Conflicting Holiday Art

Because of the art I exposed myself to over the holidays, I now find myself feeling conflicted.  And yet I had a very enjoyable holiday, including two weeks off from work.

 

What were these conflicting influences I subjected myself to?

First, I was finishing up listening to “Bebop Spoken Here,” a four-CD collection.  From there, I went on to “Doo Wop Box 2,” another four-CD set.  Meanwhile, I listened to Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Ballet, and participated in a “you-sing-it” Handel’s Messiah.

Meanwhile, I was reading The Bell Jar and looking through two biographies of Sylvia Plath; and continuing my study of the “Beat” writers—specifically, I saw the new film “Kill Your Darlings,” about the killing of David Kammerer in 1943.

I suppose it was the Doo Wop and the biographies that made me realize how conflicted I was feeling.

After all, the Bach and the Handel and the Tchaikovsky— that music is such a standard background for the holidays.  It forms the standard background noise of the season—along with the Christmas carols we start hearing in November or even October now.  And I’ve been immersed in the Beat material for years—even “Kill Your Darlings” barely raised an alarm with me.  After all, I’ve played through the audio recording of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (same basic story) several times now.

And I’d read The Bell Jar before, long ago; I knew the basic story.

But I didn’t know very much about Sylvia Plath herself, other than how she ended her life.

To read about her, with the background noise of the Beats—contrasting drastically with the syrupy doo wop—now that was a set of conflicting emotions!

NaNoWriMo Did Me In?

I attempted National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) for the first time this year.  Last year, I just did random writing every day I could manage, but this year I actually wrote the draft of a novel—50,000 words plus.  And I started from scratch (I had previously written about 400 words on the idea, but I didn’t use them) – I had an idea, that’s all.
 

Three weeks in, I had to stop to work on some financial reports I do as treasurer of our writing group—lost four or five days of writing; but I made that up.

Still, the month rather “did me in.”  I have not been here.  I missed you, blog!  And I missed the sense of sharing something with my friends.  But I’m back, with new ideas—just in time for the holidays!

Meanwhile, I have been reading:  Finished Felice Picano’s book Ambidextrous.  Now I’m rereading The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath; and a biography of Plath to learn more about her.

Both books quite interesting—and I’ll be saying more about them!  Also watched the film A Good Year, with Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, and Albert Finney.

Also saw Kill Your Darlings, in the theater.  This experience was reminiscent of a year ago when I saw (finally!) the film of On The Road.  But more of these later.

Listening to music, as always; mostly, the four-CD collection “Bebop Spoken Here.”  But then, for some reason, I decided it was time to catch up on Rock—so grabbed “Bon Jovi’s Greatest Hits” at the Sunnyvale library.  Not to abandon Jazz, though—I picked up “Tommy Dorsey’s Greatest Hits” at the same time.  Now I’m back on Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.  It’s been an incredibly busy December—nine meetings/events in eighteen days! 

But now, some peace and quiet, hopefully:  I’m taking time off work.  Today is my last work day until Monday, January 6, 2014!