Dear Friends,
The last couple of weeks I have been working on a few different writing pieces. One of them has given me the opportunity to talk to a fair number of very interesting people. It’s my favorite part of writing about music for New Times and some of the other publications that I’ve been privileged to write for over the past ten years.
Sometimes I don’t really even know what the direction of the story will be until after I have these conversations and, sometimes, I don’t even know where I am going until I start writing. I’m in this same situation today. I have to finish a piece today and I don’t even know which avenue I want to take. I have so much information and it has to be condensed into something about the length of one of my 1000-word blogs last year.
It’s a bit like working in a safety net factory but having to do it blindfolded. I want to make the people I am writing about seem interesting and I want to be interesting and yet, I also have to tell the truth. I want them to feel safe talking to me, too, and hopefully want to talk to me again. It’s part of the bargain, I suppose.
As I sit down later today, I will have some work cut out for me. The good thing is that the bands I’m writing about are very fucking cool and no matter what direction I go, it’ll work out in the end. All will be well in rock and roll land and I will have added a small pebble into the pantheon of professional journalism.
Uggh. That last sentence makes me want to hurl a bit, but I’ll leave it there. I hope it doesn’t make you want to hurl, too. It’s a Sunday, for chrissakes, and it’s not a hurling day.
*****
Golf this morning, though. Haven’t hit any balls in a while. Well, I’ve gotten hit in the balls a few times lately by an excited dog ready to go for a walk. Should be a good time, though. Aside from my buddy, Rick, I haven’t met anyone else we’re playing with so that’s exciting and a little nerve-wracking.
I have a hard time relaxing on the golf course most of the time, which makes my affinity for golf a bit of an oxymoron, right? It’s supposed to be relaxing and fun, and it is, but it’s also hard. I was fortunate enough as a young guy to have most sports come pretty easily to me, but golf comes and goes. When it goes, it is just gone.
When I can get inside the Zen aspect of the game, I play well, but when my brain gets in the way, I start going down a dark path. The last thing you want to do in the bright sunlight on a big patch of grass in the middle of the desert is go down a dark path. I’ll whack a few balls when I get there, though, and we’ll see how it goes.
FORE!
*****
I’m happy to see Denver beating the Lakers, but it’s hard to root for them. I could probably root for the Celtics, but I think the Heat is going to beat them. Denver and Miami will be a lot of fun, but outside of Denver and Miami, most people won’t watch.
*****
See you tomorrow.
Shortly after being hit by multiple water balloons last Friday.
Comments