Well, if you haven’t noticed it yet – my site has undergone a makeover…which means that I will still be writing for awhile – unless I die or go blind…come to think of it – I can type with my voice now, too – so it would have to be some type of Death ending the process.
Because I haven’t heard from Tami A. RE: her impressions of the new look to “The Doctor’s Inn” – I don’t know if my e-mail link is functioning properly. And, if I haven’t heard from her, my #1 supportive critic – then I’m not yet sure that I’m out there again? I’m hoping she will like it – if she doesn’t – there’s-not-a-whole-hellova-lot-I-can-do-about-it, as I am an Internet and Web simpleton, and, very little can be done to change things at this juncture – particularly when Giti spent hours uploading each of my articles to the new site…and she ain’t gonna do that again!
I should also be getting my music online again, and this time, people may actually be able to download it. I guess my-soon-to-be-nephew was unable to finish my music site whereby people would actually be able to download my music, and I, would actually get some money out of it. I’m fervently hoping that Bahman (my new web designer) will make sure that everything will play out. Hell! Giti and Bahman have actually taught be how to post my own articles!
So it’s a rebirth for me, of sorts…
***************
But can I stay vital with prose and music?
When I lecture to my college students about the concept of “change” – I invariably frame it in terms of: Change of the First Order and Change of the Second Order. I often fear that my writing is merely “more of the same” – which is suggestive of Change of the First Order: akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic: They deck may look different – but the ship will still go down.
Change of the Second Order is akin to knocking down all-of-the-walls-of-a-room and rebuilding the room with all new furniture (as opposed to merely re-arranging the furniture to make the room look different). The Titanic would have needed to grow wings or something…
My music has always taken me through changes of the second order as I flowed from classical to rock to heavy rock to funk to rock to progressive rock to jazz/rock/classical fusion to something like “world.” I would hope that these influences can keep me out of a rut and NOT, putting out more-of-the-same.
The great artist, Rassouli, just afforded me the opportunity of getting an album cover design for an effort entitled SOLTERRE: Where the Earth Kisses the Sun – performed by Carter D, HG & myself (with some Akka thrown in). I got to watch artists in Rassouli’s workshop create to the music of SOLTERRE…I haven’t had such an experience before, and felt dwarfed by the creative energy flowing around me. Many of the painters also reported being moved by the music. Needless to say – I’m pretty sure that an album cover and inner sleeve has emerged (CD cover for the post-album generations).
So I guess if I keep rubbing shoulders with artistic greatness; some of it may stick, and, the makeup, er, makeover, will keep the ship afloat for awhile…