Here it is, Everyone. The culmination of almost 18 months of work from composition to release. Like most of my material, it's not a happy album, but a cathartic album. I heard someone use the term "vent art" the other night, and this might be that. I have also become fond of calling what I... Continue Reading →
Let’s face it: for better or worse, humans compare things to other things. And even though my music has changed a lot since my debut as Alexandra Rising, I still think it’s most likely to be compared (by those of a certain age, anyway) to the music of one Ellen "Tori" Amos. These days, I’m... Continue Reading →
But I'm telling myself it's all right because lots of people will be able to relate to it, and it also ties into my pet theme of control. [Album, you ask? What's this about an album? Ohhh, yes, THAT album. I promise it will drop eventually.]Ahem. One thing that makes a person feel pretty out... Continue Reading →
[In September 2020, I began a series of blog entries discussing the themes and inspirations of my dark chamber-pop album Best Dead Masterpiece, scheduled for release on BandCamp in January 2021.] Well, Everyone - there have been some unforeseen delays, but the album should be out in the next few days. So this will be... Continue Reading →
Full disclosure: I’ve never really liked “The Little Matchgirl” as a story title. It sounds diminutive and sentimental and tailor-made for someone's romanticized notion of a quintessential “girl-child.” That said, HTV’s The Little Matchgirl (1986) is bursting with things that that title would never suggest. As much as a made-for-TV movie musical can be, it’s... Continue Reading →
I had no intention of writing about Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things, which I watched over the weekend. In fact, having been discouraged by the trailer with its seemingly affected aesthetic and almost comic timing, I nearly didn't watch the film at all - but acquiesced after some new information reignited my hope.... Continue Reading →
I just kicked off a long weekend by falling down a YouTube k-hole. The result being that I watched the 2019 documentary Scary Stories. Like many millennials of a certain age, I remember Alvin Schwartz's iconic horror anthology Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (SSTTIND), that irresistible fetish object, as a staple of our... Continue Reading →
I don't watch movies often these days. Documentaries are more my go-to, but even they are far between. This weekend, though, I was very in the mood to watch things and, in fact, to do little else. Now I'm reflecting on my viewing choices, wondering if they were in some way connected. As you know,... Continue Reading →
I moved to Charlottesville from my rural, south-central-VA county in December 2008, to take a job I'd just landed. In my head, I'd defied odds. I saw myself as a cripplingly cerebral but practically useless pseudo-adult. I felt my brain, in its small-town country stupor-cum-recluse's atrophy, couldn't process fast enough for my survival. I doubted... Continue Reading →
The Sold Kingdom 