Image: Some artwork I did as I was imagining Hadder or another "Red" wandering the hillsides. Some strange lands out there in our imaginations. Real or make believe, I'm not so sure which is witch. .
Good morning, it’s the last Friday in January 2023. That was quick.
A little update on the weeks work.
The Diamonds Hadder Story: Once again here in the first weeks of 23 I’ve been chipping away at my Narrations for the Hadder tales. I finished up 3 more Field Notes this week, with just 4 more to go. At that point I can focus on other things on my list this year. This is work that’s been on my mind the last few months during my mountain travels and it’s really great to close most of it out here in late January. It’s so much better listening to these little stories. I find myself playing them sometimes and it really helps me imagine the place and times and characters in a way that words don’t. A few new ideas came to me this week.. a new character named Ellsa, who Hadder crosses paths with on route to the Black Forest.. she is a grasslander.. and she’s pretty handy with a sword. Those grasslanders, I’ll tell ya… they are a fierce people. Then there “Jeds Place”, I won’t give away to much about this Tavern just yet… but it has a few secrets that you wouldn’t believe. As I imagined it, I thought to myself, hmmm, oh that’s clever. Usually when I get an idea like that it turns out pretty good. I was at LA fitness late one night, listening to Narrations as I was doing my fitness things, and that’s when it came to me. I often get ideas there.. it seems to be my creative space. In the Master Medlin narration, I mentioned a girl that Zabble had feelings for, the woman in the gardens, an illusion from Master Medlins cloak shenanigans.. well, turns out that she is a real woman who Medlin actually saw in a tavern on the outskirts of BOK, I think she might appear a few times throughout the story.. real and unreal perhaps. She's very pretty.. I have a picture of her. A face shifting cloak is a great tool to have when telling a mysterious story, or so I’ve noticed. Overall, I have a lot of dots to connect in this story and soon as I get done with scoring the last few narrations, I plan on doing just that. I’m excited to show you the photoshoot I did in the grasslands… but I’ve yet to build that montage of photos.. I thought today I would share it but time got away from me… as it does.. and it will take a bit to sort out the best ones and prepare a proper slideshow presentation. Maybe next time.
Diamonds Hadder photoshoot: Well, all things are pointing toward me having a new look moving into 23. Just another incarnation of me and my crazy ideas. I like costumes and imagery and I’ve now done a few shoots with some new looks. This idea started just before I left for white mountain in October.. I had started designing a few new get ups and make up ideas. Here in early January I did my first photoshoot, very preliminary to start, and it yielded some interesting results. Having seen the results of the first shoot, I’ll make a few alterations and see where I am with that on the next shoot which should happen in the next week or so. As I was panning through the photoshoot JPEGS, I did notice it looked rather interesting as I shuffled the images at about 25 frames per second, and it gave me a clever Idea for a music video. I do plan on having a video released when the tracks all get officially released, so perhaps this new look and this new idea that happened this week is the starting point for that. We’ll see. I can image by the close of 23 the site will have made a slight transition from the original masked Hadder to this new idea I have. I need a few more shoots under my belt. This is the fun stuff.
Music: For now, although I wake each morning singing to Loops and Patterns from the dead rabbit still.. all my focus is on the music score for these narrations. 12 done and 4 to go. I’m just about there. Once I can rest my mind from that, I can shift focus to the record and mixes and releasing it all. I did start a soundcloud page as I started finishing the narrations. Simply because it’s SO SO easy to link to tracks in the website from that platform. We’ll see how I feel about that as time goes by. You may have heard me talk about this in the past, but I try very hard to keep this diamonds hadder website the main portal for all things hadder related. It’s my place and everything I do is here and will always be here. I live here and I’m easy to find. I suppose as the record gets released, it will be everywhere anyway so, I think it’s just time to start preparing for such a thing. Soundcloud is a pretty cool platform for music and it’s amazingly user friendly. I find so many talented artists on that platform. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to releasing the final track and closing out this first record. Just a few hurdles to jump before I dive into that. Hope you enjoy the narrations.
Closing thoughts: What else. I like to close with some personal thoughts each week as it seems the whole damn world has gone crazy. Me I do find myself clinging to the ledge once and a while each week although my own personal footing has been widening these last 6 months. I didn’t realize as last year was closing that I would look back at the year as a whole and recognize all the work I did in 22. It was a pleasant surprise as I started this year. It gave me some needed perspective. I soon started to imagine the body of work I would complete this year… not a weeks’ worth or a months’ worth, but a years’ worth. That thought gave me some comfort, rest and newfound appreciation of the process. After all I am personally painted a pretty big picture here with this Hadder endeavor. And so I leave you this week with a little thought and hope for you, may you realize the same. That your endeavors and battles are not won today, that they are measured in larger hills and valleys. It’s ok to take a nap, even for a week or month.. it’s ok to sigh… to rest… to regroup. Sometimes staying the course, means getting off the road to enjoy the scenery once and a while. Our triumphs, victories, failures and successes are measured over much longer stretches than a weekend in January my friends. May you stay the course as well.. I’ll see you out there someday.
-j
Image: A narration for "The Keeper and the Key", sadly it was the death of Master Medlin, although nothing truly dies in the world of my dreams. More at www.diamondshadder.com/fieldnotes