Independent Clauses

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I am about as moved in as I am going to get. I need to fix my bookshelf (especially the shelf that I just noticed is sagging under the weight) and put posters on the walls, but beyond that I’m put up and squared away.

Gospelized is going great guns. I am continually amazed that the things I have to say resonate with people. But they do so in increasing number. I am pretty excited about it.

Independent Clauses had its seventh birthday. I learned that it’s harder than it seems to put together a compilation. Oh well. Next year I’ll know better how to do it.

I’ve recently become obsessed with cover songs. It’s just so interesting to see how things are re-interpreted. I suppose this has a connection to the fact that I am essentially re-interpreting life over there at Gospelized. Actually, I’m just re-interpreting life everywhere. Even that which we create as fiction is an interpretation of experiences and feelings we or others have had.

Peter and I’s book is moving along. We’re moving to outlining.

The illustrious B Burns and I are in beginning stages of starting a humor blog together. The also illustrious Chris Krycho and I are thinking of starting some sort of project called “A Full Tank of Gas and Lots of Wyoming Ahead,” which was the title of a recent post over at Blog and Mablog of the also also illustrious Doug Wilson. We liked the post a lot. I think I liked the phrase more than the content, though. The content was very good; I’m just obsessed with phrases.

That’s what I got.

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So Gospelized has been a great success so far in my book: I enjoy doing the work immensely, and people are responding critically and with congratulations. I can not ask for much more out of a project.

Peter C. Myers and I are starting up serious work on our fantasy novel. I am incredibly excited about this; Peter C. Myers’ thoughtful friendship and joie de vivre are encouragements to my soul.

Independent Clauses needs some new writers; it has come down to solely me. While I’m okay with this, the growing stack of music on my desk is not.

I’ve put The Greater Clothes Exchange of the Universe and The Last Unicorns on Earth on hold right now. I am focused on Gospelized and the fantasy novel (which I will soon unveil the title for, as soon as we have a working one!).

I’ve been reading a great deal of literature about Christian art, as well as Christian art itself. I have Dick Staub‘s The Culturally Savvy Christian sitting next to me, as I’m half-finished with it. I recently purchased beautiful hardcover editions of Paradise Lost, The Poems of John Donne and The Confessions of St. Augustine; I have started in on the Donne so far. At the same incredible book sale, I purchased a softcover volume that includes all of the Chronicles of Narnia (side note: I almost wrote the Chronic WHAT cles of Nar-nia).

This weekend I hung out with Brent Baldwin, who was co-songwriter with me in Tragic Landscape (second side note: the current band picture at that site is one of about four on the internet that feature me without facial hair). We got together because we, along with members PC Hance III and Kyle Smith, recently decided to record Tragic Landscape’s last, lost album HeIsTheSuperFool over the next few months. As we will be in two separate towns, it could be a slow process. We’re okay with that. It’s been in the queue for four years already.

We also wrote a few songs for a possible future project tentatively titled Broken Keys that we plan to conduct primarily over long-distance, a la The Postal Service. Think soft-rock and reggae meshed together. Totally kidding. It will sound nothing like that. Honest.

Also, I’ve been recently pretty obsessed with Lost and Found by the Fools. Its beautiful melodies and gentle songwriting have captured the essence of this slowly-arriving summer for me.

Wrapping up this absurdly long project update, I’ll leave you with the realization that we are in the sports doldrums. As a Mets fan, I can’t even get excited about baseball until late August or September, because that’s when the Mets will either crash and burn or barely eek into the playoffs. No matter how awesome they’re doing, they’ll find a way to mess it up. And there’s no other sports to watch, save NASCAR, but there’s a whole post on whether or not that’s even a sport. Same for golf. Less than 180 days to college football season!

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After several weeks of work getting all the details together, Gospelized.com is live today. It’s a daily art project focused on the gospel. I’ll be posting poems, essays, stories, photos, drawings, and more. I am tempted to include other people’s art (“This Too Shall Pass” by OK GO has some deep truths not too far off from the Gospel, in my opinion), but for now it’s a 100% unique blog. Today’s poem was inspired by Glee. It’s not my favorite poem thus far (that would be Poem of Ecstatic Praise #1), but it’s a worthy entry.

I have been neglecting Independent Clauses in favor of Gospelized; what can I say? I’m a sucker for a new project. This weekend, though, I’m jumping back on the IC horse and cranking out a bunch of overdue reviews.

Peter C. Myers and I have started up work again on our epic tale. I will keep you posted.

I’ve put Greater Clothes Exchange of the Universe on hold until I have a firm grip on how Gospelized works. Then I can dedicate brain space to my new novel.

Thunder prediction: Game 6 is a close loss. I love my boys, but I think that the Lakers found the magic formula in Game 5. Please, please prove me wrong, Durantula/Westbrooks/James Harden!

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New projects!

If I go too long without a project at hand, I start to lose my mind. So, I’m using this summer to get into top-flight shape:

+I’m picking up running (Couch to 5K! Yes!)

+I’m starting a new art project to be announced very soon

+I’m working on Independent Clauses’ 7th birthday project

+I’m working on the outline for my next novel, The Greater Clothes Exchange of the Universe

+I’m working on a collaborative novel with Peter C. Myers

+I just bought an organ, which I will be using to write new songs, some of which will go towards point number two

And that is all. But it’s certainly enough.

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Neglect

I have neglected this blog. I didn’t even stop to check the date of my last post, because I’m sure it would be embarrassing to me. I have been not writing here because I’ve been writing like a maniac to catch up on Independent Clauses work. And it’s working! As of today, I have no albatross albums hanging around; I finally reviewed Inner Surge’s An Offering, a year and a half after it came out and a year after the band broke up. But I reviewed it, because it was haunting me. Distressingly, it was an awesome album. Why did I not get to it sooner?! There are no good answers.

While I have no releases clouding my mental happiness, I do have four more releases that came in the door before February started. Once I finish those four reviews, I’ll be working on current stuff. And that will be a really good feeling. I can just feel it.

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This is my 200th post. It neatly coincides with my decision to start being more disciplined in posting. I’m going to start using “tags” and “categories,” because I’ve heard that people like these things. Also I’ve heard that they make people be able to find your site. Ah, that. Readership.

An update on projects:

- I “released” the album today. Its “official” release was December 21. I say all these things “in quotations” because when there’s no money being exchanged, it’s very unimportant to have things like “release dates.” Nevertheless, it is now available at this website for free. You can listen to and download the whole thing, and all you have to do is go to www.stephencarradiniandthemidnightsons.bandcamp.com. Honest! I won’t sell your e-mail address to strangers, I swear. Quick numbers: 13 tracks, 5 years to write, 9 months to record, 8 musicians, 7 recording sessions, 4 completely solo tracks, 1 cover song.

-Now that the album is “released,” I’m going to start editing The Last Unicorns on Earth in earnest.

-I want to get re-started on the fantasy project that Peter C. Myers and I started writing this summer but put on hold for the semester while I wrote Unicorns.

-I’m in the plotting stages of my next solo novel. Details are fuzzy, but it looks like there will be a lot less cursing and probably more fight scenes (as odd as that combo seems).

-I’m in the process of making Independent Clauses back into a daily pub (that is, five times a week). It’s going to be a lot of work, but it’s what I want to do.

-Listening to a lot of good music: Post Harbor’s excellent post-rock manifesto “They Can’t Hurt You If You Don’t Believe in Them,” Freelance Whales’ Myspace at the urging of my friend Jenn Scott, and Wild Light’s Myspace because of my friend (and incredibly talented illustrator) Jason Flack.

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