In my early drafts of this essay, I was set on revealing my notions to dabble in writing, film, art, photography, design, and haiku, among other things. I also planned on explaining why I hadn’t covered any Death Cab for Cutie songs (which perplexed those closest to me, who knew me well enough to point out that I reference Ben Gibbard and Co. on a near-daily basis); why I felt my love for The Album hindered my songwriting; why producing album-like collections was so important to me; and how I might deal with the obvious copyright-infringement of my Covers Resolution but still get those covers to the people who want them, legally. I even considered writing about how relevant this whole five-part essay was to me anymore. (I decided it is still relevant, mostly.) I also had promised to “reveal” a number of projects I had toyed with attempting, including my own interpretation of Jack Kerouac’s Big Sur (like Gibbard and Jay Farrar did), and a number of music videos or video-blogs showcasing my covers, as well as a few simple piano covers likely to become “lost amongst all the other webcam-wielding teenagers doing just that.”
I chose not to cover each and every facet of my ruminations and wonderings, mostly out of my own disinterest, lack of time, and newfound inspiration for other topics and goals. So, as I have always intended, in this fifth part of Realizations, I am now pleased to present a few new endeavors of mine.
For starters, a new blog has been started, which I’ve named “Tangled Mad Cliffsides.” Like “Misty Aeons,” the name is originally a phrase found in Kerouac’s Big Sur. There are a few reasons why I’ve begun Tangled Mad Cliffsides. As you’ll see, the top of the page is home to six pages: Misty Aeons, These Cages, Haiku, Rainbow Explosions (another Kerouac-named project), and Tangled Mad Cliffsides. For now, only a one-sentence description and a related photo reside within each page, but with time each will have it’s own extensive description, as well as links to any related post. I want to share these different creative outlets of mine with people, and I figure a blog is the most culminating way to do so. I do hope you’ll take a look, and make repeat visits in the future (when you can).
The second announcement is that Facebook now holds another home for Misty Aeons. Really, that’s all that needs to be said of that. “Become a fan” if you’re into that kind of thing.
The last (and most important) report of mine is the release of the culmination of my four covers done for 2009: The Covers Resolution. Exactly one year ago, to the day, I released the first cover for my then-recently-resolved project; it had a strong start, but was soon tripped by the complex vines of everyday life. In the end, only four songs were started, and only four were finish. And now that it is 2010, I’ve decided to close the door on the resolution, at least in the formal sense. With it no longer being 2009, I have little right to continue to make covers in the name of the resolution; however, I do plan (as I’ve said) to cover the other songs I had interest in exploring. The album is free. As in, no money on your behalf.
In The Coves Resolution, I have also included instrumental tracks, because if it were me, I’d love to hear what the background music is like on its own. Imogen Heap did it with Ellipse, and so will I. Also attached is a PDF with a link to view and download the digital booklet that I designed myself. It’s 22 pages of Oregon Coast photography and Century Gothic typography, with lyrics and excerpts from the four essays I wrote for each cover upon its original release. (One thing I’d like to note about the whole download: in the interest of continued growth and networking, I have required an e-mail address with every download. Ask the people who have already donated their e-mail for Under This Endless Curtain—not a single letter has appeared in their electronic inboxes in the three months since they submitted their address for free music. This is likely to remain nearly the same, especially since I won’t have any big news for at least a month. Even then I might forget or forgo an e-mail announcement. So don’t be afraid to submit your address; if you truly take issue with it, please Twitter or Facebook or MySpace message me, or contact me however you want to (write me a letter!), and I’ll set you up with your own, personal, e-mail-less download.)
So this concludes my Realizations essay (even though at this point it really hasn’t been much more than a gramophone for news). I hope that if you’ve followed along here for the last few months, it’s been enjoyable, or at least insightful. If you haven’t been following, your welcome to read the past four parts, at either the new Tangled Mad Cliffsides blog or the old (and likely obsolete) MySpace blog, or even the minimalistic Tumblr blog (which is supplemented by my WordPress and Twitter posts). And so, finally finished, I’ll leave you with what I found sums up my creative endeavors, thanks to New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake:
