Peter Case and a Honor Placque

Donita Curioso, Bro Atom Bomb and myself are taking a songwriting workshop with Peter Case at McCabe's in Santa Monica. Very inspiring. Our homework this week is to write for exactly 10 minutes every morning first thing. No newspaper, no Pop Tarts, no nothing. Just write about an object using the 5 senses before you do anything. I'm already feeling a wee bit like Burt Bacharach.

Peter's very good. He's been writing since he was 11 so he has a world of experience. So far the class has been excellent.

Here's my 5 minutes, as it happened and unedited, for the day:

Timer

The ticks will drive you nuts
They never stop, incessant
like the nails being driven
in an oak box,
like someone yelling Now! Now! Now!
over and over
each leaving a tiny toc bruise
in the field of skin. I can smell
the passing of each Now
as a dirty wind
watering my eyes
howling in my ears
tasting of onions and nothing
over and over again.
The ticks can't be held.
Try and catch one.
Try to stop it.
Gently snatch the tick
and caress it til ceases.
My heart says know.
The blink of an eye says believe it.
The puttering of blood through my veins,
damned thin,
exhausted,
comes dancing at an awkward pace,
like a waltz in four four time.

We are also supposed to write a song for this week.

Here's my rough lyrics:

How could you have known
A million years ago
You'd be a quart of thirty weight
And a buck for Texaco.

Today you run my car
To shop and work and play
To you I owe most everything
For this easy living way.

Chorus:
Thank you dinosaurs
Thank you thank you
I thank you dinosaurs everyday.
Repeat

I want to be a dinosaur
And lumber all around
Become extinct expressly to
Become a puddle underground.

Chorus

Thank you Godzilla
Thank you Kong
Thank you Mothra
Thank you Rodan
Thank you Puff
Thank you Marc Bolan
Thank you Cabazon.

Whew! It ain't easy being an artiste!

This Friday, Viv and I are going to be honored with a placque and a free ticket to a show at Performance/Rio Nada. The Viv and I were founding members of this weighty theatre group some 25 odd years ago. It's nice.

But the real honor for me was that I worked with so many wonderfully generous and talented maniacs during those years. Some have since passed, some are ill (and their courage astonishes and inspires me). All are scattered now. Gary, Patricia, Mary, Susan, Jeff, Jeff, Steve, Mikey, Paul, Doug, Karen, Michael, Mark, Robin, Cynthia, Carol and many, many more. What a lovely bunch of coconuts. Would that they were all with Viv and I on Friday.