Moved blogs

This is Josh's old blog.

If you're interested - you can read about his art/sound at his NEW WEBSITE!!

Also check out his graphic novel - buy it from San Kessto Publications

PREORDER The Long Weekend - graphic novel

The Long Weekend - graphic novel by Joshua Santospirito on Pozible

I've been slaving away on this comic for a few years now ... it's an adaptation of a psychological essay written about a Jungian concept called the Cultural Complex. The comic is about different cultures in Central Australia, it's about all of Australia ... it's about all cultures ... it's about the cultural mind of the group. It's both sad and funny, horrifying and witty ... and it's almost ready to be turned into a BOOK !!

I'm really hoping it'll be a beautiful book and it'd be great to have your help to be able to do that !! 

You can read the bits of the comic on the website (http://www.joshuasantospiritoart.com), where I have been slowly putting it up page by page as they're completed. The final book will have extra pages and notes and book design by Nadine Kessler (http://www.nadinekssler.com). The final copy of the book will also have a brand new piece of writing by Craig to go with the comic. I reckon he's a smashing writer and a unique voice in Australian writing! 

We have enough money to do the graphic design, the tricky part is paying for the printing of the copies, we're hoping to print about 500 copies and we need about $1500 more to get it done! 

A brief history of the comic's existence so far (written in the third person)

* 2006 - Josh Santospirito reads Craig's essay: The Long Weekend in Alice Springs whilst working in Indigenous communities in Central Australia as a mental health nurse.  * Josh likes what he reads. 

* 2008 - He starts drawing parts of the Long Weekend in comic form ... he decides that this is a very cathartic exercise to help digest the seeming chaos around him. 

* 2009 - He shows Craig San Roque. * Craig likes what he reads. 

* 2010 - Josh begins pencilling over 100 pages of a more complete adaptation of the comic

* 2011 - He commences inking of those pages and showing people on his website. * People like what they read. 

* 2012 - He will COMPLETE the comic by November 2012, have the book designed by Nadine. 

... he will ask for help to print around 500 copies !!! * So that even more people will like what they read. 

* 2013 - January / February printing. March -send y'all copies. *and y'all like what y'all read. 

SO that's it - I want you ALL to be a part of this project, making this comic into a printed version (as well as a proper-like E-book). If you don't have a credit card or hate punching your numbers into the interwebs but you still want to support the project - get in touch atdisco_jeans@yahoo.com.au and we can try to work something out. Anyone who hasn't got the dosh CAN STILL HELP by linking to this on your social media of choice!

 

Thanks a bunch guys!!

For tonnes of updates and information (as well as the entire comic) go to my

Twitter   |   Website   |   Facebook

 

I've been slaving away on this comic for a few years now ... it's an adaptation of a psychological essay written about a Jungian concept called the Cultural Complex. The comic is about different cultures in Central Australia, it's about all of Australia ... it's about all cultures ... it's about the cultural mind of the group. It's both sad and funny, horrifying and witty ... and it's almost ready to be turned into a BOOK !!

I'm really hoping it'll be a beautiful book and it'd be great to have your help to be able to do that !! 

You can read the bits of the comic on the website (http://www.joshuasantospiritoart.com), where I have been slowly putting it up page by page as they're completed. The final book will have extra pages and notes and book design by Nadine Kessler (http://www.nadinekssler.com). The final copy of the book will also have a brand new piece of writing by Craig to go with the comic. I reckon he's a smashing writer and a unique voice in Australian writing! 

We have enough money to do the graphic design, the tricky part is paying for the printing of the copies, we're hoping to print about 500 copies and we need about $1500 more to get it done! 

A brief history of the comic's existence so far (written in the third person)

* 2006 - Josh Santospirito reads Craig's essay: The Long Weekend in Alice Springs whilst working in Indigenous communities in Central Australia as a mental health nurse.  * Josh likes what he reads. 

* 2008 - He starts drawing parts of the Long Weekend in comic form ... he decides that this is a very cathartic exercise to help digest the seeming chaos around him. 

* 2009 - He shows Craig San Roque. * Craig likes what he reads. 

* 2010 - Josh begins pencilling over 100 pages of a more complete adaptation of the comic

* 2011 - He commences inking of those pages and showing people on his website. * People like what they read. 

* 2012 - He will COMPLETE the comic by November 2012, have the book designed by Nadine. 

... he will ask for help to print around 500 copies !!! * So that even more people will like what they read. 

* 2013 - January / February printing. March -send y'all copies. *and y'all like what y'all read. 

SO that's it - I want you ALL to be a part of this project, making this comic into a printed version (as well as a proper-like E-book). If you don't have a credit card or hate punching your numbers into the interwebs but you still want to support the project - get in touch atdisco_jeans@yahoo.com.au and we can try to work something out. Anyone who hasn't got the dosh CAN STILL HELP by linking to this on your social media of choice!

 

Thanks a bunch guys!!

For tonnes of updates and information (as well as the entire comic) go to my

Twitter   |   Website   |   Facebook

 

Below is page 96 of the comic

 

I have returned from a tour of Europe which was absolutely GREAT! Having played in Switzerland, Spain and Germany - met lots of great people and am looking forward to having another tour there in the future!

I'll get around to writing more about it here, but there is some more immediate matter to attend to first - there will be a concert in Sydney on Monday the 24th at the NOW now series, and just prior to heading off to that - there will be a Hobart gig to organise - details to be arranged and announced - Thursday 20th of this month!!

European Tour - AUGUST!!!

Tour dates and Album – Acousmatic Ecology Pt 1: a query

Acousmatic Ecology part 1: A Query
July 2012 on CD and as digital download from Bandcamp

CD or digital download of Acousmatic Ecology part 1: A Query  can be gotten for FREE (in July) through Bandcamp!

Drive West Today has been expanding over 2011 and 2012 to encompass more than just the cinematic experience of listening to sound. Joshua Santospirito’s guitar is more and more placed into textural compositions that contrast silence to clicks and bursts of sonar.

The recordings in the Acousmatic Ecology series are a document of one moment in a long slow exploration of stops and starts and counterintuition. All aimed at creating stillness within a maelstrom of anxiety and the elevation of the soul in the midst of confusion, attempting to take the listener into the performing experience.

Part 1 of the two-part series are selected pieces from a recording session in May in Hobart at the Scrapbook Studios. Part 2 will be out in late 2012 and will feature selected recordings that focus more on improvisational concepts within repetition.

credits
all music improvised by joshua santospirito
recorded and mixed by Ryan Lynch from scrapbook studios
May-June Hobart, Tasmania, Australia

Concert Tour announced as part of the Acousmatic Ecology CD seriesAugust – Europe – I’m very excited to be travelling to Europe again!
Thursday 16 – Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain – Liceo Mutante
Friday 24 – Gelegenheiten, Berlin, Germany

September – Australia
Friday 21 – Hobart
Monday 24 – Sydney – NOW now series

Stay tuned through
facebook | twitter

Keep your ears out for Part 2!!! – Available in November 2012 – with more tour dates to be announced then!

FINALLY - I released an album - you can buy it here on this blog page for $4-. I'll tell you more about it soon!!!

Experimenta Music at the Moonah Arts Centre

Another of the Acousmatic Ecology series of videos

Later this year(2012) I shall be travelling to Europe and hopefully playing a few shows within this series of music. Recently played on the roof of Mona (see last blog) and the response appears to have been very positive which is nice: that was an outdoors gig, very chilled out and as, a consequence, less intense than this particular video. Highlight was playing with Brian Ritchie at the end - he chose the Beatles song - Within you, without you, which was a fave of mine in my adolescent years and it totally took me back.

DWT @ MoMa

Very chilled out gig ... there were two little 2 year old girls who danced most of the gig, they made my day!!

Thanks to Nadine for filming from her beanbag.

Thanks to the Ice ice creamy people for making inspiring icecream.

TSH 2011 series

A longer video from the performance at The Silent Hour in Sydney by DWT

The Hobart Improvisation Collective

On Invasion Day (26th of Jan) in Australia a group of Hobartians went to the top of Mount Wellington (which is the dominant landform above Hobart, you can see it from everywhere) and made sound/noise improvisations in the look-out building at the top which is a concrete room with huge windows ... very resonant.

Here's a brief video which'll give you an idea of the beautiful setting of Mount Wellington


Here's the entire recording - about 42 mins or so.
Mount Wellington 26/1/12

If you're in Hobart and you'd like to join in any future events then click here to like us on facebook Or if you want to come and watch then just do the same.

The Barbarians

I'm in this this week ... gotta say - the rehearsals are shaping up and the stage looks bloody amazing ... I kind of wish I was in the audience.

Later on when I have a chance to scan them - I'll stick up some sketches I made whilst waiting around during rehearsals. They'll be at my art website.

2011

Well ... I just did a quick survey of 2011 ... it feels like it was quiet year for Drive West Today concerts but I still managed to squeeze in about 10 concerts which seems to be my average over the last 5 years or so. In fact - that means I've now done over 50 concerts in that outfit ... which sounds like a big number doesn't it!

2012 is looking interesting with projects both musical and visual with
Taking part in an Opera in January in Hobart ... can't say more ... perhaps afterwards.

A concert at the Forest Festival in February where I'll perform a once-off composition for the Tassie forest.

At some point in the year I shall be accompanying my beautiful wife Nadine on her fellowship trip to Boisbuchet in France so she can attend a design workshop of some description ... I'm going to hang out, eat camembert and probably draw comics ... might see if I can get to Paris and meet David B ... and then fawn all over him ... with poor French skills.

Plans in the wings for another collaborative production with the wonderful Chris Downes for a comics/theatre crossover ... stayed tuned for that later in 2012.

My graphic novel is more than half complete ... the full first chaper can be read online here at Joshua Santospirito Art, if you like what you read you'll hopefully like it even more when I get it in print ( that is, after all, how it's designed to be read ... not on a computer screen ).

Late in the year I'm going to be doing a fairly massive comics-exhibition in Hobart which should keep me occupied for some time.

So - I'm liking the lookie of 2012 ... I shall be telling you all about my creative pursuits when the appropriate moments come up ... in the meantime - enjoy Summer (if you're in Australia) and enjoy Winter (if you're in a Northern part of the planet).

My new art website

I don't know if I've written this here before at the Collossal Adjective ... but I'm writing it here now - if you're interested in my comic art then check my other website - Joshua Santospirito Art. There you can read a few of my one-pager comics, look at my slowly growing long-form essay-comic The Long Weekend in Alice Springs (I'm slowly putting up pages from it as I complete them) and other bits and bobs that I think to put on the web for people to have a gander at.

I will also be looking at a large-scale art project in the next year which I shall exhibit in Hobart in December next year, I might place bits of that up as it slowly evolves as well ... so check back every now and then if you're interested in the process.

www.joshuasantospiritoart.com

Heading back to Sydney

Looking forward to this - In December I'm headed back to Sydney for a gig at the Silent Hour XX, which is a tops night held at the General Store gallery, a beautiful sounding space in Wooloomooloo. In November, in the meantime, Greg Haines, Tim Coster and Spartak will be at TSH XIX on the 19th of November which should be nice ... but I won't see it.

Ooo ... big city of lights.

December 2nd, (Friday) from 8pm there'll be a few acts on for a fundraiser for the General Store. Playing on the night will be Paul Heslin - who's got some cool little videos you can gawk at here - >

Plots within plans

One must always have projects ... if one does not ... one gets a little fed up with things. Mental sanity is a fragile thing when one works five days a week, Monday to Friday.
I am constantly juggling numerous plans with a view to keeping myself occupied.

• I am continuing my comic - I have put up pages 1-13 on the web now, you can read them HERE.


• I continue to look for new and exciting places for Drive West Today to play in ... I have no gigs lined up for certain ... but I'm working on it, not just in Tassie, looking to play in Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane again one week soon ... and Basel, Zurich, Berlin, Milan etc.


• I am in long-term discussions with my partner in crime Chris Downes for further developments of the performance we did in August this year.


• I am growing veggies with Nadine ... and fighting off snails.


• Nadine and I are slowly revolutionising our house ... slowly.


• Trying organise a regular night in Hobart for improv/noise etc with a couple of comrades.


• ummm, that'll keep me occupied I think.

Things one forgets to do when one is too focused on plans and plots to keep oneself occupied.

• Stop and smell the roses.


• Enjoy the sun.


• Go for a walk.


• Enjoy a beer with a mate.

It's a delicate balance people, don't forget it!

Biophillia

Gotta say ... Björk's new album is beautifully complex. Dark Matter put my ear's into a state of exquisite bliss. Thunderbolt confused me at first ... but I listened to it another two times ... then I got it, BAM - instant classic to my ears.

I also, just COULD not understand Sacrifice at first ... it has these intensely dense drums that come in over the top of the sluggish movement of the underlying structure, after a few more listens I began to become dimly aware that it works in a way that I had never heard before.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the last few album's use of brass horns, this is strangely augmented somehow on Biophillia by the use of organs and choir which provide this surreal drive to tracks such Hollow and Dark Matter, the best advice I can give is that you listen to this on the best quality equipment that you can find ... beg, borrow or steal ... but don't riot. You will richly rewarded aurally.

Björk's combination of sluggishness and intensity also gets a guernsey on Mutual Core which is also quite a humdinger of music. The final track of the album is a far more subdued and beautiful piece that focuses more on voice, which gives the entire collection a sense of focus that is quite sensual somehow, but in quite a different mode to the rest of Björk's work.

She mixes up programming and the quality of more organic sounds such as choral work with more confidence than ever ... perhaps her collaborator Leila Arab's work has improved dramatically, though Björk's choice in colleagues is always second-to-none and this time around includes awesome "studio as instrument" producer Damian Taylor and again uses the skills of experimental harpist Zeena Parkins.

I note that Björk also did the mixing and producing this time around, Spike Stent, her usual collaborator ain't around and the level of detail in the sound is extraordinary despite having poor quality headphones to delve into this with.

And I cannot believe the font that M&M have created. I know amazing fonts get made all the time and the truth of the matter is that I probably just can't pay attention to all of them because of the media "white noise" ... but the fact remains that it is endlessly fascinating to stare at.

I got the digi pack with the extra tracks on it too ... so I finally scored Nattura ... which is a CRACKING track!! Though it probably doesn't quite fit on the same CD.

Weather is changing yet again

So I don't tend to blog as much as I used to ... but that doesn't bother me so much.
I haven't got much on at the moment so there's not much to talk about, just beavering away at my comic when I get a second ... which is not often.

Though I did play two gigs on the weekend - the Inflight gig on Friday which I organised - a top success, people hung around and the gallery setting seemed to give the whole thing a great focus with the audience really coming to listen. I was an oddly shaped performance space but it seemed to work pretty well. You wouldn't want more than 30 or so people at one moment in there though.

The other gig was up at the Grand Poobah at the new front room they have called the Swamp Art Compostery which was put together by Aiden Howlett and some other bloke who's name I don't know. Quite a fun space that want to start having music at the same time as the Poobah Bazaar is on in the other room, a nice little market. Not too many people, so I just played a lot more loosely than I would normally, got to see my neighbour's baby crawling across the floor to my music ... well, I think my music was a little incidental to his awareness to be honest. Hopefully, as time goes on, the Poobah gig picks up and more people come on a Sunday afternoon. I think it's once a month.

The weather's warming and I reckon I'll spend more time in the garden as I plot my next musical adventure. We are thinking of heading to Germany, Switzerland and possibly Northern Italy next year so perhaps I shall be checking out the possibility of having a few concerts over there, perhaps around June.