foundations
Some have been with me for decades, others for far less, but these are the books that have shaped my creative thinking over however long it’s been now that I’ve been doing whatever this is that I've been doing.
the (as yet) unmade
In the throes of limbo on two metal projects so here’s a list of things I’ve yet to make that I want to make:
a series / gaggle of weird little zines
a graphic novella (with or without a collaborator, though i'd prefer the former)
a narrative short film
a novella
a large metal dinosaur
a damn good track / ep that eschews my institutionalized music composition reflexes for the same visceral and improvisational central to my totally clueless – and intentionally ignorant – metalworking practice.
Do I have any of these in me still? I'd like to believe I do (99.99% that large metal dinosaur is happening this summer), but time will tell.
A hastily-gathered stack of some favorite reads.
One of my favorite writers; a major loss. Daniel Woodrell, ‘Country Noir’ Novelist of ‘Winter’s Bone,’ Dies at 72 | NYT
SHADOW TICKET (i)
Opened with excitement - NEW PYNCHON! - slogged through the first hundred pages feeling as though I was reading someone trying to write like Pynchon without any of the joyous perplexity and thrill of being lost in his worlds. Considered putting it down, thinking that maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind, visions of Cormac McCarthy's last being a slog and hoping this wouldn't be Pynchon's last fictional offering though time is a cruel mistress but, by triple digit page numbers, the story started moving, the characters started clicking and it felt like Pynchon. Lesser Pynchon, certainly, but his brain was there. And so was mine. Hoping it holds for the rest of it (another hundred pages or so). Not recommended for anyone wanting to give Pynchon a first go: guaranteed you won't get the appeal. I've read everything he's written and I barely made it to solid footing here.