Quote of the Day:
It is not clear that intelligence
has any long-term survival rate.
~Stephen Hawking~
Current Local Weather:
Crap is falling straight from the sky
at an alarming rate and landing on my shoulders.
Currently on my iPod:
Blood Bank
~Bon Iver~
It is not clear that intelligence
has any long-term survival rate.
~Stephen Hawking~
Current Local Weather:
Crap is falling straight from the sky
at an alarming rate and landing on my shoulders.
Currently on my iPod:
Blood Bank
~Bon Iver~
Dear Friends, Family and my Family of Friends,
This is a quickie post. I must say that my week or so on the road to promote my book taught me a lot. I know now why folks do this. As horrendous as it is to give birth to a book it is all worth it in the end. Despite the disappointments, the positives, the love, the hate...I've forgotten, already..., about the pain.
I wanted to thank the following people who have helped me survive these past few weeks and have made them actually enjoyable:
Natalie at Black Cat Books in Manitou Springs. You made my birthday and book release one of the best days of my life. I can not possibly thank you enough for all you've done. You're in my heart forever.
Mike and Ashton Cigars and all the dudes working and hanging at Cigars on 6th in Denver. What a fun time. You guys rock my world and I'm so very thrilled to have you support Ned and me.
Abby Murray and the CS Writers Reading Series: You inspire me beyond belief and I am so glad we're in eachother's circle of crazies. Thanks for having me...
Joni at the Book Lady Bookstore in Savannah, GA for hosting me and for providing love, feedback and a warm, friendly smile when I truly needed it.
Ellen and the crew at Foxtale Books in Woodstock, GA. You guys are so overly generous with your promotion and love that I am still feeling it all the way back in Colorado.
George at Eagle Eye Bookstore in Decatur, GA. Love the yellow hat and even more love the atmosphere you provided for me. Despite the lower turn out, meeting you made it all worth it.
I hope if you're a writer, especially one living anywhere near the vicinity of these fine independent book stores that you'll consider making them not only your regular shop for new and used books but also a place where you will hold your own book signings and events in the future.
Also, if you're looking to read more about how I got to where I am...you can go here:
Guide To Literary Agents ( I was a guest columnist for the How I Got My Agent Section...thank you Chuck!)
You can also pick up a copy of September's Issue of Writer's Digest and see a nod in the Notable Debut section for the New Face of Jazz. If you're a writer, I highly suggest you pick this issue up as it has so much amazing advice for writers it's like getting an entire writing conference's worth of advice in the palm of your hands.
I have some more news I'll share with you sooner or later too. And for those who have emailed etc. I am doing fine and the baby is doing great too. I'm at 19 weeks now! Almost half way there...eeks!
Yours in Surviving, Staying Strong and Skittles,
Cicily
This is a quickie post. I must say that my week or so on the road to promote my book taught me a lot. I know now why folks do this. As horrendous as it is to give birth to a book it is all worth it in the end. Despite the disappointments, the positives, the love, the hate...I've forgotten, already..., about the pain.
I wanted to thank the following people who have helped me survive these past few weeks and have made them actually enjoyable:
Natalie at Black Cat Books in Manitou Springs. You made my birthday and book release one of the best days of my life. I can not possibly thank you enough for all you've done. You're in my heart forever.
Mike and Ashton Cigars and all the dudes working and hanging at Cigars on 6th in Denver. What a fun time. You guys rock my world and I'm so very thrilled to have you support Ned and me.
Abby Murray and the CS Writers Reading Series: You inspire me beyond belief and I am so glad we're in eachother's circle of crazies. Thanks for having me...
Joni at the Book Lady Bookstore in Savannah, GA for hosting me and for providing love, feedback and a warm, friendly smile when I truly needed it.
Ellen and the crew at Foxtale Books in Woodstock, GA. You guys are so overly generous with your promotion and love that I am still feeling it all the way back in Colorado.
George at Eagle Eye Bookstore in Decatur, GA. Love the yellow hat and even more love the atmosphere you provided for me. Despite the lower turn out, meeting you made it all worth it.
I hope if you're a writer, especially one living anywhere near the vicinity of these fine independent book stores that you'll consider making them not only your regular shop for new and used books but also a place where you will hold your own book signings and events in the future.
Also, if you're looking to read more about how I got to where I am...you can go here:
Guide To Literary Agents ( I was a guest columnist for the How I Got My Agent Section...thank you Chuck!)
You can also pick up a copy of September's Issue of Writer's Digest and see a nod in the Notable Debut section for the New Face of Jazz. If you're a writer, I highly suggest you pick this issue up as it has so much amazing advice for writers it's like getting an entire writing conference's worth of advice in the palm of your hands.
I have some more news I'll share with you sooner or later too. And for those who have emailed etc. I am doing fine and the baby is doing great too. I'm at 19 weeks now! Almost half way there...eeks!
Yours in Surviving, Staying Strong and Skittles,
Cicily
Conformity is the jailer of freedom
and the enemy of growth.
~J.F.Kennedy
Current Local Weather:
Severe Storm WARNING:
Hail storms of commercialism
followed by strong winds whistling Christmas carols.
*Damage likely.*
You are strongly advised to shelter children, pets and other
priceless possessions including your beliefs, ethics and morals.
Currently on my iPod:
"Bring Me Joy"
Never Too Far
Dianne Reeves
Dear family, friends and my family of friends,
Today's blog is brought to you by the intelligent mind of Eric Benson. His blog on jazz titled: Inverted Garden is awesome.
He is also a fan of Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, whereas composer DJA is verbose, insightful and wonderfully outspoken like people should be...anywho...This is my reply to his recent (late September) blog on why jazz doesn't have the audience it should and how to go about raising or rather, how not to go about raising the audience to a larger number than what it is currently.
Go here for the original blog: Cool Talk
But the reason I point out this specific blog and my response to it is because this is the EXACT reason and angle I tried to reach for in my book. He nailed it. I just hope I did or at least I hope others think that I did once the book comes out. I think this is something you all should know about me and why I did what I did.
Here it goes:
Eric,
I wanted to comment on this train of thought you've presented here. First off, I think your blog raises great questions, concerns and answers. I'm a HUGE fan of DJA and his blog as well, as a matter of fact he's included in my book as one of the greats alive today. I have an immense amount of respect for him.
onwards: As a former musician and now a jazz writer, I agree completely with the ideal that if music is presented with the intensity as that one blog reader's comments mention, it will be noticed and stomped on by the listeners feet as they begin to feel it in their souls. But there is one particular passage here that hits home with what I'm living for and why I write about jazz,
"...the way to build an audience that looks to jazz as a serious contributor to the larger culture isn’t to convince them that it’s “cool”—suave, relaxing, above-it-all—but to show them that it’s engaged in a mad quest to understand, in the words David Foster Wallace, “what it is to be a fucking human being.” Anyone who has seriously listened to Monk, Mingus, and Coltrane knows that obsession and passion drive their music, not coolness."
This is exactly what I go for when I write. It isn't about the here and now, it's about the sustainability of the future.
Looking to market an art or any kind of media for that matter as something that is "cool" and only going by that invisible factor/measurement/commercial viability for the "youth's" sake is asking for it to be short lived and forgotten.
The historical longevity of something that has been deemed "cool" by a generation often doesn't stick with the further generations as something they can relate to as this aspect of life, the cool factor is a fluid, ever changing concept.
But, as pointed out here, if you can show that the "it" factor of an art or music or anything for that matter is something that binds us all together, as in the humanity of an art or the spirit and soul of what makes us unique in the bigger scheme of things, is to find that universal appealing truth and one that all generations seek to find out for themselves within their personal struggles and everyday confinement of the capitalist society we all live in. But to find this is to validate their causes, their worth and their sustainable visions as creative beings.
Therefore presenting jazz, at least now, in the world we're confined in today, as cool, is not the way to go.
Instead, as musicians, fans and carriers of the torch, we need to give the newcomers to the music and those who have lost touch with why they came to it in the first place, something they can feed off of...an almost barren and open religion that speaks to them in ways that one that follows archaic rules and words can't give...If we allow that gift of the untainted value of an unspoken breath of air that is more about touching the soul of the person who played it than the "commercial" coolness factor, I believe you'll find that sustaining this genre of music won't be so difficult.
It's just a matter now of reaching those that are untouchable, the ones who have closed minds, broken ears and further more, a deep and darkened denial that clouds their perspective of what is new to them, not necessarily new to the world. As Wynton told me in an interview, "sometimes following the people is not the way to have them follow you." Jazz is not the new "black" as the fashion world would say...Jazz is what it always has been: an art that reaches well beyond the soul and into that space rarely seen but often heard crying out for an audience who will listen.
As per my wish with every post, I hope you got something out of this.Yours in gardens, growing and grasping for the bigger, hopefully better, picture,
Cicily