Hello. Thanks for opening this. Remember, I told you this would be an infrequent newsletter and I think I’ve lived up to my end of the bargain. So now’s your chance to read all about what’s been going on with me! What a deal.

Those readers who live in the United States will understand, without my having to say it, that I’ve been living in a political dystopia (same one you’re in). We have the least-deserving silver-spoon frat boy with dementia living (if you can call it that) in the White House. And why is he allowed to stay there? Well, I’ve come to the sad conclusion that at least half of your day-to-day Republican voters simply have no moral compass.

They say these mindlessly diabolical things and they smile in your face the whole time. How are decent people supposed to live with this?

Does the political climate affect my “creative” life? Yes, I’d have to say, it does. I can’t stop reading about it. It takes up a lot of time. It takes up a lot of mental energy. And now, with the Daylight Savings, or the not-Daylight Savings, whichever it is, it gets dark early. And that’s the last I’m going to say about my overall mood.

But despite the despair and stuff, I did do some interesting stuff this year. So, since you’ve so kindly subscribed to my newsletter, let me deliver the content you so kindly signed up for.

I made some art.

I made some art. I didn’t have any solo shows or sign up for any holiday markets or Jazz Fest, but I made a few things.

Around Hallowe’en, my friend Rel said she wanted some big scary skeletons for her porch. Say no more, fam; I got you.

I had so much fun making these. The “crop failure” speech bubble comes from a short story of hers where some scary skeletons said exactly that. Scary, right?

I didn’t have too many pale monstrous visions, but I still wanted to paint something, so I painted this friendly woman dressed for a Zumba class, so I’d have someone to talk to. We’re both very busy, but we make the time to get together for coffee now and then.

Actually I did show some work, I had a few pieces in Anthony Del Rosario’s gallery, Nola ‘Nacular, in the “miniatures” show. They all sold; I’m rich now.

One painting came back into my life. About ten years ago I moved to Austin, Texas while I simultaneously had some art in a show at Kebab, the very-much-missed gyro and falafel shop on St. Claude. I had to start a new job and I just couldn’t coordinate to get this (surprisingly unsold) piece back. I told the show organizer to just keep it. Now, eight years later, she got in touch to say she was moving and wouldn’t have room for it anymore (as it happens to be six feet tall), and would I like to have it back?

So here it is (pictured right, along with Buddy, who turned thirteen on October 23). It’s in beautiful shape.

ALL ART IS FOR SALE (except the skeletons). Please e-mail or text me.

Whoa, Whoa! Listen To The Music.

Musically, The Stacks played one show in 2025.

There were dozens, literally DOZENS of people at this show, and they gave us dozens of dollars. Each! We got invited to San Diego. It’s moments like that that make it worthwhile.

It was a great show, despite what this very-2025 picture of the audience waiting for the bands to start might indicate, but I gotta be honest: I’m tired of The Stacks’ material. The songs we wrote, the songs we covered—I’ve done them enough. It’s been a great time, and a LONG time. There have been FIFTEEN people in The Stacks with me as the only constant. Most of those people have jobs and kids now. Maybe it’s time for me to get serious about adulthood. I’m burned out on the life of a full-time professional musician.

So, what do you do when you’re burned out like that? Start another band. Ladies and gentlemen: The Side Hustlers.

It’s all rhythm & blues. I don’t play an instrument; I leave that to more competent hands. I just sing.

We played a gig in Destrehan, Louisiana, a big barbecue (pictured above). Turned out a four- or five-year-old, or, I dunno, some kind of baby was celebrating a birthday. “I'm not gonna sing the song. Please don’t make me sing the song,” I said to Andrew, who booked the gig. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

But the crowd, and the child, weren’t willing to let this life milestone go unacknowledged. So, I, with my many semesters of classical voice training, did what I had to do: I sang the song. The dancers yielded the yard to the celebrant, who turned many somersaults, basking in the attention, while also ignoring the band.

Nevertheless, we will do some more concerts in the near future.

You can hear a song or two (not “the song” though) and SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST at https://sidehustlersband.com. (I mean, if you got this e-mail, you’re gonna get e-mails about Side Hustlers gigs, but please, tell your friends. We want to meet them.)

Obsessive doodling.

I kept doing my silly karaoke cartoons and making them into little booklets. I got to walk through one of them page by page with a couple of people, and it was interesting to see how other people read these, which is: not at all like I thought.

I laugh and laugh while I’m drawing these things, but I think most people are only humoring me. And that’s fine. Maybe I’ll learn my lesson.

Miscellany.

I don’t know what came over me, but I wanted to build a model car. I built several of them as a kid; I left a Jaguar XKE unfinished when I headed off to college. I thought I might be better at it now. Nope. It was educational nonetheless.

I also bought a real vehicle, a Ford Ranger with 225,000 miles on it. The seller came with his very sweet grandma; I later learned they both brought their guns to the meet-up. But it’s a wonderful truck, I’ve done two thousand-mile weekend drives in it already, and when I took it in for an oil change, one of the guys said “I’m going to be serious for a minute—this is the cleanest truck of its age that I have ever seen.” It’s really clean, for being so old that it doesn’t buzz when you fail to put your seat belt on. Its gaskets are sound. I have Trey Ledford to thank for it; he has picked out my last three vehicles (two Rangers and an XTerra), and they’ve all been fabulous, adventuresome vehicles.

Culture.

I read so many books and saw so many movies. I recommend them all.
Especially:
Movies: Anora
Ball Of Fire
Mutiny (N.O. short film directed by Henry Griffin, a classic, I found it on Vimeo. LOOK IT UP.)
The Death Of Stalin
Splendor In the Grass
Manchester By the Sea (again)
plus many others.
I should have kept better notes.
I couldn’t watch Flow (just too many things trying to hurt an imaginary cat) or Oldboy (images of confinement, it was unbearable).
TV: Watched all of Andor and all of Season One of Star Trek (the original).
Saw several Adam Curtis BBC documentaries about how intertwined everything in the world is.
I watched Will Sasso’s Mad TV skit where he impersonates Randy Newman doing the music for Star Wars way too many times.
Books? I really enjoyed William Steig’s The Amazing Bone. Highly recommended. Shrek too. (And if you haven’t read Steig’s Amos and Boris, please go get it now.)
I re-read Stephen Millhauser’s Edwin Mullhouse and was fascinated by it once again. I hadn’t read it since my seventh year of college, back when I had a lot of time to read.
I’ve been slowly going through The Stories of John Cheever. I think I’m up to the 1950s now, maybe 25 stories in. It’s fascinating, he has a gift for everything that makes short stories good: place, dialogue, plot, authorial voice. I found some old TV adaptations of his stories on https://archive.org, those were good too.
I read and returned so many library books, many for adults, and I know I’m forgetting something.

Also, did I mention I worked at a job? I did that. I’m very lucky to have a great, interesting job, though we lost half of our funding because of DOGE, and again I put it to you that many Republicans have no moral compass, and now I’ll add they are terrible at understanding how anyone who isn’t a billionaire actually lives, or they understand very well and they want to put a stop to it. I myself didn’t understand how fragile the economy is until the Republicans (and Elon, whatever he is) started ripping it apart, to serve nobody. Most of us do jobs that help other people do their jobs, which help another set of people do their jobs, and if you start saying many people in that set-up are unnecessary and should go find other, better jobs that don’t yet exist, it has effects you might not have anticipated. But this is a holiday newsletter.

Meta-Newsletter business.

Thanks for reading or at least skimming my newsletter, if you got this far. I’m gonna start doing these things more often so they’re not so long.

Also, Shadow.

This is Shadow. I was told it’s a corny name, shadows aren’t black, etc., but I always wanted to name a black cat Shadow. My neighbors named her Lorraine, so she can have that name too. But I call her Shadow.

She’s a feral, spayed and returned to the streets, but she had been living a couple doors down the street with a nice lady who was nice to her but just never considered her “her cat”. When she moved away, Shadow stayed around. She was about as broad across the beam as a stick of gum maybe, the narrowest cat I’ve ever seen. And she’s tiny in all other dimensions as well.

She started learning Bud’s feeding times and eating all the cat food and screaming for more, but still wanted to be outside. That has changed a lot. I’d find her in the morning, sleeping in hidden or camouflaged places, like on the (black) bass amplifier, where she’d stayed overnight. Two weeks ago she got in my lap and watched a show with me. The next week she jumped on the bed but jumped off real quick. The next morning she was sleeping on the bed by my feet, and that’s where she stays.

She’s my cat now. I’m a one-cat person according to the rules of the Cat Distribution System, but I like having Shadow and Buddy around.

Thanks again for reading. Drop me a line and let me know what you’re up to!