This is Chaos & Beauty, the “official newsletter” for the my varied universe as a singer & writer.
You’re here because who knows why. I said something witty on Twitter (not super likely because I’m compulsively earnest as a rule but it’s possible), or you read one of my infrequent but spicy essays and googled my name, or you like my voice in one of my many projects and hunted me down here, or you found me down some cryptocurrency blogging rabbit trail. The internet is weird; welcome, however you happen to be here.
But if you stay, it’ll be because you want to hear from a real person working across many fields within the broad description of “the arts.” That’s me. This is Ground Zero Kay Clarity and my shifting kaleidoscope, which I hope generally leans beautiful more than chaotic.
You’ll stay because you like someone multifaceted whom you don’t expect perfection from or crisp, constant alignment with, but whose work, thoughts, and projects interest you as a whole. You’ll stay because the good things you like will help you laugh off some of my edges—rough or saccharine in turn, depending on my and your mood.
I’ve branded aspects of my work over the years, but I’ve had a growing desire to share somewhere as I am—unbrandable, like every human being—as well as bring all of my work together in one place, without being overly concerned about it neatly intersecting.
Some of my work:
I do a lot of different things. If you stick around, you’ll learn about some of that—behind the scenes projects and entrepreneurial work, some of my client work, the music projects I have in the queue. Some of those things may interest you as time goes on, but here, I’m just going to be your artsy online friend.
I wanted a better name for this, which kept me from launching it for months, but I finally realized Chaos & Beauty is right because it’s accurate. It says what I want it to, and that suffices. I don’t need a vague Latin word or understated witty phrase to start a Substack. E voilà! Life can be simple.
I love what’s beautiful and I advocate for it—the better part of my life’s mission as I’ve long seen it. But I’m a creative person, constantly shapeshifting, and can’t quite (or don’t want to) saw off the edges in my writing. And I have yet to settle into just one thing.
I finally accepted that wasn’t a bad thing. I am what the late Barbara Sher called a “scanner.”
This means, as an artist, I sing polyphony, pop, poetic folk, and Gregorian chant, often also songwriting and composing in these categories, and feel no tension or disruption in doing it all. I pitch silly songs for ads, and I write serious, commissioned songs for those in deep grief or celebrating an important anniversary. I take and edit photos. I write essays and poems. I have outlines sketched for a couple of books. I’m working on music videos. I spout off a little video commentary here, and love to feature in a good podcast there. And I’m starting a community for like-minded artists who want to build a better world that will chip away at dystopia and build the foundations for cultural cathedrals.
In between all of this, I spend a lot of time connecting with people running hard in the cultural scene, having conversations with people about what our world most needs at the seeming beginning and end of an era, and working with my private clients.
You’ll get all of that here—maybe even hints at some of my client work. You’ll be in my “inner circle”—which is nothing profound, exactly, except that everyone’s inner world is rather precious, and that this is the place you’ll hear me as human rather than as compartmentalized genre singer or writer. Writers have the privilege of being able to somewhat communicate that complex inner world out; I’ve always been grateful for this ability.
I ran an exclusive members platform in 2021 on my website, and it was lovely. But due to increasing client and project demands, it isn’t sustainable anymore, so casual sharing via Substack is now the right path. It also turns out it’s a better plan, as I’d like to open up my work to a broader audience as well as broaden the scope of what I share - not just the “thoughtfully conservative” branded version, although that is as close to my real skin as a brand could probably ever be, Scrutonian and Sowellian as I am. I want to be able to share my pop music, and knit in my Catholicism, and I want a place where I can direct those interested to the different things I’m working on—essays, music videos, business ventures—without any of those pieces feeling disconnected, unnatural, off-brand, or out of place.
Here, we will do everything!
The goal will be a little something once a week. Maybe a few paragraphs of thoughts, but usually a simple song or a poem, or a link to something I’ve written, or an update on what I’m working on. It’ll be old and new content, much of it evergreen, much of it from what I have for many years lovingly called “The Archives.” I have an immense backlog of work, and creation churns on. There is no end.
(At this point in my life, the abundance of creativity is sometimes more a curse than a blessing.)
Welcome! For now, I’m keeping this open to all, with only an occasional post saved for paid subscribers, where I will give out exclusive downloads of music, poems, or other things that seem worth sharing more permanently. If you appreciate me and my work, I’d love to have you on board as a paid subscriber.
Otherwise, art is an enjoyable but expensive hobby, and artists like me, frequently shut out of the regular channels of success because of those pesky things called principles in a world gone mad, can’t get our work out and affect the culture meaningfully—even though the world clearly needs something other than Cardi B and woke cartoons.
But fear not! If I can’t convince you yet what time it is culturally and how we need people who ‘get’ and support the artists who are bucking the waves of woke trends, I will nonetheless carry on singing and writing into my relatively hidden world of committed private clients, listeners, and readers—including you.
Just keep in mind that the power to change things is often in your own hands and your willingness to take that little credit card out and heroically punch in those annoying little numbers—whether it’s for me or someone else you see doing good work. Little decisions with our time and resources add up over time and equal a different kind of world than the one we are currently trudging through.
Onward. Chaos & Beauty incoming.
Subscribe below.