Giuda: Racey Roller: LP
This record is designed to resemble a long lost glam gem right down to the phony wear marks on the cover. It’s a dead-solid LP of Glitterbest-style anthems mixed with a bit of pub rock attitude. The album loaded with jovial choruses and shameless hand clapping interludes. “Number 10” has hands slapping in the best tradition of The Bay City Rollers’ “Saturday Night.”  That’s right, I mentioned The Bay City Rollers. Don’t pretend you’re too cool to like “Saturday Night.” The upbeat antics of T. Rex and Mud are evoked in the band’s ability to construct a compulsively catchy chorus. “Coming Back to You” utilizes a style of back and forth vocals that exemplifies the simple fun in writing rock lyrics. The songs on this album sound and feel as if they could have been classics during a time when rock was just about to turn into punk. Fans of Killed By Glam and Glitterbest should take note of this band. They may not bring back wide suspenders, but you might think about it.

Cancer really sucks.
My desire to get back to regular writing has been thwarted once again by complications relating to cancer. It seems I’m going to have an operation a week from Monday that’s going to put me out of commission for a while longer. Afterwards, there may or may not be more chemotherapy. What a depressing year. However I have been proactive with my mental health recently. I’m seeing a therapist and have an appointment with a psychologist. I have also joined a writing program for cancer patients. So I hope to stop placing these random posts about how depressed I am every couple of months and start putting up some reviews and happier things.
Not much else is going on, although I have a slew of new records to write about and I’ve been hitting the Netflix list recently for some of the gems buried there. I did the Razorcake rotation this month.
That’s about it. Just trying to stay positive and keep my head moving in the right direction. I’ve been doing some writing exercises just to keep up with writing. I’m going to post some new stuff including a few stories I’m working on as a means of getting my act together, so take a look in the ensuing days. BA

I haven’t been posting much lately. I’ve been in a bit of a slump since January. I was diagnosed with cancer for the second time last December and have been going through chemotherapy since then. I’ve  been keeping up with my writing as much as I can and staying positive, but I’ve been uninspired to post as I haven’t been doing much. Things going on outside of my apartment have been off my radar. I’m starting to feel much better. Sometime at the beginning of May I’ll get a new set of tests that will determine where we are with the diagnosis, but the regular blood work indicates that chemotherapy is working and things are going well. Chemotherapy has sucked much more than I thought it would, but I’m done with the harder drugs and have been getting out a bit. I’m ready to rejoin society a little.

Since January I got my Razorcake reviews out, I’ve been working on new short stories, and I have been sending out The League to some small presses. I’m determined to put the book out myself this year if nothing happens with it, so I’m excited about the progress either way.

I was also interviewed by Fangoria about the Corn on Macabre record re-issue. Here is a link to that: Fangoria.

For my birthday this year, Amy bought a painting of Nosferatu by an artist I have admired for some time. Here is a link to the piece on her website: Bombshelter Art.

Other than that, it’s just been movies and reading. I got out and shopped this weekend, so I’ll have some new records to write about and I’m going to be editing and posting some new stories in the coming weeks. It’s sort of shocking writing this, putting into perspective the fact that nothing too interesting has happened to me over the past four months. I spend most of my time going to the doctor. But I’m not complaining. I’m happy to be feeling better. I feel guilty complaining when I know I’ve encountered so many people who will deal with worse and go through chemotherapy for a lot longer than I have.  I also believe I can now officially say I have seen every King of the Hill episode. I was going to watch every Hellraiser movie, but there were too many. That whole thing wore thin fast. I found out that there are eight Children of the Corn films not including a remake of the first one. I only got as far as the first one.

Anyway, that’s where I am.

Hello everyone,

For the next 2-4 months, I’m going to be on limited duty at my job.  I know this is a long shot, but if anyone has or hears of anyone who has grunt work that can be done from home, I’m available and willing to work cheap. My degree is in English. I have extensive writing experience and I have taught a film class for high schoolers. Work may include line editing, paper grading, research, transcriptions, product assembly, envelope stuffing, data entry work, or anything clerical-like that you don’t want to do. I’ll be available for meet ups, but not regular office appearances.

Resume available. Thanks.

Mike Watt at the Bell House

I got to cover a recent Mike Watt performance at The Bell House last month. Here’s a link to the review in The Brooklyn Rail.