Neil Fein's Blog

The guitar pull went well last night, although it was a little thin. There were perhaps 8 to 10 players, usually there are a few more than that.

It encouraged more quiet songs than usual, oddly enough as Brewed Awakenings was noisier than usual. For myself, I played Red Rubber Ball, Flowers On The Wall, and my own songs Welcome Home (two verses), and Dance In My Kitchen. I played Dance partially because Amy was there -- she was there for some of the events that led up to the song -- but it's always a good song to play.

I'm glad Martha's friends with Amy. Yes, I have this neurotic thing about not considering soemone a friend unless we're very very very close friends, as in Grazina or Craig, but yeah, she's a friend. He said grudgingly, as if it were a terrible thing. (And she reads this blog. Hiya!) I think we're bonding over Divorce stuff, a bit odd but hardly a first.

Back to music, as there is nothing else in this world of real import. As to Welcome Home -- I'd written three verses, and on the spot deleted the first one. As Martha mentioned in the car later, Welcome Home is about a nomadic character, and the first verse (when he's three years old) doesn't really fit. It's also not believable he'd remember things in that detail. Too bad, since there's some good writing in that verse.

We ended up getting home far later than I wanted, but it was a fun evening.

My car is 99,998 miles old as of when I pulled into work today. I'm almost here, but my real goal is to get the car to 200,000 miles before it dies.

99,998 miles... does this mean that two miles after pulling out of the parking lot later, my car will morph into a large, grey Ford with frayed upholstery and a bumper sticker that says "Don't laugh -- it's paid for!"?

Ilium
Written by Dan Simmons

This is an amazingly well-written book. I just finished it yesterday, and I'm now upset that I have to wait for the conclusion to this two-book saga. I found problems with Ilium, but I'll wait until the second book to pass judgement; this is really one novel sliced in two, the conclusion is rumored to be titled Olympos.

Dan Simmons Interview

I'm now in the middle of Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis, about competitive Scrabble playing.

Stefan Fatsis Interview

See later review of Olympos

Tags: books

I've been hearing from friends, and in one case a casual acquaintance, that they've read such-and-such on this blog. It's nice to know these words are being read by someone, even if that isn't the primary purpose in writing it.

This of course feeds my ego not at all. For example, when Amy sees that I'm going to be in a song circle in Metuchen, and calls me to let me know she'll be taking the train out. I wasn't 100% certain I'd be there tonight before this.

Along with Elan and Judy and assorted other Random People they invited, we went to Bryant Park in NYC last night and saw an outdoor screening of 2001: A Space Odyessy. I enjoyed the film, although Martha didn't particularly.

It was fun to hear an audience all excited by the film, though; they applauded when moon-watcher smashed the animal skeleton, discovering tools; and they laughed when HAL kept saying to Dave Bowman, who he had trapped outside the Discovery-1 with no spacesuit, "Dave. What is the problem." "I know things haven't been quite right with me, but I'm much better now." "You ought to take a stress pill, sit down, and think things out." And of course they broke out into wild applause every time the monolith showed up.

This is a film... the cover of a book I own says it very well: "The critics loved it. The critics hated it." It's not a narrative, it's a statement. I have ideas on what it says, but the important thing in 2001 is that the viewer get the chance to figure that out for themselves. Even though I enjoyed it as a good science-fiction-action film, I discount the anemic sequel, 2010, as it's such a letdown to have a film try to retro-explain the grandeur.

Sometimes the question is more important than the answer. And the thought is more important than the reality.

Frannie met up with Martha and I when we were in NYC yesterday; we spoke about how my music is going. At this point, I have a set that's just under half an hour long, at a guess. I think I need some new covers so that I'll have some variety until I write more.

I'm going to do my best to finish Welcome Home so I can "premiere" it this Thursday in Metuchen. (I've sung it before, but not with the new words.) One verse to go, and it's all editing from there.

I'll be sitting in on the Central NJ Song Circle at the Brewed Awakening coffehouse in Metuchen, NJ this Thursday at 8pm. This is an event with typically 10 to 14 people in a circle taking turns playing guitar/bass/banjo/other. Here's a mapquest link.

Had a great time in NYC with Martha, we met Frannie for dinner. Wrote up a really nice post but Blogger ate it, perhaps will reconstruct it later today.

This morning, my body was one big ache. Why I didn't get this the day after the performance, I don't know. Perhaps my body is protesting the heavy drink I kept lifting to my lips at a bookstore last night. Or the heavy, heavy hardcover book I carried to the car.

I need to perform more often. And get lighter PA equipment.

In the first sketch of the show last night, I got to fall on my ass. I not only did this well, I fell on my ass and hit my head on the floor in the bargain. I was able to act out the "confusion" and "dizziness" after the fall very authentically.

The show went just as we wanted, and we're all very happy. With the show. Now that it's apparent just how many people are leaving the group, it's obvious that things will have to change, but the group can weather this.

After carrying PA pieces and instruments out to the car, I walked back into the building in the middle of a conversation. I was asked "Neil, you'll be at the next show, right?" -- I forget who asked. My plan had been to speak to Carrie, the general manager, before speaking to the group. So of course I blurted out, "I won't be at any shows, I'm leaving the group." And then, "I want to spend more time writing." So I fell on my ass twice that night; I'm putting it down to being tired.

I spoke with Carrie later on, and I think all is well, there. (That was kind of rude of me.) I like most of the people in the group, and I like the work we do. I want to get back to my own music, and I think I've learned a little about handling an audience. My performances have matured, and while I'm not a great vocalist, my voice has never sounded better.

I said to myself in the car on the way home, "my voice has never sounded this great before." Then I said, "my ego has never been this big before!" I laughed, and said "stop talking to yourself so much!"

My songwriting has been going downhill.

Consider that, ever since I've joined an improv/comedy group, my writing has become about the "little things" in life. There's that Song -- about getting a song stuck in my head. More -- piling up stuff for a yard sale. One Thousand Times -- listening to someone go on and on about wine. Such high drama!

Admittedly, I did produce Never Had A Brother, a pretty significant song about significant events and emotions. But this might explain why I can't get a grasp on Welcome Home, which started out as a song about the awkward, primal feelings of moving into a new house.

As I write this, I realize that this may be what the song is about -- all the different places I've moved into. What they meant at the time, and why they'e still important.

This is the point. I've become trained to perform improv, which involves getting your surface thoughts out there now. It's not thinking about just what you want to say and producing thoughtful, insightful words -- which is what I am at my best. Dance In My Kitchen, I'll Wait For You, and, yes, Never Had A Brother, this is the bar I should be aiming for.

There is a freshness I've relearned from performing improv, though. I need to find a way to keep the best of both worlds.

Just picked up season three of Babylon Five. As Martha and I watch the episodes, I've been following along in The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, a remarkably spoiler-free site. And Martha has been very restrained about giving things away, especially considering that she's seen the whole cycle before.

For those who are familiar with the series, skip this paragraph. Babylon 5 is a TV series and the name of the space station that is the setting of the show. It's a five-season "novel for television", a very british concept. (I gather from reading Neil Gaimain's blog that most british shows have a beginning, a middle, and an end.) I'm having a lot of fun watching all the pieces fall into place.

J. Michael Straczynski (the writer/god of this universe) seems to take delight in turning expectations inside-out. This is not tame television, and it's amazing he managed to keep it on the air for its full run.

We've got the posters for the improv this Sunday; they look nice. Carrie and others have been scattering them around town, and she also took out an ad in a local paper. Bruce is working on a colorized version of the poster that we can use at the event itself.

We're pretty close to being ready. Martha's folks are coming into town for the event. This will be a touch odd but I need have performed in front of them before, and in a higher-pressure situation.

I had the wrong time up on the calendar, I was off by four hours! Of course, this is only after the event time got changed so a dude who may not even be able to make it to the show (I'm his understudy) can get there. I've posted the correct version.

Blogger doesn't like when I use HTML links in the "comments" section, so I'm leaving it as it was. I'll link to blogs I follow on a regular webpage, I'll link to it here when it's up.

Wrote a fairly extensive entry about my influences vis-a-vis musicals, rock operas, and concept albums, but Blogger zapped it. The gist is that, while I still want to do one of these, I don't have a story to tell that warrants telling it with more than a song or three. After this kind of garbage happening with Blogger (more than once), I'll take a look at Moveable Type.

I see that Amy has linked to my blog, cool. I've added some links to blogs, pro and not, that I follow. If Blogger doesn't cut them off, they should show. Moveable Type...

Hello, I'm back. Moveable Type seems to be a more pro-level system than I really need. I wouldn't mind giving LiveJournal a shot, if anyone reading this can send me an account creation code. The question is, can I move an existing blog from, say, Blogger, to LiveJournal?

I just got an email on an announcement list for a writer whose work I follow, and a guy who's also a friend of a friend. Some time back, he applied to NASA's Educator Astronaut Program, and now they're asking for a copy of his teaching certificate. He takes this to mean he made the first cut.

According to NASA, there are 1600+ applicants competing for 3 to 6 positions. It would be incredibly wonderful for a teacher/science-fiction writer/observent Jew to go up in the shuttle. Whether or not he actually goes up.

With all that's going on in the world lately, this reminds me that good things can still happen. Can still potentially happen. Can still have an infenitismal chance of occuring... I'm gonna stop before I make this seem about as likely as GW Bush going into space himself to go to a gay marraige in zero-gee, performed live on Fox News. (Well, okay, the part about Fox is plausible.)

I've got the "backstage passes" designed. I'm waiting on word from one of the players who's getting the cords/clips before going any further, just in case I have to change the size or add more space or what have you.

After this weekend's rehearsal, I'm happy to report that the group is doing pretty well. Despite my criticisms of the group, all the elements are pulling together into what will be a good show.

The group will be losing quite a few people after this show: Staci, Martha, Ofer, and a certain unnamed musician who will announce his decision after the show. Nevertheless, I feel that the group has quite a bit of talent and will continue forward after this summer. Things are looking good.

As I posted, I played in at the guitar pull in Metuchen last night. For the record, I played (in order): Eyes Up Front, All I Remember, and There's That Song. I brought the Bluebird 12-string, and it stayed in tune better than I thought it would; the new tuners are settling in, finally.

Eyes Up Front sounded fairly good, I did more of a strummin' version than the usual arpeggiated arrangement. I keep getting comments on that chord sequence; I should ask someone who understands chord theory to explain to me why this chord sequence is odd. There's That Song sounded a little rough on the 12-string (first try, ya know). All I Remember is sounding good. I rewrote the first verse on the way home from work yesterday, and I like the way the song is headed. I still don't like the bridge, lyrically or musically. It has a nice rhythm to it, a nice fingersnappin', knee-slappin' song.

Bruce was there for most of it, playing bongos and trying to fade into the background. Unfortunately for him, as he's into rock and just plain odd music, this was a more folk-oriented evening than it even usually is, there's almost always a mix of folk, rock, blues, jazz, and "other" music you just can't put in a box (my personal favorite).

As best as I can explain, my own music is acoustic rock with folk-influenced sensibility on the lyrics, and it tends to use a lot of chords and structures from progressive jazz and art rock. Does anyone know if there's a name for this? Or perhaps it needs an invented name? Although I get a not-so-secret enjoyment out of using a style that doesn't fit current categories. My dream way back was to go beyond "rock" music, I may be doing that now.