Brass Turtle Has Breakfast: New Drawings and That

Started two new drawings tonight. By started I mean, I cropped and edited the photos and printed bits to trace out important bits. And that.

I've been digging through old sketchbooks. They're full of good stuff. I used to think that I needed to scan them for my own use; and I do still think that. But, I now think that I need to scan them and use them as art posts. Tons of stuff in those and they're only good if taken as a whole; that is, sketches and text all mixed up, with notes and water stains and all.

Here's a bit, only trans-typed (ha, a word) and not scanned.

"Archeology Revisited

In between Jacksonville and Sherwood, AR, there are some soybean fields. Several decades ago, a land-fill was started beside these fields. As a kid, I watched the land-fill grow from a tiny hump to it's present form-a large hill. I thought about the hill + the fact that it is not constructed as hills usually are (plate tectonics) but is, in fact, a giant hill of human trash. It seemed just amusing at first but eventually it occurred to me that this was, in fact, a sort of accidental time-capsule. In a way, it is analogous to Indian and Celtic burial mounds. However, instead of holding a treasure of gold and silver, it holds a treasure of human history; waiting for future archeologists."

I really wanted to change a few things, but I did not. That's verbatim.

Still, it's much better viewed in hand writing with the sketch that's there and all.

Now, go buy a hot-dog from that guy on Dickson and stuff it down your gullet in a squirrel-nervous frenzy, sitting by the spring that no one knows about that is 40ft away from the hot-dog stand.

Here's a Twinkie-Weiner Sandwich!

New Drawing... (part two of a one-part series)

Been working on this drawing and posted this pic to FB two nights or so ago.

And, tonight, I did some more work. And here is the result; still not-quite finished:

See more of my art at Burning City Studios!

"The Devil's in the details." -Harmie Bernaind Pichbisquick, inventor of the pancake.

"Find an alternative to your job." - Keith A. Miller

Burning City, Art, and Stuff...

I realized not long after deciding to wrangle all these internet tools into doing my bidding that I was missing a big part of it. I wasn't missing any internet tools, but part of my creative work; namely, my artwork. I decided it was essential that I try to promote both at the same time, somehow. Since I started this endeavor thinking only of music, of course everything is named for that; Mr. S this, Oh The Glamour Music that. The whole time forgetting my long-standing idea of my umbrella company which is Burning City Studios.

Burning City as a name has it's start with a drawing I did in high school art class, using up all my art teacher's personal oil pastels. It was of a stylized semi-destroyed city similar to the one in my Facebook cover image above. [That, by the way is an edited photo of a large painting in oil and oil pastels.]

Burning City seemed like, and still does seem like, the perfect name for my projects' goals. And, I'm sure, many other people would think the same thing about their projects; 'set this city on fire.' Figuratively, of course.

[So, just talking about this made me realize that I need to make some changes, possibly. New Twitter account as BCS, new email, etc, so I went abroad for a few.]

**We now return you to our regularly scheduled program.....**

Burning City Studios is the name of the 'parent' company. Underneath that would be: Burning City Records, Burning City Graphics, Burning City Lightworks, Burning City Photography, Burning City Chinese Adoption Services, etc.

So, in an attempt to start the process of potentially making this idea more than a figment of my imagination, I have started a Facebook page:

Burning City Studios.

I have long-since abandoned all hope of recovering what I was going for with this post and will now submit to your button-clicking desires....

Song Orders (for albums or otherwise)

Sometimes you just get stumped trying to order songs. Sometimes, just for fun or for lack of time or patience, I just let the computer order them; that is, they are alphabetical. Sometimes it's just the order on my mp3 player. No matter the reason, every time I have gone with it, alphabetical order has worked really well.

If you ever find yourself stumped, try it out. Seriously, never let me down once. It's usually got just the right mix of the styles that I do or that I listen to that I am surprised and elated when a song changes. Key word here: surprised. A little surprise in terms of music is almost always a good thing.

So give it a whirl, on yr mp3 player. You can try it out with no casualties. And please, give me feedback; I really want to hear if this worked for you, and how. Or how it did not work out for you.

Here's a picture of Lucille Ball riding a blow-up horsie, hawking RC Cola!

Where's my Moon-Pie?!?

Hey Blogger!!!!!

Your banner ads are showing up twice on my dashboard! They cover exactly what I'm trying to look at. I thought it was because I'm using Firefox so I switched to Chrome. No change. What the hell, man?

You say I should try the help/support page, eh? What the hell is that?

My 2yr old nephew just enlightened me. Will do....

Leprechauns forever!!!!





!!!!!!!!!!

Stuff To Do Update, Mar. 22nd, 2013

 Still, mainly for my own use.... But, this is a good way to get a general idea of *some* of the things I'm trying to get done. I'm going to have to sit down soon and extend this list or I fear a good bit of important things may get forgotten or otherwise disappear in the fog of my ADD.

1. Focus
2. Finish official video for "Stuck Up"
3. Storyboard official video for "Fix Me"
4. Finish video for "We Live Majique" Update: Made some headway with this and I think this is what I'm going to do after typing this.
5. Make, test, edit, test, scrap, remake, test, edit and upload Twitter background while NOT being distracted by tweets   Update: this was actually supposed to be about not just the background but also the banner or header or whatever they call it on Twitter. That part, the header title thing, is done. I thought at first the image I used was going to be temporary. But I decided that I like it quite a bit. So, for now, it's staying. So, one thing out of two down....
6. Decide on a "featured" list of songs to be on all artist sites and which songs will be exclusive to which sites
7. Figure out how the hell to use Facebook "page" and how much it can be customized
8. Do taxes Update: Done! Doubt I'll get any of it though. I owe a TON on student loans and I think, this year, they'll finally keep it. Fingers slightly crossed though...
9. Write some blog posts that aren't lists of things for me to remember to do Update: Started getting kind of regular with this almost, sort of.
10. Finish "Burning City" series of paintings
11. Decide if my artist i.e. "fine artist" name is going to be the VERY common Keith Miller (or KA Miller, etc) or Bunny Prole. Or, maybe, El Blanco?
12. Research and choose art portfolio website to upload art to
13. Design watermark that is tasteful, functional, and unobtrusive (possible?)
14. Write artist statement (where do I even begin?)
15. Make Slaptogether video for "It's Alright Now" or "Chateau Nervoso"
16. Brainstorm new "Light" drawings
17. Look into pricing for prints of existing "Light" drawings
18. Research and purchase a good new printer
19. Create a Facebook "page" for my "fine" art
20. Start making scheduled "update" videos and 6sec videos (Twitter) linked to here and Facebook
21. Finish writing "A Million Lifetimes"
22. Screw up every single sound (minus drums) on every single electronic track I have ever written
23. Make at least 3 new Slaptogether videos for Mr. S (Quiet Time, Rainbows, Mr. S Theme, Theme from "Rock!", Third Drink, Morning Time, etc)
24. Lay out a calendar with target finish dates for major projects
25. Take a damn break
26. Finish lyrics for "Back To Work" Pseudo-Update: Got solid ideas to work with (playing russian roulette with Excel) Look up dangerous games; like chicken, russian roulette, etc and pair with office things.
27. Brainstorm projection video for Inner Party shows
28. Brainstorm ideas for and take new Inner Party pics
29. Make new designs for all IP web sites and implement
30. Scan all sketches of furniture designs
31. Design Mr. S shirts that can be made with Inkjet iron-ons and sell online, also posters Update: found out today that there are now iron-on sheets for injet printers that have a white layer so you can print on dark shirts. I hope HP makes some of those cos the brand I saw at WalMark today is one I have used (Avery) and they were horrible quality; they peel and crack and the color doesn't last. The HP iron-ons, on the other hand, have lasted surprisingly well. I have a shirt that I made around 2002 or 2003 that is still in perfectly good shape. Speaking of, I need to upload that graphic to Redbubble as a shirt design (Art Is For Sissies, muscle car thing) Regardless, this white layer iron-on thing is kind of a boon because all the designs that came to mind early on all would have had to be on black shirts and required white. So, maybe a win?
32. Design IP inkjet iron ons and print to sell at IP shows
33. Iron out all problems with Paypal so I can actually get paid for anything I might sell online
34. Find out if I can sell anything on that website Maryevelyn uses to sell stuff. Update: Found out and yes, I can. New #34: Scan Year of the Balloon Sketchbook and edit or create versions of all the sellable designs for shirts, phone cases (see #43), etc. Also, make account on that site.... Update:
Find or remake and upload "Art Is For Sissies" graphic to Redbubble as a shirt design (Art Is For Sissies, muscle car thing)
35. Songza, Rhapsody, Tunecore, Playlist, last.fm
36. "Unclog" Soundcloud and straighten out all art there Update: Did some of this last night, kind of willy-nilly. "That song? Screw it! Delete." But there was some actual direction taking shape so moving in the right direction.
37. Talk to Simon about possibly playing along with a drum machine. Update: Simon has never done this but is willing to give it a whirl. I need to make some files with some drum parts set up and set a time to go try it out with just me and him, see what happens
38. Get EVERYTHING registered on my ASCAP
39. Write a real Mr. S bio and distribute among music sites
40. Unify art design across all sites Additional: Use images from Maryevelyn photo shoot for this purpose.
41. Figure out how to cross-promote art-music-art
42. Scan ALL sketch books (weeks of work!)
43. Find anything in sketchbooks that can be used as-is for shirts, prints, etc
44. Digitize all old 4-track tapes and mine them for anything good
45. Get voice synthesizer sorted, start using heavily
46. Write new IP songs
47. Write new Mr. S songs
48. Take guitar amp to the shop and figure out how to pay for it's repairs Update: Amp goes to the shop tomorrow. I hope the guy at Blue Moon isn't backed up with repairs right now. Update: Amp has been to the shop and repaired. It turned out, of course, to be a LOT of stuff and to cost about twice what I thought it was going to. But, amp fixed; and sounding really good. So, Another one down!
49. Clean my room Update: Done! Already dirty again... Update: I suppose this one would have a nearly infinite number of update so, whatever. Already cleaned it again. The neverending story right?
50. Keep going to work every day to pay the bills and wear me out and keep me from being able to do number one on this list
51. Using voice synthesizer, make announcements/MC stuff for live show
52. Pick a Mr. S song to have a video that is nothing but a black screen with some really, really nice title and end-title screens. Then, pick another song to have what seems like the exact same video, except make, either, little intermittent flashes of things on key song points. Or, have a full frame video in B&W that is toned down to be almost black with gray as the 'white.'

And that's it for this To-Do Update, Mar. 22nd, 2013

Now, time to get to work on "We Live Majique."

"The Story Of My Life" (Demography)

So, just now, I was watching John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, in an interview talking about how they changed from young friends, with an interest in recording, to what they are today. And I thought about how nothing I've ever recorded, on my own, my stuff, has really ever been put out as a chronological collection. There was a collection that I put together just for friends that I called "Demography," (Demo-Biography, I didn't know the term at the time) which I 'released' years ago, but it wasn't chronological, and it was put out when I thought I had a long history of writing music, but not in a time anywhere similar to now, when I have a really long history of writing.

So, I think it's time to have a real collection of my demos. I think it's time for a real 'Demography,' that's chronological (as far as I can remember) and all the earliest versions of songs I've written.

I was thinking of calling it, in a nod to Hal David and Burt Bacharach, "The Story of My Life," which seems really fitting because music is the only real thing I have done with my life. Therefore, "The Story of..."

But, "Demography" seems more appropriate. And I think, right now, that I will be going with that name. Or, maybe a compromise: "Demography (The Story of My Life.)"

Any opinions?

Didn't think so.

Regardless, maybe you will find yourself in possession of "Demography..." and I hope, for you, the absolute best! And, while you're at it, I hope a song may creep into your brain from that collection, and color a moment of your life.

So, thanks for the one-way psychiatric session. And thanks for helping me, not at all, decide the name of my whole 2013 life-work marker.

"What A Wonderful World."