I forgot about this blog.
Here I am, pajamaed & half lit on seltzer bubbles watching a Norwegian dude on PBS show me how to prep smoked lamb shanks.
A day before school starts again, I remember the blog.
I'll forget about it soon.
After I forget, I'll need to remind myself to remember again.
I sit in a chair in the dusted silence and watched how the sun casts a warm pale light in the room and I get on my knees like I did as a kid--though it hurts to do it now--and I talk to my God, telling him all the things I did wrong and I tell him how I did it, and I tell him that my pants don’t feel right, and how I miss my sister. I cry. I blubber. I speak in tongues.
The UNM-Valencia English Department & Manzano Mountain Review are hosting a virtual reading on Wed., Oct 28 and we'd like you to attend!
. . .but then a month of ceaseless work crushes me down and sucks out my juices. Happy early Halloween dorks. I'll be looking to steal your candy.
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.
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?)
