frozen octopus

Today, breathing is on my mind. Especially breathing in time to music. An eight-count inhale, holding it for eight counts, exhale eight counts, and holding for eight.

I believe the term for it is "box breathing" which uses a four count. You need to adjust it to what you are playing or listening to.

I use it for remembering to get enough air while drumming. Keeps me from getting tired.

I also use it as a metronome. Keeps my mind on the tempo.

Despite a week of chaos and tension, I did manage to listen to some music. I did notice though that when I get really stressed out, I turn off all sound. These three albums were wonderful though. To be fair to them, I should re-listen to them in the future when I can focus on them more.

• The Dream Syndicate These Times #indie
• Taiheiyousiranuigakudan Taiheiyousiranuigakudan #indie
• Cecil Taylor Conquistador! #jazz

Also getting some areas of the blog a little more ironed out. Slow, steady, and whenever it's fun is the schedule.

I got a Genre page set up with a full list of genres. On my genre tags, genre is in the beginning, so I thought something needs to be there. I doubt anyone would ever try to see if something was at /genre when they saw /genre/jazz. Better safe than 404 though.

Didn't know what to put there, so I quickly grabbed a list of all the genres. It's interesting to see them all together and to notice what I get from the list. 

When I see the list, I keep waffling on whether I regret not getting more specific with the genres. I tag something "jazz" or “punk," but there are so many flavors of them. It would be cool to see this list be wider and deeper.

At the same time, I just want to put on some music and quickly note what I am listening to. Knowing me, properly being a librarian of music and filing each one with proper sub-genres would cause me to miss the first song of each album researching.

Such is the life of a waffle.

Today's writing prompt caught me by surprise. By the end of 200 words I felt like I was doing more of a mental self-check than the usual improvisational word play.

"I am just trying to ___________"

I have been experimenting with giving the morning writing to AI, telling it is an expert on the subconscious, and seeing what it says. It went wild with today's writing so I take it as a signal of a good morning writing prompt.

There is no way I would follow the advice by the way.

Went through the list of last week's music, and I could only recall one. Like a favorite hoodie is how I would describe Yo La Tengo. I need to remember how good they are for when I need some sound to get some things done.

For a brief moment, I wondered if only being able to recall one album is a sign of mental stress or memory loss. Actually what is happening is a lot of people are in town for the cherry tree season. It is throwing my normal routine into chaos.

My brain likes parameters with the morning 200 word free writing. If I have a pattern to follow, then I can burn through the session. If there is a blank page with no rules then it takes forever to get to 200 words. Having a rhythm or template to fill in seems to lighten the writing time a bit.

Morning Writing Pattern

[one word]. [same word plus another]. [the two words plus a full sentence].

ex: Think. Think about. Think about how to make a morning free writing exercise.

Then I took the last word from the sentence and started again.

ex: Exercise. Exercise your. Exercise your fingers and mind before you start in on things.

Sidenote

My guess is these sorts of exercises are tried and true old-school writing exercises. If they are and you know more, send them my way. I've just been taking drum rudiments and converting them to word writing prompts.

There were friends in town and I went on a weekend trip to the mountains. I tend to listen to podcasts on the train which include music podcasts. That reminds me I should write a post on music podcasts I love.

Eric Dolphy is becoming one of my favorite jazz artists for sure. I always leave an album thinking about how much I liked it.

The Pleasure Seekers album completely wiped out all other music from my brain. People into garage rock…here you go. Punk before punk. Features a member who went on to be a legendary 1970s rock star.

• The Pleasure Seekers What a Way to Die #rock
• Eric Dolphy Quintet On Prestige #jazz