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M: Another Postrock Album Inspired by a Novel

October 20, 2025

As I’ve often said, creativity is holistic: It comes in different forms. So, right after I finished Sleeping in the City of Abandoned Dreams, I felt there was more to say, only musically. M is another postmetal/postrock album inspired by a novel of mine.

The first such occurrence was with Hecate’s Dream, which was inspired by The Perfect Gray. The difference here is that the gap between the two works, the novel and the album, was much shorter. It’s kind of crazy, if you think about it, that within the span of three weeks I wrote a novel (albeit a short one) and composed an album. That’s what affective need does to you, as a creator.

So, what is M? Why “M”?

M is a postrock album inspired by my novel Sleeping in the City of Abandoned Dreams. Image of album art.
Since this postrock album was inspired by my novel, seeing the book cover as inspiration for the album art shouldn’t be too surprising
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Aesthetic Education: Missing in Action

September 16, 2025

In a recent discussion we had, my friend Igor used the term aesthetic education to refer to being exposed to a diverse set of artistic experiences in one’s formative years. I quickly realized that was a deceptively simple term, one containing vast universes of meaning.

More importantly, I realized aesthetic education is a concept both misunderstood and (as a result) absent in modern times, where everything is about quantification and measurement.

Aesthetic education – which I will define more precisely in a moment; likely it isn’t what you think it is – has been missing in action for a long, long time.

aesthetic education. image of man with a peacock feather.
Aesthetic education today can teach about color symbolism, what tight cropping does, or what a peacock feather might allude to. Real aesthetic education is about relating everything to lived experience as well as finding connections with other, (only apparently) irrelevant concepts.
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Cinema Today: a Disappearing Art

September 1, 2025

This post has all the ingredients of an old man tilting at windmills or rosy retrospection and all that, but at least I have backups! That is to say, I’m not alone in lamenting the state of cinema today and dreaming of other cinematic realities.

This post is based on an ongoing discussion I’m having with my good friend Igor da Silva Livramento, fellow writer, academic, and creative-writing advisor. He’s also a composer, music theorist, and producer. You can find him on LinkedIn, and also take a look at his blog and his page on Bandcamp.

Both Igor and I agree that cinema today – especially mainstream, mass-produced US-made films – rarely has anything of value to demonstrate. It’s once again, a living example of what happens when art is industrialized.

Cinema today. Painting of sunset by Chris Angelis
In a discussion about cinema today – more generally: art – and the effects of mass production, I felt it appropriate to use my own paintings as accompanying images. My technique is rudimentary and one can freely criticize my artistic ideas but guess what: At least I have artistic ideas.
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