A Good Old-Fashioned Muse

Egads.

Well, obviously I knew this kind of gap between posts could happen- nay, was likely- which was why I warned about it in the very first post. That said....

Egads.

OK, well as many of you know, time hasn't exactly been standing still around the Segal household. We've welcomed another daughter into the family and have been ridiculously busy, busier than we ever knew was possible.

In the sleepy little town of Cliche's Green, an ancient evil has arisen. No wait, a diaper needs changing. False alarm, sorry.

I was supposed to not worry too much about literary worth, just improvise a post and slap it up
there, above all keep it constant and not be dogged by nagging questions of quality, relevance, cohesion, etc. Eghh...Once an English major, always...

So...a new year begins. My energy level for creative things is predictably low right now, which
everything in me wants to fight against because my INTENTION for creative things is permanently set for HI/MAX. Finding time to match the intention to the reality has been dwindling more every day, every year. I worry that like one dead spark plug in a series, a long lull or series of breaks could stop the engine. Scary stuff.

My stopgap measure these last few years has been "acquisition". Basically, the plan for the Phantom Airship involves: acquisition (hunting and gathering things off the master list to properly stock the toolboxes and make all the various departments ready to fly); education (AKA continuing ed- study and practice, etc.); workspaces (creating or improving them); creations (projected/existing/ongoing work); and promotion. I have done a little of each of these, out of necessity; but more often than not, the easiest one to advance while on the go and while having little time to expend on the more demanding aspects, is acquisition. Look for deals, hit thrift stores and garage sales; spend some time on education and learn how to make some things myself.

Acquisition as a means of satisfaction does have its drawbacks, especially when time to make
immediate concrete use of the acquisitions is barely available- if at all. Add to this the strain even small purchases have on our budget right now and acquisition starts to come up somewhat afflicted in the short-term gratification department. Creating is obviously the main goal but there's almost no time for that, currently. Education...the study part of that can be (and has been) done sporadically, as time permits.

For some reason this all reminds me of a joke told by (if I remember correctly) Jackie Mason. It
went something like "How do you like this AIDS? I tell ya I want to find a good old fashioned girl, the kind that will just give me syphillis."

Meanwhile,I do have some things in place to help me catch ideas as they come hurtling through;
several notebooks of musical ideas, a portable tape recorder to sing, hum, tap and talk into. There should be plenty of raw material to sort through when I 'm able. I've managed to take pictures, plenty of them, and have even done a few new pen and ink drawings. It's all adding up, getting stored for future use.

And there's always the "titles" book. In this are collected all the bizarre song titles that come to
me from various sources, again for use at a later date.

So I must keep on a keepin' on and hope I can keep slowly moving ahead, always with the eye on sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

No that was not intentional, I actually fell asleep while typing. This is what I get for trying to
update in the middle of the night after doing a giant load of dishes. Well that's all the spews
that's fit to post for tonight. With any luck or with proper doggedness I'll be back sometime in the near future to discuss the continuing saga.