I couldn’t sleep last night, so I poured a drink, put on a record, and opened my notebook. This happens every so often–I sit straight up in bed and feel compelled to make art. A few years back, I’d make collages or write poems. Stranded in the Midwest though, drawing has become the go-to form.Continue reading “late night seeing”
Category Archives: music
unplugged
Last fall, I watched the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, and immediately deleted all of my social media. What started as an emotional reaction to the implications of digitizing life quickly became a turning point. I deleted my Facebook and started calling my friends instead. I deleted my Instagram and started making more art. IContinue reading “unplugged”
letting go
I’ve never been great at letting go of things. But I’ve come to realize letting go might be the single most important lesson to be learned. The one constant in life is that everything changes. If we aren’t able to adapt to that change–to let go of the way things used to be–then we windContinue reading “letting go”
“make good choices”
Conflict is the engine of storytelling. Here’s the problem: I hate conflict. It takes a lot to make me angry and even more to make me yell. For years, I was a “people pleaser” who sought to make everyone happy, often as the cost of my own mental and emotional health. Avoiding conflict at allContinue reading ““make good choices””
my favorite thing about Weezer
For the second time in a row, Weezer announced an album, then put out something entirely different. After 2016’s The White Album. the band’s frontman, Rivers Cuomo, announced the band was going to release a follow-up entitled The Black Album. But as they started the recording process, Rivers changed his mind. Instead of the darkContinue reading “my favorite thing about Weezer”
the face of rejection
I’m recently submitted a few applications to grad schools. I got my first rejection yesterday. When talking with an old friend last night, he said, “What else can you do in the face of rejection but sing?” He immediately brought up Amy Grant’s “Hopes Set High,” one of the songbook hits he and I usedContinue reading “the face of rejection”
what to keep, what to leave out
I’ve been a Bon Iver fan for over ten years now. Justin Vernon’s work as a musician and artist is unparalleled, from the emotive experience of For Emma, Forever Ago to his collaborations with Kanye West and Taylor Swift. One of my favorite things I’ve seen Vernon do is perform an acapella version of hisContinue reading “what to keep, what to leave out”
the infinite playlist project
In my last semester of high school, I decided to make a mixtape commemorate each of the four previous years. The result was one of my favorite projects I’ve completed, a soundtrack to a few of the defining moments in my life. “The times you lived through, the people you shared those times with —Continue reading “the infinite playlist project”
succeed on your own terms
Every so often, in a half-hearted attempt to engage in a conversation, my parents will ask me about “selling out”: “Did [insert name of a band here] sell out when they released this song or this album?” My definition of selling out had changed quite a bit over the years, but here’s how I’d defineContinue reading “succeed on your own terms”
the shape of things
I spent a while at the art museum the other day, studying Saul Steinberg’s Mural of Cincinnati. While trying to recreate select bits and pieces in my notebook, I remembered a drawing teacher I met once who was fond of saying “Everything is made of simple shapes.” It’s easy to believe this, looking at Steinberg’sContinue reading “the shape of things”
