Hi, my name is Tony Marshall. I’ve been writing songs for about 8 years, and performing for a lot longer. I have over a dozen album’s worth of material, and nearly a dozen’s worth of material written under pseudonyms. Not all of them are very good, but there are a few that I can say I am very proud of. I consider music first and foremost to be my craft, and I like to think of myself as a craftsman in my own kind of way. My medium is sound. I’m not the greatest musician but I pride myself on being my own vocalist, and on knowing what sound to place with those vocals. My lyrical style is my own, though I borrow many cadences.
Afterblog
the writings, rantings, and scribblings of Tony Marshall
my last show at Barley Island
Tonight is officially the last show I ever play at Barley Island, and most likely the last time I give them any of my business.
I’ve been playing at Barley Island since I was 18 years old. I met my wife at Barley Island while playing music. I’ve lived within walking distance of the place for about a fifth of my life.
I recorded an album at Barley Island. I had about a half dozen farewell shows before I ran off to Nashville. A few months later I was welcomed back with a permanently open tab.
I will leave with an unbeatable record, a seventeen second boot which is yet to be matched.
I worked in their kitchen and learned firsthand how dismal are the prospects of doing business with the ownership. I continued to book with them after I quit, and I continued to drink there as well, all because of the incredible people I met while sitting at the bar.
I’ve had a weekly show cancelled the night before it’s opening. I’ve played there more times than I can count without being paid, sometimes knowingly, oftentimes expecting pay after a long night’s work and being surprised to find there was little or none. Montauk Monster and I recently played there and gave them one of the best weekend nights of the year. We took home $65 each. I spent $25 promoting the show.
Tonight I play my last show there, a show that the ownership cancelled yesterday via text message from a bartender, because they decided they weren’t willing to pay us despite our proven track record of bringing in revenue for the bar. I don’t speak for the members of Montauk Monster, but I do know that the majority of them have played there for years as well, and have always brought a crowd.
I play music for a living now. I have a family, and I take this very seriously. Jeff and Linda Eaton have taken a paycheck away from me for the last time. I no longer have the luxury of of drunkenly grumbling about situations like this. So this is it. Tonight is the last time I ever have any type of relationship with Barley Island, working or personal.
We’ll be accepting donations at the show, and I promise it will be something to see. If you are free, come on out and enjoy a great show. Pick up some tickets for Neckbrace Fest, and maybe drop the band and me a few bucks. I CAN speak for all of us when I say that this is what we do, and we feel like we’re good enough at what we do to be treated with the same level respect as any other working person.
I hope to see you tonight. Barley Island in Noblesville. Nine o’clock.
Tony Marshall
Response to Phillip Glass’ “Metamorphosis One”
Logic or common sense? Pragmatism or precedent non respectfully.
In sated comfort I recline as a being of fashion.
In hallowed halls I wallow in the agonizing indifference of youth
a paradigm by which only I can change, non respectfully.
Naming the ages of this and that, states of the past
evolving ever after. Our perspective; catalyst to the evolving past.
Our perspective , holy and hallowed hall, the cathedral which houses
our gods non respectfully.
Self absorbs earth. God is an emotional response.
Infinite hallelujahs in the infinite microscopic.
Self is a defense. Mechanism. Mechanical.
Machines are artifacts of causality, as we all,
non-respectfully.
Coming Soon to Afterblog
I’ve decided it’s time to reel in Afterblog, and make it a place that people may actually like to visit on a regular basis. This of course would mean regular updates. I tend to promise regular updates about every 6 months or so, and these promises tend to be perennially sandwiched between three or four short personal grievances, a paper written for school, and an embarrassingly earnest and rushed poem. In order to break this cycle of sub-par content and false promises I’m implementing something of a system around here.
Glenn Beck at the Dawn of the Apocalypse
There won’t be enough space on Glenn Beck’s bulletin board tonight.
I wonder if there is a cerebral defect around which the “patriotic” portion of his brain has pushed all other gray matter aside with red, white, and blue scar tissue. That part of his brain must be quivering right now as I write this. He must be hallucinating that a second holocaust has begun, and a Gestapo force made up of illegal immigrants is roaming the streets and rounding up white middle Americans. Glenn Beck must be masturbating tearfully, with a tea-stained Pledge of Allegiance he made in his third grade history class clenched in his fist, while listening to vinyl Slim Whitman LPs played at quarter tempo. Continue reading »
A Dog Lover’s Guide to Computer Adoption
At the heart of any computing device is a simple boolean duality, either a statement is true or it is false. There is no conjecture or double guessing, no psychological struggle with low self-esteem or attempted reconciliation of past mistakes, no compulsive tendencies. A computer’s entire existence is predicated upon the simple notion that things are simply “on” or “off” and it’s logic is built accordingly. A computer has no belief system. A computer has no aspirations. A computer simply redirects energy from an outside source, and converts that energy into an informational output. Continue reading »
Rhythm of the Saints
The Super Bowl is the biggest annual spectacle in America. Super Bowl Sunday has all but reached national holiday status, and I’m not talking Columbus Day, I mean the religious ones. The ones where a deity of your choice will reach directly into your pocketbook and buy financial sacrifices for the God of consumer culture.
Go through the checklist.
Ritual? Check.
Zealotry? Check.
Tribute collected for the poor collected from the poor?
Check.
Messianic figures? Just roll it around in your head for a while… Continue reading »
Why My Music Is Free
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to make things work. This thinking extends to pretty much every area of my life, and after a lengthy hiatus, I decided to finally turn my mind back to music and art and inevitably this site. Continue reading »
Coding Informational Selfhood
Information As Essence, Essentially As Information
Net neutrality is not a technical issue. It’s not a battle between telecom titans and online content providers. What’s at stake in net neutrality is not the future of social networking or the legal means to obtain multimedia. Net neutrality is an issue of modern selfhood and it’s shifting definition. Continue reading »
Darth Vader with a DUI
Last night while drowsy eyed
it was decided,
that were Darth Vader to get a DUI,
he would sit solemnly behind a bar
beside a moped that works one day and not the next,
and with labored breath,
and black helmet gleaming
in orange glowing street light,
he would consider every possible outcome
from every real and exaggerated personal failure.
With so much power,
wrapped up in his own greatness,
his weight would outweigh him,
and wrapped in machinery, his cruel will,
by virtue of it’s cruelty would lash at his insides,
savagely cannibalizing his imagined legacies.
Hunched and clinging to himself
he would vomit and wake up on his back,
the night sky wrapped entirely around him,
Mr. Vader at the center of the cosmic mystery,
scheming on subjugating existence in it’s entirety,
but wholly unable to stand on his own.
After considerable consideration
he rises slowly,
and his labored breath emenates outward
into the mid autumn chill of this most embarassing display
of yet another good time gone bad.
He speaks.
His voice as authoritative as ever.
All the power of the empire resonating
from that human voice, behind the mechanical mask.
“Luke…
Pick up your father.”