Album Schmalbum and Poetic Revivals
I've been working on remastering the album a bit today. Some of the levels aren't absolutely perfect, and I'm attempting to make the whole thing more uniformly mixed. However, I'm not an expert at mastering, although I've learned quite a bit through experience. Some day, when I can afford to send my albums out to a mastering house, I won't have to fiddle with it anymore. But chances are, by that time I will have learned everything I need to know about mastering.
Went to Barnes & Noble last night, bought The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry for $25 plus tax. So far, it's an enjoyable ride, especially the ultra-vulgar yet profound poetics of D.A. Levy. I'm a big fan of most of the poets in this book: Diane DiPrima, Jack Kerouac, Philip Patchen, Michael McClure, the rest of the beats, the meats, and the antiwar poets.
Poetry is the ONE THING that has been a constant in my life, and it is the ONE THING I'm most passionate about. Poetry and music go hand in hand; to me they are the same thing. They both come from the same firey place in my stomach and bloodstream. The last four or five years I have neglected my poetry, and all of my life has suffered because of it (like when I stopped taking Tae Kwon Do and became more angry because I no longer utilized a positive outlet for those violent energies). I probably would not be so angry all the time if I kept to my poetry, but then again I will never really know.
I've developed mixed feelings about poetry over the past decade. I love expressing myself with poetic thought, and I love reading and listening to others. But so many poets are out to 'look cool,' play the fool and satisfy their social urges, instead of actually writing what is genuinely their thoughts - what is in their hearts and minds and what is burning, coursing through their bloodstream. It's a fire in the pit of the stomache that travels through the blood. I haven't felt it for a long time, but the more gently I pursue the world as 'poetry' (as opposed to purely logical and mathematical ideals), the more in tune with things I seem to be.
I feel like I'm back from a long trip to a darker place. But the funny thing is this: living poetry will take you to the same dark places, and darker still. But as long as one remains a traveller, a watcher and a poetic 'antenna,' things tend to go more in the right direction. Perhaps, like so many of these 'outlaw poets,' I'm destined to crash and burn and spend up my soul for a chance to immortalize thoughts on paper. But it's all I know, and it's all I can bear to do.
Meanwhile, back to mixing and mastering. This album is going to be pressed very, very soon. I was going to do it this weekend, but I'm about 100 bucks short of my goal. It's only a matter of time.
posted by novachild @ Saturday, September 18, 2004,
