LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY

The first in a series of handmade zines produced exclusively for MacroParentheticals subscribers, LAST CHRISTMAS is exploration of the complexities of the present and the narratives of memory and of regret following my mother's death in April, my final act of settling both her estate and my mind. Released 03 August 2022.

“The symphony of a hero set out to rescue his soul from the ashes of his past.”

– Uziel Colón, composer, professor, and fellow Berzerklee alum

"... an incredibly courageous journey of self healing that to takes no shortcuts in confronting, with exceptionally bold determination, the most complex and painful aspects of lifelong endured family traumas with the kind of grit often witnessed from explorers of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Then again, that's the kind of heroic sheer will that's often required (and quite often eludes us) in order to achieve lasting closure from the deepest agonies in our lives. It is a work of staggering personal reckoning. Vulnerable as it is visceral."

-– Fran Dominguez, AKA Forest Robots

"Weaver's ability to turn a phrase and zig when you expect him to zag is on full display: With a confident, unflinching determination, this first installment explores decades of time in a search for closure that can never be but must nevertheless be pursued: Weaver's willingness to unapologetically and poetically chew right down to the bone of the trauma of losing his mother - and the conflicting emotions that loss triggered - has yielded an autobiographical work authentically heartbreaking and surprisingly soul satisfying. Just like the relationship of a mother and a son.

–Scott Walker, author of the LITTLE YOKAI series

“… a beautiful and heartbreaking work: Weaver navigates the complex reality of losing a family member - albeit one who represented significant trauma - through a mixture of self-analysis, memory, narrative, objects, and drafted obituaries. The central tension comes not from a sense of loss, but from the inherent sense of guilt that comes with saying goodbye to a complicated relationship. But despite how devastating it is, LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY is also breathtaking and, in a way, comforting, because it is evidence that trauma can beget great work, and that is what great art does: it makes us feel and astounds us with what it makes us feel.”

– Elizabeth Joan Kelly, composer and re/emergence collaborator

Each copy of LAST CHRISTMAS IN JULY (A COWARDS EXORCISM) is produced on sugarcane waste paper sandwiched between recycled cardstock and assembled by my hand in The PaintShop with something approximating, if not love, then at least blood, sweat, & tears – which is, to me, the same thing.