About this site

When?

I started Ralph Manak's Music Monthly on Substack as a response to the question, “When are you playing?” Since moving to Austin in 2017, I’ve become engaged in a number of wildly varied bands and projects, yielding no simple answer to the question.

The Music Monthly was an attempt to keep friends (fans? I don’t know) up to date on my activities, including show dates, news about music releases, periodic writing about open mics, and suggestions for music I think you might like. In the course of studio construction and moving studios, I experienced an ever-present not enough time, and the Monthly became Periodically.

In December of 2024 I migrated this newsletter from Substack to Ghost, with the first issue going out the second Thursday of January, 2025. I'll explain this in a newsletter soon.

Raking Light Periodically is an attempt to keep friends (fans? I don’t know) up to date on my activities, including show dates, news about music releases, periodic writing about open mics, and suggestions for music I think you might like. I’ll respond to questions and ideas you, dear reader, send my way. On rare occasions I may share some thoughts approaching philosophy.

And, raking light is a reference to light cast across a surface, like the glow of late afternoon sun around the time of the winter solstice. Raking Light Studio is where I work, which can be anywhere, and which can be any work or practice. One can also imagine, literally, raking light. Like universal consciousness' janitor.

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