nervous rhythm

These are strange and unsettling times.

I feel like I have lost some swagger.

I sense the same kind of feeling in others around me.

I follow politics and I hear pundits endlessly predicting different outcomes for the Middle East. I have been around long enough to know that nobody knows. The foiled terrorist attempt is a wake up call. I hate cliches like that but it rings true. A reminder that there are people in this world that would not think twice about doing harm to those I care for.

The swagger I am speaking of is not cockiness or bluster; it’s more of a skip in the step. I thought about taking a midnight drive last night. I didn’t have a reason, just to clear the mind, maybe pull over out in the sticks and look at stars. Then I thought about the price of gas and didn’t go. Little things bring on malaise. Count your blessings, another one of those cliches, it’s also true.

I wrote a little solo acoustic guitar piece this evening. It’s called “Greenfinger”. I bought a new brass slide that makes my finger green. I was getting ready to give a go at recording it but I worked on the arrangement long enough to blister a picking finger. I’ll get it tomorrow.

I have been playing a lot of solo acoustic guitar this week. I have avoided doing this for a while and I find it very freeing. I like taking a song down the essentials.

Deep in the night at the house on the hill. I am listening to the Miles Davis album Bitches Brew. I have always liked this record but it is not for everyone. There is a lot of atonality and nervous rhythm on it. Music is about tension and release. Bitches Brew is large chunks of tension followed by brilliant release. I just did a web search on it; most reviewers use the word innovative to describe this music. When is the last time you heard music that you thought was innovative?

Innovation seems scarce in the digital age. Technology has pulled back the curtain on the wizard. Even with all the gizmos in the digital toolbox, true innovation can only come from unconventional thought.

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Tags: Miles Davis