Wednesday, August 20, 2008
On Gigs and Green Monsters
There is much to write about concerning our recent trip to Oregon, and most of it should have already been written on the family blog, but for limited time and kids hogging the laptop. But two things invite rumination here, and there are quite unrelated.
The one that had the most impact was a gig, a playing out, a me- and- Roderick- and- friend- of- Roderick- sitting- on- a- public- sidewalk- with- guitars- and- digital- piano- making- music- for- several- hours- under- shifting- sky- for- a- growing- and- appreciative- audience. That was a great experience that forced me to dust off some muscles I haven’t used in quite a while. When folks would stroll by, stop for a bit, and end up looking for a table and ordering drinks or a meal, it was gratifying. Granted, it was a lot harder to find the chords by ear than it was several nights earlier, in the more casual setting of Roderick’s kitchen. Still, playing with Roderick and Chris was a joy, even the goofs, and playing some solo stuff became more and more fun as the evening (and a bit of liquid courage) developed. It was fun, a small gig that meant a lot because I would be unlikely to do something like that on my own. Maybe now I’m a bit more likely to do so.
The second thing to think about was motivated by a small book I bought at my new favorite bookstore.
In Portland, we stopped by Powell’s Books in Portland and spent two hours there. It was fantastic, and there is something nice to be said about a friendship between families when most of the nine folks involved consider hours at a massive bookseller to be a wonderful use of vacation time.
Flashback: Just one day before leaving for this trip, I had a twilight idea. That’s my wife’s term: the twilight area between sleep and awake, when you’re still in a bit of a dream-state, and you find yourself caught in a story or situation you find compelling, but you’re awake enough to direct the action a bit.
I was in that state, with a story about a character I never thought I cared about in a medium that I never really considered writing in.
It’s a character that is owned by someone else, a character very well established and who is making a lot of folks rich, so there’s little chance that his story would be entrusted to me.
It is also a character that I know only a little about, comparatively.
All of this is a dilemma, yes?
Also, I’m getting a backlog of ideas, with little work to show for it. This is creative quicksand, and I’d best grab a branch soon.
So at the great big bookstore, I looked a bit at the history of this character, with more research waiting for me on the reserve shelf at the library when I return home. The thought is that I might write a story for this character, but I need to know more about his mythology. One thing I found is that someone else already plumbed some of the ideas I was going to use with this character. Another good reason to abandon ship, but I’m intrigued by my idea and am not ready to bail just yet.
I found a book by Alan Moore, the author of Watchmen, called Writing for Comics. And now, days later, on the plane on the way home, I just read it. I found the Afterward, written fifteen years later than the original essays, to be encouraging and inspiring, reminding me, in different language, of a phrase I often say to my students and my kids, too often forgetting to listen to it myself:
Leap and the net will appear.
Maybe I’ll write the story as an exercise. Maybe my lack of enthusiasm for writing stems from the assumption that having had success with a musical, I have to write another musical.
Maybe I should write a script for a comic book.
Maybe I’ll figure out a way to get the enormous publisher who owns the character to solicit a highly non-traditional story idea about one of it’s benchmark characters from an inexperienced, unheard-of writer who has paid no dues.
Uh huh. Right.
Maybe I’ll abandon snobbish judgment and write it as a piece of fan fiction, a huge cultish world I’ve heard of but never visited and know nothing about, including not knowing if fan fiction of this type even exists.
In the Afterward, Moore quotes Shaky Kane, whom I’ve never heard of, with a line I’m considering posting in my classroom:
“Don’t be cool. Like everything.”
We’ve started our descent, so the laptop must go away.
Tater Tots: First Review
I just received a review of Lunch Lady: Tater Tots of Love from the director of the production at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe:
"Pass the sick bag - its another High School Musical", was my first thought, when kids with air-brushed good looks burst into song in the school lunch hall; but rather than saccharine dross, this new musical has a sinister side. Socially awkward, yet hardly lacking in the looks department, Anthony David falls for perfect and popular Clarissa and receives unlikely assistance from the dinner staff, so far soooo utterly predictable. Only, get this, Clarissa's perfection came at a price: she made a Faustian pact with the school's demonic Dean. The songs were mostly good, although a few of the chorus numbers could have done with a little more volume and diction. A school musical that for a refreshing change doesn't sell its soul for vomit-inducing cheesiness.
Monday, August 4, 2008
Also, Too
Yeah, so it wasn't Bobby McFerrin in the airport, but some other dread-locked, linen shirt wearing, cool-looking black guy. Just a little bit of research revealed that Bobby is in France.
Still, not seeing him yesterday did get me thinking about him. Tomorrow perhaps I will walk the beach and return to his music. It's been a long time.
Bobby McFerrin has had a big impact on me. His album Medicine Music is profoundly beautiful. It's influence on me is made partially clear by a song I wrote sixteen years ago. Wow. Sixteen years ago. That's like it was written by a whole different person.
I was in an a cappella group at the time.
The credit that appears on the media player will be for Everlasting Happiness, because that's the name I chose when creating the site on GarageBand.com. But the performance is actually by Throat Culture, circa 1992. This recording is from the album A Cappella Head.
Also, Too
Still, not seeing him yesterday did get me thinking about him. Tomorrow perhaps I will walk the beach and return to his music. It's been a long time.
Bobby McFerrin has had a big impact on me. His album Medicine Music is profoundly beautiful. It's influence on me is made partially clear by a song I wrote sixteen years ago. Wow. Sixteen years ago. That's like it was written by a whole different person.
I was in an a cappella group at the time.
The credit that appears on the media player will be for Everlasting Happiness, because that's the name I chose when creating the site on GarageBand.com. But the performance is actually by Throat Culture, circa 1992. This recording is from the album A Cappella Head.
Also, Too
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Arrival at the Pacific Coast
It’s almost too ideal, this moment here, sitting by a fire in a lovely quaint living room, over-sized windows to a sunset on the Pacific, wife with great new haircut doing crosswords over there. Roderick’s wife sitting doing Sudoku puzzles, quietly saying song titles to keep the music going as Roderick just there picks tastefully at a cool, black, graphite acoustic guitar. (A graphite guitar? Da hell?)
“Mr. Lucky,” she requests.
Roderick’s wife does not yet have a blog name. Misty she shall henceforth be.
I write two blogs, which is excessive, yes. One is about my family, and this one is about my creative pursuits and related or not so related topics. It seems this trip may not fit neatly into either category.
What to do? This is clearly a family trip. But there is also a keyboard set up just over there, a barbecue / jam session is scheduled, and a gig with Roderick, a friend of his, and me forthcoming. There is more than a little talk about creativity and music and all of that.
“I Will.”
We woke at 4:00 AM to catch an early flight, stopped a moment in Minneapolis, where I’m pretty darned certain I bumped into Bobby McFerrin, who has had a pretty profound effect on me in a whole lot of ways, but I wasn’t sure enough it was him to say anything. I don’t want to be the white guy who is wrong when he says to the black dread-locked guy "Aren't you BobbyMcFerrin?"
“Blackbird.”
We arrived in Portland at 11:00 AM West Coast Time. Our family had an elaborate scheme planned, based on an old, too-hard-to-explain inside joke. So we walked out of the gate with each member of our family wearing a fake mustache. We walked around the corner, and there they were, Roderick, Misty and their two boys, all wearing fake mustaches.
“Crazy Love.”
A terrific meal at Moe’s – believe it, I had never had clam chowder before. This was a very good place to start. I had a cup of clam chowder as an appetizer, then crab stuffedavocado, then a cup of clam chowder for dessert. So I'm not sure what the marionberry cobbler was if the chowder was dessert. I was just surprised that the crack smoking mayor of D.C. could bake so well.
A long walk on the beach to wait for check-in time, and then to the house from which I'm typing just this moment.
“Why Georgia Why.”
I’ve never been to the west coast, and am struck by the different character here. I’ve only been here half of one overcast day, but it seems to me that this end of the county has it all over the other end. I've always loved the ocean, both of them, but while I'm way over here, out of earshot, let's be honest. The Atlantic coast is great, but it just tries too hard. The Pacific just has it the whole beach thing down. Itdoesn ’t try to be a bad ass with how hot it can get, it knows the classy impact of a big land mass here and there, maybe some rocks to break up the sand. You wanna bring a beer or twenty-four down here with you buds, maybe have a fire? 'scool. The Pacific knows you’ll take good care of things; you’re responsible, good folk, after all, and it trusts you. And your dogs. Dogs are cool.
“These Days.”
So, we got here. Beautiful house. We settled in, kids shot pool and tried to fly a broken kite for a while. I had a big self-indulgent run on the beach, and now here we are.
“You’ve Got A Friend”
“Mr. Lucky,” she requests.
Roderick’s wife does not yet have a blog name. Misty she shall henceforth be.
I write two blogs, which is excessive, yes. One is about my family, and this one is about my creative pursuits and related or not so related topics. It seems this trip may not fit neatly into either category.
What to do? This is clearly a family trip. But there is also a keyboard set up just over there, a barbecue / jam session is scheduled, and a gig with Roderick, a friend of his, and me forthcoming. There is more than a little talk about creativity and music and all of that.
“I Will.”
We woke at 4:00 AM to catch an early flight, stopped a moment in Minneapolis, where I’m pretty darned certain I bumped into Bobby McFerrin, who has had a pretty profound effect on me in a whole lot of ways, but I wasn’t sure enough it was him to say anything. I don’t want to be the white guy who is wrong when he says to the black dread-locked guy "Aren't you BobbyMcFerrin?"
“Blackbird.”
We arrived in Portland at 11:00 AM West Coast Time. Our family had an elaborate scheme planned, based on an old, too-hard-to-explain inside joke. So we walked out of the gate with each member of our family wearing a fake mustache. We walked around the corner, and there they were, Roderick, Misty and their two boys, all wearing fake mustaches.
“Crazy Love.”
A terrific meal at Moe’s – believe it, I had never had clam chowder before. This was a very good place to start. I had a cup of clam chowder as an appetizer, then crab stuffedavocado, then a cup of clam chowder for dessert. So I'm not sure what the marionberry cobbler was if the chowder was dessert. I was just surprised that the crack smoking mayor of D.C. could bake so well.
A long walk on the beach to wait for check-in time, and then to the house from which I'm typing just this moment.
“Why Georgia Why.”
I’ve never been to the west coast, and am struck by the different character here. I’ve only been here half of one overcast day, but it seems to me that this end of the county has it all over the other end. I've always loved the ocean, both of them, but while I'm way over here, out of earshot, let's be honest. The Atlantic coast is great, but it just tries too hard. The Pacific just has it the whole beach thing down. Itdoesn ’t try to be a bad ass with how hot it can get, it knows the classy impact of a big land mass here and there, maybe some rocks to break up the sand. You wanna bring a beer or twenty-four down here with you buds, maybe have a fire? 'scool. The Pacific knows you’ll take good care of things; you’re responsible, good folk, after all, and it trusts you. And your dogs. Dogs are cool.
“These Days.”
So, we got here. Beautiful house. We settled in, kids shot pool and tried to fly a broken kite for a while. I had a big self-indulgent run on the beach, and now here we are.
“You’ve Got A Friend”
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