The inspiration for song #6: a French post-impressionist painter

Is it March already? This year has been speeding by! Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in the new year and 2008 still felt like an awkward date to jot down. Between traveling for my day job and keeping up with life outside of work, I haven't been able to spend nearly as much time on the music as I would have liked. That said, I have managed to get some writing in and you're long overdue for an update.

The main progress I've made has been on writing some new lyrics. I've pretty much finished lyrics for songs #6 and #7 for the new album. For song #6, the lyrics took me much longer to write -- there were a couple of parts I just kept thinking about and coming back to and couldn't get quite right. The ending, for instance, was tough because that's when I wanted to deliver whatever commentary on life that I wanted to make with the song. In this case, I ultimately wanted to submit an answer to the age-old question, "why write?"

Song #6 is actually a bit of an homage to a French post-impressionist painter that I found inspirational during my visit to the Musee d'Orsay last summer. I not only found his work unique and compelling, but I was drawn to the story of his life. In fact, that's one of my favorite aspects of visiting art museums -- they're like gigantic storybooks bursting with drama, characterization, comedy, climactic moments, commentary, and description. I enjoy consuming not only the stories depicted in artwork, but the stories of the artists themselves. So many of them struggle to be able to pursue their creative endeavors, while others are discovered early on and find themselves a patron. What they all have in common, though, is that they made the time in their lives to create art. It's humbling in some ways, yet inspirational in others.

Now, many artists are criticized and ostracized in some way or another. But the reasons for why this occurs vary. In this particular case, I was drawn to the fact that this artist was criticized for being untrained and for painting like a child -- for being amateurish, in fact. He was born into the working class, went to college for something other than art, held a regular job for most of his life, and got a pretty late start on painting. He was different from other painters and didn't always hang out in the same places. He must have encountered the question, "why do you paint?" on numerous occasions. While I certainly didn't read the biographies of all the artists in the museum, I read a number of them and this is one that struck a chord with me. This one stopped me in my tracks. This one sent me through this surrealistic time warp where I imagined shaking hands with this fellow and saying, "hey, I think I know how you feel."

When I sat down to write a song about this, I wasn't sure that I wanted to write about this painter as a role model or a hero -- I'm old enough to know that role models change over time and that there are always things you don't know about them. I also wasn't trying to say that I wanted to be this person or to accomplish the same things in life. I ultimately decided to write about what I admire about him and to conclude with my own thoughts on why I write and why I think he may have continued painting himself.

So that will be song #6.

Actually, I should clarify that these song numbers reflect the order in which they are written, not necessarily the track number that they will get on the album. I don't have all the titles for these songs figured out, yet, so hopefully this will suffice for now.

A note on the Grammys

I caught some of the Grammys tonight and enjoyed some of the artist pairings and performances: Alicia Keys and John Mayer, Tina Turner and Beyonce, Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang, Josh Groban and Andrea Bocelli. Who was the mastermind that devised these pairings, I wonder? Some disappointments for me, though, occurred when Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova got shut out from the various movie-related categories for Once -- a terrific film if you've not seen it. I also would like to have seen Tom Higgenson win Song of the Year for "Hey There Delilah," although Amy Winehouse was certainly a deserving winner. As far as pleasant surprises -- I liked the performance of Leslie Feist, whom I'd never heard of before. Apparently, an iPod nano commercial tipped her song, 1234, which was distributed primarily through digital downloads.

Pacers in Birmingham

Detroit is a great sports town. From the Tigers to the Wolverines and Spartans, from the Red Wings to the Pistons, the city (and its state) has crowned many a champion in the past couple of decades. My favorite Detroit team when I was a kid was the basketball team -- the Pistons. I played some basketball in junior high and high school and naturally looked up to some of our hometown players, especially Joe Dumars.

Back home in Michigan for the holidays this year, I stopped by a coffee shop in Birmingham with some family last Thursday. And guess who walked in? No, not Joe Dumars. But, a couple of guys who were in town playing against Joe Dumars' Pistons: Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy of the Indiana Pacers. I recognized those guys because they played for the Golden State Warriors for a number of years before they were traded to Indiana.

On our way out, we stopped by and said hello. They were nice enough to take a picture with me and my brother-in-law. It's one thing to watch these guys on TV or from the stands with 20,000 other people. But, they're much more real -- and a bit taller -- when you actually meet them face to face and shake their hands.

Photo in the New York Times

After a picture of me at a group dinner wound up in the New York Times last month, a few thoughts passed through my mind. At first, I was pleasantly surprised when a friend of mine sent along the email informing me about the article. It's not every day that your picture ends up in the New York Times -- even on their web site. That was a bit of a fun departure from the daily routine.

My second thought was one of gratitude. I'd always been grateful for the unique opportunity to attend MIT. I was never the kid who grew up expecting to go to a school like MIT -- I was the kid that worked really hard to get there, but still felt lucky to get in. And when I did get in, I thought the excitement would be fairly short lived because there was no way I could afford to go. I grew up in metro Detroit and attended a public high school whose lovable-loser teams would get squashed by the prep schools in just about every competitive category -- only, I'm not sure we were that lovable. When I received a letter my freshman year in college telling me that a portion of my financial aid was from the Tang family, I felt gratitude for this man, Jack Tang, whom I didn't even know, for helping me out with my education. And when I finally met the Tang family years later at an alumni dinner in San Francisco, I was again reminded of their immense generosity. I was happy to see this article highlight their philanthropy and encourage a culture of giving among wealthy Chinese-Americans.

My third thought was a reflection on identity. Some times you get a glimpse of how other people see you and when this happens, it can be a bit eye-opening. To be labeled a nameless, "poor Chinese American" in this particular photo is not typically how I'd seen myself. Of course, as a kid I was aware that we didn't take that many family vacations, that we shopped for clothes at discount and thrift stores, that not all my friends worked newspaper routes and jobs at McDonald's to save up money for college. For some reason, though, I never really thought that all of this meant that we were, in effect, poor by some standards. My parents always provided for us, after all, and we never went to bed hungry. For the New York Times to be the one to call us "poor" -- well, that was a bit thought provoking.

Thanksgiving Nephew

It's great to have some time off for Thanksgiving -- to take a break from work, to spend some time with family, and to write. It's especially enjoyable when you have an opportunity to meet new family members. For me, this Thanksgiving was a chance to meet my very first nephew (or niece for that matter) -- born only about a few weeks ago. A number of my friends have had babies, now, and each time it's always particularly fun to meet the kids the first time. When it's your sibling's turn to experience parenthood, though, it feels a bit different. Maybe it's because you still remember when you were kids yourselves, running around home, playing board games, getting into trouble, and in our case, moving into a new neighborhood every few years. Or, maybe because their kid automagically turns you into an Uncle... just like that. It's unfortunate that not all family got to see the little guy, though. Hopefully they will, soon enough.

I did manage to get some writing in over the holiday. Sitting in a cafe in L.A., I felt the creative vibes of the surrounding music industry as I worked out a melody for Song #5. I also felt the hustle of Black Friday shoppers swirling about -- a very different sort of vibe, but energy nonetheless.

Tony Bennett -- Pop or Jazz?

Quick, name three songs you know by Tony Bennett. I admit that prior to last week, I probably could not have done that. This week, I have a better chance of being able to do so now that I've seen him perform -- albeit briefly. Tony stopped by my day job last Monday to talk about the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts that he co-founded in 2001. He also sang four songs: They All Laughed, Who Cares?, The Good Life, and I Left My Heart in San Francisco. While his voice is very distinct and identifiable, what struck me most about this particular performance was the interesting subject matter of the tunes. His lyrics not only included references to business and famous cities, but also inventors like the Wright Brothers, Marconi, Whitney, and Edison. Having written songs in the past about technical innovation and the work place, I was inspired to hear some of his songs cover a variety of topics beyond what mainstream music tends to address today. So is he classified as pop or jazz? His songs are listed under both categories on iTunes, while on Wikipedia they call his genre "standards" as well as "traditional pop." Regardless, I may go ahead and search out one of his albums for a more detailed listen. An octogenarian, Tony looked to have an impressive amount of energy and charisma -- another point of inspiration.

Chronicles of a New Album

The time is appropriate to officially announce that I've begun work on a sophomore album. I learned so much while making When So Late Becomes So Early that I've been itching for quite some time to give it another go.

Why now? Well, first of all, I just finished graduate school this past spring and had some much needed time off this summer. I got a great head start on writing a bunch of new stuff already and I've had so much to write about -- including meeting my lovely wife, our memorable wedding, and more traveling than I'd ever done before.

Second of all, my recent trip to Paris was truly inspirational. Seeing so much art at the Pompidou, Louvre, Orsay, Rodin Gardens, and numerous cathedrals was very rejuvenating. Learning about the artists' stories, subject matters, the plethora of their work, their commentaries and observations of life, connections with audiences, the numerous challenges they faced, and their persistent desire to create an experience -- it was all quite thought-provoking and motivating for me. In addition, having the rare opportunity to write in the beautiful Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens, in front of Sacre Coeur, and in the Rodin Garden provided the proverbial kick-in-the-behind to get moving.

As far as my time frame, I'm targeting release of the album by the fall of 2008. It may be slow going at times, but I'll do my best to provide a progress report on this blog. Will I be able to stick to this deadline or better yet, beat it? What obstacles will lurk about? Who will lend a helping hand? What shall I name it? Should I listen to the critics or ignore them? Will I be overwhelmed by the daily grind and have my artistic soul crushed by responsibility...?

Wish me luck.