Darlene.

Darlene Conner, I'm calling you my Valentine because it's nearly February 14 and you're hella important to me. But I never had a crush on you; I just identified with you deeply (as, I'm sure, did scores of mold-breaking, sarcastic-but-vulnerable, masculine-energied young girls in the 1990s). Some of us were paying closer attention than others.... Continue Reading →

Theresa.

I've made substantial strides on the next full-length, which is a concept album, if only loosely. It is typical of me, though, after leaping forward, to reflect a bit. At the moment my retrospection is fixed on the piece of music I'm most proud of from my last album. It's actually part five of five... Continue Reading →

Pretty Ugly // Ugly Pretty

My old classmate Brooke*, a visual art major, painted and pasteled the wings of fantastical butterflies. Exalted Tree of Life circulatory systems. Her own conventionally beautiful visage in buoyant soap-shimmering orbs. Her rainbow-age was as extra as Lisa Frank's, but more graceful. All of this was both her great endowment and her great curse."I'm trying... Continue Reading →

Vive Le Surrealisme.

Somewhere in the middle of my elementary school years, I was leafing through one of my mother's Famous Artists volumes and stumbled upon The Persistence of Memory. My eyes moved across it with dread as its sinister furnishings revealed themselves. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. "Is that...? It can't be. Why is there...... Continue Reading →

I Haz an Idea.

My holiday project last year was a cover of a song from a seasonal musical that meant a lot to me as a kid. I am really pleased with how that one turned out. I didn’t have any particular ideas for this year… that is, until this past weekend, when a notion started to take... Continue Reading →

Early Instrumentals

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 →

Assorted Developments.

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 →

The Dangers of Nostalgia.

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 →

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