Posted by aloe on Apr 30, 2026
moon in review is the moonly newsletter from me, aloe. i send one out every first-quarter moon. it recounts the previous lunation, from one new moon to the next.
late again! but you know, not much. i was out of town when i was supposed to be writing. its fine. less said about it the better i think
🌑 march 18th
in fact, i dont even have a fresh tape for this one. i mean, i do, technically, but i didnt finish it inside this moon, i just now posted it. but i was working on it this moon, so i can still talk about it, and you can go check it out yourself here in the future.
i wound up feeling pretty ok about breaking the pattern of one tape per moon at this juncture, and even about breaking the spell that much more right now, by mentioning the fact that i had been doing one per moon out loud for the first time. this has been getting to be maybe enough of a handful of songs to where i want to start looking in to how to stick a few of them together !
like, ive been chewing on this a little already. the process is kind of settling in, and the material is piling up .. and ive been toying with different visions of how they could be collected and presented a tiny bit. it might be an opportune moment to see if i can adjust course and do something like, revisit one of the old ones and add a verse or something. take some time to play with the mixing. loosen up and re-frame. also, i've been kind of missing my other projects. i've been going pretty hard on this. and i intend to keep on doing so, but, i think there's room for everyone. it's not even a question of time, it's just having kind of a one-track mind about it. it's been really good, but i can see how, narratively, at this juncture, i could justify letting it breathe a little.
actually playing with mixing stuff might be fun because, i've been doing this thing for the last several ones where, if i do any bounces on the tape machine (combining two tracks into one,) i also run an individual copy of each track off to this multitrack digital recorder first? so theoretically i can kind of reconstruct multitracks of these with more than just 4 .. it's a kind of wonky and janky process, i've tried it a little and i have to correct for the playback speed drifting and the additional noise added by each track kind of limits it to not too many more than 4 anyway, practically.
but i don't know, it's worth experimenting with i think, like, even if it winds up being part of a hybrid process with some digital layers too — the tape just adds this instant vibey texture that makes my ears smile, i think it would be kind of a shame to lose it entirely. ive been thinking about it lately, i think the subtle time drifts actually kind of contribute to that. like, it's not audibly warbly or anything, but i think it's kind of, sub-audibly .. relaxed in a certain way, the little ripples in how it proceeds, compared to the regimented precision of quantized sample recording & playback. hmmmm..... anyway, just writing this out i'm kind of excited about the idea of coming up with some kind of hybrid process, which i hadn't really considered before. so thanks for that, newsletter :)
🌕 april 1st
then it was the fool moon . the full .. april full's. the Fool Moon. :)
my birthday was in here ! i played it kind of close to the chest this year and just snuck off by myself to the woods to set up my hammock and read for a while >:) it was honestly delightful, would recommend this strategy to anyone. i did a reading with my tiny tarot deck and had a little picnic lunch. the book was Nevada by Imogen Binnie, which i read the first almost-half of and then proceeded to finish the next day.
i actually started writing this whole blog post about it, and then it got a little too deep and broad and now it's lodged somewhere between "important diary entry" and "list of things to text my friends." i was really excited, i had had some kind of breakthrough. i got 2 dear ones interested enough to buy copies just by blabbing about it. my influence ... >:) (actually my friend delta's influence, cause she got me interested in the first place. credit where due.) i think we got started talking about it by this, from louise weard's substack? that will have to tide you over until i produce some kind of tranny blogger magnum opus (four trochees) that either does or does not take the form of a response to nevada
i do love that shes a blogger, in the book. has me turning that word over in my head a bit .. has a way different mouthfeel than "poster." ive been really enjoying the challenge and reward of longer form writing since i made my website and then the newsletter. and ive gotten some really nice feedback too. ive never really looked at myself as a writer the way i do with other creative practices like music, where i have like goals and its part of my identity and stuff. but i do think a lot, and sometimes (i begrudgingly admit) i have stuff to say. and this has been a way healthier outlet for me than "posting" ever was .. plus sometimes it even amounts to a little something, like, a little piece of work i can look back and feel some satisfaction about.
but it can still be pretty low-key and natural feeling too, less of a self conscious "creative exercise" than like, fiction, or even song lyrics. idunno, i'm just a little bit enamored of the form at the moment. thinking about all the stuff ive read and shared and discussed in chats over the last few years and getting a little sentimental holding it all in a pile. thank you tranny bloggers for my life
🌑 april 17th
your present lunation began with the new moon of april 17th, waxes to the full moon of mayday, may 1st, and wanes to the new moon of may 16th. thursday, april 23rd was the first quarter moon of this lunation.
nothing on the calendar this time! although, you know what else is interesting about having ten or twelve newish songs done is, i was thinking about this, i could just play these on guitar and sing them in front of people by myself. maybe mix in some really old ones for texture. idunno, just putting it out there .. !
ok, lets pull a card. and..
your card is: the king of cups. pull your own cards at aloe.gay/tarot !
ah, this old fellow! ol' k-cup. mister wet guy
what is even there to say about him. well, let's check in with our elemental correspondences. kings are fire, and cups are water; so we have "fire of water" here. ooh, sort of the opposite of our queen of wands from october. there's been a lot of court cards so far, huh? nice opportunity to study them a bit.
in that letter i said something about the distinction between "water of fire" and "fire of water," calling water the queen's role and fire her nature. so if we reverse those ..
i don't know, it's still just a nice wet guy ! this card is such a brick wall to me sometimes. like, ok. rachel pollack says: "Fire of water suggests alchemical power to transform or channel emotional energy. The King suggests someone successful, maybe with deep emotions or creative impulses that he tends to hide." and like, sure ! thats definitely something. he has a boat. he sails the seas. the queen embodies emotion (water(cups)), the king masters it, turns it into action. ok,
but why does it feel kind of shallow? why is he supposed to be all emotionally intelligent and super repressed at the same time? is it just a bleak vision of the nature of "emotional intelligence" itself, like, the more tools you get, the more you just remove yourself from the moment .. ?
i don't know, but, i actually feel strongly (finally breaking through some of this passivity, sheesh,) that there must be some kind of mastery to aspire to here beyond simply controlling and suppressing ones feelings. and if anyone should have it, it should be this character ! maybe "mastery" is even not a great word for it, because that has such forceful overtones. but some kind of skill that can be practiced and honed. maybe we're having trouble with the "king" of it all. he can't just be an artist, the obvious solution to all this. he has to govern and stuff ..
fire of water, action (role) of emotion (nature.) transmutation .. interpretation, externalizing the interior world. taking your feelings and doing something about it. and doing the right thing about it. sure, that calls for unshakable calm. to really face what those feelings mean to you. but it's the opposite of passive and repressive, it's active in the sense of active listening and it's also active in the sense of literally getting up and doing something. acting on a desire ! or a mysterious inner pull
and trusting your interiority; thats where the calm comes in, i guess. but it's like, a dance, too, acting and feeling and responding and acting. riding the waves, getting your sea legs, standing solid even in a storm. i just wish he'd open up a little, you know. we can actually get by without kings. i want to hear his poetry
thank you so much for reading my newsletter! we're hosted by comradery, a cooperatively-owned subscription platform for artists and community projects. i'm just using it as a newsletter platform right now, but you can absolutely set up a recurring donation of any amount to support me and my art if you're so inclined. (i also have a ko-fi for one-time tips!) my website is aloe.gay, and you can write back to me at aloe (at) aloe (dot) gay. i hope you have a good moon, i'll see you on the next first quarter ~
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