I started writing music at around age 12. Inspired by Suzanne Ciani and, yes, the man himself, Yanni (we watched a LOT of PBS music programming), much of my early output were instrumentals. Given these formative influences, my compositions of the time were rather new-agey; but upon revisiting I found a few parts to be... Continue Reading →
The advice-column institution is not one I am particularly fond of. Every now and then there's an especially crackerjack one, but generally my guard is up from the awareness that anyone can write one of these and no particular credentials are required other than a strong opinion and the ability to drive it home authoritatively.Yet... Continue Reading →
A couple years ago I bought a vintage trunk and stored some old accomplishments away in it. I dragged it out today and went through a thick pile of papers from college and grad school. I had saved surviving things from those days indiscriminately. But as I leafed through them today, it seemed clear to... Continue Reading →
Since the last substantial update, my first serious boss who gave me a start in my field almost 15 years ago has unexpectedly left the company; another close colleague retired earlier than planned; and the sign out in front of our old operations center building has been removed. I was too late to get a... Continue Reading →
My last album, Best Dead Masterpiece, treats nostalgia as a largely positive thing. A thing that is prized and hoarded. A shard of personal history, of individuality, stubbornly preserved. A robust and colorful way of seeing, the absence of which makes someone appear small-minded and dull. As is typical of me, I am now beginning... Continue Reading →
Here are three videos I made this weekend. They are all dark cautionary tales, though two are by Poe and rather grandiose, while the third is by me and so relatively unassuming.All of these songs are previously unrecorded, unless you count very rough demos. Two I wrote in high school while in an independent study... Continue Reading →
I’ve mentioned Watership Down in this blog before. I, like many a person of a certain age, was caught unawares by its deceptively benign-looking VHS box. Little did I know that it, much like my first exposure to Dali, would shatter my vision in a way I feared at first but would come to love... Continue Reading →
So, real talk. After my latest “thanks but no thanks” for a role I have been courting for a long time and have no doubt I would seriously kick ass at, I am feeling… strangely liberated? I realized this as I was looking at Post-Punk.com’s feature of Roxy Music’s Siren album. I had volunteered that... Continue Reading →
I read Dune (the first book, which is all this entry is focusing on) when I was twelve or thirteen. I would love to say I stumbled upon it myself, but no, like so many throughout history, I picked up a particular cultural staple because a crush was reading it and I wanted to burrow... Continue Reading →
Here's two more repackaged throwbacks for ya. These are a couple lovesick puppy songs from my higher ed. days, so I decided to release them as companion pieces. The second one, "Cake," I performed for y'all as part of my Wayback Weekends earlier this year. Keep in mind I've been a ravenous poet my whole... Continue Reading →
The Sold Kingdom 