Day 2 maybe Day 1 depends if the pool party is just a prologue. Like I said in the last post I was trying not to take things so serious so I missed stuff but just relaxed when liberally walked into and watched bands on my schedule.
You’ll see it wasn’t an intense Friday for me. I got their late and I was pretty much front and center for only Weedeater and for some of High on Fire.
TINARWEN
I didn’t come to this day until 6pm to catch Tinarwen’s set and even then I got about four or five songs in. This was one of the cool curveballs along the lines of Dengue Fever at the pool. I have an album from these guys and haven’t really followed them since but being able to see them live was big for me and I’m excited it happened.
WEEDEATER
Hey this was Venom Inc’s spot but Weedeater filled in last minute. They are just a great time and anytime I’m able to watch Dixie Dave and company play I will. I’m glad they filled in for Venom Inc, they probably fit better in the pool setting.
HIGH ON FIRE
In a lot of ways Psycho is the Matt Pike show. Maybe they’ll get a Scum Angel/Kalas reunion or something next year. High On Fire sounded great I admittedly haven’t been a close follower of the band since their first album. There is no good reason for that because I like the band a ton.
INTEGRITY
I stay for about half of Integrity’s set, not because it wasn’t awesome but because I was tired and I was trying not to take all this so seriously.
WHAT I MISSED
Homewrecker was a band I would have liked to see under the right circumstances.
Night Horse played a great set according to all my friends. I wish I got on that but man were they on early. Definitely on my watchlist now that they’re back together
Yakuza, Wolvhammer, Church of Misery
I feel like crap typing this and saying I missed those bands.
Psycho kicks off with a Thursday pool party. It’s that terrible mix of “hey it’s starting I want to be there” and “holy shit maybe I should skip it because I’m about to do four days of this”
I wasn’t so serious this year for the fest, so that means I missed some stuff I’d normally really want to see but here’s a summary for what I did get around to at the pool party
DENGUE FEVER
This was a great way to start the weekend. Psycho always throws some fun curve balls in the mix and Dengue Fever was one of them. A psychedelic pop band with a Cambodian female lead singer who as far as I can tell is singing in Cambodian.
Well they live in LA according to wikipedia but it was a fun band to start the weekend with
ELDER
Before the real sludgy stuff started and before the black metal started I got Elder and heavy proggy band I’ve been on and off following for a year. The set was so good I thought I might have heard set of the weekend right there. Even as I write this it’s pretty close.
BELL WITCH
I’m all about these guys and love Mirror Reaper but I would have like some real riffage in between all the distortion and noise. I like distortion and noise but live it didn’t feel like we went anywhere.
WHAT I MISSED
Wolves in the Throne Room was a must see for me even though I saw them last year and will see them with Behemoth. But then they became a not must see when I left to go home after Bell Witch. I missed my son, what can I say?
TOKE and HAUNT were both bands for whom I wanted to see their sets but I’m trying to pace myself man.
There’s a lot to write about but not a lot to write about. I don’t mean here, this I guess is meant to be a ramble. I mean on the notpartofyourscene and chaoticsports and the other finance based sites I own. Plus the half assed novel idea I have. The problem is in getting started, which I guess is that this ten finger stretch is also for.
I have been listening to a ton of grindcore lately. A lot of old stuff, new stuff, punk stuff that influenced early bands ( like Discharge). It’s been good but has been a lot of it. I’ve been adding tech death albums and a bit of hip hop in between stuff like Nasum, Pig Destroyer and early Napalm Death.
There’s still a lot to do on the podcast and also design for all the websites. I plan on adding video soon too. Something is off on the podcast, perhaps it’s buy in from Angelo even though he wouldn’t admit that. I think I’ll keep him as a wild card and put it on myself to come in far more prepared. But really lately all I want to talk about are combat sports and baseball (NBA too but I haven’t watched much lately so that the playoffs feel more exciting).
For the Propaganda podcast I want to start doing more reviews of books, comics, tv movies and music. But I’m annoyed by what it means to review, as anyone who’s talked to me knows, I get really annoyed by the “liked it didn’t like it” my goal is for after a review for the listener to not really know whether I liked it or not. .That doesn’t really happen, you can tell especially if I’m getting deep into why some topic or theme is meaningful to me, but it’s something I strive for.
Reading Notes #7 Octopuses, Witchers, Angela Duckworth and Deliberate Practice and Famine
Completed a lot since I last wrote one of these. I’ve been good with always reading something between 10-20 pages in the morning after I get up before I do anything else.And listening I do a lot of in the evenings while giving the dogs an hour walk around the park. So those have been good habits for what I consider positive input. Output I still have to figure out a good set of habits. Writing comes hard but I’m committed to figuring that out.
I have finished two graphic novels so far as I can remember since I last updated this. Han Solo by Marjorie Liu, whose The Monstress is what I should be reading, and East of West by Jonathan Hickman. Han Solo was a fine story but it was a fine self contained story that really didn’t much for the Saga, which is common for the Star Wars comic books. Although when the Star Wars comics do add something to the saga somehow, someway they are at their best. That’s a tough way to write, to make some kind of relevant addition but also contain yourself within the overall plot structure of episodes four and five.
Liu was unable to wonderfully additive.She was only able to be sufficiently additive. Sufficiently additive in this context means the story was very good and very well written but not so great that it’s something that should be read by all who love Star Wars but don’t read the comics (i guess Gillen’s Darth Vader run would qualify as this).
East of West by Jonathan Hickman was dark and funny and weird and gets a lot credit for doing something special and imaginative in the narrative art style that can really only be done as narrative art. Both people who read and don’t read comics don’t realize that as a medium certain stories cannot exist as film or prose or even audio play (even though comics feel like storyboards treated as final drafts). The fantasy element reigns supreme in East of West as a film there would be far too much explaining needed and background. Yet as a comic the four horsemen of the apocalypse just walking around about their business works.
I finished Baby Teeth by Donnie Cates a horror comic. It is good so far but feels like it’s just getting started.
From a prose perspective I got done with two audiobooks and one paper book. I am still working the 60 page novella set in the Expanse universe.
The books Grit by Angelo Duckworth is basically my manifesto. I will be getting that book in print and reading from it the rest of my life and reading anything she writes and following her research until the end of my life.
The Last Wish is a Witcher story. Something I started while living in Poland and quite immediately because the first two volumes of short stories hadn’t been published in 2007 or 2008. I listened to the first set and I’ll probably listen to the second set of short stories. And then the third volume (which is the first full novel) I have laying around somewhere in my office and will read that. The collection is very episodic so it’s more a novel because all the short stories tie together. So I’d rather call it an episodic novel I suppose.
Last but not least from my pile of read books is Other Minds. The vegan lifestyle has lead me to be extremely interested in biology books and Other Minds was part anatomy book, part evolutionary, biology book, part travel journal and part philosophy book. Which all philosophy books should be, not just a mess of obnoxious tedious logic (I’m talking to you Daniel Dennett). It was a beautiful.
Being read right now is Locke and Key a comicbook and the second volume of East of West and also God Country by the same writer as Baby Teeth above. I have also started I book I’m excited to finish called Inside of a Dog another animal book that I am listening to. I reading and nearly finished with Daily Rituals a book that just chronicles the daily rituals of famous artists and scientists and will be starting a book nominated for one of the translation awards called Angel of Oblivion Maja Haderlap tonight.
List of pages read are below the break.
Prose/Audio total: 3043 pages
Comic total: 1166 pages
***
Prose: Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith 272
Audio: The Last Wish by Andzej Sapkowski 352
Audio: Grit by Angela Duckworth 353
Audio: Phenomenon by Rick Ankiel 304
Audio: Star Wars Dark Disciple 400
Prose Throwback Special 224
Prose Star With Why 230
Prose Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Audio Railsea 448
****
Comic: East of West by Jonathan Hickman 96
Comic: Han Solo by Marjorie Liu 120
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
Just finished my first sports book in a long time, I think the format works for audio, it allows me to read something light and because it’s light I can listen to it at 2x or 2.5x speed. The book’s story was interesting, the yips, just the idea behind it and that it could actually exist is amazing. It was a basic ghost written biography and it was read by Ankiel himself, apparently not well but I didn’t notice any issues with it.
I have a lot of things running at the same time right now. I am reading a book called Other Minds which is somewhere beat a travel, philosophy and biology book. I started listening to a book called Grit that I got for free on my audible account but a conversation at work made start the first Witcher series which I rented from the library on Overdrive. I’m also reading a kindle novella from the Expanse series which is only 70 pages but I just don’t pick up. I am trying to read that with the word runner option on the kindle app. I’ll talk more about that when I finish this book.
Comics.... nothing really.
Prose/Audio total: 2066 pages
Comic total: 940 pages
Audio: Phenomenon by Rick Ankiel 304
Audio: Star Wars Dark Disciple 400
Prose Throwback Special 224
Prose Star With Why 230
Prose Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Audio Railsea 448
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
Reading Notes #5 “Throwback Special” and “Star Wars Dark Disciple”
I feel like I’m forgetting to add something but oh well. Haven’t updated for a minute but I finished reading Throwback Special and listening to Dark Disciple.
I’ve fallen into line with the kind of book I will be listening to going forward. Anything kind of pulp, Star Wars type fiction is now fair game because I’m going to listen to it at 2x or 2.5x and not worry so much about every single word. I’m currently trying out a sports biography by Rick Ankiel at 2x speed to see how that works out.
Dark Disciple turned out to be really good with a few corny love moments that could have been glossed over easily if the story was a Clone Wars tv episode rather than a book. But despite that the book was great, I want to spoil it but I won’t. Very important for the lore and a must read if you were a clone wars fan.
Throwback Special is the kind of book that I would prefer not listening to. For one it’s short so it would be a waste of money to buy the book and secondly it’s a little more brainy, maybe brainy isn’t the word, but it’s not necessarily a narrative, I liked it, but I understand why so many people did not. I think he’s spot on with some of his observations of the underlying thoughts, emotions and rituals human’s play, but to a lot of readers that is apparently tedious.
On the comic book front, I’m not reading anything right now. I have the new Saga trade just waiting on my desk and the newest Monstress trade. I’ll get around to those eventually.
Prose total: 1762 pages
Comic total: 940 pages
Star Wars Dark Disciple 400
Prose Throwback Special 224
Prose Star With Why 230
Prose Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Prose Railsea 448
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
Finished Railsea, pretty good overall, I think I plan listen to the pulp type stuff on double speed and read the literature and higher brow scifi. I started Star Wars: Dark Disciple on audio. I am still working on the Throwback Special and haven’t even started the Gods of Risk novella.
Prose total: 1138
Comic total: 940
Prose Star With Why 230
Prose Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Prose Railsea 448
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
Finished Start With Why. It sort of meanders, was not a big fan although the message was great for a leadership book. Started up some fiction The Throwback Special. We’ll see what happens there seems good so far. I am also reading the novella Gods of Risk in the Expanse series and listening to Railsea a strange train based version of Moby Dick.
Prose total: 690
Comic total: 812
Prose Star With Why 230
Prose Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
Finshed a manga I’d started a while back. I’m in the middle of Start with Why and not loving it although I am getting something out of it. Can’t wait to start something else I’m only a bit away from finishing it.
Novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
2018 is here and 2017 is in the past. The correct attitude is “just read” but I’m not the sort. I have a book goal on goodreads but reading graphic novels and individual comics skews it one way and the fact that novels can be small or large skews my mind another way. I admit to sometimes looks at the size of a book in order to meet some irrelevant goal of total books read.
That’s just not going to change despite the correct attitude being “just read” So I have to adapt. I’ll keep page counts here as best I can for these reading reading notes. I will keep page counts of novels and of graphic novels comics separately. This also helps with things I re-read which I do with comics often. There’s no way to count a second read on goodreads so I’ll do that here.
Just because it’s easier I’m going to count the book I just finished as a book I read in 2018 even though I started it in early December.
Novel Snow Falling on Cedars by David Gutterson 460 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 1 by Brian K Vaughan 144 pages
Comic Paper Girls Volume 2 by Brian K Vaughan 128 pages
I’ve started writing some stuff on vocal.media where instead of reviewing individual issues of comics I basically use them as writing prompts to cover some subject, topic or theme they inspire me to write. To be honest I don’t like reviews a whole lot although I read them occasionally and within these short essays there is some thread of a review of the issue I’m basing the writing on. I call one Darth Vader issue filler for example.
This allows me some freedom to just talk about the Star Wars canon if I’m using a Star Wars comic as a prompt or just talk about art, writing or whatever other theme pops us without completely letting go of the idea of reviewing the issue.
I’ve also done a couple over at medium.com but I think I’ll be transferring what I do to vocal.media. We’ll see how this goes, this little write ups really get me typing, writing, thinking, composing so I don’t see them stopping unless I get especially busy.
Good local openers tonight at dive bar. It's nice to see the scene have some measure of strength and talent. 3 bands opened for us bombs and Reagan youth tonight and all three had unique personalities. The best was local mainstay dirk vermin. This was the first time i was able to see them play. Beautiful to see real lead guitarist solo in a punk band.
*What I’m Watching*
Ozark is on everyone’s lips currently. At least the ones that don’t have Game of Thrones on them.
The bad is that it’s yet another white collar dude gets caught up in the criminal world.
The good is the setting is strange. The Ozarks are beautiful and some of the shots of the lake and forest make me jealous that people get to live there and I don’t.
The show also does a very good job with creating a constant sense of tension and although from the top down the premise isn’t all that original the characters and the conflicts they deal with are very intriguing through the first 5 episodes.
I am waiting for the show to either surprise me or really set itself apart in some way.
**What I’m Reading**
I just finished a bit of a graphic novel run reading Jason Aaron’s initial Dr. Strange run, Briggs Land by Brian Wood and then for the trip I’m on I have Phonograph by Kieron Gillen and The Tourist by Brian Wood.
Briggs Land has been great so far and has a lot of potential for intrigue going forward with the whole secessionist thread and all the possible plotlines that could come from the characters as they’ve been set up.
There is a white supremacist oldest son, his wife who believes in patriarchy, another son who fought in the American military and another handful of characters worth reading. The first limited series was 6 issues and the next arc just started.
Dr. Strange on the other hand was a bit disappointing. I don’t normally seek out super hero books but when I love the author out makes want to check out what they’ve done inn that more traditional comic book context and even how they write given the obvious limits that come with writing for Marvel or DC.
Jason Aaron might be my favorite comic writer right now. His work on the Star Wars comic and his own Southern Bastards are some of my favorite work of the last decade. This Dr Strange book however felt like never ending exposition with some weird anecdotes sprinkled through.
The premise was great, but I read about the danger coming for 6 issues it never really did so it felt like a waste of money. I’m sure the next part will be worth my time.
***What I’m Doing***
I am on a plane headed to Glacier National Park as I write this. I’ve done a lot of traveling this year (at least for me) and the national park visits are my favorites. For one, they are cheaper as vacations
****What I’m Listening to****
I am still on a doom metal kick. This is mostly due to the Psycho Las Vegas tour this year and the handful of bands playing that I needed to familiarize myself with. Other than those bands I have Rancid, Dropkick Murphy's, Run the Jewels, Nas all in rotation since they're all coming through Vegas soon.
Creating Great Characters, Putting Them in Room and Seeing What Happens
Kieron Gillen writing does the title of this post. He creates great characters, he allows circumstance or the characters’ own motivations to mix together and then just sees what happens.
His notes for the Darth Vader 25 issues run prove as much. He claims quite often that he wishes a character he made up could have survived. Alas, they were in a room with Darth Vader.
From reading his newsletter and other things it sounds like he’s using various character creation sections from table top RPGs. Which is as good as anything to work through some details and motivations for original creations.
So there are going to be spoilers here so if you haven’t read The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson and plan to you shouldn’t read this.
I have about a hundred pages left of this novel and it took me by surprise. I never read summaries and rarely know what the books I’m reading are about unless they’re sequels. I have method for choosing books that are based on recommendations and past award nominations. The Orphan Master’s Son popped on one of those lists because it won a Pulitzer Prize.
North Korea is a very ambitious place to set your literary work. Now that I’m through a large portion of the book I can’t imagine how much of the day to day life of a North Korean is based on fact. I’m not sure how much information has actually gotten out and how much Adam Johnson could have based on fact.
Again this is a book I went into naked. I haven’t read reviews, the back summary and since this is the first book I’ve picked up by Adam Johnson I don’t know anything about him. He might have lived in South Korea for decades, there is a readers guide in the back of my copy that I will go through with eagerness once I get to the end of his novel and it will shed a lot of light and his intentions and influences.
I did inadvertently read one blurb today on the back of the book. It said:
“Imagine Charles Dickens paying a visit to Pyongyang, and you see the canvas on which Johnson is painting here.”
That’s a lofty quote, I’m sure Adam Johnson is honored at the Dickens comparison. One problem with its logic is that I’m not sure Adam Johnson visited Pyongyang (I could be wrong, I refuse to go find out until I finish the novel) and even if he did, some of the magic of Dickens was because he was describing his time and his city. Adam Johnson is still an outsider looking in and that is a different perspective. That doesn’t make it good or bad and it doesn’t make Dickens work or his more or less relevant but it is a different perspective. Although both authors paint beautiful heart wrenching pictures of the countries in their novels outside looking in and inside looking around change the way a reader should take in the novel.
The second thought I wanted to put to paper (errr blog) was that although his version of North Korea feels real his main character, the Orphan Master’s Son, goes on a fantastic journey that doesn’t feel real at all. There’s no magical realism and it’s not science fiction or anything close speculative fiction, it’s just that there’s no way that what happens could happen in North Korea, either that or I need to really take a closer look into how that regime works.
How many North Koreans visit South Korea, Japan and Texas, get out of a prison camp and become a general? It really has been quite the journey for the Orphan Master’s Son. Of course I keep in mind this is a literary work, it’s not a real account, but it’s Adam Johnson’s fault for making it all feel so real.
I have a little more to read and then maybe I’ll have some background to set the thoughts above on and we can see how they color my views.
I read an article in DJ Booth about whether musicians should release a lot of music or whether they should cause a drought. The article was in the context of hip hop and pretty much assumed quality was static.
It’s a good question in the context of the other arts and also of news and opinion. If you’re getting yourself out there with something new-daily, weekly or even monthly that puts you in the now. It gets you in the news.
I’m afraid with songs and films over saturation might be an issue since people only have so much time. Nonetheless creators need to stay present with how they connect, that could be a newsletter like Warren Ellis puts out or like Neil Gaiman’s long running blog.
This is one reason why I question (but not necessarily disagree) with the Netflix strategy to release all episodes of a television season at once. Game of Thrones has punch, it’s a punch that is felt over the two or three months that the show is releasing new episodes, where Daredevil and House of Cards on Netfilx feels like a deluge I survived but have now forgotten about.
For what I do and what I want to do, I think the strategy will be to get a lot out, as much as possible but not wait to flood unless I decide to write a novel and that’s the context. Writing, like this blog has to come out consistently, to show I am thinking and considering the world around me and the things that interest me. Whenever I plan through and decide on my fiction/serial idea I need to stay consistent with a schedule that’s either every two weeks or every month, this way the idea is ever present and the advertising is the actual release of the content.
More soon on degree of frequency, I’m not done parsing through these ideas quite yet.
