Music Before the Money

Further to my story about my characters as they relate to a pertrified forest I want to alert you to the possibility of making the stars - and those who are not so star-like - into cartoon characters. Nobody is perfect and no body is perfect.

Sure, everyone likes a statuesque man or woman with everything proportioned and in the right places. They smile like a grand piano and are always witty. At the end of the day they go home happy to a beautiful apartment with a million dollar view. But life’s not like that and life is exactly what you should breathe into your characters.

Here are some questions to ask yourself about the character. Let’s say it’s a girl you’ve named Katy:

1) What is it you like about Katy? Does she smile often? Is her voice melodic? (Maybe that’s what you don’t like about her!)

2) What don’t you like? Is she selfish? If so explain how she will always take the last potato chip or sit down on a bus when older women are standing.

3) What speech/mannerism/habit makes you want to strangle her? Does she use “like” all the time as in “Like, when I’m home, like, my parents are so weird and, like, they chew me out . . . ”

4) Name a physical flaw. Facial, motion impediment.

5) What good deed has she done that no one knows but her?

6) How do she sleep? i.e. Does she have nightmares? Does she snore?

The list can go on for long as you want it. Just remember that your readers want to form a relationship with your character and only you can make that bond.

“There’s too many clues in this room.”

- Gordon Lightfoot Summertime Dream

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychologist who broke away from Freudian principles to form his own school of analytical psychology coined the phrase, “Synchronicity,” the experience of two or more events occurring in a manner which has meaning to the person experiencing it but can’t be explained so that anyone else can understand. To my way of thinking it is a cooperation of “gut feeling” and circumstance.

Clues begin the synchronizing process. I just had the feeling a few weeks back when the minister in my church related the story of the Syrian general, Naaman, who seeks out Elisha the prophet to clear his leprosy. To make a long story short Elisha sends out a servant to tell him to bathe in the River Jordan seven times to cure his leprosy. At first Naaman is offended that the prophet sent out an underling but is later convinced and subsequently healed. When I went home I switched on the TV to watch Joel Osteen and he was relating the very same story. When there are thousands of stories in the Bible how can these two occur one after the other? Was this a coincidence or a clue?

In a previous blog I spoke of Ken Roberts’ book “The Rich Man’s Secret: An Amazing Formula for Success, and the mantra,“Take one step, no more and no less, and follow the signs.” He advocates searching out the clues that are all around us and show up in the most unexpected ways.

Gregg Levoy in his book “Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life,” writes that after he was let go of a job he was driving home and the Eagles song, Desperado, came on the radio. One line in the tune mentioned “the Queen of Hearts.” When he stopped the car and opened the door he found a playing card on the ground: Queen of Hearts. Later in the week he found face cards with the queen in different suits.

I believe that clues can be part of synchronicity but that they are always around us and do not have to meet the criteria of Jung’s explanation. During your morning time of power and relaxation ask your subconscious mind to alert you to clues.

Based on results, it might amaze you.

In 1972, after we delved into the realm of rock-and-roll we jumped into the world of tuck-and-roll. Our band invested in a full line of padded equipment from the Kustom Eletronics Company of Chanute, Kansas. We bought the PA with an amazing 6 channels (we previously has a Traynor head with 4) and matching columns with 2-10″ speakers and 3-8″ speakers in each one. But the draw was the way it looked. The folded, metalflake-blue vinyl covering made us the envy of every band.

Kustom amplifiers first appeared in pre-psychedelic 1966. Covering its amps in sparkly automotive naugahyde upholstery (the kind put in custom hot rods), Kustom had everyones’ eyes. What really kicked it off was the way it looked on TV. The Carpenters and Creedence Clearwater Revival had wall-to-wall stacks of color-coordinated gear which was almost as sparkly as the sequenced-covered curtains.

Next, our rhythm player bought a green one followed by our bass player who preferred not to be so “out there.” His was flat black. I, on the other hand, went to the middle with a gloss-black amp head with built-in effects and a “wah wah” pedal. For the bottom I had an old Fender Dual Showman cabinet with 2-25″ JBL speakers. In essence, I could be very loud.

We had the PA stolen after four months and bought a used one that didn’t look as nice. In 1983 I had my amp taken out of my truck. I just saw it, or one like it, on Ebay. I smiled as I went through the close-ups. It’s probably mine but the statute-of-limitations is way up and at least its still out there being played.