C.S.E. Cooney

Re: Brimstone Rhine Update!

Dear BEAUTIFUL BACKERS!

On Monday, we begin recording the first EP “ALECTO! ALECTO!” I am superdupercalliFRABJOUSCALLOOCALLAY level of excited. Jack Hanlon is even borrowing an EXTRA FANCY bass on which to do his fancy bowing.

1. WELL. YOU COULD JUST LET THEM COME TO YOU ON FACEBOOK. THAT’S KIND OF NICE. RARE, AMONG ARTISTS. FACEBOOK IS NICE. GRANT IS NICE. NICE ARTISTS. 

Grant Jeffery
Claire! Congratulations on your super successful and excellent Kickstarter! The momentum of which has me all eager to throw my wizard powers into these album covers. Where do we start?

Brimstone Rhine image. A little gift from my brother Joel to celebrate the campaign launch a month ago. (((A MONTH AGO? Whoa. That one flew. )))

2. YOU PRESENT SOME IDEAS. 

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Grant!!! OH EXCELLENT! Okay, I had some ideas.

There are two EPs. Which will then be combined into a single album: an actual CD. What I was thinking is that we could have a separate image for each EP, but combine the images to create a single cover of the CD.

I had this idea that for The Headless Bride EP, it could be just that… A HEADLESS BRIDE with one arm outstretched. But truncated, right? Then the Alecto! Alecto! album would be that SAME ARM (cut off in the other image) grasping the head of a Gorgon. A Medusa head.

The album, the actual CD called Brimstone Rhine would then be the entire image of the headless bride grasping the Medusa head.

Sorry for all my grammar and spelling mistakes in this, as I am voice-to-texting, and not really doing a lot of editing.

[ETA: SINCE EDITED FOR BLOG, NATCH.]

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
:/(
EVEN MY EMOTICONS ARE MISPELLED!!!

Grant Jeffery
no worries.
hahaha.
I like the concept of separate illustrations feeding into a single image, and I’ve always wanted to illustrate a gorgon head.

“Grant Jeffery” by Grant Jeffery. His Profile Pic.

3. YOU GIVE FAIR WARNING OF THE MATERIALS YOU’LL BE WORKING WITH.  

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Awesome!
I think the packaging is just going to be those brown cardboard slipcases. So simple line drawings with minimal color might be the best?
But I’m not entirely sure how all of that works! Perhaps you have better ideas!

4. YOU LET YOUR ARTIST GIVE YOU HIS INPUT BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT YOU HIRED HIM FOR BECAUSE HE’S A GENIUS. 

Grant Jeffery
I was thinking of doing something vaguely woodcut-like.

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
OH SPLENDID!!!
I LOVE WOODCUTS!!!

Grant Jeffery
If that’s a style you’re cool with. I think it would look great on brown card, even better if it has a bit of a tooth to it.

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
ALL THE TEETH!!!
HOT DAMN!
The songs have a lot of teeth in them. They are mostly about monster women who eat people. Or about monsters who want their women to eat them.

Grant Jeffery
Then there shall be teeth.

5. AFTER PRAISING HIM TO THE SKIES AND EXTRACTING PROMISES OF FANGED ARTWORK, YOU TALK SOME SERIOUS SHOP. 

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney
Do you want to talk Deadlines?
DEADLINES WITH TEETH?

Grant Jeffery
“Deadlines with teeth” sounds like a poetry collection of my nightmares…

Top 10 Reasons You Should Donate!
(According to my Twitter Account)

1. BECAUSE DEMO REEL OF GLORY!!!

2. BECAUSE the man who will be making our music videos? Made THESE!!!

3. BECAUSE MOCKINGBIRD AND KESTREL GIRL!

4. BECAUSE BARROW BRINE!

5. BECAUSE HOT HIP HIT MUSICIANS!!! And me!

6. BECAUSE SHAKESPEARE [Tupped] Your Mom! (Or, because Elizabeth R. McClellan said so.)

7. BECAUSE THE FURIES AIN’T NO THING TO MESS WITH!!!

8. BECAUSE Medea’s Dragon is starting to look HUNGRY!

9. BECAUSE. Possible. Puppet. Parade. Led by Lysistrata.

10. BECAUSE WE NEED TO REMAKE THE MYTHS THAT MAKE US.

A List of Beautiful Things: 

1. Brimstone Rhine Debut Concert / C. S. E. Cooney headlining at “Youth Will Be Served” announced in The Westerly Sun.

…Wherein my NICE COLLABORATOR says NICE THINGS about our collaboration and other nice things are mentioned!

2. Brief mention of same in the New London Day.

…Wherein am mentioned in same breath as frikkin EDWARD LEAR (“The Yongy Bongy Bo” is the FIRST POEM I REMEMBER from being read to as a kid) and SHEL FRIKKIN SILVERSTEIN (who DIDN’T read “Where the Sidewalk Ends”?) and OGDEN NASH!!! (When I wrote a poem about a Starbucks Boy in the springtime of my twenties, my father announced, “It’s like a cross between Shakespeare and Ogden Nash,” and I FORTHWITH went and looked up Ogden Nash, as I’d never read his stuff before, and LO I FELL UNDER HIS INFLUENCE!!!)

4. Pictures from (aforementioned) Brimstone Rhine’s DEBUT CONCERT!
…Wherein I wear a scandalous stripy corset gifted to me by JULIA RIOS VOICE OF THE RAINBOW and use egg whites for hair mousse. And sing my own songs. For a live audience. A LIVE AUDIENCE. With REAL MUSICIANS playing with me. And maybe there was a standing ovation. But it’s okay if you don’t believe me.

5. Mark Sullivan Interview about Brimstone Rhine on Soundings WBLQ.

…Wherein I giggle a lot. And correct the spelling of my last name.

6. Poet Elizabeth R. McClellan (who inspired the ALECTO! ALECTO! album) makes a Naughty NSFW YouTube Lecture on Shakespeare’s great “I [Tupped] Your Mom” joke in Titus Andronicus as INCENTIVE.

…Wherein the poet begs us NOT to bake people into pies. Not even Gauls.

7. Outer Alliance Podcast INTERVIEW [about 53:33 into the whole episode] about Brimstone Rhine.
…Wherein I chatter A LOT and even SING a little at the end!

THIRTY FIVE HOURS LEFT!
$19 MORE DOLLARS UNTIL WE ARE HALFWAY TO MUSIC VIDEO STRETCH GOAL!
TELL YOUR FRIENDS!
TWEET! TWERK! FESTOON ZE FACEBOOK!
HERE!
HAVE A LINK!!! 

THE BRIMSTONE RHINE CAMPAIGN!!!

OH!!!
And here are some pictures from my Chicago trip and the recent concert in Mystic, CT–just for fun:

Gumbo Fiction Salon Feature Reader. I did “Little Sally and the Bull Fiddle God” and “Saga of Captain Jens” and read a bit from “BONE SWANS.”

The Sale Table at the Gumbo Fiction Salon.

Road Trip to Peoria, IL to see my beloved mentor Gene Wolfe!

GENE WOLFE, or, as I love to call him “Don Q.” Plus, doggy Mariah.

“The Real Within the Unreal” panel at Columbia College Chicago Storyweek Festival of Writers, with Mort Castle, Phyllis Eisenstein, Audrey Niffenegger, and Jay Bonansinga.

Oh, gosh. And here’s an article about the panel that’s pretty SWELL!

Jack Hanlon on the Bull Fiddle.

Glenn Kendzia. C. S. E. Cooney. Jack Hanlon.

Another Gratuitous Picture of Yours Truly, C. S. E. Cooney! 🙂

I have been traveling this week and not really keeping up so STELLARLY (can that adjective be adverbed? Can the noun “adverb” be verbed? Can “verb” be verbed? I AM SO CONFUSED!) with the Brimstone Rhine Campaign.

Suffice to say… We’re at $5811, which means we are 3/10ths funded for our second stretch goal of AWESOME MUSIC VIDEOS OF GLORY! If we hit that goal, we get the wizards of Rule2 Productions to dip their hot little hands into this project and make BEAUTIFUL THINGS FOR US.

Here is something Rule2 Productions already did for me. What happened was:

Magill Foote: Hey! I want to do a project with you!
Me: QUOI? MOI?
Magill: OUI! TOI! (In so many words.)
Me: You know what I kinda wanna do? I kinda wanna make a sort of souped-up Reading Rainbow version of this snippet of my Secondary World Murder Mystery novella MARTYR’S GEM! (Found in upcoming collection BONE SWANS, out 7-7-15!!!)
Magill: Yeah, Grant and I can do that. Whaddya want?
Me: I want my writer/artist/allaroundamazingfriend buddy Erik Amundsen to do these drawings. And then maybe you just… make it look pretty? I’ll narrate.

BUT THEN WHAT HAPPENED WAS THIS! Suddenly, ANIMATION! Suddenly, a SOUNDTRACK of DRUMS. Suddenly, a bunch of ACTORS from Flock Theatre played with me. Suddenly, ALL THIS BEAUTY and so very little of it to do with me, except it was for my STORY, and it was like Reader Rainbow Version 200BillionPlex (#notarealnumberbutyougetmydrift).

So, that. That’s the skill that would go into the MUSIC VIDEO. And this! They made this for my buddy AMAZEBALLSMIRACLEWRITER Patty Templeton’s book THERE IS NO LOVELY END.

Goodness. Haven’t you read this yet?
NO?
WHAT A TREAT YOU HAVE IN STORE!

All of which to say…

This world is full of WONDERFUL THINGS. And a MUSIC VIDEO of a Brimstone Rhine song (or two) would be ONE MORE WONDERFUL THING! (“Wonderful wonderful and again most wonderful wonderful,” as the Bard wrote. And, as my other favorite Bard wrote, “For the cruelty of men is as wondrous as Peru…” But that’s no so apropos, except… When is Sweeney Todd NOT apropos? THAT’S THE QUESTION!!!)

So. Brimstone Rhine. Music Videos.
LET’S MAKE THIS HAPPEN!
Spread the word.
If you like, if you please, if’n you so desire!

BRIMSTONE RHINE CAMPAIGN — STRETCH GOALS!!!

So, I’m here in Chicago for the week, because I get to be on a panel at Columbia College Chicago’s STORYWEEK next Tuesday, and help teach a fantasy class about Mythic Poetry this Friday, and be featured reader at the Gumbo Fiction Salon at the Galway Arms (TONIGHT!!!).

Yeah. It’s kind of a BIG WEEK. And I get to see ALL MY FRIENDS from my YE OLDE CHICAGO DAYS.

I’m house-hopping all over the place. Last night I visited my musician friend Samu Rahn of Cairn.

Sam and I like to text each other word games sometimes. A few months ago we were texting all the kennings for “ocean” we could think of. The best one I came up with was “Barrow Brine.” I got SO EXCITED I wrote a nautical dirge of the same title, recorded a super rough and ragged melody on my Voice Memos app, and texted it to him. He emailed me back a guitar part within the week.

This morning, before he headed off to work, I begged him to play it with me. He said he didn’t remember it. I said that didn’t matter; I had the recording he sent. He could listen and relearn. COULDN’T HE?

“I warn you,” sez he, “my guitar strings at present are well-nigh Methuselean.”
“Is it not strange,” quoth I, “that sheep’s guts could hail souls out of men’s bodies?”
“These strings? Their shambling corpses maybe.”
“PLEASE, SAMU!”
“Very well.”
“And can I record it and put it on the YouTubes??? PLEASE???”
“…”
“PLEASE!!!”
“As you wish. But perhaps with a disclaimer…”
‘I WILL POST ALL THE DISCLAIMERS! I will say your guitar strings are old, and that it is the first thing in the morning, and that my voice isn’t warm, and that we’ve never rehearsed this, but PLEASE CAN I PLEASE?”
“One-Take-Jake. Let it be so.”

So. Now that ALL MY DISCLAIMERS are out of the way, allow me to present to you our Rough No Rehearsal Garageband Living Room recording of “Barrow Brine.” Samu Rahn on guitar. Just for fun.

“The Kenning Song, or, Barrow Brine” is a song from The Headless Bride EP by BRIMSTONE RHINE, now fully funded to make into a REAL LIVE ALBUM just for YOU!!!

All Headless Bride lyrics found at Mythic Delirium.
Support BRIMSTONE RHINE’s STRETCH GOALS!!!
Check out Samu Rahn’s Raise the Cairn and As for Dragons.

Last summer, the Apocalypse Gals and I went on a mini-tour with my brother The Celtic Musketeer, and sang a few concerts in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

We were staying overnight at a place called The Buttery in Dorcester, MA for a house concert and idly rehearsing that afternoon in one of the guest rooms. Missing our poet friend Dominik Parisien, AKA “The Apocalypse Boy,” we decided to record this song I’d written for him.

This is one of the songs from THE HEADLESS BRIDE EP, now FULLY FUNDED by the BRIMSTONE RHINE CAMPAIGN. It’s not the studio version, of course, but I thought it might amuse you.

Also… it might INSPIRE you to check out the AWESOME NEW STRETCH GOALS!

On the subject of MUSIC VIDEOS.

I think I did tell you… one of the stretch goals is MUSIC videos? Of either “Dido in Effigy” or “Lysistrata, Strut Your Stuff”?

I like working with Magill Foote of Rule2 Productions, because… Well, because he is a WEIRD GENIUS OF GLORY. Because he MAKES things. When Magill says he’ll do a thing, he goes and DOES THAT THING. Only better than you or I could’ve imagined it!

He is one of my wizards. Grant Jeffery is my other wizard. (Grant’s my ALBUM ARTIST THANK YOU FOR FUNDING YOU ARE ALL THE COOLEST BECAUSE HE’S AMAZING HURRAY!!!).

Together, Grant and Magill work together on films and win awards. LIKE THIS FILM!!! THIS is my PERSONAL FAVORITE!!! This film!!! (I LOVE THIS ONE SO MUCH!!!) IT WON STUFF!

And, like, if we get a leeeeetle more money, we can MAKE PROFESSIONAL MUSIC VIDEOS! Possibly with PROFESSIONAL PUPPETEERS!!!

Gosh, something in me wants to see us ALMOST burn a Puppet Queen Dido on a pyre. I may or may not be a TERRIBLE PERSON.

So. Maybe… MAYBE PUT A DOLLAR OR TWO  MORE TOWARD BRIMSTONE RHINE???!!!

THE BRIMSTONE RHINE PROJECT

WE GOT WHAT WE NEED!!!
WE ARE FUNDED AT $5000!!!

However, I do have some stretch goals.

STRETCH GOAL 1:
Up to $5,500:

I am under strict orders from Friends in the Know to do no further stretch goals until I budget to PAY MYSELF. Which… I, uh, did NOT do in my original calculations. I figure, since I’m paying my collaborator $500, it’s probably fair wage for me as well!

STRETCH GOAL 2:
$5,550-$6,500 (smiley face)

I have these incredible FILMMAKER FRIENDS in Canada. I would love to pay Magill Foote $1000 to make one or even TWO music videos, probably of “Lysistrata, Strut Your Stuff,” and/or “Dido in Effigy.” He has professional puppeteer friends, is all I’m saying. Not like MY Wicked Naked Puppets. Like, PROFESSIONALS. And he has a GREEN SCREEN. So. Yeah.

STRETCH GOAL 3:
$6,500-$8,500 (tee hee)

I sing with another band called The Banjo Apocalypse Crinoline Troubadours. We have a song cycle all written and rehearsed and performed called “The Distant Star Ballads.” (One of them, “Sisters Lionheart” is featured at the bottom of this Story Page.)

I would love to fund us making this an album.

STRETCH GOAL 4:
$8,500-$10,000 (ah ha ha ha mwahahaha)

About a year ago, I started adapting Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities as a stage musical.

I know, I know. It’s been done before. But not like I’m doing it. Oh, believe me. Believe me.

It’s possibly my best work. Possibly because I’m standing on the shoulders of a dead genius.

What I need is to fund the finishing of it and the GREAT QUEST for a musical theatre composer as dedicated to his or her own art form as I am, and as excited about this project as I am. Because… Because it is beautiful. And what’s more, in this age of disparity, of privilege versus poverty, it is NECESSARY. That’s what I think anyway.

GOALS. I HAVE THEM.

But if we don’t get there, know that I’m just so grateful to have made my initial goal.

CHECK OUT THE BRIMSTONE RHINE CAMPAIGN!!!