Updates from PPIM

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MORE FROM MARTIN:

Ten or more years ago things were tough, and I threw a few items from my collection up onto eBay. I remember one item was my EXIT leather jacket that I’d worn everywhere with Ministry, Pigface and Killing Joke across the USA, Europe, in countless photo shoots where I’d just turn my back – figuring I’d already been in enough photos. 

As soon as I saw the jacket on eBay, it shook me. I took it down. I remember thinking I’d rather have one of my kids lose it in a bar fight than just sell it. Now it sits in the Museum.

This week, these last couple of months really, have had a similar emotional pull on me, with the main difference, I guess, being the purpose of the sale and the parting. It’s wonderfully gloriously intimidating to be involved in something larger than yourself, way larger. Sometimes it feels as though on a mediocre day its momentum drags me down the street and pushes me up into the clouds. Sometimes, the massive undertaking hovers overhead and blots out the sun like a giant space ship in one of those movies with Tom Cruise. I’m not going to lie, sometimes, often, it’s scary as fuck. 

It’s one thing to get a great review of a musical work –

another when someone tells you they shagged to it

But when people say ‘this was the pilgrimage I didn’t know I needed to make!’ or, ‘thank you for building the church of us,’ or they just start crying (as I sometimes do) in the studio — this weight on my shoulders that can also feel like a comfort blanket. But it flips a bit. So, in a way, the Museum, itself, or the feelings it generates are like an after-tattoo balm right now. I had a lovely, sparky relationship with Steve Albini since 1988 or so, and coupled with my analog gear / tape fetish, you would think the listing of some of my most precious studio items would be way more traumatic. 

Strange that it isn’t?

I can feel the grief just below the surface, the impending loss coming soon but it’s coupled with this strange calmness. There are already 172 frames upstairs at the museum waiting to be loaded and hung. There are so many items I’m excited about for the Airbnb: turntables, vinyl, cassettes, a library, cool shit everywhere….vibe. 

It’s a tough fucking week. I’m clinging to this thing that’s larger than me, dragging me along behind it. 

I’ve been saying this for the last few years – be nice. Be as nice as you possibly can.

MA

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

We’re looking forward to the crazy month of September with you all! We’re celebrating anniversaries (like 33 years of NiN’s Broken), Riot Fest weekend, and, of course, we’re excited to host folks for our annual PPIM Whiskey-Pancake Brunches (4 years running!!) over Cold Waves Weekend.

We’ve even got events through the beginning of November, excited that My Life w the Thrill Kill Kult is going to be playing in Chicago on Halloween!

We’ll see you there!