No, I have not abandoned the idea of the Journal, although
thirteen and a half months of silence could strengthen this opinion quite well.
Probably, there were some more important things in my life, or some other
circumstances added to my laziness. So now I need to quickly sum everything up
and move on.
The Lost Time mercilessly punishes for each of its hours. So
today I can hardly remember just what I've been busy with this whole year. Only
some details of my creative life remained, around which my narrative can
further revolve. And talking about all-consuming life routine makes no sense to
me now, although even some aspects of creative life turn into it.
1. Writing. So far, I already have two stories, to which I somehow
need to give birth officially. The ideas on writing them came spontaneously,
just like on their constituent episodes, characters and storylines. The first
of them was being written as long as 16 months. It happened gradually, but
without push. I did not want to invent development myself, so I waited for the
continuation to reveal itself. I was really wondering just how the story will
end, and to be honest, by the end of the process I was a little bit nervous, I
was afraid that I'll miss the right moment. However, this story has eventually found
its logical end. The second story formed in my imagination quite long enough to
be then realized very quickly. 41 days passed from the moment I started typing the
first words up to the last period, typed just yesterday. Now I want to give
some pause to understand what can be done with all this. I really hope that in
the near future I will be able to talk in detail about each of these two
stories, or maybe three, or maybe about their future destiny.
2. Music. The calm in my Journal activity coincided with
that in my musical life. Playing with Road Movie band no longer gave me the
satisfaction as before, and so the natural process of alienation came, which
was aggravated month by month, and reached its peak in mid-November 2013. When
making music becomes justified only by its financial side, it becomes just another
part of everyday boring routine, and one starts closing his eyes on everything
else, and that happened to me. The social situation in our city (and, perhaps,
elsewhere) significantly lowered overall interest in attending concerts for our
public. Clubs and concert venues become deserted, and, alas, the financial
aspect is also stops working. Practically, no more reasonable motivation to
move forward is left. Almost. In my opinion, the situation could only be ruled
if we had documented and summed the previous stage of the group’s activities
up. We needed an album, which based on the format of this incarnation of our group
should have been recorded "live in studio." Only then we could think
of going forward. Too many bands in my country live by just playing cover
versions. Each of them may produce good session musicians, but not the creative
work. No, I do not think it is shameful – to play covers. After all, there are
bands concentrating on a given group. For example, please take a look at the list of the bands playing the music of Genesis. But when you create your own music....
The group needs new blood, but I too myself had to change
qualitatively. Currently, I play in a purely commercial pop project that meets
my expectations of mercantile-material nature and develops my musical horizons.
But when you want to play your own music....
Another paragraph in this section is taken by one project,
which I must write about very soon. It directly relates to my passion for the music
of pH/VdGG, and therefore must be described separately. The main thing in it is
not only to pay tribute to your favorite artist and get back to the studio work,
but the opportunity to sum up my long-delayed past, to reconcile with it and
begin to create my own music. Because when you create your music....
Once again, I thank all those with whom I was able to work
with, with whom I am working now, and with whom I will work in the future. Without
you I wouldn’t be able to understand lot of things.
3. Translations. In the field of translation I was not able
to realize my plans (and I wanted to finish translating the entire catalog of the
lyrics of Judge Smith), but I still have time to do that, I hope. However, there was a pleasant exception
worth mentioning here. It’s due to the feedback received
from a reader, the translation of "Curley’s
Airships" has been significantly improved. I also managed to participate in the review of a couple of translations
done by Sergei Petrushanko for his site, but a much greater contribution was
made by me to the "Chords" section of that site. The prolonged
contact with my classical Yamaha, the New Year gift I received a couple of years
ago from my wife and brother, gave its results. The guitar itself started
revealing her secrets, giving hints at how to play a particular song. On this
wave I have offered my own versions of chords to perform a number of songs and
albums by pH/VdGG, which are being gradually uploaded on Sergey's Russian pH/VdGG Official Web-Site as soon as they are
prepared and provided. Incidentally, this occupation had a huge contribution to
the activity described in the last paragraph of the previous section, as well
as to the purchase of a new acoustic-electric Yamaha guitar, which I managed to
use in recording and played one show with it, which, alas, I will regret about for
a long time until I wipe it off clean from my face with a normal performance.
4. Happiness. I’d like to sum up the results in finding
happiness. Did you know that happiness can be physically felt inside the chest?
It is so! The main thing you need to do is to find the right song for the
moment. And if it is a song of your own....
No no, I have not yet recorded my songs in the studio, although
I am on my way towards it, but I definitely believe that on the day when it
happens, I will have another page of my Life Path summed up and closed, and a
new one open.
To sum it up, today I say: we are happy in creation.
