the current obsession

      FRIDAY 11/23/18 8:07AM--Suddenly, a couple of hours ago, while lying in bed staring at the ceiling, I started thinking about songwriting...so I dug into an old book of my originals, pulled out two or three and decided that with some lyrical refinements, I could use 'em...now I'm excited by the idea that I could play a song or two of my own at an open mic...
         9:09AM--added two more songs to my covers book...both from Roger McGuinn...gonna build an ORIGINALS book shortly...
12:48PM--now I have the beginning of my originals book...
3:13PM--what I just woke up from *I* wouldn't call a nap...oh well...I think I'm going out tonight...I wanna see if I can chat with Tom Blood about songwriting...I wanna drive my cat somewhere besides Wendy's...and if Tom and I exchange not word one, that's ok too...
SATURDAY 11/24/18 1AM--suddenly I kinda feel like an actual songwriter...go figure...
9:19AM--the Plan is to leave here at 12:30, taking my acoustic guitar, the Manchester bag and sandwiches...like I said before (I think) if Lou makes it to TMC, good...if not, that's good too...
10AM--a week ago I had one, maybe two, original songs that I could possibly play in public...now I have almost ten of 'em...I wrote a new one and went back thru some of the older ones and refined them...
3:30PM-Lou and I were a 7 outta 10 IMO...
6:10PM--got home from the open mic about thirty minutes ago...I was surprised at how many people showed up, both Musicians and civilians...the weather was/is  pretty bad...at this point in time, the guitar and the Manchester bag are still in the car...I'm waiting for the rain to ease up some...
7:21PM--gonna go back out to get my guitar and bag (and phone) shortly...it has stopped raining completely for the time being...
            Looking ahead to Monday's open mic at GYY...It belatedly occurred to me that, well-known or not, I should play songs I like the most--because those are the ones I KNOW the most...for instance, I think I know Alice Cooper's  CLONES better than I know Bob Seger's TURN THE PAGE...in fact, I know some of my own songs better than TURN THE PAGE...I think I could sing/play CLONES w/o reading the lyric sheet, especially if I REHEARSE a little...I like the song therefore I know the song...I don't think anybody in the audience would be familiar with it...I would have to slow it down a bit, but that's no big deal to me...
               I'm not 100% sure but I think the guy I saw at the OTWC last night relied on his iPad/tablet more than a little...I once saw him absolutely mangle the words to GIVE ME ONE REASON--and he was USING a tablet!!! *I* think I could possibly do a halfway decent job singing it w/o any type of crutch...that is, if I had enough advance notice to give it a single listen on my phone...
            Someone I talked to today in Damascus said I could/should sneak an original tune into a three-song set, bracketed by two more well-known songs...because three originals by themselves is artistic suicide...unless yer at a SAW event...I feel NOW like I could do one Monday at GYY...perhaps my enthusiasm is causing delusionment...
            One of my other songwriter friends offered some valuable advice when it comes to writing lyrics...he said I should (generally) leave space...there's not much space in the words to SUBTERRANEAN  HOMESICK BLUES, but any rule can be broken and besides it's Dylan...Ya have to know the rules before you can break the rules...
SUNDAY 11/25/18 9AM--I asked Ray for some tips regarding songwriting; he sent me a LOT of info...