AND ANOTHER THING...

Here's one more new bit of rockcrit from the Cleveland Scene: Lamb of God/Mastodon.

Both those albums come out on Tuesday; dig in the couch cushions 'n' go get 'em.

"ARE WE THERE YET?" "NO. STOP FIDGETING."

The publisher has pushed my book's release back from Spring 05 to Fall 05.

I am of two minds.

Sure, I'd like to get the thing out there as soon as possible. I spent almost 18 months writing it - it would be nice to let some folks read it, y'know?

But on the other hand, end-of-year publication means Christmastime publicity in jazz rags, which helps with sales. Plus, I now have that much more time to polish it until it's a gleaming diamond bullet.

So, I guess I'm okay with this.

In the meantime, I'm gonna keep working on The Next Book.

Just to keep this page active, maybe I'll start dribbling out more info about that soon.

One thing I will definitely do is start linking to my freelance pieces, if and when they show up online.

Here are a few:

C.Aarme, from the Village Voice a couple of weeks back

Yes and Dream Theater, from the Cleveland Scene

The Scorpions, from culturevulture.net.

WALKING AWAY, NOT LOOKING BACK

It's official; I'm free (in my own head at least).

I was in a record store at lunchtime today, buying two CDs by Albert Ayler (Witches And Devils and Complete Live At Slug's Saloon), and I spotted a Miles bootleg I don't have.

It's called Fat Time; it was recorded at one of his comeback gigs in 1981. I already have two discs from that string of gigs - We Want Miles and Miles! Miles! Miles!. Still, it might have been nice to have some more music from that period. I liked that band, particularly Mike Stern's guitar and Marcus Miller's bass.

But I left it on the shelf.

I might go back for it next week. I don't know. But knowing that I didn't have to buy it felt strangely freeing.

And besides, the Ayler stuff I did get was totally ass-frying in exactly the way I'd hoped it would be.

REPORT FROM THE NOTHING TO REPORT DEPT.

Not much to report right now. The book's in the publisher's hands - my editor swears he's gonna read it very soon and get back to me with his thoughts. I'll post some of that feedback here.

In the meantime, I have moved on to The Next Thing, which is the Novel. (I would say "First Novel" but there are sizable chunks of at least three truly wretched fiction-things on discs in drawers that predate the current effort. I haven't decided whether the fact that they'll never see the light of day means they "count" or don't, but I'm leaning toward don't.) I hope to have that manuscript finished by year's end - I promised my agent I'd give it to him after New Year's, and since it's already fully plotted, it shouldn't be that difficult to pound it out in the next five months. It has nothing to do with Miles Davis, or jazz, though, so I don't know how much space I'll devote to it here. With luck, RTVD-related matters will occupy much of my time in 2005.

There's another Next Thing in the hardly-worth-mentioning stages, but it's hardly worth mentioning. It's nonfiction, and music-related; that's all I'll say until I hear from the money-people involved.

IT'S BEYOND MY CONTROL

The publisher has the manuscript. I got an e-mail acknowledging receipt that reads, in part:

"An initial sampling of the text indicates a compelling and well-told story."

[carl spackler]

So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

[/carl spackler]