Good day to you. It’s a new year… I just arrived back at the tower. I was away a long time.. it was quite the pilgrimage to close out the year of 2021. I was gone so long that when I arrived back in BOK, me and Ezra slept outside the first night because I couldn't stand the idea of being away from the moon and the stars. I won’t lie, it’s a little odd to fire up the tower.. I’ve been sleeping in the woods for days.. but although I was away the gears were still turning faster and faster.
I’ll be brief today as I just wanted to touch base and relight the towers fully… and to let you all know I’m back and very appreciative of all the well wishes and emails I’ve received on the road to archers bay. I had some great readings and met some great people on my travels. I also had some amazing reflections and clarity on the topic of Diamonds Hadder and art in general and I’ll share them later in the first week of 2022. It’s confusing sometimes to me… defining what it is that I’m creating.. and why.. and to what ends I’m prepared to take this specific installation of art. In fact, that's exactly what diamonds hadder is. It's not music alone or songs or a band, it's a little deeper than that. It really is a painting with every color on all levels of the canvas. It took a lifetime to build it and it serves no agenda. Little trips like this offer some space for little answers to find their way to me. It’s so true that the empty space inside the glass is just as important as the liquid itself that is defined by that amount of space. A full cup just kind of spills all over the place and leaves you tippy toeing around.. slowing you down to some degree, and why? So you don’t lose a precious drop.. ha… a precious drop of what? We can be greedy holders of things.. hoarding our drops and choking the life of art itself. I’m not interested in that any longer. Let thing spill I say and move along. Things just move to quick these days to guard against every drip and drop... every start and stop... every turn and rock.
I’ll stop there for now.. as this topic and the understanding of what Diamonds Hadder iz has weighed heavily on my mind most nights and deserves a post of its own. For some reason my wandering mind wants that definition desperately, that answer. It wants that puzzle finished… nice and tidy.. those odd puzzle pieces snapped together.. it’s actually part of the big picture.... solving the master riddle that is. I’ve gained some ground on that clarity.. and with that comes a freedom to now complete the first level of the maze. A few odds and ends these early moons of 2022.
Long truly is the road my friends. I remind myself again and again, this is a marathon and not a sprint and the view along the way is part of the prize. Perhaps you should too, in your own endeavors.
On the ever smaller priority list of little final Diamond things that occupy my Hadder mind as it relates to completing the first maze this new year:
Mix “Rivers End”
Complete “Long is the Road”
“Crying Game” - produce/complete
“Ballad of the Dead Rabbit” - produce/complete
Rehearsals.
Tour.
Lets see what happens along the way.
PS I'll be taking down the "The Crying Game "and "Dead Rabbit" soon from the music page...as I'm getting close to actually editing and finishing those tracks.. If your into collecting demos, download them now. The new versions will be a bit more focused and condensed, so to say, with several re-sings and musical edits along the way. I've mentioned this before, as they took somewhat of a back seat while I was finishing other tracks... but they are certainly on the chopping block soon and I'm excited about finishing them.. and bringing them to a more focused vision of the songs in general. Its more about taking away some times in life, rather than adding.. a lesson that will certainly serve those sketches. At least that's what I hear every time those tracks pass my ears. Sometimes it's a matter of cutting and running too... knowing when to do that is quite the trick in life... huh.. I guess your heart knows above all of such things... my heart says there's something in those ideas and so I haven't pulled the plug just yet. To some degree it's my failure to date in not capturing the magic of those ideas yet, but I'm determined to present them and to honor the lyrics with a better presentation. Looking forward to spinning that clay again. We'll see how it goes.
Farewell and happy new year to you.
-j