The Biography Channel is airing their Peter Falk biography this week in tribute. I watched it last night. He led an interesting life, that’s for sure. He was so popular that people recognized him as Columbo in a tiny market in Ecuador. His wife suggested he wear a sign around his neck when they went out to eat in restaurants: Do Not Disturb.
Been thinking about music more than usual, lately. The story I finished last weekend was written mostly to the music of Steely Dan. I have no idea why—there’s no real association to the story. I just found this block of albums on my iTunes and realized I hadn’t listened to them in a while so I played them through as I wrote. Can’t say whether that influenced the story or not. Maybe.
For the new story, I’ve been listening to The Buggles, mostly, with a little Mike Oldfield Ommadawn thrown in for good measure. I wrote another 1200 words this morning. It’s just cruising along. I have a vague idea of how it’s going to wrap up, but I’m trusting my subconscious to not leave me hanging out here, 2700 words along. This is a completely unplanned story. When I saw the guidelines, I knew my spin, but everything that’s happened since then has been “discovered.” I began the story without any preparation and it’s just coming to me in scenes. I thought I was done at 800 words this morning, but then I got the next scene and wrote it, too.
I was introduced to the music of Andreas Vollenweider when I was living in Zurich back in the late 1980s. He’s a native of that city, and his father played the organ in one of the city’s churches. I was visiting a coworker and his partner before we went out to dinner, and they were playing classical music. His partner suggested playing Vollenweider, but my coworker told her he didn’t want to until the very last thing. “It will ruin everything else,” he said. To this day I’m not sure I understand what he meant by that, but the scene remains in my head for some reason. I suspect he thought the music was overproduced and slick compared to his Mahler and Beethoven, but I’m not sure. I like it, and have bought most of his albums ever since. I think he has a near-lock on the electronic harp market.
For some reason I can’t muster up the gumption to watch Falling Skies. I’ve recorded all the episodes thus far, but I haven’t heard anyone raving about it. In fact, I haven’t heard anyone talking about it at all. I’m a finger’s twitch away from deleting it from the DVR.
I won a couple of books from my NECON buddy Chris Golden. His second suspense novel under the pseudonym Jack Rogan, The Collective, comes out today. I didn’t know the pseudonym, but a little research turned up a likely candidate and I guessed right.
