Image: Some artwork I commissioned in 22 by Julius Maximilian Strohlein depicting Hadder and his days in the Cypress Swamp Prisons. Not all birds are created equal, but something tells me Hadder is making friends down there.
Good morning, I'm rounding the first bend of 23. It seems like we've waited a year for January and now it’s almost gone. Spring is nipping at our heals, especially here in Bok where the coastal wildflowers bloom in February.
It feels good to be surrounded with hadder things again in the chilly winter air. I’m working hard these days, here’s a little update.
Artwork: As I get closer to getting caught up on Field Note narrations, I’ve been gathering more images associated with each tale. This week I did some “Grasslanders” artwork that was really wild. I took my camera out in the fields to document the Skull huts they live in and took some candid shots of them in their daily life out on the grassy planes. It was pretty cool. I just started looking through the photos… I’ll post some in a blog in the coming weeks. I’ve yet to really elaborate on them and their role in the Hadder tale but they will be involved in a big way. I will say I admire the way they live out there. They have quite the sense of humor, must be all that Grassy Ale they seem to love to much. I did see one wild Jed Spider as well, which I was in complete awe over. It was faraway out on the hillside and it kind of disappeared quick, but wow… those things are pretty rad. The few Spiders that the grasslander have in captivity are cool too, but the ones still out in the wild are each very unique and strange in their own right. They are very conscious beings from what I’m told and they have a sense of identity which makes some more interestingly wild looking than others. That includes how they move and the noises they make as well. Anyhow, lots of cool artwork will make its way to the site this year.
A few new Narrations were added this week, including the one below which is relevant to the image of Hadder in his bird cage prison above. A few more will be added next week as well. Some additional thoughts on this next phase of the Field Notes. These narrations might slowly get edits during the year, building up the score in the background, as I’ve been listening to them I notice some things that need to be cleaned up and other things that need to be added or tweaked to go along with the tale. Litto Biskernat, who by the way is also a bartender at “The Grassy Knoll”, enjoys a drink or two… particularly a thing they call “The Brimble Weed”, a grasslanders version of basically a Tall Grassy Ale with a pure whiskey shot made from Brimble Weeds. The weeds are known for their luminescent green glow which makes for an interesting looking drink, the brinmble weed whiskey sinks to the bottom of the ale and it’s rather pretty with the grass sticking out of the top. Anywho, Litto can tend to slur a little by the end of the night so I have to clean up some things in the narrations he’s done so far. “Quality problems on the road to archers bay, zabble would say.” Don’t ask me, I don’t know what it means… not sure he does either.
Music: Hmmm… I guess I do make music too, ha. This week was basically getting re-acquainted with the final track on the record and cleaning up the tower, fixing wire noises and rerouting things for some new mixing chores. I do believe the first record will be released on all the platforms here in the first quarter of the year… it has to be basically, I want to start working on a new record this year. I wish things moved quicker but they just move as they move. The cover of the first record may change when it gets released. I did some cool artwork recently and I think it might replace the last cover… ha, who knows, like I said I have so much artwork now that it’s quality problems from here on out. The covers for each song are kind of important to me, being a storyteller and all. So when I release them I really want each cover to be a little special and particular to the track, especially considering artwork tends to travel with the song down the digital river these days. The final track on the record, the new “Ballad of the Dead Rabbit”, will be a telling track as I think it’s getting closer to the direction I’m heading, with lots of operatic choirs and moments in the song… like a story it has its highs and lows. I sing all the choirs on the record, sometimes they are 20 or 30 stacked vocal tracks, which I add room reverbs to, to bring them to life. On the rabbit track, aside from the large choir sections, I’ve been dabbling more with some operatic choruses panned left and right, all singing different parts of the song. Like a true choir might do. Separating tenor parts and soprano parts with different words and phrases that hopefully play off each other. It would be a challenge to pull it off live without track assisting, but I don’t really mind things like that, if it’s needed due to being just one person, ha. Not like I’m not a singer dusk to dawn. I like grand, what can I say. Grand light and grand music.
Closing thoughts: I really could go on and on.. but I wont today. The last three mornings while I've been training, I awoke each day with a little crescent moon sinking… and each day it was sinking a little earlier and earlier.. until finally it was a beautiful little curl, like a smile, with a faint circular moon hardly noticeable behind. The sun can do some amazing little things. We’ve been flooded here in BOK these last few weeks, an atmospheric river event. I read that the second week of January hosts the “Bluest Monday” of the year, well, I’m glad that’s done. My Osteospermum Ecklonis and Artemisia Tridentata finally saw the first few rays of sunlight this week after the storm… and it’s obvious they are happy and blooming. Like my own heart these early days of 23. May the same be true for you. Stay the course friend.
-j
Image: A narration for "The wind the prison and the Leaf", which is the 1st mentions of the swamp prison. More at www.diamondshadder.com/fieldnotes