Category Archives: personal

You’re messing with the enemy

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I’ve been thinking lately about how I want to approach Book Four in the Mendaihu Universe (oh yes, there will be more of them!) and yes, I’ve even been gathering music for the writing soundtrack. And like all the other projects, I’m searching for a specific mood that fits the story I have in my head.

Recently I’ve been listening to Kasabian’s “Club Foot”, a) because it’s got one hell of a kickass bass riff, and b) the video is an homage to student revolt against government suppression, specifically the Prague Spring in 1969 and the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. It’s also an homage to pirate radio and Radio Free Europe.

I’ve always been fascinated by that kind of rebellion. Sure, it grew out of my listening to punk and ‘that weird college radio stuff’ back in the 80s, but the fact that the whole point of that music was a form of rebellion against the norm attracted my interest. [Yeah, I’ll cop to not always outwardly showing it. But that’s for a different post.]

In the Bridgetown Trilogy, the Vigil group is there partly to play both roles: revolt against those in power, and its voice. But what of the new book? All I can say is that it’s a new game. It’s seventy years later and things have changed considerably on both sides. The rebellion shown in the Trilogy wouldn’t work this time out. Those books were all about accepting and maintaining a balance between two opposite forces.

This particular book, I think, is going to be more about Setting Things Right.

The “Club Foot” song and video got me thinking this morning, and I posted it as a tweet:
What would be today’s analogue of pirate radio as student revolt? How would people listen to it? Phone app? Internet streaming? Radio like in the past? How would its signals be secure/untraceable like a VPN?

Which brought up the next question: How would this kind of revolt happen in an age of social media (and multiple forms of media in general) that are chock full of white noise already? Is a digital/aural underground network even possible?

(Mind you, whenever I hear a question ending in “…is that even possible”, my brain immediately responds with “Of course there is. We just have to figure out what it is.” I’m an optimistic goofball that way.)

Things to think about while prepping for future writing projects.

Early 80s MTV, post-punk and new wave

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Gloria Vanderbit’s passing yesterday got me thinking about the classic Robert Hazard one-hit-wonder “Escalator of Life” that came out in 1982. It was one of those odd new-wavey hits that didn’t make a hell of a lot of sense lyrically (or in this case, took a metaphor and stretched it to its breaking point), but it was certainly one hell of a cool song at the time.

I often talk about the late 80s here at Walk in Silence, but I don’t think I give nearly enough love to the early 80s, which were just as influential to me as a kid. I listened to just as much radio and watched as much MTV then as I did later on, and my tastes were just as varied. I could be listening to the hard rock of WAAF in the morning as I got ready for school, but I could be listening to the classic rock of WAQY on the weekend, and watching the then-freeform stylings of early era MTV. I liked A Flock of Seagulls and Duran Duran and Pat Benatar just as much as I liked Led Zep, Eagles, and that little quirky southern band WAQY liked called REM.

As commercial as some of these stations and channels were, they weren’t averse to playing the occasional obscurity like The Stranglers’ “Golden Brown” or Yello’s “The Evening’s Young”. They’d sneak in gems like The Jam’s “Town Called Malice” or Bow Wow Wow’s “Baby Oh No”. They were quirky but had crossover potential.

I remember a lot of these obscurities — the ones you remember from the era that don’t show up on those Just Can’t Get Enough compilations or those 80s Retro internet stations — because my mixtape-making actually started around this time, in late 1982. I’d made quasi-mixtapes before then, of course..mainly dubbing songs off the radio and from MTV (holding our cassette recorder close to the tv speaker, of course), but they didn’t contain that many songs. It wasn’t until November 1982 that I’d gathered a handful of used blank tapes and went wild. This first collection lasted six tapes and contained everything from A Flock of Seagulls to Led Zeppelin to Donnie Iris to Chilliwack to Thomas Dolby. It’s quite a manic and haphazard mix, created over the length of maybe two or three months.

I also started cataloging my mixtapes around then, first on index cards I would stick to the tapes with rubber bands, then a few years later with a steno notebook. Most all of those early tapes are long gone, having either gotten broken or tangled, taped over by something more important, or just faded back into white noise. But I kept these catalogs — mainly because I was a packrat — and much, much later (in 2007 or so) I started recreating them digitally using copied mp3s.

It’s kind of wild to see these mixtape track lists so many decades later; on the one hand, I’m not at all surprised that I was that obsessed over pop and rock music by the time I was twelve. There was just so much more out there coming out, and I just wanted to hear all of it! Sure, I had my questionable selections, but we all did around then. We’d gone from AM radio to the commercial FM radio to early MTV within the span of maybe four or five years. Some of us were just going to ride that particular avalanche and have fun while it happened.

BayCon: From Alice Grove to xkcd – a sampling of webcomics

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Hello to everyone who came to my BayCon panel yesterday, From Alice Grove to xkcd: The Internet as a Platform for Comic, Creation and Comic Reading. I’m happy you came, and I’m glad you took part in the discussion! A big thank you to Ctein, Jacob Fisk and Amanda Taylor-Chaisson for helping me provide some great reading suggestions!

As promised, here’s the list of titles and links of some of our favorites that you might want to check out. This is by no means a finite list; this is merely a list of our favorite titles that we read on a daily or weekly basis. If you have any favorites you’d like to add, by all means provide them (and their links) in the comments!

Note #1: Most of these should still be active and updating, though a number of them have been completed or are on hiatus (indefinite or otherwise). I’ve tried my best to sort these into different subject headers to make it somewhat easier for you to read.
Note #2: I’ve coded these links to open up in a new tab, so you won’t lose this page! Have fun reading!

FANTASY, MAGIC AND MYTHOLOGY
Aerial Magic by walkingnorth
Agents of the Realm by Mildred Louis
Banquet by Anne Szalba
Barbarous by Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsh
Bird Boy by Anne Szalba
Castle Swimmer by Wind Lian Martin
City of Somnus by unknown
Clan of the Cats by Jamie Robertson
Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire by Michael Terracciano
Erma by Brandon Santiago
Girl Genius by Kaja and Phil Foglio
Goblins by Tarol Hunt
Godslave by Meaghan Carter
Goodbye to Halos by Valerie Halla
Headless Bliss by Chlove
How to Be a Werewolf by Shawn Lenore
Lilith’s Word by Nina Vakueva
The Lonely Vincent Bellingham by Diana Huh
Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe
Misfile by Chris Hazelton
Namesake by Megan Lavey-Heaton and Isabelle Melancon)
Never Satisfied by Taylor Robin
Ozy and Millie by Dana Simpson
Skin Deep by Kory Bing
Skin Horse by Shaenon K Garrity and Jeffrey C Wells
Sunfall by unknown
The Glass Scientists by Sabrina Cotugno
(un)Divine by Ayme Sotuyo
UnOrdinary by uru-chan
White Noise by Adrian Lee
Widdershins by Kate Ashwin
Wilde Life by Pascalle Lepas
The Witch Door by Anni K

SCIENCE FICTION
Alice Grove by Jeph Jacques
Awaken by Koti Saavedra
Bomango by VanHeist
College Roomies from Hell by Maritza Campos
Endtown by Aaron Neathery
It’s Walky! by Dave Willis
Kila Ilo by unknown
Mare Internum by Der-Shing Helmer
Megatokyo by Fred Gallagher
Monster’s Garden by Ash
O Human Star by Blue Dellaquanti
Octopus Pie by Meredith Gran
On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden
The Meek by Der-Shing Helmer
Shades of Gray by avsaroke
Shortpacked! by Dave WIllis
Sidekick Girl by Erika Wagner
Star Power by Michael Terracciano & Garth Graham
Wapsi Square by Paul Taylor
When She Was Bad by Amiko
xkcd by Randal Munroe

SEX-POSITIVE/LGBT-FRIENDLY (SOME MAY BE NSFW)
Alfie by InCase
Closetspace by Jenn Dolari
Curvy by Sylvan Migdal
Dangerously Chloe by Gisele Lagace & Dave Lumsdon
Go Get a Roomie by Chlove
Grey Matters by Loren Coven
Ménage à 3 by Gisele Lagace
Oglaf by Trudy Cooper and Doug Bayne
The Rock Cocks by Leslie
Sticky Dilly Buns by Gisele Lagace
Venus Envy by Erin Lindsey

SLICE OF LIFE, GENERAL INTEREST AND GAG STRIPS
(MAY OR MAY NOT CONTAIN SF/F ELEMENTS)
9 Chickweed Lane by Brooke McEldowney
The Abominable Charles Christopher by Karl Kershi
Anders Loves Maria by Rene Engstrom
Blaster Nation by Leslie & Brad Brown
The Bright Side by Ira Francis
Diesel Sweeties by Rich STevens
Dresden Codak by Aaron Diaz
Dumbing of Age by Dave Willis
Fans! by T. Campbell
A Girl and Her Fed by KB Spangler
Girls with Slingshots by Danielle Corsetto
Goats by Jon Rosenberg
Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell
Johnny Wander by Yuko Ota & Ananth Hirsh
Kevin and Kell by Bill Holbrook
My Giant Nerd Boyfriend by fishball
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella by Justin Pierce
Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland
Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
Quantum Vibe by Scott Bieser
Radio Silence by Vanessa Stefianuk
Real Life by Greg Dean
Sam and Fuzzy by Sam Logan
Sinfest by Tatsuya Ishida (recommended reading around 2010 forward)
Something Positive by Randy Milholland
Strong Female Protagonist by Brennan Lee Mulligan & Molly Ostertag
Supernormal Step by Michael Lee Lunsford
Wondermark by David Malki

It’s a petty argument, I know…

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…but I just quit following a few music blogs that I’ve been following for quite a few years.

Why? Because they and many of their readers lost their shit yesterday when news broke that Phil Collins, following up with his recent reissue campaign, decided to release the numerous related-era b-sides and remixes as two digital-only compilations rather than physically on CD.

No, it wasn’t because of all the Phil Collins hate. I like his stuff just fine, but I’m not upset about that. I’m just exhausted by the digital hate.

People like myself, who once had a stupidly large physical collection of vinyl, cassettes and CDs but decided that having room for other things in their homes and their lives is just a little more important, have no issue with digital. Maybe it’s just me, having grown up listening to third-generation dubs from friends, that I don’t mind if the sound quality isn’t completely pristine. I’m here for the music, not for its perfection. I’m definitely of the school of Not Hearing an All That Noticeable Difference Between Digital and Vinyl and Not Caring Much Either Way. I love the fact that I can own so many complete discographies that take up an index card-sized external drive. I love that I can filter it any way I like — especially by release date. I love that I can make mix tapes by copying and bundling these same mp3s together.

I mean, I get the whole collecting thing. I used to be that person. I’ll still buy the occasional box set, especially if it’s a complete discography. I may even buy it if it’s a brand new and improved remaster. And I will definitely buy it if it’s Beatles-related. But you know how I am about collectibles. I have no space for them, no turntable or cassette player to play them on. And if they’re on cd, I’ll rip them to my collection and store them away, if I have room…and I may sell them for store credit at Amoeba at a future date. Back in the day I might have thought the mere idea of all this was heresy, but nowadays digital suits me just fine.

But let me tell you, it’s really damn irritating when a favorite band releases a new track that’s only available on a 7″ single selling for $25, or has a limited edition of 140 and only available on cassette during Record Store Day. These music blogs will fall over themselves with excitement about this sort of thing and shell out whatever money it takes, though, and I won’t take that away from them. That’s their jam, and they’re welcome to it.

I just feel left out and forgotten by the bands I happen to like when they pull this.

So when us digital people get a pleasant surprise project of things we’d like to pick up, it’s doubly irritating when those same collectors cry foul by refusing to download, shouting “no cd, no buy”, claiming label stupidity, questioning the business acumen of the musicians, and generally being pouty children. I can’t help but eyeroll. I even saw one state “why have it digital only when you can listen to it for free streaming?” Which, okay, some digital fans like streaming only, but there’s just as many of us out there who love being able to download. Not to mention there are numerous indie bands out there who are doing pretty good on bandcamp selling equal numbers of downloads and physical copies. To dismiss digital collectors like this is not only annoying as hell, it makes you sound like an elitist snob.

I’m just tired of that snobbery. I have other music blogs and sites to inform me of new releases. (AllMusic in particular seems to help greatly for me.) I’m tired of being lumped as Not a Real Fan because I don’t own the physical copy.

I just want to listen to the music I like, damn it. Is that too much to ask?

It is 5am and you are listening to Los Angeles

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As I’ve mentioned on various outlets, I’ll be on a solo vacation next week, heading south to Los Angeles on a six-day trip to various parts of the SoCal Sprawl. I’m hoping to hit my usual favorite haunts: Amoeba Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier, LACMA and Museum Row, The Nickel Diner,The Last Bookstore, among others… as well as some points of interest (musical and otherwise) that I’ve been wanting to hit: a movie at Graumann’s (or whatever it’s called now), Griffith Observatory (if it’s open), Echo Park, Sunset Grill (a favorite Don Henley song!), The Sunset Strip, McCabe’s Guitar Shop, and other fun places. I’m even going to check out the Warner Bros movie lot!

So of course I have a playlist to upload to my mp3 player for the trip…. 🙂

https://youtu.be/R_UpLtGEWoY

Fly-By: brb, busy doing a bajillion different things.

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Right now I have a hell of a lot on my plate, so I’m going to take the rest of the week off so I can get caught up and give myself a little bit of breathing room. I may take next week off as well.  We shall see.

In the meantime, please enjoy this new Beatles video for “Glass Onion”, which will be on the new White Album box set out this Friday.  And yes, of course I pre-ordered it ages ago!

Thirty-three (and a third?) Years On: 1985

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This past weekend I was falling down the YouTube rabbit hole and stumbled up on one of my favorite Phil Collins songs, “Take Me Home”, from his third solo album No Jacket Required.  One of the wild realizations that occurred to me was that, a little over thirty-three years later, I have visited at least half of the locations in this video, and currently live in one of them.  More to the point, I don’t think the fourteen-year-old me would ever have imagined that ever happening.  Visiting Hollywood, various parts of central and greater London, and living in Greater London was something I’d have wanted to do as a teen but had no idea if it would ever happen.  I just thought of it as a fun pipe dream.

I’ve been thinking about that year lately, actually.  On IHeart80s Radio, they’ve been playing full episodes of American Top 40 (with Casey Kasem hosting), and now and again I find myself listening in, because that was the era I listened to it almost religiously every weekend.  Most of my radio mixtapes from that era came from those shows. That year’s chart-topping sound was an amazing mix of rock, R&B, soul, pop, and everything in between.

It was right at the end of my sucktastic years in junior high and my freshman year in high school, where I hoped my life (social and academic) would be so much better. It would take some time before I finally grew out of the small-town groupthink that I was so desperately trying to fit into and move on to bigger and better things, but for the time being I let myself get more immersed in my radio listening and mixtape-making. I still went to the school dances and hung out with my buddies, but I was there for the tunage, not for the girls. [Okay, that’s a half-truth. I was desperate, but at the same time I knew I was in no good frame of mind to have a girlfriend when I was an overly emotional twit with an overactive and underused imagination. That’s about when I buried myself in my burgeoning writing habit as well.]

I’ll be honest, I was getting sick of all the social drama. So I immersed myself in all the music that I could. If I happened to have money from an allowance (or saved up from my leftover lunch money) I’d head downtown to buy a few cassettes. I’d pick up cheap records at flea markets with my dad. I’d make copies of albums my sisters bought. Anything to buy the new albums that were being played on the radio.

It was definitely a strange time when I didn’t quite know who I was or what I wanted to do, just that I didn’t want to be what I presently was. Listening to the radio was the escape. It was the soundtrack to my writing (my other escape). Music gave me a connection to my classmates in a way that other things like sports and whatever else couldn’t. Even then I was known as the weird kid who knew every song on the charts and a lot of deep cuts on albums. Where the popular kids might not have given me the time of day, they’d ask me about some album or some band and if the album was worth picking up.

In a way, I’m kind of glad that I’ve kept that part of me all these years. I no longer use music purely as a social escape (at least not as much as I did then, of course), but I’m still a Subject Matter Expert for some of my friends. And in this internet day and age, it’s a shared interest that’s brought me all sorts of new friends and acquaintances that I might not have met in a different setting.

And here I am, writing this at home in San Francisco, one of the locations in the “Take Me Home” video I loved so much.

Living in the Eighties

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In addition to writing my Thirty Years On series here and listening to my share of 1988 all over again, I’ve been listening to Sirius XM’s 1st Wave station the last few days.  This comes to absolutely no surprise to any of you, of course.  I’m an Eighties kid.  I spent that entire decade in front of the radio making mixtapes, in front of the tube glued to MTV, and Killing Music By Home Taping.

This means I remember a lot of the weird, wonderful and horrible things that went on in the world then.  In a way I’m kind of happy that I’m able to wax nostalgic — not to say ‘it was so much better then’ (it was definitely different, sure, but I wouldn’t say better) but to be able to see the parallels between then and now.

The reign of a useless, mindless, comic relief President (I say, despite stomach churning); the shadow of Russia and the Cold War looming just over our shoulders; the big and small wars taking place in various corners of the world; the groups of whacked-out conspiracy theorists, the fervent believers of pseudo-religions, and the willingly passive followers of evangelism; the instability of unregulated banking; the sexism of the Alpha Male; the terrorist attacks and the plane crashes; the Young Republicans and their drive to Win At Any Cost; American uberpatriotism and self-assigned exceptionalism; the classic situations of jock versus nerd and all its permutations; and of course the punks and nonconformists who were just plain fucking tired of getting broadsided with all of this and refused to play those games anymore.

I try to be positive about it all, to be honest.  There are days where I need to turn off the internet and take a dandelion break, or pull out my journal and bleed out some of my anxiety or frustration.  I don’t become blissfully ignorant about it all, at least not like I did when I was a teenager more interested in music than what went on in the world.  I merely look at it from a different perspective.

I get frustrated that this is all happening again — sometimes with freakish accuracy — but I’ve lived through it already, so I kind of know what’s coming and what to expect.  Because of this I’m not as pessimistic.  It’s all aggravating, yes.  It truly does piss me off that so many get hit with the shrapnel.  But somehow, at some point, it *will* get better if we *make* it get better.

We did it before, we can do it again.