Thursday, February 24, 2005
This Song Isn't About You
So I realize now why I excel in computer graphics and video rather than other forms of art. I subbed in art today, had four classes of pottery. What a mess! I had a roommate in college who was a painter. He had paint on every item of clothing he owned. The ex-wife was a photographer with several pairs of pants ruined by the chemicals. No, I'll stick with computers, it's clean, or as clean as I want it to be. As careful as you are with clay, you're going to get some on you. Same with paint or photo chemicals. I might knock over my beer (any other time of the year) while I'm working, but that's about as bad as it gets. And contrary to what some may believe, most of my photo work isn't completely fueled by beer. I mean, sometimes I drink scotch......
A couple of years ago, if I'd have wanted to talk to the particular art teacher (lets refer to her as '3V' from now on) I was subbing for at 7:30 in the morning, I would have just rolled over in bed and nudged her. I can assure you that we wouldn't have been discussing lesson plans either. Times change, I guess. Usually for the better it seems. At least that's what they tell me.
If you look to your left, you'll find a brand new link entitled "Dunn Bros. Open Mic." This will take you to the website of a guy named Ken Jones and his project "Across Roads." Ken has taken to our little Wednesday night affair and has been recording us now for a couple of weeks. It's been great for me to let people out of the area hear what TSA and I are up to. Also, though, it's a great learning tool for me. A year ago as TSA, JB and I were starting this certain band that was alleged to have sucked, I had no idea what I was doing on harmonica. For the first time in my life I was improvising. Now improvising is a great skill to have for a (quasi) musician. You can go a long ways being able to improvise well. On the other hand, certain things are going to work better in certain songs, so realizing exactly what you want to do in a particular song can make or break the song. We were recording ourselves quite a bit on video. I would burn Mp3's off of that and listen to them. On something as simple as "Anti-Love Song" I simply didn't know what I was doing, but did a couple of interesting things each time we played it. I started putting those together, and before long I had the harp line that I played every time we did that song. It's amazing how little you actually hear when you're playing. Hearing the whole thing without being involved in it is a different sort of thing. For me it almost is hearing it for the first time.
So I let 3V now about the site in the note I left her at the end of the school day. I hope she checks it out. And even though "Anti-Love Song" had the line "...even though this song is about you..." in it, it wasn't about her. I didn't write it. It struck me once while playing that it could be about her, but it wasn't. Neither is "Two Condoms."
BOJ
A couple of years ago, if I'd have wanted to talk to the particular art teacher (lets refer to her as '3V' from now on) I was subbing for at 7:30 in the morning, I would have just rolled over in bed and nudged her. I can assure you that we wouldn't have been discussing lesson plans either. Times change, I guess. Usually for the better it seems. At least that's what they tell me.
If you look to your left, you'll find a brand new link entitled "Dunn Bros. Open Mic." This will take you to the website of a guy named Ken Jones and his project "Across Roads." Ken has taken to our little Wednesday night affair and has been recording us now for a couple of weeks. It's been great for me to let people out of the area hear what TSA and I are up to. Also, though, it's a great learning tool for me. A year ago as TSA, JB and I were starting this certain band that was alleged to have sucked, I had no idea what I was doing on harmonica. For the first time in my life I was improvising. Now improvising is a great skill to have for a (quasi) musician. You can go a long ways being able to improvise well. On the other hand, certain things are going to work better in certain songs, so realizing exactly what you want to do in a particular song can make or break the song. We were recording ourselves quite a bit on video. I would burn Mp3's off of that and listen to them. On something as simple as "Anti-Love Song" I simply didn't know what I was doing, but did a couple of interesting things each time we played it. I started putting those together, and before long I had the harp line that I played every time we did that song. It's amazing how little you actually hear when you're playing. Hearing the whole thing without being involved in it is a different sort of thing. For me it almost is hearing it for the first time.
So I let 3V now about the site in the note I left her at the end of the school day. I hope she checks it out. And even though "Anti-Love Song" had the line "...even though this song is about you..." in it, it wasn't about her. I didn't write it. It struck me once while playing that it could be about her, but it wasn't. Neither is "Two Condoms."
BOJ
# posted by Blind Orange Julius @ 9:52 PM 
