Mar. 18, 2003 - 1:30 p.m.
Dear Meghan:
So you’re on the way to becoming the next great public speaker, huh? I cannot say how thrilled I am for you, or how much I wish I could see you in action, fist-thumping and all. You must have been kidding when you observed “which just proves I need to stop shooting my thoughts off in the heat of the moment”, as the opposite is certainly the truth. Obviously, you don’t need any fond wishes of ‘good luck’ as it was your skill alone that brought this opportunity about. Instead, imagine me as one of your many cheerleaders in your head when you take the stage – sans short skirt – who are there merely to cheer you on.
I must say I thoroughly enjoyed Diane’s line, as I am a big fan of clever word play, but I wouldn’t even come close to using it.
A blip of inspiration came to me in the form of this line you can use or lose: “There are those who say that, in effect, gambling reduces debt. I have one question for those people: wanna bet?” I’d reshuffle the words so it doesn’t come across as a poem, but I think it may be worthy in spirit…..
Last night saw me tear through all the sound effects for the new Clowns show. Armed with my trusty Bacardi Silver, I mixed and mastered all of the twelve or so tracks in little under an hour. The hardest track was an opera called “Fellatio” – a name that, in my mind, belongs as the title of an opera. The music seemed to agree with everyone – at least three people asked, “Hey this music is perfect – where’d you get it from?” I answered, in increasingly incredulous tones, that it was me. I did it. Me. It was me, I say! The track isn’t too, too impressive, it must be pointed out – it’s piano, two orchestras, a pan flute and a violin. The track calls for a male and female singer, so I recorded my vocal on Thursday and Terri O’Reilly recorded hers on Saturday. She nailed it on the second take with all the other Clowns – including the drunken Robert – in attendance. I admire that in her; I’m sure I’d be a little self-conscious recording in front of my peers.
When I was doing the rock and roll band thing, almost all of my vocals were composite parts – that is to say, one line from Take 1, two from Take 3, a verse from Take 5, etc. With the other bandmates in attendance, my performances were either too conservative or far too experimental. I recall many nights at Moontan Studios – a studio owned by the member of the band who dated Deathknell – staying up til the wee hours, on my own, splicing together my vocal parts.
Now when I’m on my own, I speed through with a near blissful indifference. The “Fellatio” music took 20 minutes to write and record – which is no great accomplishment, as the tune itself was about 90 seconds. When I recorded the CD over the holidays, the hardest part was always determining what kind of song to record. That took days. When it finally came – “I know – a doo-wop!” – then recording would commence, and I’d be done in a matter of two to three hours. If/when I finish the project and if/when you receive a copy, the doo-wop in question is called “Oh…You Do”. Though exceptions are rampant, I tend to favor Allen Ginsberg’s assessment of “first thought, best thought.” As such, it is doubtful anyone who hears my stuff on mp3.com will be calling me and saying, “OK kid…….gonna make ya a star!” And if they did, I’d probably say, “Who you callin’ kid?”
As promised, the Clownwork I’m presently entrenched in is eating into my time to read our book, though I have made some progress. So far, I find the narrative quite inventive, though admittedly it reminds me just a bit of an acid trip. I like a lot of Susie’s choice of language; it is nearly Meghan-worthy at times.
In all honesty, I have given very little thought to the oceans of differences between us, but then that is something that I find quintessential to our dialogue. In analogical terms, we are both in the dark, but each person’s flashlight seems to illuminate things that the other immediately responds to. If one were to deconstruct our letters to its most base language, it would be one of us saying “hey, look at this!” and the other one saying “wow!” For all the differences, our similarities – being a social journalist, a patient and passionate debater, a good friend to the arts – seem to make the differences quite small and surface. What do you think of all that?
Thirsty,
Vincent
what they said - what they will say
