Interview

Interview

I did an interview with Tom at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Check it out.

New Zine (almost available)!

Tentative cover for the new issue of Jesse Owens #2. It should be done in time for the Chicago Zine Fest in March.

Watching Love Grow Forever

I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought maybe I could put something from the new issue of Mixtapers Do It Better on here. I wrote this originally in February, and I handed out some typewritten copies of it at the Chicago Zine Fest.

I did a reading on saturday, where I read this piece, and it seemed to go over well. Hope you enjoy!

 

Watching Love Grow Forever

Or:

The Truth About the Song Heard on Every Mixtape

   
    Ian Curtis wrote the song “Ceremony” while in the band Joy Division, and sang it in public three times before he killed himself. New Order, the band after Joy Division, solidified it as a bonafied single that they released twice in 1981.
    If you’ve received any odd amount of mixtapes, you know you’ve heard it on one of those tapes.
    What’s going on in this song that makes people put it on every single mixtape they’ve made?
It’s full of mystery, obviously.
    It’s a song people like to believe only they know about. It’s like a secret they think no one else knows.
    When I first saw the movie “Amélie,” afterward, I immediately skipped to the beginning of the movie and watched it all over again. It was a movie ifelt so connected to, something I thought explained my life so well, that I didn’t want to talk about it with my friends. It was my secret. Its pleasures lied within the plastic disc and I felt so intertwined with Amélie’s life, I thought no one else would understand. Talking about it with someone else would make it lose its magic.
    Obviously, a lot of people love this movie for this very reason–sensing that someone else understood y ou, without  them knowing you. “Ceremony” is a lot like that. When I first heard it, it was as if everything fell into place. My brain switched over to a new wavelength and I thought: “Yes. This is the type of music I like now.”
    Lets be honest–when you hear this song, you can’t help but imagine making out with some babe in your bedroom with the windows open on a warm summer night, while Bernard Sumners  voice echos out into the neighborhood. I’ll be the first to say it–it’s a sexy song.
    It’s the sort of song you imagine as the background music when your life goes flashing before your eyes, moments before your death. You hear it at funerals for people with good musical taste. It’s the first song a couple dances to together at their wedding.
    Music fans grow older and produce a new generation of music lovers and this song will still be a classic in everyone’s book.
    I asked my friend, John (who put the song on a mixtape for me for the first time a few years ago), to describe what it is about the song that makes it so powerful: “It’s like a really good beginning of a book–you suddenly care about it. They make something curious about the song and then they build on it. It’s in its own way reflective.”
    Everyone has moments when listening to a tape when you decide that you like it, and I guarantee that 75% of the time, it occurs when you hear this song.
    What’s also nice about the song is that it can fit into many genres, if you’re making a tape with a theme. A love themed tape is definitely where it belongs, but it’s also good for road trips through the mid-west, after getting your heart broken, and on a killer party mix as well.
    So, next time you’re making a banger of a tape, don’t forget to pull out the big guns and add the song you can never go wrong with.

February 2012.

Mixtape story ideas?

I’ve started writing for the 5th issue of Mixtapers Do It Better,and I need some ideas! I have 2 things I can write about right now, but it’s slowing down a bit…

Do you make mixtapes? What are some of the traditions you have while making one? What is your pet-peeves when receiving a tape? Are there any special routines you go through while making one? Do you have a particularly good story about a mixtape, maybe one you gave someone, or someone gave to you? Is there a song that you always put on a mixtape, or one that always shows up on tapes you receive from people? Let me know, either by posting in the comment section, or through email: mixtapersdoitbetter@riseup.net

Tour/Chicago Zine Fest

My lil mini tour is this upcoming weekend. I’m pretty excited about leaving Michigan, even if it’s only for a couple of days. I’m moving to a new apartment immediately after I get back, so I’ve just been listening to the AM oldies radio station on a fair volume and packing for the past week.
I don’t really know much information on the shows on tour (my tourmate, sam is doing most of the booking) but here are some addresses to the places they will be at. What time they start, I have no clue. At night. After supper, probably.

Kalamazoo- I have no clue

February 25- 4621 9th st. NW Washington, DC 20011

February 26- 4971 Hazel ave philly, PA 19143

February 27- 237 Romeo Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15213

————————————–

CHICAGO FEST!

I’m going to be reading from my zines on friday night (march 9) of the Chicago zine fest at 826CHI (1331 N. Milwalkee, Chicago). I’ll be reading from my ghost story zine and another story as well.

poster

What better to do in the dead of winter than update your information poster.

tour!!

Yo, i’m going on a reading/band tour with Radiator Hospital! If you’re in these cities, come say hello:

 

February 24- Kalamazoo, Mi

Febrary 25- Washington DC

February 26- Philly

February 27- Columbus, OH

 

Here’s a link to Radiator Hospitals stuff: http://radiatorhospital.bandcamp.com/

 

more details as they show themselves!