In the year negative two

The studio is still a state of mind.

My blog, why hast I forsaken thou?

It has been far too long that I've been off the wagon writing this thing. Was supposed to be every Monday, and now I'm averaging about once a month, if that.

When I get around to doing an ALL OF THIS WILL BE FORGOTTEN edition for this year, it will be three pages long.

Can't do that.

But I'm realizing that what's happening is, I haven't been in the right frame of mind. Other things have been creeping in.

Boring, non-creative things that scream for attention until I wipe their asses and suddenly it's the end of the week and where did all the god damn time go.

However.

This month, I've been on a new retreat. Bouncing around some tiny villages in Europe, letting my head rewild and unwind, and suddenly, as if magic, I have the wind in my sails again.

It's weird, innit.

As I write this, I'm in a tiny ramshackle village in the mountains of central Portugal that looks and feels so old I'm gonna say it was built in the year Negative Two. This place looks like the type of hamlet that a rogue knight from House Targareyn is always ruthlessly attacking, except it has decent wifi.

And the quiet. Oh god, the quiet.

I've been here one night and it feels like I'm the last man on earth.

But the important thing is, I'm getting shit done again. Getting my thoughts out my head. Which is the important thing. Otherwise, I start getting a weird kind of itch. I talk to myself. Walk around the block 18 times. Stare off into space.

But now, I'm in the misty mountains of Coimbra, reading Lester Bangs at night, exercising with stretchy bands in the morning, and writing all the hours in between.

This is life in fifth gear for me. (6th gear, if you have a Mazda3 Hatchback).

This is the studio, the state of mind I prefer.

Glad to have you back.

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What I’m reading: Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung (Lester Bangs, edited by Greil Marcus)

What I'm listening to: The Gold and Silver Sessions (Elder)

Read the Brazil tour blog at the Substack: