I DON'T SPEAK LIKE A POET
For this week, here’s an excerpt from a poem I’ve been working on for a while. I read an unfinished version at a Tiny Slices last year (with weird spacey synths and samples underneath, so imagine that playing while you read if you can). It’s about my feeling of there being no substance to any of the art I make or work I do.
lack of galaxy, dry oceans.
no moon or its phases
no tides of a person.
pin
straight.
no ebb
flow
or wobble
to my stride.
I feel like it’s still not done even now, and that’s kind of the fun of poetry, these things never have to end. You can read the rest here.
A reminder that this Friday April 11th, Overheard is playing our first ever show in New Jersey!
I…am pretty sure the first proper ‘Ghost Down’ live set in over two years is happening very soon. I’ll keep you posted.
Misc. stuff I’m into:
Movies:
Perfect Days [2023, dir. Wim Wenders]. Rewatched this one recently. A really earnest and meditative film about a toilet cleaner in Japan. Tryna watch all of my physical media!!
Black Bag [2025, dir. Steven Soderbergh]. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are hot and fun to watch doing their jobs at the war crime factory. What more do you need?
I’m Still Here [2024, dir. Walter Salles]. Based on the true story of former Brazilian congressman and husband Rubens Paiva being disappeared from his family, and the family experiencing the fallout. A very important film re-telling events from the seventies for our modern era of residents of your country being disappeared.
Music:
the new Deafheaven record, Lonely People With Power;
the new Black Country, New Road record, Forever Howlong;
the new Skrillex album, F*CK U SKRILLEX YOU THINK UR ANDY WARHOL BUT UR NOT!! <3;
the new Car Seat Headrest singles! This is the first time I’ve enjoyed new CSH music since 2018’s remake of Twin Fantasy and I’m really excited.
Reading:
Jessica Fern’s Polywise, on opening up your relationship in the most considered way possible;
James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time, two powerful essays about what reckoning on race in America is still to come. Horrifyingly potent read these days, especially the final line. “God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time!”
Ta-Nehisi Coates’s The Message, which I am resonating with deeply in the wake of my recent trip to PR and also the ongoing genocide in Gaza;
Hanif Abdurraqib’s Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest. I also just read and loved his essay “On Summer Crushing” in the Paris Review.
Shout out to my friend/faithful library worker Susannah, who explained to me why the app Libby is fantastic for both libraries and you! E-books count for circulation numbers that show libraries are being utilized, which is great for their funding amounts from local/city budgeting! And our fascist admin wants to kneecap libraries because they are ‘not profitable’ I guess! Imagine a good thing existing without the purpose of extracting value! Use your local library, even if digitally, and remind people of their benefits to communities! “Having fun ain’t hard…”
Podcasts:
I coincidentally heard a really good episode of It Could Happen Here this week titled “The Library Funding Cliff”, breaking down what’s happening with libraries and how we can help.
My favorite podcast lately has been Jamie Loftus’s Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) on Cool Zone Media. Really earnest research into internet culture and how it speaks to the wider world. Good stuff.
April 8th is a day I (and possibly I alone) have always seen as ‘Neutral Milk Hotel Day’ because of that one song from On Avery Island that directly precedes a weird noisy experimental wonk breakdown. Maybe we are all on the cusp of a weird noisy experimental wonk breakdown as well.
Recently I have been asked a few times about my choosing to delete Instagram/stop engaging with Meta wherever possible in the wake of their outwardly fascistic overhaul, and how I still manage to make and uphold connections. The answer has pretty much been ‘showing up’. I have to go out a lot more, keep track of in-person or digital events, and sign up for a lot of mailing lists to meet more people/connect with people I already know, and it’s hard and exhausting…but rewarding. Sunday the 30th I had the honor of putting together a Tiny Slices showcase with some artists I admire, something I never would have gotten the chance to do if I hadn’t taken a risk a year ago and shown up to this little living room event where I barely knew anyone. But I wouldn’t have discovered it without making some friends on Instagram in the first place. Feels catch-22 adjacent.
So yeah, show up when you can! And maybe feed less of your data to Mark Zuckerberg if you can do so without sacrificing your entire livelihood, which is the dilemma a lot of my artists friends seem to be facing. I have to acknowledge that my life and career don’t depend on an Instagram following, so the ability to leave is a privilege. I also still have the ability to peek into Overheard’s instagram to see if I’m missing anything, which I still do sometimes! My hands aren’t completely clean.
I guess I’ll end with this: there was a time when these toxic apps were not necessary for ‘community building’ and ‘a career’, and if we can help it, a time will come where they will be unnecessary again.
Stay safe.
- Will