My deepest apologies, dear reader, for leaving you without any updates for four whole calendar days. This lapse is inexcusable and I can only (ever) ask for your grace and forgiveness.
What’s new with me, you ask? Well, I dunno. I’m feeling a bit of transformation happening these last couple of days. I feel more focused, more capable, like I’m doing more and have a bit more clarity of direction (at least in an hour-to-hour sense). Trust cher monsieur, that while I have been absent here, I have not been idle. Let’s briefly discuss some things I’ve been working on:
1. Combobox
Yeah, the band is really the biggest thing for me right now, and there’s a lot going on! We’re working two new songs into the set (and probably dropping our Talking Heads cover, sorry), one of which I’m writing the vocals for. I’m a bit struggling with the lyrics, but I think I have a little bit more direction after spending a bunch of time with it today, so hope to have it finished and in a better place to finish polishing at rehearsal next week.
I’ve started the first edition of our bi-monthly newsletter, which will publish on the 15th. I’m loosely inspired by softcult’s SCripture, in that I don’t really want it to be necessarily about the band as much as of the band. That maybe doesn’t make sense or mean anything to you, but it does to me and I think I can execute it.
The big one is that I’m taking steps to start making an actual record. It’s become more of a priority as I’ve thought more about how we grow, because how do you promote a band that doesn’t have any music published anywhere? We have to have something to show to people who haven’t heard us in order to convince them to come to a concert. We have to have something that can be used as background for social media posts, videos, etc. And we have to have something that people can listen to when they’re not at our shows.
Also, maybe more importantly, I think these songs are good and deserve to get published, so I want to make that happen.
2. Untitled TV show
Back in 2018 I wrote a (very short) pilot for what was then envisioned to be a youtube series about a character named Myra Thompson as she and her friends navigated a weird alternate-reality simulation they were unknowingly trapped in. It was… not very good, but I did actually write it, which makes it one of few fiction pieces I’ve actually finished.
Last summer, or fall, while I was visiting family in Grants Pass, I came up with an idea for a different show; also a kind of mystery box magical realism kind of thing, but with some actual themes and a pair of characters that I like. All I’ve generated from that is a handful of scenes, many of which have been re-written multiple times, but I think they have some merit.
More hyper-recently, as I’ve been diving into things like plot and character, my thinking is shifting and moving away from the sci-fi/mystery elements and focusing more on the human interaction and struggles that I think are core to the piece. I’ve had all these experiences and struggles of my own from the last year and I’m ready for them to come out, and I’m starting to see how that can happen and maybe hopefully turn into something good.
3. This very blog
Actually, let’s not do this meta shit. Instead, I will explain this post’s title.
In Wellington, one of our favorite spots was a Welsh pub called… The Welsh Dragon. We ended up watching a handful of knockout matches there, and one of those nights we were sharing a table with two locals, one of who was a delightful human being.
At one point, he and I were having a conversation about literature (this is already an unpleasantly pretentious sentence to write) which strayed to our shared appreciation of Camus. I mentioned that I’d only read L’Etranger and, of course, The Myth of Sisyphus, but thoroughly enjoyed them both. He told me I absolutely must read The Plague, and went on about how good it was and how much I would enjoy it. But maybe he said The Fall; at this point I can’t actually remember.
So at the Library, I picked up a collection with both works, and for whatever reason decided to start with The Fall.
Now the weird part of this story is that multiple people have, upon hearing that I’m reading “The Fall, by Camus”, responded, “Oh, didn’t he write The Plague?”
And not a single person has said, “Oh, he wrote The Stranger” or mentioned The Myth of Sisyphus, even though I’m sure those two works are much more popular and well-known than The Plague.
Alas, I’ll have to read The Plague next.
it’s a fun outro
I’ve still got lots of media thoughts about Ahsoka, and now The Bear, but I’m also still saving them for another day and another post.
I will leave you with my latest idea which is to make a punk rock (Combobox) cover of my second favorite Billie Eilish song: ilomilo.