Monday, August 18, 2008

Retro-Hungaria Musings and Caterwauling

Before myspace and rampant computer use, I used to send out direct mail pieces to keep fans of the band informed, and inflamed...at the height of HUNGARIMANIA, I was sending out over 20,000 pieces of direct mail on a bi-monthly basis...that may not seem like much nowadays, but believe me...back then, a total fuck-load of work...you try running a band and a record label, crafting the pieces, writing the copy, printing them, peeling off 20,000 self stick mailing labels, affixing them to the mailers, paying for the bulk mail postage....every two months. I dare you.

Any way, these mailers really were a prehistoric form of a my space music page....calendar of upcoming shows, pictures, a little humor (The mast head read: " A comPendiuM of UnRuly CateRwaUling"....if you'd like to see the original cut and paste art, go to my ReverbNation page and look at the "Art and Graphic Retrospective Album")

The other feature was a column entitled "Notes from the Zomboy"....again, an ancient form of blogging....I was just as much into sharing the philosophy as I was into selling the music, if not more...and this vehicle was my little "Bully Pulpit".

So because I have decided to be "me" again, after a long sabbatical...I thought it would be helpful to dig back in the archives to see what that former self was all about....so I pulled out some of the archived mailers, and started to read some of my old "columns"...and the general feeling I got was...."whoah"...that's some heavy shit I was laying out. So every once in awhile, I'm going to publish them here in the blog.

This, from March, 1995:

When embarking on Life's Journey there are potholes, pitfalls pratfalls and booby traps all along the way

What seems as the right choice, in retrospect, potentially can be the worst turn you could possibly make…such is life.

It's seductively easy to focus on an electron, conviently at the expense of the realization that that electron is part of a molecules in the leaf of the tree in the forrest of the town in the county of the state of the country in the continent of the hemisphere of the planet in the solar system of the galaxy, of this one particular universe add infinitum.

The trick is to see the electron and the universe at the SAME TIME…to have razor sharp focus with your blinders off!

When I'm playing with the Hungarians and all these great musicians are firing on all cylinders (and with 13 people …a difficult stage to reach)..and the audience is firing and popping right along with us, something strange occurs.

I'm right in the center of the hurricane, but like some near death experience, I feel like I'm floating ten feet up in the air, checking everything out like some ghostly observer, marveling at the sound and the scene that is taking place before me in real time.

Like a making a movie and watching it at the same time,

Like seeing the electron and the Universe at the same time

No comments: