While I was working on the last episode of Scenestory (pre-face-smashing) I found an unlisted 8tracks playlist I made a zillion years ago with the description “a mix for aliens and extraterrestrials, and the lies they tell; your playlist for the coming invasion.” Very dramatic. I’m going to guess I made it around 2014, because at the time I was going through a David Bowie phase after my mom took me to Chicago to see his career retrospective exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art and I was kind of obsessed with the idea of glam-rock aliens.
I’m pretty sure that was when I wrote the first draft of a poem with the same theme that I ended up calling “Artemis 11,” which got published last year in Abyss & Apex Magazine.
And, since I’m feeling nostalgic and most of the songs in the 8tracks playlist got dinged for licensing issues, I remade it on Spotify and added some shiny new updates. Check out the poem if you want but I (will probably always) care way less about the art that I worked really hard on and got paid for than I care about my little playlists.
Personally I think it’s a nice companion to the poem, AND: I got back into reading books this year (which is impressive if, like me, you’re illiterate), and it would go great alongside one of my favorite reads of the summer, Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis. It’s about aliens, it takes place in a slightly alternate 2007, and it has both serious philosophical questions and romance, which is all I ask from a book. Check that out too.