Mood:
sillyNow Playing: see below
Finds 5
The above link shows you a portion of my Finds 5 (aka Revised-Midterm Finds Entry); however, as I could not add song lyrics to my photo album, I chose to post the lyrics and album covers in this forum. Here goes nothing:
Project:
These finds show my chronological development as a writer. By beginning with first grade (1985) and ending in the first year of my PhD (2005), I trace my early engagement with writing to the isoaltion my work engendered between me and my family and friends to my acceptance of my work. In some sense, these finds show the pain, resistance, frustration, and struggle that even professional writers go through as they live and compose.
"Too late To Quit" ~ Wallflowers (Red Letter Days)
Too late to quit too soon to go home
Too late to quit too soon to go home
Too late to quit too soon to go home
Too late to quit too soon to go home
Too late to quit too soon to go home
Takes all my might
To find a hole that feels right
To bury myself
In a deep sleep at night
I hear a voice
Coming from the hillside
Says I'll show you the way
I will show you the light
But I'm tired
I'm tired
I'm much too tired
I'm tired
He says I know where you were headed
And you're half way there
But you've got to be careful
You've got to beware
Some people want to hurt you
Some people don't care
But I'm never gonna give you
Any more than you can bear
(chorus)
There's nothing left here to rise above
We're not talking 'bout that kind of love
You've got people here counting on you
Now's a good time
To learn how to pull through
Sometimes a good idea
Just isn't enough
You've got to do the work
Now get your ass up
There isn't really such a thing as bad luck
Yeah, but once I shot an arrow
In the sky and it stuck
(chorus)
You've got to keep movin'
You've got to keep pushin'
You're never gonna get back
Any more than you're givin'
Life is for the living
You've got to be willin'
A song ain't a song
Until someone starts singin'
(chorus)
Too late to quit, too soon to go home
Too late to quit, too soon to go home
Too late to quit, too soon to go home
Too late to quit, too soon to go home
----
Caption:
There are many moments in this song that remind me of writing. My favorite, and the most obvious one finished out the final verse: "A song ain't a song/Until someone starts singin'." When I was working on finishing my masters wort at Pitt, I kept getting stuck. I would drive around, smoking cig. after cig., trying to think of a way to actually sit down and write the 60 some-odd pages I needed to compose to complete my degree. As I took turns too fast and thought about the accident that might get me an extension, I would listen to this song on full blast, and one day I realized that, if I ever wanted to teach, I had to start writing.
I had plenty of good ideas that I couldn't sit down and tease out. I would panic, freeze, block the words that I could speak from comming out of my hands and onto the screen. Part of my problem was anxiety, but that didn't mean that I could get out of doing the work I needed to do: "Some times a good idea just isn't enough/ You got to do the work so get your ass up."
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Help! (Lennon/McCartney)
help
Help, I need somebody,
Help, not just anybody,
Help, you know I need someone, help.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these days are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I've never done before.
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me.
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody's help in any way.
But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured,
Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I'm feeling down
And I do appreciate you being round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won't you please, please help me, help me, help me, oh
---
Caption: The co-authored (McCartney/Lennon) Beatles song, "Help," has ammused me since 10th grade study hall. When I think about finishing out the Spring 2005 semester at IUP, I think about this song. Lauren, Roseanne, and I relied on eachother as readers, collaborators, and sounding boards. We laughed together, drank wine, and talked about how we could revolutionize the field. Well, we talked shop in between mineature criss-management sessions.
Mostly we talked about how to live as academics. How to straddle the "real" world and the world we sat in day after day in the classroom. I am not sure we came to any conclusions or that there are any conclusions to come to, but I know that we are still helping eachother make sense of these hybrid splits our lives are fracturing into: "When I was younger, so much younger than today, I never needed anybody's help in any way. But now these daya are gone, I'm not so self assured, Now I find I've changed my mind and opened up the doors."
______________________REFLECTION_____________________
I thought of the songs that would corelate with my project immediately; however, I think that early knowledge helped me rationalize procrastinating until Sunday night to compose my entry.
Because I chose songs that worked with my project, I thought it would be easy to compose the captions; however, teasing out a few lyrics to unpack was more of a challenge than I expected. I didn't realize how much these songs connected to my writing process until I began unpacking them, and these connections were difficult to gloss over. "Help""Help"help
