Interlude

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.
~ Leonardo da Vinci

And I will happen to that MRI machine today. OK, that’s not the right approach. I need to peaceably merge with the motherfucking tube and exist in harmony with it.

GACK. I can do this though. I feel certain of it…almost.

The light music of whisky falling into glasses made an agreeable interlude.
~ James Joyce, Dubliners

Dear Herr Joyce, an hour before today’s MRI, I plan on making with exactly that sort of jazz.

 Work. Don't Think. Relax.
~ Ray Bradbury

This might seem like ridiculous advice if I didn’t enjoy my work. The graphic design stuff may be low level but it can be wonderfully consuming. Yes, I often feel as though I must leave my personal aesthetic at the door – the client is merely renting my hands and skills, such as they be, with the design apps. That’s actually OK by me. The customer’s shelling out the shekels – they want what they want and they should have it. I get my free range creative rocks off on canvas. Yes, I don’t sell much but buckos ain’t why I’m paintin’.

Back to Señor Bradbury’s quote though, I find the business of designing a simple party invitation, laying out program booklets and silhouetting a passel of images tremendously calming – meditative even. Conveniently, I have a bunch of that on my plate this morning.

...Goldfinger could not have known that high tension was Bond's natural way of life and that pressure and danger relaxed him.
~ Ian Fleming, Goldfinger

I don’t think Bond and I would’ve gotten along. He sounds way too zealously swirly and intrepid  for me.

 I wanted to develop a guitar style where phrases and lines get there just in the nick of time, like with Curtis Mayfield and Steve Cropper. Subtleties mean so much, and there is a stunning beauty in them.
~ Robbie Robertson

The more of his memoir that I read, the more sure I am that – him and me – we’d have one helluva good convo about the creative process. Ya see, I want to say a lot with as few brushstrokes as possible. The grace, strength and beauty of one perfect line can express so much more than a zillion busy strokes.

Robertson is one year younger than The Amazing Bob. As he describes where he was, who he was listening to and meeting, I keep wanting to turn to TAB and say, Hunny, he knew Ginsberg! He was into Gil Evans too! Hunny, listen to what he sez about THIS! Yeah, I’d be annoying the eighth notes outta my man right now. He’d be lovin’ it.

The problem with introspection is that it has no end.
~ Philip K. Dick

The goal of meditation is awareness, not relaxation.
~ Eknath Easwaran

Oh sure, NOW ya tell me.