038: A Dude Playing a Dude Disguised as Another Dude

AN EMAIL LIKE A LEMON, IN SEVERAL SECTIONS

First, Tha NEWS.
I'm in Poetry again! You can get an issue here, or read my poem here, or listen to ME READ IT here! This marks the second time and the first that I've had multiple pieces (even though it's really from one piece, THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT, which continues slowly developing) printed at once in the mag. And while comparison is the root of suffering in the creative arts, that actually outpaces some of even my biggest influences.

I managed to catch a cold from the child. Pretty annoying, considering I was planning on getting covid and flu boosters before heading out for holiday gatherings. Ah well. There may still be time. I seem to have gotten it milder than the others in the household, so that's a little silver lining. The tarnish upon that silver is that, as I write this, I'm also dealing with a migraine stemming from a branch of the external carotid that doesn't usually get me. Bodies, man. Just plug me straight into the Matrix.

That's--that's about it, honestly. Had Thanksgiving meal. Been reading and writing a bit. Standard stuff.

A clerical note: it seems that MailChimp is finally killing off TinyLetter, so the next email you get from me will be coming from... not TinyLetter. I haven't decided where yet.

Second, INTERLUDE.

Third, CONSUMPTION.
- Went to see the kiddo's theater production of Wait Until Dark. The original production co-starred Robert Duvall, the film version was Audrey Hepburn's last movie, and 1998 revival starred Marisa Tomei and Quentin Tarantino (the latter of whom was roundly lambasted in what was his stage debut.) What I'm saying is that it's a source with some pedigree and for a high school production, it was pretty dang impressive.
- Finished Volume One of Jerusalem. That book is so Alan Moore it hurts. "What does that mean?" Well. Go read the original run of Watchmen, or even better, FROM HELL, and get back to me.
- Started finally reading the DIE RPG by Kieron Gillen and Stephanie Hans. It's very Kieron, and as such, very much My Jam. The first hook is it's Goth Jumanji. The second hook is that you're playing players playing a game. The third hook is that nothing progresses until all players agree. The fourth hook is that the GM is literally the Adversary. It takes all of the things that are games culture and social structure and turns it on its ear.
- I've started playing Guild Wars 2 for a bit, which is a now 10-year-old MMO that I got early on and never really played. I finally spent the first amount of money on it ever (it was gifted to me, and the game has always been a one-and-done purchase or free-to-play), which was buying the expansions. I really enjoy the character systems in the game, and I'm really only playing it casually, so it's been a fun time. I did have to redesign my character, though. I hadn't quite figured out what part of my roleplaying characters were roleplaying and which were wish-fulfillment, and so now I have a cute little girl goblin genius instead of a cute little boy goblin genius.
- Picked up an original US pressing of Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother on vinyl, which is one of the few of theirs I was missing. The sleeve is basically trashed, but the record itself seems okay. Also got a copy of Bowie's Let's Dance, which was something that's been a bit of an enigma for me. It's what he referred to as the beginning of his "Phil Collins Years", but it's both his most commercially successful album and the one that rather paradoxically included Stevie Ray Vaughan on guitar. I rather enjoy it, probably more than Earthling, really (aside from "I'm Afraid of Americans" which is one of his best songs ever.)

Fourth, HUSTLE.
First and foremost is my most recent book, confessions from a drainage ditch, which was released on Sept 1st through Amazon, and is available in ebook and paperback formats. If you haven't picked it up, it's a great introduction to my more concrete and mainstream work.

If you're looking for something weirder, you can check out A Void and Cloudless Sky, a chapbook, which is also available from Amazon, as well as most other retailers. By being a subscriber to this newsletter, you're also entitled to a free PDF version, which you can get here.

If you're liking this whole project and want to support it directly, here is my Patreon. There are lots of little benefits you can get there, from access to a subscriber-only Discord to poems written to your specifications to subcriber-only limited-edition chapbooks.

Finally, THE OUTRO.
I realize there's not a lot here that's about me specifically, and that's fine, honestly. A big part of why I do these is to share not just what I'm doing personally, but what I'm reading and whatnot. Word of mouth is still king, but especially lately as the new old ways of doing things are slowly collapsing under the heel of algorithmic enshittification. (For example, I would be asking you to share this email, but without knowing where I'll be landing with it, I don't really want to ask people to sign up for it, not knowing where it's going to be coming from in a month! Shitty!)

You should be getting this on December 1st, which means it's me winding down and unplugging for the rest of the year. It's one of the few things I still hang onto from an influential (but exceedingly shitty) writer I used to be somewhat in the orbit of. December is when everything goes on the back burner and the year gets its review. See what worked and what didn't. (Short version: not much, and an awful lot, respectively.) But also, and specifically, rest. After the big media blast for the Poetry launch, and maybe a Patreon post or two, I'm switching off the social media til January. You might want to try it, too. We're all so tired all the time.

You're built to hibernate. Eat food and stay warm and conserve energy. You deserve it. Really. You made it another year.

I'm telling me this as much as you.