Muses.Music.

Click for Part One
….
Flash
The anger and frustration he felt when he left his information on the window of someone who’s bumper that he and his wife scratched with their table leg while moving their furniture out of their first apartment together. The same car owner blamed them for a busted taillight and small dent, insurance didn’t cover it.
Flash.

He stuck his long slender right arm in between the open door and the chassis of the car without going all the way around and leaned in removing the keys. All of this was smoothly done in his peripheral vision without taking his eyes off the door of the bank.
Why is it that for some reason life always caught him on his best behaved days? He had beaten kids up and swindled money plenty times himself in other remote instances, with impunity. Yet, mysteriously, life put him in these “save the day” positions over and over where he felt it was obvious the line of acceptable bad behavior was being trampled on. No one else seemed to care enough to act, and it fell on him to do something about it.
“Come on now…”
Bobby’s mind almost seem to beg to stay focused in this life or death situation.
“…Even an abortion doctor would risk his life to save a small child whose fell into a lake…
Images of the swindled and bruised victims he left swirled through his mind, “That was that, and this is this,” he thought. Maybe this is how he was supposed to make up for it, or, um, perhaps karma is indeed a bitch.

The yelling got louder as they go closer to the door, since he crossed the street twelve maybe thirteen or fourteen seconds tops must have passed, it seemed like just pulling the keys out took him at least ten minutes though.

“And I could go on and on and on…..”

Two armed men: one with a shotgun who was short but some what more in charge then his pistol toting partner. Who sported a large and tall frame but not too distinct as to raise suspicion. They both burst out of the metal bounded glass doors of the bank and ran to the idling Infiniti.

Bobby felt his mind’s eye going back and forth into that observation screen view. One minute he could see the flint on the lapel of his jacket and then it would be surreal as though he was only watching it on TV. He was just as interested as everyone there with to see what would go down in this strange scenario. The police sirens could only faintly be heard in the background. They were still at least forty five seconds or so away from the scene unfolding in front of the bank. “Too late” he almost swore he heard the small leader say that in his head. They had bushy wigs on and the classic Zorro villain mask, very weird disguises. The weird get-up however, did cover up their t-zones enough you would have to look real hard at them on a different day to positively identify them.

First the tall one opened the back door and threw the money in the back seat behind the passenger side. He hopped in and ducked down as to not be seen while the small one slid into the driver’s seat. The sirens were still over thirty seconds away.

“Yeah!! And I could go on and on and on…..but who cares?”

Then the music stops.

Nope.
No one was doing anything. Instead, everyone was standing around just watching. A bunch of on lookers looking like they were watching a Hollywood movie scene being shot on location, which to be fair it really did look like it was. Couple people even pulled out their cameras just hoping to catch some action and make money from the tape. He took a look around and then hunched over and put his briefcase down against the side of the Pet Supply store. On the way up catching his shallow translucent reflection in the store window the tail wagging puppy in the background, he paused. The reflection seemed to disapprove of what it knew he was thinking of doing. Frozen in deep thought halfway crouched over the briefcase and with his head tilted to the side scenario after scenario materialized and disappeared in his mind as he thought. Nah. No. This is crazy you aren’t going to do it. Are you?
His eyes shifted back down to his briefcase handle and the latches on either side of the handle. He picked his eyes back up again and looked at the brown dog in the window yapping at him cheerfully; was it motivating or mocking him? And then he saw the scar under his eye that ruined his classical gentleman look and his quantum leaped back into time. He got the 3 centimeter scar in his last year of grade school by jumping in a fight to help a younger kid, which he barely knew existed. Not only did he get scarred from the brawl but those bullies would have it out for him pretty much everyday after that. Then he thought of how that scar made him look unprofessional and possibly changed his life. Time’s up, he turned his head back to the ground and began to bend back down.

He picked up his briefcase but didn’t continue to his car, instead he ran across the street towards the bank getting robbed, the song stuck in the back of his head all day suddenly seemed turned up in his head to deafening volumes he found himself needing to shout to hear himself think!

“Basical-ly I’m complicat-ed….I have a hard time taking… the easy way…

Flashes of his life came to him all of a sudden it was more like he was somewhere watching the whole thing on camera from a large screen that took up most of his view.

“I Wouldn’t cal-l it schiz-ophren-ic …”

He effortlessly made his way across the busy street, the people were on their cell phones which means the police could have been called and would arrive there soon, but you never know if they are bragging to their friends or calling for help.
Flash.
The look of pain on his wife’s face when he got fired for refusing to comply to company policy and cancel health insurance policies when people became too sick, despite a long history of good standing with the company.
Flash. There was a black Infiniti parked outside the bank motor still running doors open, he kept his eyes on the front door of the bank as he ran to the driver’s side.

“But I’ll be at least a two people today….if that’s okay”

Flash.
(To Be Continued)

Okay so let’s make this somewhat quick and to the point, this is by all accounts a BEAR market. For those of us not Economists, that means that the market is slow, not a lot of action, etc. Well, don’t look now but seems someone must have told Kanye West differently. It seems he doesn’t even know how to pronounce, let alone spell recession. Wait, let’s not talk numbers just yet though, after all we are music lovers not CPAs right? Let’s talk facts!

I’ve concluded that no one is more famous in music than Kanye West, this past decade. Miley Cyrus said she doesn’t listen to Jay-Z (who only worked part-time for the decade) and never heard one of his songs, but oddly enough she knows Cristal costs $1500 without a tip and can probably sing “Umbrella” in Japanese. That’s influence ladies and gents! So let’s talk influence; Kanye is influential VERY influential, in fact he influenced the aforementioned Jay-Z. ‘Big deal’ some of you say, ‘fans follow fashion and that doesn’t prove anything artistically’. But need I remind you that Kanye changed the nature of music with his influence I say, not just the fashion trends worldwide. Sonically, directly or indirectly, the world has felt the Bashful Bear’s presence. Need I remind you that before Kanye; music was light and airy and now due largely to his work inspiring other artists in many genres; music is more soulful and melody driven? You must have forgot that pretty much every English speaking person with a pulse knew the “Gold Digger” chorus? Now I know that that alone doesn’t qualify someone for the crown but when that is just another notch on your belt, you know you are a big deal.

He didn’t do it by himself either, but to me that lends even more credibility to the title of “Artist of the Decade”. The sound he reintroduced through his soul samples have changed the dynamics of popular music. Lady Gaga knows, Beyonce knows, Rhianna Knows, Taylor Swift found out . He also brought a lot of other critically acclaimed and commercially legit stars along with him:  Lupe Fiasco, John Legend, to name a couple. Pop music threw out the ultra happy high pitched tempo rhythms for a more soulful and thoughtful vibe, thanks to Mr. West, now almost 10 years since his first hit song (Jay-Z’s “H-to-the Izzo”), he is still slightly ahead of the curve and bringing us the “fresh”.

We all love the underdog story and Kanye is the underdog’s underdog. Therefore I argue: you sir or madam may not know it but you are more of a fan than you know. He wasn’t supposed to be heard like many of the other popular musicians with hard luck back-stories, which we see on VH1, but his story was a bit more desperate than the average…

*Video Break*

(cont’d)…initially introduced as a producer, he found himself pigeon-holed in the rap industry, but rose to fame and music success. As one of the hottest and most innovative artist in the business behind the scenes. Before long to get a hit you just need to have Kanye West in the background, and watch the money pour in. Sure, he could have cashed in and kicked back with his feet up. He could have done what so many before him did, get paid become powerful start a company and laugh all the way to the bank. But he strived for more, so he stepped front and center. Don’t let the results fool you there are many #1 producer mangled corpses strewn along the road of making the transition from behind the scenes to front stage! But, the few who survived are all legends. Dr Dre, Wu-Tang’s RZA, and Pete Rock are the few that have a number one album under their belt that they vocally performed on and produced. However Kanye West is the only one with a number one album he produced as WITHOUT performing on ( “Blueprint” Along with Just Blaze in 2001) and one which he did perform on and Produce or Co-Produce.

OK So Let’s Talk Numbers:

5 albums and 38 songs which made it to the charts as of week 10/2003. The songs spend a total of 3199 weeks on the charts, and the albums a total of 806 weeks. Through The Wire was the first song to hit the charts on week 48/2003

(Source: http://acharts.us/performer/kanye_west)

However, numbers aren’t everything in my opinion. A lot less talented artists *cough* can boast of much better sales, true. But that has less to do with what they are putting out in stores and who is putting it out for them on a whole. Which is why my case started with his impact rather than his chart performance. Let the record show: Kanye West is one of the few artists in pop music in this digital age that seemingly can craft a masterpiece from start to finish (or at least has the best shot of doing so). This fact alone speaks volumes as to why he is going to be remembered as the biggest icon of the decade. Also, I will concede my bias due to the fact that I am a strong supporter after he slighted unpopular president Bush during a telethon for Katrina victims, which I always see as fake and press ops for celebrities anyways.

And just in case you are wondering I would never end this with a cheesy line or song title from the artist’s catalog like “Kanye West Says to Critics: Can’t Tell Me Nothin” to support my thesis. Never.

Live Well,
Muses

Now that’s multitasking!

Day #15:
Decent day got a couple more off shoots to work out think I want to do an outline asap! Actually had one of the biggest days word count wise (Did 3,100 now up to a bit over 35k for the month) after a slow start and planning to do only an hour or so of writing. Starting to feel more and more like a job or career now which is hella dope. Anyways I think I am going to do it until I got the basic draft out and then I am going to take a predetermined amount of time off like two weeks or so, and then revisit it maybe print it out and then rewrite it all to get the real working copy done and then take more time and so forth if I get lucky I might be able to develop a system and get this thing rolling *knock wood* (yeah I do that kind of thing) Anyways it is decided that when you got a lot of things to write about this is easy as pie but when you are stumbling in the dark it is such a nightmare that it makes waterboarding look as scary as a bubbler (yeah I say things like bubbler too…sometimes…when water fountain would seem cacophonic [sic])

Wishing You Many Sharp Plots

-M.M.

Day#16:
Good day today listened to Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse

This one is a good one but the tastes on the album are really gonna get you if you like diverse music, a bit of everything but well produced and written!

which was surprisingly dope.  Was easy to do the writing today took some time to think of the story though. I have a new arc that developed but didn’t realize it until now which is a day or so away from completion. Doesn’t look like this will get done until well into December which I can live with I guess. I did about 2,700 words today and that puts me bit over 38k words right now, so looks like a have a bit under a week, i might just push through Thursday or Friday and hit the 50k then take a couple days off to rewire my brain and jump back in and finish the Novel.
-M.M.

Day #13:
Today was crazy, I really had to pull it together to make it happen for me and waited till 12:30 to get started. It wasn’t the story or anything I think it was just my old habits dying, now I am slowly attuning my biorhythms to included a good two hour session of writing everyday (except Sunday think I might keep that down to one hour) This is one of the biggest reasons for me doing Nanowrimo not so much the book writing though that is a great motivator but the self discipline and daily grind is also something that I think will pay huge dividends for me in the future and not just with the writing part of my life either. I actually love it when I finish everyday it is a nice rush but the force of procrastination very strong with Young Muses, it is still. Okay Yoda jokes are usually the cue to leave, but I still have a lot to go don’t want to jinx it or get over confident so Nanowrimo Gods don’t forsake me I still need you!
-M.M.

p.s. Miles Davis “Birth of The Cool” (that’s right, no link – I’m beat) accompanied me for the two hours along with Little Dragon’s self titled debut I believe. Think I’ll use them a couple more times next week then try out some others. Both were surprisingly DOPE to type to. Word count today was about 2300 in two hours and the total right now is a hair under 30k and I am about 60% there

Day 14:
Today rather sucked. My story is falling apart a bit and i am just writing down possible scenarios at this point. I am not coming to grips with the fact that editiing and rewriting may be twice as hard as writing the ideas down in the first place. Which is cool. Maybe. I took a really long time trying to tie some old ideas in and it is possible I may be writing longer than the 30 day deadline, but shouldn’t be a problem dropping the 50k word count. Week two is one of the hardest and I am at a healthy 32k.

Day #11: Wow did a little more than 3,100 words today and very quickly. I am just past the halfway point today which i think is on course with where I would have been if I didn’t skip any days I think. I don’t know how this happened I guess it is just the power of Nanowrimo lol. Can’t wait till I get my life back though, this is a tough challenge. -M.M.

Day #11: Had fun today! Just bombed out another 2500 or so words felt good, only thing is this story is somewhat epic, but that may be one of those good problems. -M.M.