Early December

So the whole premise of the title of The Early Year (do you have yours yet, and did you buy some for stocking stuffers? They're pretty with red and green) was the getting up at 5:30 AM to write. It was a particularly productive time for me, but 5:30 AM is not sustainable forever, especially because I don't retire at 9 PM. Ever. However, Dan and I decided on an Early Season of sorts...so we're once again waking up at 5:30 AM to get things done, like write and practice and take time to sit and be. Days fill up so fast, it's kind of nice to see the sun come up. I hope I'll get some new tunes out of this season, but whatever comes will be worth it, even if it's just a lot of sunrises. Also, Terri Hendrix posted a bunch of tunes from her new Retrospective CD and her Christmas EP on her Myspace -- AWESOME. Go listen. Then go order them. Bed time.

Book No. 5 Begins

I try to contain most of my songwriting in one main book that I take with me just about everywhere. I do this because it's nice to keep songs in one place as they evolve so I can track their progress and easily revert back or switch gears while keeping all the ideas intact. It's also good to be able to flip through and find bits of things that never made it into a tune; sometimes these spark a song of their own or are waiting to be used in some other new idea. It takes me a while to work through a whole blank notebook, but it's satisfying when I finish one. I started my first book ("Green"...used September, 2001 through January, 2003) by accident during my freshman year of college. I probably bought this book to take notes in political science class or something, but ended up using it to write songs instead. Green is the book where my first few complete songs came together, including "24/7," which some of my beloved former roommates still request! Sometimes I indulge them, haha. Purple (February, 2003 - March, 2005). Purple had a lot going on. Apparently I was into saving the rainforest while writing, so this is coffee paper. I guess it's made with...coffee leaves? The pages had a nice brownish tint as if someone had spilled coffee all over them, so if I was ever careless with my morning brew it didn't matter. Here's Brown (March, 2005 - March, 2007). As plain as one can get, I bought Brown in San Francisco when I was there for a political science conference in college (nerd alert, that's me). It has absolutely nothing on it or in it, which I liked quite a bit. Again it is made of all recycled stuff, so the pages were brown and rather unthreatening. It was with this book that I started tracking all the places it went in the front cover. This one went to Atlanta, Denver, South Dakota, San Diego, Seattle, Salt Lake City, and Austin (before I moved here) among other places. It also holds my backstage pass to a Mary Chapin Carpenter show. Thems good times. Orange (April, 2007 - June, 2008) has just been retired as of today. Again, nothing on the outside and nothing on the inside. It did have a sleek black strap to keep it shut. The pages were white and fairly starchy feeling under the pen. It could make that movie-like scratching sound with a pen if you wrote fast enough. Orange traveled less but it did go on two tours of New Mexico, all around Texas, Seattle, and New York City. Not bad. I filled this one in just a year. Blazing fast on my schedule; all the others took two years to fill. Meet Black (June, 2008 - ????). Just purchased. Nothing in it yet. Hasn't been anywhere. Excited.

Morning Observations

I had a thought last week and Professor Dan and I have been trying it out...so far, so good. We both lead kind of crazy busy lives, each with completely different obligations and commitments and yet a lot of the same time management issues -- namely finding time to be creative and write. I was getting up reeeally early for a while, and writing for an hour. This worked out well, as I got 2-3 "keeper" songs out of the whole process, which when factored into my usual yearly output of songs...is really great. It upped my stats, so to speak. Then I went to New Mexico to play shows and then I had a birthday and then it was Thanksgiving and then I had a lot of gigs...so I was a tired little monkey with no respect for the early hours of the morning. I am getting back to that place but am not entirely on board with 5:30 AM yet, so in the meantime...Dan and I have started our "morning observations." We're still reading a lot of Hemingway (currently making our way through the Complete Short Stories Of collection), and Ernest is so good at details, and simple, clear description without going on for pages and miles. Every morning we try to observe the nuances of what we do...if most of you all are like me, your morning routines don't vary much. That makes it more challenging to pick out the differences of each day and make note of them and appreciate them. Dan's all about his coffee. Some mornings it tastes better than others. Dan makes Folger's interesting. My parents would be pleased. I'm all about this flock of birds I see on the telephone wires every morning. How long will they be there? Will they trickle away or just all of the sudden one day be gone? Why do some huddle in a clump and what's the deal with the lone birds on the end? Are they grumpy? Are they waiting? Who knows how long we'll continue, but I look forward to it every day. Maybe we'll switch it up to evening some time, but there's enough in the morning to keep me going for a while.

It's Thursday already? My life in link form.

Hey there kids. I've been slow at blogging. A few updates: The weather here is beautiful! It almost called for a hoodie this morning, but I refrained. I'm tough like that. Mike and Dan in da house. yo! I saw a great show with porterdavis and Patrice Pike and Carolyn Wonderland this weekend at Threadgill's. I finished a new song on Saturday in a 3 hour writing spurt. It's nice to be productive on a weekend. I've been writing little songlets every day, with the knowledge that I "turn in" a disc of what I've been working on to Dan at the end of the week. It's an excellent motivator and a really good kick in the pants. If you need motivation, the buddy system does wonders. I had a headache for about 3 days. Hence I get kind of whiny and abstain from blogging. I had a fun couple of shows this week at the Irie Bean for the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM) Benefit and at Club 115. Swank all around! This weekend I am going to be uber-productive and head to the Life's A Song workshop with Terri Hendrix and Lloyd Maines. Very thrilled that it's finally here! The perfect start to a new season. Getting ready for another bit o' New Mexico touring with Susan, as well. Also excitement. Also lots of prep. More on that soon... I'll blog from Port Aransas if I can! If not...see you on the flip side of the weekend.

Butt. In the seat.

Dan and I are on book 2 of our joint Hemingway reading -- although Dan has smoked me by reading a couple of others. I will catch up one day, really. But anyway, we are now reading Islands in the Stream. (I know, queue ridiculous Kenny Rogers/Dolly Parton song here. I am kind of annoyed that they took that title. I think Ernest had it first). I’m only a quarter of the way through, but as Dan and I discussed at one of our sessions this week, there are already good lessons to be learned. Thomas Hudson is the main character; he lives one one of those idyllic islands that exist in, well...novels, and he is a painter. There’s a lot of Hemingway in Thomas Hudson, I think...which means a lot can be gleaned about the writing process and what it takes to be a professional writer. Lesson Number One? Show up. Every day. Sit down and paint (or in our case write). He lives on this gorgeous piece of paradise, and Hudson’s three sons are visiting him for their once-a-year time with dad. Perfect excuse to slack off with the workload, right? Wrong. He’s at it every morning regardless of weather/plans/interruptions/mood. That’s how you become good, and if you’re already good, it’s how you stay good and become better. Much like the Writer’s rooms...their chairs were comfy or hard or ugly or stylish, but those seats all had one thing in common: their butts were in them.

Sameness.

I read this in a NYT interview with Arthur Frommer, the dude who does all those travel guides that are oh so handy for going somewhere. Q: What has been your greatest discovery while traveling? A: The sameness of all people, all over the world. From the mother of a Masai family in Kenya to a young couple in Japan to an Egyptian teacher living on a houseboat, all people have the same basic concerns and deal with the same human problems that we do. I think that's why songwriters are necessary. They point out how we're all the same.

Jana's Writer's Room

Ok, it's a corner. A Writer's Corner in a room because I only have one room, dangit. Inspired by the Guardian UK's photo-essay on famous authors and their rooms of choice, here we go. A short tour, if I may. Excuse the dust. An ubiquitous guitar case on the floor for easy access. I picked up the chair at a thrift store for 6 bucks. It swivels and it has no arms, good for proper guitar holding. The desk on the right is also a thrift store purchase. I hauled it up 2 flights of stairs myself until a nice neighbor saw me and helped with the last flight. Phew. That's for the pure writing end of things. Pen, paper, guitar. The other desk is for recording things on the laptop. Photos! Everywhere! People I like, musicians I've met, an MCC autograph. Two maps (one US and one World) to remind me of the places I get to see. A couple of my own gig posters (embarrassed!) that were really awesome gigs and make me happy to remember them. The bookcase holds a bunch of poetry (Whitman, Eliot, Sandberg, Dickinson, Rilke, Moore, and Parker to name a few) and a bunch of modern American history (Vietnam, environmental rights movement, women's lib, civil rights, the counterculture). There's a little Civil War and some 18th century America tucked away in there, too. Then up above is the CD collection. I really need to get a giant iPod and rip all of that, because you just can't tour with a bookcase.

MCC On Writing: "Wait."

There is an excellent interview with Mary Chapin Carpenter in the November issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine (we haven't even lived October yet!). Happy Birthday to me. :) Anyway, it's brilliant. (Have I mentioned MCC is brilliant?) Some key thoughts from the interview. When asked if songs are hard to write, Chapin replies, "I don’t think of songs as being hard to write. It’s a process, and every song requires dedication, emotion, and inspiration. Some songs really do drop out of the sky, as Bill Monroe used to say, and others are a little harder to get to. But if you’re lucky enough, you get a keeper, and it ends up sticking around." The follow-up question is: if you only have the first half of a song, what do you do? "Wait. ...to paraphrase the artist Helen Frankenthaler, the harder you try to get at something, the more elusive it becomes. So if you have half a song and it means something to you, and you believe in it, then you’re going to wait until the other half comes along." Oh. It is true. Some songs are hard-won, and that's ok. Rose Tremain said in her Writer's Room profile that, "All writers spend great drifts of time staring into space - a habit not tolerated easily by those who aren't writers." That's the waiting. I am still trying to be at peace with the waiting. I think it's a habit to cultivate in a lot of areas of our lives. We wait, things come. We just have to wait with intention and direction.

A Room of One's Own

I happened upon a collective up at The Guardian called “Writer’s Rooms” today and I was spellbound. Not only do we get a peek into what professional, full time, awarded and lauded authors do to make “a room of one's own,” but the little blurbs accompanying each photo are just as revealing. A few things surprised me: none are really grandiose rooms of ornate wood and gold hinges. A couple even admit to trying that setup and reverting back to just...a rather lived-in comfortable place. I’m not surprised. One needs a certain amount of comfort around before the muse feels safe to come out and play, I think. I am very much in love with Seamus Heaney’s attic room, with his specially built bookcases and his desk made of a plank of wood over two filing cabinets. Margaret Drabble has an awesome window with a gorgeous view...and claims she never looks out when writing. Maybe just knowing it is there is inspiration enough. Rose Tremain gives us another plank over filing cabinets treatment... John Mortimer keeps his liquor behind him for motivation, photos of his grandkids on the bookcase, and an award or two. I think every artist needs to come from a place of humility (to let the words come out of the air willingly) but also...it’s key to have a bit of hubris. Why should the words come to ME? What did I do to deserve the words? Yes, hubris is definitely a necessary quality. A lot...the bulk, I would say...of these writers have something in common. They get up EARLY...some say 6 AM...and they sit down and they WRITE. I am a spastic and excuse-filled writer. I sit down for 10 minutes and then I have to put laundry in the dryer, or the phone rings, or my email probably needs checking. My Life Guru (and ex-boss), Karen, told me that if I am to cut back on hours at my current job...ALL of those hours need to be spent writing and practicing on top of what I already do now. No goofing off allowed. She’s right. It’s inspiring to know these authors just sit down and spill out words, whether it’s on a laptop or good old pen and paper. I’m getting there...or at least I am attempting. :) I’ll post my own little room later this week.

Ode to Ernest

In an effort to be more cultured, and to perhaps gain some inspiration, I am reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway -- I am only on chapter 4, but so far so good. Dan the Professor and I are reading it in tandem...dare I say, "Book Club"? No, that's too...it's just too...Oprah-y. Ernest is all about trekking around seeing sunsets and blowing up bridges, not Oprah. (I love you, Oprah, no worries). Anyway, Dan and I thought we might have a shot at finishing the book if a little healthy competition and discussion was involved. So far, so good. Although reading a lot of words is kind of making me not want to write them at the moment. :)

A Key to Songwriting: Marshmallows in a Field

Over at the Nancyland blog, I discovered some enchanting photos of marshmallow harvesting as well as an insight into what the job of a songwriter is: it's to put two thoughts/pictures/ideas together that don't normally go together...and to have them relate to your life, or life as a whole. To make people go, "Huh. That makes sense." Or at least, as in the case of the marshmallows, be a dang cool image. Some of my favorite images from songwriters I enjoy: "The alarm still rings at 5:15; the day goes off like a rifle." - Kristyn Osborn (Love Goes On) "Trying to make myself breathe, it's an emotional dry heave." - Susan Gibson (Anything to Keep From Crying) "What can I compare you to? A window the sun shines through, or maybe the silver moon. A smile rising. The magic of a fading day, satellites on parade, a toast to the plans we've made to live like kings." - The Weepies (Take It From Me) Tonight Joseph stood out in the yard, as Debussey played from the kitchen Celestial companions 'til morning's first lark, shone overhead and he listened And who was that shadow there by the gate, who was that there standing guard It was only loneliness, and loneliness waits, and ideas are like stars." - Mary Chapin Carpenter (Ideas Are Like Stars) Technorati Tags: marshmallows, songwriting, writing, marychapincarpenter

j.Po Thots: Songs are like Grapefruit and Ketchup.

I have discovered the joys of grapefruit. Only this week, really. I have always thought them to be too tart or squishy or...off-color to be edible. They're not quite orange on the outside and inside they are what can best be described as a fleshy-pink. I always thought that anything that is pink and triggers my sour face was not worth my time. However, browsing the produce aisle after having read an article about grapefruits being the Best Thing Ever and Full of Fiber and Nutrients and Other Things with Capital Letters...I caved. And I liked it. Where have you been all these years, grapefruit? Why have I not been sectioning off your tangy spheres of loveliness for the past two decades? Then I decided that I wasn't ready before. The same thing has happened to me with coconut and rhubarb...both things used to make me scrunch up my face in that annoying kid-way (the "I just KNOW I don't like it, ok?" way) and refuse to eat whatever was baked by mom. Coconut had that weird texture to it (the way I was raised, coconut grows in little shreds as far as I'm concerned) and rhubarb? What IS it anyway? Again with the tartness, and the green color...that's not pie material, I thought. Now I can't get enough of either. (Coconut rhubarb pie? Interesting. Try it when I'm home, Mom!) You know this is going somewhere, right? I'm no food blogger, even though I read a bunch (my favorites: poco-cocoa (a fellow Austin blogger), Vive Le Vegan!, Everybody Likes Sandwiches, and Don't Get Mad, Get Vegan). But I digress. I think as a songwriter, you definitely grow into new realms and perhaps outgrow others. I got over hot dogs and Kraft singles cheese sandwiches because I found other things in the world that offer more taste and complexity. Song-wise right now, I can't even really stand to play some of my older songs. Some songs were written about a time and place so foreign (and maybe unpleasant to an extent) that I would not cry if I never played them again. But I will always take requests. :) I also feel that right now, thanks to Red Leaf, thanks to living in Austin, thanks to having more time because I'm not in school...I am challenging myself in my writing and playing. Stretching those fingers as well as my lexicon (or sad lack thereof). It's a good thing, but it's a long process. Just like adapting your tongue to curry after ketchup...there's a learning curve but it's definitely worth it. After that...can you go back to ketchup? Can you re-visit old songs that aren't YOU anymore? Sure. I think there's a time and a place for every song as a writer's library grows. Some grow with you, some are outgrown...but every now and then it's nice to have that documentation of a certain time in my life. And it's nice to go back...kind of like having a hot dog at a picnic on the lake in July. You wouldn't order it at a restaurant, but the hot dog is part of the overall experience. For the time being, as I work on writing more and prepping for a new record...you're going to get a tasty, tasty mixture of curry and ketchup my friends. Oh, and grapefruit. Ruby red. (Photo courtesy of uncommonmuse!) Technorati Tags: songwriting, muse, writing, grapefruit, austin, jana Powered by ScribeFire.

Working on a new one...

This is what I go through...all the time. I should probably quit, hehheh. Maybe one day you'll hear this song at a show and go "hey, I saw that on the internet before it was finished!"

Friday Nite Movie: From Curandera to Chupacabra...The Stories of Rudolfo Anaya

I first had to read Rudolfo Anaya in high school. We were assigned "Bless Me Ultima" and I remember thinking something along the lines of, "Why are we reading this dude if he lives in our state? Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Anaya?" (Did I mention maybe I was a stupid high schooler?) I got "skooled" quickly and was taken in by Anaya's way with words and fascinating ability to tell a good story while weaving in tradition, history, and folklore. It remains one of my favorite reading assignments of all time. Here's a doc from KNME about one of the best authors in America, right from my backyard.

More Notebook Thoughts...

I (heart) Moleskine

A peek. Just a peek. I'm kind of a nerd. I have a thing for paper and pens, in a way that is probably unhealthy. I will browse the aisles of Borders, Barnes and Noble, Book People, and wherever else I need to be to find just the right songwriting notebook. No ruled paper, please. Spiral bound for easy flexibility. A nice, stiffish paper that takes ink well. Preferably free of anything on the cover or title page that would imply anyone had any ideas for what the notebook should be before I opened it. I've transferred this love over to my To Do system, as I am a great believer in productivity via what are called "lifehacks" -- which are simply smart ways of doing things so that I have more time to focus on important things like writing and locating the nearest retailer of Red Velvet Bingles. While I love the internet and use it for just about everything, I can't give up my pen and paper. Carrying my lists with me makes me feel put together. When I found the Moleskine brand of pocket notebooks, I was skeptical of their magical powers. "The legendary notebook of Hemingway, Picasso, Chatwin," they say. Oh, really. But you crack one of these leather-bound babies and you are unstoppable. They are the perfect size to carry anywhere, they handle a nice inky pen well, they have a fabulous elastic band around them for safe-keeping...everything is perfection. I get the "Squared Notebook" which is good for note-taking as well as sketching out diagrams or charts. A good half of my Moleskine is used for my daily To Do list, but I tab it off into other sections (see those colorful little dealies in the photo) for phone numbers, song lines that come to me in the grocery store, what have you. Moleskines are quite popular and there's even a Moleskinerie blog dedicated to their uses. It's lovely to see how people implement such a simple thing in so many ways. Just a tool of the trade...

Things Are Shifting

It's kind of like that. Poor Pedestrian Ahead Man. There's a lot going on behind the scenes that does not make for interesting blog fodder at the moment. Not like some musicians who type that and it really means Virgin Records is going to sign them. No, not THAT type of behind the scenes. More of a hibernation, wait-and-see type thing...and I HATE waiting. Haaaaaate it. But it's good for me. One thing I started two weeks ago and have successfully held up for the duration so far is a course called The Artist's Way. It was recommended to me by a fellow, well....artist (who has a way, apparently), and it's all about breaking down barriers and opening up creativity. One of the main tenants of the program is the Morning Pages. Every morning, you get up early (or forsake things like breakfast if you hate getting up early, haha) and write 3 pages on anything. Your list of things to do, how much you hate the loud stereo outside, your toes...whatever. You're supposed to write and write until those 3 pages are done. Then you go about your day. I find that it frees up my writing brain for more important things (like blogging, right? Anyone?) and I can focus more. Is that a result of the Morning Pages? Who knows, but I figure it's good for me and me showing some discipline about something can't be all that bad. 3 pages each day times 14 days is...carry the one...130 miles to Albuquerque...42 pages? That's kind of prolific for me. It's probably nothing for some people, but when you eek out a 3 verse song every other month, that's kind of ok. Nice. Now if it just said something more interesting than, "I forgot to take out the trash. I like coffee. Is it really this early?" No, good things will come. Try it, you might like it. I call this one, "The Last Thing The Marigold Ever Saw"

Freelancin'

I just started writing reviews for Indie-Music.com, a great site that supports independent musicians and is chock full of resources and inspiration. I decided that since I spend a great deal of time writing, I might as well branch out and write things for publications other than Jpo Press Ltd. (as I like to call it, hehheh). It's great because I get to hear music I may not have heard otherwise, and I get to try and put together a coherent thought about it. Oh my. Maybe one day I'll even review a CD that earns the most awesome adjective ever: "spangly." One can only hope. Check out my featured review of Travis Dow's new one here. In other news...Tori Amos' new CD is a concept album and a half. It's brilliantly executed and smarter than most anything on the "new release" shelves from the major labels these days. Support the literate ones, kids. But the cover still kind of creeps me out.