2. I found out about this book through this Stereogum thread about Beck's lyrics. There's a comment there that reads: "Of course the lyrics are great: aleatoric verse = the new ontology." Since I'm in a bit of a lyrical drought (as is always the case), and since I'm supposedly working on recording an album this month and lyrics would come in handy at some point, I started looking around to see what I could learn about Aleatoricism. At this point, I feel like it would be just as productive for me to simply take a random page out of a random book, photocopy it, cut out all the words and rearrange them. Getting back to the point - I've always admired people who can make nonsense sound cool - Beck's always been able to do it, as has Stephen Malkmus, and I've never been able to do it. I have a hard enough time putting words together that are supposed to mean something, and when I've tried being abstract and surreal, I sound fucking retarded.
3. That said, I am actually writing lyrics again, this time for that Neu-ish song I was working on the other day (which now sounds a bit too close to Wilco's "Spiders/Kidsmoke", goddammit). A friend of mine took herself off of Myspace without telling anyone, and I got a random email from a friend of hers wondering if she'd died. My friend wrote a poem about it, and as it happens, I'm also writing lyrics about it; I'm sure someone will now tell me that there's already a song called "You Were A Ghost".
4. Speaking of the album I'm supposedly making this month, I guess I have to come up with a new name, since M42 is probably a little too close to M83. Son of a bitch. I can't even be deliberately obscure without committing plagiarism. Have I mentioned that the greatest lyric I ever wrote - a lyric which is based on something that actually happened to me - is also the name of a band (which I'd never heard of), and is also a lyric in a Replacements song (which I'd also never heard of)? Maybe I should stick with instrumentals.
5. So tired. Was out last night doing a meet-and-greet with another prospective guitarist/songwriter for my friend Joe's recording project; we were booked into the smallest rehearsal room I've ever seen. Cramped quarters aside, I had a blast - this guy is really, really good, and he has one of the most beautiful Fender Strats I've ever seen (green, with matching headstock!), and is a super nice guy and I'd like to think we'll play rather nicely together. The only bummer about the evening was that I got incredibly self-conscious as the night went along - this guy is rather good looking, and I felt like a total schlub. I've gotta lose some weight. And see a stylist and get some new clothes.
And yet, for all this whining, I'm actually in a good mood today.
