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 →
Hallowballadeering.
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 →
Halloween Offering.
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 →
Like Sands Through the Hourglass.
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 →
Days of Briar and Roses
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 →
From the Archives
Over the past week or so, I’ve been repackaging and releasing some vintage material on BandCamp. Here’s a rundown: 1. Catch-22 (single, 2008) I recorded this under the Alexandra Rising moniker in mid-2008. It was shortly before I moved to Charlottesville and put much-needed perspective-enhancing distance between myself and my hometown. Of course it was... Continue Reading →
Because I Love A Challenge
I re-learned basic guitar after fifteen years AND collaborated with my Domestic Partner, all on the same project! This is a B-side by Philly shoegaze band Nothing. In my view it's about the failed attempt to hide or modify one's true self in an intimate relationship. I hope its creators will forgive my couple of... Continue Reading →
Nothing I Love More Than a Vague, Multipurpose Line.
In the middle of the workday Friday, I tuned into my local indie radio station and heard an unfamiliar song by a band I’ve known for ages. Something about the sound grabbed me - probably the bluesy lilt and the attention-demanding smacks to the guitar in the intro - but what really sealed the deal... Continue Reading →
“It’s Not Even Halloween, But Here Comes the Zeitgeist!” (a Bee Gees Tribute Post/Single Release)
Admittedly that’s a strange title for an entry. But, it’s a quote from Domestic Partner related to what I’ve been working on lately. You’ll notice that my last nostalgia post mentioned the Bee Gees among adult contemporary artists I grew to respect and enjoy as a kid, disengaged as I was from concerns about what... Continue Reading →
From My Juvenilia to Someone Else’s.
I think my first exposure to the term "juvenilia" was in a Sylvia Plath anthology (she did the poem "Bitter Strawberries" when she was a kid - and no, I don't think if I were stone cold sober right now I ever would have remembered that). I know some folks are mortified when they revisit... Continue Reading →
The Sold Kingdom 