:: anne in the attic ::

Create Your Own Countdown

:: Sunday, July 01, 2007 ::

Photo of the week: "Utensil Garden." From my cell phone collection, taken a while back: yes, those are scores of "planted" plastic utensils.
As of tomorrow, I have volunteered for overtime at work for the next few weeks, so my schedule is going to shift some for a bit. That's been in the works for a while-- I just have to adjust my head.

Musically, I had hit a brick wall with my own work a while back, so I shelved the CD in order to allow some seed growth. Usually that means learning new skills through others' music-- this week I learned Ray LaMontagne's "Shelter" [yeah, the one that's on the blog music player], and it has fed my soul nicely, thank you. After a few days of practicing some other dusty things in my repertoire, this evening I managed to break out of the rut on a piece I've been trying to finish to my satisfaction for over a year, called "Lighter Than Air." That damn song has morphed so many times now that I hardly recognize it as the original. Well, some songs are like that-- others, like "Without You," seem to take their shape immediately and retain it. There's nothing like being whacked in the head with a baseball bat by the muse. Lately, though, she's been playing a bit of hide-and-seek with me, it seems. She teases me-- taps me on the shoulder, then runs off into the night, often leaving me with all of my creative urges hanging out.

As much as I appreciate her appearance at all, sometimes the task-oriented Virgo in me wishes she'd just hold still for a minute while I finish this.... It's a lesson. And it is being delivered in pieces, each of which I have to set down and back off from in order to see their respective places in this sequence [as the muse's sense of humor seems to have her inspiring pieces out of order-- at least the order I would have guessed]. There's been a lot of sardonic chuckling, eyebrow raising, and head shaking on my part. What was once a pensive [and beautiful, I thought] song has become a catchy, upbeat tune with a stronger heart to it. As I have said before, I do not consider myself a singer, really-- I am a songwriter, and a back-up singer/instrumentalist. So it feels rather daunting to write something that's gonna take some vocal cahones. Hope my voice holds out. Until I figure out how to deal with that or whether I want to bring in a guest, I'll be laying down some new instrumental tracks to see how they fit together for the new "Lighter Than Air." Again.

By the way, here's my brother [from the cell phone] in one of his favorite poses. Yeah, it runs in the family.

:: Anne 9:17 PM [smartass remarks] ::
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