Chameleon Schedules 1995-96

Wrapping up this series with the (just shy of) two years that I did the schedules for Lancaster's Chameleon Club. My life went through a lot of changes in these two years, culminating in a move to New York City (via Hoboken, NJ, just across the river) in the spring of 1996. I kept doing the schedules (and MAILING them to Rich Ruoff!) for a handful of months, but after I got a job at Warner Bros. Records in July, I realized it was time to sever this tether to my hometown. As a tip of the hat to my early years working for Chameleon, I hand illustrated the artwork for one of the final schedules.

Chameleon Schedules 1994

1994 at Lancaster's Chameleon Club saw live music, festivals, DJ nights, the explosion of LIVE, and in July, a new, updated version of the logo (by me) that, I'm happy to say, is still being used to this day (even if nobody at the club in 2019 has any idea who the hell I am!... I wonder if I'm still on the "permanent guest list" taped inside the box office)...

The February schedule was a reaction to a few complaints that Chameleon owner Rich Ruoff had gotten about the frequent usage of pin-up style imagery in these things. My admittedly retro sensibility struck some as sexist, which was never the context as far as Rich and I were concerned.

Chameleon Schedules 1993

In 1993, Lancaster's alt-rock scene was in full swing, with The Ocean Blue, The Innocence Mission, Suddenly, Tammy!, and sister city York's LIVE all signed to major labels. Additionally, lots of smaller bands (including The OOgies) were putting out records on indie labels and playing Chameleon (and other venues) regularly. As for the Chameleon schedules, Russ Cox had moved on from doing the back, which now fell to me, utilizing a rudimentary ClarisWorks design program (it would be another year until Adobe Illustrator fit into my toolbox). On the fronts, I was still (as I would till the end) hand-lettering the bands, augmenting with press-on type, cutting and pasting the clip art with rubber cement. And you know what? I miss that.

Chameleon Schedules 1991-92

After a year of not doing the Chameleon schedules, I was re-hired for the job, and for a brief period worked with Russ Cox (now an accomplished children's book illustrator) under the name Hootenanny Graphics to supply the artwork. I continued the cut-and-paste (literally... there was rubber cement involved), hand-lettered schedule, while Russ did the back of the mailer using (I believe) Adobe Illustrator, a program I was still a year away from toe-dipping.