The Death March...

I had to go to L.A. this weekend; it’s no secret I’ve been working on a project I can’t talk about, and that has been sucking up the majority of my time, but that project is pretty much done as of yesterday, with only some minor things left, and I’ll be able to talk about it soon. It is simultanously not as cool as you might think and far cooler than you’d think, if such a thing were possible. But this final Death March to the finish would hopefully explain my recent silence.

Anyhow, the stretch of Interstate highway between Phoenix and Los Angeles is a radio no-man’s-land, unless your taste in radio runs to modern country, Mexican oom-pah-pah, or classic rock, in which case you’re well sorted. I long ago reached saturation with classic rock radio as a result of touring; I could easily make it to the end of my life without ever hearing another Pink Floyd or Eagles song and die happy. I can’t stomach the other two genres, so I load up the ol’ Pod with NPR shows when I make the drive. Car Talk, Wait Wait, This American Life, and whatever episodes of Fresh Air that look interesting will get me all the way to L.A., unless I’m in one of my Silent Moods.

You’re wondering at this juncture if there’s going to be a point to this post, and I’m pleased to inform you that I’m getting there. One of the Fresh Air episodes I had with me was this one, which is an interview that Terry Gross did with Jon Stewart at the end of last month. There were a couple things that Jon said that I found had dovetailed nicely with points I’ve been trying to make for some time, either here or in my columns for Computer Music (and specifically the column I just wrote the other day, which will appear in the December issue.)

In talking about the routine that is necessary to create the Daily Show ever day, he said that (and I’m paraphrasing from memory here) he felt that, creatively, it was important to have a strict set of creative limits within which to improvise, rather than complete freedom. I can’t remember the exact phrase, but that’s the general idea. There is also a lengthy riff on developing your voice as an artist, and some other subject matter that is interesting from an artistic standpoint, and easily applicable to music. It is well worth the 45 minutes.

Anyhow, we will now return to our regularly scheduled programming. Or something along those lines.