I want to write the blackest music. I want to write saddest music. I don’t write music. But if I did, it would be black and it would be sad and it would sound like the wilderness does in late fall or deep winter. I would write this music and I would play this music and I would create it all in my bedroom but it would be of those things that we ( Read more... )

Days like this are what writers live for, I think. When you not only get a lot of work done, but the work is good, and the ideas keep flowing in your head. But it's more than that; you feel inspired, seeing everything around you as a potential story. The possibilities seem endless but not overwhelming. Other art forms (cinema, music) get under ( Read more... )

Heavy music should be loud, it should be on vinyl (or live) and it should be accompanied by an alcoholic beverage of one's choice and/or the company of true, dear friends. When all are present, the simple wonderful joy of existence comes into focus, the daily grind is transcended, and nothing, simply NOTHING, is impossible.

Driving home from work one day about a year and a half ago, my mind was doing the random wandering/musing it often does during the commute. I don't recall what lead to it--probably I was reflecting on whatever book I was reading at the time--but all at once I was struck by the fact that one day I will read the last book I will ever read in my life ( Read more... )

So who knows what will happen with the story I'm currently working on (we never know, that's why we write them, correct? To find out what happens next?) but I admit that I will probably love it forever simply for this:

"I’m scared of the Burger King ( Read more... )

I finished Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart this weekend. This is my fifth Murakami novel. I'm beginning to believe I've come at Murakami backwards; I started with The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and Kafka on the Shore, two of his most complex novels. Also in there was Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, which is has a strange Phillip K. Dick ( Read more... )

Tonight I threw out all the words I wrote. That makes it sound dramatic, but it wasn't really. The words just weren't any good and after awhile I couldn't force myself to try and draw blood from a stone any more. Some nights are like that. My work ethic tells me to keep pushing but my muse suggests that sometimes it's best to step away. Haven't ( Read more... )

"I've always preferred 'accidental genius' to those artists who constantly strive for perfection and stumble their way to genius." This quote is from a friend of mine, made while discussing the cinema of Jess Franco. He went on to say that while Franco may have made "bad" movies, nearly every film would have momentary strikes of brilliance and ( Read more... )

Three days a week I take M2 to school, which means I can't leave the house until 8:40 or so. Being a morning person, I'm still up around 6 a.m. on those days. I have a nice early morning routine: shower, brew coffee, feed the cats, get a cup of coffee and open the laptop. I check my gmail, then work email, then Facebook. Today was a day like any of ( Read more... )

We moved in late October and I think I can finally say I'm starting to feel settled in. In other words: the hard part is done, now the fun discovery begins. Fixing up an office, making it a creative space. Experimenting with the sound of vinyl based on where it's positioned in the room. Healing the land by cleaning out the garbage and erasing the ( Read more... )