6.3.13

I’ve mainly been focusing on releasing my collection of poems for the past six months, but thought this would be a good time to jump back in on my notebook and catch up.

In late January I moved down to S. Utah to a little town called Brian Head. There is a small town comprised of about 60 registered voters. It’s quaint and quiet. I was given the opportunity of taking the position of Sales & Marketing Manager at Brian Head Resort, the local ski hill, and moved myself up there from Salt Lake City. I had the choice to live in some of the nearby cities like Parowan or Cedar City, but I opted for the adventurous approach and found an old ski condo at the base of the mountain instead.

The one bedroom condo is complete with 60’s and 70’s decor, old ski posters and some amazing wallpaper from a lost time. It’s just my style. The building I live in is comprised of 27 units and 99% of the time I’m the only one living there. It’s a rather amazing experience I’m not sure I could have created in my mind — it just seemed to happen that way. Most of the people that I encounter are curious as to why I chose to live in such a secluded place. I’m not sure exactly how to answer that. To me it seems like an incredible opportunity to push my creativity and focus, to ditch the things I don’t need and to simplify. The first thing I did was take the TV that was there and put it into the closet. It has been there ever since. I don’t watch much TV anyways, but it has definitely taken things to a level where I have to pick up my guitar or a book before I think about anything of that nature. It’s nice.

The last couple of months I’ve been trying to catch up on many of the books that I skipped over when I was younger. I wasn’t much of a reader growing up and I’ve decided over the past few years that I should get that in check. I spent a few weeks with Hemingway while I was reading A Moveable Feast and The Sun Also Rises. Hemingway’s writing is right up my ally and I think the environment I’m in right now lends itself nicely to the reading. I’ve since moved onto Henry Miller’s Tropic of Cancer and I’m working through that.

In other news my brother Lorin and myself have decided to launch our own small independent record label. It’s called Salt Lick Records. We decided to do this as a way to release music from his solo project Lorin Walker Madsen as well as my punk rock band Riva Rebels. We are working on releasing the music both on vinyl and digitally. It is going to be a fun project to take on and I’m excited to learn more about the process. You can check out that stuff at www.saltlickrecords.com 

In case you haven’t checked out the collection of poems I was talking about, you can find the tab in the menu called 52 Cities 52 Poems. I hope you enjoy the read.

Thanks for checking in.

—J.M.