I finished a new book last summer and, in an inexplicable fit of delusion, I decided to try to have it published traditionally and submitted it to several independent publishers.
Yeah, guess how that’s gone so far…
Anyway, in the interim since finishing that presently wayward and unwelcomed novel, I have been unable to home in on a new story to which I would be willing to commit a year or so of intellectual effort/struggle.
I don’t know how it goes for you, but for yours truly, writing does not come easy and it is one long angst-ridden struggle. Hence my saying, which occasionally serves here as a tag line but at present is on the bench:
Writing is sorrow; having had written is sublime.
Lately, to nourish the parched creative side of my brain, I have taken to music – no, I still cannot play any instrument beyond my ability to torture three unfortunate chords or so on an acoustic guitar.
By music, I mean the garageband app on my iPad.
I decided to would try to reimagine my novels, their themes, or perhaps even scenes within them, as songs. The first novel I choose to contemplate rhythmically was Rainy Season.
Love hurts, as they* say, and Rainy Season makes every effort to live up to the truth of this wellworn saying.
So I wrote a sad, desperate song to express how the sad, desperate novel strikes me.
To help further express this sad, depressing Expressionistic Rainy Season vision of mine, I decided to include a visual element to it.
So I turned to French director Jean Epstein’s haunting 1928 silent film “La chute de la maison Usher,” which itself is a filmic expression of Edgar Allan Poe’s classic masterpiece “The Fall of the House of Usher,” and which, conveniently for me, recently entered the public domain – the film, I mean, because surely all of Poe’s work has been in the public domain for many, many o’ moons.
For you nerds who like to know, to edit and adapt the film to the song, I used DaVinci Resolve, also for the iPad (the free version of course).
So, are there more music/videos to come?
Maybe, at least until I come up with an idea for a new novel (redundancy intended).
Apologies in advance…
*non-gender specific
Deep. Dark. Poe-etry. Brilliant! I’ve been re-reading Poe’s Complete Works over the past month.
One cannot go wrong revisiting Poe regularly, especially one from Baltimore 🙂 Thank you for the kind words, my friend.
Great result Kurt, well done! I use Garage Band on MacBook but it is not as versatile as the iPad version.
Thanks, Peter! Is garageband what you use to record your poetry? You read beautifully, btw? Do you have any of your music up on your site?
Thank you Kurt. Now you have me blushing – at my age! No music on my site. I don’t think I’d ever be so brave!
At your age?! Are you kidding me? For one thing, regardless your age you obviously are young in mind and spirit, and for another thing, we all know British rockers live for ever so rock on, good sir!
I just realized your reference to your age comment was to your blushing not to making music. Regardless, my response still stands, lol!
I shall carry on carrying on, it’s the way to go!
Hang in there!
Like a vice.
Hey there! How are you doing? I noticed you’re an author, and I’m intrigued. Could we chat privately about your work? It’s exciting—I believe I might have some insights to contribute to your books.