Be Thankful for Routine
and The Stargate
Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
This email is brought to you by:
Mark Rushton Gallery - for original paintings, metal prints, and tote bags.
License my music, sound fx, and illustrations at Pond5 for your creative project.
I’m on Bandcamp. And all the usual streaming services. I do all my streaming listening via Qobuz, a service that actually sounds great and pays artists.
This week’s topics:
Be Thankful For Routine
Blood Incantation - “The Stargate”
Be Thankful For Routine
At Thanksgiving, we went around the table and everybody said something for which we were thankful.
I said I was thankful for routine.
My favorite moments are when I can go about my day with minimal trouble - whether it’s my personal life, the day job, or my artistic interests.
The last thing I want are boxes to check off or new problems to add to the list. I appreciate routine.
This is the worst weekend to send out an email, considering the 400 or so emails everybody has gotten in the past few days. Maybe less, maybe more, but a lot.
Here’s how my routine goes:
I continue to create and edit music and sound fx. The sound fx go straight into libraries. The music just gets piled up and then pitched out to sync libraries.
Occasionally, I work on a few paintings or inkings or whatever you want to call them. Like the above “processed photo” of me taking a selfie at Banana Republic, my current favorite clothing store.
If you like this style of “processed photo” and want me to make something custom using a photo you’ve got, let’s talk. I can put it on a tote bag, small magnet for your fridge, a t-shirt - all very econo projects, or even a metal print. I suppose I could just process the image and send you the original and you could do whatever with it.
Blood Incantation - The Stargate
This week’s musical selection is quite a bit different from what I’ve featured so far.
Several weeks ago, Qobuz suggested a Denver band, Blood Incantation. I’ll give anything a try, and I was surprised how much I liked the 20 minute track “The Stargate”.
It’s an odd blend of styles: starting off like early 80’s Rush and quickly turning into death metal, then Pink Floyd, ambient, and actual Tangerine Dream guesting, and switching back and forth throughout. Death metal isn’t always my cup of blood, but when interspersed with other genre it’s a blast.
Normally I’d include the Qobuz link, but they made a video for YouTube. It’s low-budget brilliant (think “1001: A Space Odyssey”). If you watch the video, you should read through the comments. Then go watch the YT video of them buying records at Amoeba because they are into everything cool.