20130111

programming note

First of all: happy 2013. I hope it's a good one.

I've always had a certain affinity for the new year; certainly I've written about it here a few times. Of course, the years all run together eventually, and did that really happen more than two years ago now? and so on and so on. Maybe that's why I think it's important to periodically stop and take inventory.

We're coming up on two weeks into the new year, and I've been putting off this project I've been planning for a while, for reasons which are unconvincing and unimportant. It came from a casual suggestion sometime in November, I think, when I was telling someone about my ghost stories. "Oh, do you do that for every month?"

And I said, "I do now." Not ghost stories, of course, though there are ghosts in all my stories. I tried a bit in November and December but I didn't have the direction I wanted. Then I remembered another project I wanted to do, which is ultimately inspired by Jason Webley's excellent Counterpoint album ("Twelve songs in twelve keys, with recurring themes and each song written with a balancing counterpart," according to the website.)

There are twelve months in the year, and we're starting with the first one. January is a month about hope--there will be plenty of time for regrets later.

Finally, I'm still writing Vaudeville Ghosts, which is different from the things I put up here, and probably a little bit weird, but I'd like it if you would read it all the same. Who knows? You might even enjoy it.

So, I shall leave you with a belated New Year's benediction. We didn't do anything to earn this shiny new year we've been given, but by whatever you hold sacred, I hope you get some damn good use out of it before you have to trade it in. Twelve whole months! Let's build some regrets together.

Ever yours, ever truly,
RM

4 comments:

Kizolk said...

How Tom Waits can you get? Not that it displeases me!

But I gotta say, this entry was slightly less amazing than your other stuff. :'( Sometimes, you just have to kill one off.

rs said...

it's hard to make an informative post that is also entertaining, i'm afraid, but i figured it was worth an effort

Kizolk said...

Oh nah? Humor doesn't always work on the net especially between strangers, but that's what it was supposed to be. Well, not so much humor as reenactment; I did think it was a character speaking, at first, as opposed to the author.

My jokes are embarassing enough as is and so I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to explain them next time. Thank you, sir. Thank you indeed!

rs said...

if nothing else, being compared to tom waits is one of the highest compliments a man can receive, so, you know, there's that.

as always, my primary hope is that people enjoy the words i string together. sometimes it works out.