I am trying to finish two songs, but I can't and they are DRIVING ME COMPLETELY CRAZY. So i am breaking to write this blog and give you an update on the fabulous life i lead.
well it has actually been pretty eventful of late.
Last weekend I went to Fire Island and was so so so lucky to get to stay at the summer beach house of the amazing Evan Sanyour, (who has been accompanying me on cajon and other cool percussive objects for the past several months.) Let me share with you some pictures (taken with an actual disposable film camera I might add—it’s so retro! Seriously though, Evan’s son was taking some pictures with it, and he kept asking me where the viewer screen was and “how come I can’t see the picture I just took?” Oh, I felt so ancient ... or just tragically unhip) ...
Waves are amazing.
Me trying to be cool in my 'famed' white sunglasses... i wish i was as cool as the stop motion version of me!!
I got (horseshoe) crabs at Fire Island!
Percussionist extraordinaire, Evan Sanyour. Plus some random people who don't know their picture is on the internet.
The second set of footprints is not Jesus. I repeat: NOT. JESUS. I was already planning on emphasizing that, and then I heard THIS story on npr and it was further solidified...
sunrise on the beach
before they got burned and elephantitis-ed to shit...
is this shell not the perfect guitar pick?
So I was trying to forget about the aforementioned (in the last post) Fucked-Up Bullshit ... and actually succeeding for a while! The ocean does that. The house is actually right ON the beach and you can hear the waves crashing up onto the beach day and night. I normally am a horrible insomniac and MUST have my laptop playing something in order to get to sleep ... not so on Fire Island. Waves are so fucking unbelievable. They’re so easy to not think about, but when you stare and them all day, I guess it starts to sink in. (And I mean that in the least trite/least stoner-ish way possible.) I feel some sort of hypnosis looking at them. And I didn’t really realize it before, but being so close to the ocean…it demands all the senses. You don’t live by the ocean, you live in the ocean. It’s olfactory, tactile, visual, etc. etc.
And then there are the stars. And the moon … it was a “Spielberg moon,” as Evan said, on our ferry ride to the island. It was like a big sliver of orange cut out of cardboard for a school play, just hanging there over the water. It was so windy and my toes were freezing, but it was really (and I don’t use this word) sublime. I felt like I hadn’t seen the stars/sky/moon in a year … and I pretty much haven’t I suppose. And I though, Fuck, as long as this indescribably beautiful thing is here, how could I possibly be distraught about The Fucked-Up Bullshit?
My only regret is that I didn't make it to the lighthouse. Another one of the many songs I have started and not finished yet is about a lighthouse. A haunted lighthouse ... oooOOOoo. Oh well, next time. But I do think that the perfect setting for an artists' retreat/colony would be in a lighthouse. Think about it, all that solitude ... the ocean, the waves, etc. etc. Somebody give me a grant to live in a lighthouse for a month so I can finish some songs!
As soon as I got back, I realized I had gotten a pretty nasty sunburn on my feet/ankles of all places, and it had caused my ankles to swell to approximately three times their normal size…So I’ve been sleeping pillowless and w/ my legs propped up on the back of my futon like I’ve just taken a hit off a turkey baster and am trying to get preggers or something. (Which I am not. Let’s clear that up.) They have almost deflated, but are still oddly red. Not that I care; it was so worth it.
And just in case you haven’t had enough…I can quickly sum up another recent experience. I saw the famed Abyssinian Baptist Choir up in Harlem … and let me just say, Holy shit (no pun intended). It was unbelievable. I am pretty sure that I would be okay… Truly OK… If only I could be surrounded by this gospel choir at all times for the rest of my life. Just singing in my face. If I didn’t already know music was the most powerful thing in the universe, I would know it now. I was sitting in the front row. If it weren’t for the whole Jesus thing, I’d convert. But anyway, I was really there for the World Science Festival, so it wasn’t “mass” or whatever, which was good. They sang about a dozen songs, did a libation ceremony and skipped all the crazy Jesus stories. Best of both worlds.
So for all two of you that are still reading … that’s all folks. More verbal diarrhea is to come I’m sure.
You are truly amazing,
h
