Why Art is Great.

I’ve always told the worst stories. You know that moment when people say ‘Hey [insert your name], tell [such and such] about that time that [whatever happened.]'. I fear this moment. It’s not that I don’t like stories. I just don’t like them when I tell them. And that’s because they’re bad.

Usually it’s somewhere around the middle of the story that I’ll forget the point entirely. Because usually this is when I notice that everyone is listening. I'm not really sure how to describe what happens next, except that if feels as though I somehow float outside of my body (like a dream-sequence in a halloween episode of The Simpsons), and start watching everyone watching me. Then I usually trailed off, or grab on to any old point that’s floating around my head and pretend that it was the main point of the story from the start. Generally that goes very badly. Welcome to my brain.

This is what I like about song-writing. You get to plan the whole thing before you start, no-one asks tricky questions and at the end, and people either ‘get it’ or they don’t. And so long as you don’t make faces, it’s ok if you trail off because people will think you meant to. And if people ask you what a particular song was about, you don’t have to explain. Because art is great like that. 

But, I should probably be able to explain.

Which is one of the reasons that I’ve taken to writing this blog. The idea is to practice of writing a concise story. A story that says something. Something, and not ten things, and not nothing. Looking at last week’s blog… I’m sure I’m not there yet. But no harm no gain, right? Right? Not like it's a public forum or anything.

Someone arty told me yesterday that any idea is worth pursuing. The annoying thing about good advice is that it gives you no excuse not to take it. So this week I will practice having confidence that my stories are worth telling. 

I figure if I can limit out-of-body experiences in the process, that’s probably not a bad thing.

 I’ll be playing at Libation in Fitzroy on Wednesday 1st of February at 8.30pm.