Ran into some dude a couple of weeks ago who asked me if I was still writing, and when I told him yeah, he responded that he hadn’t seen anything on my ‘little blog’. So I guess I’m supposed to post links over here when stuff appears out in the world in order to better promote my brand or something. Anyway, this guy, he’s one of those integrated-promotion/synergist types who come through town every now and then determined to improve our culture–usually mistaking culture as something that costs money, where food and art have the same creative value. One of those guys. Anyway, they’ve usually moved here from up north, and it’s unclear how they make a living since they never have a job (most likely they’re coasting off family money, which goes a lot further in the US South). I guess I can see where the guy had a point about the value in updating my blog, but then I heard earlier this week that a girl just filed rape charges against him and apparently she’s not the first person in town who’s experienced his, um, inability to take no for an answer. Which say what you want to about self-promotion, but I think that’s taking it a little too far.
Regardless, here’s some links to the last half-year or so of things that got published out in the world. Because trying to write this stuff while I raise a toddler and my wife completes her PhD. isn’t already time-consuming enough.
Got a gig writing over at The Fanzine. Where the checks arrive on time and the editors are always super-enthusiastic. This will link you to all of them, but do yourself a favor and go check out the 24hrs I spent inside a local convenience store, or my well-supported argument that Something Wild is a better movie than its better-lauded contemporary Blue Velvet, or maybe most spectacularly, my profound rage at the recent Ben Lerner and Joshua Cohen books.
There’s also been some notable music writing:
My reaction to the debut of Apple Music.
A review of last year’s stunningly great Jenny Hval record.
A rant about Pitchfork’s Top 200 songs of the 80’s.
A eulogy for Nick Marsh, the singer of Flesh For Lulu that goes places most eulogies don’t.
I contributed to a book that’s coming out this year, 101 Albums To Die Before You Hear, wherein I explain why classic albums like Loveless, 69 Love Songs, Have One On Me, In Utero, and Tunabunny are actually shit.
And in case anyone cares, over the past two years I’ve also written 150,000 words of my novel, A Carolina Rebel In Larry Bird’s Court. Just don’t even ask. Still working on getting the last one out (ever-incrementally closer, a matter of months now, I think).
Actually, I’m realizing now that the reason I never do this shit is b/c I don’t believe anyone’s reading it, and addressing an audience that isn’t there is what crazy people do, and I’m already far enough along that spectrum that I try to avoid crazy-making stuff as much as possible.
Scott Creney 