KjB

I do a bunch of work. For months and months. So many different projects that i feel overwhelmed and like i’m not giving enough attention to each. Like i’m skimming along the crest of possibility, never breaking the fun, exciting, rewarding surface.

Then, the well runs dry. I find a work-lull, and collapse into it. Gratefully, at first. Make plans to work on all the personal projects I’ve neglected while I was busy. Get started. Get inspired. And then, I hit the wall.

Now, with more than enough time to do the things i dreamed about while i had no time to do them, i have no ideas. no inspiration. my head is a frightening blank and a dull ache. I worry that while i was busy, i didn’t do good enough work (for being rushed, for having too many comittments). I worry now that while i’m not busy, i’m squandering time, being even less productive.

I hate it when this happens.

Heard often at my place lately. Here’s why:

Blake and I have been expanding our respective literary strengths recently, trading editing duties. For example, I’m an awful, impatient, lazy songwriter. Blake makes a living at it. He, on the other hand, has problems getting through writing out long narrative. I do it all day long. You get the picture.

As a middle ground (and to polish both of our skills up) we’ve been texting each other writing assignments.

Today: Purple Things. A list.

Here’s mine -

1. eggplants
2. grapes
3. bruises
4. M+Y (in CMYK)
5. So they say, Elizabeth Taylor’s eyes
6. ink
7. dittos
8. lavender
9. denim
10. blue jays. Kind of.
11. sapphires
12. blueberry residue on teeth
13. aubergine (I know that’s another word for eggplant. I just like it)
14. grape Kool-Aid
15. cornflowers
16. chow chow tongues
17. giraffe tongues
18. the sky right before a tornado

- climbed up two and down one flight of narrow, careening stairs, something like 200 times, carrying everything I own, one armload at a time.

- dreamt wild, circuitous, Alice in Wonderland dreams about music and love after wine, and turkey and avocado, and The Band’s Last Waltz on DVD.

- caught a cold. then caught bronchitis. then caught up on 1/10 of the sleep i lost while KO’d by the cold and bronchitis.

- bought a washer and dryer, which i will pray to like twin dieties for their ability to keep me out of the filthy, dank, expensive den of clothing inequity across the street (otherwise known as the midtown cleaners laundromat).

- worked on this.

- sent the book that i wrote, and that these photographs belong to, to print. all 200 pages of it.

- started teaching a new edition of writing for the web II at The Portfolio Center. i have 17 or so students. they all have blogs. they will all create original websites for a magazine of their choice. they will do it in 9 weeks. but not tonight, as i am still sick and have canceled class.

- started searching for flights to merry old england, where mr. rainey will be serenading the Americana music-loving Brits in early September.