#studio years

[fairiesandbeatleslover]

MAD DAY OUT

The Fab in a one-day photo session to promote “THE WHITE ALBUM”, IN 1968

[fairiesandbeatleslover]

THE WHITE ALBUM SESSIONS

The Fab in the middle of September playing in the studio, with George Martin; the urgency of the release of this album made them have to resort to using up to three studios at the same time to record the songs; so John recorded in studio 1, Paul in studio 2 and George in studio 3 the basic tracks of their compositions, each then calling Ringo to add the drum tracks to their respective songs (poor Ringo).

[onehumangallery]

★ Studio Years

Last night I was in a lot of pain. My hand and wrist. I’ve been able to avoid pain for a few months now, since November of last year I think, even through the craziness of March and April of this year. And when the pain comes, hand or wrist or knee and foot, it wrecks me emotionally. The weight of a body that doesn’t function properly makes me judge myself as broken. Then all the stuff about baby and sterility and such and such.

Anyway, sorry. I actually started writing this to fill you in on what’s going on in my life, especially since my rather poorly written Facebook post about me leaving LA that confused many people.

To clarifly: I am giving up my apartment in LA. There’s no sane reason for Judeth and I to be paying two rents. Not having an apartment will free me up to spend a bit more time out in Pittsburgh with her. But I still have to be in LA for my writing workshops and private students, not to mention Writ Large Press things. I’m thinking I’ll be in LA for about half the time each month. It’s just that when even when I’m in LA, I’ll be couch surfing.

I don’t plan on renting a new place for at least the next couple of years. I’m going to float from place to place, couch to couch, home to home, writing, working. And since I’ll be crashing at people’s homes even when I’m in LA, I figured I should take the opportunity to see if I can crash with people outside of LA too if possible. I want to meet people around the country that I only know through Facebook! And Tumblr! And Twitter! Invite to your city, home, couch! 

Right now begins what Judy and I have been calling my studio years. Her studio years started last August when she moved to Pittsburgh and started her PhD. I’m not starting any PhD program, but it’s time to focus on my writing. Remember that time I retired from writing poetry and became Jay-Z? Well, it was to get to this stage in my life. I haven’t wanted to just write like this in a long time. So that’s what I’m going to do. 

These are the projects I’ll be working on from now til then end of 2016:

GHOSTMAKERS. I don’t know why I set out to do this project. All I knew was that I wanted to write something and lose it. Why? I’ll find out, I hope. Three remaining dates left. End of July, September, and November. (With a conversation/brunch wrap-up in December.)

THE CITY IS MY BOOK. You know those utility boxes on the corners that are beautifully painted by artists? You see them all over downtown LA and other parts of other cities too. Well, one day I asked Tanner Blackman at Huizar’s office to give me one of those boxes to write something on, instead of painting a mural. He thought about it and decided he wants me to take 8 of the half-sized boxes that are in mid-block, all up and down Spring St and Main St. I’m going to write a book on them, each box a chapter, a scene in four perspectives. There will an accompanying short film made.

THIS PERMANENT SPACE. I’m going to write a short book (about a 100 pages) based on this piece I wrote. I’ve been obsessing over space, both the permanence and abstraction of it, what it holds in and holds out. In the past two years, I’ve also been blown away by relatively short books by Amina Cain (Creature), Janice Lee (Damnation), and Bhanu Kapil (Schizophrene, Ban en Banlieue) and I want to write something of that length. AND WHEN I’M DONE WITH THE MANUSCRIPT: I will try to sell it through Facebook. I have editor, writer, publisher connections on Facebook. They know my work. I want to see if I can sell the manuscript publicly through status and post updates. Zuckerberg wants a lot of shit from me, but a cut of my manuscript isn’t one. So let’s test this out.

THE LIVING BOOK PROJECT. Recently I had my work published on a beautiful book. Meaning – I wrote original text for a new tattoo that Rebecca Lee was getting on her back. This is my second one (the person as book, the tattoo artist as publisher, me as the writer). I’m hoping to do a couple more in the next year and a half. 

THE TAYLOR SWIFT BOOK. These two things are true: 1) I love Taylor Swift’s music. It’s literally the only music I have been listening to on my iPhone for the past however many months; 2) I want to write something that if I was to read it would make me feel the way I do when I listen to her songs. Therefore, I’m going to try. I already have a handshake deal with a publisher to deliver this book by the end of 2016. (Take that, Peter Woods!)

I also want to keep taking photos and hopefully have a photography show at some point during this time.

Like I said, there’s still all the Writ Large Press things that I also will keep working on: books, events, projects. I’ll address them all in a separate post on Cultural Weekly in the coming weeks, but for now, I do want to mention one thing we started planning for AWP16 in Los Angeles.

It’s a PUBLISH! event and we’re calling this one Trojan Horse. Our plan is to building a “trojan horse” that will carry in all the writers in LA who can’t afford to attend AWP. Simply write and declare your name. We will get you in. Don’t ask us how we will accomplish this…yet.

It’s a strange time. Scary. Stressful. Part of it does feel like the end of my time in LA, but it isn’t. Not only will I still be living here, albeit on couches and part time, but stepping out of the city will help me get perspective again, to see what needs to nurtured and what needs to be torched.

But Judeth has always been the change agent in the 12 years we’ve been together. It’s always been Judeth that has made the decisions to force us out of stagnancy and into new, often scary, territory. And when she moved to Pittsburgh to begin her PhD, it forced both of us as a whole, and each of us individually, to look at ourselves, our work, and our desires.

So it begins.

If you have any questions, ask me. If you have a couch or anything else I can sleep on, offer it to me. Your support and love and care will help me through these Studio Years.