On Monday, nothing of note happened.
On Tuesday I saw K, which was nice and me and her watched YouTube after work. She’s very pretty and I had a good time spending time with her. I left around 7:30 because I had to do some schoolwork.
On Wednesday, I had Deaththreads practice. When I first came into our practice space, I was in a rather sour mood and I was tired and I was setting things up but when Dave and Caleb arrived we had a very very good band practice. We have an upcoming show on April 17th that I need to schedule a band practice with Dave and Caleb but I am very very excited. We have a flyer which I’ve posted below, the set will also be recorded and posted as a live album. It’ll be a good fun and non-nerving racking shows:
On Thursday, I did a reading. I have a friend named Erika who writes a blog, and she set up a reading for a couple of WV writers. I have linked her blog here. The other writers were some close friends. One was my friend Chris Oxley, who writes a blog here and my friend Wayne Marais who writes a blog here. The event was hosted at Base Camp Printing which is located in Charleston, WV. K went with me, and we had a very good time. I read two pieces, they were both from the old Telepathic Judas website - One was titled “ Mawmaw Meta” and the other was “Passage for Abie.” These are very sad pieces and there wasn’t much audible noise from the audience - which in writing (I believe is good). I was nervous but it was a welcomed anxiety, I was also aware that I am not the most vocal person (I have my grandma’s shaky voice with an apparent southern draw, akin to the voice of like a cowboy experiencing clinical shock.) so while reading I was just consumed within the page, trying to read in a timely manner and trying to get through the thing. People clapped and it was good. I have pasted a picture of me reading aloud here:
From here, Erika read. She did a very good job and she read a short story about (what I believe) was a mysterious lady whom other not-so mysterious ladies would gossip about. It was a good story and she had a couple of one-liners that made people laugh. The next reader was Wayne Marais (Erika’s Husband) who read various poems about mowing the lawn - Chris Oxley compared the poems to Walden and I compared the poems to Theodore Kaczynski (ironically). Wayne physically shook whilst reading, which I found to be rather profound. Whether or not Wayne was actually shaking may just be projection from my own nerves - but the 4 of us writers are musicians - and there was something a lot more profound about the sort of nerves that stem from just reading words from a page in contrast to a live show setting. This all can (and will shortly) get very pretentious very quickly, but songs and more prose-adjacent forms of writing occupy a lot of the same realms of expression - however there is something much more vulnerable within (what is essentially) reading your own organized and/or vetted thoughts.
Chris Oxley read an essay about April 14th and it was very in depth and it was my favorite from the night. Chris seemed a little nervous at first - but a lot of people found his essay appropriately funny which allowed him to get more comfortable with the audience. The article was about the date, April 14th and its cultural significance with specific emphasis on music. My parents told me they were getting a divorce on April 14th, 2017.
From here all 4 of us had a little discussion panel from which Erika had prepared some questions and then a couple audience questions. I am 23 and am also rather dumb, but hopefully I didn’t have too stupid answers. I quoted DFW a handful of times which I’m sure came off as annoying. One of the audience questions was “what are you reading right now,” which I had to hang my head down and admit to relistening to the Infinite Jest audiobook alongside this Kierkegaard Anthology, which also may have came off as pretentious. I’m not too worried though because I think DFW and Kierkegaard’s writing are the most interesting to me, and that’s what matters, but I also mentioned listening to the same creepypastas I was listening to 10 years ago. I think the audience thought I was joking, which I replied to by essentially parroting Alan Moore’s advice about reading bad books but I should’ve articulated that there are good Creepypastas (Anasi’s Goatman Story, The Dionaea House, No Reserve I Just want it Gone, A Slight Misunderstanding, Ben Drowned, □□□□□.anima, Room Zero, etc. etc.) alongside emphasizing a lot of the music/stories are nostalgic for various narrator’s background music alongside the stories themselves. I did not articulate this though, L'esprit de l'escalier. Overall, we all had a good time and I got to meet some new friends and K got to meet all my artsy friends. I got home at about 11 PM.
On Friday I worked until 1:30 PM, from here I came home and I had a sleep deprivation headache. I had decided this week to connect a guitar output jack to a toy piano. I will spare you the details because they are boring, but I did this and the piano worked and it was cool. The goal is to run this piano through multiple guitar pedals and all that jazz. I’ve attached a picture of this piano here:
On Saturday, I woke up and drank coffee. I went to my dad’s around 11 AM and I cried while listening to Old Friends by Pinegrove and it was the first time I had felt tears running down my face in a while (a la Hal Incandeza with the DMZ and/or Mold and/or The Entertainment) He made tacos while I worked on my piano (replacing wires, drilling holes in the plastic, etc.) After I left my dad’s I went to Erik’s house and me and him worked on music. Me and him got two scratch tracks done and then we tested out my guitar I built and my modded toy piano. I then went to K’s and me and her went to this very nice art class her mom was hosting and it was a good time. Me and K got Chili’s and then we went home and I went to bed. It was a very good day and I love her (K).
On Sunday I drove K to work and then I went home. I went to church and I really did try to pray to something I don’t have a grasp on (a la AA, NA, Ennet House, Don Gately, etc.). It was good and I was glad to see my grandma as well. From here I came home and I was feeling an oncoming sleep deprivation headache and then I went to Silverdale to work on some music with Seth.
Me and Seth meditated for 20 minutes and I missed laying down and pretending to meditate for 20 minutes (usually trying to meditate, then think about something, then think about nothing but not meditate) on the BAC carpeted wheelchair ramp. Me and Seth recorded some music and then he tested out my new guitar and my modded piano and then I went home.
I went home and I played Minecraft on my laptop. It was a good time, but I really do need some sleep. I hope this week is good. Goodbye.