14 November 2001
Homework

I've been on quite a lyric-writing kick the past couple of days. At Berklee they told me to let it all spill out, then sort through it later -- no censoring creativity until the editing phase, they said. It's still been hard, since words are so important for me, and I have written good songs with the censor in place. (Incidentally, it's really nice when that happens... sitting down with a blank page and having a whole song pour onto it, with hardly any cross-outs... definitely a framable collector's item. *grin*) But a few days ago Jim mentioned the idea of just "painting pictures with words," and for some reason that knocked something loose and I started writing. Waking up sick on a rainy day. Age ten, seeing clouds in the sky from a swingset. The smell of spilled alcohol and sweat on cologne. The quality of the lyrical output remains to be seen, and I'm going to be shy and keep it to myself for a while. But I feel like I've been given an assignment of sorts, a way to excuse what I'm doing as just an exercise, and it's fun to be back in school.

- VT