I think I've decided that the name of my next album/ep/compilation will be:
Dreamtigers
It. Is. Perfect.
Except for one thing: Dreamtigers is the name of a Jorge Luis Borges short story and was (briefly) the title of the book "El Hacedor" (The Maker) after the original publisher thought the original title was too theological. I'm not clear on copyright law as it affects titles of 48-year old works being used by completely unknown artist of a different medium out of respect and admiration. I don't think there will be a problem, but I like to give people their due. My last album had a Cash cover on it, and I paid the royalties on that, fair and square, for instance.
I had this epiphany last night. After seeing the two Katies play a few songs at the French Quarter and eating one of their shrimp baskets, I went home and tried to go to sleep. After an hour, I gave up and grabbed my Borges and headed for the living room. It wasn't long before I realized that (unsurprisingly) everything that I had been thinking about and writing about had already been thought and written - and here it was. The story 'Dreamtigers' does not measure even a full page. But it was long enough to sencapsulate the last few years of my life.
That's why it's the new title, and that is why Borges was a genius.
I also had an intense desire to learn Spanish at that moment. For those of you who may not know much of Borges, he was an Argentinian author who wrote in what is known as "Magic Realism" or "Irreality." One publisher notes that The Maker aka Dreamtigers "explores the mysterious territory that lies between the dreams of the creative artist and the 'real' world." A lot of his work deals with the truth or concreteness of the imagined and ephemeral, and his storytelling weaves quotations, historical narrative, fiction, the gods, and the impossible together in such a way that each is completely inseparable from the other... heck, unless you are as obscenely well-read as Borges must have himself been, its not just inseparable, sometimes its indistinguishable. The point is, Borges has really affected my songwriting after "The Shortest Distance..." and you should read him.
In other news - comments are working - all the comments you left lately have not been lost and are posted now. I just had to approve them - DOH!
Posted by pedalboy at April 23, 2008 9:03 AM | TrackBackDoh indeed
I like the title. We need some special artwork for it though.
Also, did you go to idisk.mac.com/crmacri yet and retrieve the tracks from the public folder for Any Happier? If so, CALL ME, and we can discuss what you think and if there's any ideas for anything else to do on the track. Once I finish my wedding music, I'm going to be full steam on the other two of your songs, and then the eventual rest when you post them for me. Sorry for the delay, but I've had to write, arrange, and track that stuff first.
So so so so so.
Posted by: Chase at April 23, 2008 1:51 PM@Chase
not yet - will try to do that tonight. Totally understand about other stuff taking priority. I also agree about the art, however, I'm seeing the packaging/distribution for this project as being much more "guerrilla" than my other projects. This will mean a few things, good and bad. Hopefully the (assumed) increases in distribution will outweigh the challenges it will present to the art/packaging. I just want more folks to hear my music, and to do that, we're gonna have to keep costs down on this one. That doesn't mean it can't still be good, but it will have to be different.