Isn’t the Light OK?

I discovered a few weeks ago that my inner critic sounds a lot like Jay Sherman. And not Jay Sherman as normally seen in any episode of The Critic, but Jay Sherman locked up in a mental hospital in a crossover bit from The Simpsons episode “Hurricane Neddy” where all he can do is repeat his catchphrase, “It stinks! It stinks!”

Whenever I sit down to write, make music, or sketch (my latest interest), there’s Jay Sherman in his room, yelling “It stinks! It stinks!” before I’ve even made a mark on the page.

My hope is to eventually turn my inner monologue into the words of the doctor treating him, patronizingly saying “Yes, Mr. Sherman. Everything stinks.” In other words, just don’t take The Critic seriously.

I even made this little parody of a motivational poster to remind me that when I hear that voice, it’s really just Jon Lovitz pretending to be a mentally unbalanced film critic.

Why am I sharing this psychological insight with you not long after talking about getting out of my own head? Well, you may be able to help me in my quest to Be the Doctor instead of The Critic. Or maybe not. Stay tuned to future posts - this might eventually make sense.

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Tuesday night I sat in on a songwriter’s group in Brunswick, organized by Jud Caswell. We did quite a bit of “object writing,” ie. taking an object, person, or situation, and describing it in as much sensory detail as possible, without worrying about rhyme, meter, or even basic prose. The idea is just to get what you see, smell, hear, touch, and taste on the page.

As a songwriter, I’ve been pretty stuck in my own head for as long as I can remember. I tend to favor impressionistic lyrics, snatches of ideas mushed together into a whole that I hope is greater than the sum of its parts. More often than not, the phrases tend to reveal something bigger than themselves, but don’t really tell a story in the traditional sense.

I usually associate that kind of “story” writing with cheesy country ballads and CCM artists singing about the love of their daughter, but realized that some of my favorite songwriters (particularly Ben Gibbard from Death Cab for Cutie) also use it to great effect.

I guess I’m starting to learn there’s a benefit to getting out of my own head.

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Image by Steve Rhodes via Flick

A literate country - a hopefuller country…

- Former Leader of the Free World, George W. Bush

Recent events have transpired to make me less despairing of the future. Here, in rambling, semi-coherent form, are a few of the reasons I feel, well, “hopefuller.”

Perhaps it’s the change in the weather. Warmer temperatures, longer days, more sunlight - these are all very positive developments. It’s almost embarrassing how much better I felt after our first few days of spring-like weather this year.

Another plus - today’s my birthday. The entire month of May for me usually is measured in “amount of time preceding or after my birthday.” I’ve come to the conclusion that I enjoy this time year so much because it was the first season I ever knew. I can just imagine myself as a baby, being used to spring and summer, suddenly feeling colder air coming on in autumn and thinking, “Dude, WTF?”

Yes, in my mind, infants speak in IM/txt acronyms.

I’ve spent at least 10 minutes each day for the past week and a half near the water. My current favorite spot for this is the waterfront park in Gardiner. I’ve taken to eating my breakfast there, watching the waves, listening to music in my car. It’s a great way to start off the day, and I can’t imagine why I never thought of it before.

Also, I don’t want to jinx anything, but Carla’s been feeling better. This by itself would be a huge relief.

Last, but not least, I’m enjoying ideas again. Who knows if anything will come of them, but I’m not shooting down any weird creative possibilities my head may invent just because they’re weird and creative.

This feeling may stay. I will allow it.

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Don’t be frightened to display your talents. - Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, as just seen on Twitter

Your talents will be recognized and suitably rewarded. - Fortune cookie taped to my monitor

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The Man has seen fit to remove the Kenny Rogers audio from my Lost Skeleton/Big Lebowski mashup. That being said, I’m not the only one doing wacky audiovisual things with that classic of bowling, ‘Nam, rug-peeing, and Caucasians. In the vein of the recut Shining trailer that makes the horror classic look like a quirky romantic comedy comes this bit o’brilliance (via Twitter/gfmorris):

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