Anything Else
Sunday. To bed last night at ten-thirty, not great, but up this morning at eight, a decent night's sleep. I've said that before and then bombed out with one or two naps, but we'll see how this day transpires. To Art & Soul, yes, but a little later when the crowds are larger, adding to the chance (I'm hoping) for more photographs. I put together half a section, half a page of photographs yesterday to put up on artandlife. That's actually pretty good, I was thinking I had less and maybe I did have less, I just made, you know, adjustments to what I consider good enough to post. We wrestle with this “good enough to post” business and make it much more complicated than it deserves. In the real world, anyway.
What do you know about the real world?
Absolutely nothing. Here, in this society, that's called success. One reason people pursue fame and wealth, they give you a first class ticket into the fantasy class. It will kill you, as often as not, but success does have its little challenges and, if you haven't quite made the grade yourself, well it's available to watch at every and any given moment on television, in the papers or on the web.
Anyway, up at eight, to breakfast and the papers, home now before ten, the sun out, the day ahead. I got in some guitar practice last night, the few songs I've been practicing are getting better, but they still sound, well, not like songs. Still, I can see I'm recognizing the notes a little better, going to the fingering and the striking of the strings with more confidence. That's positive stuff, although I find I play for something like fifteen or twenty minutes and then stop in frustration, but pick it up later and try again. My idea of practicing for over an hour on any given day consists of multiples of these fifteen to twenty minute segments, I have no idea of that's a good way to go or not.
I was a bit buzzed yesterday, it took me some time to crank out my daily dose of undying prose, but what the hell, it gives me something more to think about. Is the mind going? Has this gone beyond navel gazing, have we reached the point of clinical distress? These questions can be every bit as much fun as worrying over pictures and cameras and such. It keeps you away from anything really meaningful in this life, like cleaning up your living room, getting out the vacuum cleaner, getting the laundry done. Keep it tight. Keep it simple. Let others worry about ulcer producing other things like marriage, kids, death and the real estate slump.
That's enough.
Yup.
Later. Maybe just relax a bit, give everything a little more room. Today went much better than yesterday and perhaps that's the lesson that needs to be learned. A bus to the downtown and Art & Soul, the same bus I took yesterday, the number 12 at 11:56. I'm not good about arriving later, whenever later may be, but today, leaving Art & Soul as I did before three, it turned out to have been a good idea as the crowd early on was larger when I arrived and the crowd waiting in line to buy tickets as I left was larger than I've ever seen or believed. A warm sunny afternoon, a good day, evidently, for one and all to take in a little music over a beer and a deep fried anything you want and that's what people did. In numbers.
Did I have any more luck with the photographs? I would say not. It was still like breaking rocks. I generally avoid the stages, as my feeling is how many times can you shoot someone singing into a microphone and still get something new, something different? Still, I took one or two I liked. The really good ones seemed to come out of nowhere, out of the blue, a chance shot, something you'd miss if you didn't have the camera ready at exactly the right time. Others give themselves to you, no questions asked. You want to take a little longer? No need to ask.
So a good afternoon, a walk half the way back before a bus arrived, evidently the drivers are still calling in sick. The muscles tired, but not the head. Which is good. This week coming up? Thursday and Friday have things happening, both of which will involve pictures, and the weekend is booked solid to the point I'll probably crap out on one or another just through exhaustion. Old fart burn out. Which is also good.
I did put an Art & Soul section up on Art & Life. Art and Soul, Art and Life, has a ring to it, don't you think? Just enough photographs to make it happen, no more than two or three that probably don't belong. And hell. I'm in a good mood, I'd argue in their favor if push came to shove.
This day at six in the evening is done. A little guitar practice, I think, to round it out. Particularly after seeing what looked like a ten year old kid up on the stage ripping out notes on his Strat like he'd grown up in a recording studio where if he didn't play, he didn't eat. That's reaching too far, “if he didn't play, he didn't eat”. Grew up in a recording studio? The day really is done and I'd better get done before I write anything else.
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