Asbjorn Writing Workshop.

Do you write, or like reading/ critiquing new writing by others?

Over the summer, I had started up a workshopping group. It was starting to gather a bit of productive steam, and then, due to scheduling issues, the ball was kinda dropped for a bit.

But now, it's back, and I would like to build it to be an even stronger resource going forward.

Interested in participating, contributing, or even just observing? Stop by our facebook group-page and send a request to join the group so you can get into our discussion-boards, where the magic happens (at least initially).

Here's the blurb that I posted on the "Welcome" thread on the group's discussion-board, when I initially set it up, back in the summer, just to give a little bit of an overview of what we're trying to do with this- 




"The idea is simple. I want to spend much of the rest of my summer lost in a couple creative-writing projects that I don't have nearly enough time for during the semester. It dawned on me that I was a bit "out of the loop" of one of the most helpful elements of my process when I WAS a more active creative writer- the workshopping group. So, here it is. At least the ground-level, to get it moving quickly. If a different sort of forum would work better down the road, we'll move there. If (ideally) local cells of this group decide to meet up to do some flesh-and-blood round-table work, that would be awesome, and hopefully all tangible meetings will report back virtually for the benefit of those who were a bit out of range to attend.

Here's a quick run-down of the process I had in mind, at least to get started. 

Within the next couple days, I plan to make up a sort of generic form for intended submission for critique by the group... sort of a standardized abstract, with questions about your goals with the piece, intended audience, etc... My hope is that a piece of writing pitched as "experimental literary fiction, intended for academic journals" would receive a far different critical conversation on this forum than one prefaced with "I want to finally try to make some cash with my pen. Aiming for Readers-Digest-accessability." Neither (or anything in between) is preferred over the other here... I'm hoping the emphasis is mostly on writing-craft, with a specific focus on helping each other to most effectively meet our own stated goals.

So, the first step to contribute a piece for critique is to complete the form, and post it to a new thread (this can be done before you even begin writing, as just the synopsis and goals for a nascent idea, or in regard to a piece that you've already written that you wish to get feedback through the process of editing of, or anything in between.) Responses from readers are welcome and encouraged to these initial forms, to help both you and your readers better clarify where we're heading. Then, just run with it. Respond to feedback, mutually brainstorm, post fragments or links to complete files. Receive feedback, respond, edit, rinse, repeat. You get the idea.

Know someone who might be interested in contributing? If you think they'd be a good fit, by all means, send an invite. The more the merrier (and more constructive.) A word of warning however (particularly if you're new to the workshop setting)... I am (at least initially) primarily gearing this group toward professionally-minded writers serious about whipping their writing into shape right up into the publication process. This isn't necessarily always an endeavor for the faint-of-heart or thin-skinned... sometimes, for many of us, the most realistically-helpful feedback is also the most brutal and candid. I can't promise, for instance, that anyone on this forum will tip-toe around your potential emotional-investedness in your work... this is all about making our works the best they can be, not stroking each others' egos. With that said, however, hopefully it goes without saying, but just in case... keep the criticisms clean, above the belt, and constructive, folks (i.e., if you're going to tear something up a bit, cite specific examples, base your argument on craft, no cheap shots or vague derogatory statements, etc.) I don't want to have to police this, but I will if it comes down to it." 




There are already a hand-full of threads up, and a few pieces posted mid-process... But this would still be a great time to get in on the ground-floor, as a few more active participants would be phenomenal.

In case you missed it... (performance-poetry about translation-acts)

...one more video, as part of my catch-up of stuff I've worked on since my last post (as I mentioned in an earlier entry, i'm trying to break my return-to-posting promo-dump into a series of smaller, more specific entries this week, and this is one of those)... primarily for those who don't religiously follow my Facebook feed.

This one was another that began as part of an academic project. It's a bit of performance-poetry this time around.

...there might be others that I missed... if you're curious, you can peruse the Asbjorn Arts Collective's Youtube channel, and subscribe if you like what we're doing here. 

LeVautourEnsemble Update.

I'm currently working on a new record with my solo-electronic project LeVautourEnsemble. This one will be called "Machinique Meltdown," and is a follow-up to "...whose wings are a dull reality," which came out this past October through HeadHat Records. (If you haven't gotten a copy yet, it's downloadable for free/ donation- click here.)

I'm hoping that this one doesn't take NEARLY as long to finish. In fact, I was originally shooting for exactly the opposite extreme, to start and finish the record in a single week, right after I finished school... but the week turned into two, and now it's been about a month, I have two songs and a bunch of fragments (which, of course, is still a step in the right direction, since that's FAR more accomplished than in any single month over the course of the ten years I was working on the last one for.)

I decided this one is going to veer a bit more into the hip-hop(ish) direction... because I felt like it.  This will also be a bit more of a themed/ conceptual endeavor- a collection of tracks about various sorts of apocalypses.

Here is a video for the first track on the record, "Preface."

Another track, "I Am The Tongue," that will appear on the album was actually originally completed as part of an academic project... but as of now I think that it'll still work-

If anyone out there happens to be interested in dropping a cameo on the new record, by all means, be in touch. I'd love to pack this thing with as many odd-ball guest-appearances as possible.

Also, if you're perversely curious how that "PASTICHE" show that I had alluded to before turned out, peruse the following, at your own risk-

Tipsy Cougar on Headhat Records!

After much delay, Tipsy Cougar, my noisy indie-electro/ "metro-grime" project, has finally finished and released our album, "Immaculate Conceptions," through our good friends over at Headhat Records.

... and, guess what? It's available right now, to download for FREE/ donation! Click here to get it directly, or here to browse the rest of the excellent stuff in the Headhat/ Webhat catalog!

I was going to explain a bit about this project and the gradual creation of this record, but... Just download it and see for yourself... I think this mess may speak for itself. 

Yes, it's supposed to sound like that.

...resumptions... or somethin'... again...

So it happened again, after saying at the beginning of the semester that I was going to be better about using this blog than I had in previous terms, my posts fell off about mid-way through. Oh well.

But, that's all in the past now. As of January 1st, 2011, I am officially a "Master of Literature"... whatever that means. I want to send some massive thank-you's to everyone who's been supportive over the whirl-wind last couple of crazy years. You know who you are. It's been real... something.

In the meantime, I've taken the first part of January to decompress and re-gather myself... which has sorta kinda almost worked? Now it's get busy, get motivated, get it done time. Ready or not (jury's still out on that one).

And so this starts again.

I'm not going to lie, I've come to sort of hate these "return-to-posting," playing-catch-up sort of posts.  So, rather than post a laundry-list of links to all the garbage I've been working on and interested in since my last post (I'm not delusional enough to think anyone actually READS my info-dump entries, anyway... I just feel better to know I threw it out there in case anyone randomly WAS actually interested), I'm going to split it up this time into short bursts of more specific promo-garbage over the next week.

So I'll leave you here for today. Welcome back, and see you tomorrow.

"PASTICHE: an evening of post-modern sound-experimentation."

Friday, October 22. Manchester, NH. The Jam Factory (next to/ between Raxx on Elm). Be there.

This will hopefully be the first in a series of nights called PASTICHE in Manchester, trying to find a consistent home for the area's experimental music community (right now we're focusing specifically on electronic material, but down the road that will probably be open to interpretation.) 

This time around, we've got The Attic Bits, a chiptune/ 8-bit act from the seacoast (if you don't know what that means... they basically "DJ" using modified video-game equipment. It's pretty entertaining (and extremely listenable, and often danceable, for electro-fans, even if you don't pick up on the particular schtick.). 

Ross Boyd (frontman of The Tuna Fish Discrepancy, etc.) will be throwing down some electro noise (under an ironically-pompous-sounding moniker that promoter Sadi Khan and I pressured him into assuming for the set {"The Ross Boyd Experience"). To be perfectly honest, I've almost gone out of my way to NOT ask Ross what he has up his sleeve for the night, because I want to be surprised, and I know that it will be epic. (For a taste of Ross doing more electro-ish stuff, T.F.D. released a new record yesterday through Headhat Records, called "Old Haunts." It's rumored to be the last recording in the era of T.F.D. in its pre-full-band format, and features Ross delving into some fun experimental terrain. Download it for free {or donation} here. It's good. Really good.)

And I'm playing a set as LeVautourEnsemble. (now, I'm wracking my brain at the moment, but I believe that, in the 10 years or so I've been recording under that name, this might be the first time I'll perform under the moniker? Weird.) 

 Here's the thing, though. I don't plan to play any of the songs off of the new record. I know, I'm a stubborn bastard like that. Nope, this is an experimental electro-noise event, not a normal "show." My plan is to drop (with an assortment of junk compiled into a sort of deconstructed-"DJ"-rig) a seamless set of ebbing and flowing sound. I plan to get up to play with a couple lists of beats, samples, noises, etc. that COULD possibly be used,  some extremely vague lyric-prompts, maybe some pieces of my poetry to steal lines from, and improvise. 

Here's where I would like your help. This is the perfect opportunity to incorporate a bit of crowd-source magic, to make this a surreal and cathartic experience for all. So I have a couple of extremely minor requests. 

First... if you come to the show, and I walk up to you with a hand-held device of some sort, and ask you to say something that seems strange to you, please play along?

Second... I want to try to compile a list, between now and the show, of odd requests, prompts, propositions, etc... and try to work as many of them as possible into the set. So, either in comments to this post, the discussion-board thread on the L.V.E. Facebook page, to me directly in email, or on the clip-board I'll have at the merch-booth at the show, send me random ideas of things to make up lyrics about, things to sample (samples must make it onto the list at least a day before the show), etc. Then just show up at The Jam Factory and listen for how I incorporate YOUR idea! Sounds like fun, right?

Third... when you come to the show, bring some junk that makes noise. We'll be throwing down whole-room-style, and you don't want to be left out. 

I'm working through some ideas, and talking to some people, about guest appearances, etc... but I'm always open to more suggestions in that regard. Like I said, I'm thinking of this as less "show" and more "experimental {noisy} club-nite-event." So... if you're a visual-artist who wants to set up a projector-screen during my set and show some work? AWESOME! Are you a painter who wants to prop up an easel and create something live while I play? GREAT! PLEASE be in touch. That's the sort of night I'm thinking here... and I need your help to make that happen.

Other than that... just come. If you haven't gotten this idea yet, take my word for it. It's going to be fun. If for no other reason, you get to watch me do my trademark spasm-robot-dance ALL...NIGHT...LONG.

More music...

First off... As I alluded to in my last entry, after being "in the works" for the better part of ten years, the debut record of my experimental literary-electro project LeVautourEnsemble has finally been released!

To get this thing out, we've teamed up with a great little record-label out of Newmarket, New Hampshire called Headhat Records. The partnership is a really good fit for the project... Since 2001, Headhat's been putting out interesting, experimental, and obscure material, with a refreshing strategy that reminds us of a digital-updating of the D.I.Y. attitude of the cassette-mixtape labels we grew up with.

The record was officially released Monday, 10/4/10, and is available for download now, with album-art, liner-notes, etc, here... and the best part is? It's available for FREE (or optional donation if you're feeling particularly generous and supportive).

Don't forget to browse the rest of the Headhat catalog as well, there's a lot of neat stuff over there.

Also, don't forget to stop by and "like" LeVautourEnsemble and Headhat Records on Facebook!

Other music news... 

Check out Pull Trouble From the Fire. I've been making some noise with these guys lately... very exciting stuff, a ton of fun... very interesting things to come on that front I'm sure.

Following up on something else from my last entry, the show that I sat in with The Tuna Fish Discrepancy last month was a ton of fun, and I want to thank Ross and company immensely for the opportunity to tag along and mangle their songs. 

Video-footage from almost the entire show is available here...

This is my personal favorite-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0YJFLZlT8Y

In news of other shows upcoming... mark your calendars... Friday, Oct. 22 will be the first in a (hopefully) recurring series of experimental electronic nights called "PASTICHE: an evening of post-modern sound-experimentation" at The Jam Factory (Next to Raxx, on Elm St.) in Manchester, New Hampshire... I will be playing an improvised LeVautourEnsemble noise-electro set, with The Attic Bits and The Ross Boyd Experience. A flyer and more details (particularly some crowd-response prompts to allow YOU to help me make my set as crazy as possible) will be coming in my next entry... hopefully tomorrow.