I began writing most of my YLTLSBC posts well after 10pm, and I usually spent more time brainstorming and jotting down sentence fragments (most of which I didn’t use) than I did shaping these ideas into well-written blog posts. (In the future, I would much rather spend the same amount of time writing fewer, more developed posts.) The exercise has, however, made me more conscious of how I am using/misusing my time.

With YLTLSBC/September ending, I’m imaging a new set of challenges for myself in October. I’m trying to stick to a daily schedule loosely built around the work/creative patterns I’ve established this past month. (Turns out breaking up my work day by practicing music for an hour after lunch makes the rest of my afternoon much more productive.) Nothing radical, really, but a way to avoid wasting time in the margins.
It’s literally just a sketch right now, jotted down on a post-it note…

I’ll let you know how it goes, of course–just maybe not on a daily basis.

 

I want to take stock of and refine my media diet. I’m surrounded by headlines and hungry for context. My old filters have drifted out of calibration or I away from them. I’m holding out for islands of honest analysis in a sea of spinning assertions. I want to fortify my politics with poetry, more intricacy than intrigue, to strip the arbitrary from my art. I find this music full of bombast and static, and am unmoved.

 

2 frozen bananas, peeled
½ cup frozen blueberries
½ cup frozen raspberries
1 cup orange juice
1 huge-ass beet, diced

Add all ingredients in a blender and frappé.
Voilà, beet smoothie.
(Add water to preferred taste/consistency.)

2 down, 8 to go.

 

My CSA share never fails to include at least 3-4 beets each week. Unfortunately they take a lot more time and effort to prepare than any of the other vegetables, so my roommates and I just let them pile up in bottom of our fridge. Tonight I cooked them all at once, hoping that would encourage us to eat them over the next few days.  No takers so far… Looks like I’ll be crying pink tears this week.

Anyone have any good recipes?

 

In addition to editing an audio tour this weekend, I also engineered a concert at El Taller. People usually hang around for hours after the concerts end, drinking wine, strumming guitars, and singing folk songs.  This Saturday, I left my flash recorder on a table and joined in on the drums (empty water cooler jugs).  Here’s an excerpt from around 2:30 in the morning:

Guantanamera

 

I haven’t been playing as much guitar lately, so tonight I dug out my acoustic. After playing around with a new chord progression for a while, I decided to record and improvise some layers on top of it.

Calluses