NEW ALBUM IS HERE-

NEW ALBUM-  The Gardes:  Le Renohvation Alights   available for streaming on SPOTIFY-
available for purchase at:  http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thegardes

                                   Available now on Itunes and everywhere-
                                               www.facebook.com/thegardes

Simply put-

If you came to this from the Gardes' site, welcome.  Check out:
www.facebook.com/thegardes 

This, for the foreseeable future, will be the home of up-to-date
Gardes' news.  Some of the website is, we'll just say, archival...

I suppose if everything was proper, it would be advertised on the site,
but I've always toyed with most of the website stuff myself, for fun,
for purpose, and for some stalled out hours that felt like excruciating
time wasted and pulled-out-hair-headaches.  All for sharing music, etc.
with the world.

Now, though, I don't have much time to hang around a computer, and if
I do, I'm choosing not to all that much for a while.  We've always been
such a D.I.Y., rickety operation anyway, and never really had anyone else
(a trained professional) maintain our onlineness.  It just felt like dabbling
with another artform and media to me.  I'll be focusing on creating or
bringing what is made into fruition from now on and may be little involved
with any kind of regular online updates or maintenance.  Though I will holler
out still and check e-mail, etc. and all of that kind of stuff and I may get back into
it, I'm going to trim some of the fat off my time.

Here's an article I like:  http://musicians.about.com/od/beingamusician/ss/musicmistakes_2.htm

Well, that wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but it's the gist.  
Promotion is a racket, self-promotion is a bit embarrassing. 
Sometimes it feels alright on a good day, though...

Well, I went and looked for it again, but came up with nothing, so I'm going to
hop off here.

-Brett

No More Weekly Regular Posting For The Time Being-

So I managed to get this out on a regular weekly basis for nigh 6 months or so, until
finally it legitimately slipped my mind by almost Thursday for the first time due to
real life catching up.  I am keeping my writing time away from the computer for the
time being (I have to be on a computer enough anyway).  But I will be making random
blog postings in the future... so here's to the future...

another-

late nite Tues./early morning Wed. post.

The Columns Of Rome

The Columns Of Rome...

Oh-

For the past 6 months or so, I've been faithfully and punctually making a blog post
every Tuesday.  I've been hitting my own deadline.  This was all on my mind earlier
in the day, and then... I've almost slipped up, I admit.  I went out to visit some friends
I haven't seen in a while and now getting back it hits me... it's the wee hours of Wed.
morning, technically (I'm dead sober, or alive sober, more like it), but to me it's still Tues. night,
because I'm a late nighter and I haven't gone to bed yet.  So we'll just go ahead and call
this another Tues. post on this blog. This one counts.

There's a Gardes facebook page coming together:  www.facebook.com/thegardes

I'm not sure if I've ever posted this before, so here goes.  I was looking through my
archive of images and such, and here is my portrait of legendary bluesman, Watermelon
Slim, as he sat, once upon a time, reading a book in my living room. ;)

This is the Type Of Typing That Gets Caught By The Web

What nonsense or mundane activity or eye-popping news
goes here?

Post happy Facebook twitter fingers?

I saw a digital headline today on a giant screen just dropping in
to the ACM@UCO out of curiosity.  (That's the Academy Of
Contemporary Music- I guess it's Oklahoma's version of
"Rock N' Roll School."  I wanted to read it but I didn't have
much time.  Digital news talking about musicians' music
suffering because they're inundated with managing all this social
media silliness, which is fun, but yeah, it gets in the way, and this
blog has been fun to me sometimes, but lately it's just felt like an
unnecessary trivial pseudo-obligation.  I haven't made much
time lately to do any real writing, except last night I was focusing
on a letter of sorts to an individual, a long letter, which I plan
to continue for various purposes.

I have a book of poems I've been working on on and off since
Christmas of 2005 that I'd like to focus on for a few months
and fill, because lines come my way at unexpected times, but
I haven't put many of them to paper.  I have many notebooks
filled and short stories in the works and done, too. Things in
perpetual progress.  Much on the backburner.

I realize when I type fast and follow my thought patterns,
I use commas a lot of the time where conventionally periods
should be.  Some girls think that guys get periods, too.  They
actually get exclamation marks, and that is usually just
a reaction to PMS.

The new Gardes album is pretty much done, sans mastering.
Although, I meant to record a couple of basic violin parts,
then found my neck is broken, and so now I must seek a string
player or get it fixed.  And Aaron may be adding a bit more,
possibly.  So... new Gardes record!  Release date has not yet
been set.

I bought the new Shins vinyl record today on its release date, but
unfortunately it skipped, a manufacturing glitch, so I must trade
it back for another one.  Tomorrow is looking up!

-Brett

sailboats and sunsets according to pundits

As I was sitting on a bench gazing out far into the manmade lake
contemplating ancient sea voyages when the world was perceived
to have 4 corners, as the sun was going down and imagining sailing
towards the sinking fiery orb to see what was the faraway land,
my fingers walking the keys of my recently repaired, completely
rebuilt accordion in a lyrical daydream of this.  An accordion makes
even the plainest of days infused with a romanticism, makes even the
plains Mediterranean, exotic, strangely mystifying and even a bit
sinisterly foreboding, a primitive old feeling of adventure.
    I just bought some used straps for 10 bucks from the repairman.
He told me the shorter one goes on my left shoulder, "just adjust
it accordingly," at which I could not resist that old joke, "accordionly,"
feeling like a campy, vaudevillian one-liner.  I bought a birthday card
once that had a pop-up accordion player with music accordingly and
made use of that pun.
    

Mixing-

Sometimes I get mixed up.
So close...
Did I ever say these had to be long?
Have a fantabulous week.

chaBoom!

One word, oh, wait that was already two words.

Just working on mixes in the Studonym.

Reality disgusts me, that's why I'm here.

Naming Stuff Can Be Hard, Especially If You Actually Care

      Writing here on Fat Tuesday while the lasses are watching fat people
on TV (the Biggest Loser).

       Today I've actually been preoccupied writing for a Romanian blog.

The editor requested that some of the Gardes write for it, and it's turning

into a lengthy piece.  

       Talking to Joel (Hibbs) on the celly earlier, he brainstormed a new Gardes movie. We're invited to Romania, and soon we're about to be sacrificed in a ritual. Vampires are after us in every which way, and we have to escape.  It'll be one of the greatest vampire rock flicks ever.  I was hoping for an apparition from T. Rex and an appearance from Tyson Meade, who shows up to teach English as a foreign language and helps us with our master plan escape.

        We've got works in the works coming up this weekend.  Joel and I are co-producing/directing/ writing a new movie starring Shaun Buller and others.  It'll be an upgrade in the quality department from previous productions.  The sound will be recorded separately, therefore the audio will be mixed more legibly.  Also, it will be high def.  Looking forward to see how this turns out.

         There's a drum session going down to hopefully finish up the Gardes new album this weekend, in the land where the Gardes were born (as an idea), in Ponca City, the entertainment capitol of the United States.  (I heard Randy Crouch say that one time.)  Hopefully, the new Gardes album will be finished the week after, but we'll keep our fingers crossed.  From Portland to Ponca to Okc to Tulsa, this album has developed in the womb forever (all round these 50 states and more), and finally begun with the ultimate recording last May.  To anyone who knows anything about recording, that may seem weird to be adding drum tracks as one of the final processes of making an album, but we've gone about this in all different ways, live and with overdubs, and we've made this work before.

          I just finally got on Spotify for the first time the other day, and right now I'm digging on the Foster The People album, Torches.  I've never been one of those people that rush to the store to pick up the new model of the latest technology, but I usually come around to it all eventually.

         Sorry that sometimes the blog posts are just a few sentences long.  Sometimes this place has a real shitty connection, and I just want to make a post.  I called the provider, they said the signal was strong, maybe it's the router, and finally I remembered I have a router packed away out of town that I'll pick up this weekend.  So maybe I won't have any more excuses.
         Here's an article I ran across, I'm going to start providing a link here sometimes to a post I've read during the week- it's the history of the music industry so far-  

Happy Valentine's Day, Lovers and Loners, Pussycats and Lonely Boners

Today is the day of a new Willie Cry Records release, The American Darlings
self-titled debut album, available now on Itunes, Spotify and about everywhere
else in the digital universe.  Check it out here on Itunes (I've never bought a single
song from Itunes)

I recently finished a 50-some page novella, but I've been so busy that I haven't yet
even read it.  I wrote it long-handed and finished it (well, a rough draft) a
couple of weeks ago.  I started it in 2010 thinking it would be a short story but
it kept going.  

Entry Way

This is a blog post entry on February 7th, 2012.
That's about all it is.

Substitute Blogger

So I am the substitute blogger today, subbing on call for Mr. Horton, who I believe
has called in sick today for his blog.  I think he's playing hooky, however, simply
not wishing to make a post about anything of relevance today, busy doing other
priorities such as moving stuff around, running errands, blah, blah.  So, you are
free to just work on whatever you want today!

-Mr. Michener (Don't you hate when people have names you're not exactly sure
how to pronounce?)

P.S. Just kidding, I wrote this. 

Rodent Taste

I worked a job where we had a pot of animal crackers set out
for the people who showed up, but it was in the middle of the
forest, and squirrels actually started stealing the animal crackers
and running off with them.  They started acting more and more
like l'il crackheads, because why would a squirrel need sugar?

Recently, I had some leftover holiday chex mix, and I thought
it was unfortunate that squirrels didn't know how to make chex
mix, because squirrels and chipmunks would probably really like it.
Don't you think?

Nu-food

Is anybody hungry?

We made some curry tonight (well, I only just shopped for

some of the ingredients, lost amongst the aisles)

If you wish, we'll upload it to the new site- www.virtualfood.com

and you can download a dish- we just solved world hunger here!

Brief Briefing in Boxer Shorts

Yes, so we just released Broken Wing by Sad Sad Bicycle (aka songwriter Sai Esquivel Lomas) and if you haven't checked it out yet (Lo-Fi Till I Die is written underneath Broken Wing) hop on over to www.williecryrecords.com  or  http://sadsadbicycle.bandcamp.com  where you can stream the entire thing and download it by naming your own price.  I forget at the moment if the download minimum is free or one buck, because thoughts of many projects, both mine and friends', are swirling in my noggin. If you have happened to check out the new album, then know that the lyrics have just been posted on the Bandcamp page.  Strange how a certain song can seem unintelligible, then you read the lyrics while listening to it, and it all suddenly seems so clear and how was this not so obvious?

If anyone is in the OKC area, come out to Will Rogers Theatre on Sunday night, January 15th, for a free screening unveiling of "? the movie,"  which I actually wrote, directed and produced, though it's advertised as "Alexander Anonymous." Don't know where these things come from, but the drawing of Alexander Anonymous is an Eskimo, and I thought it strange, an Eskimo director.  Then, I relistened to The Songs Of Leonard Cohen, and there's a verse about "An Eskimo showed me a movie..." and I thought about Leonard and Alexander knowing each other.  It screens at 7:30 pm.  I think Gilbert Brayenstein may make an appearance.

(Below, Alexander Anonymous's only official comic strip.  He only worked in the comic strip business for one day.  He wasn't paid, so who can blame him?  Just because he's drunk all the time doesn't mean he's anybody's schmuck.  Swiped from the Gardes' website.)

Excerpt From My Red Hardback

Happy New Year!

Check out the new release by Sad Sad Bicycle, Broken Wing, available here at this magic click of the button!

excerpt from a book of poems-in-progress, I'd like to finish and publish one of these years:

(damn, I hate when I'm trying to type something from a book that's written long-hand, and the book won't stay open, so I place some object on it to keep the cover from closing, and then the slick object slides off, so finally I balance it all like Philippe Petit (not quite that good))

Poetry doesn't sell
I heard the proprietor tell
especially from the new and unheard of
only the classic poets
and not even they sell all that much
so I hear
though I believe it
These days, everything is "free,"
generally speaking,
for the common man is a pirate
A casual, internet tune thief,
f'rinstance,
though even I hail this D.I.Y. network
and contemplate notions of a gift economy
even I believe that sharing is good
though it can complicate matters 
for sure
Nowadays, everyone is "famous"
and what really sells
besides necessities (so-called ones)
and addictions?
Entertainment and recreation?
Does everything have a price?
Can you really sell your soul?
Some things are priceless
Who could sell a cloud?
Poetry is like a cloud.


          ***


This is just one of many that are scrawled in a red hardback book that I began about
6 years ago and like almost everything else becomes part of the whirlwind, one of a
many-headed monster, so maybe one of these busy, busy days of busier years it'll be complete.