Cheyenne Quarterly, Vol 4 Issue 1

Can't win em all

Hello friend! A happy and healthy New Year to us all, hopefully. Here’s a lil retrospective on 2024 from a neckmonster’s-eye-view:

It started tough and kinda stayed tough. I lost Rita Jasper in April. I organized a ton of events. I got covid in September and am still dealing with lingering effects. I also injured my hip pretty badly (still in PT for it two months later) and somehow managed to get tonsilitis so bad my doc suggested I visit the ER if needed on Friday December 13th (thank goodness it cleared up with meds and I didn’t have to go for an emergency procedure). But here are some more specific/interesting updates:

🦇YELLOW WALLPAPER

We recorded more tracks in Joe Mangum’s home studio in Paris, KY over the summer but have just finished recording overdubs and vox, so I have no idea when this thing will be done, but it will be good. I’m excited for it to come out, whenever it does! :)

We didn’t play that many shows last year, but I’m ok with the slower pace. We really only play when asked to, and because of band members who are all over 40, plus with families and jobs, we can only really play weekends anyway. I still really love being in a band, and I’m exceedingly grateful that we are still doing this art together!

If you’re on Instagram, we are @yyellowwallpaperr there.

⚫INTERZONE

We did 5 Interzones this year! I usually do four, on the equinox/solstice calendar.

March was the last time my friend Andy could DJ before he moved away, and I got the Dead Souls Gothic Lounge folks to come down from Indianapolis, so it was a killer time. June was good too, though we had to have a last-minute switch-up due to scheduling issues, it was still a ton of fun. Then things got weird.

Maaaaan, I tested positive for covid the on the day of Interzone VII - on Sept 21. Such a complete bummer. Fortunately, I have really good friends who are willing to put in some extra work and made the magic happen for me! While I was laying in bed with fevers & chills, they were holding down the goth party fort. I am lucky to have em on my team!

At the end of October, we had the pleasure of doing a special bonus one at a super-rad venue: the Loudoun House in north Lexington! It’s a stately old manor full of ghosts and art, and it couldn’t be a better fit, honestly. It was a fang-tastic event!

And as always, there was one in December for GOTHMAS - complete with sad poetry (with live harp accompaniment) and somber silliness.

📌WORK STUFF

I got a huge grant (151K) at my job! That means we’ll be able to afford an assitant for the Kentucky Geological Survey’s archive, which I have been working with for nearly two years now. We are going to be digitizing and cataloging materials dating back to 1838, including some truly weird publications that were made while KGS was part of the Kentucky Immigration Bureau. These efforts resulted in a settlement in southeastern Kentucky that came to be known as “Bernstadt” and still has some people living there with Swiss roots. However, it was mostly a rip-off. This article about the Great Bernstadt Swindle is a comprehensive read if you’re curious.

And if you wanna work with me as your (exceedingly cool) boss, applications are open until January 22nd: https://ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/564915

✏️ZINE SCENE

I am working on a companion zine to my earlier project, “365 Punk Things To Do” which is “666 Goth Things To Do,” complete with illustrations from my friend Hunter Elliott who lives and works in Berea, KY, about an hour away from Lexington. He also makes brooms and does woodwork and shares lots of spider pics on his instagram. I was hoping to have the zine finished by the end of the year, but I didn’t, and zines are always late anyway, so whatever.

Halftone Zine Fest will be happening in May and I’m pretty excited about it! Also, I think I’m off the hook for Pride Fest organizing this summer, so it’ll be a little easier for me to do more fun stuff and less work outside of work.

𖡎GRAB BAG

For my mom’s birthday, I got a tintype made with her, my sister and I. It was taken right after the election. It looks super cool. The place that made it is called River City Tintype in Louisville. I highly recommend it if you get a chance to go. This image has been digitally flipped to make my mom’s badass shirt readable (I have a matching one, kinda wish we both had our “This Cat Claws Fascists” shirts on, but I missed the memo):

I have been reading a lot with the Libby app in the last year (when I took an Instagram detox, I got really into reading again). Currently I’m reading “The Light Eaters” by Zoë Schlanger, which is about plants and has a ton of fascinating botany facts in it, but it bounces around a lot. I am not good at keeping plants in my house alive, but I am interested in learning more about them.

I have been stuck in some musical ruts for awhile but lately I’ve been enjoying Jozef Van Wissem and Jim Jarmusch’s work, Mary Lattimore, and William Basinski. If you have any musical recommendations for me, I’m eager to find new (to me) artists/albums that are contemplative, quiet, pleasant pop, or otherwise sort of a cozy-sweater/blanket-fort listen. The seasonal depression is hitting hard, not gonna lie.

I still don’t have a cat yet. It just hasn’t felt like the right time - I was sick, injured, or exhausted for much of the year, and had a crying jag when I was in the cat food aisle at Target a few months back, so I’m still healing from the monumental loss of Rita. But I am healing, time marches on, and I do want a little friend to lounge around with. When I get one, you’ll hear all about it. :)

And a little personal note: I’ve been seeing someone for over a year and it’s going really well, all things considered. We don’t live together (nor do we plan to anytime soon) but we spend a lot of time together and it’s been great. Love is cool, and difficult, and affirming, and scary. It has been freshly challenging to navigate my own self-doubts and medical issues and depression and habits alongside someone else’s, but I continue to gain confidence, sweetness and comfort from this connection and I’m very grateful for it.

The world continues to disappoint me with its industrialized idiocy, its genocidal mania, and its heartlessness. The world also continues to delight me in so many ways. It’s a confusing thing, being alive in these times. I’m sure it’s always been like this. I’m glad we have each other.

To wrap it up, I’ll just say: thanks for reading. It’s nice to hear from friends, so hit reply and say hey if you read this far. Chances are I really want to hear from you.

Your friend,

Cheyenne