Gossip [&] the Devil

inside the DIY ARTBOOK project :: drawings by Natascha Peiser

No one gets into this business to make money. If you’ve succumbed to an artists calling you’re admitting you’re willing to spend your life in poverty and constant question from those around you who just don’t get it. DIY labors are born of love, dedication and a drive you can’t quite explain. Sometimes your faith shakes, cries and downright denies its ability to continue. But you do, because you must and because there are others who believe in you.

Natascha Peiser is one of these people. In a recent interview with Silverthorn Press, Natascha said: ” I´m a self-taught artist. I am learning by doing.”

A art-liver in her own right she’s been a fan and friend of G[&]D nearly since the beginning, finding a home among the Modern Orphan mantra and supporting however she could, much to my appriceation. This is how we came together, though an entire ocean separates us (She lives in Hamburg, Germany). This is the power of art and the humanities. Two like minds, suffering and surviving for their art, striving to carve a small place for our own works in the vast expanse of the universe.

When she began work on her DIY ARTBOOK project I admired her and indeed planned on purchasing one when she was through. I was excited she had decided to pursue her art in some fashion for she’s quite a remarkable sketch artist; she’s even been endorsed by the likes of Amanda Palmer. When she asked me to contribute I was honored and some time later sent her some handwritten, typed and burned up works of poetry to be included among its decorated pages. The result is her very first book project, which she’s proudly finished and set for sale today.

inside the DIY ARTBOOK project :: drawings by Natascha, words by yours truly

This is a genuine labor of love–love for art, love for preservation and the unshakable belief that there is something more to these endeavors we pursue than sheer vanity and ego, that these things can forge connections across oceans and modes of thinking. You can purchase the DIY ARTBOOK featuring Natascha and myself here in her webstore for only $10, which includes free international shipping. Don’t forget all of my works featured in the DIY ARTBOOK can also be found in my first chapbook, The Rough Chronicles of Bipolar Romance available through modern.orphan.designs. for $10 as well, including shipping. Independent art is alive and well! Modern Orphans unite!

inside the DIY ARTBOOK :: art and words by yours truly :: soon for sale at modernorphandesigns.com

Troubadour 21 :: The “My Brother Billy” Series and Upcoming Interviews

I touched on this in the last post but I’ll expand just a little further with this one. Troubadour 21 has aptly named  my series”My Brother Billy”–  an out-of-order, sexually charged, angsty series I created over two years ago on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico when I was looking for a new muse to guide me during a particularly dark and troubled time. They are stories of a twenty-something girl, her much older brother and her love interest, Nathaniel. They’ve recieved rave reviews from the editors of T21 and as a result I’ve been contracted to write a story a week for them to continue the series. I hope to publish them all in book form one day and , in all honesty, this excercise is forcing me to write during this writing drought I’m experiencing and so I thank them from the bottom of my heart for giving me a chance.

Lead Article featuring my “Billy” series by Editor Paquita Roth

And, in case you missed them, here are parts I through III of the series–take a taste and see for yourself:

Part I :: Living Under Glass
Part II :: The Inquisition
Part III :: The Invention of Hopeless Beach

Part IV will be posted soon and I’ll make sure to keep them updated as best I can on here, including links on the side bar for easy access. If you enjoy them, please share them with your friends and help me achieve a readers choice status!

Also, in the spirit of crossing art borders and in G[&]D breaking news, I have upcoming interviews with the authors of the forthcoming poetry and photography book, Flowers + Filth: Rock photographer Lisa Johnson and William Francis of Aiden! Look for those in the near future, as well as my interview with Kill Hannah’s newest touring guitarist, Maddox, coming as soon as he has a break from tour! Get ready to feast your eyeballs on deliciousness with these. I’m super jazzed about working with such talented and well-spoken individuals.

It has been a bleak month creatively and will likely continue into a bleak November, but on this Devil’s Night it’s forever important to remember that while pressing on is the last thing you want to do, it is essential. For if we do not fight to keep these things alive, if we do not create the art needed to bind human beings to one another, no one else will. Unique is the person willing to take on the burden, and the blessing, of being an artist. Keep being brave, dear Orphans.

P.S. If you’re in Tulsa this coming Tuesday I’ll be reading from The Rough Chronicles of Bipolar Romance at the Gypsy Coffee House [303 N Cincinnati Ave, Tulsa, OK 74103] starting around 8pm – come, grab some great lattes and open your ears. Copies of my book will be available at this time as well!

I’ll be honest. I haven’t submitted to anything print in a long, long time, save the Columbia Poetry Review (who have a history of rejecting me, but I’m hopeful this time). I’ve felt like writing but nothing decent is hitting the paper. I think I’m getting out the dust and mold before the clean work comes. Cracking my creative bones.

In the meantime, I conducted a short interview with the rock photographer Lisa Johnson the other day, which I’ll post later when it’s closer to the release of her collaborative effort with wiL Francis, Flowers + Filth. Lisa has shot some of the biggest bands in history, captured chaos all across warped tour, but I won’t get into that until the write-up. I have contacted wiL as well, but since he’s just had a baby I’m not sure his schedule will allow.

I was fortunate enough to see U2 and Muse in Dallas this past Monday. Two iconic and epic bands, for separate reasons, together in the same huge, tin room. The show was a trip for my birthday back in April as well as my roommates way of getting me to see U2 since she’s been singing their praises since I moved in. I’ve never seen Muse before and what I walked away with was yes, they’re very good performers but because you can tell they do the performance a lot. They played “Map of the Problematique” which was the only song I’d asked for and they didn’t play “Knights of Cydonia” which was the only song I asked not to play. So it was a win all around.

U2 was pretty unbelievable. Everyone said Bono was a priest and I’m inclined to believe them after what I saw. He’d say “raise your hands” and you’d think you were in church. There was a man next to me so enraptured I’m not sure the smile left his face the entire show. At one point Bono quieted the entire band while the crowd sang “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and I wondered, as I mumbled along with the believers, how that must feel to have so many thousands of people say your words back. How could that ever get old? I saw sisters, brothers, boyfriends, girlfriends and parents hugging each other during various songs. The crowd didn’t have a mean bone in it’s body, they just wanted Pastor Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam to deliver them from real life for two hours, where they could hug and feel safe doing so, where a smile didn’t come barbed with guilt. Since it was their “360 degree tour” their big pile of “space junk” went around the arena so there wasn’t a bad seat in the house.

Not in dallas, but you get the idea. No clue who took this. Email if offended.

The acoustic “Stuck in a Moment” with Bono and The Edge was a personal highlight for me, where I discovered The Edge had a very nice singing voice and that the song resonated with me in such a way that I was forced to tears. But, as he evangelized, “it’s just a moment, this time shall pass.” I’m sure I’ll write more about this later, but I thought I should at least mention it since it impacted me in a way I”m not used to.

After the show a marathon 8 hour drive home because of concert traffic and we landed back in Tulsa at 8am, just in time for my roommate to go to work. I’d ask her occasionally if it was worth it. She always said the same thing: “Yes.” If you can answer “yes” to those question about the things you do in your life, regardless of what comes, you’re headed in the right direction.