It’s been four or five days since I last wrote. I’m still enjoying my new keyboard and play it about 20 minutes every other day or so, which isn’t a ton, but it’s still enough that I can see myself making minor improvements.
Tonight will be eight days of doing the 23 minute body-scan guided meditation I’m hoping to do for 56 days straight. I’m already starting to feel better. I haven’t been in a rage since I last wrote, and I’m handling stress with a little more ease. I’ve also tried to set a goal or intention and plant it in my heart… something I want more than anything, or things I wanna see unfold. I place those ideas in my mind and try to give them some light and yesterday I received a couple of truly kind and encouraging rejection letters. While rejection is not the goal, it’s hard to read something like this and not see the good in it… at least for me, as I try to see as many sides to everything as I can…
There was more to the letter in the beginning about how they were sorry to say that the market is more selective as ever and they have to keep a modest list, which is what a lot of them say. They went on to say my stories were “heartfelt, engaging, and need to be told” and gave me some advice on picking an overarching takeaway based on the 50 pages they read. It was actually too long to screenshot the whole thing, but this was the best part, so I thought I’d share.
I’ve just been doing what I can to get through shit. I’m cleaning the apartment more, cooking, writing queries, doing art, getting artist statements ready for the upcoming show, getting outside here and there, and reading “On Writing” by Stephen King. I haven’t watched any TV or movies lately, although I bought a fan edition of Empire Records the other day because it was “Rex Manning Day” (a holiday for nerdy Empire Records fans) and I was telling Koda about it. He has never seen it but said it sounded good, and from what I know of his taste in movies, he is actually quite picky, but Empire Records seems like it would be perfect for him, so for five bucks I had to grab it for when he comes this summer.
I did a new drawing called “Brick Tales”… it’s million dollars or best offer. (;
I made collages with some of the art I’ve done in the last few months… mostly all in 2021…
I have my big Open Mic/Art Show Zoom Party this Friday night and it’s looking like it will be a success and get as many people as the other two I did this past year, which were an average of 30 people.
I have to practice my songs in a minute.
Speaking of music, I’ve been listening to lots as usual. I’m getting a playlist ready for 4/20. I’m gonna eat a brownie, smoke, and listen to weed related albums all day. Nothing like high standards. No pun intended, yet there it is.
One of the records I got recently was the new Common album, “A Beautiful Revolution, Part 1” with Black Thought of The Roots, Chuck D of Public Enemy, Lenny Kravitz, and Stevie Wonder. Common was one of the most important hip hop artist for me early on who showed me hip hop could be truly beautiful, like any other great music genre, but this is his best in a while. I highly recommend it.
Here it is.. the whole thing as a performance video. Damn. I’m gonna have to watch this too…
And that is where I leave you for now. I am extremely grateful for getting through these hard times and I’m still thinking of my friend Randy and missing him. I’m also trying not to think about it too much because I get worked up talking and writing about it, so I’m mostly not doing too much of that either.
Peace
