Trust

Trust your source material. I really think I've cracked my script and book. Why I never embraced it all before is beyond me. Elements I've been hung up on forever blow wide open with one simple thought: trust your source material. And God bless Lou Reed.

Songs I've Written or Participated in the Writing Of...

How Can I Survive--Blood
No Virgins-- Blood
Unleashed-- Blood
Bleed Me Dry--Blood
Blood-- Blood
Christmas (In My Heart)--Winterland
Easy Choices--Winterland
Couldn't Have Done It--L8
Worse Things Than Being Single--10 Reasons I Won't Go Home With You
Warm Up/Cool Down--10 Reasons I Won't Go Home With You
Constellation--Sweet Jane
L8 (Instrumental)
Winterland (Instrumental)
Confession
Don't Forget
Saved By 16 Bars
Flowers (Instrumental)
Another Step
Diva's Dream
Disney Prayer
I Can Be Loved By Someone
I Want Santa
Don't Call Me
Not Me Not Today

Couldn't Have Done It Without You from L8 [By the Mummers]

Drawn to Me from Cartoon

Easy Choices from Winterland [By the Mummers]

Oh Sweet Jane

There will be a musical. Oh yes.

Time

So I guess this is what this blog is for so here goes. If you give me context and character I can give you a song in 48 hours. That is with working 12 plus hours of those days at the marvelous dayjobs. Catch me on a day off, I can have it done by the end of the day. I am confident in this now, through the unintended and exhilarating hazing brought on by recent events.

I don't have the luxury of hours at home with nothing in particular to do. I can't focus on video games for extended periods of time unless I'm really exhausted. I don't plow through entire seasons of television shows. I don't do any number of imaginable things that people do when their time is "free." Generally people don't like to admit to having free time. The buzz words or "too busy" get thrown around so easily. I particularly enjoy hearing them from those who are still in college. I, personally, never thought I would be as busy as I was in college. Silly me. People want to be free but they want to be busy, they'd do X Y and Z but they don't have the time.

So I wonder who would look at me and go "I just don't have the time to do what you do" meaning commit yourself to X activity or pursuit. My natural response is "How much time do you presume that I have?" I've averaged 4 hours of sleep in as many weeks. One day I made the mistake of only getting one hour, working for 15 and using the available nap time between to write. The next day I slept until 2:45 pm. My body took back its own time. I have to respect that.

Perhaps it's excuses. Perhaps it's rationalization. Do I demand that everyone sacrifice their health and sanity for whatever pursuit might be worthy? Of course not. It's all personal preference and how you work. However do I have to wonder just how much you care if it's more important to you to get 7 hours of sleep over 5, to scratch, say, an artistic itch?

Many people in the theatre business try to remain cordial with those outside the fold. We generally are not elitist. If you think that we separate ourselves it is because we are so often looked at as if under glass. Exotic specimens. But I assure you if you've ever said "One day I'll..." or "I always wanted to..." to many artists, the vicious, uncolored response reverberating in their head is "No you don't and no you wouldn't because otherwise you would do it, be doing it, have done it." People are generally unaware of how diminutive their actions toward artists are and I believe that results in much of the pretention that springs up.

All of this springs from no tangible source at the moment. I can't really put to fine a point on what my beef is. But there is a beef and I suppose the venting is productive at this point.

I have a couple of cute Christmas songs to tackle in the next couple days but by the end of the week I will be looking harder at Sweet Jane.

Because I will make the time.