Last updated 6-28-2022
Hang on to your hopes, my friend;
That's an easy thing to say, but if your hopes should pass away,
Simply pretend
That you can build them again...
I was home alone for New Year's Eve. Not that I didn't have options, I just really didn't feel like going anywhere or doing anything. Watching "Evil Dead 2" 'til about 11:45 PM was fun enough, and I think having a cup of cocoa at midnight instead of several glasses of champagne ensured that my head was feeling better than most this morning. I also did a lot of work on a new song, "Souls Broken," which I hope to finish up tomorrow, perhaps along with the "Hate Theme from 'Waiting for X.'"
My last recording, "Christmas Lonely," has generated a little bit of buzz, and I'm pleased to see it; I happen to really like the song myself. Michael Lamendola of the South Bergenite interviewed me in the apartment and wrote an article on my music and my life after I sent a CD copy of the track to the newspaper care of Kelly Nicholaides, who wrote the original article last year after Joy in the New was released. Michael's reference to my "lanky, pale skinny body" aside, the piece was very cool. Heh-heh. One of our neighbors at work even asked for my autograph... so I gave it to her.
With all the music I've made available on my Web site, though, it's still my 'hongry' remix of Nine Inch Nails' "The Hand That Feeds" that gets the most downloads! Of my original music, "Extreme Close-Up, then Fade to Black" seems to be the most popular. "Christmas Lonely" did get heard a lot, but of course the season's over now.
Speaking of the season, I got a 'video' iPod from Microwize, a verrry cool gift indeed. I've already ripped the three "Matrix" movies and loaded them up; maybe I'll put the "Animatrix" stuff on there tomorrow. Still plenty of room left over, too... I got "Evil Dead" and "Evil Dead 2" from my parents for Christmas, but I don't know that those are going to occupy the iPod as well. As many times as I've seen "Army of Darkness," I'd never gotten a chance to see the two original movies until I got them; I liked them both, though I preferred #2. I especially liked the panoramic shots in each movie, starting and ending with Ash's face. Groovy.
It occurred to me as I was listening to a female busker (a buskerette?) in the 14th Street PATH station on my way back from some rapid-fire Christmas shopping that I'm currently more alone than I have been in a very long time. Not only do I have no girlfriend, I have no roommate and no cat, either. The last time I lived without any of the three was for a few brief weeks in early 1999; Ozzy waited for me at Barbara's house while I stayed alone in the apartment Karen and I had shared, waiting for someone to rent it. Five years or so before that, I'd lived on my own in Garfield, catless.
There are good and bad points to living by oneself, as there are to most things in life. It's mildly amusing that Jon and Karin are now striving to get all their belongings into a one-bedroom apartment while I'm trying to figure out what else to buy to fill up the three-bedroom that's suddenly all mine. It's nice that I don't have to keep a lot of things crammed into my bedroom anymore; the studio can easily accommodate all my computer and musical equipment, and the third bedroom makes a good storage room. I've got less and less reason not to work on music now, too. I'm planning on recording a sophomore CD, tentatively titled Tougher Than Flannel, this year. God knows I've got enough sadness inside to write enough material (grief, as is well known, is great for creativity)... but relax. Not everything I write and record is going to be about the one that ran away.
As for tonight, I'm considering watching a few episodes of "The Muppet Show." Whaddaya think?
-
A (webmaster@andersensilva.com)
Last updated 6-28-2022
