Interview, Creativity and Writing Notes

Interview, Creativity and Writing Notes — A few weeks back I “taped” an interview with a colleague, and that should be here (link).

It’s fun to hear the term, “taped,” as if there were analog tapes involved, like the days passed. No, no tape was involved, all digital ink.

The questions spurred something, tickled a deep, deeply buried memory, me, sitting in the middle of the desert, getting up at 5 AM, cold winter night in Arizona, and me, with a pen, scribbling liner notes on a paper pad. Three weeks or more. Set a pattern that I’ve followed ever since.

Anyone who’s been reading my material for any length of time, or, check out BareFootAstrology.com, there’s a correlation, 28 years? A cycle of Saturn. Saturn hits a transition point about every 7 years, the 7-year itch? Movie? Play?

Missed a couple of points, about the creative nature of my work. Sources and directions. The meaning, the true meaning, and how this works.

There are great influences in my life. The genre of literature called, operating loosely under the appellation and literary taxonomy of “Science Fiction,” that’s a strong, formative influence.

Music, from old Texas bar-brawlers to various aspects of classical and synthesized pop, brought forward to techno and its iteration. Beach music, too, and now, variations on a themes, conjunto, NorTechno, and mariachi.

Which is curious to me, as a side-bar item, two artists that are formative within the musical genre, both are from San Antonio (cf., www.BexarCountyLine.com for images therein) — the late, great Doug Sahm and Joe “King” Carrasco. Both included the squeeze-box in early works, perhaps a long-standing tradition of “Mexican,” although, more properly, the taxonomy should be “TexMex” music.

These are just part of my roots. Buried in there, look for pieces from a fractured but remarkably intact classical education, the liberal arts and sciences, when those two were on the same side.

Factor a quadratic equation or translate a passage from Latin. Both parts of it. Although, these days, I doubt I can “solve for X,” as my higher math skills got burned up when I was, well, higher. Logic prevails. Language and math, and by that extension, astrology, it’s just a matter of grasping and understanding the symbols and meanings — then translating.

Two key ingredients for “writing:” (1) Read. Read a lot. At breakfast? Nothing to read? Read the box of cereal. Which is why I now eat the way I do, from reading that box. (2) Write. Every day. Very simple, even if it’s the same thing, “I don’t know what I need to say, but I’m saying it.” Blogging tools make it easy to post every day, and that’s a perfect workshop for testing material. As one associate suggested, “Butts in seats,” all it takes.

Part of the “creative nature” derives from living in a place that inspires awe, on a daily basis. One example, I believe it’s covered in the interview, I post a single image, every day, on a side project, BexarCountyLine.com. It’s a simple photo-blog, nothing else. No rhyme or reason to any particular topic or image; although, for a spell, I was consumed with images of peppers in grocery stores. I discovered I’ll never be able to take a truly evocative pepper image in a grocery store because the harsh lighting and my absolute refusal to upgrade camera gear or bow to convention and use too many post-production manipulations (PhotoShop.)

Where I live does inspire me. Weird, Austin, San Antonio, I’m sensing a bit of the “place” is important.

In order to write every day? Be awe-inspired. Find the metaphorical and metaphysical in the every-day details. The quotidian contains the remarkable.