Announcing Unrelenting

Unrelenting is out!

Today I’m excited to share the release of my first album, Unrelenting. It’s available via Bandcamp with streaming and CDs to come in the next few weeks! I could not be more happy with how it turned out. Click the picture to go stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Presenting My Dissertation

It occurred to me in a random moment today that I never shared a link to view my dissertation! I finished this paper late last year and haven’t really touched it much since, but I’m doing a lot of the continuation of this work by recording La Guitarra Negra and a few other things.

Here’s a link to view it on from the UGA Library: A Performance Guide and Pedagogical Analysis to the Solo Guitar Works of Two Black Women Composers: Errollyn Wallen and Tania León

Languishing in Languages

I have a confession to make. I have what is called polyitis. Polyitis is a condition in which one wishes to become a polyglot. A polyglot is someone who wishes to learn and be literate in more than one language. For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by languages. Though I have been writing about my polyglot pursuits for some time on this blog, it was only until recently that I’ve made any progress worthy of note.

Ultimately about a month ago I woke up and decided that I would either need to start studying or start studying. Those were my only options and so I’ve started studying. I see language learning and my polyglot pursuits as a professional hobby. It is professional implications in that I hope to be able to converse at a high level about music in each of the languages that I hope to learn. It is a hobby in that it is fun and I am trying not to take myself too seriously just yet.

This past month has been a lot of fun. I’ve starting actually using all of the apps and books that I have purchased. Also, I’ve taken a few lessons with language teachers. The lessons have probably been the biggest motivator and helped with accountability. For a while I felt like I was cheating because I wanted to have a language teacher and take formal classes, but I’ve decided that that is how I learn best and so I will use that to my advantage.

The difficult part is figuring out how to study two languages at once when neither of them are at an intermediate level. I am what I consider a ‘false beginner’ in Spanish. I have studied it previously at an in-depth level, but have lost much of that knowledge and language that I acquired. As a result, I can write in complete paragraphs, but not make my way through the alphabet. Memory is strange. My current plan of action is to spend a bit more time focusing on Spanish to prepare for the DELE exam and slowing work in other one.

I realize there is no way to study 9 or 10 languages at the same time and make a lot of progress unless you don’t do other things. I have many interests and do lots of other things so it might take me longer to reach my goals, but that is okay. As long as my progress is sustainable, I’m good with that.

Another Post about Posting

I’ve been thinking a lot about writing every day AND posting here. The obvious answer is yes, I should do both of those things. Over the past few years I’ve done quite a few challenges where I’ve posted daily and I think that is been incredibly helpful for me in terms of my comfortability with writing and sharing. I really like those time, but is it sustainable? The answer is no, it is not sustainable, but that does not mean I should not try.

Earlier this year I set out to post here 150 times and I’m so far off of that goal that I’m not sure I could make it up, but I should at least continue to try.

I read a lot of blogs, no surprises there, and one of my favorite bloggers Jamie Todd Rubin has posted to his blog for a whopping 509 straight days. He announced today that he would be posting less in favor of his other writing projects. I’m not sure if I will make it 500 straight days, but I think I can make it more than 30 or 60 even.

It’s strange that I have no shortage of ideas of things to write about, but often convince myself that I should not write. Some of this is a time issue. I have many jobs that I enjoy and spend time doing, but I see writing is a job of sorts so I am going to add this particular writing project to the queue of jobs and see where it goes…again.

Announcing Marginal Glitch Records, My New Record Label

TLDR: I started a record label and the first release will feature some of my awesome guitar friends and colleagues. Pre-orders will be up this week Bandcamp which you can find here.

If you haven’t already noticed, I am a person who likes to do to things. For many, many years I have wanted to do something that would benefit myself as a recording artist, but others so along time ago I decided that I would one day start a record label. Record labels, and for good reasons, often receive a bad reputation from the artist community for their often predatory and abusive practices and treatment of artists. This and the spirit of do-it-yourself culture has made it so that artist do not have to depend on a record label to have a viable and sustainable career. Yet, it is still difficult to create a career when you are doing it all yourself and small, independent labels continue to be a critical resource for many. Independent labels help you do it yourself, but better.

I wanted to start a label, in short, to be helpful and build community. Much of what I do and believe in revolves around community. I think there is great power and strength in being a part of a community and creating a group of artists who believe in and wish to support each other’s music. This is where starting the label comes into play. I envision the label as being an outlet for many artists and myself to create some cool music and do it because other people support it.

So the name of my brand new record label is Marginal Glitch Records.

Why the name Marginal Glitch Records? Well, it sounds cool. Our mission and vision is to produce music that creates a glitch in the margins. This means that we will support music that is a weird, gnarly, adventurous, and create a space for those who have not been supported by other labels which is often a result of marginalization of some sort.

In case you were wondering, yes, we aim to be a profitable endeavor because artists deserve to and will be paid as a result of working with the label. Making art costs money and should be compensated appropriately so that is what we will do. We’re going to do a few things differently including supporting artists who release music across labels or independently, commissioning projects, working in various phases of production, etc.

To sum it all up, this is terrifying and exciting. Definitely more terrifying than exciting. It’s funny to think back to how this was a dream I’ve had since I was a teenager, I was a weird teenager clearly, and seeing it come to life all these years later. I’m not really sure what the future or journey looks like exactly, but I believe in this work and am just going to follow that.

If you are interested in releasing music with us, please get in touch.

More to come!

Getting Into A Groove

Time is weird. On an almost daily basis I think about how much I want to write and post something here, but then something happens and I just don’t get to it. It seems that since finishing school, I’ll stop mentioning that when it feels relevant, that my free time has been filled up with other things. I don’t think this is bad as I like to keep occupied, but that does mean that some things just don’t happen as quickly or on the unrealistic timeframe that I think it should.

Regardless I’m here now writing and posting and that is ultimately what matters.

These past few months has been great and full of some cool stuff. Here are some thoughts and things I’ve been up to.

  • I recently co-authored an essay about recorded music called Who Cares How You Listen? – Thoughts on Our Relationship with Recordings

  • My solo podcast is still going strong! I’m trying to move the schedule to weekly instead of fortnightly. I’ve only missed once so far, but am still giving myself some flexibly as I continue to figure out my schedule. I’ll announce when it’s officially weekly soon.

  • I played at the South by Southwest Music Festival in March!! (SXSW) This was such a cool experience. I filmed some of it for a vlog that I’m going to publish soon.

Speaking of vlogging, I miss it. It was so much fun to vlog, but I realized that instead of attempting to publish on a schedule I will just publish a video when I have something to share.

  • I started a business. The business is on schedule and will be announced officially in the next month, but just think glitch.

  • I’ve been reading! My Storygraph account is mostly up to date with what I’ve been reading lately.

Speaking of reading, I’m considering writing some book reviews either here and/or on Storygraph. These reviews will mostly be for me as a way to remember the book and to consider my reactions to it based on my life and how it all fits within that context. I don’t want to write reviews for the sake of writing reviews, though it would be nice to get some advanced reader copies which you receive by leaving reviews. Clearly this idea still isn’t fully formed, but I’m moving closer to something.

Ultimately, I’m just trying to find a groove and pace of life that works for me. I’m not quite there yet, but it feels good to have some sense of clarity and to be working on things that I enjoy.

What Now: as of 7 February 2022

I’ve been up to some new things lately and thought that now is the perfect time to make an updated What Now post.

Inspired by everyone else on the internet who runs a blog and does this.

1. Project Glitch- I’ll be sharing more about this when it launches but I’m excited about this! It’s something completely new from what I’ve done in the past.

2. Project Calliope-Apparently I’m starting a lot of new things as of late which is a symptom of being done with school. This project will launch in March. Stay tuned.

3. I’m spending time practicing electric guitar which has been nice. I’m preparing for some upcoming performances.

4. I’m reading and writing various things. I’m pretty much obsessed with these two things at the moment.

This is mostly what is occupying my time. Exciting announcements and things to come in the next few weeks.

What I'm Listening to Wednesday No. 10

Keeping a balanced music listening diet is alway something that I’m striving for. I want to always keep up with new or recently released music but not forsake that for ‘old’ music or music that is not in anyway new, but that could be new to me.

This week I’m sharing The 7th Hand by Immanuel Wilkins. Wilkins came onto my radar in late 2020 after his release Omega. It was an instant favorite and is in my regular rotation of things.

Here’s a some information about The 7th Hand from Blue Note. “The album consists of an hour-long suite comprised of seven movements that strive to bring the quartet closer to complete vesselhood by the end, where the music would be entirely improvised, channeled collectively.” You can totally hear a melody or motif throughout the entire album that is both pleasant to listen to and challenging to understand.

I won’t bore you with any additional details. Just go listen.

What I’m Listening to Wednesday No. 9

I’ve been super excited to bring this series back to you. If you haven’t read this series before this is a series of blog posts called, “What I’m Listening to Wednesday”. I started this series initially last year as a way to talk about music, because I love doing that and as a way to have something to published on this blog on the alternating weeks were I don’t share a new episode of the Musically Cogitating Podcast. Though it has taken me a few extra weeks, my plan moving forward is to do this post every Wednesday.

If you remember, some of those posts included multiple things that I was listening to at the time. One post had around 5 things. Since this series will be weekly now, I’ll probably share one or two things as highlights of what I’ve been enjoying over that week.

This week I’ve been listening to Yasuke by Flying Lotus. I’ve always wanted to be a fan of Flying Lotus, but for whatever reason I totally resisted. Well, I’ve taken the plunge and am now a raging fan. I’m such a fan that I’m slowly collecting all of Flying Lotus’ vinyl. Anyways, this album is great. It’s the music for a 6-part tv series on Netflix that I’m hoping to watch. I’m not typically a person who listens to soundtracks, of any kind, but the recent release of The Matrix soundtracks alongside this one has me interested.

Regardless of your feelings towards soundtracks or electronic music broadly, I highly recommend listening to this album. It’s very easy to listen to when doing something, but when not doing anything either!

I’ll share a playlist of all the music in this series sometime soon.

What are you listening to this Wednesday?

Podcast Episode on Getting a Doctorate

As of today it has been just over 5 weeks since I graduate from school. I spent a total of ten and a half years in school working towards this single goal. I have thoughts and will continue to have many of them I’m sure. I wanted though to capture how I’m feeling right now so I decided to do a podcast episode on it. Most of my academic focused writing and thoughts will be in my research diaries series that I’ll be resurrecting very soon, but this episode is a good overview on what it actually means to pursue a terminal degree in the arts.

Don’t Start a Book Before Bed

I’ve been in the habit of reading before falling asleep at night. It’s been a great thing and I very much enjoy it. I started doing this semi-regularly about two years ago and although I fall off the habit sometimes, it is a habit that I cannot recommend enough if you enjoy reading.

That said.

I often finish books during these late night hours and want to start a new book because I’m not usually tired enough to sleep. I recently discovered something though. I discovered that this is the worst possible time to want to start a new book. Something about starting a new book immediately after finishing another one while it’s pitch black outside just doesn’t work. It’s like my mind and eyes just can’t handle it. I’m sure there is a reason for this, but I came here to tell you that if you are like me and finish books late into the night, just go to bed. Starting a book with a fresh set of eyes and a new mind makes a world of difference.

I'm Using Storygraph

*Hint hint* I’m working on an entirely new podcast all about books. I’ll share more on that as we get closer to launching, but I’ve started to sign up for Storygraph. Storygraph is very similar to Goodreads and mirrors a lot of the features there, but it’s biggest selling point is that it is not Amazon. And sure, a lot of us have come to rely on Amazon has it has become nearly impossible to purchase some products otherwise. Our reliance on them does not mean that we have to use them for everything. Plus, Storygraph just looks better. So if you want to keep up with what I’m reading in between podcast episodes and the forthcoming stack of reviews that I’m writing, follow me there!

Sharing My To Be Listened List (TBL)

I’m quickly picking up listening to music as a hobby. By as a hobby I mean that I am becoming a person who just sits in a dark room and listens to music. I’m not listening while writing, working, or reading. My only possible distraction is Oli, my 4 year old orange cat. Focusing and listening to music in this way allows me to connect with the music in a different way, one that I find better. I have started to curate a to be listened to list. (TBL) This is a rotating list of songs that I maintain and listen to. Once I’m done listening to the songs, I file them away in my system. Keeping a TBL helps me to make sure that I’m listening to all the things I want to. Think of a TBL like a TBR but instead of keeping a list of books to read, you keep a list or playlist of music that you want to listen to. The same principles apply, mostly. I just talked about this in my most recent podcast episode which you can find here.

I thought it would be fun to share my TBL so it is down below. My current streaming service of choice is Apple Music, though I desperately want to try Qobuz. Feel free to follow this playlist! It’ll be updated regularly.

Go Listen!

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On Keeping a TBL

The first episode of the new year is out for the Musically Cogitating podcast! This episode is about the important of keeping a to be listened list. I think it’s an important for everyone to keep up with what they want to listen to in some way. I talk a lot about why in the episode.

You can listen to this episode and all the latest ones directly on this page below.

Reading Topics for 2022

I’m not really a person who keeps a set to be read (TBR) list. While I think that they’re great and useful for some, I really want my reading to be fun and spontaneous and I want to leave room for serendipity. I don’t think that I could really do that AND keep a rigid list of books that I am ‘supposed’ to read after I’ve finished my latest book. This does not mean that I don’t have books that I want to read during the year, I’ll share this in another post. It just means I give myself the freedom and permission to read what I want when I feel like it.

With that said, there are topics that I want to read and learn about this year. This will be the first time that I write down and apply some sort of structure and intentionally to my reading. What is strange about this is that I tend to read about all of these things and engage with these topics without thinking about it because I am interested in them already!

Nevertheless here are the list of topics that I hope to read and learn about in 2022:

1. Indigenous People

2. Residential Schools

3. Environmentalism

4. Sustainability

5. Prison Abolition / Mass Incarnation

6. Music

7. Racial Justice

8. Black History

9. Animal Rights

There are obviously a lot more things that I hope to read and learn about over the next year and the next few years. These are just a few of the things that will help guide some of my reading.

Updates forthcoming!

Reviewing 2021 Content Creation Goals

I wasn’t going to do this post, but I decided that I want to do this post so here I am. I had BIG, BIG goals and aspirations content wise for 2021. At the beginning of 2021, I wrote a post, linked here, where I talked about all of the content things that I wanted to do for the year. I had dreams and aspirations that I would publish or create something of some sort everyday. I thought that I was really going to have time to do that everyday. To no one’s surprise, I didn’t accomplish that goal. I failed what I thought was going to be my 2nd most important goal for 2021 and that is okay.

While I’m the least competitive person to ever walk this earth, I do like accomplishing my goals and so in 2021 I failed, but that is okay. I’m okay that I failed at this goal because I was able to achieve my ultimate goal which was to finish my doctorate and I did that so I didn’t fail all of my goals, just that particular goal.

Along the way I learned that while I do love creating things, I do not love creating all of the things that I thought I did. I love consuming all of those things still, but at the end of the day there are a few types of content that I really want to focus on and create and that’s what I’m going to do moving into 2022.

Here’s a recap of what I thought were going to be my content goals and how they changed:

  • Blog Posts: Because I was busy writing a dissertation or very long research paper, my blog post writing took a back seat, but I wrote way way more than I thought I was going to so I’m happy with that!

  • YouTube Videos: I love watching YouTube and while my experiments in vlogging were fun, it’s not something that I’m going to focus or have a goal for in the near term. If I get inspired to vlog, then I will, but otherwise I am going to make other things. I do though want to have more performance videos out there so those types of videos will increase.

  • Podcasts: Podcasts are my calling. If 2021 taught me anything it is that I love podcasting as much as I love reading and writing which means I love podcasting a lot. I’m going to make more podcasts in the upcoming year and I am excited.

  • Newsletters: I stopped writing my newsletter around the time that I stopped writing here regularly and I’m not sure what I want to do with it moving forward. I’m not sure because I love writing and reading newsletters but I’m unsure how or what I want to share in a newsletter. I’m an artist so I need a way to share my art goings-on, but I also write and podcast and read and want to share that in newsletter format so there’s some brainstorming to be done.

  • Essays: I didn’t publish any essays, but not worried about that. I will work on some longer pieces for the blog next year.

  • Streams: I want to get back to streaming as I do think that it’s fun, but I need for this to be low-stress and not that streaming is stressful, but I am trying to have fewer appointments or time constraints in the coming year so we’ll see how I am able to stream regularly without some stress.

  • Social Media Posts: My relationship over the past year has really changed to social media. 2021 taught me that I do not want to spend time creating things for social media. I don’t want to be a content creator or am I. I see myself as an artist, writer, and podcaster. Sure those are types of content, but I want to focus on the things that I make and focus less on making things about the things that I make. To that end, I see my presence on social media as more of a place to share news or things that I am doing and less about making social media content.

Though I failed my content creation goals, I’m happy to have finished school and learned about what I want to create and what I don’t and ultimately that’s more valuable than posting 4 times a week to instagram could have ever been.

So that is how my 2021 content goals ended up going or not going. Happy to have learned what I did and am looking forward to seeing how things go next year. Here’s to 2022!

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