My Abundant Spare Time
Taking the Long View
Mark Rushton’s Interpolation 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 the Mark Rushton Gallery, for printed and original artworks. License my music, sound fx, and illustrations at Pond 5 for your creative project. I’m on Bandcamp and all the usual streaming services.
This week’s topics:
Merch and Swag
28 Years Later, a Fulbright, and EDC
Mark Rushton - “Long View in the Country”
Merch and Swag
It looks like my ambient gig at xBk Annex in Des Moines is going to happen, likely in mid July. More on that when it’s on their schedule.
In addition to merch (cassettes and CDs in hard cases as art objects), a friend suggested that I bring some free swag.
For the swag, I decided to burn some CD-Rs and put them in Tyvek sleeves. But my initial efforts at thermal printing failed. “Plan B” will be using a typewriter and ink wash. If “Plan B” fails, I’ll just go with ink wash and maybe a Sharpie.
A friend told me about The Bank in Highland Park, but that’s more of an event venue. They have tables to rent for selling crafts at various times of the year. I do make ghostly Halloween music and “alternative Christmas” music, and I provided music at The Cherry Building in Cedar Rapids about 20 years ago, so it’s not too far out scope. I’ll have to stop in and talk to them.
28 Years Later, a Fulbright, and EDC
Last weekend, a friend my wife and I haven’t seen in 28 years dropped out of the sky and spent the day. What a great time! They have future plans.
Our oldest daughter was awarded a Fulbright for 2025-2026 in Košice, Slovenia. That’s huge. I’m sure I’ll be producing lots of artwork related to that Old World city, especially St Elizabeth Cathedral. Let’s go on a walking tour:
Our youngest daughter returned from Las Vegas, where she attended the Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC). I think this was her fifth time going to this electronic music festival.
I’ve always liked Armin van Buuren and his “A State of Trance” mixes. Here is his set from EDC 2025. It gives the uninitiated a good idea of what’s going on there.
Mark Rushton - “Long View in the Country”
I also went to work this week, mowed the yard at my mom’s house, fixed the zipper on a laptop bag, ran a few errands, made some music, and pitched some music libraries.
The running joke is that I get things done in “my abundant spare time”.
It helps to not pay attention to the news, weather, or sports. I knew we got rain this week, but I didn’t realize we got 5 inches of rain at the airport. We got a bit less than that out here where we are, but it still caused some puddling in the lower fields.
This week, instead of playing Other People’s Music, I thought I’d offer up one of my own.
Long View in the Country a good example of what I want my live set to sound like. This is a kalimba processed through my electronics, and I made it when I would livestream my improvisations to YT last year. I don’t do that anymore. I still play “live” but only to the recorder.
Put some good headphones on. I like Grados.