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 →
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 →
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 →
After-Midnight Story Hour, Inspired by Bright Eyes and Lucy Dacus at Ting Pavilion, Charlottesville, VA, August 2021
I quoted a Lucy Dacus lyric on my Facebook music page yesterday. The girl's got some wicked breakup lines that, though I cannot relate to them ATM (unless I direct them at my stagnant career, that is), still sting so good. In my post I also happened to mention NOT having tickets to see her... Continue Reading →
“Richmond Memories”* : Sold Kingdom Edition
*Note: Richmond Memories was a series produced by Virginia Public Media that I saw on our local PBS station (WCVE) years ago. It covered reminiscences of life in the Richmond, VA area from the 1920s through the 1960s. In my mind I revisit a handful of places more frequently than others. Having grown up in... 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 →
Wayback Weekend – Finale
Creating has always been a solitary process for me. Truthfully, I envy those folks who are adventurous and mentally unfettered enough to throw innovation spaghetti at the wall alongside other people, and watch the non-viable strands flop unattractively to the floor without a second thought. So I'm ending my string of Wayback Weekends with what... Continue Reading →
Trailer
Everyone has their own personal legends. On my next Wayback Weekend, I revisit one of mine: the only true 50/50 collab I’ve ever done. https://youtu.be/rHmlEYRssaI
The Sold Kingdom 