composer's notebook
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Sunday, February 13, 2005
Something in the air
I venture out into the 'hood, foraging for life-nourishing coffee* and a Sunday morning nosh before I begin work for the day, and my fellow Lower East Side Citizens are, for some reason, a very happy bunch. A sunny walk through the Alphabet sees embracing couples, smiling neighbors, playing dogs, and I haven't even gotten to the park yet. Even the usually crabby baristas are cheery. What's gotten into everybody? It's a beautiful day, yes, but this is an unusual amount of public glee. Perhaps the giddiness over the uptown public art has drifted downtown...
Or maybe everyone is smiling over the official news of The New World Order. But, despite our cheerfulness, will will accept no blame for anything that comes of that. Everyone down here voted for Kucinich anyway.
*Free of "trans-fat". Today's Times article scared the bejeesus out of me. Yikes.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Naked City Justice
Received some news today from my next-door-neighbor, who happens to be the brother-in-law of the alleged "New Year's Manuscript Thief" (pretty tasteless, I know, but an appropriate name). Turns out his wife's wayward little brother, caught red-handed at a few other petty and not-so-petty thefts (a police scanner?! really?), including another one in the building itself, was recently arrested, and so now he (since no family member will post bail for him) awaits trial at our city's infamously-awful Riker's Island. He'll probably go to jail for 7 years or so.
My liberal guilt is pounding, as I feel directly related to my neighbor losing her brother to the NY State prison system, once again. His Holiday Thievery escapades obviously point to a man who wanted to be caught and go back to prison--the place where, after serving 20 years already, he's clearly most comfortable. Do we best serve this man by sending him back to that awful place? While out and free, he couldn't hold a job, find a place to live, or deal with his neighbors or family in what society would consider a civilized manner. If by his actions he demands to return to the only place which (I would guess) feels like home to him, have we failed to provide him with the tools and opportunities necessary for him to re-enter society? ... or is this completely his choice? I can only guess. Perhaps The System tried its best, and failed. Perhaps the system sucks rocks, ignored him, and/or provided no way for him to safely or realistically re-enter his old society after 2 decades of incarceration. I'm guessing only he knows. And I'd say it's moot at this point, but I don't think it is. There are thousands of men just like him, and what if they don't want to make the same post-incarceration choices he did? My fear (now a red, burning, very present fear) is that they can't, he couldn't, and that the path to Riker's is circular by design.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Distraction
Writing, copying ... sure. But also reading way too many online news magazines, fun blogs by friends who are way too smart for their own good, and yes, sometimes I delve deep into the absolute inanity of human underachievement that is often referred to as The Internet.
I tell myself that my distractions make me well-rounded person.
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Next up
The nearly-apocryphal, much-discussed, AVENUE X has my full and undivided attention now (well, save two massive copying gigs from which I attempt to chip away tiny bits daily), and it's all about finishing the short score. After thinking about this piece for as long as I have (I pitched it to the commissioners over a year ago), sketching it last fall, and now finally taking it up in full swing after setting it aside for a month to deal with THE RIVERS OF BOWERY, I was afraid that this final push would be somewhat of a letdown...almost as if I felt I had written the thing already. In fact, I write this post because I find myself pretty excited about how this short score is shaping up, and pleased that the direction this piece is taking seems quite different from the last one. That's always the fear, of course—if I write pieces too close together, well, the self-stealing creeps in, the same tricks pop up, and you wonder whether Originality is even an option anymore. Of course, the Composition-relation-formula still holds:
if {Piece A ~ Piece B} and {Piece B ~ Piece C} then {Piece A does-not-resemble Piece C}(Credit where credit is due. Commonality Formula courtesy of the great G.T.)
But the above is not too be helped ... I was only concerned about an exaggerated relationship between BOWERY and X due to their nearby deadlines. On that score (pun intended), so far, so good: BOWERY is all about an A-flat-based tetrachord juxtaposed against a major-minor arpeggiated progression. X seems to be all about an altered F blues scale over syncopated 5ths. See? Completely different...