Happy very first day of 2023!—at least it was the first day, in my time zone, when I began this.
The above video was made Thursday when I was still in England. I’m back in Austin now, breaking into the Austin atmosphere from another very different orbit and it’s been... well, plenty to write about how it’s been, how it was at the end. And there are a few things I’ve been messing around with in the doc files. Just not feeling any of it.
In the beginning,1 I said I might not be able to consistently come up with excellent essays, especially if I’m spending a lot of time bookwritin’ (which I’m not) and if need be, I could get away with some other —ugh, sorry for the buzzword—content.
In my last post I talked about making a new record in 2023. My New Years Eve last night had me in the studio working on music, a custom I picked up from Mikel, my ex-boyfriend. It’s now my favorite way to transition, embodies that whole setting an intention thing. I thought occasionally it might be cool to have you guys follow along the process as I go from writing a song to recording it for release on a record.
In the video, I’m working on getting the right chords. As I explain, I started writing “Hurry” a couple of years ago. I’d become friends with Peter Holsapple who I think is just a wonderful songwriter and artist, and sent him a couple of snippets and the basic idea. He really liked it and added some verse lyrics, and even made a rough demo of how the song could go. It was in a key that didn’t suit my range and there was much more work to be done, and I kind of set it aside to tend to later, and years went by.
As they do.
(I picked that up in England, from a man I sat next to at a dinner party. He said “as they do” or “as one does” at every possible opportunity. Apparently it’s highly contagious, but I don’t think you’ll catch it from reading it.)
Anyway, I have so far, lyrics to 2.5 verses, a brand new chorus I wrote in England, and a really cool end refrain zinger part that’s from the original idea I sent to Peter. Have figured out most of the chords. I want the third verse to have some variation and finding it really hard to craft. I’ll keep you posted and show in a future detour how I figure that shit out. Then eventually you can see the magic happen as I record “Hurry” in my home studio.
Meanwhile, I’ve been back two days and this is the state of my unpacking, and there’s months of mail, and my plants are wrecked from the freeze, and I’ve been obsessively trying to coyote-proof my property with all these crazy products I ordered after Tux was attacked and died while I was away.
I’m filling little plastic bottles with wolf urine, the bottles have holes in them for this absolutely vile pee odor to reek out of. Then I hook the bottles to spikes and place them around the perimeter of my yard. It’s nuts, but the pee lasts longer if it’s done this way. If you’re like me, the kind whose mind immediately races to the very disturbing idea of wolves in captivity with their pee being collected—yes I looked it up and yes it bothers me. But I’ve come to accept that my ethical boundaries can be a little bendy and self-serving when it comes to protecting my home and pet fam.
I also bought all these fake black creature heads with red flashing lazer eyes that are supposed to scare un-wiley coyotes. They are solar powered and pretty awesome and present zero ethical dilemmas.
The kitties were allowed outside again, for the first time since the attack five weeks ago. I think they know something’s up, something bad happened to brother Tux: they just lolled about on the deck instead of going on cat adventures like they used to.
Anyway, I leave you with a sample of the lyrics to “Hurry.” I’d like to have all the words and whole shebang crafted when I start recording, so I’m a ways off. As an aside, my book soundtrack was recorded completely differently! I’d just start recording music with no idea at all what it would be filled up with. Fun stuff.
6) Detour