Draft Notice

Part of my process for maintaining a daily blog involves jotting down ideas whenever they occur to me. It's easy to forget things, especially random fragments of thought, so it's important for me to record them in their li'l embryonic form, with an intention to re-visit them when muse (or desperation) dictates. Some ideas are just titles, some have a few lines or paragraphs written, but they're all stored in my archive for future reference or rediscovery. It's the spiritual descendant of my notebook notions, the fevered almost-inspirations I used to scrawl in spiral notebooks when I was a teenage wannabe writer. The practice serves me well today.

(In fact, going through my drafts today, I stumbled across an otherwise unrelated piece--originally written as preamble to another piece, but excised from the published version--that works perfectly as introductory paragraphs to a chapter in my book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). That wasn't my original intent, but those paragraphs fit so well with what I had planned for that chapter that I felt like I'd lucked into the best fortune cookie ever.)

I had something else in mind to write for today's post, an Unfinished And Abandoned recollection of my two failed attempts to pitch comic book ideas to publishers over the phone in the early '90s. Instead, I want to offer you a glimpse at some of the titles stored as drafts in my archives. Some of these will be short stories, some will be blog posts, and some will never be anything at all:

BEFORE THE CRISIS! My Fascination With DC Comics
Count Me In
Traveling Man
SHOUT IT OUT LOUD! Rock 'n' Roll Anthems
The Power Pop Periphery
GET OFF OF MY CLOUD: My 25 Favorite Rolling Stones Tracks
LOOK THROUGH ANY WINDOW: My 25 Favorite Hollies Tracks
Mickey Spillane
THANK YOU FOR THE DAYS: My 25 Favorite Kinks Tracks
The Last Cigarette In The World
Last Stand On Uranus
ROCK AND ROLL ALL NITE: My 25 Favorite KISS Tracks
TV For Your Stereo
The Junk Food Of Your Life
Tourist Season In Hell
Garston Bottle Works
Heh
Getting The Band Back Together
The Devil And Her Details
Grease Is The Word: Fast Food And Me

My draft archive also includes continuations of a number of series already begun on this blog, including Boppin' The Whole Friggin' Planet (The History Of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio), The Everlasting First, He Buys Every Rock 'n' Roll Book On The Magazine Stands, Guilt-Free Pleasures, The Best Of Everything, Second Hand Sounds, Rescued From The Budget Bin!, Comic Book Retroview, Unfinished And Abandoned, Love At First Spin, Groove Gratitude (A Gift Of Music), and Lights! Camera! REACTION! My Life At The Movies. And more! With still more germs of ideas added with numbing frequency.

I probably will not be returning to my autobiographical series Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio: My Life In Pop Culture, at least not here on the blog. That account of reading comic books and listening to records while attempting to grow up in the '60s, '70s, and '80s seems more suited to a book of its own. When I finish The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), my next long-form project will probably be Singers, Superheroes, And Songs On The Radio.

Unless it isn't. You never know with me. That's why I keep my options open. That's why I keep an archive of drafts.

The 1960s as I remember them

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Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1)

Our most recent compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is still available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.