I’ve started on a big-time project for an album. So far I’ve got one finished track and another well on the way. Even though it’s an electronic album, I’m taking my inspiration from the pieces that have made me crazy with love of music over the years. All those unclassifiable, genre-defying moments that have ripped ozone holes in my brain for the past four decades. I started out on this project thinking, oh, I’ll just put some of my poetry to music. Then I thought, no, screw it. It’s doesn’t have to be “me”-centric. It doesn’t have to be my words – it doesn’t even have to have words. It just has to be great. And then I vacillated between the two for weeks. Well, now I’m at the point where I don’t care. I’m going to do whatever it takes, whatever is appropriate for each piece. Nora’s reaction to the first finished piece: “You’re making art here.” That, from a long time art critic. What she meant was, it isn’t just ‘music’, a background piece, a dance piece, or anything programmatic or to make money or fame or anything. It’s trying to say something artistic – Art for Art’s Sake – and not for any other reason. And that’s what I’m aiming for. Bombast? Big? Bold? I don’t know what to call it. But it ain’t a bunch of little jigs.

I got to the end of my second Phil Perkins book this week, The Logical Approach to Rock Coordination. By ‘getting to the end’ I mean, being able to play each exercise flawlessly all the way through. It often took three or four tries for each one, but I’ve done it! Yeah, yeah, I tell myself, I still have to master these techniques, integrate them into my playing. But man… just being able to do them at all is a major accomplishment for me.