Hey Markesters,

I almost forgot that I even have this thing, this floating internet island I call my own, with my own e-message-in-a-bottle delivery service. Five years ago I launched this website, and this is only my third-ever blog post. I was pretty active with everything on here for awhile…but then I just kinda stopped.
Why? Not sure exactly.
Well ok, that’s not entirely true. Basically, in the last five years my life has taken a whole new, rather drastic series of twists and turns, “detours” if you will. My “speed dating” romp of 2013 led to a long-term relationship in 2014 that came with a “starter family”, which led to a consolidation of lives and material possessions and a couple big moves. Once in October of 2014, to Mount Prospect, and another just six months later, to Rogers Park, Chicago where we remain today. I did keep music alive, though I started to move away from the acoustic singer-songwriter persona and into a more electric, jammy, hard rock one. I even got a band going! Two But Not Two, with drummer and good friend Sean House, started in the Fall of 2015. Billed as “Chicago’s Premier Two-Man Jam Band”, we developed a sound and style of jamming with our chemistry and a lot of electronic help. (Some of our videos are posted on the site.) I got me an effects rig and everything! Sadly, things came to a screeching halt with that this past August with Sean’s departure. In a lot of ways I don’t blame him; in others, I still have unanswered questions.
In addition, I took care of my sick Mom for a couple months in 2017, as in-home caregiver, and partly due to my longtime company’s less-than-sympathetic reaction to my circumstances, I left them in March of 2018. She passed away in May of that year, and I have not gone back to the workplace regularly since (save for a part-time teaching job I did for about three months). I have been doing freelance data administration and graphic design work, and recently I got the idea that maybe I could do this as a type of self-employed contractor, hiring my services out to different companies and individuals. I haven’t quite gotten that off the ground yet, but part of building my skills for that is brushing up on WordPress, and this blog is part of that “dusting off”. Plus, I just needed to get something written.
Finally, that long-term relationship turned into a full-blown marriage this summer, as part of our trip out to the Hi-Desert of Yucca Valley for Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker’s Final Campout #15. We wanted to go and support the last one, see our friends, and since it’s easier to get married in California than Illinois and one of the fans of the band had a wedding service of her own, we just did it in her backyard. It was fun and we got a lot of nice attention for it afterward. But since coming back, everything’s been a struggle.
I suppose, if Buddhism’s taught me anything, “nothing worthwhile comes without a struggle”, and so here we are. I’m trying to carve out a new career and still keep music alive, wondering how to re-frame my recent developments in sound and my changes in persona. I’ve still got that damn album I hope to finish one day, though I made a lot of progress on it during Spring and Summer this year. Oh, and I almost forgot, I even went back to school! I got two more classes towards my degree done online between Fall of last year and Spring of this year, until complications with that ensued and things fell through. Temporarily, at least I hope. I’d like to, it will increase my hirability and plus, I’m only 3 classes away!
I may have lost the battle, but not the war. That’s the story I’m sticking to, anyhoo.
So, that’s what I’ve been doing and partly (mostly) why I haven’t done much with blogging or the site in general. That’s gonna change real soon, tho – as I get more skilled in WordPress and the other different tools I need, I’m going to be adding more content and even revamping a thing or two on here. It’s long enough overdue, right? So yeah, stay tuned for the next chapter in this crazy little Universe of mine! Thanks for reading, and “bye for now”.

Marke