Happenings, Happenings: The Near Future of PEGRITZ(.com)!

August 24th, 2008

Well. It’s definitely been some time since I’ve rapped at ya, hasn’t it? I’ve been prettymuch incognito since July 17th, and for good reason: my digestive system once again decided to shut down on me, landing me in the hospital for a few days. Fortunately, this time I didn’t need the tubes down my throat draining the quarts of stagnant waste out of my intestines…but it was still quite annoying—especially since I have been periodically wiped out by extreme nausea every couple of days. I’m so loaded with medications that…well, I haven’t been able to do much more than write music reviews for WeHeartMusic, and that at only one a day or every other day. My complete and utter inability to land a decent-paying job certainly hasn’t made my life any easier, either. Consequently, my productivity has completely gone down the toilet.

However! Things are looking up now….I’ve been progressively feeling better over the past week, have managed to land a job at a local tech support contractor (doing desktop support for—get this—Apple Computers, the Worst Computer Company On Earth), and have been feeling a lot more energized lately. So here’s what’s gonna be happening in Pegritzland soon:

I’m going to be writing more and more reviews for WeHeartMusic, plus doing interviews with some of my favorite artists and bands, and taking part in the weekly WHM podcast. I used to do a little college radio back in the day, and what is podcast but the glory days of college radio ported to a new, slightly different, and more manageable (not to mention more wide-reaching) medium?
In relation to that, I’ve decided that it’s time I do a podcast of my own, as well. The Pegritzcast will be a monthly excursion into all things Pegritzian: music, literature, film, graphic arts, storytelling, comedy, retarded humor, and savage anti-Conservative vitriol. The sole purpose of The Pegritzcast will be to entertain you while exposing listeners to all manner of new ideas, arts, and experiences. I’ve been told I’ve got a great “radio voice” (I don’t even know how many voiceovers I did for California University of PA’s radio station back in the late ‘90s, so…hell, might as well do something with it!
And in relation to that, I’ve decided to start hitting up as many open-mic nights as possible in the coming months to tell humorous stories and slap people around with ignorant, mutant humor. “Storytime with Uncle Pegritz” will, of course, feature tales from the NONFICTION! collection (which I’m getting back into writing) as well as stories about all manner of goofball crap that is sure to amuse as well as enlighten…though I can prettymuch tell you right now that the theme of all my stories is: For god’s sake, don’t try this at home. We’re professional idiots here!
I’m writing a rather long reflection piece on being a thirty-five-year-old man living with the scourge of Fibromyalgia because September is Pain Awareness Month. It’s not going to be comfortable reading. But…let me just say this for now: chronic pain can be incredibly debilitating, but it cannot destroy your life unless you allow it to dominate every aspect of your existence. My body may ache constantly and fatigue may make it difficult for me to write for any length of time, but my mind is free. Pain can cloud your mind. It can darken your mood into the foulest of depressions. It can make dreaming and creating feel like an insurmountable chore. But no matter how great the pain, your mind can and will find a way around it. Do not feel bad if you’re physical limitations hamper your ability to express yourself creatively: even the smallest, most seemingly insignificant act of creation—like me writing up this little “Where the hell have you been, Pegritz?” feature—is a hole in the prison-wall of pain through which you can slip any number of notes and signals to the World At Large.
A great deal of my more positive outlook on life, even after the miseries of this summer (and the even greater miseries of last summer), stems from simply acceptance of both my abilities and disabilities. Sure, there are a lot of things I can’t do anymore—like dance, work in my garden, or even eat a proper meal—but there are a lot of things I can do. I’ve been re-reading Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, particularly his brilliant “Song of Myself,” truly one of the most inspiring poems ever written. I will shortly be reprinting “Song of Myself” here on this blog so that folks who haven’t had an opportunity to experience this masterful work will be able to do so conveniently—and for free! Since I’d graduated from grad school and entered the crushing, disillusioning world of academia, I’d grown distant from my old friend Walt…but he never forgot me, and when I opened the pages of his great tome, there he was loafing and waiting for me as if not a single day had passed since last he and I lounged and loved the panoply of Democracy. In this election year, too, the words of Whitman are more important than ever, and I warmly welcome you to share in his words, camerados.
And, of course, I’ve tons of music of my own in process, which I shall be releasing at a steady clip here now that I’ve finally finished the website for my netlabel, HPL Laboratories of Pennsylvania. Don’t think that HPL Labs exists as just a vanity label for the dissemination of my own musical products (all of which will be free, Creative-Commons-licensed downloads and torrents)—I plan on bringing together as many artists as I can, as I fully intend HPL Labs to be a modest, but effective, source for providing listeners with new, challenging music that isn’t afraid to break new ground or simply work with well-established genres. Considering the fact that the label is named after H. P. Lovecraft (and JPL, NASA’s legendary Jet Propulsion Laboratory), expect most of the music to be eerie, cosmic, and just generally weird stuff—primarily, but by no means necessarily, electronic.
Oh, and it goes without saying that I’ll be cranking out chapters to “City of Pillars” once more over at Footnotes to the Human Species. Keep an eye out for the Elder Sign in New York City, folks! From what I hear, I have some fans who have taken to tagging abandoned buildings with assorted eldritch wards straight from the dread Necronomicon of the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred! If anyone has pictures of this, send ‘em to me by all means!

So there you have it: my plan for the next month. Will I stick to it? Largely, I hope. But my Lord and Master Nyarlathotep is a fickle muse, and who knows from one day to the next what kind of cosmic curveball he’ll throw my way. Nonetheless, stick around! There’s gonna be some fun times coming here.

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