051: Meanwhile, Back at the Farm
First, Tha NEWS.
Week 2 of THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT is rolling along. Sales have been trickling in, and the more I get early on, the better Amazon sees it and tries to push it. If you haven't picked it up and are planning to, please do so. It means a lot.
Two related things are happening alongside my book!
The first is the art collection that Elle has done. It's an eleven-piece collection in a variety of sizes, with some of her most ambitious work yet. She even got a piece in there using literal networking cables. They all deal with many of the same theme of identity, personhood, and reality while introducing some of her own experiences with disability and corporate bureaucracy, all in a frickin’ gorgeous palette of cyberpunk blues, purples, pinks, and greens. Last week I shared the shop with the password, but it’s open to everyone now. Go look! Maybe buy something?
The second is a Virtual Q&A Artist Talkback session that Elle will be hosting in a neat ol' online gallery her business geek partner is building out. You can RSVP for that here. It's this coming Friday! (Our dog Winkie is going to be the docent and it's going to be AMAZING.)
Unrelated but also related to the above, today marks Trans Day of Visibility. Here I am. If somehow you didn't realize you're following an trans, I dunno what to tell you. But what I do want to tell you is that this newsletter, and indeed all the work I do, is not just influenced by my trans experience, but the experiences of my friends, family, peers, and even random trans folk that live inside my phone. It's good to be visible, but we also need support in so many ways: financially, socially, emotionally, politically... it goes on and on. I don't think it's exactly obvious to say that I genuinely and truly need y'all cis folk. Not just for my books or my Patreon, but I need you to help keep me and mine safe. It's tough being trans out there these days. And a lot of people can't safely be out, and it's steadily getting worse, and not just rhetorically.
So to that: Trans Lives Matter. Black Trans Lives Matter. Protect Trans Kids.
Second, INTERLUDE.
I dined alone with Virginia Woolf last night. Oh dear, how much I love that woman.
~Vita Sackville-West
Letter to her husband, Harold Nicolson
Third, CONSUMPTION.
I started reading be brave to things, but have only gotten most of the way through the introduction. I mentioned to my friend yesterday about how my book was available and he said "I haven't even finished the book I started in December," to which I replied "Me neither." (That book being Jerusalem Vol. 2.) I find myself staring into the open void a lot more of late, and that really eats into my reading time.
It's no surprise that I watch a lot of YouTube, but due to the aforementioned void staring, I haven't watched so much lately. But last night I watched a video from one of my favorite hobbyist/tinkerers about organization and I feel like it might be of use to my fellow nerds who struggle with the chaos/order dichotomy in their workspaces. It does have a bit of paid content, but reviewing that shit is literally CNC Kitchen's job, so yeah. It's really the organization that's the meat of it.
I finally wrote my review of the new Lady Gaga album, Mayhem, which means I have spent the last two days listening to so much Lady Gaga, including stuff I hadn't listened to before. Did you guys know she was in a movie a while back? I mean a good one. I feel like the soundtrack to A Star is Born is something I really slept on as both a fan of competent country music and Lady Gaga. I'm not gonna watch the movie, though. I know how it goes. But I'll spent a lot of time listening to the music and thinking about how that dude is the voice of Rocket Raccoon. (Yes, yes he was in other things too, I know. Like The Hangover III.)
Baseball is upon us. As I type this I see that the Twins are down 0-9 against the damn White Sox--who were historically bad last year. They've opened the season 0-3, and it looks like we're hitting 0-4. This sport breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.
Fourth, HUSTLE.
The new hotness is THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT, which you can get here. It’s a serial poem based in Philip K. Dick, JG Ballard, 20th Century cyberpunk, Jack Spicer, and, well, me.
confessions from a drainage ditch was released in late 2023 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.
There’s my chapbook, A Void and Cloudless Sky. By being a subscriber to this newsletter, you're also entitled to a free PDF version, which you can get here. If you want a hard copy, it’s available 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 poems written to your specifications to subscriber-only limited-edition chapbooks.
Finally, THE OUTRO.
I don't usually do this because it's not my work, but in the spirit of TDOV, y'all should go check out my spouse's band, Sparkling Urbana. They're an incredible group of folks who just fuckin’ exude queerness. They play a bunch of really cool, really smart music borne out punk, grunge, and just straight-up rock. And just this weekend they played a big ol' trans music fest in the exurbs dedicated to having a space for people to gather, hang out, be safe, and jam. And that's really what Trans Day of Visibility is for, to me. Not just being present, but being safe, being supported, having fun, and doing art. We're all out here just trying to make our way.