#brett morgan

[jasper-book-stash]

February 2026 Reading Wrap-Up

February is a really weird time for my reading count, because I usually burn myself out while reading so much in January and then take February to recover. Just really front-loading it. Not entirely sure why this is a pattern, but it is.

So without further ado, I read 6 books this month. Let's get into them.

1/10 - Why Did They Publish This?

A Deed Without A Name: Unearthing The Legacy Of Traditional Witchcraft | Lee Morgan, Brett Morgan (illustrator)

[Adult] [Religious Text, Mythology, Occult, Magical, Spiritual]

Gods, this book broke me. It broke my brain. And it's only partially because of the content. For the most part, what broke me was the editing and formatting of this book. Sentences ended abruptly without continuation or never had a point to begin with. Certain chapters should have been appendices or were referred to AS appendices but were standalone chapters. Chapters that had to do with other ones were separated by chapters that had nothing to do with either. One ritual has the word "donning" misspelled in the subchapter but it's spelled correctly on the table of contents. There are inconsistent capitalizations and punctuations everywhere. I don't think this author's editor did a very good job; this feels like a first draft accidentally submitted as a complete thing.

I also have personal beef with the fact that many of the early chapters are made up primarily of exerpts of other people's experiences but they're only credited as "modern witch" or occasionally "male witch" or "female witch". It makes up most of the early content and examples and I am frustrated by the lack of proper credit, especially when the author credits past "witches" by name instead. Some testimonies were longer than the author's own writing in that chapter.

Obviously this book misuses the term shaman, but at this point I'd be surprised if a book from 2013 didn't.

As for the content itself, it's...eh? It feels like a really horny youtube poop video because of how disjointed the chapters are. Seeing the Shadow Ballsack broke something in me and I don't think I'll ever be free of this madness spiral. It gave me a basic introduction into concepts in Traditional Witchcraft but I personally think it failed its claimed mission to bridge the gap between academic study of historical witch claims and modern Traditional Witchcraft because it never actually touched on academia proper, instead it waved vaguely in that direction and went "BUT ACTUALLY MAYBE SOMETHING THE WITCH TRIAL INTERROGATIONS SAID HAD SOME PRE-CHRISTIAN TRUTH!"

There was also Wicca-bashing and while I am willing to throw rocks in glass houses with the best of them, I don't think you can do that when you are also part of a magical practice with a harsh emphasis on allocisheteronormativity, as this book itself was.

I really, REALLY should warn you all that this is an incredibly horny book so that you're not jumpscared by it like my asexual ass was.

This was painful to read and made my hatred of the publishing imprint Moon Books even stronger. I feel like I have to write an apology to Llewellyn Publications now.

I really must stress that the reason I have given this such a low rating is because of the shitty editing. Were it not for the fact that I had to correct editing errors - not just stylistic choices, but actual editing errors - on every single page, I would theoretically give this a 6 out of 10. But because the editing and formatting issues drove me insane, it's getting a 1.

Random guess at the target demographic: Someone who is interested in Traditional Witchcraft and needs a 101 primer but doesn't mind having to reorganize and edit the text itself to actually read it. Ideally someone who is not asexual and has no issues with using sex and sexual energy in their potential craft.

Final Important Note! I have no issues with the author, do not harass him over a book he wrote in 2013. He is still writing witchcraft books and horror fiction to this day, even after surviving a major brain tumor in 2023 (per his website), and we love to see growth and change. Thirteen years has done well for his writing just based on his blog. I wish him the best, I just think that this book sucks. May he be blessed with an editor who helps him figure out the proper order of his manuscript chapters.

2/10 - Trash

None applicable.

3/10 - Meh

None applicable.

4 to 6/10 - Mid-Tier

None applicable.

7 to 8/10 - Good With Caveats

The Convenience Store By The Sea | Sonoko Machida translated by Bruno Navasky

[Adult] [Contemporary, Historical, Western]

This book is broken up into a prologue, six chapters, and an epilogue. While each story is self-contained, they all have the same throughline of the convenience store Tenderness and even reference other perspective characters back and forth. The prologue and epilogue are both in 1st person POV while the rest of the book is in 3rd person. And yes, there's a whole rant I can go on about capitalism as the background for this book, but I'm going to let that just sit and hiss in the corner. It's fascinating to watch each character change in real time to become kinder people. I would describe this as a very casual slice-of-life type of book despite multiple medical scares for various characters and a surprisingly deep discussion of how things change and you can't go back but you can still try again.

While it's a very good book, there are plenty of places where the fact that it's translated becomes very obvious. However, it was still a deeply enjoyable reading experience. Overall I give it an 8 out of 10.

9/10 - Very Very Good

Sugar In Milk | Thrity Umrigar, Khoa Le

[Easy] [Contemporary, Historical, Western]

This is a short and sweet picture book that serves both as a story about immigration and a retelling of an older Persian legend. And every part of this book was beautiful.

Hamster Princess 1: Harriet The Invincible | Ursula Vernon

[Juvenile] [Fantasy]

This was a funny story that was an absolute delight to read. It encapsulates a lot of my favorite things about the younger end of Juvenile-level books: absurdism in setting and characters, visuals that lend very well to the story, and an absolutely deranged main character. If you've seen those posts that are like "Sleeping Beauty but she realizes she's invulnerable before the curse takes hold", that is literally the crux of this book.

Also, this is the author behind the pseudonym T Kingfisher. Love that her Juvenile-level books are just as fun as the horrifying adult ones, albeit in different ways.

Love Speaks Its Name: Gay And Lesbian Love Poems | J D McClatchy (editor)

[Adult] [Poetry]

It's been a while since I read some poetry, so I figured I'd read this one. I have to say, it is an absolutely delightful little book. When you remove the dustjacket, it's reminiscent of older hardcover books. As for the content, it's a compilation of many delightful poems (including some from our girl Sappho) that are organized according to six categories: Longing, Looking, Loving (the largest by far), Ecstasy, Anxiety, and Aftermath. It is tonally consistent through those categories and the formatting is actually pretty good. No complaints.

Sam Nightingale: Slave, Storyteller, And Conjure Man | Mary Barile

[Juvenile] [Nonfiction]

This book is aimed towards a fairly young demographic, I would estimate around age 7 to 10 based on the font size and the informational inserts. This was a very good book and basic biography about Guinea Sam Nightingale that could serve as a good jumping off point for further reading.

10/10 - Unironically Recommend To Everyone

None applicable.

[musical-suicide]

[sweetsmellosuccess]

TIFF 2022: Day 7

Films: 4 Best Film Of The Day: Sanctuary

Sanctuary: In a festival that has featured more than one failed play-to-film adaptation, including The Whale, and Roost, Zachary Wigon and his extraordinary cast and crew have crafted a two-person, one-location romantic zinger that feels perfectly designed for the screen. One key in such a production is to make each of the remaining elements as impeccable as possible. The cinematography, from Ludovica Isidori, is gorgeous and inventive (the opening shot hangs upside down, crawling up the arm of its character until we reach their face) with a smoothly engaging style of storytelling; the script, from Micah Bloomberg, is sharp and salty as a pretzel rod; and the soundtrack, from composer Ariel Marx, ranging from atonal blurts, to driving low-end strings, carries us along. The plot, such as it is, revolves around the relationship dynamics between Hal (Christopher Abbott), the young, newly made scion of his late father’s hotel empire, and Rebecca (Margaret Qualley), his extremely high-end dominatrix, as they play what Hal believes to be their “final game,” in which the pair perform a interdynamic sexual role-playing scenario, strictly following the script he devised before the proceedings. On this particular night, however, as Hal is about to be accepted by the board to be the new CEO, he feels the need to discontinue their fruitful partnership, a notion to which Rebecca, quick as a whip, and smarter than a cat-o-nine tails, doesn’t take kindly. What follows is a variation of one of their games, in which the power dynamic is completely upended back and forth, leaving the pair with a sense of each other that goes far beyond their usual sexual shenanigans. It might sound dull, yet another Covid-era drama where you can feel every bit of the restraints put on it, but, instead it feels so organic, you completely forget the constraints of the production. 

Falcon Lake: Montreal director’s Charlotte Le Bon’s debut feature, which she co-wrote, begins with the image of a body lying face down in the water of a wooded lake. It hovers there a few long beats, enough time to question the genre of what we’re watching, just before the hitherto motionless figure suddenly raises up and swims gently back to shore. It’s the kind of feint the film returns to over and over in the course of its narrative arc, suggesting we shouldn’t feel altogether comfortable, even if it plays like a sweetly contentious coming-of-age story. Bastien (Joseph Engel), a French kid (“13-turning-14”), arrives at a rustic vacation house in Quebec with his family in order to spend several weeks at the house along with his mother’s good friend, and her daughter, Chloe (Sara Montpetit), a pretty 16-year-old, filled with odd facts (‘when you drown, you get to experience nirvana’) and various other ghosty reveries. It’s not long before the two become friends, she encourages him to pal around with her as she hangs out with older kids, drinking and smoking, a situation Bastien seems perfectly happy with, if at some remove. As much as it sounds like a horny teen anthem, Le Bon is searching for deeper stuff for her characters: With all the potentially sensual situations they get into, including taking a bath together (with swimsuits), and lying across one another at night in her bed, neither one of them seems particularly interested in pushing the boundaries of what they feel. There is no rush, in other words. As the summer progresses, and they spend more of their time together, it is indeed the rarest of teen romances that’s actually rooted deeper in friendship than lust. It’s a carefully crafted film, as well, laying the groundwork for its closing beat such that we can’t say we weren’t warned. I’m not entirely sure it works  —  for all the foreshadowing and portent, it still somehow feels more of a reach than it should, and might have been better off more enigmatic  —  but so much of the film is successfully built around its young leads (both very good), and their evolving relationship, the ending doesn’t doom the entire project. 

Moonage Daydream: Reportedly, director Brett Morgan wanted to avoid a “wikipedia” style doc about David Bowie. Consider this mission accomplished: In lieu of chronological career highlights and historic background, Morgan has taken his unprecedented access to the Bowie archives and crafted a rollicking, impressionistic film that avoids hagiographic cliches, and instead gives us a wide sampling of the many thousands of hours of footage of Bowie in his artistic element. A renaissance man at heart, Bowie’s restless nature led him to challenge himself across the artistic spectrum: As one interviewer puts it, by the time he was 33, he had already made 17 albums, numerous gallery shows for his paintings, two feature films, and a stint on Broadway (as John Merrick in “The Elephant Man”). He is best known for his music, of course, and Morgan samples many a live recording to bring the audience some of what they might come to expect (a range of songs from “Ziggy Stardust,” of course, but also some deeper cuts off of his Berlin period, and a tune or two from his more recent catalog), but this isn’t some concert film with bits and pieces of other ephemera jammed between the hits. In a roundabout way, it covers a fair amount of his musical output over the years, including the regrettable “Let’s Dance” phase (an obvious selling out to which Bowie responds by saying he would never begrudge an artist growing their audience  —  but, later, seems to suggest making such a bland pop album, and its resulting popularity, cast him in a sort of artistic prison of his own making), but also includes snippets of his work on stage, screen, in performance art, and his own video creations (the film makes pretty clear there weren’t many mediums Bowie didn’t try his hand at). It keeps his personal life, with the exception of his marriage to Iman, completely out of it  —  you wouldn’t know he had been married before and had children  — a decision, one guesses, readily agreed to by the Bowie estate, which allowed Morgan such unfettered access. It doesn’t question his choices, or provide much in the way of context of his work (the heavy drug use in Berlin never seems to come up), but it does provide Bowie-lovers with plenty to relish. 

The Fabelmans: The film that begs the question, what’s the point of making an autobiographical film about your troubled childhood if you aren’t the least bit interested in investigating the honest emotional truth behind it? Steven Spielberg’s film, which premiered on Saturday night to a mostly adoring critical throng, covers the basics of his growing up, with most of the already accepted canon about him: At an early age, he became besotted with movies after his parents took him to The Greatest Story Ever Told; his father (in the film played by Paul Dano), a brilliant engineer and a pioneer of computer design, moved the family around a bit, spending time in New Jersey and Phoenix, before settling in California; his mother (Michelle Williams), a flamboyant musician, was in love with her husband’s best friend (Seth Rogen), and eventually, his parents split up to accommodate her. But all the while, young Spielberg (played as an older teen by Gabriel LaBelle) is making movies, dreaming of the day he can get behind a camera in Hollywood. As penned by Spielberg and frequent collaborator Tony Kushner, the story is reduced to so much shtick, a slick, surfacey retelling of the myth, as if crafting a superhero origin story of his own. There are good moments sprinkled throughout, and Dano, for his part, carries the role with solemn dignity and understatement (in direct contrast to the mawkish Williams, whose big presentation and overemoting feel from a different movie altogether). You can feel Spielberg struggle to make sure everyone is treated fairly  —  the film takes great pains not to pin the blame of the break-up on anyone, and tries to show how everyone was actually okay after it happened  —  but, then, if the divorce was so even-handed and well-received, why bother making a film about it in the first place? Releasing in November, and doubtless a frontrunner for a Best Picture nomination, Spielberg has actually gone and created a film that seems like a huge part of the problem with these premanufactured sorts of awards-coaxing fare: By playing it nothing but safe, and shutting down any expression of actual grief, longing, or disappointment, he proves the film is little better than a pantomime, a magic show to fool the rubes into thinking they have any better inkling of his inner workings than they did before they saw it. 

Wherein the author contemplates this year’s offerings and the past decade of covering this fabulous film festival, as he’s poised to embark on a new career path that will more than likely involve him standing up in front of a group of sullen teens, espousing the glories of the Russian masters, rather than taking in a beatific week of international cinema in the early days of September. 

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Challenge 144: 10 Years, Looking Forward: Looking ahead

For this challenge I was attempting to obtain an optimistic forward looking perspective as this season ‘life’ of Square Carousel comes to a close.

But every artist and illustrator that has been a part of this collective has inevitably come through this ‘reborn’ and better than before. 

I believe myself to be a little bit of a thinker and I rather enjoy the idea of dueling contrasts. Beginning/ending. Life/death. Happy/sad. Student/master. I just believe these things are incredibly powerful and beautifully signify the human condition. Not necessarily literally but on a deeper level. The level the presumably separates us from other animals on this planet. In our minds. We have the opportunity to make the decisions that directly affect how we pursue each of those contrasting pairs and an endless amount more.

If I wake up tomorrow, I am reborn to a new day. The me of yesterday has presumably died through the slumber and there is a brand new me that gets to live in the here and now. And maybe that is naive and optimistic but I live to think of it as inspired.

Which is where I come around to the real point I believe I am attempting to make, the impact of Square Carousel. 

I dont know what inspired the idea of Square Carousel for Elizabeth and Caitlin but if there is such a thing as karma, they have paid that inspiration and those kinds of ideas forward, tenfold. 

When transitioning this idea from a thought to an action, the idea wasnt to spark unlimited sources of inspiration. In fact, id guess that it was to create inspiration amongst a small group of individuals. But sticking to the road that this idea paved, created compound interest that i feel needs to be put into writing and conveyed to both Elizabeth and Caitlin and anyone other person who may be reading this.

I have decided that there is no possible way I can come up with numbers for my little experiment of how Square Carousel has impacted the world. Better yet, ill let your mind go down this rabbit hole as mine obviously already has.

As I continue to type, I have realized that this will be my long winded way of saying ‘thank you’.

Back to number of people impacted and hopefully in a cliff notes version. Caitlin and Elizabeth have a network of ‘x’ people when starting this venture. As they began following through with this, the 2 of them started learning new things. Ever wonder how it is managing a bunch of artists? Go ahead and reread this long post and see what kind of shit show is going on in my mind. Now multiply that by a handful of artists. So, Caitlin and Elizabeth’s network reaps the benefit of them learning all this knowledge that is doubtfully super fun to go through but when they start taking on all of the artists that will be a part of this collective they then impact all of the artist that they are taking on and those artists network as well. But wait there’s more. as the world wide internet grows along with social media, all of the above continues to be impacted but now everyone involved is growing their network. And as you are growing your network, people continue to be impacted by these initial steps of creating this collective. Now, since these are all artists and are creating work, what about the viewers of the art that has beern directly affected by this? Then what about the people who become impacted by these items and then go on and impact others. Yeah, this gets out of hand quickly... That’s cool... Now multiply that by 10 years. Fucking nuts.

Elizabeth and Caitlin, thank you for letting me be a small part of this impact you have created. I apologize for the pain in the ass I can be, but respect you both so much. I hope that with the time that the both of you are gaining without having to manage this, the next venture is just as fruitful. 

Sayada, obviously you deserve a little individual call out for bringing me on board. Awesome for me but probably regretful for you. Thank you. It sucks that there arent any words that I can come up with fully encompass my appreciation for you and what you have done for me by inviting me to join Square Carousel for the time that I did. Congratulations on your recent Childrens book and I am hoping there is plenty more where that came from. Thank you again.

This is crazy long and will give high fives to all the artists that have been part of this collective during the time I have been on here and I appreciate the feedback and optimism shared with me to get stuff done!

I graduated from SCAD in March 2012.I am currently coming to terms with what I enjoy making and the processes that I enjoy working in and I have been really steering towards making more gallery art and hope to really start reaping the benefits of that soonish. 10 years from now I see myself continuing to draw and paint nonstop while hopefully using it as a pretty big part of my life and continue to use my art to impact others.

-Brett

[mostlymonk]

Green Chimneys

Cleveland Watkiss

with Allan Rogers – piano Ken Shaw – guitar Paul Townsend – bass Brett Morgan – drums

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Challenge 134: Freebie: Flynn’s Arcade I decided to take on a personal project that may have been too personal. Haha. I love Tron:Legacy. I originally wanted to do multiple illustrations from the movie (and still plan to get to the other scenes I was plotting out) but time simply was not in my favor. And my love for the movie I think I got a little caught up in trying to make all the sketches “perfect”.  Brett Morgan 

[squarecarousel]

Challenge 127: Dream Lover: What happens when you mess with the physics of it all?

I took this lovely opportunity to do a piece geared towards one of my favorite movies, Inception. 

I can’t even tell you how crazy it was working on the perspective of those buildings. I may have wanted to cry. I may have actually cried. 

Through the many battles I fought with this piece, I was good with the finish, hope you enjoy as well!

-Brett Morgan

[squarecarousel]

Challenge 137: Magic Forest: The wizard and his companion

I have a tremendous amount going on around me lately. 

Throughout the busyness, I came up with a thumbnail along with a basic idea that I liked and went with it. Sadly, to my disservice, with everything I had going on I was unable to make anything in time for our group critique. With that happening I spent a little more time on my final sketch before moving onto the final. And I am glad I did.

This was an awesome piece to work on. I typically favor having some confinement within my work so that I have to make something with very specific boundaries and I like to think this piece shows.

Brett Morgan