Oh, the joy and agony of REVISION! 😩 The thrill of deadheading needless words and watching the sentence bloom; the misery of tunneling for them without collapsing the whole mine. And the dogged hunt for the single strong word to replace ten weak ones. To have revised is bliss. To revise is hell.

Cavaterra | Rhapsody on a Windy Night YPSO | David Ramadanoff, conductor Musikverein, Vienna | 2022 Euro Tour youtu.be/KQr4EgYfk7Q?...

R.I.P. Robert Duvall (1931–2026). I found this on Wikipedia: > Mareen Duvall (1625–1694) was a French Huguenot and an early American settler... His notable descendants include Harry S. Truman, Barack Obama, Dick Cheney, Wallis Simpson, Warren Buffett, and Robert Duvall. < How weird is that??? 😮

I know they probably turn into demons after midnight, but I want one! 😼 🦇 🧛‍♂️ 🖤 Credit: www.instagram.com/weoyohk/

Thrilled to be part of ENCOUNTERS WITH CRYPTIDS, edited by Trevor Henderson & Andrew Cull! My story "Scrapiron Jack" joins a terrifying lineup of cryptid horrors. Releases Friday the 13th of March! Preorders open! 👣 🐟 🦑 🛸

Happy Caturday night! 😼 (No, it's not AI.)

Mood...

Mood...

My Fantasy-Étude No. 1 for piano, commissioned and performed by the great Gustavo Díaz-Jerez. Score and performance on screen. youtu.be/qRkjJuASfew

Petition to verb Mercator (named for Gerardus Mercator): to mercate = to distort scale or importance until the ignorant nod. E.g., “That map mercates Greenland.” “Those stats have been subject to mercation.” “My résumé? Lightly mercated.” Etc.

Blue Winter (2019) Kevin Kumar, violin solo Maia Jasper-White & Hana Kim, violins Meredith Crawford, viola Yoshika Masuda, cello Bernard Gordillo, harpsichord Jason Yoshida, archlute youtu.be/8EUBWf3CBTM

Happy birthday Dana Andrews, born on this day in 1909. 🎂 🎥 🎬

Finally, a beauty product that answers the age-old question: What if my NOSTRILS were the statement feature? Truly a bold new frontier in cosmetics science.

Someone's house, Los Angeles. I feel certain that somewhere between palm trees and starlight, Marlene Dietrich is about to glide through those doors in liquid satin and pause just long enough to accept applause before vanishing into a waiting Mercedes Cabriolet. (Photo courtesy Tom Biddison.)

I'd really love to see the letter that prompted this response from Shirley Jackson. 🤣

Man-eating butterflies.

Happy 122nd to Cornell Woolrich, shadowy godfather of noir. From The Bride Wore Black to Black Angel to Black Alibi, his “black” novels evoke a world where dread seeps through every doorway and cast a spell that crime fiction never escaped. His influence still coils through the genre like smoke. 🖤

Today’s installment of my extremely serious mission to give old paperback covers their own soundtracks. 🎧 📚 Just a little composer–nerd side quest...

Here's some news @slimyswampghost.bsky.social and I have been dying to share! ENCOUNTERS WITH CRYPTIDS will be out 02/14/26! Featuring stories by @xavilawrites.bsky.social, @calebbethea.bsky.social, @cavaterra.bsky.social, @authorlevai.bsky.social, @ttmaddenwrites.bsky.social and many more!

Early selfie experiments with my father's antique Rolleiflex 😄

OMG Google did NOT get sassy with me this Monday 😮

Caturday mood... 😼

The artist who painted this cover must have just seen The Bandwagon...

☘️ There aren't many great non-dirty limericks, but there are a few... There was an old dame named McBride Who ate a green apple and died The apple fermented Within the lamented And made cider inside her inside.

📢 Some good news to start the week: My first horror story, "Scrapiron Jack," has been accepted for publication in the Encounters with Cryptids anthology! Many thanks to editors @andrewcull.bsky.social & @slimyswampghost.bsky.social. Looking forward to sharing this weird beast with the world soon. 🐟⚓️

🎃 Happy Halloween all! Trying to summon the spooky spirit, with a little help from a couple of spook-complices... 😼 🦇

🚨 Re-up! 📣 Since it was unclear to some who asked about this little pet project, yep, this is my own original music. Once in a while I get a kick out of "scoring" book covers that spark my musical imagination. This one cried out for it! #hitchcock #cavaterra #composer #cinemusic #noir #scoredcovers

💀 A few "Grimericks" from my Halloween Treats, verses for spooky tots. If you dig the spooky season spirit and would like to support a humble composer who moonlights as a wannabe Edward Gorey knockoff, both volumes can be found here! www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tr... www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tr...

🏆 Runner-up in the 1978 Cornflower Heights County Fair “Molded Monstrosities” category and still banned in 14 states. This Jell-O mold jiggles AND judges. From the Bumphrey House test kitchens to your nightmares! 🍽

Seen on IG. Why are Meta's programmers such morons?

Bon appétit from Bumphrey House! 😋

Picked up an old fragment from 12 years ago, the start of a 2nd movement for my Piano Sextet (originally one movement). Fits my current mood. Looks like ABA form; this is the “A” section. I rarely share works-in-progress, but here goes. Art: Hudson Valley at Sunset, by Frederic Church (1826-1900).

🎃 Spooky season calls for verse! 👻 Hey foolish mortals, my 2 volumes of Halloween poems (under pen name E. J. Carver) are packed w/macabre rhymes & playful chills. Perfect for readers of all ages who crave the uncanny! Check 'em out: www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tr... www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tr...

😢

Thinking about which note would sound good after the note I wrote an hour ago...

Best rehearsal number ever.

Belinda was a woman with a dream

Smoky rooftops, intrigue, shadows on the move... a little suspense music stitched to Hitchcock’s Sinister Spies (Random House, 1966). 🎶🕵️‍♂️🔥 Cover art by Paul Spina. #hitchcock #cavaterra #composer #cinemusic #noir

Another good G-rated limerick of yesteryear... Hurrah for Madame Lupescu, Who came to Romania's rescue! "It's a wonderful thing To be under a king -- Is democracy better, I esk you?"

Good non-dirty limericks are rare. Here's a golden oldie: A curious family is Stein: There's Gertrude, there's Ep*, and there's Ein. Gert's poems are bunk, Ep's sculptures are junk, And nobody understands Ein! *(Jacob the sculptor, not Jeffrey the scumbag.)

The white cat is blind and has a best friend, a black cat, who is always by its side to guide it.

Musictionary™ word of the day.

Night walk attire. Heading out for my nightly "Creative Constitutional." Nothing like a moonlit ramble to reboot body & brain! Highly recommended (if your neighborhood's after-dark vibes feel friendly). 🌙 🚶‍♂️ 💡 ✨

Excerpt from "The Aquarium": 3rd movement of Monterey Suite, to my knowledge the first and only symphonic work about Monterey, CA. This movement evokes the luminous, otherworldly life of the Monterey Bay Aquarium. montereybayaquarium.org @montereyaqpr.bsky.social