I FORGOT

I forgot that there is a Tumblr that you might be interested in. It's here:
WHATHAVEYOUDONEWITHMYFACE

AMOK AND OTHER MATTERS UNCONNECTED

Hello, brothers and sisters. How are you this evening?
I'm finding it hard to get around to 'up-dating' my stupid blog. The computer is not inspiring me, with its general dullness. I find myself nostalgically recalling days when they weren't around. When mobile phones weren't around. When the internet wasn't around. But here I am, typing into a laptop, for the web.
Oh well.
I've been painting and drawing and printing and even writing. I hadn't written anything except my diary entries (viz. this stuff) since about 2006 when a strange email arrived, asking me if I would write a science-fiction story. For money. Ever since I wrote a pulp/noir/detective/conspiracy/dreadful novel called Catacombs Of Terror! back in about 2002 I have loved the idea of writing that is paid by the word. Unfortunately in most cases I am a savage editor of my own work, frequently ending an evening's 'work' with less text than I began it. Anyway, I've not had any success with writing for at least half a decade, so I'm very pleased that I managed to write a story called 'One Door Closes And Then Another Door Closes'. The story will be published one day, I hope, but the commissioner of the story has now asked me to write another, different story. I've said he can have it by next Monday, which is five days' time. I hope I can do it again.
I will keep you posted about that, because they should end up on this site sooner or later, as that's what slowlydownward.com was for all those years ago.

Well anyway, in other news, the record that I've been working on (intermittently) for a couple of years is finally out. You have probably heard it or got it or something, but here are a few pictures, or 'pack-shots' as we call then in The Record Industry.

That's the vinyl sleeve. It's a triple gatefold which I've never done before but justified to myself because the artwork was only black and white. Then I fucked up my self-justification by getting silver foil stamped into the meteorites. It is very extravagant and I'm very sorry but I couldn't help myself.

This is the CD packaging. Again very extravagant. My pathetic justification was that 'the packaging didn't use any plastic'. But because of its extreme length it has to be wrapped in plastic to stop it from exploding out all over the place. Again, I'm sorry.

Here's part of the die used to emboss the artwork into the cardboard of the sleeve. This will be used to stamp a permanent brand onto my forehead so that every time I look in the mirror I'm reminded of my folly.
But really, I'm quite proud of this artwork and I hope that everyone likes it. Although I don't want another Grammy, thanks all the same. Save that stuff for the music, I'd say. Thanks to Think Tank Media and Phil Lee at XL for all their assistance with this project.