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.