Joshua Siegal - Writer, Musician, Creative Technologist

goings on

Aug. 21

“Back of the Bar Room” from Red Spot Rhythm Section

Recorded on a a portable 8-track recorder and limited to acoustic instruments only (piano, guitar, percussion, and melodica), the new EP, Back of the Bar Room, is a selection of original favorites from some sessions recorded for an NPR folk music show.

Sep. 23

Genre Society Reading at Solemn Oath Brewery

Reading and competing in author trivia for the Genre Society’s Reading at Solemn Oath Brewery

& on & on...

work work work

After the Moon

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2026

After the Moon

A story about two little brothers in a postwar conundrum, picked up by the Trunk Anthology from Metaphorosis Publishing.

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2026

Descent to the Planet of the Gremlins

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2026

Descent to the Planet of the Gremlins

A creepy flash piece about finding your people, in the Spring 2026 edition of 34 Orchard Literary Journal

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2026

Warmth

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2024

Warmth

My weird, sweet, and cozy sci fi flash piece, appearing in Literally Stories.

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2024

Twilight

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2024

Twilight

Red Spot Rhythm Section presents a funky blend of roots Americana, ska, and soul.

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2024

The Great Sieve

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2024

The Great Sieve

An epistolary story about a Dyson Sphere with some tricks up its sleeve, appearing in Parsec Ink’s Triangulation: Hospitium anthology.

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2024

The Golem Lover

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2024

The Golem Lover

A romantic shtetl fairy tale, featured in the wonderful PodCastle fantasy podcast, episode 847.

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2024

We Makes It

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2024

We Makes It

A sci-fi poem about a sentient self-replicating swarm of nanobots struggling with its own appetites and ecology, appearing in Penumbric Magazine of Speculative Fiction, selected for volume vii of the Best of Penumbric anthology, and a Finalist for the 2025 Rhysling Award for sci fi poetry.

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2024

Love Like a Guitar in the Road

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2024

Love Like a Guitar in the Road

My flash fiction, “Love Like a Guitar in the Road”, appearing in Syncopation Literary Journal’s Guitar Issue (vol. 3, no. 1)

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2024

Cascade

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2023

Cascade

My speculative climate story “Cascade”, appearing in Peatsmoke Journal.

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2023

Pop Forgot

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2023

Pop Forgot

A sci-fi poem about doom and memory, published in Abyss&Apex Magazine.

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2023

The Saba Demos

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2023

The Saba Demos

An album of afrofunk arrangements I recorded for a new project.

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2023

Up and Down

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2022

Up and Down

My short story, “Up and Down”, appearing in Mythaxis Magazine, Winter 2022 issue 32.

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2022

Both Sides

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2022

Both Sides

Both Sides is a website that tracks Congressional votes where parties have shown dramatic differences. The aim is to deflate the argument that “both sides are just the same.”

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2022

Tainted Love / Boys Don’t Cry

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2022

Tainted Love / Boys Don’t Cry

Red Spot Rhythm Section brings you a two-sided single of broken-hearted soul, in these renditions of hits from 1980s Britain.

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2022

Starting A Short Story: A Craft Essay Goes Too Far

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2022

Starting A Short Story: A Craft Essay Goes Too Far

The title says it all. Featured in The Masters Review.

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2022

Rocks and Snow

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2021

Rocks and Snow

My short story, “Rocks and Snow”, appearing in Lamplit Underground. Nominated for a 2021 Pushcart Prize.

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2021

Won’t Back Down: A Roots Tribute to Tom Petty

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2021

Won’t Back Down: A Roots Tribute to Tom Petty

Red Spot Rhythm Section presents “Won’t Back Down”, a loving tribute to the music of Tom Petty, featuring artists from around Chicago and beyond.

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2021

That Kid Who Saved the World One Time

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2021

That Kid Who Saved the World One Time

My short story, “That Kid Who Saved the World One Time”, published in the Spring 2021 issue of SHiFT: A Journal of Literary Oddities.

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2021

Hard To Give Thanks / Foundation

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2020

Hard To Give Thanks / Foundation

A two-song single of original music from the Red Spot Rhythm Section.

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2020

Covid By State

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2020

Covid By State

Covid By State is a covid tracker I built to display normalized covid data on a state-by-state basis.

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2020

Solar Shrine Fundraiser Soundtrack

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2020

Solar Shrine Fundraiser Soundtrack

I created this soundtrack for the Solar Shrine fundraising video to support their architectural installation planned for Burning Man 2020.

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2020

Water at the Top of the World

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2018

Water at the Top of the World

My debut children’s book – about inclusion and peace-seeking in a world of colliding mythology and science.

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2018

Win For Losing

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2018

Win For Losing

Win For Losing is a protest song EP recorded at Audio Bistro, with some guest performers from around the Chicago reggae scene.

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2018

Confessions of an Aphrodite Bug

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2018

Confessions of an Aphrodite Bug

My short story, “Confessions of an Aphrodite Bug”, published in the Fall 2017 issue of Michigan Quarterly Review.

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2018

CRA Newserator

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2017

CRA Newserator

Newserator is a custom RSS aggregator that I built to break the filter bubble effect in online news consumption.

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2017

Essay: In Defense of Anti-Science

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2016

Essay: In Defense of Anti-Science

An essay published in Skeptic Magazine, challenging the scientific-edifice counter-revolution

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2016

The Red Spot Rhythm Section – Worry: Songs of Homan Freed

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2015

The Red Spot Rhythm Section – Worry: Songs of Homan Freed

The debut album from The Red Spot Rhythm Section. Future psychedelic folk!

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2015

The Opposition Party

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2015

The Opposition Party

The Opposition Party delivers vintage afrofunk sounds with energy and fidelity driven by 4 horns, multiple percussionists, and a tight, grooving rhythm section.

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2015

Review: David Bowie Is

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2014

Review: David Bowie Is

Review of the David Bowie Is show at the MCA Chicago, featured in Whitehot Magazine

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2014

N^ The Game

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2014

N^ The Game

N^ is an original board game, currently in play testing. It combines the worlds of geopolitics, cellular automata, and spatial strategy.

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2014

the Morphtet

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2013

the Morphtet

the Morphtet is a piano trio based around the concepts of acoustic interaction and melding barrlehouse with polyrhythms.

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2013

Review: In Decay: Stitching America’s Ruins

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2012

Review: In Decay: Stitching America’s Ruins

Review of Eric Holubow’s photography exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center; published in WhiteHot Magazine.

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2012

Flowering Open

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2010

Flowering Open

A visual application to provide a meditative focus point for expecting mothers practicing breathing and visualizations.

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2010

Dancing At The Revolution

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2010

Dancing At The Revolution

Overture and Curtain music from the EP Theatre production of Michael Bettencourt’s play. I also did sound design for the play, and produced the recorded music.

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2010

Fluids – A Vector-Based Particle System

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2010

Fluids – A Vector-Based Particle System

Designed to go along with live musical performance, this vector field particle simulator takes keyboard controls from an operator and can be used from a laptop-projector hookup in a performance space.

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2010

Mt Greenwood Sound Sculpture

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2010

Mt Greenwood Sound Sculpture

This original musical sculpture series was created by Jim Brenner and Jacob Worley-Hood for a new park in Mt Greenwood. I participated in the inaugural performance as a percussionist and co-produced the recording.

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2010

Bride of Acacias

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2010

Bride of Acacias

Sound and Video for the theatrical production at the Chopin Theatre in Chicago. The play was a cathartic biography of Iranian film pioneer Forough Farrokhzad, written by Iranian expat Ezzat Goushegir and directed by Dana Friedman.

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2010

Review: Chipaumire & Mapfumo at the MCA

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2010

Review: Chipaumire & Mapfumo at the MCA

A review of the multimedia / dance / music collaboration between Nora Chipaumire and Thomas Mapfumo at the MCA in Chicago; published in Whitehot Magazine

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2010

in progress

N^ The Game

N^ is an original board game, currently in play testing. It combines the worlds of geopolitics, cellular automata, and spatial strategy.

The Morphtet

The Morphtet is a trio focused on transmutating new standards and classics into a barrelhouse-funk-reggae hybrid.