a storehouse for the creative output of Jonathan Bond

Here you will find poetry, fiction short and long, unsteady visual art,  and a range of other original offerings.  There are many posts listed in the right column, roughly by category, even a list of posts. Tons of writing and near-art can be found on this site, a vibrating sampler platter of the fractured universe that is:

15WattLasVegas

Below is a list of recent work, please click around or check out the many other original posts below this one, new content on occasion. New site coming soon, some of this content has been taken down by me for now, can provide on request.

Contact

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Poetry

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Recent Poems

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Consider the Distance: a chapbook from 2011

Impermanence – opens visual poem

Fiction

Illuminated Fools: a novel in progress

 Short fiction

  Excerpts from 2017 short story “New Prescription”

 Excerpts and thumbnail of 2016 story story “The Slab“

 Excerpts from late 2014 short story: “So, Ralph“

Update 2021 – PDFs below taken down for now, will upload excerpts soon.

Impulse Control – short story 2013 (opens pdf)

Personal Space – short story  (opens pdf)

Pulling a Shift  – short story (opens pdf)

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Non-fiction, Creative Non-fiction:

Red – short 900 word memory piece (pdf)

Encounter with Paul – creative non-fiction (5,000 words in pdf)

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Art:

Sliced Sunset
Dust Jacket Collages
Jars
Up & Coming Down & Outer

Buy Consider the Distance: words on Paper by Jonathan Bond, hand made by me, each copy unique!

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“Two become One” original drawing digitally manipulated

This image appeared toward the end of a meditation. I am aware we’re not supposed to get caught up in the visual tricks and creative insights that arise while sitting, so I took a picture of the image with my mind, acknowledged the image by being a little curious about it and let it go until I was finished. Of course what I saw and what I drew are quite different, as my draftsmanship seldom matches my ambitions. But that’s where the beauty of Photoshop comes in. I know I ought to work in Illustrator, but I know Photoshop so well. Had fun with some 3rd party filters as well. Might post some more variations soon.

More soon, a novel and chapter update and hopefully a whole new site soon.

art, digital art, digital manipulation, image manipulation, Jonathan Bond, love, love sick, original art, original drawing, Photoshop, spirituality

Trailer for short film “Birds in the Ribs” by Jonathan Bond & Steven J. Yazzie

Here’s a 37-second trailer for a short 4-minute film I made with my collaborator Steven J. Yazzie entitled “Birds in the Rib,” based on a poem of mine of the same name. More to come about the film, full film in post below this trailer.

Trailer

“Birds in the Ribs” short film

Here is a short film I made with my good friend and collaborator Steven Yazzie entitled “Birds in the Rib,” based on a poem of mine of the same name. It’s definitely the high point of our ongoing collaboration, and a culmination. I am grateful to him for all the gifts he brings and for his friendship. More to come about the film.

 

Daniel Johnston interview by Jonathan Bond from 2001

Been a while since I posted here, but I’ve been meaning to put some of my music journalism up for a long time. The sad passing of Daniel Johnston on Wednesday, Sept 11 2019 at the age of 58 prompted me to post this interview with him from 18 years ago which was published in a long-gone (even largely from the Wayback Machine!)  Tastemaker music blog basement-life.com that predates Stereogum and the prominence of Pitchfork. (I may also add links to other places I published interviews or stories about Daniel over the years.) I saw him play and spoke to him several times over the years, a few times in person, and each time it was a revelation of play, mental illness, enthusiasm and confusion, sometimes at once. He was a great and made an inimitable contribution to music and art, and though he will be missed, I know he’s in a better place.

The article, design-wise was created for basement-life.com as a series of images with the text embedded. I’ve included the images below but in this format it’s basically impossible to read the font, so I’ve included the original text from the article here. Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment on your thoughts about Daniel.

Jonathan

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Jonathan Bond asks Daniel Johnston “Hi! How are you?”

and they uh, have a lot of fun.

Discovery

It was 10:53. We closed at 11:00pm. The customers wouldn’t budge from the bins even after the requisite sarcastic 20 minutes warning and the pleading 10-minute warning. We had a solution to this problem at Rockaway Records, and it was time to go for the jugular. This usually meant putting on Metal Machine Music, some delicate selection from Yoko’s solo work or maybe one of the lovelier tracks by Coil or Psychic TV.
I left the selecting to my co-worker and went person to person in the store asking, pleading for them to leave when I was struck by a musical tractor beam, abducted by the sound and couldn’t move.
“They shot him down. They shot him down /they thought he was a monster but he was the king/ they came to his island and they brought her with them/ they wanted to get his picture but they were surprised by his enormous size/ and when he saw the woman he took her without question /because after all he was the King “
Some lunatic little boy was speaking/singing the entire plot to the film King Kong, a cappella. It was a dangerously emotional ode to the fallen giant in which every plot point, every nuance was sung by the broken child’s voice, from the perspective of the King no less.

“Get Born Man” image from early 90’s

 

“Illuminated Fools:” a novel in progress

Think High Fidelity meets Cloud Atlas.

Here’s a peek at the work in progress I’ve been workshopping and working on since September 2010. Update 3-2023: Have for now taken down the synopsis and treatments, and left the updates and elements of the workshop process. If requested may provide elevator pitch, synopsis or treatment, please Contact  me if interested, thanks. Not abandoned, nearly completed, merely protected. New website coming soon. 

Illuminated Fools

It’s your world, with weird sprinkled on top.

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James Sallis and all the good people in his novel writing class have been very helpful in my transition from writing mostly short pieces – primarily poetry – to working on a novel. Nearly every page has been through his workshop and revised based on student feedback and Jim’s amazing critiques / edits.

Click below if interested in the nuts and bolts updates about when chapters were finished, and what I’m working on. Thanks for your interest and support for works in progress.

Cheers

jb

Sunset Star Flower: two variations revisted

triptych two redux

Click on the image, a lot more to see than what the blog column-size shows.

Up & coming Down & outer

Owls are wise