Play For Today: Into The Breach

2 January 2009 | 1:53 AM

Since it’s 2009 and all, it’d probably be a good idea for me to get cracking on my new year’s resolutions. However, because my attention span and lack of stick-to-it-iveness have been an obstacle in the past, I’ve been hesitant to go on the record with any such decrees, if for no other reason than it seems to me being a fella with flaws is better than being a fella who doesn’t follow through on what they say they’re going to do. That said, I do think on the whole that such resolutions are important: they can provide a structure for self improvement that many of us (read, me) lack. So in that spirit, I’ve decided to go on record with a resolution that should be entertaining if nothing else, if for no other reason than it can be amusing to watch one make a fool of himself publicly. However, me being me, I was unable to come up with a really out-of-the-box, truly inspired goal for myself, so I’ve done the next best thing: I’ve nicked one from someone else.

A few years back, geeky musician Jonathan Coulton undertook a very interesting experiment he called “Thing A Week“, in which he challenged himself for a year to each week write and record a new song and publish it on the internet for people to enjoy. For Coulton, this experiment was primarily a means to establishing a sense of discipline as a creator, but I think it suits my purposes nicely, except for the fact that I can’t really create anything. Be that as it may, I’ve decided to co-opt the Coultonian (look it up) model as my own. with two key exceptions:

1. rather than weekly, my goal will be to produce something daily, and
2. I’m allowing myself to consider any creative output posted for public consumption – a song; a poem; a review; a joke; a lyric; a photograph; a short story: you name it, so long as it is original and at least marginally creative – a success.

When thinking of a pithy catch phrase that encapsulates my new resolution, I discarded the idea of using “Thing A Day”, thinking that this might increase the likelihood of JoCo’s legal minions nailing me to the wall for IP infringement. So instead I elected use “Play For Today“, believing in my heart that being sued by The Cure’s recording label will undoubtedly earn me some sort of street-cred merit badge some day.

As this resolution/experiment unfolds, I would ask you to please keep in mind that I am anything but a highly-trained creative professional. My degree in film criticism, certificates in criminal justice and women’s studies and minor in Russian history have not really prepared me for this sort of endogenesis. Furthermore, my career as an IT professional has hardly served as a means for me to hone any particular creative craft. While I’ve been a musician in a past life, those skills are dull and rusty at best, and perhaps were never all that sharp to begin with. Moreover, I’ve had no training or instruction on or around any aspect of creative writing, photography, or comedy. And yet, for reasons both simple and complex, this feels like something that I should do, and better yet feels attemptable, if not achievable.

And so, without any further ado, I humbly present to you my very first installment of Play For Today:

Today’s oeuvre is a poem, or perhaps a lyric. Actually, this is only a fragment of a longer piece – hey, this is my first time, so forgive me for being a little too timid to dive in head-first. Anyway, here goes….

Cinema Svengali

As I sit here
watching this
I can’t help but think that
if I told you how brave you are
you’d just laugh
and tell me that it doesn’t take courage to be happy.

So I laugh instead,
finally understanding the joke.

Wow, while the poem itself took me less than half an hour to write, this blog post has taken me almost 45 minutes to craft. Let’s hope that improves, or else this’ll turn into “Thing A Year” or “Play For This Decade” or something.

Posted by Andy in Play For Today