back to our regular programming

my drummer, Darin, sent me this link to an photog's video and it started off a melancholy (sp?) day for me on Friday, but sometimes, it's good to have those days. (it was probably compounded by watching the amazing "Waltz With Bashir" later in the day.) i liked the video clip, just because it's nice to know that there are many others (i know that probably everyone feels this way at some point) that go through this cyclical thing. mine has been more of an every-few-years thing....where i feel, all the sudden, and for depressing months at a time, that the Muse has left and will never return. my good friend Cliff, the poet, once said to me, when i was moaning about not having any ideas: "your muse is on vacation. let her rest, she'll come back. don't worry." [easy for HIM to say. he was spitting out great work at break neck speed.] but he was right. after what seemed like a lifetime of sitting at the piano or with the guitar, playing the same stuff over and over again, suddenly an idea would come and rest lightly on my shoulder again and i would write it down, and let go of my breath, as though i'd been holding it for a year.

i can feel the slide towards un-inspiration happening again. like a crumbling of loose ground beneath my feet. i stumble back onto surer ground...songs i know...paging through the last 13 years of songs....rehashing old crap. why did i sign up for FAWM again this year? it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy that i definitely WON'T write during this month. argh argh.

maybe a long, slow swim will help.? i'll let you know. sorry to be complaining about something that is kind of trivial in the large scheme of things. i know the economy is crumbling, even though i'm still avoiding the news as much as possible (full disclosure: there's been plenty of back sliding--reading news and wasting time on stuff i have little control over and can only worry about). but i've been, happily, surviving sort of below the economic radar for a few years, so i don't feel its downward effects as much as others.

still...the next post will about material things.....in an effort to clear my mind, i'm clearing out my house.