mosspunk records is starting to emerge from its previously somewhat desiccated state. i'm proud of the revamped website, which is responsive to fit well on phone screens, but up-sizes the main content on larger screens. especially felt accomplished when i finally figured out a way to keep the music playing across pages, while sticking to simple HTML (nested iframes, basically). i felt warmed to remember how freeing, fun, empowering, puzzling, and inspiring it can be to assemble a little place of my own, however simple or obscure.
music is like that too. working more seriously on the 2 motebook tracks i want to finish, i get a similar remembrance; my little bundle of sounds, emotoins, atmospheres, it's like it keeps a part of me safe across time and space. i still get almost intimidated by how much depth and infinite explorabiilty there is to music, and want to cultivate that feeling of coziness and warmth. hopefully i can keep my style flexible, open, and responsive enough to avoid leaning on base familiarity and comfort.
i got a set on May 18th thanks to Syd, who is tabling at this mental health promoting art fair. Marrow will be there leading a dance/movement workshop as well. the organizer agreed to pay me $100 plus allow me to sell my tapes and CDs. that's pretty crazy commerce by mosspunk standards. preparations include organizing my sample banks on the SP404 mk2, testing out guitar sounds & improv frameworks for each song, drawing & assembling extra tape packages, advertising (bleh), and planning my stage layout. i'm hoping to develop some more robust standards for all this stuff so i can stay more ready to take performance opportunities smoothly.
recently discovered the Brooklyn-based public access late night show Late Stage Live! (not actually live, aired online as well, etc) the elevator pitch is "The Daily Show if it were led by Gen Z trans woman". Ella Yurman the host also writes for Some More News, and I heard her interviewed on It Could Happen Here podcast. with that and the content of the show itself, it probably fits in around the Cool Zone Media constellation. but there's a real unique vibe here with the combination of 90s-esque lo-fi production, late night format tropes to bounce off, distinctly queer humor, and well-felt considered political analysis. i'm in love. watching it with Marrow was super great, they are a queer joy multiplier. i think it'd be fun to get some other friends together when the new episode comes out, and have a watch party. it's easy for a hermit like me to forget we're being genocided; we really need these cultural bastions to gather around and re-inspire ourselves/each other.
i think i might need to write a separate post about all the ARPGs i tried since watching the 4-hour Diablo video from Noah Caldwell-Gervais (who i decided is my favorite games writer and his voice is like heaven). but just briefly noting that playing Path of Exile with Mike is fun and takes me back to that really specific headspace from when we used to play random MMORPGs together as kids, and how it somehow felt inherently extra-cool to be hanging out online, in a game world, and all the tacky design and UI elements i never noticed back then now have potent nostalgia. Diablo IV is, i think, very good, but there are too many opinions about it and i haven't been fully focused enough. Noah Caldwell-Gervais inspires me to be intentional about treating whatever game i'm playing with serious consideration, and to relish pulp.
musically i haven't been listening to much lately, but "Wild Ones" by Jessie Murph & Jelly Roll is an instiable earworm and i do truly love it for a pop song. the "country hip-hop/R&B" vocal style is intoxicating, i can't lie.
"Radical Lover" by Violet Stanza off the Late Stage Live episode also made me cry and gets stuck in my head, such a beautiful ode to trans growth and joy. i'm in awe to think that there are younger kids who get to hear those kinds of feelings be expressed, in the words i couldn't find back then.
oh. and i listened to Robert Evans read his book "After the Revolution". instant favorite. i cried a bunch of times, and also laughed out loud and said "HELL YEAH". there's really something to the blend of juvenile pulp, psychedelic spec-fic weirdness, deeply true human empathy, and insightful unpretentious social-political commentary. oh i just loved it so much. now all i need is someone else to read it and talk to me about it.