https://michaelkazepis.com Venmo:MichaelKazepis Sat, 26 Nov 2022 03:48:40 +0000 https://michaelkazepis.com en https://michaelkazepis.com/busy-business Sat, 26 Nov 2022 03:48:40 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/busy-business NOV 25 2022: Busy BusinessIf you’re someone like me who struggles to internalize accomplishments, then I think it’s important, especially when you’re feeling unproductive, to audit your output going back a year. There will always be months where it feels like nothing happened, and there will be months where it feels like everything happened. I spent much of 2022 working on independently-published books, doing my best to make them better. January: MUSIC IS OVER! by Ben Arzate (typesetting), SMALL MOODS by Shane Kowalski (typesetting) February: YOU PRAY FOR DRY WEATHER AT THE SIGHT OF THE SUN by J David Osborne (typesetting) March: LETTING OUT&nbsp; THE DEVILS by Kelby Losack (typesetting, bathroom graffiti) April: JESUS CHRIST JOE by Selby (typesetting, cover wrap) May: THE VACATION by Garth Miró (typesetting),&nbsp; CORNUCOPIA by Lindsay Amaris Temple (typesetting, cover wrap), AURA by Hillary Leftwich (typesetting, image correction) June: ISLAND TIME by Olivia Kan-Sperling (typesetting, cover wrap/spot UV outline from existing&nbsp; design) July: Worked on novel August: Worked on novel September: DONALD GOINES by Calvin Westra (typesetting, cover wrap, charcoals, audiobook censorship) October: Moved into a house, built some things November: POLO by Jinnwoo (typesetting, cover wrap using existing design) December: EXPVT (Expat litjournal #5) Seeing this all laid out makes me feel pretty good. <img width="1497" height="2401" width_o="1497" height_o="2401" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ef33ea4c3b6b4ac93b5732a664c8f929fb9e373326aa9392ab66b60c5895814d/Cornucopia-front-RGB-sharable.jpg" data-mid="160188483" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/ef33ea4c3b6b4ac93b5732a664c8f929fb9e373326aa9392ab66b60c5895814d/Cornucopia-front-RGB-sharable.jpg" /> <img width="1651" height="2551" width_o="1651" height_o="2551" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e9c72f1cfaa2fc1915734854b4ce368fa30c3426527134574f36bc47dc3e3120/Front-cover-RGB.jpg" data-mid="160188490" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e9c72f1cfaa2fc1915734854b4ce368fa30c3426527134574f36bc47dc3e3120/Front-cover-RGB.jpg" /> <img width="1838" height="2775" width_o="1838" height_o="2775" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f09737d2b44b73c254faa2b6d8e7ffde3f61361d05d34180dc369da87cbc98f2/gybexpat2.png" data-mid="163684377" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f09737d2b44b73c254faa2b6d8e7ffde3f61361d05d34180dc369da87cbc98f2/gybexpat2.png" /> https://michaelkazepis.com/vaporwave Sun, 12 Sep 2021 17:43:34 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/vaporwave SEP 12 2021: Feel Bad All The TimeThis bookmark was a late-2020 ask from author Ben Arzate, to create a vaporwave-inspired bookmark he could include with his books. He’d sent along some samples of colors and artwork, and even though I’m not intimately familiar with the aesthetic, I researched it and put together some mockups (not shown here) to make sure we were on the same page, and then I contacted my friend Daphne, a pretty killer Greek artist, and asked if she wanted to collab on it—we’d lightly toyed with the idea of comics stuff in the past, but it’d never lined up.Anyway, I put on Poolsuite FM at Daphne’s recommendation, to immerse, and decided to take an emotional approach to the prompt, while she came up with some striking riffs on the “crying girl” trope. Because it’s an intentionally lo-fi aesthetic, the struggle was in balancing it so it’d look eye-catching and unpolished. I placed Daphne’s crying girl at the foreground very little blending so it’d look like it was cut-and-pasted right out of a screencap, glitched up the backdrop, and threw in a random-ass dolphin hopping over a palm tree for good measure. I believe the text says something like “I Feel Sick,” to complement Ben’s Feel Bad All The Time branding. I don’t know how true to the vaporwave aesthetic it actually ended up being, but I adore that it’s campy/ridiculous and very melancholy. <img width="1278" height="3660" width_o="1278" height_o="3660" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/774a126453be0909c64fef74f640ab522d0c65d5e185f81276b227ee2f0ce039/BOOKMARK_Arzate_RGB.jpg" data-mid="118695230" border="0" alt="Final design" data-caption="Final design" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/774a126453be0909c64fef74f640ab522d0c65d5e185f81276b227ee2f0ce039/BOOKMARK_Arzate_RGB.jpg" /> <img width="1200" height="3600" width_o="1200" height_o="3600" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/be5072950164cd07509b7156bc3075cd70f01b62bc7437af3ddc71c9cd4cbebe/BOOKMARK_test3.jpg" data-mid="118695552" border="0" alt="Second mockup" data-caption="Second mockup" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/be5072950164cd07509b7156bc3075cd70f01b62bc7437af3ddc71c9cd4cbebe/BOOKMARK_test3.jpg" /> <img width="665" height="662" width_o="665" height_o="662" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6e9c800fee15c1e5855bc1009968483140ab0b42baba11ac6475eabcf040390b/7638f120-7b6e-4f2b-934a-8883c677df0c.JPG" data-mid="118695997" border="0" alt="Final artwork" data-caption="Final artwork" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/665/i/6e9c800fee15c1e5855bc1009968483140ab0b42baba11ac6475eabcf040390b/7638f120-7b6e-4f2b-934a-8883c677df0c.JPG" /> <img width="862" height="580" width_o="862" height_o="580" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d490eac03540f4c3d334eac37c2285c6118a0af126699ec11c8ec1f97b7e0e16/e2c90f66-512c-482f-a5eb-53634640b206.JPG" data-mid="118695314" border="0" alt="Sketch" data-caption="Sketch" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/862/i/d490eac03540f4c3d334eac37c2285c6118a0af126699ec11c8ec1f97b7e0e16/e2c90f66-512c-482f-a5eb-53634640b206.JPG" /> <img width="670" height="656" width_o="670" height_o="656" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cd001120b8c5ed7766a950a05ffe468f6d3a059bff2a0ebfe52aee6cae519ee3/8b6ae33b-f97b-4458-9d18-6e22c538e8a2.JPG" data-mid="118695561" border="0" alt="Sketch 2" data-caption="Sketch 2" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/670/i/cd001120b8c5ed7766a950a05ffe468f6d3a059bff2a0ebfe52aee6cae519ee3/8b6ae33b-f97b-4458-9d18-6e22c538e8a2.JPG" /> <img width="598" height="596" width_o="598" height_o="596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/ed6d5f50e3303833e680ee78dfa3b1c83096327db5b8c65a9477d2912d76b0b8/bd42f2ed-997e-4713-ba9f-4a5503dcf0dd.JPG" data-mid="118695411" border="0" alt="Sketch 3" data-caption="Sketch 3" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/598/i/ed6d5f50e3303833e680ee78dfa3b1c83096327db5b8c65a9477d2912d76b0b8/bd42f2ed-997e-4713-ba9f-4a5503dcf0dd.JPG" /> https://michaelkazepis.com/sampinkremastered Tue, 07 Sep 2021 21:31:43 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/sampinkremastered SEP 8 2021: Sam Pink Remastered I recently completed a six-book series of covers to Sam Pink’s early novels. I’m quite happy with how these turned out. Lo-fi, melancholy, organic. The books are chronologically dressed (2010-2014), each with artwork that was produced around the time the specific book was written. I was allowed to interpret/remix the covers according to how the novels spoke to me. I aimed at a vibe somewhere between Daniel Johnston and Harmony Korine, which is where I think Sam’s work sometimes rests. These were a lot of fun to revisit. <img width="3327" height="2475" width_o="3327" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/af5407738f898d1221ff4ef7b025178bea48e591237fae249037f46427f6e5a3/Person_WRAPAROUND.png" data-mid="118326152" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/af5407738f898d1221ff4ef7b025178bea48e591237fae249037f46427f6e5a3/Person_WRAPAROUND.png" /> <img width="3317" height="2475" width_o="3317" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e940b510b0501ee493120fc9fa19245dcd1d9e401ed818d2167336c5edf2280d/Hurt-Others_final-wrap.png" data-mid="160190050" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/e940b510b0501ee493120fc9fa19245dcd1d9e401ed818d2167336c5edf2280d/Hurt-Others_final-wrap.png" /> <img width="3323" height="2475" width_o="3323" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/44e35c1f942f0e42130ca7c0e0f6dd74f10be3130597e6fe9e51e8def07dc81f/No-Hellos-wrap-draft.png" data-mid="118326150" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/44e35c1f942f0e42130ca7c0e0f6dd74f10be3130597e6fe9e51e8def07dc81f/No-Hellos-wrap-draft.png" /> <img width="1868" height="1392" width_o="1868" height_o="1392" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/2bb4031e351bbf6a6d0490310c8e5152da63bdd2c1059c4d84fa7c3733a6732d/Rontel-final3.jpg" data-mid="118326153" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/2bb4031e351bbf6a6d0490310c8e5152da63bdd2c1059c4d84fa7c3733a6732d/Rontel-final3.jpg" /> <img width="3326" height="2475" width_o="3326" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5c25ccd6c1401f3471df74de773b7fdf1d89011818b1b00a224fe3fbe524c9f3/Witch-Piss_9.5.21.jpg" data-mid="118326284" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5c25ccd6c1401f3471df74de773b7fdf1d89011818b1b00a224fe3fbe524c9f3/Witch-Piss_9.5.21.jpg" /> <img width="3320" height="2475" width_o="3320" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f4e3c8247801f605bb0a4bc93c88098c48073b490678de36510a661d2916cd8a/ketchup-wrapFINAL.png" data-mid="160190034" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/f4e3c8247801f605bb0a4bc93c88098c48073b490678de36510a661d2916cd8a/ketchup-wrapFINAL.png" /> https://michaelkazepis.com/lldoishit Sun, 13 Jun 2021 23:25:23 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/lldoishit JUNE 10 2021: Book Design Part 2 This is one of four variant editions of the limited reissue of my first novel, Long Lost Dog Of It. I wrote this book between 2012-2014,&nbsp;under influence of neon noir like Only God Forgives,&nbsp;Lost Highway, Collateral, Enter the Void; books like Wise Blood, American Tabloid, Antwerp, V; erotic films like Andrew Blake's Dollhouse and Paris Chic. I think there’s also some Cormac McCarthy/DFW influence in there too. If you enjoy that weird kinda shit, maybe you’ll dig it, who knows. As far as this particular design goes, it’s the only non-Matthew Revert cover to any of my work. I never thought I’d design something for myself, let alone that it’d see print. It was intimidating to have something of mine next to three killer designs by him. I decided on something minimalist that reflects the book’s tone. The idea of a fracture behind a machine gun seemed fitting, after a few variations. I thought a lot about the back of Ryan Gosling’s scorpion jacket in the movie adaptation of James Sallis’ Drive while working on it. I also wanted the back cover to feel like the opening credits sequence of a film. I think it turned out pretty okay. <img width="1504" height="2395" width_o="1504" height_o="2395" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3e44f9f4f2559f73bd324688a24c6b064acb211e3e12a895b01f56a45e09bf10/LLDOI_6.10.21_HQ2.jpg" data-mid="111289086" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3e44f9f4f2559f73bd324688a24c6b064acb211e3e12a895b01f56a45e09bf10/LLDOI_6.10.21_HQ2.jpg" /> <img width="3231" height="2475" width_o="3231" height_o="2475" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/51d9f9bc8051867d7b3f469aad3bd4bdf4e14b83b703674724d33289999f1c77/wrap3.jpg" data-mid="111259330" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/51d9f9bc8051867d7b3f469aad3bd4bdf4e14b83b703674724d33289999f1c77/wrap3.jpg" /> <img width="998" height="1598" width_o="998" height_o="1598" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/f975446f6d439664360265cda0ba442ea2f2aa94d44e28b762850a60935c279c/Screen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.23.36.png" data-mid="111292726" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/998/i/f975446f6d439664360265cda0ba442ea2f2aa94d44e28b762850a60935c279c/Screen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.23.36.png" /> <img width="994" height="1595" width_o="994" height_o="1595" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/e6bbd25e1b1996d49ab07f9542bae61025ebd9495863c221006ecb1f8471965e/Screen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.31.15.png" data-mid="111292728" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/994/i/e6bbd25e1b1996d49ab07f9542bae61025ebd9495863c221006ecb1f8471965e/Screen-Shot-2021-06-10-at-10.31.15.png" /> And here are Matthew Revert’s designs for the other three covers: <img width="994" height="1590" width_o="994" height_o="1590" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/d4dadccff25a53d930c43eed7a2f298dc9f4d3ede8c38bea046665491038c355/189686841_513604933406041_1973726480852098599_n.png" data-mid="111259368" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/994/i/d4dadccff25a53d930c43eed7a2f298dc9f4d3ede8c38bea046665491038c355/189686841_513604933406041_1973726480852098599_n.png" /> <img width="996" height="1596" width_o="996" height_o="1596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3f13fe0befbb7cba6133c351aac74456758875c3f5c669ec7932edc93a74e8e4/189133530_1137747860078523_2597874498427147037_n.png" data-mid="111259366" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/996/i/3f13fe0befbb7cba6133c351aac74456758875c3f5c669ec7932edc93a74e8e4/189133530_1137747860078523_2597874498427147037_n.png" /> <img width="1002" height="1596" width_o="1002" height_o="1596" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/b04f4a80281279c3a366b5875f5e5eaa7d964b58af45c5ed7ed5b42cc40815e5/193505126_491439932186467_3031997648112655399_n.png" data-mid="111259371" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/b04f4a80281279c3a366b5875f5e5eaa7d964b58af45c5ed7ed5b42cc40815e5/193505126_491439932186467_3031997648112655399_n.png" /> https://michaelkazepis.com/living-constellation Tue, 25 May 2021 05:14:18 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/living-constellation MAY 24 2021: Living Constellation Debating with myself about whether not rap's real ‘Cause broke motherfuckers are the only ones that have skill.—BLUEPRINT <img width="720" height="540" width_o="720" height_o="540" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/06144b00b7c3ca4ee565b20c17c64a2d7d427e8093579a3cc1d03501c6b7933c/1916714_103525626345230_1191832_n.jpg" data-mid="109416955" border="0" data-scale="53" alt="Nightwatchman supplies, 2009" data-caption="Nightwatchman supplies, 2009" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/720/i/06144b00b7c3ca4ee565b20c17c64a2d7d427e8093579a3cc1d03501c6b7933c/1916714_103525626345230_1191832_n.jpg" /> <img width="640" height="480" width_o="640" height_o="480" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/96d2da21684cdf35709eecb0f1ab05108d83afbc9a60b0b26c6d8d095ed6a343/Photo-3.jpg" data-mid="109416969" border="0" alt="Duct-taped writing chair, 2011" data-caption="Duct-taped writing chair, 2011" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/640/i/96d2da21684cdf35709eecb0f1ab05108d83afbc9a60b0b26c6d8d095ed6a343/Photo-3.jpg" /> <img width="2048" height="1536" width_o="2048" height_o="1536" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/5836378a099d4e334011baf6432ee3c9d5d3551fb7b7c443c1b8719fff97415e/220418_10150168414209324_7834424_o.jpg" data-mid="109416946" border="0" alt="Broken card table/desk, 2011" data-caption="Broken card table/desk, 2011" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/5836378a099d4e334011baf6432ee3c9d5d3551fb7b7c443c1b8719fff97415e/220418_10150168414209324_7834424_o.jpg" /> Below is the original introduction to Gravity, titled “Living Constellation: An Introduction,” from when it was called something else. I cut it from the final 2017 incarnation and replaced it with a short paragraph because I felt self-conscious. Who’d care? Turns out I would, seven years later. I sometimes miss the person who wrote this. I was ashamed of the struggles that made me special. I didn't even have my own working computer. I’d type up work at Internet Cafes and email it to myself. I think all of it made me a stronger writer. “I wrote my first novel at eighteen years old, and after a process of about seven or eight further attempts, I finally released my first book shortly before my thirtieth birthday. In those twelve years between, I lost almost all of the hundreds of thousands of words I wrote, to hard-drive crashes and weather, and occasional anger. Between the ages of twenty-three and twenty-nine, I moved five times: four cities on two continents. For a while I worked as a night manager at a hostel, reading and working out sentences until dawn, drinking instant coffee I’d spoon into water bottles and shake. I used to sit at the beach or the marina some mornings and dream of leaving—but I’d already left somewhere else and I was in Athens and five years had already passed. What’s strange is I didn’t miss anyone, or if I did miss the people I’d known, there was an understanding that we could live without each other. I was certain then I could survive alone. I felt poor there, not so poor that I was homeless or starving (that would come later, in Paris), but it was poor enough I couldn’t afford to go out except to go to work. Just enough money for a kind of limbo. My desk was a battered old card table and a padded chair I’d repaired with packing tape. There’s an entire year of this time I don’t recall what I was doing, I was drunk all the time and more than okay with that. On a morning I felt spontaneously helpless enough I couldn’t stand it anymore, I bought a ticket and departed a few weeks later, for France. There I sometimes lived between couches, on the kindness of friends I’d made working at the hostel. &nbsp;I spent most of my time in the Pompidou Centre, people watching, studying (I’m an autodidact, if that matters) and working on another doomed novel. Often, I drank wine and contemplated drowning myself in a canal. I used to fantasize about where someone might find me floating. It wasn’t until I returned to the States that things started feeling lighter for the first time in years. I started taking walks. These days I’m more at ease, I live in Oregon, I write slower, I met a good woman . . . you could call it ‘being happier.’ For income, I stock shelves at a hardware store and help people find the tools they need—hey, it’s work. I’m still young and none of this feels as far of a distance as it was. Most of my life’s been improvised. What’s presented here are a handful of the stories that managed to survive.&nbsp;Portland, 2014.” https://michaelkazepis.com/theyeezusbook Mon, 24 May 2021 07:19:46 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/theyeezusbook MAY 23 2021: The Yeezus Book Book design isn’t something I ever saw myself freelancing, but I fell in love with the process while figuring it out for my own press. These days I’m even dabbling in cover design, though I’m not ambitious enough to call myself an actual cover designer—that’s a separate skillset that takes years of development. But I’m definitely learning and improving.Speaking of, these are some photos from KSP’s 2018 coffee table experiment,&nbsp;The Yeezus Book, which is now out-of-print. I’m very proud of how it turned out. The sketches (and these photos of the book) were by a brilliant multidisciplinary artist, Fabian Louis. Matthew Revert contributed the skull/crosses stuff and cover wrap. Because of time constraints and some setbacks, I was editing the book as I was laying it out and doing some graphic design stuff, which was challenging and stressful considering I don’t come from a graphic design background. Six straight weeks of hell with 10-16 hour workdays. Revert says he watched me level-up almost daily in real-time as I figured out new solutions on the fly. I haven’t met a typesetting/internal design ceiling since. (Though, to be honest, I also haven’t tried to tackle anything as demanding.) <img width="7360" height="4912" width_o="7360" height_o="4912" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/113953938aad428487f46757a7894f1730ee8bd5b22150d8fb5fa47f5f5143d3/fullsizeoutput_5f0b.jpeg" data-mid="109324506" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/113953938aad428487f46757a7894f1730ee8bd5b22150d8fb5fa47f5f5143d3/fullsizeoutput_5f0b.jpeg" /> <img width="7360" height="4912" width_o="7360" height_o="4912" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1cf1079d4ef2c82da9d53f69c30cc80d1911ade1519ea16cac304f8803229b9b/tyb2.jpg" data-mid="109323774" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1cf1079d4ef2c82da9d53f69c30cc80d1911ade1519ea16cac304f8803229b9b/tyb2.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/834d1a935ec1c7612540c5abca831bb05262b9a547c8d2840bf57036cdaee337/tyb3.jpg" data-mid="109323775" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/834d1a935ec1c7612540c5abca831bb05262b9a547c8d2840bf57036cdaee337/tyb3.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/771d9e7bd2c500d54b24880f5e356304075631ec3c1895bfe2a2d7d570e61cef/tyb4.jpg" data-mid="109323776" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/771d9e7bd2c500d54b24880f5e356304075631ec3c1895bfe2a2d7d570e61cef/tyb4.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/1ad129d4aebdeacccec659020ed46382a669b4f3829242d612c92c04d37c1583/tyb5.jpg" data-mid="109323777" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/1ad129d4aebdeacccec659020ed46382a669b4f3829242d612c92c04d37c1583/tyb5.jpg" /> <img width="7360" height="4912" width_o="7360" height_o="4912" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/6ff62273a3f8c4f11739d5d438a57ecf428f8df2f5ecf2be1d8916eb472de054/tyb6.jpg" data-mid="109323778" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/6ff62273a3f8c4f11739d5d438a57ecf428f8df2f5ecf2be1d8916eb472de054/tyb6.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/843a6e29f71ccbc06f51b57df0c2f88accbae7ac9a2ee74992b8cb087ab7b8eb/tyb7.jpg" data-mid="109323779" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/843a6e29f71ccbc06f51b57df0c2f88accbae7ac9a2ee74992b8cb087ab7b8eb/tyb7.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/cdeef45edcc9ed50b3653567c5a1ff778797af4041af05192e45a8c570780a83/tyb8.jpg" data-mid="109323780" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/cdeef45edcc9ed50b3653567c5a1ff778797af4041af05192e45a8c570780a83/tyb8.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/451e3b4b479ebb94db2feebe2062942fdc8c9412deefbf1361a4c1df3d2513bf/tyb9.jpg" data-mid="109323781" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/451e3b4b479ebb94db2feebe2062942fdc8c9412deefbf1361a4c1df3d2513bf/tyb9.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/3008e82974db29e799c46420e7e55ced8a14d988d808cd0a6163c096b9b25052/tyb10.jpg" data-mid="109323782" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/3008e82974db29e799c46420e7e55ced8a14d988d808cd0a6163c096b9b25052/tyb10.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/4e2c4e467e349f08fa0addc0166c7416611abe175a7da0e37e1803fd70942061/tyb14.jpg" data-mid="109323783" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/4e2c4e467e349f08fa0addc0166c7416611abe175a7da0e37e1803fd70942061/tyb14.jpg" /> <img width="2208" height="1474" width_o="2208" height_o="1474" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/74321302791c3a2beefba2d797d529be9a4955894edefedf4b6afa1e7361204d/tyb15.jpg" data-mid="109323784" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/1000/i/74321302791c3a2beefba2d797d529be9a4955894edefedf4b6afa1e7361204d/tyb15.jpg" /> https://michaelkazepis.com/growingintoarole Sat, 22 May 2021 15:15:55 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/growingintoarole MAY 22 2021: Growing Into A RoleD’Angelo Barksdale: “You can say you’re somebody new, you can give yourself a whole new story. But what came first is who you really are and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different. Because the only thing that make you different is what you really do, what you really go through. . . Like, all them books in his library. He frontin’ with all them books, but if you pull one down off the shelf, ain't none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books and he ain't read near one of them. Gatsby, he was who he was and he did what he did. And ‘cause he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that shit caught up to him.” I think about that monologue from The Wire a lot. D’Angelo was my favorite character in the early seasons, surpassed later by Marlo Stanfield, who plays at the narrative fulfillment of much of D’Angelo’s wisdom. Stanfield is like Gatsby by season five, he’s still who he is when he gets to the new place, and it does catch up to him.Personally, I’ve always thought it better to pass on “success” when you aren’t ready than to just try to ride it and be bucked off and trampled. I kicked the brakes on King Shot twice in seven years when it felt like it was growing way too rapidly. Maybe that’s too cautious for some people, but I believe in a steady process. The way I see success these days isn’t just hitting a target a couple times—it’s stability, longevity. It’s laying a foundation to support height. It’s not burning out. When I lived in Greece, I worked for a family-owned hostel for several years. At one point, they launched a bar adjacent to it. It wasn’t the best setup. Cheap/utilitarian decor, few beer options, handful of bottles of well liquor, basic mixers. About as minimal as you could be and still call the place a bar. At the time, I didn’t understand: The hostel was profitable, surely they could come up with something nicer. But there was a method to it, and it was exactly how they’d built the hostel itself. Keeping the expenses minimal means the business becomes sustainable much sooner. While growth takes a little longer, this means you also have time to establish a system, to refine, to get better, to expand organically and without excess risk. Over the years, that bar has evolved. Gradual renovations, nicer drink options, more staffing, etc. Today, it’s a pretty damned nice place that benefits from the hostel attached to it, but doesn’t necessarily rely on that. Regulars—locals, expats, diplomats, et al—now come to drink there. It’s a business that’s entering its second decade. IYKYK. https://michaelkazepis.com/someadvice Sat, 22 May 2021 06:15:15 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/someadvice MAY 21, 2021: Some AdviceCarr: “This is the shark: a blood-hungry thing, utterly addicted—a machine made to hunt the thing it desires.” <img width="880" height="1360" width_o="880" height_o="1360" data-src="https://freight.cargo.site/t/original/i/72b456a5328919271ecefde683e2c97f1625e23426220707e9f4b66f335d665e/81UIfbP1CrL.jpeg" data-mid="109180991" border="0" src="https://freight.cargo.site/w/880/i/72b456a5328919271ecefde683e2c97f1625e23426220707e9f4b66f335d665e/81UIfbP1CrL.jpeg" /> Earlier today, I reached out to Brian Allen Carr for some advice on taking a concept for a novel that sounds kinda stupid and writing it in a way that’s actually damned good. As he did with his book,&nbsp;Motherfucking Sharks, which&nbsp;transcends where it shouldn’t. So, how’d he pull that off?His answer was that he kept it simple. Looked to various sources for scene/trope inspiration, then fucked up his unique takes on those scenes/tropes with weird shark shit, then made his primary focus finding the right language to tell it. This tracks. It’s a book that’s surprisingly quick to acclimate to as a reader, despite the weird nature of it, and I think that’s due to a combination of its simplicity and familiarity, and that it’s given enough space to breathe and be heartfelt. There’s also a poetry in its execution, the sentences have an almost Faulknerian flow, so you never actually feel stupid reading a book where it’s raining fucking sharks in the desert. The concept might seem pulp, but the execution isn’t.Most interactions with Brian over the years have been like that; I walk away with something I hadn’t been thinking about, the moment I needed to. He’s a fountain of storytelling wisdom. https://michaelkazepis.com/universalhistoryofubiquity Mon, 17 May 2021 00:29:44 +0000 Venmo:MichaelKazepis https://michaelkazepis.com/universalhistoryofubiquity MAY 16 2021: A Universal History of Ubiquity Borges: “What we call chance is our ignorance of the complex machinery of causality.” Lately I’ve noticed that some realizations I’ve had have started bleeding over into the literature or art or even social feeds that I’m consuming, in a way that seems almost profound in the moment of discovery. Take that Borges quote to the left as a recent example. It's a slice of digression from a larger point in the part about Dante in his Seven Nights lectures, which I’d just started reading. The night before picking up that particular book, I was having some beers with a friend and talking about the malleability of one’s reality through internal growth/change/will (call it manifestation or chance, whatever you want). We discussed our thoughts on how this works, how you can seemingly attract people or opportunities, how your past work can inform your future trajectory etc. And here comes Jorge with some adjacency to what we were grasping at, just tucked into his thoughts about the inferno.So I texted my friend the passage after I’d read it, and she posited: “I think it’s that your awareness is heightened around those concepts so even if they [are] always close and accessible, they seem to become more recognizable/ubiquitous at the moment you’re most primed to receive them.”This makes sense to me. That an already-present influence only seems auspicious because I’m in the right headspace to absorb it. That there are things like this around me all the time and I don’t notice them or I'm just not receptive. It strikes me as a very secular way of looking at magic.The friend then pointed to a cliche: “When the student is ready the teacher appears.” So that’s what I’ve been thinking about the past few days. How to be more receptive, to learn more, be a more perfect student.