Matthew Wayne Selznick

How about this? Mine your e-mail spam filter for character names! Just look at these gems from today alone:

Tully Sloan
Calvin Flores
Ricardo Ouellette
Allyson Whitt
Rebecca McCray
Tricia Malone
Curtis Dubois
Annabelle Kimball

I mean, the daytime soap opera is practically cast, is it not?

The latest episode of Sonitotum, the podcast companion to Matthew Wayne Selznick’s blog Scribtotum, is now available for subscribers, direct download, telephone or streaming listening!

Check it out!

In catching you up with the last month of my life, I plug a bunch of stuff: things I’m involved with; things my pals do. Plus a promo, three songs from independent artists courtesy of IODA Promonet, writing news, some things I’ll talk about next episode, and the usual ramblefest.

Please leave your comments below!

Links:

• MWS Media
• Podiobooks.com
• I Should Be Writing
• Mur Lafferty
• Five Minute Memoir
• One Minute How To
• My appearance on the Baffled Experts podcast
• Foneshow

IOD Alliance / Promonet Featured Music:

Download “To Have a Crush” (mp3)
from “The Quiet Trial”
by Cassettes Won’t Listen
Dope Lotus Records

• Buy at eMusic

Download “Holy Jukebox” (mp3)
from “Holy Jukebox”
by Additional Moog
Lost Cat Records

• Buy at eMusic
• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

Download “Oh, No!” (mp3)
from “Oh No, It’s An EP!”
by The Westminster Abbey
I Surrender Records

• Buy at RealNetworks / Rhapsody
• Stream from RealNetworks / Rhapsody

 

 Sonitotum Episode Six - Pluggy McPluggerstein [39:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (143)

So this is an interesting one:

Last night, I dreamed I was introducing a woman to some shadowy, unidentified third person that I feel was also a woman.

I was clearly “with” the woman I was introducing. I remember her basic build and physical features, but not her face.

I put a hand on the small of her back and said to the other person, “I’d like you to meet… ah… um…”

I could not remember the name of this woman I was with.

With the crippling intensity of emotion only felt in dreams, I was petrified with shame. She gave me a look that was sympathetic and uncomfortable all at once — and I still couldn’t really see her face.

Finally, her name came to me.

“Pandora,” I blurted with relief.

Now, blue jokes regarding Pandora’s “box” aside (what, you weren’t thinking that?), this is a pretty blatant message from the collective unconscious, wouldn’t you think?

Now all that remains is to figure out what it actually means.

I’m in the middle of a couple of creative projects — two I’m just facilitating, one is a new writing project. To prepare for that writing project, I’ve been re-examining the Hero’s Journey, so mythic structures are on my mind. Was the dream just a reflection of that?

I dunno. Even if it was sparked by my research, there’s a reason Pandora made an appearance in my skull, and not Tyr, or Odin, or Achilles, or Heracles, or whoever.

Pantheon.org has a nice capsule version of the Pandora myth. Check that out, and come on back here.

So. She’s the first woman, created by Zeus and given so many boons from the gods, her name means “many gifted.” She was a pawn of Zeus in his anger toward Prometheus, and was given her proverbial box (actually a jar) which she opened out of curiosity.

All evil escaped into the world. That’s where most people’s understanding of the myth ends. What might be important, though, is what Pandora managed to keep in the jar, in her possession: hope.

So… Pandora represents creative gifts? She’s the literal carrier of hope? She stands for dangerous curiosity / temptation? Hm. Again, I dunno.

But it’s got me thinking. Just the fact that my brain is giving me mythic symbols is a good sign, I think. Beats the hell out of dreaming of a day job, generic anxiety dreams, or old girlfriends.

Words: 05-20-1993
Music: 05-1993 with Kris Shine and Jon Strunk

What’s It All About?

I had some serious post-traumatic relationship stress going on in the middle of the nineties… songs like this helped me get some of that out.

Not much more I can say about it — the song isn’t about one instance, or even one relationship.

Kris came up with the guitar part, and the song was born from jamming around that riff. After I wrote the lyrics, he gave us the title, since I couldn’t come up with one.

This, like most of the PIGBAT tracks, was recorded live to four-track cassette during one of our last rehearsals.

Lyrics:

Support Independent Music

The media files on this page are provided for your enjoyment — you can listen, and even download the MP3 files, and not pay a dime. I encourage you to share them with friends, provided no one changes or sells the files, and that you attribute them to me.

I do hope you’ll consider contributing an amount proportional to how much you like these songs. When you pay for music on this site, you declare yourself to be a patron of independent creative endeavors… and my supporter. That means a great deal, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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 China Bay by Matthew Wayne Selznick [2:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (149)