My basement office, that is. Catching up on various online chores. Listening to the Emerson Quartet.
The rain is back. It always is. At least I got caught up with yard work while the sun was out.
Ready to go for next term! Not a bad feeling. MY LAST TERM. Rather a profound time in the rhythm of my life, I think. Meanwhile I am making real progress on ukulele, steady, sure, but still a long ways to go. I want to record two songs today. The third isn't quite ready yet.
I downloaded a jazz workbook, well two volumes, by jazz ukulele guru Glen Rose, big on the net and YouTube ... he has a less formal approach than I am taking, former math major and all, but it will be supplementary material for me and a very user friendly presentation. I want to soak up all I can. I need to find a signature way to do my songs, once I get the instrument down .... I' m not a jazz singer but the lyrics are so important, so well crafted, that I can't neglect them ... almost thinking of a poetry reading approach, where I READ the lyrics to a jazz accompaniment, as if Cole Porter were a beat poet in SF in the fifties. Might be an experiment worth trying. But all that is down the road. I am still learning tech things and hand technique. But loving every minute of it.
And I definitely want to write a music drama. That has been my dream ... music drama, chamber opera, call it what you want ... for years now, since I wrote the libretto for Nugent, I think. Opera is the ultimate narrative form but I don't like its social context ... I like the Brecht tradition. A political music drama with ukulele jazz music. It could be very far out and, in fact, very effective, if done with dramatic and musical skill. A goal, at any rate. Keeps me from jumping off bridges ha ha.
Well, H is not up yet. I'll stay down here a while.
