Give us this day, but no daily bread. I can't exactly say why I'm keeping kosher this Passover season, but so far, I've managed to refrain from eating any bread, not that I haven't been tempted. It's such a part of my makeup to want to grab 'the staff of life' (insert joke here). Last night at the Greek restaurant where I went for dinner with my friend Larry, the waitress put a couple of pieces of delicious looking bread in front of me, and it was all I could do to resist its leavened allure. At a certain point I said to my buddy, 'could you put this over there and get it out of my immediate sensory field' (or words to that effect), because I felt an instinctive pull to grab a hunk and stuff it in my mouth. It was almost primordial; rather than simply thinking 'I'd like a piece of bread', it was more like, 'Bread, Eat' Man want Bread!, coming from a the body, not the brain, (or so I could imagine)
But I managed to avoid it, along with the treats at the cafe where we went for coffee afterward. Actually, now that I think about it, I believe that I did have a treat a few nights ago when I might have spaced out the fact that we were still in the passover time, so it's not a case of me being all kind of 'purist' about the holiday. But there is certainly something to be said for depriving oneself of what one thinks one wants and seeing what happens as a result.
I'm reminded of my Rabbi friend Jeff Marx's thought process when I asked him for a consult about a story I was working on. I was trying to write a piece about bullying, but I was having trouble coming up with the right tone for the story. Should I concentrate on the bully himself, or the victim or the classroom as a whole? I presented the dilemma to Jeff, and his first thought was, 'What is the opposite of bullying?' He followed up immediately with the phrase, 'Use your power for good', and that struck me as the perfect approach. And I was intrigued by the way he had arrived at this solution. He made a conscious choice to consider the opposite, and because of that decision, he immediately hit upon a great idea. I heard the words 'Use your power for good' as a melody and an anthem. The hook of the song was written in a flash. I didn't write it, actually, it just 'was'.
It makes me wonder if that act of considering 'what is the opposite' might have some utility in other areas of my life. I think I know my ruts pretty well by this point, those pathways which seem to direct my thoughts around the same mental route. I'm going to place a thought in my brain which says, 'when you find yourself aware that you're going down that familiar pathway, stop to consider 'what is the opposite''. Especially when I get daunted by the familiar 'there is too much to do' paralysis about career building tasks, website maintenance, album recording, social media outreach, business building, mailing list creation, promotional work, equipment upgrading etc etc etc, it would be wise to consider 'what is the opposite of this feeling of helplessness?' I do believe that there is some solution lurking there.
Speaking of the word 'daunted', which I mentioned in the last paragraph. I was having a very interesting conversation with a new friend, Rico, in which I mentioned that word. I had just met him, a fifty something, charismatic Argentinian guy who has recently made Eugene his home. He's a very bright individual, makes his living as a translator, bilingual marketing guy. He's very plugged into the new forms of social networking, is posting stuff all the time, making connections, drawing people to him, and he's definitely got the knack for the new media. I could tell by the way he instinctively took some pictures and brief video at the blues jam and then posted it to his facebook, as a matter of course.
We got talking during the break and I had an immediate sense that he had a lot of what I need, so I was interested in having a conversation. At one point, I mentioned that I am daunted by the amount of stuff that I need to do in the social networking arena which I don't know how to do. Then I stopped and asked him if he understood the word 'daunted'. The reason I asked him is because his accent is fairly strong, and I wasn't sure of the level of his English comprehension. He assured me that he knew what it meant, telling me that he's been in the states for 30 years, works as a translator etc. I ribbed him a little, saying that if he's so great in English, why does he have such a strong accent?
This made him laugh, and his answer was that the times he was going to try and lose the accent, he would have a girlfriend who would say, 'But I love your accent'. (sounded like a convenient excuse, but who am I to judge?). Then he continued and said that when he gives a talk, he will invariably start out like this: 'I apologize for my accent, but if there is something you don't understand, please raise your hand.... AND I'LL SAY IT LOUDER!. It was a 'laugh line', and my first reaction was to say, 'What are you, Jewish?' It just seemed like such a Jewish take, to use a little comedy shtick as a way of dealing with a little quirk like an accent. He says, 'Yes, I am, nobody ever guesses this, you are the first'. We both laughed a lot about it, and I think it's very amusing to sniff out a Jewish approach to life and comedy, even if it has a Spanish accent. Takes one to know one, I guess.
Lesson plan Earth Day edition
I have a fairly important gig this morning to deliver an Earth Day performance for about 80 little kids from the University preschool programs. They will be marching to campus for a little demonstration, then joining me at the Condon School nearby for a special Rich Glauber interactive event. And even though I could likely waltz on in there and do my thing, I feel the need to think about it and come up with a plan. (likely because my voice is at half strength, the room is large and I want to deliver a good event) So here goes the thought process.
Start with 'You'll sing a song' and do it eventually in different animal voices. Wolves, whales, sheep, bees, cats...
5 little fishes, swimming in a pool
5 big elephants, walking down the street
I just learned 'April Showers' and it's quite a fine little ditty. Maybe I'll bust it out today, this being April and all, and I love the message of the song. And I love the idea of including an old song or two to link the generations. I might couple it with 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' which could also be an April song. That would constitute the retro part of the show. Does it tie into 'Earth Day'? Not really, but I could certainly make it so, talking about how people can enjoy the beautiful weather on earth by playing games and having fun outdoors.... as opposed to say, sitting in front of the computer. Yeah, that works, a little public service announcement :-)
I wrote a fun little preschool song called 'That's not the way we do it' about mistakes people make, and how they should clean up their act. Here's a sample verse:
Grandma likes to read the paper, she buys one every single day
But sometimes she forgets to recycle her paper
She goes to the garbage can and throws her paper away....
That's not the way we do it, not the way we do it
That's not the way we do it, please don't do it anymore
Uncle Bob likes to go fishing, he's even got his own fishing boat
One day he drank three cans of Pepsi, then he threw them in the water
Just to see if they would float...
It's cold and cloudy this morning, might be another rainy day
So I got lazy and used my car, even though the place I went to
Was only a mile away...
Bizzy Bugs
Going to the Zoo
Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish and English
In My Garden
Shine a Light with Percussion for the finale... Happy Earth Day, everyone!
Start with 'You'll sing a song' and do it eventually in different animal voices. Wolves, whales, sheep, bees, cats...
5 little fishes, swimming in a pool
5 big elephants, walking down the street
I just learned 'April Showers' and it's quite a fine little ditty. Maybe I'll bust it out today, this being April and all, and I love the message of the song. And I love the idea of including an old song or two to link the generations. I might couple it with 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' which could also be an April song. That would constitute the retro part of the show. Does it tie into 'Earth Day'? Not really, but I could certainly make it so, talking about how people can enjoy the beautiful weather on earth by playing games and having fun outdoors.... as opposed to say, sitting in front of the computer. Yeah, that works, a little public service announcement :-)
I wrote a fun little preschool song called 'That's not the way we do it' about mistakes people make, and how they should clean up their act. Here's a sample verse:
Grandma likes to read the paper, she buys one every single day
But sometimes she forgets to recycle her paper
She goes to the garbage can and throws her paper away....
That's not the way we do it, not the way we do it
That's not the way we do it, please don't do it anymore
Uncle Bob likes to go fishing, he's even got his own fishing boat
One day he drank three cans of Pepsi, then he threw them in the water
Just to see if they would float...
It's cold and cloudy this morning, might be another rainy day
So I got lazy and used my car, even though the place I went to
Was only a mile away...
Bizzy Bugs
Going to the Zoo
Itsy Bitsy Spider in Spanish and English
In My Garden
Shine a Light with Percussion for the finale... Happy Earth Day, everyone!
Voice My Lost
Lost my voice last night after a couple of fairly strenuous gigs, but it wasn't like I strained it, more like some phlegm got in there and just shut it down. Which is unfortunate, because it's a busy time right now with lots of appearances, and without a voice, it makes it tough. I had to cancel one today, a real nice senior's gig at one of the local places, and it's a gig that was booked 4 months ago. I hated to lose it, but if I had tried to do it, I would have put myself totally out of vocal commission for days. So I let the activities director know that I couldn't sing and if he could find a replacement, then he should. I said that I'd be willing to play the piano and accordion and act like a clown if he needed me to, but singing was out. He found a replacement so it all worked out, I suppose.
Tomorrow is the gig that I'm irreplaceable on, as it's about 80 preschool kids coming in for an Earth Day event at the University. I've done this gig for the past couple of years, and it's been a lot of fun each time. And this year, I'm inviting my friend Spencer to come and roll some video of the performance, which is part of the larger plan of getting my promotional and social media reality more up to date. There is a good possibility that this will be a chance to get some great footage, so here we go. Spencer is 'the guy' as far as I'm concerned, 23 years old, has a good camera and lots of knowledge of the modern technological world which intimidates me greatly.
He shot some footage yesterday at a nice senior's performance I did across town and we met today to look at footage and start producing a 3 minute promotional video that I can use to garner some new gigs. I liked what I saw, a fun-loving, interactive artist who really got the party going for the senior set. But it's more than that; it's very life affirming for folks to sing. Sometimes their memories are going, not all the words are in there, but a lot of them are, and there is a lot of joy in singing the old songs, feeling successful and happy and still going strong. That's what I was seeing in their smiles and laughter, and in my own too... So we chose about 5 or 6 brief sections of songs that Spencer will edit into a little promo piece that he'll put up on Youtube.
After the senior gig, I hustled over to Cozmic Pizza to play a 'free family night' event that was a little chaotic, not totally enjoyable, and I could feel that my voice was going. Uh oh! But I made it through and then went over to the Wednesday night Blues Jam at Quackers. It was very dead, but I hung around and then was delighted to see my friend Joanie walk through the door around 9:30. She is the dream date; we've been friends and dance partners for decades, and the comfort level on the dance floor is 25 years in the making. Joanie and Marv have been married for nearly 40 years, but in their free time, he likes to fish and she likes to dance and they give each other their space to do just that.
It's such a gift to have a friend like that, we're both incredibly grateful for the connection, and I joke that it's like having a girlfriend without any of the negatives. Over the years, many people have assumed that we're a couple because we've been out and about hundreds of times, but nope, just friends and fellow dancers, and what a blessing it continues to be. We both love to improvise and play act and 'get down' on the dance floor, and last night on 4/20, that's exactly what we did.
Then I got to play the last set, as usual, and it was one of the best ever. Since there were very few people in the place, we tried out some stuff without feeling the pressure to keep the dancers on the floor. Byron was on guitar, and he's made some really clear chord charts for tons of songs; last night we did a great version of the jazz standard 'Come Rain or Come Shine' along with 'My Girl' by the Temptations, and it's hard to describe how pleasurable it is to play that stuff with great musicians. We know how to follow one another; all the endings were tight, it's a kind of artistic teamwork that makes me incredibly happy (even without a voice)
Tomorrow is the gig that I'm irreplaceable on, as it's about 80 preschool kids coming in for an Earth Day event at the University. I've done this gig for the past couple of years, and it's been a lot of fun each time. And this year, I'm inviting my friend Spencer to come and roll some video of the performance, which is part of the larger plan of getting my promotional and social media reality more up to date. There is a good possibility that this will be a chance to get some great footage, so here we go. Spencer is 'the guy' as far as I'm concerned, 23 years old, has a good camera and lots of knowledge of the modern technological world which intimidates me greatly.
He shot some footage yesterday at a nice senior's performance I did across town and we met today to look at footage and start producing a 3 minute promotional video that I can use to garner some new gigs. I liked what I saw, a fun-loving, interactive artist who really got the party going for the senior set. But it's more than that; it's very life affirming for folks to sing. Sometimes their memories are going, not all the words are in there, but a lot of them are, and there is a lot of joy in singing the old songs, feeling successful and happy and still going strong. That's what I was seeing in their smiles and laughter, and in my own too... So we chose about 5 or 6 brief sections of songs that Spencer will edit into a little promo piece that he'll put up on Youtube.
After the senior gig, I hustled over to Cozmic Pizza to play a 'free family night' event that was a little chaotic, not totally enjoyable, and I could feel that my voice was going. Uh oh! But I made it through and then went over to the Wednesday night Blues Jam at Quackers. It was very dead, but I hung around and then was delighted to see my friend Joanie walk through the door around 9:30. She is the dream date; we've been friends and dance partners for decades, and the comfort level on the dance floor is 25 years in the making. Joanie and Marv have been married for nearly 40 years, but in their free time, he likes to fish and she likes to dance and they give each other their space to do just that.
It's such a gift to have a friend like that, we're both incredibly grateful for the connection, and I joke that it's like having a girlfriend without any of the negatives. Over the years, many people have assumed that we're a couple because we've been out and about hundreds of times, but nope, just friends and fellow dancers, and what a blessing it continues to be. We both love to improvise and play act and 'get down' on the dance floor, and last night on 4/20, that's exactly what we did.
Then I got to play the last set, as usual, and it was one of the best ever. Since there were very few people in the place, we tried out some stuff without feeling the pressure to keep the dancers on the floor. Byron was on guitar, and he's made some really clear chord charts for tons of songs; last night we did a great version of the jazz standard 'Come Rain or Come Shine' along with 'My Girl' by the Temptations, and it's hard to describe how pleasurable it is to play that stuff with great musicians. We know how to follow one another; all the endings were tight, it's a kind of artistic teamwork that makes me incredibly happy (even without a voice)
Why I write, in a nutshell...
Disaffected, rejected, not completely unexpected
Constricted, conflicted, most likely self-inflicted
Distracted, impacted, but the source has been contacted
Inspect it, reflect it, in time maybe correct it
Constricted, conflicted, most likely self-inflicted
Distracted, impacted, but the source has been contacted
Inspect it, reflect it, in time maybe correct it
Chad Gadya (Life and Death at the Seder)
We celebrated a fabulous Seder tonight, and as often happens, it was deeply meaningful and rich with symbolism and personal drama.
Our host, Doctor H, was three weeks removed from a near death experience in which he was trapped under an overturned drift boat, helplessly wedged underwater, unable to escape and not too far from his demise. It was also 'near-death' in the sense that the owner of the boat, W, actually did die in this mishap, and he was a fishing buddy of the doc, not to mention an expert boater. But not on this day.
There was a third guy in the boat, a friend of the owner, who was an inexperienced boater, and W made the fatal mistake, as it turns out, of giving his buddy the oars and helping him learn about operating a drift boat on the McKenzie River. It was clear that the rookie didn't know what he was doing, but with enough supervision and paying attention, it would be OK (allegedly).
As these things often happen, it was a brief lapse of attention on the part of W, who didn't realize that the boat was drifting toward some submerged logs, and by the time he instructed his friend to 'steer over there', the friend made one inefficient pull on the oars, then missed the water on his next pull, fell backwards into Doctor H, and in an instant they overturned in a hard current, and got pitched out of the boat. The rookie got thrown clear and managed to grab a branch and pull himself onto the shore. Doctor H got slammed by the boat, broke his fibula in 6 places and was trapped for about a minute underwater with no ability to free himself.
As he describes it, he was looking up into the light and first thinking that was the sky, and then wondering if it was that 'tunnel' that you hear about. The boat had him trapped and he thought for an instant of giving up, but fought that impulse and kept struggling. The boat was rocking around in the churning water, and at one point it moved enough for the doc to be pulled out by the current. It was as if God had said, 'Let this one stick around for awhile'. He floated about 20 yards downstream to where he could pull himself on to a little beach. But there was a big rise above him, and with a shattered fibula, he couldn't get any farther, but he was alive. His buddy W drowned under the boat.
It was a very dramatic story, but that's not why it's 'blog-worthy'. That came later, in the singing of Chad Gadya, a traditional song we sing toward the end of the seder. It's one of those songs that starts out small and keeps growing, like the 12 days of Christmas, and we were going one by one around the table, with each reader having to read a longer and longer paragraph (all in one breath). Joanie had mentioned something about how you never know who is going to have to read the longest one, and I naturally thought uh, it would be easy to figure out, just do the math, how many verses? how many people? but I kept it to myself.
And we did a great version of the song, me on guitar, everyone getting into it, having fun, each of us singing a solo paragraph, then all on the Chad Gadya chorus. Wouldn't you know that the final verse belonged to our host, and here's what his lyric was:
Then came the Holy One, Blessed be G-d, And destroyed the Angel of Death
That killed the butcher That slew the ox That drank the water That quenched the fire
That burned the sticks That beat the dog That bit the cat That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim Chad gadya (2x).
It's the first time that 'the Holy One' makes an appearance in the song to defeat the Angel of Death etc etc, and that's almost exactly how we were describing his escape from the clutches of death. Doctor H had said that at first he described his ordeal by saying that he had freed himself from the boat, but later he realized that no, he really didn't do that, it just happened, not through his efforts, it was more a God thing. And then he turns out to be the one to sing that verse. I couldn't help but mention the incredible 'coincidence' of the way the song played out. And just now, as I've tried to describe in words what it felt like, I've been at a loss for words, which rarely happens when I sit at the computer to pour out the blog. I rarely struggle with words, but I just took three cracks to come up with the word 'coincidence' in quotes, and that certainly doesn't do the feeling justice. I suppose it's because you can't write about God stuff in the normal parlance of every day life. It was a qualitatively different experience, and it happened under a big fat full moon in the month of April, on the day of liberation.
That's one of the things about the Passover Holiday, and why it's so profound. We are instructed to celebrate the holiday as if we ourselves were experiencing the escape into freedom. It was a great seder, among the very best ever. I'm still buzzing.
I've had this altered passover feeling before, wrote a song about it once nearly twenty years ago, and it's the same feeling now that I tried to capture then...
Is it the pull of the moon is it the rising tide
I got life in the blood tonight
I hear stories in the whistle of the wind
Get ready, we're leaving again
This night, this night, all right
What about this night?
This night, this night
Why is this night so different?
Our host, Doctor H, was three weeks removed from a near death experience in which he was trapped under an overturned drift boat, helplessly wedged underwater, unable to escape and not too far from his demise. It was also 'near-death' in the sense that the owner of the boat, W, actually did die in this mishap, and he was a fishing buddy of the doc, not to mention an expert boater. But not on this day.
There was a third guy in the boat, a friend of the owner, who was an inexperienced boater, and W made the fatal mistake, as it turns out, of giving his buddy the oars and helping him learn about operating a drift boat on the McKenzie River. It was clear that the rookie didn't know what he was doing, but with enough supervision and paying attention, it would be OK (allegedly).
As these things often happen, it was a brief lapse of attention on the part of W, who didn't realize that the boat was drifting toward some submerged logs, and by the time he instructed his friend to 'steer over there', the friend made one inefficient pull on the oars, then missed the water on his next pull, fell backwards into Doctor H, and in an instant they overturned in a hard current, and got pitched out of the boat. The rookie got thrown clear and managed to grab a branch and pull himself onto the shore. Doctor H got slammed by the boat, broke his fibula in 6 places and was trapped for about a minute underwater with no ability to free himself.
As he describes it, he was looking up into the light and first thinking that was the sky, and then wondering if it was that 'tunnel' that you hear about. The boat had him trapped and he thought for an instant of giving up, but fought that impulse and kept struggling. The boat was rocking around in the churning water, and at one point it moved enough for the doc to be pulled out by the current. It was as if God had said, 'Let this one stick around for awhile'. He floated about 20 yards downstream to where he could pull himself on to a little beach. But there was a big rise above him, and with a shattered fibula, he couldn't get any farther, but he was alive. His buddy W drowned under the boat.
It was a very dramatic story, but that's not why it's 'blog-worthy'. That came later, in the singing of Chad Gadya, a traditional song we sing toward the end of the seder. It's one of those songs that starts out small and keeps growing, like the 12 days of Christmas, and we were going one by one around the table, with each reader having to read a longer and longer paragraph (all in one breath). Joanie had mentioned something about how you never know who is going to have to read the longest one, and I naturally thought uh, it would be easy to figure out, just do the math, how many verses? how many people? but I kept it to myself.
And we did a great version of the song, me on guitar, everyone getting into it, having fun, each of us singing a solo paragraph, then all on the Chad Gadya chorus. Wouldn't you know that the final verse belonged to our host, and here's what his lyric was:
Then came the Holy One, Blessed be G-d, And destroyed the Angel of Death
That killed the butcher That slew the ox That drank the water That quenched the fire
That burned the sticks That beat the dog That bit the cat That ate the kid
My father bought for two zuzim Chad gadya (2x).
It's the first time that 'the Holy One' makes an appearance in the song to defeat the Angel of Death etc etc, and that's almost exactly how we were describing his escape from the clutches of death. Doctor H had said that at first he described his ordeal by saying that he had freed himself from the boat, but later he realized that no, he really didn't do that, it just happened, not through his efforts, it was more a God thing. And then he turns out to be the one to sing that verse. I couldn't help but mention the incredible 'coincidence' of the way the song played out. And just now, as I've tried to describe in words what it felt like, I've been at a loss for words, which rarely happens when I sit at the computer to pour out the blog. I rarely struggle with words, but I just took three cracks to come up with the word 'coincidence' in quotes, and that certainly doesn't do the feeling justice. I suppose it's because you can't write about God stuff in the normal parlance of every day life. It was a qualitatively different experience, and it happened under a big fat full moon in the month of April, on the day of liberation.
That's one of the things about the Passover Holiday, and why it's so profound. We are instructed to celebrate the holiday as if we ourselves were experiencing the escape into freedom. It was a great seder, among the very best ever. I'm still buzzing.
I've had this altered passover feeling before, wrote a song about it once nearly twenty years ago, and it's the same feeling now that I tried to capture then...
Is it the pull of the moon is it the rising tide
I got life in the blood tonight
I hear stories in the whistle of the wind
Get ready, we're leaving again
This night, this night, all right
What about this night?
This night, this night
Why is this night so different?
He thinks he's gonna get it, but he's not....
OK this will be one of the rare times when I'll write the title early, rather than halfway through. Why is that, Rich? Because I heard this phrase 'He thinks he's gonna get it, but he's not' in the context of a party when some food fell on the floor and the dog went over, ready to eat it up. Two different people said the same thing, and it struck me as a perfect song lyric, a perfect sing along chorus line.
It didn't hurt that some musicians were playing a minor blues in the next room of the party, something about 'there's nothing like a woman' over top of an E minor bluesy thing. I wasn't too interested in those lyrics.... not my tune, but it didn't take much to start imagining a minor blues tune called 'He thinks he's gonna get it ...(but he's not)' over a similar progression. It's one of those things that comes into being out of real life and hearing things that roll off the tongue... and the funny bone.
It also didn't hurt that I had taken a toke and a little bit of wine and was therefore in that creativity zone that is ever looking for the next thing to write and laugh about, in a good way. It's one of those kind of songs that can almost write itself, as I had ideas for verses two and three within about 10 seconds.
First verse is about a dog thinking he was gonna get some tasty treats off the floor
Second verse is about a dude who acts like a dog, thinking he's gonna get some 'tasty stuff' maybe even on the floor....Third verse is about some of the other ways we start counting our chickens, maybe the guy expecting the bonus or the promotion, not entirely sure there, but it will emerge in the process of writing the lyrics. And quite likely there may be some autobiographical piece in there too. Oh wait a minute there already is... see verse two...
What a great object lesson this evening, as I stopped watching the Blazers playoff game at halftime, and went to a friend's birthday party. There was a big musical gathering there that wasn't my particular scene, too noisy, not enough dynamics or room to move, so I ended up jamming with a few folks in the kitchen, playing baby boomer hits like Dream, Born to Be Wild, So Happy Together, singing in harmony and having fun. After each song, we'd stop and let people pass through on their way outside, as it was a narrow kitchen we were occupying. Big fun when the music is flowing.
I ended up sharing some of my originals later in the evening when the party cleared out, and I also got a very interesting offer from my friend who is about to launch a social networking website. He's been following my blog and is interested in having me be a contributor to the new project. It's an unpaid offer at present, which doesn't matter to me, but the idea of building an audience, getting out there, diving in to the social networking scene, this is exactly what I've been missing, so of course I'm intrigued. I'm ready to collaborate and learn. I feel like I have exhausted this particular chapter of the journey, and I'm ready for the next one.
Everything was coming out funny tonight. At one point this joke emerged from an improv: 'My baby's got big feet. I call her DeeDee' (like the shoe size, get it?) People laughed when they heard it. I think it's 'between-song patter'
Another joke line was for Jeff Foxworthy and his 'You may be a redneck' shtick. Our hosts had made this incredible ham for the party, had cooked it themselves, and I asked how the hell they did it, it was so delicious. Robert said he used a can of Dr Pepper in an oven bag with the ham. Here's the line: "If you think Dr Pepper is a marinade..... you may be a redneck" What the hell, it seemed funny at the time. It's all in the pronunciation, and I'm guessing that if someone got the line to Foxworthy, he'd use it in his act.
The best part of the evening was spending quality time with friends, rather than alone time with a basketball game. Make a mental note of that, richard. It's better to be out there in the real world (such as it is)((he said parenthetically)). Now I have to write that song. It's on the front burner... He thinks he's gonna get it but he's not...
It didn't hurt that some musicians were playing a minor blues in the next room of the party, something about 'there's nothing like a woman' over top of an E minor bluesy thing. I wasn't too interested in those lyrics.... not my tune, but it didn't take much to start imagining a minor blues tune called 'He thinks he's gonna get it ...(but he's not)' over a similar progression. It's one of those things that comes into being out of real life and hearing things that roll off the tongue... and the funny bone.
It also didn't hurt that I had taken a toke and a little bit of wine and was therefore in that creativity zone that is ever looking for the next thing to write and laugh about, in a good way. It's one of those kind of songs that can almost write itself, as I had ideas for verses two and three within about 10 seconds.
First verse is about a dog thinking he was gonna get some tasty treats off the floor
Second verse is about a dude who acts like a dog, thinking he's gonna get some 'tasty stuff' maybe even on the floor....Third verse is about some of the other ways we start counting our chickens, maybe the guy expecting the bonus or the promotion, not entirely sure there, but it will emerge in the process of writing the lyrics. And quite likely there may be some autobiographical piece in there too. Oh wait a minute there already is... see verse two...
What a great object lesson this evening, as I stopped watching the Blazers playoff game at halftime, and went to a friend's birthday party. There was a big musical gathering there that wasn't my particular scene, too noisy, not enough dynamics or room to move, so I ended up jamming with a few folks in the kitchen, playing baby boomer hits like Dream, Born to Be Wild, So Happy Together, singing in harmony and having fun. After each song, we'd stop and let people pass through on their way outside, as it was a narrow kitchen we were occupying. Big fun when the music is flowing.
I ended up sharing some of my originals later in the evening when the party cleared out, and I also got a very interesting offer from my friend who is about to launch a social networking website. He's been following my blog and is interested in having me be a contributor to the new project. It's an unpaid offer at present, which doesn't matter to me, but the idea of building an audience, getting out there, diving in to the social networking scene, this is exactly what I've been missing, so of course I'm intrigued. I'm ready to collaborate and learn. I feel like I have exhausted this particular chapter of the journey, and I'm ready for the next one.
Everything was coming out funny tonight. At one point this joke emerged from an improv: 'My baby's got big feet. I call her DeeDee' (like the shoe size, get it?) People laughed when they heard it. I think it's 'between-song patter'
Another joke line was for Jeff Foxworthy and his 'You may be a redneck' shtick. Our hosts had made this incredible ham for the party, had cooked it themselves, and I asked how the hell they did it, it was so delicious. Robert said he used a can of Dr Pepper in an oven bag with the ham. Here's the line: "If you think Dr Pepper is a marinade..... you may be a redneck" What the hell, it seemed funny at the time. It's all in the pronunciation, and I'm guessing that if someone got the line to Foxworthy, he'd use it in his act.
The best part of the evening was spending quality time with friends, rather than alone time with a basketball game. Make a mental note of that, richard. It's better to be out there in the real world (such as it is)((he said parenthetically)). Now I have to write that song. It's on the front burner... He thinks he's gonna get it but he's not...
If I could make a wonderland....
I took a little break from myself
Couldn't seem to face it again
Tired of the same old song
It's been playing since I don't know when
They say that dissatisfaction is often the catalyst for change and if that's the case, then there must be some change on the horizon, because I had an acute bout of unhappiness a couple of days ago that left me crying on the couch with a sense of helplessness and dismay. Interestingly, M called me at the moment of my most piercing sadness and it gave me to opportunity to blurt out my 'I don't know what to do' truth to someone who really does care. So I'm there crying and feeling lost and being comforted by a voice on the phone from around the world, and I'm both feeling the pain as well as the absurdity of my situation. And by absurdity, I'm referring to the fact that the odds of our relationship surviving the long separation are so slight, given the distance and my track record, yet I'm clinging to her friendship as some kind of lifeline in my hour of need. I'm kind of amused/chagrined that my best option at the moment is a working class woman from Thailand who is calling me on the phone after her shift at the bar. Wow...
Actually that's not entirely accurate as she's had a couple of days off due to the water festival which is going on all over Thailand, so she called me from her apartment. And then again a few hours later after she went to the temple to see the monks and make an offering. In the meantime, I did some kind of unhappy lesson planning for a kids gig that I had in the book for Friday, and it turned into something special fairly beautiful, in that there was a bit of auto-biographical energy that came through.
Friday was a budgetary day off school for the local kids, a sad residue of the fact that the system is broke and one way to address it is to cancel school days. I'm part of a team that offers 'Yea Days' (Youth Escapades in the Arts) at the local chidren's museum when there is a day off from school. Yea Days are the creation of my writer friend Louisa, whose concept is pretty cool. The kids come in, are told a story by a professional story teller and then break into a round robin format in which they have workshops in art, music, writing and science, all based on the story. At the end of the day we reconvene and share some of the work that we did; kids will show their artwork or read some of their writing to one another. It's a wonderful concept, and I've been the main 'music' guy basically since it's inception a decade or so ago.
The theme for yesterday's event was 'Alice in Wonderland', and even though that wasn't the exact story that was told, it was the same concept of entering an alternative world. I had to come up with something that would fit in with that idea. As is normally the case, my inclination is to try and create something new, a new song which would hook the kids yet give them room to contribute and add. I really did want to use it as an opportunity for group song-writing as that was what I had said I would do in my lesson plan.
So I sat at the piano, deep into my own personal sadness and came up with a simple idea about making a wonderland.
If I could make a wonderland
Oh what a world it would be
Plenty of friends to understand
So many things to see...
I wrote it in C, made it quite a simple and lilting chorus that I figured kids would embrace, then wrote a bridge that would make space for their contributions. It felt right, not to mention pertinent, and I presented it as part of a little story about an unhappy child who feels like he doesn't have any friends. He is home alone and writes this thing, hoping to create a happier universe for himself. The kids had done some amazing artwork earlier in the day, and I asked them to share it as part of my session. They talked about their pieces while I took notes. So there were clouds that looked like cats and flying silver wolves, golden skies, swirling rainbows that came out of their imaginations and became part of the song. It was a beautiful experience and every time we came back to the chorus they got stronger and stronger with it. I'm not exactly sure what a 'Gestalt' is, but it had that sense of well rounded, multi-faceted completeness and it felt just great. Both sessions loved the activity as did I. (There were only two sessions because of a light turnout, so we all taught two classes of 12-13 kids)
That wasn't the only thing I did in my hour, but it was the centerpiece and it worked out beautifully. During the sharing time at the end of the day, some of the kids who knew me from before were all snuggly with me and I totally enjoyed the contact and the kid energy. I've definitely been feeling unloved, and I got a lot of love and vibration from the kids, not to mention the fact that I did a great job on the gig, so it was a very positive way to spend an afternoon. And maybe there's a new song that comes out of it as well. The kids really liked it, as did I.
Then last night, after sending in my taxes and going to a Zumba class, I decided to try something new, meet some new people, so I went over to the University, and checked out the weekly ballroom dance event that I've been aware of for decades. I saw that there was a lesson from 7:30 - 8:30 followed by dancing, so I got myself there and took the intermediate Viennese Waltz lesson as they were short a few leads. I could do it fairly well, and it was fun. Of course I was scouting the terrain for any lovely single women, and no one stood out, but it seems like a good scene, and I was glad to have gotten out of my lonely room (as it were) and tried something different. I enjoyed the lesson and danced a few dances afterward before calling it a night at 10pm. I'll go back there again, it's good to meet some different people and situations. And I'm ready to learn some new dance stuff.
Now it's Saturday morning 7am, time to try and knock out the Saturday puzzle before my jazz dance workout. Then I'll come back here and start getting the house together as Mark will be here in a couple of days and I need to tighten things up before his return....
I'm feeling like I made it through a rough stretch and there is light ahead...
Couldn't seem to face it again
Tired of the same old song
It's been playing since I don't know when
They say that dissatisfaction is often the catalyst for change and if that's the case, then there must be some change on the horizon, because I had an acute bout of unhappiness a couple of days ago that left me crying on the couch with a sense of helplessness and dismay. Interestingly, M called me at the moment of my most piercing sadness and it gave me to opportunity to blurt out my 'I don't know what to do' truth to someone who really does care. So I'm there crying and feeling lost and being comforted by a voice on the phone from around the world, and I'm both feeling the pain as well as the absurdity of my situation. And by absurdity, I'm referring to the fact that the odds of our relationship surviving the long separation are so slight, given the distance and my track record, yet I'm clinging to her friendship as some kind of lifeline in my hour of need. I'm kind of amused/chagrined that my best option at the moment is a working class woman from Thailand who is calling me on the phone after her shift at the bar. Wow...
Actually that's not entirely accurate as she's had a couple of days off due to the water festival which is going on all over Thailand, so she called me from her apartment. And then again a few hours later after she went to the temple to see the monks and make an offering. In the meantime, I did some kind of unhappy lesson planning for a kids gig that I had in the book for Friday, and it turned into something special fairly beautiful, in that there was a bit of auto-biographical energy that came through.
Friday was a budgetary day off school for the local kids, a sad residue of the fact that the system is broke and one way to address it is to cancel school days. I'm part of a team that offers 'Yea Days' (Youth Escapades in the Arts) at the local chidren's museum when there is a day off from school. Yea Days are the creation of my writer friend Louisa, whose concept is pretty cool. The kids come in, are told a story by a professional story teller and then break into a round robin format in which they have workshops in art, music, writing and science, all based on the story. At the end of the day we reconvene and share some of the work that we did; kids will show their artwork or read some of their writing to one another. It's a wonderful concept, and I've been the main 'music' guy basically since it's inception a decade or so ago.
The theme for yesterday's event was 'Alice in Wonderland', and even though that wasn't the exact story that was told, it was the same concept of entering an alternative world. I had to come up with something that would fit in with that idea. As is normally the case, my inclination is to try and create something new, a new song which would hook the kids yet give them room to contribute and add. I really did want to use it as an opportunity for group song-writing as that was what I had said I would do in my lesson plan.
So I sat at the piano, deep into my own personal sadness and came up with a simple idea about making a wonderland.
If I could make a wonderland
Oh what a world it would be
Plenty of friends to understand
So many things to see...
I wrote it in C, made it quite a simple and lilting chorus that I figured kids would embrace, then wrote a bridge that would make space for their contributions. It felt right, not to mention pertinent, and I presented it as part of a little story about an unhappy child who feels like he doesn't have any friends. He is home alone and writes this thing, hoping to create a happier universe for himself. The kids had done some amazing artwork earlier in the day, and I asked them to share it as part of my session. They talked about their pieces while I took notes. So there were clouds that looked like cats and flying silver wolves, golden skies, swirling rainbows that came out of their imaginations and became part of the song. It was a beautiful experience and every time we came back to the chorus they got stronger and stronger with it. I'm not exactly sure what a 'Gestalt' is, but it had that sense of well rounded, multi-faceted completeness and it felt just great. Both sessions loved the activity as did I. (There were only two sessions because of a light turnout, so we all taught two classes of 12-13 kids)
That wasn't the only thing I did in my hour, but it was the centerpiece and it worked out beautifully. During the sharing time at the end of the day, some of the kids who knew me from before were all snuggly with me and I totally enjoyed the contact and the kid energy. I've definitely been feeling unloved, and I got a lot of love and vibration from the kids, not to mention the fact that I did a great job on the gig, so it was a very positive way to spend an afternoon. And maybe there's a new song that comes out of it as well. The kids really liked it, as did I.
Then last night, after sending in my taxes and going to a Zumba class, I decided to try something new, meet some new people, so I went over to the University, and checked out the weekly ballroom dance event that I've been aware of for decades. I saw that there was a lesson from 7:30 - 8:30 followed by dancing, so I got myself there and took the intermediate Viennese Waltz lesson as they were short a few leads. I could do it fairly well, and it was fun. Of course I was scouting the terrain for any lovely single women, and no one stood out, but it seems like a good scene, and I was glad to have gotten out of my lonely room (as it were) and tried something different. I enjoyed the lesson and danced a few dances afterward before calling it a night at 10pm. I'll go back there again, it's good to meet some different people and situations. And I'm ready to learn some new dance stuff.
Now it's Saturday morning 7am, time to try and knock out the Saturday puzzle before my jazz dance workout. Then I'll come back here and start getting the house together as Mark will be here in a couple of days and I need to tighten things up before his return....
I'm feeling like I made it through a rough stretch and there is light ahead...
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