Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2022

What’s crackin’, dear reader.  I have nothing of interest to report just yet…I’ve been working absurd amounts, making slow but solid progress on the book.  Just wanted to say hey…things should be less hectic soon.

N.P.: “We Want Your Soul (Radio Edit)” – Freeland

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2022

I miss having role models.  Meaning other artists working at the same time.  There was an energy that came with waking up each morning and knowing “the competition” had been up and working for hours.  Most likely Prince and Hunter Thompson hadn’t even slept the night before.  There were a bunch of guys, writers and musicians, all living and breathing and putting up with the same bullshit and yet still managing to turn something of quality out every day.  Theirs were careers whose sometimes unexpected trajectories fascinated and inspired me.  But now most of them are dead.  And almost all of them killed themselves, sometimes accidentally, but mostly intentionally.  Which makes their now-intensely felt absence significantly worse.

I’m thinking about getting a dog.

N.P.: “Followed The Waves” – Melissa Auf der Maur

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2022

Holy Jesus, dear reader…wicked case of the running, screaming existential fantods today.  Survivor’s guilt coupled with the standard questions of mortality one faces when one looks around and notices rather a lot of people from ones past are now rather dead.
Some days I truly do miss drugs, and this, understanding reader, is just such a day.  A nice big bag of drugs would go a long way to change this mood I seem to be stuck in today.
Okay, fuck it…what I’m really wrestling with (and losing to) is the futility and pointlessness of everything.  Going through the belongings of the recently deceased, one sees all the attempts at various things a person made during their lives, their successes and failures…and, given the context, it all just seems so futile, regardless of what they may have achieved during their lifetimes.
I really miss drugs.

N.P.: “Goodbye Horses” – ††† (Crosses)

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2022

Happy New Year, dear reader.  I hope your celebrations were festive.  I did a bunch of writing.  
I’m looking forward to 2022 much more so than I was the previous year.  There are some things that I know are going to happen later in the year that are very cool, and then there are a few plans that I’m hopeful about.
I was bored most of last year, and as a result, I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, dear reader, I was boring.  In fairness, though, last year, so was everyone else.  This year, however, I believe will be different. 

This week’s short story is “Polygamoose,” a story about a humble moose frustrated by his inability to mate for life.  It might end up being worse that “The Proctologist and The Snow Globe,” but we’ll see.  It’s off to a solid start.

N.P.: “Stobart’s Blues” – I Monster

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

It’s the end of 2021, dear reader.  Around The Haunt, it was a fine year.  Challenging…it was very challenging, but inescapably good.  I hope your year was good as well.
Happy New Year, dear reader.

N.P.: “Don’t Go” – Sleaford Mods

Very reflective this year…you know I don’t believe in ghosts, but the dead are on my mind this year, much more so than years past.
Merry Christmas, dear reader.

N.P.: “Christmas Is The Time To Say ‘I Love You'” – Billy Squier

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Ho ho ho, dear reader.  This is my favorite time of year, but even a quick trip to the grocery store becomes a hassle.
I’m writing a Christmas story called The Proctologist and The Snow Globe…I made a lot of headway on it Monday and Tuesday, but then I got super-busy.  Not sure if I’ll be able to finish it by Christmas.

N.P.: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” – Gary Hoey

Hot damn, dear reader…it’s the first day of Winter!  The shortest day, the longest night (in this hemisphere, anyway).  It doesn’t get any better than this on the Gallaway Calendar.  I’ve been so sisypheanly busy recently that I neglect to post my favorite Christmas video back on Krampusnacht, December 5.  Belatedly, here it is:

N.P.: “Red Eyes and Tears” – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Got the studio moved, and it’s up and running in it’s new room.  Going to work on the books tonight.

Wednesday was the first day of the ridiculous and pathetic new mask mandate in California.  The night I had dinner in neighboring Sacramento County, Home of the State Capitol (“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.).”  I haven’t been in that foul county for months, so was a tad shocked when I was practically tackled by two employees when I came in without a mask.  After a brief discussion, they fucked off.  But everybody in the joint was masked up.
Thursday night I went out to dinner here in Anhedonia County, and not one mask.  I’m much more at home with the data-driven free thinkers.

N.P.: “Magnifishit” – Skinny Puppy

Art by Tasty Piece,©️ The Safehouse Collection 2021

Today was weird.  Off, somehow.  Maybe it was because I was awakened stupidly at 05:00.  Whatever the cause, it was just a pain.
Tomorrow I’ll be moving the “Studio B” to a different room in The Haunt…one that is more able to contain loud sounds.  I dislike moving, even if it’s into a different room.
The books are slowly (all too slowly, dear reader) shaping up.

N.P.: “Wise Up! Sucker – 7″ Version” – Pop Will Eat Itself