What do birthdays mean?

I don’t know. A long time ago, it was pretty easy. As a kid, it was presents and a desire to be older. More responsibilities, more trust, more privileges. The thought that at sixteen you could drive was enough to spur on through the age of fifteen. Always hurrying, always rushing right on through a time period that felt eternal then and seems painfully short later.

I consider these things on my thirty-fifth birthday. It’s not old by any stretch. I can’t say that without threat of people beating me with a raw fish in retaliation. I don’t know why I’m so introspective this time around. Since the age of twenty-five, I’ve pretty much just weathered birthdays quietly without much thought.

Today, I think back on all this stuff possibly because my life has been so full of changes lately. I started a new job officially on Monday; a job I never thought I would want or seek. It’s a dramatic change (possibly improvement) but is very new. As with all things that are so completely different than what we are accustomed to, this is fairly scary. I know I can do it but I find myself questioning whether I should do it.

What is life anyway? What does it mean and matter? What happens in our youth that we regret, lament or praise? I look back and carefully consider that I didn’t really waste much time. Frankly, I never have wasted time. I’ve always done something even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be doing. And now, with this job, I still have time to do things.

I look back on my accomplishments.

Before I was twenty, I met Rob Brown and joined the Eaten. After recording some awful tapes that we were still proud of, we played some shows. I had already been playing guitar for a good ten years. At that point, I learned to compose with the Ensoniq. I miss those keyboards. They were a lot of fun.

Shortly after the Eaten, I joined Abney Park with Rob. We recorded some amazing CDs including From Dreams and Angels, Taxidermy and Death of Tragedy together. The shows and people we played with were pretty fantastic for the most part. I can honestly say that there was more fun than bad in the Abney Park part of my music career.

Prior to that, I had always wanted to write. Since I was extremely young I was interested in storytelling of all sorts. I went to school for English, not music and have studied this topic extensively. My first endeavors were pure crap on my road to finishing my first, second and third novels.

Glass Moonlight is one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written. I’m proud of that book for a variety of reasons but it really exemplified a success for me. I was able to sit down, plan a book on a Monday and write the entire first draft by the following Sunday. I was inspired beyond belief and since then, I’ve finished several books but none felt quite as exciting as that one while doing it.

Years of not doing music led me to start Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society. The first CD was the product of a lot of input from a lot of people. I’ve been proud of the music we’ve created and it’s done very well. The second CD sort of came out of nowhere and became a real labor of love; something that Erica and I both put a lot soul into. I think that the results are extremely fun and definitely something to be proud of.

Just this month I’ve managed to start work on a new project called Wading Dahlias with Erica. This comes from my recent affection for the Cranberries and the acoustic guitar side of Dead Can Dance. We’ve already put together three songs and have more on the way. This has been an incredibly different experience than my years of playing with Abney Park and even DNBS. Simpler on the outside, the straightforward rock has a different feel and a different composition style that makes it harder for me to pull off. At the same time, I’ve never had more fun writing.

Finally, back to story writing, I was responsible for the creation of the Clockwork Man Video Game story. The world, characters, story and script were all my creation. The talented folks over at Total Eclipse brought it to life but from conception, I can take credit for that. It was a hit and people loved it. Their primary complaint was that it was too short. That’s not a bad thing when people actually want MORE of your work.

I think that things have been fine. I can’t look back and regret or wish I had done something different. For the most part, I think that I’m happy with the things are. I’ll be much happier when we’re out of winter… and that’s a big difference for me. This year, the gloom has really been bugging me.

We have created a little slide show for What Child Is This! Hop over and check it out :)

We are closing off the preorder on Sunday to finalize the artwork and finish putting in the names of all the folks who have made a purchase. Act soon if you want to take advantage of the offer:

You'll get access to the digital CD right away, a free copy of Clockwork Carols, a signed copy of Accoutrements & Oddities CD, your name in the liner notes and five dollars off any DNBS product!

http://www.deadlynightshadebotanicalsociety.com/dnbspreorder.html

The Digital version of the CD will be available for purchase Sunday!

The Preorder download of the CD is available now! If you preorder today, you’ll get access to the CD as soon as your order has been verified.

Order today, get the CD today!

Also, if you’ve already preordered please take a moment to check your email. You should have received the information to get your copy. If not, please contact me ASAP!

We have begun the pre-order for the new DNBS CD: Accoutrements and Oddities. In celebration, we’ll have a couple songs from the CD available on the MP3 player as well as the Christmas Songs.
If you pre-order the CD, you will gain access to the digital CD on November 21st, you’ll get Clockwork Carols for free (2 songs on the 21st from it and the rest in the first week of December), five dollars off any item in the DNBS Store (T Shirts, books, CDs for friends), your name in the CD Liner Notes (let us know what to call you!) and of course, our undying adoration and gratitude!
This offer is only available for a short time so don’t wait! It’s 14.99! Hop over to www.dnbs-music.com and pre-order right away! :)

Sepiachord contacted me today and said that The Ballad of Mister Raisins is the song of the day!  Go and check them out over here: http://www.myspace.com/sepiachord

Our new song has been posted to the My Space site (www.myspace.com/deadlynightshadebotanicalsociety).  This song follows the bizarre story of Mister Raisins; Tailor, adventurer, port connoisseur and monkey. 

The inception of this strange plot came from my twisted brain a while back when I thought up this brilliant little Capuchin Monkey that lived in an air ship and conducted various tasks for the crew.  More over, he couldn't talk but he would often look at the crew and passengers with a discerning gaze and shake his head in disapproval.  He was a judgmental little monkey.

This built up to the point that we had to write the Ballad of Mister Raisins; a song that's not much like anything we've done before but is certainly fun. 

Check it out and see what you think. 

As an aside note, the song was going to be called 'Simian Savior' but it just didn't quite have the pinache of what we chose :P

DNBS T Shirts are about to be ordered.  We are accepting pre-orders for the next two weeks!  Please hop over to the web site and check them out.  These are the first of many designs we have in mind so don't wait to take a peek :)

www.deadlynightshadebotanicalsociety.com/buy.html

I might not be able to write again while on the trip depending on the internet options but I'm here now after a relatively uneventful flight.  I have to say that the airline industry is about the most absurd bunch of craziness that I've ever encountered.  I love that it costs to check a bag and if you're an 'elite' member of their club, you can check a bag for free!  Sweet, service that I've had for years distributed as a perk.

Houston was too fast to say anything about.  But now that we're here in Louisiana, thee's a tremendous lightning storm. It's totally wild, big thunder, crazy lightning and rain moving in sheets.  It's still rumbling behind me as we wait for someone else at the air port. 

Odd thing.  We got here before 4:00 PM.  None of the food was really open.  I don't know when people eat here but it must be damn early.  here were two places that appeared open but they weren't particularly inviting.  I wasn't going to go diving into a pizza hut where the people couldn't be bothered to do their job.  No thanks :P

Anyway, I don't have a lot else to say... but that's the story so far. 

I was sitting here thinking about Rush this morning thanks to Sky from DNBS reminding me of a bunch of songs.  When I was in high school, a couple friends and I played near to every song from the first 8 albums of Rush so I had a pretty decent appreciation for their talent.  They were the kind of band that spoke to me as a musician more than anything else. 

So today, as part of thinking about the band, I went and refreshed my memory of their past.  When we were playing those Rush songs 18 years ago (yikes!) I had read one of their biographies.  They weren't like Dream Theater heading out to Burkley to learn their trade.  They were just musicians who, at first, were playing much like every band does: playing to their influences.

That said, I think back to all manner of artistic endeavors, from literature to painting to music to decoupage.  What would it have been like to be amidst a period where these things were being defined?  I noticed that there are academic research papers on Rush's influence in Progressive Music and so I find myself longing for a period where everything wasn't so precisely defined.  At this point in time, you could play five chords and someone would tell you what genre of music you just created.

It's the same for everything really.  A set of standards exist that must be adhered to.  It's not that you can't stretch in one way or another but formatting, structure and expectation are all in place.  People call anything 'odd' that doesn't fit the predefined paths.  While that was likely true back when things were first finding these niches, I think that it had be an exciting and fun process building those concepts.

So I guess my point isn't to sound like I'm complaining about it all or lamenting my year of birth.  I just think that, nostalgia aside, pioneering a field had to be one of the greatest gifts that any person can ever be granted.
 

Hello!


I am selling a couple of things to make way for something brand new!  Check them out here.  These aren't pictures of the actual units but they are in excellent condition.  The Variax has only really been used for recording (they can be heard on the DNBS site).  It comes with a gig bag, the special Variax cable and a bag for the Line 6 XT Live. 

http://www.strumzilla.com/wp-content/uploads/L6-Body-Axis.jpg

http://www.www.musicstoreinc.com/products/images/990600605_01.jpg

So the Variax 700 is going for between 500 and 700 bucks on ebay.  The Line 6 XT Live runs from 100 to 400 (though the latter is new).  The bag is 65 bucks online.  I'm selling BOTH units for 650 bucks with all the mentioned accessories.

Anyone interested, contact me offline.  If we have to ship the stuff, that will probably cost a bit but it's worth it.  These were used for some Abney Park songs, DNBS songs and a few other bands so they've got a little history.

Thanks!

I've opened a store!

Sort of.

It's not as exciting as some brick & mortar place in a part of town that has character.  It's probably located in the Internet Ghetto.  However, this place is up and works great. 

Hop over to my site: www.darkrepast.com or www.darkrepast.com/glassmoonlight.  There's a link at the top of the page (the prominent one that says 'Shop').

It's a bit of a work in progress but what isn't?  I'll fix it up and make it prettier as time goes by.

I finished this book today and I found myself at a loss for words.  I've been reading Alexander the Great history and fiction for years and this is the first time that I couldn't get behind his cause.  I've read about the battles in Afghanistan several times but this book was a lot more personal and it really brings to light the tribal nature of the 'enemy'.  More importantly though, as I read this book, I began to question the righteousness of Alexander's conquests.

I've always been an advocate for some of the concepts that Alexander supposedly espoused.  I felt that he offered an enlightened perspective to those places that he passed through but the more that I think about it now, the less I can abide the motivation.  Afghanistan was a tribal culture of violence before the Macedonian army entered their domain.  They fought for several years and came to a sort of truce before Alexander moved on to India.  They were still a tribal culture and have maintained that paradigm to the modern day.

What came of the violence in Afghanistan?  What came of the violence in Persia for that matter?  I suppose that one could argue that by crushing the Persians, Alexander prevented the West from ever being menaced by another Eastern invasion force (such as Xerxes).  But outside of that (which was absolutely not the primary reason for attacking Persia), I have begun to think that Alexander's campaigns were little more than selfish and brutal.  The attacks on what they deemed to be the rest of the world amounted to very little when one thinks of how shortly after the mainstay conquest, Alexander died.

It's funny and sad because today, I feel like I lost a hero and all because this historical fiction seemed to provide some missing puzzle piece in all that I have read before.  I guess that it goes without saying that this novel is moving and exquisitely written if it could make me think at all let alone stir up some emotions.  Anyone who cares about this point in history should definitely consider reading it.  You might be disappointed but it won't be in the work.  Rather, you might find yourself in my position thinking about the futility of any of these conquering folk.

Maybe Alexander should not be considered the hero that has been so spoken of but rather just another invader who managed to be glorified by adoring followers that survived the chaos of his death.  I don't know but what a chance to speculate.

The show went off without a noticable hitch.  I think that we all had a great time and it was the best first show that I could have imagined.  Everyone was extremely nice and the crowd was receptive to the music.  All around, a great experience.

We have video that we're going to post soon of the event, not just of DNBS but of my songs with Abney Park as well.  There are already photos floating around (both on our my space and on flickr).  This was a great start and I hope that we can look forward to shows that are even half as successful in the future.

Thanks to everyone who bought CDs, offered comments and heck, for even showing up!  You made it a night to remember!

This is a dual post!  First off, Glass Moonlight is available for sale at my web site as well as through Amazon.com!

Furthermore, the May 22nd show is on!  The Deadly Nightshade Botanical Society will be playing with Abney Park and Legion Within.  Check out the flyer here http://www.flickr.com/photos/vonclaret/3528682369/

The Cover for Glass Moonlight can be seen here: http://www.darkrepast.com/images/GMThumb.jpg.

The proof came and it was excellent.  I have approved it and now the book is available as Print on Demand.  I am planning on picking up a good 15 or 20 of them in the next couple of weeks to have on hand for sales but for now, they will be sent out via the POD model.

I've posted the book for sale both at www.darkrepast.com and at www.darkrepast.com/glassmoonlight.  It's available as an ebook (in PDF format right now) and as a physical copy (6x9 book, 253 pages).  An ecommerce store is almost ready as well and that will carry all the books under my Dark Repast banner.

There will be excerpts up of the book and more blog entries by Ophelia this week.  Check back for more info!

Hello!

I have published my book 'Glass Moonlight'.  It's a supernatural mystery in the style of Anita Blake (without the smut) or even the Kim Harrison books.  More information can be found over at http://www.darkrepast.com/glassmoonlight and if you'd like to see the cover, hop over to this link: http://www.darkrepast.com/images/GMSmall.jpg.

Hey there!

So we've got a sale going on over at the DNBS site.  The CD price has dropped to 10 bucks and the Digital CD is only 5.99.  This is a short time offer for the next couple weeks so head over and check it out.

Here's the URL: http://www.deadlynightshadebotanicalsociety.com/sale.html

The Clockwork Man will be available to play in TWO DAYS (March 18th).  That means there's a little time left to get in on the pre-order.  Hop over and snag it for only 10 dollars!  Half the normal price!

Participants have a chance to get a poster of Sprocket for only the cost of shipping!

A trailer for the Clockwork Man has been revealed!  What is the Clockwork Man?  It's only one of the most original and exciting hidden object adventure games of its time!  I'm a little biased though since... well... I wrote it. 

But seriously, the game is steampunk infused and inspired.  Every character has a voice and all the objects are hand painted.  This is a meticulous work and I think that you'll agree that it's absolutely gorgeous.  Please take a minute to hop over and check out the Clockwork Man trailer at the clockwork man trailer address.