DeanZine - July 2004
Many incredible goings on in the universe lately: Burt Rutan's innovative space craft, SpaceShipOne, became the first
privately built craft to enter outer space when it reached an altitude of
over 100 kilometers above the Mahove Desert; for the third
straight year, Takeru (aka the "Tsunami") Kobayashi of Japan, out-gorged
the competition in Nathan's Famous 'Hot
Dog Eating Contest', dominating
adversaries three times his size, and shattering his own world record by
eating 53 1/2 hot dogs, using his patented 'Solomon' technique -
he breaks the hot dogs in half before eating them. But something
equally amazing happened today, right here in the bosom of suburbia. Alison
and I are still a little stunned. Our teenage kids, Hannah and Sam -
without any prompting, coercion or bribes - surprised us by cleaning the
house and preparing a delicious dinner. (Including a tasty salad)
Incredible!
Those of you with kids will immediately recognize that this is akin to seeing real faeries in your backyard, or to having someone return your lost wallet with all the money still in it. True, it's possible this is part of some devious scheme of theirs to butter us up before revealing that they've sold the house or are dropping out of school to join the circus. Or it could simply be that they are inevitably becoming mature, responsible young adults... on the road to independence.
Could it be? Our kids? Growing up into independent people? Probably, hopefully. Independence is a state to aspire to, and to value once you've achieved some measure of it; freedom to make your own choices, freedom to follow your own path. Freedom to be yourself, instead of some pre-prescribed version of who society - or your parents - would like you to be. Freedom from the whims and vagaries of simpletons and bureaucrats... I guess that's redundant.
But of course it's not really as simple as all that. Flight pioneer, Burt Rutan would, most certainly, never have been able to achieve his remarkable design success under the auspices of a bloated NASA space organization. Then again, he wasn't alone, billionaire Paul Allen kicked in a few million bucks to make it happen. It was his independent spirit that enabled him to achieve his goal, but he didn't do it alone. Hot dog champion, Takeru Kobayashi, towered over his bigger rivals by virtue of his independent spirit and determination, but I'm willing to bet he did so with the emotional and financial support of family and friends.
My own independent artist status enables me to pursue my creative projects in an industry that would otherwise prefer to deny me any access to my audience or means of distributing my creative wares. But again, the definition of my 'independence' is loosely defined; I don't really do it on my own. Nobody does.
I guess it's an independent 'streak' that's most important, not necessarily independence, itself.
Either way, dinner was delicious!
Meanwhile, I'm leaving in four days for London and my Summer Tour 2004 kicks off in exactly a week of my writing this. I should be in a total panic. Uh, actually I am in a total panic, but I've got so much to do it barely registers. I've still got to pack... 3 pairs of inflatable 'smelly' feet, 3 fireman outfits, 4 bumble bee costumes with aluminum pie-pan wings and antennae, 3 fairy princess costumes complete with magic wands (a fairy princess without a magic wand is a definite fashion no-no.), a foot pump (to inflate the 3 pairs of 'smelly' feet), a water cannon, a bubble machine... and in case you hadn't guessed, that's just for the kids shows!
Fortunately, Alison and Hannah have volunteered to help organize the costumes, but I've still got a zillion and two other things to prepare to pull this off. See, the wonderful thing about being an independent musician is, well... the independence. On the other hand, the thing that sucks the most about being an independent musician, is that, well, you've gotta do almost everything, uh, independently! But like I just said, I don't do it all by myself, though it seems like it sometimes, and I'm grateful to my family and friends and musical supporters around the planet, who continually pitch in to lend a hand and help make this all possible.
But listen, I'm not complaining, just trying to explain my frantic state leading up to the tour and provide an admittedly lame excuse for why this DeanZine is so late and why I haven't been able to answer as much email as I usually do, and why I still haven't finished the technical spec forms for the Fringe shows, and also, while I'm on the subject, make mention of the fact that, while most of the material is already written, the next album is going to be just a few months late. (It's due in September, but I expect it to be ready for a holiday release.) But don't worry, I'll get it all done. And hopefully, you won't think it's total rubbish (and all ask for your money back!) and this craziness will have seemed worthwhile. Right? ;-) And we can all sit around sipping a well deserved root beer float, reminiscing about this hectic time. O.K. I see you nodding your heads (I hope!). That's good.
By the way, speaking of the DeanZine, if you haven't checked out Matt's Mindbenders yet, you should really give 'em a try. They're really clever and a lotta fun to puzzle over. Of course, I have to confess a special fondness for Earl the Squirrel's latest adventures in the DeanZine feature, 'Bosom of Suburbia'. If you haven't had a chance to visit with Earl, take a peek at this little preview from last month's issue, when he was first introduced, which should give you a little idea of what it's all about. 'BOSOM OF SUBURBIA - PREVIEW'.
Anyway, I've still gotta pick up a UK adaptor for my Kurzweil keyboard and make hotel reservations and print out my itinerary and buy a new tube of toothpaste and finish the end of this State of the Universe report which I am about to do just about... NOW!
Take care, everybody and hope to see you on the road!
Deano
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