Art, Music, Writing, and Life

When winter begins to settle in and the days shorten, I just want to hibernate, meditate, reflect, read, and listen to music.

My schedule these days is too hectic to fit a lot of that into it, but I do try. It’s a professional necessity to take a break from the grind, and reassess what worked the previous year. To look at what ground was gained, what was lost, what direction I am headed (is it where I want to go?), and what I could let go, add, realign, or adjust.

There’s the financial catch-up – I have some bookkeeping work to do before tax time. What earned money, what might if I stick it out a little longer, am I spending my time wisely, am I caring for myself enough?

As an entrepreneur, employee, contract worker, I am often pulled in competing directions, and I have to evaluate opportunities quickly, often on the fly (literally while driving), and try to make the best one that is aligned and optimal.

I have two albums I am actively working on completing – one is Mixtures Poetica which is my pet learning project as I put to use in studio what I’ve been learning musically, and create musical backgrounds for poetry. This is nice because song structure (verse chorus bridge) is thrown out in favor of lyrical story-telling or just the poetic form, and the music (melody harmony riffs rhythm) niceties are left behind in favor of an emotional sound support structure for the poems. It’s disruptive.

The second album (working title is the title song) I am working on is in the stage of finalizing how I want to play those songs, and then attempt to play them that way with some consistency. I’m laughing a little, because I love to improvise, so good luck to me on this. I am trying to finalize the song list, create a reasonable order etc. This one has been several years in the making, and may still take a year or two before it’s ready to record. No worries, it’s the long game.

I am finishing up an art commission:

I had to hang my canvases, because I live in a tiny house, and finished and unfinished canvases were taking up space. My walls were bare, so I just have hung them temporarily until they are finished or sold or both finished and sold.

I’ve gotten a songwriting credit on an upcoming album, a portion of which will be pre-released this weekend. I’ve taken some longing glances at stories and books, and writing idea nuggets, plus a poetry book I would like to get up onto Amazon, and I’m running running running, so I don’t how I will fit more writing in right now.

My guitar lessons involve writing and finishing songs, so I’ve been doing that as part of my practice time. I have a backlog of over a hundred songs (lyrics), and about 50 more song idea nuggets hanging out on my phone waiting for me to have time in a waiting room so I can finish them.

I’m currently designing the art work and doing some copywriting work for a musician friend for the above album.

I hope you all have a lovely holiday, winter break, yuletide rest, and a wonderful, joyous New Year.

May we all have some pleasure, companionship, good friends, and pleasant days ahead of us.

I will be revamping, making adjustments, and hopefully spending some time tucked under a blanket reading. My posts may be infrequent until after the New Year.

Be safe. See you soon!