Prepare for the barrage...
Given the spinning cycle of productivity and self-destruction that I've learned to call daily living, it was nice back up to Maine to see SG's parents' other Maine house, and to Northampton for A+S's wedding the weekend before... Even if I still managed little sleep in the process.
It's the price I pay for refusing to give in to that mid-20s urge to just go to work and spend my free time spending the checks at home with the missus... Instead I work a "real" job that requires a bunch of hours and a huge amount of brain power and commitment and continue to chase the dream, whatever my vague idea of it is. Sure, rock stardom is part of it but really what I've realized I want is for a scene to develop and coalesce around the stuff I like and promote, so that it can support itself. It is much easier to inspire this devotion among kids a few years younger than myself, I fear...
I feel like I've been "almost there" a few times and I think I'm "almost there" again... but it is really weird to think that I'm doing as much booking, promoting, performing and DJing now as I did at the peak of the Black Freighter, AND working a 50+ hour a week job with benefits and a 401(k) and an office with Guitar Hero 3 and unlimited Red Bulls where I'm allowed to post Vice "Dos and Don'ts" on the walls... Where does all the money go?!
They say that staying constantly busy is the best way to avoid depression but I have to wonder how long I can keep it up before the crash. Luckily I might just be enough of a pseudo-occultist to believe that my own projected arrogance and invulnerability could be a self-fulfilling prophecy... Hey, if it's good enough for Nietzsche it's good enough for me!
Anyway, Maine... It rained all day and into the night for the one full day we were there, and Maine is FREEZING in November, so we spent most of our time in the house getting plastered. We DID get out to the beach on Friday night and Sunday morning. We walked out onto a rock jetty that is apparently an island for the other half of the day to watch the sun rise. As the photos accompanying this post indicate, it was gorgeous.
Oh, and I kicked SG's ass at Scrabble.
A+S's wedding was a blur of awkward relatives (at least not mine), good food, free booze and bud and constant checks of the Sox score. The hotel was really pretty, and apparently me and Sarah managed to leave the afterparty just before the drama. We wish A+S the best. The next day wandering Noho with M+KT was much more chill. Good food and bars and record shopping in that town. Never seen a Betty Davis pin anywhere else in my life.
Even though I've heard nothing but poor reviews, I still can't believe I missed a Hallowmass. It's like just skipping Christmas for a year, except Christmas doesn't also have the "pilgrimage" element of a World/Inferno Halloween. Barring tragedy or maybe the opportunity to headline the Pill as the Jesus and Mary Chain, I will definitely return to the fold next year.
In the next few days I will finish mixing for our EP, continue to obsessively promote us on Musicnation, and prepare for the DJ gig I've got at the Plough and Stars with RyantheTerrible and Laura on Monday. Maybe this weekend I'll even manage to get out to a show or party that I'm not in some way involved in directly. That would be a nice break indeed.
A last suggestion before I wrap up this rant: Yesterday Netflix sent me both discs of the miniseries Bill Moyers did with Joseph Campbell for PBS in the 80s. See it. It's incredibly watchable and Campbell is much less dry when not in text form.
I really didn't intend for this blog to become just another patch in my promotions blanket, so I'm sorry if this is overly long and convoluted but it's a lot of stuff that I've been meaning to get out for a while. I will try to get better about it. Know this, though: I occasionally edit a lot of older entries and delete the chaff, so don't be afraid to go back through them every now and then. It's only the sense that someone's actually reading that keeps me from quitting, even though I've gone out of my way to hide the thing from all but my closest friends.
This is a little man who was chiseled into a rock on the jetty in Maine. Although it's antiquity could not be authenticated, I will go on record as claiming that it is from the immediate post-glacial period. That's all til next time!
It's the price I pay for refusing to give in to that mid-20s urge to just go to work and spend my free time spending the checks at home with the missus... Instead I work a "real" job that requires a bunch of hours and a huge amount of brain power and commitment and continue to chase the dream, whatever my vague idea of it is. Sure, rock stardom is part of it but really what I've realized I want is for a scene to develop and coalesce around the stuff I like and promote, so that it can support itself. It is much easier to inspire this devotion among kids a few years younger than myself, I fear...
I feel like I've been "almost there" a few times and I think I'm "almost there" again... but it is really weird to think that I'm doing as much booking, promoting, performing and DJing now as I did at the peak of the Black Freighter, AND working a 50+ hour a week job with benefits and a 401(k) and an office with Guitar Hero 3 and unlimited Red Bulls where I'm allowed to post Vice "Dos and Don'ts" on the walls... Where does all the money go?!
They say that staying constantly busy is the best way to avoid depression but I have to wonder how long I can keep it up before the crash. Luckily I might just be enough of a pseudo-occultist to believe that my own projected arrogance and invulnerability could be a self-fulfilling prophecy... Hey, if it's good enough for Nietzsche it's good enough for me!
Anyway, Maine... It rained all day and into the night for the one full day we were there, and Maine is FREEZING in November, so we spent most of our time in the house getting plastered. We DID get out to the beach on Friday night and Sunday morning. We walked out onto a rock jetty that is apparently an island for the other half of the day to watch the sun rise. As the photos accompanying this post indicate, it was gorgeous.
Oh, and I kicked SG's ass at Scrabble.
A+S's wedding was a blur of awkward relatives (at least not mine), good food, free booze and bud and constant checks of the Sox score. The hotel was really pretty, and apparently me and Sarah managed to leave the afterparty just before the drama. We wish A+S the best. The next day wandering Noho with M+KT was much more chill. Good food and bars and record shopping in that town. Never seen a Betty Davis pin anywhere else in my life.
Even though I've heard nothing but poor reviews, I still can't believe I missed a Hallowmass. It's like just skipping Christmas for a year, except Christmas doesn't also have the "pilgrimage" element of a World/Inferno Halloween. Barring tragedy or maybe the opportunity to headline the Pill as the Jesus and Mary Chain, I will definitely return to the fold next year.
In the next few days I will finish mixing for our EP, continue to obsessively promote us on Musicnation, and prepare for the DJ gig I've got at the Plough and Stars with RyantheTerrible and Laura on Monday. Maybe this weekend I'll even manage to get out to a show or party that I'm not in some way involved in directly. That would be a nice break indeed.
A last suggestion before I wrap up this rant: Yesterday Netflix sent me both discs of the miniseries Bill Moyers did with Joseph Campbell for PBS in the 80s. See it. It's incredibly watchable and Campbell is much less dry when not in text form.
I really didn't intend for this blog to become just another patch in my promotions blanket, so I'm sorry if this is overly long and convoluted but it's a lot of stuff that I've been meaning to get out for a while. I will try to get better about it. Know this, though: I occasionally edit a lot of older entries and delete the chaff, so don't be afraid to go back through them every now and then. It's only the sense that someone's actually reading that keeps me from quitting, even though I've gone out of my way to hide the thing from all but my closest friends.
This is a little man who was chiseled into a rock on the jetty in Maine. Although it's antiquity could not be authenticated, I will go on record as claiming that it is from the immediate post-glacial period. That's all til next time!