me with the daunting task of transitioning from Charlottesville, VA to Boston, MA; she also helped me to get a’tris off the ground by bringing her friends out to our first shows and putting a photo shoot together for the front cover of our debut album, appeal [iTunes, Amazon]

Anyways, as Bonnie and I were discussing life and art she mentioned that her cousin, Shawn Decker, had written a book that she thought I’d really like. I told her his name sounded familiar to me and that I’d be sure to check it out. At the end of the night, she made sure that I did by handing me a copy. And that’s when it hit me. Shawn’s name sounded familiar and his face (on the front cover) looked familiar because I’d met him before.

When I was in high school my classmates and I were invited to attend a lecture given by Shawn and his partner/girlfriend/wife Gwenn [Official]. I’m not sure what their relationship status was at the time but I do remember that they were there to talk about Shawn’s HIV status and I recalled much of his story from that lecture. At age eleven Shawn contracted HIV from tainted blood. As a result, he was kicked out of school and alienated. Thankfully though he was far too driven to let other people’s ignorance about his pet virus get him down. Instead, he educated himself and landed a fellow educator in Miss Powhatan, Gwenn Barringer. Not bad for a self-described thin-blooded positoid huh? Shawn is a champion and I remembered being greatly inspired by the manner in which he and Gwenn answered my class’ questions with great candor and aplomb.

Shawn’s book was just as sincere as his lecture and it really hit home to me. Literally. As I read My Pet Virus I couldn’t help but smile when I realized that I owned Shawn’s first album, Tainted Goods, with his band Synthetic Division [Myspace]. (He’s a pretty awesome musician too.) I also am familiar with many of the places about which he wrote and even one of the persons whose names he mentions. While you probably won’t have the same experiences, I strongly believe that you will love his book. It is extremely genuine, well-written, and unputdownable. (I don’t think the last adjective there is really a word but you know what I mean). I’ve included a preview of the novel below thanks to Google reader and encourage you to check it out and leave your opinions in our comments section.

Hope this finds you feeling healthy!
-Mason

P.S. If you’d like to get to know more about Shawn Decker, be sure to check out his blog at ShawnandGwenn.com. It’s really informative and he updates it regularly. You can also find him on Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube. And, last but not least, you can sponsor Decker’s Daily Coffee [flickr] by sending Shawn $5 via PayPal to shawn@mypetvirus.com. If you ask him politely, he’ll plug your website or organization too. Be on the lookout for some a’tris love soon

Updated Friday 15 Jan:

After sharing this blog with our followers on Twitter I was really jazzed to see the following tweets appear in my feed:

How cool is that? Before the days of the wold wide web, I remember mailing one of my favorite authors, Piers Anthony [Official] a handwritten letter via his publisher and being overjoyed when a personal response arrived from him months later. Back then I could have never imagined how today’s social media would allow anyone with internet access and a Twitter or Facebook account the ability to directly connect with artists and content creators. I hope that my responses to your tweets and messages make you feel as good as I felt upon seeing this.

Looking forward to connecting with you!
-Mason