Check out my review of the first single by the new Austin-based band Starflake on The Cosmic Clash:

The Qreative Life Podcast | S2E11 | Nelson Valente Aguilar
In this episode of The Qreative Life podcast, Q is joined by musician and frontman Nelson Valente Aguilar, founder of the nuevo cumbia band Como Las Movies. Listen as Aguilar describes the origins of his musical career, starting when he was five-years-old, and listen as he overcomes social, economic and…

Blog – 6.12.24
A few weeks ago I read this article in TIME Magazine about why obesity is rare in Japan. The whole thing was interesting, and it’s definitely worth considering how the Japanese lifestyle choices differ from ours. But for me, this was the real money quote: Western cooking, he said, is…

Q Review | Dead-End Memories | Banana Yoshimoto
“The words I read in books seemed to strike me more deeply, and with my senses sharpened by grief, I noticed the glittering transition of the seasons as clearly as if I held the grief in the palm of my hand. It had been a long while since I’d experienced…

Q Review | Death on Gokumon Island | Seishi Yokomizo
If you know me, you know that I love murder stories. 90% of my television viewing happens on BritBox and involves some detective or another solving capital crimes. Many of these stories are formulaic, steeped in genre tropes, but that’s part of the draw. It’s comforting, relaxing even, to solve…

Blog – 6.5.24
This week I read Ted Gioia’s State of the Culture 2024 (published back in February) and it’s been on my mind a lot because, well, it’s all true. I shared the link on Facebook and one of my friends commented, “The problem with pieces like this is that they sound…

Q Review | The Informers | Bret Easton Ellis
This is another one of my Goodwill finds, and the first book by Bret Easton Ellis that I’ve ever read. American Psycho is on my list to get to someday, but this one was $1.99 and flipping through the pages I was assured of a quick and dirty read, so…

Blog 6.4.24
Yesterday I met with one of my regular writing partners, and she dropped a comment that I hear regularly from other creatives – one that I struggle to relate to. It was something to the effect of, ‘I waited for the universe to tell me what to do’. Sometimes people…

The Qreative Life Podcast | S2E10 | Geoff Marslett
Geoff Marslett is a director, writer, producer, animator and actor. His career started with the punk rock animated short Monkey vs. Robot before directing three narrative films Quantum Cowboys, MARS and Loves Her Gun, as well as producing on and acting in the experimental feature documentary Yakona and the upcoming…

Blog 6.2.24
The last two weeks have been upside-down. I blame the end of the school year and graduation. Nothing’s wrong, it’s just my schedule has been a mess. Lots of things seem to have been canceled, rescheduled, and interrupted. I also had company from out of town, which was very nice…