Tea Newbs Blog

Sletter #4

And you don't have to read it. It is like a painting of a newsletter you can look at if other newsletters are looking too real. "Imaginary gardens with real toads in them." I'm a gin, a ry; are you? I feel like I should tidy things up if you are, but I am hungry, always bargaining minutes. I need to go eat oatmeal now — I guess that's the news. I should offer you something — something as real as oatmeal. There is a cat sitting beside the computer (more news!). I give her food and medicine a few times a day. She needs it, and accepts. I could leave it at that, but it's too dull — colors are lurking within the mundane, and this is just a little reveal, a peek or wink or something, into what we share that is a bit beyond; I am not behind the curtain, I am a dumb lover of wonder, rebelling, by even trying, rebelling against protective instincts, unhiding, for what. I recently wrote this in my notebook: "Poetry goals — ha!" But if I just rolled with the basic need for gathering resources and resting, that would be it. So I have this here, like a stone — no, like an iron abstraction tossed into a perfectly fine stream just because I have hands for it, and I want to meet eyes with anyone momentarily and hold it a bit longer, while the stream, with imaginary toads in it, rushes past, and it feels cool — is this cool? Are we cool? I will eat oatmeal now and you are eating what I have to offer, but it's not quite that. And this is not quite the news. The old poets said "Make it new." I don't know what I am making, so it must be new to me at least. I'm fascinated by the ferns opening into life in spiral form. I'm sure there's a name for it, but you've read enough

Real newsletters unfurling on my block (left); Imaginary ferns (detail) from a poster I bought recently (right)

Also

Here is a recording of song I've been working on: Cross Tense (2025.04.22)

And here is some music I've been listening to:

Tea Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 4

Listen on Spotify, and if you know how I can share a link for other platforms, please let me know!

Abatatchen Hoy - Alemu Aga \ I Paint a Design - Michael Hurley \ Ptah, The El Daoud - Alice Coltrane \ Air - 2010 Remaster - The Incredible String Band \ The Garden of Jane Delawney - Trees \ Fasiribo (Apala) - The Lijadu Sisters \ Meatus - Hello Ocho \ Hatonal 2 - Merzbow \ Route 5 - Live in Seattle - Maher Shalal Hash Baz

Thanks for looking. Did I make you? I thought I had grown out of that, but have found a career in marketing, so made you look is my livelihood it turns out

Sletter #3

Drift / islands. Accentuating currents to make danceable; eroding beaches for new castles. At the crossroads (the meaning of my name), surfing occurs. Seeking songs between castles and fathomless depth. Artifacts as signposts or portals, made idols by tradition.

Come to life. Not anticipating the fossil of a lung — is that impossible? The breath of song. Sometimes dusting off the oldies to find fresh air.

Hank Williams has always seemed like kind of a cartoon to me, but I recently sang one of his songs for the first time and it was a transmission. Ginsberg used to say a written poem is a blueprint for an energetic/emotional experience to be unlocked by some future person's body and breath. At the David Grisman 80th birthday bash, Joe Craven — the magical emcee “sound farmer” bongo player — said "All tradition begins as innovation. All innovation comes out of tradition."

Tonight I’m whining low

Head(y)line(s)

Evening poem

Morning poem

Tea Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 3

Listen on Spotify, and if you know how I can share a link for other platforms, please let me know!

I Felt the Evening Come Through the Window - Yves Jarvis \ Seismic - Mid-Air Thief \ Sunspot - Van 2 - Northampton, MA - 06/10/01 - Sunburned Hand Of The Man \ I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry - Hank Williams \ Springtime Again - Sun Ra & His Arkestra \ Jerusalem - Simon Finn \ Ain't No Tellin' - Mississippi John Hurt \ Reservoir - Young Jesus \ My Bucket's Got A Hole In It - Hank Williams, Drifting Cowboys \ I Don't Love Nobody - Elizabeth Cotten \ Better Git It in Your Soul - Charles Mingus \ Dark Hollow - Bill Monroe, The Blue Grass Boys \ I Hear It's the Best - Sun City Girls \ Hillbilly French - The Savage Young Taterbug \ God Only Knows - The Langley Schools Music Project

Sletter #2

Rain returned after too-dry January — omega block over the Pacific Northwest, want for weeping — now, spring cometh. Mary my guitar back in my arms after long injury and repair — like rain returning to the skylight, the woods, reparenting softening bricks by drizzle, moss gently triumphs.

Get Wet and Keep Wondering

Bring on the flowers.

New(thing)!

Finished up work on a poetry chapbook, Outside and Inside, featuring poems I wrote here in Seattle from Dec '23–Feb '24. You can look through it here, or order a physical copy here.

The first poem in there (most are typed, easier to read) seems like a good way to mark the year of the snake (Losar Tashi Delek to those who observe!).

Tea Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 2

I wish I knew how to create a link for you to listen on any platform, but all I can share is a link for Spotify. If you know how, please let me know!

Newbin Time - Anastasia Coope \ Several More Happened - Pauline Oliveros, Timothy Hill \ YahhYahh MMANN YohhYohh IN ZINNT - Charlemagne Palestine \ Goatbrain - Goat \ Mistadobalina - Del The Funky Homosapien \ Athens New Guinea Gas Can Japan - Matmos \ I Cover The Waterfront (Live) - Billie Holiday \ Destination (Dr. Yusef Lateef) - Angel Bat Dawid \ Spiral in Houston - Frances Chang \ Four Leaf Clover - Peel Dream Magazine \ anything - Adrianne Lenker \ Body Stories - Pauline Oliveros \ Absolutely Cuckoo - The Magnetic Fields \ Earth Angels - Woo

Sletter #1

There is a show whose face is it anyway kind of energy and why not play with, and, not so secretly hope, that some engagement — as in face showing — may lead to face liking (not at all booking, though maybe shows) and more time supported to do it.

I was listening to Clark Coolidge and Bernadette Mayer and Coolidge said something about artistic impulse to do what you’re not allowed to — by your own rules or others’ — as in, Stein’s prohibition on memory and Mayer doing it like a score for improvisation. I feel a couple decades late to the festival.

Anyway, it may get easier or worse. It's just the name of waiting, discarded.

Open Studio

  • Music I’m in process with

  • Poems I’m in process with

Recently “Released”

  • Songs from the Box (2024)
    Songs written 2021-22; record in collaboration with Brady Newbill.
    It’s up on Bandcamp and all the streaming platforms.

DJ Newbs Whatever Hour Vol. 1

I wish I knew how to create a link for you to listen on any platform, but all I can share is a link for Spotify. If you know how, please let me know!

Call Me Back - Martha Skye Murphy \ The Homesick Waltz - His Name Is Alive \ Breaking Bread - Matmos \ Moisture - The Residents \ Brain System - Matthew Shipp \ All Our Base Are Belong To Them - The Books \ Baby reign - DORIS \ Third Planet - Sun Ra, Sun Ra & His Arkestra \ Indiana - Adrianne Lenker, Buck Meek \ Goin' down the Road Feeling Bad (Live) - Grateful Dead, Merle Saunders \ PS - The Books \ Semen Song for James Bidgood - Matmos \ flight fm - Joy Orbison \ You Sleep On - AGF, Craig Armstrong \ Midwinter Swimmers - The Innocence Mission