Q: What Has Michael Been Up To? (A: 💥🐠🎨 🎸)
New full-band videos, dinosaur paintings, holo-foil stickers, and reflections on change.
Hello, friends! (And friendly strangers whom I met years ago at a festival and have forgotten the context because life is moving at a million miles an hour…)
Before I share my best concert footage ever and a few fun new art pieces, let me begin by extending my deep sympathy and compassion for every single person reading this newsletter. This year has been bonkers. BONKERS! Just keep going!
I for one have been so busy on a swirl of secret grown-up projects, I haven’t had much time to talk about all of the good things underway. But here are enough choice morsels to fill an update — and I’ll share some big announcements soon, for those of you willing to follow me into the storm through the vortex of transformation…
On that note, I’m taking a big step back from painting in 2024, and re-tuning Future Fossils for quality over quantity. (I have a whole season’s worth of amazing interviews in the can already, some of the best conversations I’ve had to date about technology and the mind and the future of ecological regeneration.) I hope you appreciate The New Normal, which is “big, meaningful projects and as much slack as possible,” replacing “rapid production of ephemera, overwhelming people and burning out because I sprint for the whole ultramarathon.” It’s not an easy transition, but I hope I can inspire you to make comparable changes in your life by learning in public about how to be a better human.
Meanwhile, the liquidation: I am beyond eager to put my remaining unsold works up for adoption and clear up some wall space in my cluttered home so my mind can mirror a more minimal environment. I’m having an “end of career (for now)” art sale. I welcome you to make me any kind of ridiculous offer you care to — deeply discounted, or paid off over a year, or partial trade, or whatever. I’d rather you have the art, and your support goes directly into a holiday gifting fund. Whatever doesn’t get sold (or bartered for Magic cards?) by the end of the year I’ll either give away to family or permanently de-list for sentimental reasons. I know most of you are just scraping by right now, but if you want to talk I’m more than happy to find a creative solution so you can get your hands on something increasingly rare and special.
But first, a sudden bloom of new work for your enjoyment:
🎹🥁🎸 New Trio Videos + Solo Live EP
I just played one of the best shows of my entire life, for the opioid crisis harm reduction non-profit Connor’s Heart at Santa Fe Brewing Company. Joining me for this show, Sloan Fussell on keys and Tommy Baumann on drums took four of my songs into badass jazz hyperspace! Here are the first two videos, c/o Valen Productions — the best concert videography I’ve ever lucked into:
And then also this live EP from one of my favorite family-friendly venues in Santa Fe, sadly shuttered but living on in fond memory:
These are clips from a show on 28 April 2023 at which I played in round robin format with Desert Mind (Antonio Dixon and Don Redondo) and Toni Dear, two of my favorite local acts. I was freshly unemployed and coming off of a very intense visit with my father for his seventy-first birthday and no small amount of weirdness was in the air.
I love these takes played with my beloved Taylor 324ce Builder's Edition, a guitar that fell into my lap thanks to the graces of COVID bailout money even though and perhaps because I cannot use my Ebow on it like I ordinarily do, so it forces me to play it like it's "just a guitar." (I'm also especially pleased with the extended looping coda to "Autocatalysis," an etude that ordinarily clocks out at under two minutes but which in a fit of dreamy wandering self-organized into a wonderfully weird, new exploration... ) Enjoy!
🐠 New Holo Stickers for Patrons & Conspirators
If you’re a Patreon supporter at $5 or more a month, or if you pay for a Substack subscription, please let me know where you’d like for me to send you some of these shiny new holo-foil “rainbow fish” stickers! The moral of this awesome kid’s book is to share one’s wealth and that’s precisely the vibe I want to promote in 2024…
🎨 New Paintings for The Heck of It
And finally, some new paintings to show off. Since you’re probably broke but stuff-rich and I’m building a number of Magic: The Gathering decks for friends to play, let me once again highlight the barter possibilities this holiday season…
Above: 48”x48” studio collaboration with Alcyone Casenergy and Brionna Garcia.
Above: 12”x12” canvas dinosaur/color studies (Triceratops and Dilophosaurus).
Above: canvas and panel works in progress from Astronox Music & Arts Festival (I have about six of these left, plus whatever commissions roll in before the end of the year, to wrap before I feel like I can take that step back from painting for a while).
And that’s that. Stay healthy! Much love from Santa Fe…