The Soundtrack for a Manuscript

I listen to music.

I listen to a lot of music.

I listen to a lot of music when I write.

Surprising, yes. Lots of folks can't write to music. I've always had some kind of soundtrack going on in the background. I like competing rhythms. Somehow the rhythm and melody of external music sculpts the mess of images that's flashing through my brain.

Anyway, this group is who I primarily listened to when I composed a lot of the poems for Furious Lullaby:



The Rachel's.

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Now, I'm listening to a lot of folk/alt-country stuff. Perhaps I'm mining for narratives. Lately, I've been listening to singer-songwriter types. You know, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, and some of the more recent folks like Colin Meloy of The Decemberists and Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes.



Conor Oberst.

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Leonard Cohen.

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End of the quarter--I've got a class this Friday, then Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Whew. I'm beat.

What's also been stressful is that the little guy has been waking up almost every two hours. Meredith and I are sleep deprived.

Luckily my parents will be here on Saturday.

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My real current spin is this: