Leechwater

Went busking for so long last night that my strumming arm was rendered completely useless for nearly 24 hours. I've never quite experienced that level of fatigue from playing before. Well, sometimes vocally, sure. But my strumming is usually basic enough not to cause any unusual behavior. I dunno if I fancied things up last night, if it was just a really long time to play, or if I'm sore 'cause I hadn't played much in about a week. Not important, just interesting.

Setbacks, setbacks. I had the day off today, but was entirely incapable of getting anything done. Unless you count watching The Bridge, a totally fascinating documentary. Not something I should be watching probably, but whatevs.

This week I finally did accomplish a few things that I'd been meaning to get around to: I mounted my guitar hanger on my wall so as to display my beautiful (and as of yet, unnamed) telecaster, and nailed up a picture of this big ole music note. It used to be my dad's, and since I was a kid I've always loved it. There's a little conductor standing in front of the mammoth note, his arms splayed out in mid-conduction. There's not really a way to describe how cool it is (that's why there's the picture), but let's just say that if I had a shirt with this note on it, I probably woulda got into Music Under New York, easy. But I wouldn't want that anyway.

I played the little-known Radiohead song "True Love Waits" for the first time tonight. So good. I'm not sure that subway stations contain the most appreciative audiences for that sorta thing. But I played it three times anyway.

A few minutes after started playing, some religious dude showed up and started passing out pamphlets. At first, I was kinda concerned that people would think we were in cahoots, and assume that all the songs I was playing were somehow linked to righteous lifestyles or something. This really got me in my head, and I began self-consciously scanning what I was singing for conservative/spiritual content. It seemed like just about anything could fit into that mould. (Mold?) "Heart of Gold" sounded suddenly preachy, "Make You Feel My Love" seemed frighteningly hymn-ish, and the aforementioned Radiohead song took on a much more after-school special feeling than it actually has. Not that I have a problem with any of that stuff, I just don't want to peddle that sort of stuff on the hapless patrons of the fine MTA, you know? Luckily, he seemed to repel so many people that they sought me as a comparative refuge, with all the dollars that come along with the services of such a haven.

I'd like to write more, but things are getting fuzzy in regards to my last outing; I think I've hit the highlights. The goal for this coming week is to finish revising and recording the songs I've been working on since May, which number about 20. We'll see what actually happens.