Tuesday, December 31, 2013

2013: Wrapping-Up the Year of the Snake



2013 Highlights

1. Daedelus 3/8
2. Breathless @ Road to Nightfall with Gabriel Newell & Muddy Soul
3. Dessa  3/20
4. Danny Brown & Killer Mike 3/29
5. Selling my remix to Ian Dougherty
6. Performing with Ishmael Reed
7. RAW Presents Marvel
8. Scoring the dance piece for Palette to Palette
9. Working with Lauryn Elise
10. The Between Beauty & Bedlam experience
11. Seeing/meeting Cody ChesnuTT
12. Whitfield Lovell's installation at TheHunter
13. WOF 6/7
14. Performance at The Hunter over the summer
15. Pacific Rim!
16. Writing The Pulse Spoken-word article
17. Figure Drawing 9/3
18. Big Boi and Killer Mike 9/24
19. Come on in My Kitchen at Barking Legs
20. The CD release show
21. Scoring Tim Hinck's show at Barking Legs
22. Performing in Nashville  & meeting great, loving, creative peeps



Top Albums for 2013

1. K-OS - Black on Blonde
2. Pillowfight - s/t
3. Bilal - A Love Surreal
4. Laura Mvula - Sing to the Moon
5. Talib Kweli - POC
6. Run the Jewels - s/t
7. Bonobo - The North Borders
8. Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest
9. Dessa - Parts of Speech
10. Nosaj Thing - Home
11. Elvis Costello & The Roots - Wise Up Ghost
12. James Blake - Overgrown
13. Pusha T - My Name is My Name
14. Amir Sulaiman - The Opening
15. Iron & Wine - Ghost on Ghost
16. NIN - Hesitation Marks
17. Polica - Shulamith
18. Disclosure - Settle
19. Danny Brown - Old
20. Talib Kweli - Gravitas
21. Qwel & Maker - Beautiful Raw

Links:
Twitter - @ichristian3030

Friday, December 20, 2013

Poems & Progress

 
Greetings Boys and Girls,
 
It’s been a pretty interesting time in the life of yours truly. Aside from playing Santa (and successfully knocking it all out without having to maim anybody in the process), I’ve been keeping busy. I’ve been in talks for some new and exciting projects that I’m hoping will take shape soon, and I’ve also gone back and have been doing some serious editing on my poetry manuscript.
 
For those who don’t know, I released my chapbook Ghosts & Echoes in February of 2009. The book consists of some pieces from my manuscript, and a number of the live poems that have been staples in my sets since around 2003 or 2004. There have been over 100 poems (no jive) written for the project since 2005, but right now, it’s sitting at the 64-page mark, and as of this moment, that’s where it will stay.



 
It’s taken a lot longer than I initially anticipated to reach this point, where I’m comfortable sending it out for first book contests and the like. Each time I would hit a wall, my mantra would be I have more living to do before I can write more. Since I began banging the poems out, my life has changed tremendously over and over again, so it was interesting for me to see the shifting perspective, insight, and honesty in the poems. I’m really proud of the work, and after the last few bits (again, for the moment) are locked down, I look forward to getting a nice big stack of rejection letters for it. lol. It’s the nature of the beast, and it’s been quite some time since I’ve had any to add to my collection. In any case, I would love to find a home for the manuscript at some point in 2014. We’ll see if I can make it happen.

 
Switching gears, as the end of the year approaches, I’ve been reviewing who and where I’ve been over the past twelve months. In many ways, this has been my year of acceptance. Some of my close relationships ended, largely over really petty reasons, and I’ve been okay with that, which has been big for me. I’ve really become a better advocate for myself, my needs, and my actions, and I think I’ve done a good job of establishing boundaries and sticking to them, so if something has to fall apart that isn’t necessarily growing my spirit or bettering me, I’m cool with that.

 
I’m also pleased with the risks I’ve taken. As a result of those risks, I’ve had some extremely cool things happen to me, and some wonderful doors have been opened. I’m really looking forward to taking more chances next year and seeing what happens, and why not? As the kids say, YOLO!

Well gang, that’s all I’ve got right now. Be good, don’t let anyone else’s insecurity, fear, craziness, etc. dim your light, and I’ll talk to you soon.

 
Blessings
 

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Landmarks


 
It’s hard to believe that it’s December. The year has buzzed by (it probably feels that way because I’ve been immersed in a project the whole year). In any case, it’s surprising to, basically, be knocking on the door of 2014.

 
For the past few years, December has been a really interesting month. Specifically, the past few have truly left deep impressions on me and cemented a great deal of change in and around my life.

 
Yesterday marked two years since the abrupt collapse of a relationship that really altered my being across the board. The sum of that experience really humbled me and forced me to confront a number of things, both internally and externally.

 


It’s amazing for me to think of just how much different my life has been since then. It also feels weird to know that it really been two full years. It, honestly, feels like it’s been much longer.

 
Switching gears, last December is when I sat down and issued myself a challenge (I’ve been known to enjoy a good challenge or two). That challenge became my debut EP Between Beauty & Bedlam. I, honestly, had no idea what a record with my face, name, production, and voice on it would sound like, but as soon as I committed to the project, things just started falling into place. Almost twelve months exactly (and I’ve said this before), but that decision, as well as this particular project, changed my life for the better.

 
I don’t pretend to know what things will look like for me around this time next year, but I’m excited about continuing on with the momentum that the past few years have given me. I’m enjoying the ride, brothers and sisters!

http://christianjcollier.bandcamp.com/
Twitter - @ichristian3030