Original intention yesterday was to disassemble and stow my electronic drumset away in the eaves above, but I couldn't do it once I got it out to The Shed. As of this morning, I still couldn't bring myself to do it. Not sure if it means that I'm too lazy to take it apart or if the drums and I still, after more than a quarter century and multiple instrumental permutations, have unfinished business.
processing
Thinking today of how my means of processing life, my processings of processings, have changed over time. Writing - journaling in notebooks and reMarkables or blogging here - used to be the main way, but now I seem to have moved more over into fiction and cartooning. Attendance Cards as graphic blogging, having replaced the old daily maunderings that gave birth to this space for the last two years now.
In an effort to figure out where I am now – who I am now, creatively and, perhaps, more deeply – I've spent the last few years revisiting all of the art forms of my past: while it wasn't unpleasant to work thorugh Stone's STICK CONTROL, a return to music yielded little more than a reminder of why I left music in the first place (it served its purpose, to get me out of Ohio when I needed it most) and so here I am, even further back, playing with drawing and the memories of stick figures with my grandmothers at their respective dining room tables. Maybe this is where I was always meant to be, having given it up in my late teens, or maybe it's nothing in particular but what it is. Doesn't matter. I'm enjoying myself either way.
french grip
Re-starting my drumming re-education / music therapy from scratch with a new grip. Tried traditional: my left wrist hated it and it defeated the purpose of trying to make my arms of similar strength (though I'm left-handed, my left hand is far weaker than my right: ATV accident fucked that shoulder years back and I've never fully recovered). Matched: both wrists hated it a little less than my left wrist hated traditional, but it still felt too rigid – and was the only grip I was taught during my first, otherly-directed percussive education. Which also killed my passion for drumming, so probably wasn't the best idea to try it again. Live/learn etc.
Now, though: trying out French Grip, which is basically the same as a timpani-playing grip – matched grip but with the palms facing one another and playing shifted from the wrists to the fingers – and I think I like it. If I'm not mistaken, it's what Carter Beauford uses, isn't it? Will never reach that level, but I'm intrigued by the action of the sticks vs. matched (or as I like to call it, missionary grip). So far, a bit dodgy, but I've re-started Stone's STICK CONTROL (again) to, well, control the sticks – shouldn't you be writing, he asks himself / this is part of my writing, he says.
Finding my way back to a drumming practice, letting myself have fun again (even though I'm working through the brain/hand coordination warhorses of Chester's THE NEW BREED and Stone's STICK CONTROL – if I'm going to do relearn this beloved instrument, I'm doing it with the best foundational texts out there). Wish the iPad'd been around when I was gigging and in music school: would’ve saved me more than a few embarrassing page-turn crashes.
THAT THING YOU DO! (Hanks, 1996)
(Written and directed by Tom Hanks; starring Tom Everett Scott, Johnathon Schaech, Steve Zahn, Liv Tyler, Ethan Embry, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hanks. Released 04 October 1996; (re)watched 2023w13 via Hulu)
A diversionary revisit (first time since VHS, I think) from my usual Criterion brain/soul-sustenance and/or action-packed / true crime death show braincarbs, Hanks's first writing/directing foray remains one of the textbook examples of "delightful": it was this film and its earworm soundtrack that taught me how to drum; that cemented my now decades-long crush on Liv Tyler; that made me always enjoy a Steve Zahn appearance (even in the first season of WHITE LOTUS, which I loathed – with the exception of Renoir's RULES OF THE GAME, little turns me off more than stories about bored rich white people on vacation, no matter how incisive its social commentary might be – and never finished); that made me scratch my head but nod when Schaech showed up as Jonah Hex in LEGENDS OF TOMORROW – and wait for his Hex to burst into a refrain of "I quit"; and it was this film that made me pick up the drumsticks again after I picked them up again the last time I picked them up (or something). A boldly earnest film – that first time the Oneders (I wonder what happened to the o-need-ers) hear "That Thing You Do!" on the radio is one of the best expressions of unbridled excitement and happiness ever put to film – in an era of endless cynicism. Always, always recommended.
implements/20221117
Thought I might make this a regular feature here, my own version of “Uses This” / “Cool Tools.”
on screen :: primary writing app / second brain is a combination of Obsidian (for generating, storing, and linking) and Muse (for drawing scribbles all over texts and arranging it all across a 34-inch widescreen monitor).
in hand :: Lamy Studio LX black with fine point nib (same nib I've used on all of my Lamy pens: I always take the one that came with the pen off and replace it with that first nib, been there since my first Safari) flowing with black Pilot Iroshizuki Take-Sumi ink upon Baron Fig Confidant notebooks held in a Cold Creek Leather A5 journal cover..
on person :: Rite in the Rain's (appropriately titled) On-the-Go mini notebooks for being on-the-go in Rite-In-The-Rain Wallet (which is pretty useless as a wallet but is an excellent running/daily-wear-n-tear holder) with mini-pen; first thing that goes in my pocket in the morning and stays with me all day long…. Gerber Lockdown-Pry Mutlitool: I never realized how much I would use a small exacto knife until I used it all the time. The rest of the components are great too. I was using a Leatherman Skeletool but I need scissors far more often than I need pliers on a daily basis…. Any one of two “tough solar” Casio G-Shock watches in the current rotation: a GAB2100-1A or a GAB2100C-9A. Simple, no-frills. Love them both.
in orbit :: CW&T's Superlocal: my relationship my daily ritual has been forever altered. A work of functional art… House of Marley Stir It Up turntable: oh, how I love this thing – and how I love the ritual of vinyl. Will probably upgrade speakers though – I prefer more bass than the HOM speakers allow…. Donner Practice Pad + Vic Firth American Classic 2B sticks (wood tip) + George Lawrence Stone's STICK CONTROL: a perfect combo for drumming while thinking. STICK CONTROL is a warhorse, published in 1935, still the go-to-text. Repeat each exercise 20 times. A meditative way revisit a previous iteration when stuck in the current – and keep my increasingly arthritic hands moving.
appropriating meditative stickings
Asking myself: what does "slowing down" look like for me? Does it mean stepping away from daily things here (or towards them and away from multiple posts)? Fewer projects? Fewer TSR episodes? Less giveafuck? Definitely the last one – but unsure about the rest of them: every time I say I'm going to stop doing the daily things I end up having something to write about but I’m leaning that way more than I have in awhile. TSR, I need for the balance with my own solo efforts. Fewer projects? I’ve only got three main ones going, not terrible; eh, think I'll stick with less giveafuck and let the chips fall where they may.
Finding that practicing Stone's STICK CONTROL on the practice pad helps get me out of an invasive thoughtloop. Rhythm + counting + focus = a stick-bearing meditation: fascinating / horrifying that the voices of interruption that pop up are all things (Step-He) used to say to me when I practiced / disturbed his sacred existence and that I somehow managed to appropriate into my own internal voice. Explains a lot. Fucker.
Keep playing, keep counting, keep breathing, keep going. And on and on and on.
punching sand to improve my capacity to outrun myself
The heavy bag is assembled in my former office after finding that the bag / stand was not too wide but rather too tall (after assembly, of course) for the current office in the paintshop; much hilarity ensued. Learning the basics of boxing and incorporating it as my fourth daily solo exercise alongside yoga, HIIT, 5k run, and, I suppose, drumming into my daily exertions has long been a goal. Similar to the previous three / four, I've no interest in competition against anyone but myself, my exertions being simply another means of outrunning the shithead in my brain.
Intriguing to recognize the similarities between a boxing practice and my efforts to re-learn – and improve – upon my previous drummer-iteration: both are hand-led disciplines of metronomic timing, coordinated limb independence, relaxation, rhythm, and movement – foundational jab/cross/hook/whatever are to the bag what foundational paradiddles/flams/flam accents/rolls/open/closed/etc/etc are to the drums. Also explains why I'm getting the hang of boxing quicker than I expected: still, have to learn to slow it down and break each movement down as I would each rudiment on the drumset; either way, a fascinating experiment in fortuitous timing, right/left/right right/left – related: 10-foot-long headphone cable arriving today so I can play the TD-1K without getting my sticks and myself tangled up.
Newsletter writing flurry: a piece that I had intended to be a humorous and somewhat snarky look back has metamorphosed into something else, something different. Such is the way: every time I tell myself I'm going to write something quick and short and entertaining I transform/terraform it into some soul-searching meandering. Either way, it arrives tomorrow morning in subscribers' inboxes.
Treetrimmer invasion update: a growing number of trees in The AC look either like pieces of broccoli or middle finger amputees waving proud in the air but, on the bright side, my grandfather's lawnmower is no longer stuck in the mud – though treetrimmers had fuckall to do with that: self + Amish passerby riding lawnmower lift FTW.
Madisynn and Wong need their own MST3K-inspired MCU show. Wongersynn.
i’ve eaten the same breakfast and lunch every day for the last five years so if you’ve heard (any of) this one before, tough
Makes the day easier – if slightly less spice-of – in this T1D iteration of myself. (And what, you think I actually read these things after I publish them?)
Speaking of iterations: amazing - if that's the right word – that the same books that were considered the foundations when I played drums in my earlier, non-arthritic iteration – George Lawrence Stone's STICK CONTROL and Gary Chester's THE NEW BREED – are still among the foundational texts. Confession to (one among many many instances of) youthful idiocy: I never used either – but I'm rectifying that now – the books, not the idiocy; I like to pretend that I did that part long ago but somedays, mostdays, though, I wonder… Rlrr Lrll Rlrr..
The rhythm of the main work, alas, continues to elude me. Sneaky little bastard.
Sightings: a stop sign smashed and run over at 44/250; inconvenience (for smashed cars) not unilkely. Treetrim folks have invaded, orange trucks and red x's come home to roost; inconvenience certain. Chainsaws omnipresent / AirPods: IN.