Fireside Chat

Artist's Statement
          Last Thursday night was a night I will not likely forget. There were so many wonderful performances. I found it interesting that the climax of this class would lead up to this live event instead of some media piece like we have been doing all semester, but then a quick look back on what we learned and discussed in class reminded me that storytelling is in all actuality a performance. Whether that be around a campfire, on the stage, in a song, or even a book, it is at its core an element of performance. I had so much fun listening and watching my classmates who did an excellent job in making me laugh, think, and feel more sympathy for some less fortunate people. I brought my brother and sister-in-law along with me and with very little explanation beforehand they seemed to catch the idea of the night quickly. We as "film majors" (although that is not really what we are) sometimes get caught up in the technical stuff but that night was a tap on the reset button and a reminder that what we really are is storytellers.
          I had a difficult time preparing for this and even coming up with an idea, but one very late night I remembered that many beautiful and renowned pieces of art have been about writer's block itself. I then went to work writing in song the very emotions of that late night. It was a blast expressing myself in very simple and straightforward terms. I can been practicing a song called Angelina by Australian folk guitarist Tommy Emanuel and had some of the cord progressions stuck in my head, so I gave them a twist of my own and added a bridge or two and suddenly a legitimate song emerged! Who would have thought writer's block could have been so productive! I certainly didn't.
         I had practiced singing with the prerecorded voices and guitar many times leading up to the night of the performance so I wasn't feeling too nervous... until my time was coming up. I don't usually get stage fright, but the success of the night and being the last one up must have got to me. Fortunately the song is pretty sedate and when I started singing the tense feelings started going away. I'm glad I had this opportunity to tell my story in a live setting. It was an awesome night.

by popular demand I am posting a recording of the song. I call it Midnight Creative Juice. Enjoy!
it should be downloadable as well if you were wanting a copy.