RARWRITER PUBLISHING GROUP PRESENTS

CREATIVE CULTURE JOURNAL

at www.RARWRITER.com      

--------------------"The best source on the web for what's real in arts and entertainment" ---------------------------

Volume 1-2016

MUSIC    BOOKS    FINE ARTS   FILM   THE WORLD

ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

                                 

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Use this link to add your email address to the RARWRITER Publishing Group mailing list for updates on activities associated with the Creative Culture and Revolution Culture journals, and other RARWRITER Publishing Group interests.

 

ABOUT RAR: For those of you new to this site, "RAR" is Rick Alan Rice, the publisher of the RARWRITER Publishing Group websites. Use this link to visit the RAR music page, which features original music compositions and other.

Use this link to visit Rick Alan Rice's publications page, which features excerpts from novels and other.

RARADIO

(Click here)

Currently on RARadio:

"On to the Next One" by Jacqueline Van Bierk

"I See You Tiger" by Via Tania

"Lost the Plot" by Amoureux"

Bright Eyes, Black Soul" by The Lovers Key

"Cool Thing" by Sassparilla

"These Halls I Dwell" by Michael Butler

"St. Francis"by Tom Russell & Gretchen Peters, performance by Gretchen Peters and Barry Walsh; 

"Who Do You Love?"by Elizabeth Kay; 

"Rebirth"by Caterpillars; 

"Monica's Frock" by Signel-Z; 

"Natural Disasters" by Corey Landis; 

"1,000 Leather Tassels" by The Blank Tapes; 

"We Are All Stone" and "Those Machines" by Outer Minds; 

"Another Dream" by MMOSS; "Susannah" by Woolen Kits; 

Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson and other dead celebrities / news by A SECRET PARTY;

"I Miss the Day" by My Secret Island,  

"Carriers of Light" by Brendan James;

"The Last Time" by Model Stranger;

"Last Call" by Jay;

"Darkness" by Leonard Cohen; 

"Sweetbread" by Simian Mobile Disco and "Keep You" fromActress off the Chronicle movie soundtrack; 

"Goodbye to Love" from October Dawn; 

Trouble in Mind 2011 label sampler; 

Black Box Revelation Live on Minnesota Public Radio;

Apteka "Striking Violet"; 

Mikal Cronin's "Apathy" and "Get Along";

Dana deChaby's progressive rock

 

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Rick Alan Rice (RAR) Literature Page

ATWOOD - "A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliverance" -AVAILABLE NOW FOR KINDLE (INCLUDING KINDLE COMPUTER APPS) FROM AMAZON.COM. Use this link.

CCJ Publisher Rick Alan Rice dissects the building of America in a trilogy of novels collectively calledATWOOD. Book One explores the development of the American West through the lens of public policy, land planning, municipal development, and governance as it played out in one of the new counties of Kansas in the latter half of the 19th Century. The novel focuses on the religious and cultural traditions that imbued the American Midwest with a special character that continues to have a profound effect on American politics to this day. Book One creates an understanding about America's cultural foundations that is further explored in books two and three that further trace the historical-cultural-spiritual development of one isolated county on the Great Plains that stands as an icon in the development of a certain brand of American character. That's the serious stuff viewed from high altitude. The story itself gets down and dirty with the supernatural, which in ATWOOD - A Toiler's Weird Odyssey of Deliveranceis the outfall of misfires in human interactions, from the monumental to the sublime. The book features the epic poem "The Toiler" as well as artwork by New Mexico artist Richard Padilla.

Elmore Leonard Meets Larry McMurtry

Western Crime Novel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am offering another novel through Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Cooksin is the story of a criminal syndicate that sets its sights on a ranching/farming community in Weld County, Colorado, 1950. The perpetrators of the criminal enterprise steal farm equipment, slaughter cattle, and rob the personal property of individuals whose assets have been inventoried in advance and distributed through a vast system of illegal commerce.

It is a ripping good yarn, filled with suspense and intrigue. This was designed intentionally to pay homage to the type of creative works being produced in 1950, when the story is set. Richard Padilla has done his usually brilliant work in capturing the look and feel of a certain type of crime fiction being produced in that era. The whole thing has the feel of those black & white films you see on Turner Movie Classics, and the writing will remind you a little of Elmore Leonard, whose earliest works were westerns. Use this link.

 

EXPLORE THE KINDLE BOOK LIBRARY

If you have not explored the books available from Amazon.com's Kindle Publishing division you would do yourself a favor to do so. You will find classic literature there, as well as tons of privately published books of every kind. A lot of it is awful, like a lot of traditionally published books are awful, but some are truly classics. You can get the entire collection of Shakespeare's works for two bucks.

You do not need to buy a Kindle to take advantage of this low-cost library. Use this link to go to an Amazon.com page from which you can download for free a Kindle App for your computer, tablet, or phone.

Amazon is the largest, but far from the only digital publisher. You can find similar treasure troves atNOOK Press (the Barnes & Noble site), Lulu, and others.


 

 

FEATURED ARTIST 

Marion Walker

By RAR

Marion Walker is a 3-piece psych-rock band that came together in 2012 and has been splitting their time between Seattle and Reno. They are self-described "sweethearts with sharp teeth...a head-on collision between doomy, bleak worlds and fuzzed-out, technicolor tones". Rough in ways that reminds one of what Sonic Youth sounded like upon arrival, Marion Walker is a pretty serious collective. Fronted by songwriters Jessie Marion Smith (Saint Genet, Dead Bird Movement) and Kyle Walker Akins (Think in French, Yesir), the band has received the grants from the Nevada Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as another from New Music USA to fund their continued development. They have also scored some artists-in-residence gigs at The Magnolia Residence (Quincy, Florida) and PROJECT: Space Available (Seattle, Washington). Drummer Donovan Jordan Williams (Spitting Image, Penetration Panthers) provides the other part of the rhythm section.

Jessie Marion Smith and Kyle Walker Akins (i.e., Marion Walker) is like a post-graduate art school project. Jessie is a choreographer, dancer, and filmmaker. Kyle is a visual artist, sound engineer, and filmmaker. They bring their collective experience in these other mediums into every aspect of Marion Walker. Consider the following video:

Jessie and Kyle have worked through the The Holland Project and The University of Nevada Reno to develop an all-ages intensive workshop on making dance films, and presented there workshops in Reno since 2013. It covers everything from choreography to video editing. Their lesson plan and teaching tools are published as open-source materials. Jessie and Kyle also recently formed Pleasure Fool Records to umbrella some of their other collaborative music and recording projects.

In June 2015, Marion Walker released their tape EP “Serious Picnic” on Casino Trash Records (Seattle, WA). In May-July 2015, they went on a full US tour in support of “Serious Picnic” and several other releases (including a split 7” with Plastic Caves and a 12” compilation featuring songs from 14 Reno bands).

Jessie was kind enough to respond to our CCJ questionnaire. See the following:

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I see in your band bio that film making and dance choreography figure prominently into your story, and I watched your video for your single "We Won't Be In Love Much Longer", which is interesting from a film maker's perspective, as well as from a choreography perspective. Can you talk a little bit about how these types of creative pursuits work as a part of your overall concept for your band? Is it all part of a vision?

There is no separation between our life and our practice. We probably never had a choice in our lives to become anything other than the channels of energy that result in artistic endeavors. When we sit down, which rarely happens, we wind up in deep conversations about our projects and the best means by which to attack them. With the video, we didn’t want to make a typical ‘music’ or ‘dance’ video and we struggled for a good bit of time before discovering the methods that we ultimately employed in producing it. Our greater vision, across all our artistic platforms, lies in a constant practice. This type of consistency builds discovery. We are constantly ripping ourselves to shreds in order to discover the purest form within the material we are creating.

If you were going to help people just discovering you to understand who Marion Walker is, as a band, what other acts might people associate you with? What other bands might you be considered to "sound like" and what does that say about who the audience is for your music?

We are cut from the same cloth as artists/musicians such as The Velvet Underground, Boris, Tera Melos, Pink Floyd, Sleep, Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Johnny Cash, My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, Gucci Mane, Outkast, Pimp C, Jawbreaker, Death Grips, and 16 Horsepower. Let us make this connection for you by saying that all of these artists are relative outliers even within their own genres. They are all raw as hell and rarely make compromises. We can say that, while we can identify with them sonically, we never made a conscious choice to steer our sound towards them,....it just happened to turn out that way. As far as our audience is concerned, we haven’t met anyone yet that hasn’t had a positive response to our live show. There have certainly been times when we thought people were NOT going to appreciate our efforts. But, we constantly surprise people with our ability to turn up some gritty rock’n’roll and deliver it into their ear canals with all of our hearts.

You seem to have a Seattle-Reno connection, which at first glance seems like two opposite types of environments. Who hails from Seattle and who from Reno? And can you talk a little bit about how those two home environments might have impacted the nature of your band, and what you do as a performance vehicle?

Seattle and Reno both foster some incredibly talented individuals within their art and music communities. They are completely different environments when speaking about climate but, due to the weather in Seattle and the isolation in Reno, a lot of people spend their time working on bettering their creative efforts. Jessie has been a Seattle resident for almost 12 years, and Kyle and Donovan are both from Reno. When we started working on our first tour we had already produced a record with a different bassist and drummer in Seattle, but the drummer was unable to tour with us. That’s when the sweetheart that Donovan is jumped on a plane and came up to the Northwest to begin our life as Marion Walker. When you ask about our performance vehicle, we gotta give a little love to our tour van, Dame Helen Wheelz, she is a 1993 Toyota Previa Mini-Van and has been faithfully shlepping us across the US (minus a few shredded AC fan belts).

I have not seen you live. Do you do anything to incorporate film and dance into your trio's performances?

The best way to get to know us is definitely to see us live! We rip it up, tear it apart, and throw in a little bass-neck and some headbanging just for spice. We haven’t had any room in our van for extra gear, aside from our instruments, so we haven’t even given ourselves the option of having film/video alongside our live set. To relate a story that just took place in Jersey City, a knife-fighter approached us after our set and encouraged us to take up the sport. He told us that the way we were moving our hands and feet during our performance was so similar to the way he learned how to fight. He showed Kyle how he could cut someone five times in 1.5 seconds using identical motions. We couldn’t help but think about how old Delta blues players would talk about ‘cutting heads’ when they played shows.

How would you describe your original music? And what does it take, in terms of compositional components and execution, to make your sound come to life?

We are reactionary artists in the sense that we want to be a reflecting mirror for the world around us. We feel that most artists/musicians are this way whether they realize it or not. It doesn’t take too much time to compose the basics of a song, but it takes a ton of time to let it incubate until we know it is done. We are constantly upgrading our routines so it allows for little areas of growth, but the hard part is to remain detached enough from a concept to allow its fruition.

Is there an act, a songwriter, or performer that represents the standard for the type of work you do? What types of songwriters or bands interest and inspire you?

While we did mention a few bands/artists above that could certainly be used to answer this question, we are always inspired by other bands that we meet on the road. It is truly amazing the amount of creative force that exists in this world. While genres of music exist, the ones that we particularly appreciate are not derivatives of a specific set. It’s the artists that are their purest selves that people will always be drawn to, and you always know them when you see them.

Do you go to rock concerts? If so, what was the last great act you saw - great in that it helped you gain a greater understanding of what you want Marion Walker to be?

Two words: Neko Case. Yes, we go to shows all the time, and every type of show and every type of music. We subscribe to the rules that John Cage set for his students/teachers. To paraphrase: go to every show, read everything you can get your hands on, talk to as many people as you can, listen, learn, appreciate even if you hate it, and remain open to discovery.

What would be your high-level aspiration for Marion Walker? Where can you see it going, and what will it take to reach your objectives?

We are gonna play on Jupiter one day, to speak about heights. There is no limit to where we see ourselves. We are all workhorses and are going to knock on every door we find, and even build some doors where there aren’t any. In concrete terms, we want to tour like crazy all over the world and write/record a million songs (not just as Marion Walker...we are also constantly collaborating with other musicians/artists).

Getting back to your film making interests, is there someplace (a Website, for instance) that I could visit to see your work? Do you use Stage 32 to network in the film industry, or any other such media?

Go to MarionWalker.org!!! It is a rabbit hole that will lead you to our other artistic projects as well. There are videos, some visual arts, links to other bands we are a part of, and a ton of links to other people/sweetheart collaborators. Most of our networking exists in the word-of-mouth realm or through DIY communities.

How did you all get started on the creative paths that you are on? How did you get into music production and performance?

Kyle never set out to be a guitar player. He was actually forced by a friend of his who had built a guitar and modified the fretboard to have a color-coded system based on where each of the notes were (for example: each A was red, each B was orange, etc…). When his friend left the room, Kyle picked up the guitar and began developing his own melodies based on the colors while his friend was hiding in the stairwell listening. When he came back into the room, Kyle put the guitar down totally embarrassed and tried to leave. His friend absolutely refused this reality and forced him into the dream that we live in now. Jessie was a late-comer to playing music. She was a roadie for several of her friends' bands as a teenager but all of her creative focus was on dance. Being completely consumed by her professional dance/choreography career, it wasn’t until about six years ago, while she was experiencing a lull in her dance jobs and had an itch for a new creative outlet, that she picked up a guitar. Becoming totally obsessed, she hid out in her basement, tinkering around with it by herself, falling asleep with the guitar still in hand. Since then, she's had love affairs with the keys and now the bass guitar. Donovan, on the other hand, was early to fall in love with music. When he was about 4, his cousin took him to a school dance. One of the bands that was playing happened to be a punk band, all studded, leathered, and liberty-spiked to the nines. They saw him pointing and talking about them and came over to scare him. But, nonetheless, he knew that was IT! And so, when his friends were joining football in middle school, he opted for drum corps.

Marion Walker live at a Tiny Desk in The Warehome from Marion Walker on Vimeo.

 

 

 

 


   
 

 

   

 

 

  ARTIST NEWS    THIS EDITION   ABOUT   MUSIC   MUSIC REVIEWS  BOOKS  CINEMA   FASHION   FINE ARTS  FEATURES   SERIES  MEDIA  ESSAY  RESOURCES  WRITTEN ARTS POETRY  CONTACT  ARCHIVES  MUSIC LINKS

Copyright © November, 2018 Rick Alan Rice (RARWRITER)