Did April go by abnormally fast for anyone else, or was that just me? Keeping busy will do that, I suppose. And let me tell you, April was certainly a busy month. Between job hunting, job working, writing, and acting the part of a social butterfly, there was certainly no shortage of shenanigans to keep me occupied.
For starters, I kept myself quite busy with wrapping up the second draft of my short story, “Soul Survivor.” I’m putting a few final touches on it and expect to have the draft properly completed by the end of this week (the first week of May). If anyone’s interested in giving that a read or helping me out with editing, please let me know. Shortly after all that is settled, I intend to submit the story to literary magazines in hopes of landing my first proper publication. Fingers crossed on that front.
On top of that, I went to a lot of shows. Like, at least one a week. On April 9th, I saw The Amity Affliction in downtown NYC, the first time I’ve ever seen them headline a tour. The following weekend, my brother and I had a gut-busting time seeing comedian Andrew Schulz at Radio City Music Hall (also in NYC). The weekend after that was perhaps the busiest, with The Story So Far on Friday the 22nd and Dayseeker on the 23rd in NYC and Brooklyn, respectively. Seeing TSSF for the first time was an absolute treat, and Dayseeker were appropriately sad (but, like, in a good way).
To cap things off, on Wednesday the 27th, my friends and I attended Beartooth’s “The Below Tour Part 2” in Huntington, NY. The show included performances from Beartooth (obviously), Silverstein, The Devil Wears Prada, and ERRA. Beartooth and ERRA are two of my current favorite bands (ERRA are in my top five, of course), and I’ve recently taken a liking to Silverstein’s material, so this show wound up being a top to bottom banger. It was a highlight of the month, to be certain, and well worth the wait.
And during all of that, it was announced that Crown the Empire are going on tour to celebrate 10 years of their album, The Fallout. This was one of the first metalcore albums I ever really listened to and one of the albums that got me hooked on the genre in the first place. The second we could, my friends and I scooped up tickets for that show, which will be in the city in June. We’re beyond hyped for that one. If you and anyone you know might also be attending, hit me up on social media! I’d love to see more friendly faces.
Oh, and Northlane are coming back to the States too for a tour, hot off the heels of the release of their latest album (which I reviewed in my previous blog post). Their NY show will be in July, and I’m just as excited for that as I am for CTE. So, all-in-all, I’ve got some juicy shows lined up for the next few months.
However, on the flip side, I don’t actually have any shows to attend in May, and I’m almost glad about that. Following April, I could use a break. Which, I think, in turn, will set me up all the better for June when a few more shows start popping up. I’m basically recharging for the summer season, which I’m starting to get excited for. I’m definitely a spring/fall kind of guy, but I can’t deny that summer does bring tons of great fun with it (even if the smoldering heat sucks ass).
Anyway, as an added bonus to my other April antics, I was also able to finish reading two comics that I placed on the backburner for quite some time. These were The Wicked + The Divine by Kieron Gillen (writer), Jamie McKelvie (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist), and Clayton Cowles (letterer), and Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan (writer), Cliff Chiang (artist), Matthew Wilson (again), and Jared K. Fletcher (letterer), both of which are published by Image Comics. And once more, I find I’m mentally slapping myself for taking way too long to finish reading something. These are two books that have more than earned their spots on my shelves.
The Wicked + The Divine is abundantly complex, as it juggles a plethora of grounded topics and themes, such as sexuality, illness (mental and physical), idolization, and religion, to name a few. The idea of pop stars as modern-day icons is at the forefront of the book. The main crux of the story is that various mythological gods are resurrected every 90 years and how, in the words of the author, “They are loved. They are hated. In two years, they are all dead.” Each of the present-day gods are represented as music icons, and they must each grapple with the weight of their fame and godhood as they slowly begin to die off one by one. It’s an incredibly fun read filled with a wealth of fantastic characters, even if the last act sort of stumbles under the weight of the story’s broader ambition.
Paper Girls, to me, feels very much like a sleeper hit for writer Brian K. Vaughan. I’ve been following his career closely ever since I started reading his other hit comic, Saga. When I first stumbled upon Paper Girls, I picked it up on impulse, simply because it had Vaughan’s name on it. I finished and learned to love the book because of how very different it is from everything else I’ve read by him. This wonderful coming-of-age story follows four 12-year-old girls as they’re flung through time and thrust into a conflict with the fate of the space-time continuum on the line. So, you know, great stuff right off the bat. For me, the most refreshing part of this book is how it tells such an adult story through such a youthful lens. But even beyond the crazy time travel antics, the story has a beautiful heart steeped in the importance of friendship. There are a few lapses in tone from time to time, or instances where finer details or developments maybe get left by the wayside, but overall, this is an excellent book that I highly recommend to anyone who’s ever picked up a comic.
Currently, I’m reading through Jonathan Hickman and Nick Dragotta’s East of West. Hickman may very well be my favorite writer of all time, and this book is nothing short of impressive. It’s fairly dense, though, both in terms of content and length, so I imagine this one might take me a while. From what I’ve already read, though, I’m sure it’ll be another favorite. And once that’s done, I’ll finally be diving into The Lord of the Rings (pray for me).
On a more adventurous note, my D&D group finally completed “Act 1” of the long-standing campaign that I run. We started playing just about when the COVID pandemic kicked off, so after about two years and what must have been at least 100 sessions (I’m ashamed to say I haven’t been keeping count), we finally made it. The party have essentially just concluded an arc that revolved around a demon cult gang war, the final battle to which I discussed in some humorous detail in one of my previous blog posts.
I’m so glad we’ve been able to keep this game going as long as we have, and I’m very excited to DM some more shenanigans for my players as they take a much-needed in-game week off from any adventuring. But that’ll be quite a while from now, as I’m taking a well-deserved break from DMing. That way, I can play my warforged artificer some more!
And that just about covers all the vaguely exciting details from April. Otherwise, life kind of goes on as normal. Things are moving fairly steadily, career-wise, I think. I’m actually expecting to start a new job soon, which I’ll be sure to post about on socials when the time comes. And, as always, I’m hard at work with what feels like way too many projects (but it’s actually more like two or three).
For me, life feeling busy sort of just comes down to timing, I think. I kind of feel like life is filling up with way too much stuff going on all at once. It’s the cycle of working, writing, maintaining my social life, and keeping up with other general life matters. Trying to abide by all of that has proven fairly… I don’t want to say taxing. “Challenging” might be a good word for it, though it’s certainly not in a bad way. It’s assuredly fulfilling, for the most part.
But enough rambling. In any case, I feel good about where I’m at. There’s still lots of progress to make, as always, but I’m definitely pleased with the progress I’ve made so far these past few months. Now, I suppose we’ll just have to see what May has in store (aside from my birthday on the 17th—oorah). Here’s hoping for the best, as per usual.