Excerpt

A hear the screech of tires. A scream. I pull my pistol from my windbreaker pocket.

This is my scrapbook

Since starting the blog in 2014 I have struggled with how to use it. 

Sure, I promote my work. But if that is all I do, then this is a self-marketing blog, and that's depressing. 

How do I make this space work for me? 

I think about other humans. What do they use blogs for? 

They write blog essays about tree-farming and saying goodbye to grandma and how to make excellent omelets and five keys to writing the perfect first draft and how to properly grow and maintain whiskers. 

I don't write blog essays. I don't have time or interest (this essay excluded). 

For me, and I imagine for others, consistency is the primary challenge of maintaining a blog. What would compel me to add to this space? 

In the past few months, I've found a use that works. 

A scrap board. This blog is now a scrap board. In fact, I think it alway was. I always wanted it to be, but now I'm actually producing enough weird shit that I have material to share on a regular basis.

What is a scrap board? A place for scraps. I will post scraps of art I make--incomplete art (all art is incomplete), fallible art, art that wants to be, but doesn't yet know what it is.

I  will use this space as a scrap board for works in progress--both writing & music--and to demonstrate my artistic process. 

Why does this appeal to me? Simple. It keeps me honest. 

When I post something publicly, the work is vulnerable. I am compelled to return to it, think about it, critique it. 

The scrapbook becomes one of several steps in the process of making. If the work holds up, if it has a home in the world, I will find the energy to finish. 

Organizing Song Demos for A Three-Album Art-Rock Collage

WHERE THE SONGS ARE:

CURRENT SD 

FC 000

1 soft pretty dark (II. Table Saw; The Dredge?)

2 major rock americana (I. Bead Necklace; Untitled)

3 soft pretty dark (II. These & A Sparrow)

4 dark rnr (II. Executioner's Paradigm)

5 major rnr (III. Black Lung?)

FC 001

1 dub --> rock (II. you are the seasons; maybe refrain in I. Dub Interlude) (8 min)

2 roadtrip rockabilly (II. Set Your Caltrops)

FC 002

1 guitar & drums pretty into rock (III. All of Us, Here, Holding Hands)

2 drums & guitar indie rock (II. Rattle Softly The Cages, very jammy)

FC 003

1 fc rock song too slow tho -- rerecord (III. Onion Town) (6 min)

2 soft pretty msg in a bottle (I. Worm On the Beak)

3 soft pretty wooden floors (III. The Lake)

MOON 01

1 gbv rock song (I. Untitled or III. No Luck Motel)

2 building drums (I. Prelude to Black Walls)

3 rock song (I. Black Walls)

4 dark heavy waltz (I. Longshoreman & Their Rope Coils or II. The Dredge)

5 driving rock song (I. Sun Circle) 

FCM015

1 pretty pretty song 1 (III. Satellite) 

FCX01

1 pretty pretty song 2 better (III. Satellite)

FC M01

1 fun party drums no guitar (I. or II.)

2 cool slow rhythm no guitar (I. II.)

MCB4

1 cool thumping drum beat (II. Rattle The Cages?)

2 cool driving beat (I. Sun Circle)

FCM2

1 pretty dark waltzy (III. ???)

MOTS1

1 dance-y driving beat (I. Magicians of the Sea)

PREVIOUS SD

SONG 04

1 Great riff -- Keeper! (I)

FC10

1 Acoustic short & epic (Start III.)

2 Acoustic Feast of Wire (III.)

FC3 1

1 Good feedbacky ambiance (Start of II.)

2 Slow driving crunch (II. or nothing)

3 S-K / Nirvana song style (II.)

4 Trippy slow song (I. or nothing)

FC3 2 (1)

1 moody pine forest song (II. yes)

2 cool weirdo waltzy (interlude)

3 joe voss (not balm)

4 cool weirdo moody & almost country western (III. moon)

5 weirdo tropical pop - rock - pop (NOT BALM)

6 fc rock punk song (II.)

7 madison / folk explosion (III.)

8 fc super rock song (I.)

9 super pretty song (III.)

FC3 2 (2)

1 quiet drums rim taps not great 

2 other lazy drums whatevers

FC3 3 (1)

1 drums that sounds good 1

2 drums that sounds like pavement's our singer

3 drums that sounds like a dance pop song very nice

FC3 3 (2)

1 drums that sounds good 1

2 drums that sound good 2

3 drums that sound good 3

4 drums that sound good 4

FC3 7

all the songs from FC 3 8 but without drums

FC 3 8 

1 latin jazz song (I. Tropicana)

2 latin jazz song 2 (I. Interlude)

3 latin jazz song 3 (III. Tropicana Reprise)

4 acoustic fc (III. satellite? it sounds like twisted DMB)

5 nirvana pop fc (III. maybe)

6 madison / trinidad song (III. Bead Necklace? Other?)

7 heavy rock song (II.)

8 fun rock song (I. Blowdogs?)

Did I not share with you my trip to the fucking moon?

I released a "live" album at the end of August 2020. 

This recording captures The Marshmen's one & only live performance, in 2016, which took place on the Earth's one & only moon.

They were invited by the Moon Rock Brigade, who flew them out on a low-cost shuttle and housed them in the moon hostel.

The Marshmen played a sold out show in a bubble to several thousand screaming moon people.

It was an unforgettable experience. fuguers cove -- The Marshmen's surrogate & doppelganger -- was there to document (and perform) the whole thing.

https://fuguerscove1.bandcamp.com/album/performs-the-marshmen-live-on-the-fuckin-moon

Day glo buzz-bulbs (an excerpt)

Day glo buzz-bulbs whistle past, tracers in their wake. I lie in the wet road. It is raining. It smells of backed up sewer.

I had him. I had him and I lost him. I feel a black twist in my gut. I want to cry but there is a girl standing on the curb in a yellow bag dress, staring at me.

That's what you get, she says.

I've never seen her before. But my brain thumps. I remember wine. A wolf's face. Fuck. I shouldn't have trusted that son of a dog. . .

Rat Face discontinued + other thoughts

Hey nerds, I don't write here often and you don't read here often. It's a fairly egalitarian relationship. I started the episodic Rat Face story series in March and rekindled it at the start of the fall semester. Rat Face is the tale of the rogue assassin in fictional semi-post-apocalyptic West City and the powerful forces competing to control him. Now that I have 10,000 words and 23 parts, I am taking Rat Face off the air, so to speak.  I want to hone it into something worthy of publication. I also don't want to spoil the ending on the Internet. 

What else? 

I got a migraine this morning which is why I am writing a blog instead of grading student work. 

It's an unseasonably cold wet Wednesday in Albuquerque and these conditions create the space for contemplation and reflection. Write more. Write well. Publish. This is my mantra for the rest of 2020. 

Hope y'all nerds are well.