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Pahchisme Plaid

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Blog Entries posted by Pahchisme Plaid

  1. A Most Wonder-filled Walk. 🏃‍♀️🏃🏻‍♂️🚶🏽‍♂️
     
    The other day, I went for a walk after being shut in for the winter season. 🌥  It was a fairly warm day for what we’ve been having.  It wasn’t one of those days where all was beautifully new and lovely to behold. 🤧
     
    I decided rather than let my mind wander on this walk or going for a power walk, this walk was going to be a sensory walk.👟🚶🏼‍♀️
     
    If you’re like me and you find the demands in your life can at times feel overwhelming or you only have a bit of time to take out of the day for yourself, you can do something of a walk regardless of if only ten or twenty minutes.  ⌚️⏱My walk was quite short.   If you schedule in some time for writing after, even better.📝📓✏️. It will put your senses into word visuals.
     
    Try taking walks in varying weather ☀️🌧💦🌬 and different times of day 🌝🌔🌓🌒🌚 and in different places for the best array of sensory experiences.  
     
    Take note of where you are, who you encounter or animals/insects you observe 🐿🐜🕷🐊 and what they’re doing, what you see,👀 what you feel, experience, what you hear👂🏻, how it sounds, how If feels, how it smells👃🏼, it’s features.
     
    When you get home, brainstorm on paper ✍🏼everything you took note of.  This isn’t a time to be a self-critic🔨✂️.  Just get it down quickly.  Everything you can remember—before you forget.  
     
    Unfortunately for me, my working/short-term memory isn’t the best⏳, but thankfully my visual and experiential memory are the best means for me to retain information if I’m going to.  Don’t be hard on yourself.  Just do your best.🧢
     
    After you’re finished with the brainstorm, go back and add detail.  If you use colors, don’t just say, “blue”, say what color blue.  👖❄️💧🌊
    If you felt cold, write what it was that felt cold or made you feel cold—the wind, the air, your skin?.  💨☔️🌪
     
    How did your body respond to the cold?  Did you shiver?  Did you pull your jacket tight? 🧣🧤😨. If you saw a wheat field, what did the wheat look like, was it green, brown, gold or gray?  Was it heavy with grain or just in bud? 🌾🌱🌅 Was it cut or blowing in the breeze, all in the same direction or swirling?  What else was in the wheat field?  
     
    How about the roadside?  What flowers were there? Rocks, sand, pebbles, grass, ditches, puddles?  🍂🌷🌿🍄
     
    If you were to take a walk in the ☔️ 💦🚶🏽‍♂️, there are so many visually and sensory things going on as you walk down the street, even the time of day and season will have different experiences.  
     
    Being in a space aware of your senses contains the experiences that can be translated into concrete illustrations for your lyrics.  If you do music, 🎸🎼🎹🎻🎺maybe it will leave you with a feeling that you can express through your music.  🎤
     
    The exercise itself may just hep you on your way to noticing things and people around you, the qualities and characteristics that add detail and emotion to your songs.🎼🎼🎼
     
    If nothing else, you may open the gates of creativity or release some tension, memories or fill your mind with ideas.  The most basic benefit may be that you have a moment alone grounding yourself.
     
    Try it.  See what it does for you!
    —————
    Here is my brainstorm unedited.
     
    snow soaked gravel road
    footsteps poised and slow
    puddles so large I have to go around
    slim ice smashed up and floating bits
    oak leaves tips poking near the surface
    mud brown puddles reflecting the skies
    crusted muddy snow
     
     
    cars humming growing stronger as they get nearer
    motors trolling louder when they go by
    until trailing off into the distance I can only hear
    the road meeting the tires
     
    trickling water echoing under the iron grates
    cigarette butts smashed into the sidewalk
    cracked pavement
    matted brown-gold grass mixed in mud
    brown splashed snow
    boot prints, dog paw prints smooshed
    into the soft ground
    yellow fire hydrant with an orange flag
    and a little pile of something that matches the mud
     
    birds chittering
    my shadow angled to the right as I head away South
    tires of a bicycle spitting up damp of the road coming up behind me
    shallow pools of water in the parking lot of the convenience store
    tire tracks mark the puddles in which they were parked
    the imprint fading away as they go
    Bold neon blue Bud Light bar light in the window
    bells hitting the glass door signal exiting patrons
     
    Turn around
    the air cool on my hands, the skin on my
    knuckles crinkle
    the sun warms my chest and pleasant on my face
    the gravel beneath my feet crackles
    the iron grate is silent
    I hear the soothing tune of a woodwind
    coming from within a building I walk by
    children must be taking a nap
    walking down my driveway
    I see the reflection of the clouds and my mis-shapen form
    reflected in the black body of the Envoy
    My feet are dry
    I close the door
    kick off my shoes
    slippers are soft and warm
    I hear the clock ticking over the stove
    two cats purring in the window sun.

  2. New Venture

    By Pahchisme Plaid ,

    I just recently started a new venture!  It was my first stab at interviewing for Songstuff.  I had the privilege of interviewing my very first lyricist, Patty Lakamp, and what a pleasure it was interviewing her.  You all should get to know her.  She is a delightful lady.  I hope you get the chance to interact with her on Songstuff.  
     
    I would like to hear that you read the article, but if you didn’t, I’ll let you know that she has been a journalist.  Would I ever love to hear about her experiences doing that! 
     
    You should know I think she had some tips on things in the article prior to it’s publication that I believe made it much more of a fluent read and she was so gracious in the manner in which she suggested them.  I think her journalism expertise and her graciousness worked for my benefit.  What a blessing!
     
    I am SO glad she was my first interviewee!  It led to a wonderful and fulfilling experience and has enabled me to look forward to the next one.  Stay tuned here on Songstuff to see who the next featured lyricist, songwriter or artist will be!  😉
  3. Creativity Killers and Creativity Stimulators
     
    So what stimulates creativity and what kills it?  Well, I don't pretend to have all the answers to that and as a matter of fact, lets just say I'm on an exploration trying to figure it out.  I still find it a challenge at times to pull out that creativity.
    I seem to be more in tune with what the creativity killers are in my life.

    I've discovered that feeling overwhelmed is one of the biggest creativity, in fact, brain activity killers, in my life.
     
    Having too much on my mental to-do list, multiple things/people demanding my attention within a short period of time, constant interruptions when I need to concentrate,  feeling sick or overtired, low blood sugar or fluctuations in blood sugar disorganized space (unless I can get into the headspace where I'm so focused I can ignore my surroundings) mental fatigue.   Looking at my above list, I have to brainstorm, "How can I combat these creativity drains?", so here I go to work thinking about what to do about them.  I'm looking at my mental to-do list and I think, "I need to sit down and write out a list of my to-do's so that I don't stress over forgetting something important. Then I need to prioritize what's most important and what I can let go of and of course, if there is the option to do so, what can I delegate? I might need to scratch in some phone numbers next to a few of them, so I don't have to slow down my process later when I address each task and I might even try to guess how much time each "to-do" might take.  I can get the less than 5 minutes out of the way first and scratch them off my list.
     
     However, I know from experience that interruptions delay completion of many of these "to-dos" from being completed in the simple timing that it appears.  Still, having that to refer to gets that off my mental checklist I'm trying to keep in my head.
    My schedule is inconsistent and being a mom and wife, I'm constantly "on call" all the time.  My outside-the-home work is somewhat inconsistent as well because though I know I will be working certain days, I can also be called in on short notice to work days that I'm not previously scheduled to work. It happens all the time, so sometimes I think I'm going to have some "free" time and then I actually don't.  I can't really do much about that, except....

    LEAVE....

    Its not often I do it, but sometimes, I just have to leave.  My household is very busy and demanding of my attention.  All my children are old enough that I can leave now if I absolutely need to.  One I choose to not leave alone, so I do work around that, but my go-to's are:
     
    Going for a walk (oxygen does wonders!) and think, observe my surroundings. Driving my vehicle to the local boat landing where I watch the activity on the water and get some thinking time where creativity can be stimulated.  (Here I can take my pen, paper and recorder with me in the car).  I curl up in the seat and start scratching my thoughts on paper Go to my local library.  Its quiet there.  I don't record there, but I do have pen and paper and lots of books surrounding me with ideas for creative thinking if I require them.   Unfortunately, leaving is not always practical and other people's situations might allow them to get the concentration time at home.  They might even have a "do not disturb" space that family members honor.  I don't.  However if I did.....
     
    Let the answer machine get the phone close the door turn off  cell phone turn off social media   Now that that is established, here's what I've come across lately...An article in the Huffington Post called, "Stimulating Brain Waves May Boost Creativity and Ease Depression", written by Carolyn Gregoire, suggests that Alpha brain wave stimulation is a considerable factor in creativity and also refers to a study being done on the effects it may have in allieviating depression.  The study she cites used electrical impulses designed to enhance alpha wave oscillations.  It showed participants performed an average of 7.4 percent better on a test of creative thinking".

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/17/brain-stimulation-study_n_7087828.html

    Do you have to get shock therapy to access those Alpha Brain Waves?  There must be other ways!
    Gregoire also states in her article that MEDITATION can increase those alpha waves and she links it to a 2010 Norwegian study.  See the above huffington post article.
    Here is a link to help beginners with learning how to meditate.

    https://theconsciouslife.com/how-to-meditate-a-guide-for-beginners.htm
     
    What I am about to say is not scientifically proven at all, its just a theory.  What about the music that claims to stimulate alpha waves, like this one?
     
     
     
    I happen to notice that there is a favorite piece of music that gets me in that perfect headspace for creativity when I listen to it.  You may or may not be a fan, but I discovered this on the soundtrack for "City of Angels" and I love it!  Its called, An Angel Falls by Gabriel Yared.

    What happens is I get involved in the music.  My heart races or settles with certain change-ups and sometimes my head feels like it will explode with emotion.  My mind is trying to picture when the grouping of strings come in and where the bows are on the strings with the different sounds and how their frett hands might wobble as well as the possible expression on the faces of those playing their instruments.  I do this sort of thing off and on throughout the composition.  Sometimes, I just see colored lines of light darting, circling, diving or rising with the music.  The thing that this does for me is help me to clear my mind of other junk, so that I can think creatively.  It makes me wonder if it stimulates those alpha waves.
     
     
     
    I've often also found that the times when creativity gets stimulated is during prayer, not exactly when I want it, but it does happen and I think for the same reason that it happens when I settle down to go to bed (I also get ideas in the shower).  Its because my brain is settling down from the day's activities.  I also tend to fall asleep at those times, too, so if that happens, I let it.  My brain doesn't function well when I'm overtired or sick.  Its all a gift--prayer, sleep, rest and creativity--they're all welcomed by me, so whatever happens, I accept it.
     
    So we've got the ears and mind so far.  How about tactile senses?  How often have you taken off your shoes and just "felt" the sensation of your feet glued to the ground or placed your whole palm down on a table or desk and paid full attention to what it felt like.  My favorite, how about skimming (if you're a woman) your man's stubble with the palm of your hand? (I do it with my face) just barely touching the ends or maybe even his short-cropped hair (crew cut) or bald head.  
     
    Guys, sorry, I don't know how to advise you, just the ladies.  You'll have to use your creativity.
     
    Okay, so that's ears, mind, tactile, lets do visual.  How about looking closely at nature.  I mean, really close.  Take a snowflake, examine it.  How many branches does it have? does it sparkle?  How about a flower?  Notice the petals, the stamen, the pistils, the pollen, the colors on the inside vs. the outside and hey, go for the tactile, too.  Feel those petals, they're often incredibly smooth on a rose or buttercup or if you have a dandilion, you can do like with the facial stubble above.  You just might have to wash the yellow off your face afterward.
    At night, you can observe the moon for its features, the galaxy for its features, feel the air.  All this does is to help push off the busyness and help to refocus.

    I suppose if you close your eyes, a pleasant smell can do the same, and if you take a moment to think of savoring your food, each bite, focussing on taste and smell and texture, it might be enough to feel that calm that I personally think is the first step in accessing creativity.
    Basically experiencing the moment.  I'm going to try it.  I haven't done so well lately.
     
     
    Since this is all exploration for me, I ask you, what are your creativity killers and what do you do to access your creativity?
     
  4. Oh dear....(sigh) the beginning of something is always the most awkward part...so I’m just going to break in by making conversation with my imaginary audience and if I get a reply, whoa!  I’ll have to give my imagination some major credit!
     
    I thought I would start by commenting about one of a few amazing abilities music has.  The ability to bring forth memories.  
     
    My earliest recollections of my personal taste in music began with those vinyl 45s.  I had some stories such as Snow White and the 7 dwarfs put out by Disney accompanied by a reading book.  I learned to follow along even though I couldn’t yet read by turning the page every time I heard the chime on the record.  I had also seen the Disney movie and learned the songs.  When I was outside I naively thought if I just delicately held up my arms with first finger extended like Snow White did and sang beautifully/sweet enough, the birds would come land on my fingers. (It didn’t work).  
     
    Another favorite of mine was a Sesame Street record where Cookie Monster sang “C” is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me” and Ernie sang a different track that went  “D,d,d, d, d is a vey nice letter, every day I like it better, that lovely letter called D,d,d, oh yeah! That lovely letter called D”.
     
    I remember taking a nap every day on the couch while my mother folded laundry and as I was dozing off, I’d hear “As the sands of the hourglass, so are the days of our lives” followed by the theme song tinkling it’s piano tune, dun, dun, dun, dun, DUN, dun dun, dun...”zzzzz”, sorry, don’t recall the rest as I was is Lala land.
     
    I recall skipping along a little golden book imaginary brick road that my brother, some kids my mother babysat and I had laid out down our hallway through the living room and into the kitchen.  We would start at the beginning linking arm in arm saying, “Follow the yellow brick road, follow the yellow brick road, (then sing-songy) Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the yellow brick road”  
     
    I also remember my brother and I standing beneath the maple tree we so often swang from (rope swing) and climbed on and looking up as the seeds fell (they looked like bras fluttering down) and we would sing “Shake, shake, shake your boobies (instead of “booties”) while we shook our non-existing chests thinking we were getting away with something we weren’t supposed to say or do.  We would giggle like mad as we did.
     
    As I grew a little older, I remember listening to Pat Benetar on vinyl 45.  “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and Blondie’s “Heart of Glass” and a song with a big green apple on the label of the vinyl with the song “My Sweet Lord” and I listened to them over and over and over.
     
    I have memories of riding to church with my dad on Sunday mornings headed to a late service at a different church. He would play 8 track cassettes in his truck and together we would sing, “King of the Road”.  I knew it by heart.
     
    I recall my older sister and her two friends outside with her friends playing “Hot Stuff” by  Donna Summers, pausing and rewinding the tape cassette as they were making up coordinated dance moves to the song.  I soon discovered my sister did not want me hanging out with her and her friends and she certainly didn’t want me imitating her dance moves.
     
    As I got into 5th grade I encountered  stage fright after my friend convinced me to perform a dance with her to the song, Elvira, that she made up.  I knew the dance well enough, but panicked on stage and zipped through the steps as fast as I could  not minding time with the music and zipped off stage after all the steps were completed.  She wasn’t too happy with me.
     
    I remember my fifth grade teacher, Mr. B. and all the things he used to do to shock his students (like scrape his nails across a chalkboard or slam a pile of books on the floor when all the students were looking down, quiet and concentrating on their quiz or test) trying to embarrass a classmate named Sherry by singing, “Sherry, Sherry baby”.  She would turn as bright red as a ripened tomato.
     
    As I got into Jr. high, roller skating was a favorite pastime and I loved the free feeling of gliding along on the wheels as my hair trailed behind out of my face and colored light swishing around the light gray floor while the BeeGees tunes were playing.  The faster the song, the faster the skate, the freer I felt.
     
    more to come... got to take a bit of a break.
     
    (Back)....
     
    My Freshman year of high school was darkened near the end of the school year with sorrowful news.  A classmate of mine who was in my homeroom, whom I had been close friends with through Junior High and was in her mid-term of pregnancy, had gotten into a car crash that killed both her and her baby.  Her brother had been the driver and was deeply affected by the whole incident.  The whole school was saddened by these events.  A friend of ours had selected the song, Free Bird, to play over the intercom in memory of her.  Now whenever I hear that song, it brings me back to that memory.
     
    I remember when i was a freshman, there was a guy rumored to have interest in me (all I ever heard was rumors--no confirmation).  Sometimes we would speak on the phone and he would mess around with his electric guitar while we were talking.  I heard him playing "Stairway to Heaven" and would ask him to keep playing it.  I was amazed with his talent.   Whenever I hear that song, I think of that moment.
     
    Round about my Junior year, I had a homeroom classmate who did take an interest and let it be known.  He was sort of a dark and brooding fellow.  Jeans, t-shirt, black leather jacket (also played electric guitar). Apparently, he always wanted to know what I was thinking when I was sitting in the window looking outside.  He called me sometimes and also wrote these amazing letters with such interesting character to his handwriting--long letters at that and many.  He asked me out, but I was just not interested in anything but a friendship.
     
     He was more of a romantic than me.  I wasn't ready for that kind of seriousness.  I wasn't ready for kissing or any of that stuff.  However, we remained friends.  He was a huge fan of Pink Floyd.  He was the one who introduced me to Pink Floyd.  I thought their music was a little bit creepy back then, but it grew on me.  I recall one letter he wrote me, he said he was in a tent at night with his good friend (who was interested in my best friend) and they were listening to who else?  Pink Floyd!  Particularly, "Wish You Were Here".  He said it made him think of me.  Now whenever I hear that song, I relate it to him.  He used to walk with his friend very long distances to leave notes, roses and candy bars for me on an old 57 Chevy that my brother-in-law was trying to sell on our lawn (see what a stupid girl I was back then!)  But then my dad took his truck and chased him and his friend down the road (cause he heard a noise outside) with a rifle in his truck and asked them if they had been on his property.  They denied it.  Wouldn't you?  He wanted me to watch some of the Pink Floyd videos, which I did and Whoa! that scene with the meat grinder just about turned my stomach.  Ewwww....
     
    There were high school dances and all the gals lined up on one side of the dance line and all the guys lined up facing them about six feet away (except for the ones dancing away off making out).  You'd think we were going to do the dosey doe, but no.  There were regular favorite rock songs played each dance.  I recall this one girl, long bushy curly dirty blonde hair and she danced in a world all her own, rolling her head to the music, taking up her personal space and twisting her body (she was a dancer) to the music of a song I don't know the name of or the group, but I remember very key sounds of the song. I wish I knew what it was called.  I don't hear it much on the radio.   The guys jaws dropped.  She definitely had their audience.
     
    I met my now husband my Senior year.  He had graduated from a different school a year before.  He called me every morning and every night.  We went on a number of dates and ironically lived just a short ways from each other, though we had never known each other until....well, too much to write here...got to keep some things personal.  He had this really nice truck he and his dad had refurbished with a very unique, attractive 5 colored zigzag on the side of a conservative navy colored paint job.  I could hear the truck rumbling up my driveway before I ever saw it.  However, he was a very conscientious driver and I was allowed to ride with him.  He had an amazing stereo system and some incredible tweeters in his truck and he loved to adjust his radio balance, treble, etc for perfection and it sounded REALLY GOOD.  I used to wear a sailor dress sometimes and I had long blonde hair/blue eyes and one day he wanted to play a song for me on his stereo, so he popped in tape of the Bellamy Brothers, "Do You Love as Good as You Look".  I must have turned the color of a tomato I was so embarrassed.  One of the bands I just loved to listen to that he played on that stereo was The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, particularly Mr. Bojangles and Fishing In the Dark---ahhh...they sounded soooo good on that stereo.  I can still remember how my chest rumbled when the drums did their thing in Fishing in the Dark.  Cool Change by the Little River Band was another favorite.
     
    At that time country hadn't been so pummeled into my music world as it had later been and I enjoyed some of it.  He and I attended a Clint Black concert, a Kathy Matthea concert, and a Vince Gill concert.  Clint Black's Killin' Time and Put Yourself In My Shoes and Nobody's Home are three other songs that will forever emblazon him and that truck and those times in my mind.  I drew the line with Dwight Yoakam's twangy country sound, dug my heals in, but eventually secretively grew to like him (Shhhh....my husband can't know).
     
    He pinned me down (haha, little personal joke there) and proposed to me around the Christmas after I graduated and we were married a year and five months later.  Our dance song was Alabama's, "Forever's as Far as I'll Go".  I dare say he meant it.  He's still with me, lol!
     
    I could go on, but I think this is a good place to stop.  What songs do you hear that call up detailed memories for you?  Where you were, who you were with, how it made you feel, and does it make you feel things all over again?  What powerful memories does music bring for you?
     
     
     
  5. This is a learning, probing adventure to discover exciting new sounds, methods, personalities and plans (of others I might add as I am flying by the seat of my pants at the moment).  These wheels are turning, but where the destination we’ll be led to is a surprise to even the one in the driver’s seat.  Let the adventure begin!

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