This is finkle’s* HomeGrown MixTape Volume One - a compilation of songs written and recorded between 2012-2025.
( *finkle is Kenny Finkle’s alter ego. The pop star version of the playwright who is bolder, sly, trickier singer/songwriter. this mix tape is the first in a series).
I Shot the Critic in the Head
I start with this song because it’s like a shock to the system.
I guess I run the risk of turning some people off but that’s ok I’m only speaking to a certain group who can understand this feeling.
This is probably the most aggressive song on any of the mixtapes.
This is a pretty early song
I think at some point I thought this would be part of U R STAR - for the character of Brandon
So maybe this was from 2013.
We were definitely living at 413 W 47th then
This song’s guts though come from personal fantasy
In 2006 a NYTimes critic ravaged my most play Indoor/Outdoor.
This song is me freeing myself from that - that voice that was consuming me
I think it’s also pretty funny
Never heard before
Won’t Run Away
I wrote this song for U R STAR
This is Ramona’s first song - our introducton to her.
It’s one of my favorites
I riffed off the chord structure of Joni Mitchell’s People’s Parties
In U R STAR during this song we meet Ramona in her bedroom
She’s getting ready to go out. Checking herself out in the mirror and not happy with that she sees.
She then heads out for the night.
Gets high, drinks, meets a rando and has anon sex
all of which leaves her feeling more empty, more alone
she dreams about a day where she’ll overcome this self harm
Maybe I Should Run Away
This song is from 1993
I wrote it for a part of the play that didn’t make it to the final version
At the time 1993 was three acts and the second act was a detour - a stand alone act - The Unofficial Untrue Story of Lorena Bobbitt
Based on the true story but very liberally rewritten, in it Lorena is in an abusive relationship with her husband John Wayne Bobbitt and falls in love with a cop with a big heart, named Hutch.
In this song she debates whether she should runaway from JW or stay.
Another version of this song appears in a later mixtape- a duet between Lorena and Hutch
I cut this act from the show because at the time I felt it wasn’t my story to tell. But I don’t feel that way anymore.
This song becomes background in the audio version of 1993, Episode 6
What Do You Think of Me?
This is probably one of the oldest songs on these mixtapes.
There is one other song that is from around the same time
The original version of this I probably wrote in 1992/1993.
When I started making music again in 2012 I started with going back to songs I had written that I could remember.
This was fun to recreate.
For a long while i thought that this was part of U R STAR - Veronica who succumbs to Tricky ( a dark force, a sabetour) has gone to his “realm” where she is entranced and in love with him.
He withholds from her which makes her hot
I love the sweetness of this song
and I love the speaking part closer to the end - which I think is funny in its sincerity
Never heard before
Going Round Again
God I love this song
This is an early version of a song that ends up on UR STAR as a duet between Brandon and Veronica called ART IS ETERNAL LIKE OUR LOVE
In this version the song is only Brandon’s. At the time I thought Brandon was the protagonist of the story. And to be honest now listening to this and to Shot the Critic I think I missed telling his story
I should have started with Shot the Critic and then gone to this song
This song has a sort of 50s rock n roll gone wrong sound to it which I love
The song is about Brandon deciding that he’s going to make one more attempt to be a successful artist and that he’s hopeful that this time he will fare better
But then he runs into Tricky- referenced in the song above - and finds himself pulled back into his own self-sabotaging ways - pulled down down down into the muck of it.
But he’s determined by the end to change his story. He’s determined to - change his life.
Never heard before
These next three songs are all from the 1993 sessions
Starting to Think I’m Going Crazy
This song is part of 1993 in episode 7 in a very very different version
I wrote this song originally for The Unofficial Untrue Story of Lorena Bobbitt
Furious at JW Bobbitt she decides to try to blow off some steam by going out with her friend Byron
Even though she leaves breadcrumbs for herself to find her way back - though blow away and she is lost in her rage, confusion - starts to feel like she’s going crazy.
In the story this song is what leads her to the slice… (if you don’t know what the slice is, look up the true story)
This song has a gorgeous string section that acts in the audio version of 1993 as Loreena’s theme music - suspenseful, dangerous, dramatic
There are a million versions of this song roaming around on my computer - some have some spoken word sections and another bridge others have more piano
For All Time
From the 1993 sessions, this is a song for Steven that came about pretty early but took a long time to blossom.
There’s an early version of the song in another volume of the mixtapes.
Steven sings this to a sleeping Jean Wayne Genet the night after they sleep together for the first time.
I love the unbridled sweetness and naivete of this song
The opening of the song starts from the transition in the audio version of 1993…
Genet has brought Steven back to his apartment. they are about to have sex.
Genet doesn’t have protection and asks Steven to trust him.
Steven should never have trusted Genet - not for one second.
What’s Wrong with Me
The last of this trio from 1993 and another song for Steven. This song eventually becomes Heart Deep - which I think is featured on the 2nd mixtape.
But I like this version - which is closer to where the impulse for this song started - If you Wanted to Be Me - another song of yearning that couldn’t find its way into the story.
I like vocals in this - the way my voice sounds so femme.