The Art of Writing

I haven't written much about the mixed-media project I've been working on. I've posted a lot of the completed works, and I introduced the concept back when I started working on it, but the process is something I've wanted to share with you. It's been such an important part of why I've enjoyed working on it so much these past few months. 

Being a visual project, the images are extremely important. It's the biggest visual art project I've worked on it years and I've been loving this new outlet. But the writing aspects are equally important to me. I've been employing a cut-up technique in the writing part. I search though batches of text for a word or string of words that infuse the story portrayed in the image. Sometimes a string of words end up on my "thinking board" and inspires the selection of images that will be pieced together.

I've arranged the text into piles of small, medium and large font. Once I make a word choice, I dig into the corresponding font pile and search for completing pieces until the phrase captures the theme. I never try to force it, and never for look for a particular word (with the exception of a conjunction or article). There have been some times where I've spent as much time on the word puzzles as I did on the picture puzzle.

I use this title as starting point for the stream of consciousness pieces that follow. It's a kind of free writing style that I used to do all the time, and it's been great revisiting it without having to worry about coherency and plot structure. At the same time, there is a plot trajectory within the project as a whole. Each spread or page are pieces designed to borrow from the "hymn" structure of the book I'm altering.

The original book was hymnal and the poems in my project are meant to follow that genre or storytelling. They are little vignettes of a vast fantasy about the evolution of imagination as a magical power in children, and the empire of science and brutality attempting to destroy it. It is the fantasy of the main character in a novel I'm in the early stages of working on. 

I realized early on that I needed to transcribe the words before putting them into the book. Often they become illegible once I incorporated them into the artwork so that the words become part of the visual. There are at least two completed ones that that I don't know for sure what is written. Now I write the stream of words on a piece of a scrap paper, trying not to think too much about them.

Weekend Music Roundup

 

 

It's the weekend once again, which it's time to ramble on about music. I've recently been taking a different approach to my digital music listening. I primarily listen to new digital music in the art studio, and I've been trying to limit myself to a handful of albums at a time and making sure I give them multiple listens (for those that warrant it anyway). I've heard some great new albums of late, and have also dug out quite a few nice finds at the local shop. All in all, the spring has been pretty good for music in my world. Enjoy.

 

Pop Levi - Juicy Diamond: This is the fifth album from the UK via LA glam pop artist. I was first turned onto his music thirteen years ago when his debut singles "Pick-Me-Up Uppercut" and "Blue Honey" were my jams. Despite consistent quality, he's never reached real mainstream attention, and that's too bad, especially as this is probably his most complete work to date.  "Time Bomb," "D.U.I.," "Tia" and "Faces" are personal favorites on here, but it's truly great from start to finish.

Middle Kids - Today We're the Greatest: This is the second album from the Sydney indie band and my first introduction to them. This has a dream pop sound, soothing and intriguing and very well done. There's something about this that reminds me of 90s indie in a totally awesome way. Elements of Helium and Aimee Mann blend with a contemporary west coast sound. "Cellophane (Brain)," "Lost in Los Angels,""Summer Hill," "Stacking the Chairs," and "Run With You" are my personal favorites on this classic sounding album. 

David Vandervelde - Shadow Sides: This is the fourth album from the Nashville artist and was released back 2014. I dove into this not knowing his work, but being attracted to the title (not to mention Dr. J on the cover). There's a real emerging psychedelic sound coming out of that city. There's this re-imagined '70s psychedelic soul vibe on this album that I really dig. "Strange Goodbyes," "When You're Not Around," and "Soon" are personal favorites on a pretty cool record.

The Rapture - In the Grace of Your Love: The 2011 album is the forth from the NYC band, and their last to date. This was one of my favorite bands of the 00s, a fresh dance punk sound that evolved into a psychedelic dance sound by this record. I recently came across one of the 1,000 pressed vinyl at the local shop and snatched it up. I hadn't listened to it a few years and it was brilliant to hear again. "Miss You," "Come Back to Me," "Never Gonna Die Again," "How Deep is Your Love," and the title track are personal favorites of mine. 

Mondo Generator - Cocaine Rodeo: The debut album from Nick Oliveri's band, initially a side-project of the band he was in then (Queens of the Stone Age), was released in 2000. It's more punk than the stoner rock of QOTSA, and fed his need to express that anger. Understandably, this resembles 90's metal punk bands like Tad. This album is fast and furious, and is one of the most rocking punk albums I've heard in a long time. I skipped getting into this band when they came out, and I'm glad I did. I wouldn't have appreciated it then, it just wasn't what I was into. In my teens, I would've dug it. And now, I can appreciate it for what it is...quality anger.

Kansas - Masque: The third album from the prog rock group was their second album of '75. One of reasons I believe this band was more popular, and less respected, than a lot of prog rock bands has do with the fact that there remains a heavy influence of blues rock. In my opinion, they are more of a hard rock band with prog elements than a true prog band. This is a grooving album with some real great 70s rock songs. My favorites being "Two Cents Worth," and "Icarus - Borne on Wings of Steel."

 

 

 

 

Under My Wings

Under My Wings

A

promise

of 

peace

as far as

the shadow of 

my wings can spread

and that all

imaginative 

sins of self-exploration

will be 

           forever

                     blessed.

 

Weekend Music Roundup

 

The weekend has arrived and as promised, I'm sharing my thoughts on a couple of new albums that I'd been looking forward to, as well as some older albums that I've that picked up over the past several weeks. The first two albums here are releases from two of my favorite artists of the past ten years and both live up to expectations. There's also a few nice discoveries and some things I'd been looking for. Hopefully there's something here that will make you all want to go exploring. Enjoy.

Lana Del Rey - Chemtrails Over the Country Club: The newest album from the queen of broken hearts is another sun soaked saga of sorrow. Her last album had been my favorite of the year it was released (as had Ultraviolence). So needless to say, my expectations for a new Lana album are always pretty high. I admit that upon first listen, I wasn't sure how I felt. There were certainly songs I loved, but I wasn't sure how I felt about the entire thing. On second listen, I fell in love a little bit and realized this one had the potential to grow on me the way NFR did. Now many listens in, I really love this album.

Ryley Walker - Course in Fable: This is the first solo album in a few years from the prolific songwriter who has done a bunch of collaborations recently, but not an album of his own until this. I've been a big fan since first hearing Primrose Green when it came out and have eagerly listened to each release since. I saw him play a few years ago and he was brilliant. He plays a free folk style rooted deep in Americana and has this 70s vibe to his music that speaks to my childhood. This is yet another solid addition to his incredible catalog. 

American Pleasure Club - Tour Tape: This mixtape comp was released in 2018 by the Baltimore indie band. It had been sitting in my folder of albums to listen to for ages and I finally got around to giving it a listen. This lo-fi indie pop, and the lo-fi aspect of it is what makes it interesting, lending a neo-psych sound to what otherwise would be pretty standard indie. There's a decent amount of mixtape montages on here, but the songs "All I Ever Wanted," "Attitude Pt. 2," "But Not Enough to Sleep Tonight," and "Together in the Big Black Car" are standouts. 

Swans - Feel Good Now: This live album was recorded in 1987 on the NYC bands' European tour. Their albums from this period are much more abrasive than their more well-known work of the past two decades, but the essence is the same. It straddles the line between experimental no-wave and post-rock. The intensity of this band is one of the things that attracts me, and is one of the reasons they've become one of the bands that I've fallen in love with over the past year. It's one of the elements of fate when you encounter a sound that illuminates your thoughts. It's all about finding something at the right time and place. 

Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - Shyga! the Sunlight Mound: This is the fourth album by the band from the Perth. This is heavy psych meets garage rock, and a pleasant surprise in my world. This is fast pace psychedellic rock as opposed to the slower heavier brand that dominates the genre. It definitely reminds me of King Gizzard in that way, but this is definitely less polished. I personally like the raw elements. "Sawtooth Monkfish," "Tally-Ho," "Mr. Prism," and "The Tale of Gurney Gridman" are personal favorites.

Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers - Bustin' Loose: The 1979 debut from D.C. go-go funk band is an album that had been on my wishlist for a long time. I learned about these guys from Wale who sampled them pretty heavily. This is soulful funk at it's best. Definitely a great party album, if we ever get back to a time when parties are a thing.

 

Fiction Friday (130)

 

The creation of a Teen book club at my library has propelled me into my deepest exploration of YA literature in a couple of years. For the next selection, I chose a contemporary fiction, and one of the more celebrated books of last year. Written in verse, this was a very compelling novel and one I'm glad I read.

Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo

(Haper, 2020)

Camino and Yahaira are sisters. One lives in NYC and the other lives in the Dominican Republic. They are both seventeen and both unaware that the other exists until tragedy strikes at the heart of both of their lives, killing the father they shared.

Though we often like to believe we can take secrets to our grave, life rarely works out that way, and secrets tend to be revealed once a person dies. Papi's secrets are of the later variety. In New York, Yahaira has known of his father's other wife for almost a year, but never said anything. After her father dies in a plane crash, she discovers that everyone else already knew the secret...and that there was more to it. As she grapples with a need to meet the sister she never knew, Camino struggles with how she is going to survive without the finical support her father provided. 

Told in verse from alternating perspectives, this is a novel of family betrayal, healing, and ultimately forgiveness. The language is careful and striking at times, bringing both girls to life as it shares their hopes and dreams and anxieties. One thing that I found interesting and telling was there there are no redeemable male characters in this novel. As a male reader, it was eye opening to see that this is a reality for many women and girls. It was also uplifting to see how the female characters in the story come together to support each other without the need of a male character.

Silent Explorers

 

Silent Explorers

Every you & every me, sitting in a tree.

K - I - S - S -I - N - G                   

                                         games now broadcast on screen for the whole world to see.                     

Spy on your neighbors,

Spy on your friends,      

             Never allow their secrets                          

                            to belong to them.

Weekend Music Roundup

 

The weekend is here and the Roundup is back. I took last weekend off for the holiday...had to get prepared for the Easter Bunny's visit. I've been listening to a ton of new releases recently now that the year is a quarter of the way through. Some really cool albums have come out and I'll be sharing them over the coming weeks. There have also been some quality re-issues and lost classics that I've been into. Hopefully there's something here to interest you. Enjoy.

Philippe Cohen Solal and Mike Lindsay - Outsider: Taking the words of Henry Darger's cult masterpiece "In the Realms of the Unreal" and setting them to music sounds like an impossible task to do successfully. At least that was my thought when I first heard about this project the French musician was embarking on. Then I heard a song and knew exactly how wrong I was. Musically it would fall under chamber pop and indie folk, but so brilliantly crafted to fit words. An extraordinary beautiful album. 

Death From Above - Is 4 Lovers: The first album in three years and half years from Toronto noise rock band is their fourth, and third since re-forming in 2014 after a 10 year hiatus. This is a band that has never made a bad album in my opinion, and this continues that trend. It should also be said that this doesn't tread any new ground, just drums and guitar and melodic aggression. It follows their formula, which is alright by me, and I'm guessing it will be alright by their fans.

Red Krayola - The Parable of Arable Land: The 1967 debut from the Houston experimental psych rock band was re-released in Mono on vinyl about a decade ago. On a recent trip to the local shop with my kiddo, she picked it out for me because of the cover and asked "Do you want this one?" I most definitely did as this one of the early albums from the band I was missing, and having now heard it, I can say it's the best of them. The free form freak out serves them well, feels a bit like 13th Floor Elevators meets The Residents with the attitude of the first Stooges album. There's just enough attention to melody to make it a very listenable album for its genre. "War Sucks" and "Former Reflections Enduring Doubt" are total standouts.

Nikki Sudden - The Bible Belt: Released in 1983, this was one of the first solo albums from the Swell Maps underground icon. While Nikki would go on to have quite a prolific career, he is rarely talked about in the mainstream. His work usually veers toward punk blues infused with jangle pop. This album leans much farther to the jangle sound, a few years before that sound would sweep the UK. At times it sounds like Happy Mondays before there was a Happy Mondays. A reissue features other version of album tracks and some non-album tracks. 

Lucero - When You Found Me: Formed in the late-90s in Memphis, these guys have been one of the top alt-country bands of last two decades. Released in January, this is their first album in three years. This has a real radio friendly feel with arena sized bar tunes. This was an okay album for me, one that leaned too heavily into country rock. The title track was by far my favorite.

 

 

 

Fiction Friday (129)

 

Technically, this post should be titled Non-Fiction Friday, but as I never real nonfiction (as a general rule), I kept the title because this is my Book Review template. This was a book that the Library Book Club had chosen, and I fully expected to skip this one, but decided to give a chance and see how I felt about a non-fiction book after having not read one for some time. Also, it was narrative non-fiction which is always more appealing to me.

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

(Harper, 1998)

Though there was an army of people responsible for the daunting task of creating the Oxford English Dictionary in Victorian times, this is the story of two of the most important, and intriguing, figures. The tale begins with a murder committed by an American army doctor in the slums of London and details his unlikely journey to becoming one of the most valuable volunteers to contribute to this monumental undertaking...from his rooms of a hospital for the criminally insane.

This extremely well-written and well-researched story was extremely compelling. Not only does it delve into the fascinating lives of Dr. Minor and Professor James Murry and their unlikely friendship, it also tells the story of trying to quantify and contain an unwieldy language into an authoritative document.

 The Day of Worrisome Synergy

A habit of learned behavior  accelerates when self-created . . 

and evolutionary war instincts take hold inside

                                                              Magic Creatures.

New Holy wars are born in the conflict . . in which

Angels arrive and Angels die.

Devils always remain the same . . 

    living somewhere out of time.