Saturday, June 27, 2009

sorry...

I've been away for a bit; we've had a death in the family. such things help one realize exactly who and what's important and how everything and everyone else can go get fucked.

but you get emails like this one from Doug Draime and it helps one understand why making art is an important thing, no matter the level of suffering, no matter the difficulty of enduring another withering day in the shitpile of humanity. thanks again for the kind words on Sunlight, big Doug:

"...Received my hardback copy a few days ago, and I honestly can't think of a book I've read in recent history that I am more impressed by. The way you guys so fearlessly question the human condition, and the artist's place in it, is a must read for anyone who passionately seeks the purpose of our existence, and our reason for creating. IT IS ONE ASS KICKING MOTHERFUCKER of a book..."

this then is the crux and function of all good writing and of all good art: the forging of a deep connection and thru it, honest communication with actual, living, feeling human beings. this person who died was not a "poetry type" (whatever that is), but he read, in his later life, some small press poets who reached him in a way I always belived to be possible, and saw, thru this man, the actual accomplishment of poetry cutting thru the ugliness of years of hard life, and shining a melancholy light and shades of hope on what remains.

and if that's not what you strive for as an artist, to save some portion of the beauty of humanity to show to the lost and miserable, the dead and dying, the lonely and hopeless, to alchemize the suffering of the everyday into something that helps us go on despite our inevitable walk into those dark woods at the end, then you are just a finger painter fiddling with turds, just a child with a chip and a shoulder, just a weak masturbating diarist, doomed to wallow in the misery of your choices for as long as your sad little lives manage to creak along before the big fall.

real life is out there, kids; pay attention and "do not waste it lightly," sayeth the kamikaze...

Friday, June 19, 2009

go read this...

interview with the earthly representative of that Cosmic Funk Machine and Psychedelia Factory that is Noot d'Noot, Mathis Hunter, H E R E.

find out what makes a person do the kinds of things a person like this does.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

another published writer...

in the family. seems like I'm not the only one who can write a letter; check out cyn's righteous indignation H E R E on a topic we at The Compound know way too fucking much about at this point...

some of the presentation copy watercolors...





hosh's are on the left and mine are on the right. you can tell because mine stink and his are awesome.

Thursday, June 04, 2009

a good day...


freshly opened...


the four color letterpressed spines on the clamshells...


basking in the goodness.

the presentation copies have gold silk spines and the lettered copies have red silk spines. these things are unreal looking, and the trade paperback sofcovers are glorious as well. they are all signed and the watercolors inserted and the manuscript broads, cds and all else are ready to go. looks like everything will start shipping at the first of the week. thanks again to everyone involved in this fantastic book.
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