Here is part two of the collection of bit and bobs that ended up on the cutting room floor when putting together the Arrivals videos.  The Arrivals videos will be released shortly before my new album drops but until then I wanted to share some pieces I both came across and wrote.

All of the videos are based on this idea of an ”arrival”.  This is a part of a speech I was going to include as the opening monologue for the second Arrivals video.  It didn’t end up working due to length, among other things, but I would like to share it here in two parts.  Here is the first:

I am improvising.  (silly action)  See.  Improvised.  But am I really?  I mean, how much am I getting to improvise here?  My actions are dictated by so many of You, and many of the people that came before me.  They’re dictated by rules, by my friends who get that look of embarrassed shock on their face that says “You’re an idiot and what you just did there is something I don’t accept”. 
They are dictated by societal constructs, personal and societal timelines (you’ve got to be married by your late twenties, own your own place shortly thereafter, have your babies in your early thirties, and if you haven’t secured a respectable, steady paying job before you marry and start pumping out babies, well then, Jesus, good luck). 
They are dictated by family who have their own ideas of how a life should be lead and those ideas are dictated by their insecurities about how their own lives have unfolded and how they want to see the future of their offspring unfold. 
My actions are dictated by this script that I am currently following. 

As always, thanks for reading.  I will post the second part of this speech next week.

David

My sincere thanks for all the warm comments I have received of late from all of you.  I have been deep in the thick of filming and editing all the preamble video  to my new album, Arrivals.  We are still working on sound for one of the videos and today I am starting pre-production for the new album, but as it has been awhile since my last post, and so many of you have been generous enough to post comments in the interim, I thought I would do a quick introductory post to what will be a weekly blog series for a time.

As we have been creatively milking the new album title for all of its worth, there ends up many-a-written line, scene and idea on the cutting room floor.  I would like to share with you the bits and bobs of research and creative backlogue that has been accumulating in the proverbial attics of our sketch pads and hard drives.

Today, I will simply start with a quote, from the late American novelist and painter, Henry Miller.  It is both plain and beautifully poiginant, and sums up much of what people have to say about this idea of ”Arrivals”.

“Paint as you like and die happy”.

Hope this stirs something in you.    

David