The Creative Curmudgeon – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode, Sonny Kay and I discuss drawing, collaging, screaming in bands, writing lyrics, Arkansas, naming dogs, The Cult, Public Enemy, The Beatles, growing cacti, the meaning of life, and much more! We zero in on the creative process behind his collage "Sonoran Sandman." At the beginning of this episode, you will hear a few seconds of The VSS song "Silt, etc." You can check out his work and buy his book "Headspaces" at sonnykay.com.

Clyde Petersen is a visual artist. He also makes music under the moniker Your Heart Breaks. He also is a filmmaker whose credits include the animated film "Torrey Pines" and the Earth documentary "Even Hell Has It's Heroes." In addition to discussing all of these things in this episode, we also talk about which Star Trek series is our favorite and why, though we also talk about how we love all of them.

R.C. Auz îs the creative force behind the comic book series "Ratkids." In this episode, we discuss plot, panel layout, listening to your characters, drawing by hand vs digitally, self-promotion, staying childish, Silver Age comics, black metal, and much more. "Ratkids" can be found at ⁠https://tapas.io/series/RATKIDS/info.⁠

Mary Fashik is the founder of the Upgrade Accessibility movement, is the host of the podcast "The Politics of Disability," and is the author of the soon-to-be-released children's book "Adventurous Adeline and the Back-to-School Party." We had a nice conversation, during which we discuss disability rights, creative habits, writing for children, getting a book published, RuPaul's Drag Race, Marilyn Monroe, Billy Joel, and much more.

Let me tell you about Neil Burke. He has performed in such musical endeavors as Men's Recovery Project, Sinking Body, Born Against, Life's Blood, Landed, and many more. In addition to creating his own visual art, he has also created lots and lots of art for lots and lots of bands. It was an honor to talk to him and to discuss music equipment, overcoming stage fright, artistic influences, studio bathrooms, tubes, and a lot of other things. The song that plays after the intro theme is Sinking Body's "Who Are You." Throughout the podcast you can also hear the Men's Recovery Project songs "Man Urinating, Laughter" and "Undigested Food." Neil's work can be found at ⁠https://monoroid.com/.⁠

Edward Colver's live band photos, studio portraits, and album covers have made him a legend of music photography. He's also a really nice guy, and I'm truly honored that he agreed to speak with me. We discussed his cameras of choice, how he got started, how he got the attention of the early punk community, the making of the album cover for Black Flag's Damaged, why he thinks you should never try to be trendy, and much more. His work can be found at ⁠https://edwardcolver.com/.

Andrew Goldfarb writes, draws, paints, and performs as a one-man band under the name The Slow Poisoner. In this episode, we discuss creating juggling, playing multiple instruments at once, time moving backwards, putting corpses on display, what happens when we die, how to stay weird, and much more. His work can be found at theslowpoisoner.com.

Gretchen Felker-Martin wrote Manhunt, one of the greatest horror novels of all time. It was an honor to speak to her about writing, re-writing, why we like horror, how to read Ulysses, the importance of writing exactly what you want to write, and more.