Horoscopy

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

“No Eden valid without serpent.“
Novelist Wallace Stegner wrote that pithy riff. I think it’s a good motto for you to use in the immediate future. How do you interpret it? Here’s what I think. As you nourish your robust vision of paradise-on-earth, and as you carry out the practical actions that enable you to manifest that vision, it’s wise to have some creative irritant in the midst of it. That bug, that question, that tantalizing mystery is the key to keeping you honest and discerning. It gives credibility and gravitas to your idealistic striving.

–Rob Brezsny’s Free Will Astrology

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How to be successful (however you quantify that).

  1. Stop always being distracted. Focus on what’s in front of you.
  2. Stop only talking the talk. Don’t discuss goals, discuss steps already taken.
  3. Stop spending time with the wrong people. Create a supportive network.
  4. Stop always focusing on the negative. You can be realistically positive.
  5. Stop procrastinating. Do it now: only do it later if you will do it better later.
  6. Stop not listening to others. Ask, listen, care, repeat.
  7. Stop giving in to laziness. Get off your arse. Go out. Have new experiences.
  8. Stop not being curious. Ask questions, learn more.
  9. Stop not being nice.
  10. Stop giving up. You may only need to try once more.

The Day The ‘Conducator’ Died.

In my mid-twenties a friend told me about this guy who had been huge in the ’60s then vanished but had just released a comeback album. It was strange and industrial and difficult, he said. He gave me a C90 with Tilt on side B.

Some people have that one band or artist who comes to them in adulthood and changes how they think about music, Scott Walker was mine.

Experimental music can be dry & academic, explorations of form, structure or production, it can be focused on noise, or methods, or on making you dance to unexpected sounds. While many of the ideas interested me, nothing seemed fully engaging until Tilt.

Scott Walker showed me that avant garde music, sonic art and engaging emotional content can be brought together to make satisfying and challenging songs that need only to make their own kind of internal sense. His work showed me that music can be made expressing how senseless, confusing and painful life is, while being satisfying, oddly affirming, funny, serious and, best of all, enjoyable.

I’ve continually returned to Scott’s work partly as a touchstone of personal freedom, but mainly just for the sheer satisfaction of it.

Thanks Scott. That there will be no more new music from you makes me very sad.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/mar/25/scott-walker-experimental-pop-hero-dies-aged-76

A final chapter for the year of song.

So here it is, the final installment. The closing chapter of a year-long work. This album is the fourth phase, the Autumn section, from August to October 2016.
 
I’m quite satisfied with this collection; I came up with some songs that are amongst the strongest I’ve written but there’re also some experimental tracks that may not be easy listening.
Of the four albums in this cycle, this one has perhaps the fewest unsuccessful pieces and includes the project’s finale song Trenton, New Jersey, of which I’m very proud. Guest vocals on that track from Martin Byrne.

Bonus tracks galore!!

The 2018 re-record, remix & remaster of The Grunderhunter!!
Experimental soundworlds The Skittering and Handmade Arpeggio!
And from WeeklyBeats2016, the Lovecraft inspired They Return to Claim What is Theirs and instrumental guitar piece Loaded Dice!