Old music and writing, plus numbers

I've been having good writing days lately. I contribute a good bit of this to my strict lack of writing rituals. I've written briefly about this before. I used to ritualize the act of writing, and I've cut out all of that nonsense. Well, almost. If I have anything like a ritual anymore, it centers around the music I listen to while I'm writing. I can waste a good few hours coming up with the perfect playlist to listen to. Spotify has made this task both easier and more difficult. Easier in that I can find some many great songs so easily. Difficult in the I have so many more songs at my fingertips -- it makes choosing difficult sometimes.

Lately I've been listening to older stuff, stuff that I remember listening to 20 or 30 years ago. You know, when I was a baby. Not sure why this is. I usually crave new music. Maybe it's a phase >shrugs shoulders<. For now I'm just rolling with it.

Here's one song that's been in heavy rotation on my current writing playlist (entitled, imaginatively, Writing II) on Spotify. Supergrass were a British alternative band in the early '90s. This song, "Alright," is the only one I remember from them. I think it's in a commercial for something right now. That may be where I heard it and decided I needed it in a playlist. Or maybe it's in a movie the boys have watched lately. Kids' movies seem full of oddly inappropriate music cues nowadays, thought that probably hasn't changed much since I was a kid. Anyway, here's the video for the song, which seems like a classic of the let's-grab-a-camera-and-shoot-a-video-to-promote-our-hit-single variety. This sort of thing would never fly today...



That video really makes me want a plain white tee with "ADAM" printed across the front in Futura black.

Here are today's numbers:
Daily word count: 1,641
Novel word count: 51,677

Musical crush #4 in a series (plus a tangent and lots of parentheses)

I'm doing a lot of writing at the moment, which is great for a lot of reasons, chief among them is that I listen to a lot of music when I write. Lately I've had the self-titled album from Elastica on repeat as I work (despite the fact that it is in no way appropriate for what I'm writing). 

I know a lot of writer types, and I would say that the majority of them have said that they need to listen to music that is somehow related to what they're writing. If it's a horror story, they throw on the soundtrack to The Shining. If it's a period piece, they listen to music from that period. Et cetera. I have never been like that. All I require of the music I listen to is that it be music I have some familiarity with. If it's brand new to me, I have to listen intently. Too intently for me to be able to write down the thoughts in my noggin.

Elastica hit it big back in 1995. The album spawned five singles here in the US. And the band never recorded another. According to Wikipedia, they got in some trouble with other bands for "borrowing" riffs and melodies too heavily (they settled everything out of court). It's a shame. I really thought they were going to go places. They had a great look and sound (though maybe the sound wasn't entirely their own...). Regardless, thanks to Spotify, I am now able to listen to this band again and dream that someday there'll be a follow-up album and a reunion tour.

New, I mean old, musical crush #3 in a series

Weird Al Yankovic. Let that sink in. My musical crush right now is Weird Al Yankovic. We listen to music at my day job thanks to Spotify. Yesterday we spent at least half the day listening to my buddy Al. It occurred to me the other day as I was watching a new Yankovic video that he's had a career spanning more than three decades. A lot of the artists whose songs he's parodied would kill for that kind of longevity. Hell, I hope my own career as an artist last that long.

His latest song and video are right in my wheelhouse (are we still saying that?). Parodying "Blurred Lines" and turning it into a grammar lesson? Yes, please! I'm pasting it below.

And I'm hoping the "Weird Al" will still be singing in another thirty years.

New musical crush #2 in a series

Thao and the Get Down Stay Down have been in very heavy rotation in my ear holes as I finished off the manuscript for Zombified. I think there's just something really sexy about this music, and about Thao's voice. So there: now you get to picture me thinking sexy thoughts while you listen to this. You are welcome.



Also, it occurs to me that I was introduced to Thao and the GDSD, and to Valerie June, by my co-worker, Trinh. We listen to music at the book buying counter via a Spotify account and I think I'm lucky that she has such good taste. Thanks, Trinh!

New musical crush #1 in a series

It seems like my capacity to develop crushes on musicians is pretty much limitless.Valerie June is one of a couple of new acts (new to me at least) that I've had on heavy rotation as I've been writing lately. And since I've spent so much of the last month writing, that means I've been listening to this a lot.

Rather than fumble around for an inadequate description of her music, why don't you just listen to a little of it? You can than me later.

Two things, briefly

Item 1: Last night, the clearing house for many of the Internets most wonderful things, Laughing Squid, gave a shout out to Triptych, the web comic that is illustrated by Devon Devereaux and written by me. This was an unexpected and very welcome boost for us. Click here to see the mention.

Item 2: This trailer for a documentary about sign painters really hit me in my typographical sweet spot. I need to figure out how to get it screened in my city.

Listen to this: Now Now

This single by Minneapolis trio Now Now has been in heavy rotation as I've been writing lately. It's a minute, forty-three seconds of pure pop bliss. The whole album is good, but I keep returning to this song. I love the "get in, wreck the place, get out" feeling of the thing. The band seems to be catching the attention of others, too, if you want more opinions than just mine. Allison Weiss, on whom I previously admitted to having a huge musical crush, loves them, and NPR have featured them in there Field Recordings segment.

Enough of me -- listen to them already.

Print porn -- 3/28/12

This is a  short, beautiful video of a book being made using traditional methods. Too short, I think. I could watch this all day long. I think if I ever win the lottery (I'd better start playing the lottery), I'll buy a traditional print shop...

   

New music -- Girl in a Coma

I was working on rewrites for my thesis manuscript all day yesterday. A task that, frankly made me want to weep. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a new band that saw me through those dark times. Girl in a Coma is a trio of Latinas from Texas who make sweet, sweet power pop.

A bonus for me was to see so many Latino faces in their videos. It was like visiting family in Southern California. Minus the chance of getting caught up in a brawl...



As a special bonus, you should check out the Tiny Desk Concert they did for NPR.

The return of print porn

It's been a while since I posted one of these, or anything for that matter. However, the fine folks at Laughing Squid posted this lovely short documentary about letterpress. I always regretted that I while I was learning lithography, I never took the time to also learn letterpress. Ah, wasted youth...


Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film from Danny Cooke on Vimeo.

Her particular flavor of hate

I hate to write about politics here on the blog... Oh, who am I kidding?

Go here to watch a video which shows Michelle Bachmann being questioned by a young lady, the leader of her school's gay student alliance. When asked about what she would do to protect the LGBT community, Bachmann answers that as Americans, we all have the same rights (which was the first time I thought the top of my head was going to come off while watching this video, but something even better was coming down the pike). The young lady presses her and asks why gays and lesbians can't marry. Bachmann's cutesie answer? "They can, but they have to abide by the same laws as everyone else." Basically, she says that gays and lesbians can marry, but only members of the opposite sex. Oh, that Michelle Backmann! What a card.

One is forced to draw one of two conclusions from this: 1) Michelle Bachmann doesn't understand that the very law which restricts marriage to different sex couples is biased and tantamount to institutionalized discrimination. If that's true, then she's an idiot. 2) That she understands this but doesn't care, in which case she's a monster. I'm going with #2.

I can't wait to see the door of history slammed on her. I think that the early primaries are going to show -- despite the yahoos on the video who clap every time she says something small-minded -- that the Republicans aren't buying her particular flavor of hate. Maybe I should say I hope that'll be the case.

This, by the way, is not the video in question:

Things to read and watch 11/04/11

William Gibson, The Art of Fiction No. 211
Here is the full text of the long interview The Paris Review conducted with William Gibson. Tuck in, kids!

Why Science Fiction Writers are Like Porn Stars
Last weekend, Glen Duncan wrote a trollish piece in the New York Times comparing genre writers to, well, porn stars. Charlie Jane Anders at i09 has some questions for Mr. Duncan. The piece includes portraits by SF writer, Richard Kadrey (whose books you should be reading, by the way).

The Decemberists Played on Austin City Limits 
And I missed it. Their album, The King is Dead, is one of my favorites of the year so far. The fact that I can watch this episode on-line makes me very happy.

Here's their video for "The Calamity Song." Enjoy.

How pencils are made

As you may have guessed from the series of print porn videos I've posted here, I'm fascinated by how things are made. In that tradition, here's a video of the production process used to make pencils. My apologies for the pun that closes out this video. Hey, I didn't write it!

Words, words, words

I've really had my head down lately in an attempt to get some stuff done before Baby 2.0 arrives at the end of June/beginning of July. Let's see, there's homework to be done (two papers to write, a bunch of books to read for the next residency); I've started to meet with a friend whom I hope will be the producer of the short film I plan to make next semester, and I've been trying to get a lot done on the web comic I'm trying to get off the ground. The novel I started working on is going to sit and marinate for a while. Something had to give way and that seemed like the easiest thing to set aside.

The web comic is really taking shape on paper. I've never worked this quickly on a comics project. Last week I wrote a pitch document that included character descriptions, a description of the world and the general shape of the story. I also plotted out and scripted the first chapter of the book (26 pages!) and got all of that to the artist. Best of all, he likes what I've written and didn't ask for any changes. This is a rare and magical occurrence. Over the last two days I've worked out a very basic plot of the rest of the first book (in a perfect world this will be a story told in three volumes). I wanted to work far ahead on this project because come the arrival of the baby, I'll probably have to set it aside for a while. I want the artist to have lots of material to work with while I settle into my new life. Also, the more material there is, the easier it will be for me to hit the ground running when I get back to the project. I think I'm at a place where I can leave it alone for a while and concentrate on homework.

Thanks for indulging me and my sporadic updates. As a reward, have a video of Jenny Owen Youngs performing one of my favorite of her songs live. Take it away, Jenny.

Tidbits 5/23

This makes me both sad and joyful: An archive of mugshots of Freedom Riders.

This seems like a worthy Kickstarter project to back: A book of interviews and articles all about a subject near and dear to my heart, comics. If you don't know about Kickstarter, please do yourself a favor and go to their homepage and read about them. There are many fine and worthy projects that could use your financial support.

I've recently subscribed to Rolling Stone magazine (Amazon.com had a special offer), and today the subscription paid for itself by introducing me to the band The Head and the Heart. The video below sealed the deal, but really, I knew I wanted to buy their album after reading the following quote from singer/guitarist Josiah Johnson, "If there's such a thing as a neo-folk movement happening right now, it's simply a reflection of the fact that music has become so negative, bands decided to go in a different direction. We are shamelessly happy."

One story down...

I finished that short story. No, I conquered it. I laid waste to its, um, something. Anyway, you can be sure that I saw it driven before me and heard the lamentation of its women. So there.

It helped to walk away from it for a couple of days. Give it a rest. Back in the old days I used to feel like it was some kind of defeat if I couldn't finish a story in just a few days. maybe that's why they weren't very good and none of them were ever published. Just a thought. This time around, by which I mean this current push to write and publish, I'm letting things take as much time as they need. Though it still feels good to put the words THE END at the bottom of a document.

This story turned out to be about 4,200 words written over four sessions. That's roughly 1,000 words a session. It feels like I should be able to do it more quickly than I did, but I'm cutting myself slack. Something I need to do a lot more of.

Now I need to let it sit for a few days more and give it a polish before I send it off to a reader.

In other writing news, I got back notes on my novel from my first reader. Now I need to sit down and actually make the changes and polish it up. A month's work? That's what I'll be aiming for. Wish me luck.

And to make this post of interest to more than just me (maybe), here's a music video. This is what I listened to for the most part as I wrote. Weezer's first album. Good, good stuff.

Stephen King on the Tea Party

“And remember, when these people talk to you about it, if you like your weekend, thank a union guy. If you like a 40-hour week, thank a union guy. If you like a day’s honest pay for a day’s honest work, thank a union guy!”

I've had a lot of reasons over the years to like Stephen King. Now I have a new reason to respect him.

Vintage print porn

Anyone who's visited this blog a time or two probably knows that I have a fetish fascination with the printing process. I found this video today on BoingBoing and my heart just melted. This is an old instructional film released by The Encyclopedia Britannica Films, Inc. It shows all the steps of book production in the pre-digital age. Great stuff. It makes me wish that my (theoretical) novel could be set in Linotype.

Neil Gaiman speaks wise words about Internet piracy

And there was much rejoicing

This evening I finished cleaning up the first draft of my novel, Zomburbia, and I sent it away to its first reader. It is now out in the world like some fledgling bird. A fledgling zombie bird. I feel like I'll now be able to think again about things not related to the novel. And I think I'll be posting here again with more regularity. I hope.

First up, a bit of music. This video is for a song by Lelia Broussard, "Satellite." Ms Broussard is from New York and she is part of the same scene (in my mind at least) that also includes Allison Weiss, Jenny Owen Youngs and Bess Rogers -- all of whom I've written about before, right? Either way, I hope you like this song.

Good night.