Category: music

They say silence is music’s original alternative. And when I say “they”, I mean me and Todd Snider.

The Point: Eps 1 & 2

©2022 Michael Raven

Back in late April I was doom-scrolling my Twitter feed, bored out of my noggin, when I saw a Twitter post from Cherie looking for someone to do some collaborative work. She expressed some interest and I wasn’t sure what she had in mind, so I threw out a few skill set examples to see what might appeal to her. I had considered something along the lines of what I had done with Tara Caribou last year (poetry/music) and mentioned something along those lines, as well as other methods of collaboration. Cherie tossed a couple of poems and a few short stories in my direction. When I first read The Point, it evoked memories of Blade Runner mixed with a bit of Fallout and a taste of Mad Max. I thought, well, I can try to do something post-futuristic and a bit on the ambient side of background music and maybe add in some special effects, do a bit of tweaking to clean up the background noise and boost the signal, and even out the…

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“The Point” advance release announcement

©2022 Michael Raven

Cherie has told me that the episodes will be posted via a YouTube page and I’ll get the links for these first two episodes posted sometime on Friday. There are things, listening to the first episode even now, that I am resisting the urge to go back and tweak for the music/sound production. But I have to remind myself, I was actively learning some new techniques with that and the second episode, and learning where that fine line was between promoting music and promoting the story. Still… I wish I could dial the ‘verb back a bit on Cherie’s voice.

Anyway, these first two are my least favorite. I started getting comfortable with everything around episode 3, which has a scheduled release alongside episode 4 on Friday the 19th. Episode 5 (and finale) is scheduled for release on the 26th.

Wayside

©2022 Michael Raven

I’ve fallen by the wayside these past few days, disinclined to write much or anything — although I keep my commitment to myself to write at least something every day.

I have yet to experience an empty house (that, my friends, begins Tuesday, which cannot come soon enough), so it has nothing to do with the presence (or lack thereof) of people. And it isn’t writer’s block. I have ideas (and I’ve been jotting down a ton for my planned power-writing session later in the week). I’m merely disinclined to write.

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secrets_the cure

Secrets
Shared with another girl
Talking all night in a room

All night
Everything slowing down
I wish I was yours

Strangers
Nobody knows we love
I catch your eyes in the dark

One look
Relives the memory
Remember me
The way I used to be

vss365: #excommunicate

I am connecting better with the early March host, maybe because he’s choosing words that aren’t focused heavily on sexual connotations for EVERY. SINGLE. PROMPT. And there isn’t the constant sales pitch.

Anyway — you can tell I am focused on horror elements of storytelling between today and yesterday (#extrude, body found in the woods theme).

Today’s prompt keeps reminding me of this song:

Witches’ Rave // Jeff Buckley

From the posthumous album “Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk” after is accidental death by drowning. While I’m all for his rendition of “Hallelujah” (one of my favorite covers), I think that this album would have been even better than anything else he’d done, if Jeff hadn’t died prematurely.

He was unhappy with how it was going, and may have axed more than a few of the songs if he had lived to see it completed — but I appreciate how his mother insisted that they didn’t pretty up the tracks if Sony wanted to release it. Essentially, the ultimatum was: release as is, or not at all.

I’d probably get along with her.

There are more catchy tracks on the album, but I was in the mood to share this particular one. “The Sky is a Landfill”, “Everybody Here Wants You”, and “Yard of Blonde Girls” is more to his earlier style of performing and liked more by the critics. But, screw critics.