The Artist Arts: The Blacksmith
I've been playing around with Irish music lately. This is my simple interpretation of The Blacksmith. It was made popular by Planxty in the early 70's and their version is definitely worth checking out. My vocals are a little flat at the top and I'm thinking that I should redo it in a different key to see if it sits easier. But whatever it's a demo, done is beautiful. Punto e basta.
The Artist Arts:Walk On Boy
Ok, so I've been playing around with some home recording. I'm still fiddling a bit, but here's a cut of the Walk On Boy. I learned this one from an old Doc Watson instructional video. This is really his version of the song, except that it's very slow - 'cause, you know, I don't have Doc's chops. Something to aspire towards, eh? Maybe I'll try to record it faster and post it later this week.
The Artist Arts: A Poem For Your Thoughts
Play With Your Food
I'm sure some of you have seen this, but talk about the art of food... this is epicurean melodrama!
The Artist Arts: Reinventing the Wheel Without Letting On
As I write music, I've struggled in finding good subject matter. The more arts and literature I encounter, the more I realize that I'm not going to come up with an original story or idea. Keeping that in mind, I've come to the conclusion that the goal of a modern artist is to make new the old. Knowing that the story you want to tell has been told before forces you to focus on how to uniquely interpret it, how to put it in a new light.
Take, for instance, some of the recent movie adaptations of Shakespeare's plays which have come out in the past decade or so. The DiCaprio/Danes Romeo + Juliet from 1996 takes the original Shakespearean text but sets it in modern times. This is a somewhat standard interpretation of the play now, but visually the movie is interesting, and generally, it is a decent retelling of the story (Although I'm not convinced the actors fully understood what they were saying at times).
One adaptation that I really like is 10 Things I Hate About You. The movie forgoes the text of The Taming of the Shrew completely, just taking the raw story and setting it in present day Seattle. This allows the writers to do with it what they will, to make it their own. Obviously that kind of leeway could end pretty poorly, but in the end, the movie works. It has fun characters and feels kind of idyllic (maybe a bit dated now), but it sits on firm foundation because, you know, Shakespeare knew what he was doing.
I bring up the two Shakespeare movies because those are two simple ways to make new the old. One is a modern staging; the other is a new interpretation. They work, but lately I've been looking for different approaches to telling a story.
Regina Spektor has written some interesting songs by taking mythological/biblical stories and placing herself into them. This is a cool approach because it brings to life these stories which are a bit old and have a bit of dust on them. Take a listen to the songs Samson and Oedipus from her early CD Songs. I like her vocal approach, but what really gets me is the way she brings genuine emotion to stories which are thousands of years old. She changes the storyline a bit, but in retelling the stories, she is bringing them back to life. In other words, she is making good, new art out of old forms and ideas. How sweet is that?
A Bukowski Thought
ART
as the
spirit
wanes
the
form
appears.
--Bukowski
Huh. I guess I could use some more waning.