| Had some vandalism at one of my houses a week ago or so (and when I say house think hovel, junkyard and/or shack)-- just some kids climbing into the yard of what they thought was an abandoned scrapheap, breaking some glass with slingshots and sh&t like that. When I noticed it I called the cops just to give a report, and then I caught the kids the next day. I made a deal with their moms not to press any charges or ask for reimbursement for the damage-- just requested they attend one session of boxing class at the gym, see if that's a good outlet for them. I also requested that they not do it again.
I mean, I didn't even notice the damage right away. Honestly, it was indistinguishable from the rest of the yard which is already like Sanford & Son meets The Haunted Mansion (with more North Mexico gothic paraphernalia over the New England gothic flavor of the original.) That's how I have established my work environment.
And so the striking thing about this event was escorting the cops around, differentiating the very worked-over trashcan style I have constructed from the violently random alterations caused by the wayward youths. I found myself explaining why I lived here (not just WHY in that house but WHY in this town, WHY in New Mexico.) And I had to finally justify what they saw by explaining what I did for a living and how this was all part of it, how I worked outside a great deal, &c. &c... as usual, when asked about employment, I deemed myself content provider. That's my work.
And I am in the middle of working, getting content together to provide to Drag City. Referring to the full-tilt-audio-version of Victory Chimp.
I earlier had explained here that I broke down the text into small cells. I assigned these cells to voices, music, radio-show style exposition &c. The first step had been to immerse myself in the emotion of the book, it's period and purpose; consulting my original notes, exploring the music of the time of its creation, as I remembered it. This research helped me approach the monolith of the text and begin to see what each part might want to be in an audio version.
So that's where I am, the thing is in parts on the assembly line or I'm like a little Chuck Close over here working on each detail that recapitulates the whole, details that will make up the whole eventually when I take a step back OR I am currently coloring each thread of what will be a tapestry once I construct the proper loom (to ruin the analogy and bring in some Medieval flavor...)
Once the parts are all finished, another week or so, I will lay it all out in a rough cut (something I think I have already mentioned here but it's the step that I'm still getting to) which I'll then start to polish with overdubs and redos and eventually go to mix down for the master. |
