Hitting your favorite podcast platform today, a fresh interview I did with A Book & Its Author.

The most amusing this about this is that this turned out to be episode 37 of the podcast, which, well…

Back in the ’80s, before I wrote THE 37TH MANDALA, I was already obsessed with the number 37. Writing that book helped me get the obsession out of my system, but until I had done that, in the mid ’90s, my weird interest in it just grew and grew. At some point, I was contacted by a pair of brothers, college students, who wanted to interview me for a little literary magazine they edited called CRIME CLUB. The Oxoby Brothers and I had a few fun exchanges in the course of which I ranted a bit about 37.

A few months ago, Marc Oxoby got in touch, wondering if I might remember good ol’ Crime Club. Of course I did! And he has been conducting a literary podcast for…36 episodes so far. Marc and I arranged to do an interview over Zoom, to which he has appended a few other items of sonic interest, including a reading from UNDERNEATH THE OVERSEA.

You can find the podcast wherever you find podcasts, or simply right here.

Those who don’t obsessively stalk me may not be aware that most of my creative energy for the last few years has gone into music. Studying, writing, and now some performing. One of my goals for 2023 was to take the first steps toward playing live (or livestream). I’ve done some extremely unkempt jams on my YouTube channel, both solo and as Man #2 of my two-man band Mort Solár, but so far all of my music has been desktop stuff. The above show is going to be played in a remote secure location (my friend Matt’s garage), without use of a DAW…just me and some electronic musical gear. We’re not expecting many people to tune in, I am new to Twitch, but this is going to be the first toe in the water.

I’ll be performing all three songs from my upcoming solo EP, “Sombre Hombre,” as well as a couple older tunes. And by performing I mean I will be singing along to instrument versions, since I cannot actually play the musical parts live…they were all created in the lab. The EP will be out later in the year.

For that matter, we’re now in the mastering stages of Mort Solár’s first two-song EP. More on that later, if in fact I do start using this blog again. Stranger things have happened.

For all updates musical and otherwise, here’s an assortment of my various current links:

https://linktr.ee/marclaidlaw

1. The funeral song in Li’l Quinquin. Impossible to ever imagine anything shaking it from the top spot.
2. I probably shouldn’t number these because they’re all so great. And also I’m undoubtedly forgetting some. So let’s not say this is a comprehensive list, but maybe just a reason to watch some Bruno Dumont movies.
3. The young Jeanne’s songs in Jeannette: The Childhood of Joanne of Arc
4. The reprise of the funeral song in Li’l Quinquin, at the actual concert.
5. Is there a musical number in Coincoin and the Extra Humans?
6. The whole reason I’m writing this thing: Just watched Hadewijch, after years of having it my queue, and there are two fantastic musical numbers in it: An outdoor show with accordion, sax, electric bass and guitar, that just builds and builds, and reminded me how these are some of my favorite things in Dumont’s movies; and a performance in a church that is beautiful and charming.
7. I haven’t seen all Bruno Dumont’s films yet, so there might be other musical numbers that I haven’t encountered. Doesn’t seem likely there’d be one in Hors Satan. I own Joan of Arc but haven’t watched it yet…have seen no indication that there’s any musical spectacle in there.
8. Does Slack Bay end with a big musical number? That final scene on the beach…maybe?
9. I’m glad I didn’t make this a Top Ten.

I just looked at a list of “Top Ten Things Millennials Are Destroying” and I was on it.

Why have a blog if you can’t post random titles?

And rhetorical questions?

I am unseriously looking for partners to help create my A Christmas Carol meets Dark Souls beat-em-up. It’s pretty simple:

Jacob Marley’s ghost shows up and gives Scrooge his challenge. Jacob then stands aside, but remains to sell potions and items throughout the night.

As the three ghosts appear, Scrooge fights his way through each set of memories, gaining precious stats along the way. At the end of each memory, must beat the spirit who presides over that stage—past, present, and future. (In the simplest version, he just fights the three spirits, ignoring the memories.)

The final boss is Tiny Tim, who can summon such minions as Bob Cratchit and Jesus.

There’s a secret level boss after you successfully beat Tim: Goose Boy. If you defeat him, you get his Christmas goose.

Or maybe I’ll just use this in a story, making games is a pain in the ass.

Just now I was wondering, what if there was an episode of Spongebob where it turned out that Patrick’s full name was Patrick “Starfish” O’Brian, and it turns out he had written all the Aubrey/Maturin novels. I was also thinking about a movie called A MAN CALLED SCROOGE, where the ghosts appear to Scrooge like a series of escalating boss fights and he beats the shit out them one at a time and finally goes toe to toe with Tiny Tim.
He beats the crap out of the post bossfight Goose Boy for good measure.
Bad Robot is right down the street, I should drop in. For them, I think I would package it as A VERY CLOVERFIELD CHRISTMAS.