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

By chance, the station where the onsen hotel we booked six months ago was the same station a friend of our opened up a French bistro. We went to it and surprised him and met his wife.

He got married and moved to a big city in Japan and was going to set up a small shop there. After a few months, they realized something wasn't right.

Nothing was a challenge. They weren't learning anything new. So they sought out a beautiful onsen town in the mountains and moved there. They remodeled an abandoned clothing store into a wonderful bistro.

While we were there and talking about their shop he said a thing the stuck in my mind the rest of the trip.

Change really isn't a change if you are just moving you and your stuff to a different place.

They said so far all the good memories they have had opening the place is the learning how to do everything. Learning the new is the exciting part. Keep learning.

I pushed play on the first album of the day and then opened the app where I do my free writing. Found a good way to let the mind ramble about:

• Type the name of the album.
• Take the last word of the album title and use it to start a new phrase.
• Keep going until 200 words.

Seemed to add a lot more variety to the kinds of words that popped up. The repeating word thing “…[last word]. [first word]…” created a nice rhythm which was kind to my foggy, morning mind.

More on the writing exercise: 200 Words a Day for 4 Months