Puppet On A String

Things have been picking up for Free Kittens & Bread. We are playing shows and making babies. Here is a video from our show at Cherrywood Coffeehouse in beautiful and benevolent Austin, Texas. Happy Entrails!

The Seconds...

Here's something I just wrote on the way to Florida.

The Seconds...

How many days can I go unchained 

Unspoken for 

With lights ahead and night behind 

How many hours can I fake 

In toxic motion 

With substance favor and substance blinds 

How far will this car go 

Tank unattended 

In a race on the road...

Is there a bottom to the pit 

Is there a sky to the world 

How much darkness can I put behind me 

Before the light bends and the day breaks 

 

I'm hidden in time

As wheels tarnish the ground 

The moment is sated and

The seconds are now 

New Shirt Design

Hey dudes and dudettes. Free Kittens & Bread is finally up and running as a full band and we have some shows coming up so be prepared for that. I just got done making our first shirt design. The artwork itself was originally done by the same person who did the album artwork for Recluse (Josh Stringer), but I added some font, touched it up, and put it on a shirt. Here.

Now we don't actually have the funds to make this shirt happen yet. We have the means, just not the funds. So please head to our band camp and buy an album or something. Anything helps. Thank you.
http://freekittensandbread.bandcamp.com

Recluse

On August 1st, I self-released my first album under the name Free Kittens & Bread. I'm headed to live in Austin on the 25th to promote it as much as I can and play any and all shows possible (if you know of anywhere, tell me immediately). Any support is much appreciated. If you haven't heard the album yet, check it out now! You can buy it on my bandcamp page, listen to it on spotify, or buy it on iTunes. You can even buy it on amazon! What are you waiting for!!!!?????

Album Artwork For "Recluse"

Here is all of the artwork that will be put on my album "Recluse", which will be released on August 1st. It should be available on Spotify, iTunes, and all of that good stuff so get stoked. This is the art before it was formatted for the actual album. Enjoy. All artwork done by Josh Stringer. 

Music & Film Stuff

What I am doing:

I have finished my album in musical terms. The songs were mixed and mastered by yours truly. I'm going to self-release it under Free Kittens & Bread. I've been throwing album artwork ideas back and forth with a gentleman by the name of Josh Stringer (thank you craigslist). It should be done within the next couple of days if not today (update: it's done). Then I will somehow get CDs replicated and begin my journey in Austin to promote it and such.

I have been neglecting film lately due to the recording process and, you know, doing everyfuckingthing by myself, but I was able to submit one of my films, Filmarchy, to two film festivals. I have high hopes that they will be accepted.

Here are links to the festivals for more info:

Little Rock Horror Picture Show

Hot Springs Horror Film Festival

Beyond that, here's the first film I put together. I realized I have never uploaded it or showed it to anybody. Enjoy.

 

These Chicks

This is the only all female rock group that I ever loved besides TLC.

Make Everything OK

For some reason this didn't work for me.

The magic button — Make Everything OK

This Year - The Mountain Goats

I am gonna make it through this year, 

if it kills me.

            The Mountain Goats "This Year" from A Bruntel on Vimeo.

Hop Along - Sister Cities

I saw Hop Along play in Dallas with Joyce Manor awhile back and it was a fantastic show. Frances Quinlan has a powerful voice. She rocks. They released a good album last year, and this song was released for their upcoming album. Fucking fun stuff man. Get into it.

Fun fact: Hop Along was an acoustic solo project started by Frances Quinlan.

Fun fact: Free Kittens & Bread is an acoustic solo project started by Chase Spruiell.

"Memory" by Charles Bukowski

I really like this poem. 

“memory” by Charles Bukowski

I’ve memorized all the fish in the sea
I’ve memorized each opportunity strangled
and
I remember awakening one morning
and finding everything smeared with the color of
forgotten love
and I’ve memorized
that too.

I’ve memorized green rooms in
St. Louis and New Orleans
where I wept because I knew that by myself I
could not overcome
the terror of them and it.

I’ve memorized all the unfaithful years
(and the faithful ones too)
I’ve memorized each cigarette that I’ve rolled.
I’ve memorized Beethoven and New York City
I’ve memorized
riding up escalators, I’ve memorized
Chicago and cottage cheese, and the mouths of
some of the ladies and the legs of
some of the ladies
I’ve known
and the way the rain came down hard.
I’ve memorized the face of my father in his coffin,
I’ve memorized all the cars I have driven
and each of their sad deaths,
I’ve memorized each jail cell,
the face of each new president
and the faces of some of the assassins;
I’ve even memorized the arguments I’ve had with
some of the women
I’ve loved.

best of all
I’ve memorized tonight and now and the way the
light falls across my fingers,
specks and smears on the wall,
shades down behind orange curtains;
I light a rolled cigarette and then laugh a little,
yes, I’ve memorized it all.

the courage of my memory.

Marijuana

Enigami Systems Inc. is a health information technology company that I work for on the side. They have been a strong advocate for medical marijuana and have been making great strides towards it's legalization. They need a little help with funding for a project right now and any help would be greatly appreciated. Please take the time to check it out.

Keep up with the company:

https://www.facebook.com/EnigamiSystemsInc

https://twitter.com/EnigamiSystems

http://www.linkedin.com/company/2669297?trk=tyah

Serotonin Trip

I have been working on an album for the past few months.

Here is a song from this album.

It's called Serotonin Trip.

Thank you. 

A Little Wisdom

I thought these were quite insightful. Enjoy.

Los Angeles, December 30, 1968

"Yes, that is [man's] quest. Everyone is trying to be happy, because that is the living entity’s prerogative. He is meant by nature to be happy, but he does not know where he can be happy. He is trying to be happy in a place where there are four miserable conditions—namely birth, old age, disease, and death. The scientists are trying to be happy and make other people happy. But what scientist has stopped old age, disease, death, and rebirth? Has any scientist succeeded?...

...So what is this? Why do they not consider, “We have made so much improvement, but what improvement have we made in these four areas?” They have not made any. And still they are very much proud of their advancement in education and technology. But the four primary miseries remain as they are. You see?"

Stockholm University, September 1973

"The material world is compared to dāvānala, a forest fire. As we have experienced, no one goes to the forest to set a fire, but still it takes place. Similarly, no one within this material world wants to be unhappy. Everyone is trying to be very happy, but one is forced to accept unhappiness. In this material world, from time immemorial to the present moment, there have been occasional wars, world wars, even though people have devised various means to stop wars. When I was a young man there was the League of Nations. In 1920, after the First World War, different nations formed the League of Nations, just to arrange for peaceful living among themselves. No one wanted war, but again there was a forest fire—the Second World War. Now they have devised the United Nations, but war is still going on—the Vietnam War, the Pakistan War, and many others. So you may try your best to live very peacefully, but nature will not allow you. There must be war. And this warlike feeling is always going on, not only between nation and nation, but also between man and man, neighbor and neighbor—even between husband and wife and father and son. This warlike feeling is going on. This is called dāvānala, a forest fire. No one goes to the forest to set fire, but automatically, by the friction of dried bamboo, sparks arise, and the forest catches fire. Similarly, although we do not want unhappiness, by our dealings we create enemies, and there is fighting and war. This is called saṁsāra-dāvānala."

-Śrīla Prabhupāda

The Winds Of Time

Coming and going,

The tree knows me well,

I circulate wisdom from the leaves, you can tell.

The wandering eye-a vision once told,

Ancestors come, and history folds.

There's laughter in things you'd never suggest,

but ponder upon the slant of a breast.

A humanly thought is worth more to you,

than truth in a touch when thinking is through. 

You'll never love more,

I've seen it before.

You'd struggle against the waves of a shore.

Pride is a thing i'll never endure.

You'll live with a question,

and never be more. 

I Think I Saw A...

THEY'RE BACK

Reunited: Neutral Milk Hotel

Tour Dates

I would like to go on a road trip to one of the shows if they don't add anymore.

Who's with me?

Goodbye Courage, Hello Sadness Again

Time to time when I'm feeling blue this lyric gets jammed in my head. "goodbye courage, hello sadness again". It comes from the song "Hello Sadness" by Los Campesinos. The lyric hits at the prime moment of melody in the song. It's such a great sensation to hear the perfect lyric with the perfect melody. I hope you know what I'm talking about because, in my opinion, that is what music is about. It's not about fleeting scenes or fragile pop culture. If you can personally connect with a song, whether it be from 1962 or 2011, then that's that.

This music video is kind of disturbing in a fingernails on chalkboard kind of way but funny in a "laugh at other people in pain" kind of way. PLEASE just suck it up and watch till about 2:10 to 2:40. It'll be worth it.

Produced and Directed by Casey Raymond and Ewan Jones Morris

http://www.caseyandewan.com/

If you like weird shit go watch the music video "The Hope That House Built" by Future Of The Left on Casey and Ewan's site. It's pretty kick ass. 

New Kicks

4:30am is probably not the most optimum time to post a blog promoting my band on a blog that no one looks at but who gives a shit. We just finished our first EP called New Kicks and it can be listened to and downloaded here:

http://oldkids.bandcamp.com/

I also edited our artwork so here is the before and after:

before

 after 

To Ramona

I've heard you say many times

that you're better than no one

and no one is better than you

If you really believe that,

You know you got nothing to win

and nothing to lose.

Too many things happen at one time. Filming continues with my associate, Blake Stepan, and we have only to wrap up a day of re-shoots. It's turning out pretty well. In between that and working a full time job, I've been attempting to focus on recording my music. Alas, money is a treacherous thing. Money and time. Time and money. You really can't have one without the other. 

What I'm currently reading:

The Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume I&II by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Bob Dylan Chronicles: Volume I by Bob Dylan

A Collection of Essays by George Orwell

Pinch Me, I'm Dreaming

My non-punctual friend Pete and I are beginning a short film series. When I say short film series, I mean to say we plan on making a film series that are all shorts and have an indefinite number associated with their duplication. Thus far, we have about 5 ideas circulating in our brains and written on digital paper via Microsoft Word 2003. One idea we have prepared up to the point of actually shooting, which is especially exciting. We are naming the series "Pinch Me, I'm Dreaming".

Let me explain, because this is certainly a complex and nontraditional idea.

We plan to create 5-6 (hopefully more) short films, probably about 1-3 minutes in length, that will be included in our "series". We will release these onto our completely new and unused YouTube account which can be found at this link: (no link: YouTube account has yet to be used). The series is based around an idea. The idea that we, as human units, trudge through daily life in a trance of repetition and the only things that snap out of this trance are the tiny miscalculations, errors, and spouts of forgetfulness that are constant in our lives. It's a broad idea, but we are trying to shine a light on simplicity and make it nice to look at.

Here is the logo we are going to use for our series. Something I've worked on for a bit and I'm pretty stoked about. 

We start shooting tomorrow. 

Bobby D & My Cup of Tea

Here's to the hearts

and the hands of the men

That come with the dust

and are gone with the wind

Some may differ on the opinion of Bob Dylan in his musical styles. Some may say that he's not as good as he's made out to be. Truth be told, I don't know. In music and in art, it's all opinion. Opinions always vary and there's nothing we can do or say that will change that. Taste is a valuable thing in itself though. It's not a bad thing that our different tastes set us apart. It's really what makes us interesting as a whole. If I don't like a specific song, that doesn't necessarily mean the song is bad, it's just not my cup of tea. If it's not my cup of tea, it's someone else's and there's plenty to drink!

here's a bit o' bobby d that's my cup of tea

Jobless Jobs

Due to my jobless situation, which is frustrating beyond all measures (although I literally just got a call for a job interview at half price books mid-writing of this blog entry), I have been spending my spare time undertaking pointless little ventures. So last night at about 2:00 a.m. I decided to brush up (ha!) on my photoshop skills.

I selected a random image on my computer that might be cool to edit with and continued to browse the web for little tips and hints for photoshop during my editing session. This is what I came out with. Ended up just making it related to the band I'm in, just in case it might become of use. Nothing special but I think it's pretty solid. If any pro's read this, let me know what you think. Other opinions are welcomed as well.

Original

After Photoshop

This hits me in the feels

"Amen" by Jeff Rosenstock

Directed/Edited by Bryan Schlam

Jeff Rosenstock - "Amen" from Bryan Schlam on Vimeo.

Jeff Rosenstock is a really powerful wordsmith and musician. He's better known for being in Bomb the Music Industry, but what he has been doing for music is damn noble in my opinion. He gives away all of his stuff for free online and operates a donation based record label called "Quote Unquote Records" (I'm sorry I just HAD to put it in quotes)

But download his album here FOR FREE (or donate): http://quoteunquoterecords.com/qur061.htm

If you do go and download the album for free with no consideration to donate, just consider this: If you don't throw in your Buck O' Five, who will?

You can also check out the other free music on the label's website. Bomb The Music Industry has all of their stuff up on there as well. Lots of good bands and good tunes and it's all for free.

Freedom costs a Buck O' Five.

Goodbye to the Normals

Although this video is a couple of years old, I saw it for the first time the other day and I feel 100% obligated to share it. Such a simple idea. Lovely little humor. Not only is it a fantastic short, it has inspired an idea for a video series that I will begin to work on soon. Hopefully. Enjoy!

Directed By: Jim Field Smith

Goodbye to the Normals from Jim Field Smith on Vimeo.

An Overdramatic Introduction

...and so it begins...

...as a means to an end...

...an allowance of beauty...

...for my faltering grin...

let the fear in the night be the price on my head!

...as I lay introduction...