Two sides of the coin.
First time I can say this about a contemporary writer in a good long while: James Morrow’s The Philosopher’s Apprentice gave me a major shiver… on page 69 I realized that all the archly knowing, slightly antiquated, philosophical English (bad puns and faux etymologies included) has been taking me somewhere––
My notes at the time (major spoiler: "the two girls Lonny and Donny must have been biologically interbred by Edwina Sabachtani with her own eggs, in cahoots with the mad doctor Charkov, with some some fast-and-loose animal kingdom intellect, like a cephalopod. At the very least they are cloned sisters. They both have exactly the same issue, a lack of rectitude, and the ability to read and process super fast. Oh shit… what a mind warp. This is not Swiftian, this is….. philosophy for the biogenetic era.
And 30 pages on–– "the book really kind of lost me. It moved too fast––could have explored a whole host of other philosophic imponderables while making the reader really care what would happen to Lonny when she found out she was a clone of her “mother” and inhabited an island with a “clone” sister. The curse of (post) modern literature, even of the traditional sort. Moves two miles ahead the moment you start to care about characters as real persons.
Note to self: Don’t play this same trick in the sections of EVEN. Make them cohere.
The concept of EVEN as a multi-part novel continues to evolve:
The idea now is to commence a series of writing projects that last no more than 40,000 words each and explore different aspects of the EVEN scenario. This approach is not unlike that Isaac Asimov took with the Foundation “trilogy” which was pieced together from short stories published in Amazing Fact over the course of the 1940s. Full disclosure, I have not read them, could not stand Asimov’s style in the one book of his I owned, A Dictionary of Nearly Everything.
I came across the Foundation concept in––get this––an article I wrote as part of my Azimovian 1,500 words of fresh, acceptably self-edited prose each day for my dot company. Clients like the darnedest things and I learn a lot through the process of regurgitation––usually with an endwriter twist.*
My notes at the time (major spoiler: "the two girls Lonny and Donny must have been biologically interbred by Edwina Sabachtani with her own eggs, in cahoots with the mad doctor Charkov, with some some fast-and-loose animal kingdom intellect, like a cephalopod. At the very least they are cloned sisters. They both have exactly the same issue, a lack of rectitude, and the ability to read and process super fast. Oh shit… what a mind warp. This is not Swiftian, this is….. philosophy for the biogenetic era.
And 30 pages on–– "the book really kind of lost me. It moved too fast––could have explored a whole host of other philosophic imponderables while making the reader really care what would happen to Lonny when she found out she was a clone of her “mother” and inhabited an island with a “clone” sister. The curse of (post) modern literature, even of the traditional sort. Moves two miles ahead the moment you start to care about characters as real persons.
Note to self: Don’t play this same trick in the sections of EVEN. Make them cohere.
The concept of EVEN as a multi-part novel continues to evolve:
The idea now is to commence a series of writing projects that last no more than 40,000 words each and explore different aspects of the EVEN scenario. This approach is not unlike that Isaac Asimov took with the Foundation “trilogy” which was pieced together from short stories published in Amazing Fact over the course of the 1940s. Full disclosure, I have not read them, could not stand Asimov’s style in the one book of his I owned, A Dictionary of Nearly Everything.
I came across the Foundation concept in––get this––an article I wrote as part of my Azimovian 1,500 words of fresh, acceptably self-edited prose each day for my dot company. Clients like the darnedest things and I learn a lot through the process of regurgitation––usually with an endwriter twist.*
Back to the music:
I have been listening to the current Chasing the Sun tracks quite a bit and there are four that cohere as an incipient song cycle. Though John has been completely unresponsive at Alchemy and they are in a way embryonic, I can listen to these in order and enjoy the experience as one that objectively moves me. Never mind the thousand things I see in each that need fixing, this will happen in time. The thing is that the music is completely original and I find it compelling.
My aim with CTS: not Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, contemplative Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, pre-1974 Bob Marley, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, Grażyna Auguścik, Django Reinhardt, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Jack Johnson, Sublime, Mark Eitzel, Mazzy Star, John Mayall, Nick Drake, Lana Del Rey, Beatles, Fleet Foxes, Otis Redding, pre-1975 Pink Floyd, Jun Mazeree, Alex Chilton, Brian Wilson, or anyone else. But it would not be out-of-place on a record shelf with those artists.
Current song lineup:
I have been listening to the current Chasing the Sun tracks quite a bit and there are four that cohere as an incipient song cycle. Though John has been completely unresponsive at Alchemy and they are in a way embryonic, I can listen to these in order and enjoy the experience as one that objectively moves me. Never mind the thousand things I see in each that need fixing, this will happen in time. The thing is that the music is completely original and I find it compelling.
My aim with CTS: not Neil Young, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, contemplative Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, pre-1974 Bob Marley, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, Grażyna Auguścik, Django Reinhardt, Chet Baker, Stan Getz, Jack Johnson, Sublime, Mark Eitzel, Mazzy Star, John Mayall, Nick Drake, Lana Del Rey, Beatles, Fleet Foxes, Otis Redding, pre-1975 Pink Floyd, Jun Mazeree, Alex Chilton, Brian Wilson, or anyone else. But it would not be out-of-place on a record shelf with those artists.
Current song lineup:
- Lost Upward
- UFOs & Labyrinths
- Fragile Bones (I’m On My Way)
- Fly Away Home
Althethia - capricious maybe.
I just had this little Facebook exchange with Althetheia (who makes tracks two and three what they are) about the album, as it takes shape:
D: Maybe there could be one with your husband and you and my flute... like a cosmic poetry––intertwining of three sounds. I'm pretty sure this is an approach only people who don't read music take, but... the album is taking shape as a song cycle somehow.
A: Yessssss lets do that! also i was thinking maybe you wanna grab those guys who we jammed with at the office to do the smoke to joints/englishman in new york HAHAHA
D: hmmm... I am thinking that if we did something, we could start jamming that, but you know... I am all about original stuff unless it’s an interpretation I really care about
A: yeah remember our jam it was so far out!
D: and none of it got recorded! hahahaha the mike did not really work––so we will have to do an even more space one, maybe at the beach or waterfall
A: yes!
D: One cover song I am thinking of for the album is Bob Marley's Heat of the Day. I like these rare, unknown gems really. I have a feeling your husband could get these chords and sound down... maybe he could even sing it.
A: hell yeah i was thinking what if we also did a random song and we all play instuments we are unfamiliar with hahahahhahaha
D: you on the flute, me on the bass... the interesting thing about that song I did with you is that in parts your voice is actually in the same tonality as the flute... it sounds like a flute. like this is really something new if we get one really deep song out of it.
A: hehehe your flute and i get along!
D: like sustain it across an entire song, we could trade off on the parts, like when I improv you do some repetitive sustain and vice versa. Can't tell the diff, which is flute and which is human?
A: haha yes like the whole album is made to confuse the listener hahahah
D: the point is not to confuse, but to catch the listener by surprise––make them really hear that there is a message in music of the now. because the earth can’t wait.
#endwriter
The Beach, Somewhere
*Recall the “one step ahead of the bots” conceit mentioned in the previous blog? Guess where it comes from.
D: Maybe there could be one with your husband and you and my flute... like a cosmic poetry––intertwining of three sounds. I'm pretty sure this is an approach only people who don't read music take, but... the album is taking shape as a song cycle somehow.
A: Yessssss lets do that! also i was thinking maybe you wanna grab those guys who we jammed with at the office to do the smoke to joints/englishman in new york HAHAHA
D: hmmm... I am thinking that if we did something, we could start jamming that, but you know... I am all about original stuff unless it’s an interpretation I really care about
A: yeah remember our jam it was so far out!
D: and none of it got recorded! hahahaha the mike did not really work––so we will have to do an even more space one, maybe at the beach or waterfall
A: yes!
D: One cover song I am thinking of for the album is Bob Marley's Heat of the Day. I like these rare, unknown gems really. I have a feeling your husband could get these chords and sound down... maybe he could even sing it.
A: hell yeah i was thinking what if we also did a random song and we all play instuments we are unfamiliar with hahahahhahaha
D: you on the flute, me on the bass... the interesting thing about that song I did with you is that in parts your voice is actually in the same tonality as the flute... it sounds like a flute. like this is really something new if we get one really deep song out of it.
A: hehehe your flute and i get along!
D: like sustain it across an entire song, we could trade off on the parts, like when I improv you do some repetitive sustain and vice versa. Can't tell the diff, which is flute and which is human?
A: haha yes like the whole album is made to confuse the listener hahahah
D: the point is not to confuse, but to catch the listener by surprise––make them really hear that there is a message in music of the now. because the earth can’t wait.
#endwriter
The Beach, Somewhere
*Recall the “one step ahead of the bots” conceit mentioned in the previous blog? Guess where it comes from.
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