music: MMW- 2/16/01 Tokyo, Japan
Been some time. Howdy.
It’s not that things have been slow. Just the opposite in fact. I’ve been doin’ some hard travelin’, you see, and since the second week of this fine month I’ve been moving all around the country at full tilt with not a moment to pause and gather my thoughts. Thus, there is much to write about and no time to write about it all. I’ve been doin’ some hard thinkin’ as well.
As far as summaries go, here’s what I’ve been up to in loose order since the beginning of the month: teaching teaching teaching, throwing together some classwork for classes of my own, setting up a system to record stuff at murphy’s, editing some tracks recorded at murphy’s, popping down to NYC for the long weekend, popping out to CO to visit colleagues and family, see the mountains, and deliver lectures. Then back to Boston to re-organize things after travelling, distribute libations, sift some through some audio and photo, begin some work in earnest on songwriting, begin the job hunt, teaching, teaching, teaching, forge ahead on the Live Live front, try to have some fun, and hope to keep everything to 18 hours/day so there is time for sleep. Whew.
The past two or so weeks have been packed with substance outside of my own realm: the rebellion in Haiti, the hostile takeover of the Muppets, the beginnings of baseball season, and the like. I’ve had some good thoughts about this and that but haven’t had the time to document them. So many times I’ve said to myself: “that is the seed of a great blog entry.” So many times, however, it has dissipated into the ether. Things are moving fast-too fast to type it all out on a semi-nightly basis. The archivist in me is sad about that, the delusional narcissist in me is upset that adoring throngs haven’t had the chance to read about much, but the rest of me has been too busy to notice. I’m being stretched and pulled here and there and am spreading myself pretty thin these days. All over the place. Here and there. A mishmash. So-so. In short (and in Turkish, of all things): Ş�YLE B�YLE. Which, to the best of my knowledge, is pronounced “surly burly” except you have to imitate the Swedish chef and have a little phlegm caught in the back of your throat when you are saying it. We learned that one this morning in a TEP workshop. Pretty much sums things up.
I have bitten off far too much than I can chew, but I’m surprisingly calm about it. I think I’m learning to live comfortably with transition. More to the point: I think I’m learning that transition is a fluid thing, a matter of degree, and that I will never have the luxury of only thinking about one thing at a time. So the torch-juggling, plate-spinning, unicycle-riding, animal-balloon-making sideshow continues. All things considered, it’s going pretty well. Teaching continues to be challenging and rewarding, the radio show is stable enough to still be worth doing, I’m beginning to get more serious about writing some music, I’m trying to spend as much time as I can out of the house and with friends (largely unsuccessful), I’m digging into this archiving project at murphy’s, I’m beginning to think about both jobs for next year and plans for the summer, and all the while I’m musing about a girl in Brooklyn. The days are getting noticably longer, the weather noticably warmer, and as a result of that and the past two weeks I’m settling with not settling for a bit. Ş�YLE B�YLE.
Posted by davidtaus at February 28, 2004 08:48 PM