✨ notebook treasure #1

a new segment!

Sep 14, 2023

Lately I have been thinking about this newsletter and how I can bring you exciting things each week which will make you go “oooh!” and then possibly “aahhh!”

After the success of the Steely Danzine with

Maggie

I have decided to do a collaborative pop culture issue monthly (the next will be the David Bowie & Jim Henson classic, Labyrinth), which will be a fun edition in which I talk to people I like about a band/movie/book/thing that we love.

Then I thought, “why not organise this newsletter so every week has a theme to it?” So here is what I’m planning to do, on rotation. Behold, your new newsletter schedule!

✨🌈 A Constellation, New Monthly Schedule ✨🌈

1st week of month: creativity issue where I write about music & the artistic process (posts like last week’s Here Is My Bottom, and Inside the Studio)
2nd week: notebook treasure (I will explain this in a minute!)
3rd week: geology issue, where I share my amateur geology thoughts and stories from the earth’s history which makes us feel less alone (think posts like Sedimentary, My Dear Watson, and Typical Forever?)
4th week: pop culture guest issue (like our Steely Dan Bumper Issue)

I hope your appetite has been thoroughly whetted.

“So,” I hear you ask, “what the heck is Notebook Treasure and is it truly as twee as it seems?!”

✨Notebook Treasure✨ is where I share little scraps and doodles from my archives and current notebook rotation. Also, some sort of tiny song or song demo that I wouldn’t really share anywhere else on the internet. I love to draw and write things down and I feel a lot of my ~artist personality~ comes from these little moments on paper, and the fun of those little moments also translate to my songs. Especially my 100 Tiny Songs project.

So, let’s see the treasure…

📒 This is the inside cover of my current notebook:

RIP Paperchase and your AGENZIO range. I wish I’d bought more of these before the company went down, they’re the perfect A6 size and I love to carry mine everywhere. I taped a poem by Graham Foust in the front cover, titled “Pop Song,” which reads like a nihilistic threat and I like how you’re supposed to read all of that whilst holding the concept of a ‘pop song’ in your head.

🦇 Here is a tiny song about Batman:

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I went through a major Batman/Superman phase recently and wanted to write a tiny song about both of them. Here is the Batman one, it’s about the time Joker was going to poison the water supply of Gotham and was also going to…. peel everyone’s faces off? Oh, Joker. What you like!!

If you are unaware of the tiny songs concept, it’s a project I started in late 2020 and involves writing a song which is less than a minute long. I record everything on my phone microphone and embrace the imperfection of first takes. And it’s all about having fun. You can listen to all 100 songs from the project here.

Lyrics:

I’m driving in the car
Alfred’s on my mind
I never got to tell him I love him
I hope the Joker doesn’t get there in time
To poison the water and find out my big secret
I’m just a guy who dresses up like the night, flies around with my bat wings and punches up bad guys
Nobody can know I got feelings too
Nobody can know that I am the Batman

As a bonus, here is a doodle of Batman punching the Joker that I drew in thirty seconds:

🐞 A Bug Valentines or Perhaps Motivational Bumper Sticker for Bugs:

🌋 Shrek in the Arctic Circle / Volcano Exploding to Billy Talent Lyrics

The doodle was from when I visited the Maritime Museum and drew Shrek, Donkey and Puss ‘n’ Boots setting up camp after being comfortably marooned by the ice in the Arctic Circle. This is when things are going good and the cannibalism hasn’t set in yet.

Next to it is a doodle of a volcano, a recurring motif in my drawings. I was listening to this Billy Talent song so that’s where the words came from.

🏰 Lastly, a Castle:

Sometimes I like to go to the V&A to draw stuff. This is a sketch of a photograph of a castle in Germany.

💕 things i liked 💕

✶ Enjoyed this song:

✶ Still reading LOTR, Fellowship of the Ring. Gandalf just fell of the bridge at Khazad-Dûm. Wah!

✶ I was reminded of this video which, for me, is truly a relic of the internet I used to enjoy as a kid and teenager. My friend Aisling and I had a brilliant time reminiscing about these yodelling clowns.

Last week I wrote about sharing works in progress with your peers and I wanted to give you an update about my beta-listeners! I got some really good feedback, and the overwhelming general sentiment was “hey, these songs are really good!” So I’m really glad that I shared ‘em. I have a renewed sense of purpose, yannow? And a list of things to try to enhance the songs and make them even “really good-er.” Anyway, this is your cue to send your works in progress to a trusty friend.

Here endeth the newsletter, but the conversation continues…

Did you like this issue? Do ya like the new structure? Do you also draw pictures of Batman? 📝 Let me know your thoughts by commenting below 📝

a constellation

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