Musings from the basement...

Broken Staircases, a new post-rock sonic experiment for your listening pleasure

This one has been in gestation for a while, much of it pre-Covid, from the time I was recording Empty Nest. Took a while for it to come into shape in my head, to realize what the record was trying to be, but I think it got there. This is an instrumental post-rock record, largely improvised, with a greater focus on electronic drums than I usually have. It’s meant to be a journey; a series of rises and falls and lulls and crescendos. It’s about looking back for so long, you forget to look forward until it’s too late. Recommended if you like Ride (but instrumental), Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor, etc., though I don’t claim for a moment it actually sounds…
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BLOGGERS BEWARE: Lovefreund, Benjamin Jorgensen, and the photo credit scam

Back in late 2020, I came across a scam whereby a scammer trying to generate links to their site falsely claimed credit for a photo I used, and asked for the photo credit to be switched to one that pointed to their site. Turns out it was a scam that ran pretty deep on Wikimedia Commons. The story ended up getting picked up by a bunch of tech blogs. Well, it’s happened again. This time the scam originates from a sex toy affiliate site in Germany. I will name them, but won’t link them directly. After all, that’s what they want! It began when I received the below email. I’m posting it in full in case others try to Google the text of emails they’ve…
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Finally finishing a music project feels great! (m2 – Passageways to the Ever)

It feels like forever since I finished a music project. That’s because it’s been since pre-pandemic since I finished anything, and pandemic time has been an eternity. I do music because it gets something out of my system. If I go too long without creating some sounds, I get antsy. So I’m glad to have finally finished something. Granted, all of this material was recorded pre-Covid. It just took me that long to put it all together — not because it was difficult, but because my head just wasn’t in it. Such has been Covid life. But it’s finished, and I’m happy with it. These are guitar soundscapes and ambient drones, meant for the background or, if you just want to clear your head, for…
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“It’s Nice to Eat the King” is my first new music recording in a year

Recording music was an escape for me. My focus on big, layered sonics, ambiance and sometimes even downright noise came in no small part because I can get lost in all that sound. It’s meditative. Relaxing. Soothing despite the noise. But for some reason, the pandemic has coincided with the longest musical dry spell I’ve experienced in years. Aside from some digital music created last year for a project I will post about another time, I haven’t created anything. Nothing at all. Hell, I went nearly a year without even picking up the guitar, much less writing something on it. Until last night. That’s when a sonic jam accidentally spilled out while testing some equipment. And damn, it felt good to create again. It’s a…
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14 Seconds: Short Fiction

14 seconds of oxygen left. She pulled at the airlock handle again. It wouldn’t budge. She could feel the heat of the flames behind her and the ringing of the damned klaxon was boring into her skull and the handle wouldn’t budge, because of course it wouldn’t, and the klaxon wouldn’t shup up. 13 seconds of oxygen left. When she was 12, she wanted to ride horses. She knew it was a cliché even then, but it didn’t deter her. She wasn’t the princess type, she didn’t dream of elegant gowns and fancy ballrooms and Prince Charmings, but horses? Absolutely. The more horses the better. Not riding side saddle with a stiff back and “proper” air, though. That wasn’t her. She wanted to ride horses…
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