shameless promotional plug...

I'll be reading portions from my short story collection...previewing new work...and making a special announcement...

338...

let's pause my self-serving navel gazing for a moment...

my friends Shannon and Gary have opened a book store...God bless 'em...and i'm happy to report it's a wonderful place to catch up on your bibliophilia...and spend your allowance on books...please, do enjoy...

my friend Andy is livecasting...

Andy Ard and Eric Shively are playing a house show tonight...and guess what...they're live casting it...who knew???

catch it here: (or go to http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-supafly-bungalow)


Online video chat by Ustream

7pm Mountain, 9pm Eastern, 6pm pacific...central, you can do the math...

muxtape ain't got nothin on this...

Eric Shiveley...filmmaker and winner of the best composer award from the Jackson Hole Film Festival...has his award winning soundtrack available on Fuzz.com...

wha???...I know...I never heard of it either...so I did some digging and found out you can make cool mixtapes...at least a reasonable digital facsimile...and then embed them on your blog...great...another new toy...here ya go...



I read the fine print...these will only stay up for 15 days...so...enjoy it while it lasts...

everyone but you...and me...

just like anywhere else...denver has it's share of hipsters, wannabes and bullshit artists...fortunately, there are people here that...do the work...hello...last weekend I got a chance to meet one such local hero...Eric Shiveley...and see his latest work...everyone but you...which is about...doing the work...no matter what...it is an excellent primer for any wretched soul who thinks they want to make a living creating...stuff...Eric and I traded emails tonight about his film...

is there any distinction between your work as a musician and your work as a filmmaker...

It's pretty much the same. You do things in little pieces, then put it all together and find out you're a poor planner. So you adjust it all until it works. With songs you try to build a song around a couple pretty moments, and with movies I always heard you have your pivotal scenes, and 90% of the work is spacing those out and not boring the audience between them.

With songs, the music is the canvas, and you drop in whatever words feel natural. When I made the movie I wrote a ton of narrative, then threw out most of it once I dropped in the pretty scenery and let that tell the story.

you choose some pretty scenery...that's got to be my favorite part of the state...

Thanks. If you live here, all you have to do is wait and have a camera.

is solitude an important part of your creative process...

I hate working alone. There's nothing fun about it, except feeling like you accomplished something by yourself. I'd guess most painters or writers do work alone. Maybe some people enjoy the process. I don't like any part of it except being done and playing Xbox.

the press likes to refer to you as eric shiveley...struggling artist...are you tired of that yet?

The movie pretty much shows a "struggling artist" I guess, and that's the joke I make about myself all through it, so as long as I'm getting press I won't complain.

But I hoped some people would see the movie and say, "Wow, great movie, too bad the guy's a nobody and he'll never get anywhere," without realizing it's the music and writing of this nobody driving the whole thing.

And the movie shows I haven't even launched my music into the universe yet, so I really shouldn't have gotten anywhere yet. My goal was to wait until I hopefully have an absolute knockout of an album together. That's coming right after I finish this game of Half-Life2. And this ice cream.

what flavor...and...a motif throughout your movie is a set of rules...rule#1 is...have a plan...what's the plan for you and EBY?

French Vanilla (it went on the apple pie I just finished).

The end of my plan was to get the movie in one really good festival. Jackson Hole is about as good as you can hope for if you're a nobody with a two hour movie. Throw in the fact it was made with a cheap camcorder and the chances of getting in are about 0.14%

But there's this mesmerizing hippie chick singer down here in the valley named Katey Sleeveless. My next work is doing a video for her. We're going to film her goats and cows and chickens.



excellent...good luck with that...just one last question...one of my favorite parts of your film is when you rip into denver's hipster culture...are there any deserving names you forgot to mention?

Oh man I can't touch that. Of the people who are sent to an ugly brown death -- their effigies anyway -- I was actually very careful to pick people I'd have no problem facing in person for what they're said or done. Nick from DeVotchKa actually talked me into removing a joke about Conor Oberst. Because Nick has met him and says he's very genuine and nice. The stuff I left in are people who sell themselves as huge supporters of independents, but who really don't care about anything but their bottom line. Or who shouldn't be giving advice to anyone on how to get better.

But okay, anyone at 1190 who passed over my last album can suck my balls. They never gave it a single spin in their open programming time, and it stomped the living shit out of most of the local stuff they were playing at the time. Okay that actually felt pretty good.

a confession...an inspiration...

i have never read norman mailer...on it's face, not such an egregious crime...as a matter of fact...some might consider it a blessing...

what with all the promotion his new book book is getting...and how he's being lauded as...the last of the tough guy writers...

given who i am...and what i claim to be...you'd think it would be a cardinal sin to miss out on one of the writers rooted in the same family tree as...papa hemingway...hank...and the good dr...

well...i still don't feel like i'm missing out on anything...then i come across these words...

"If we think of a world without novels—which is coming to pass—then existence will become more technological, and more filled with all the handmaidens of technology."

and i re-think my assertion...so...in an act of complete futility...let's add another book to the mountain of reading i've assigned myself this year...this one will do...



we'll see...

speaking of being moved by the words of others...when i read these sentences...

"Some images are so horrifying that they worm themselves into your brain and lodge there forever, no matter how hard you work to expel them. You have to walk your conscious thoughts carefully around these images because they can hurl you into madness."

i was forced to consider the truth of the first part...and whether or not i considered the second part to be...wisdom or foolishness...and how much i would love to explore these ideas in a story...

two books i left off my reading list for the year...

one because i've already read it, but i want to reread it for the 50th anniversary...


the other is because i finished it the day i made the list...


it's shoun's new book...and it's a mindfuck supreme...i hear tell, he wrote the entire thing on nicotine, gin and speed...or was it smack...

i lied a little bit there...just a little...

i highly recommend this one...it's for the kids...you know...

anyway...

i'll be reading parts of shoun's book in two weeks...along with a fine cast of others...here's a flyer

see ya there...