Quarters and Ariel
I worry that I am incapable of relaxing. I don’t sleep that much and when awake, I seem to be in a perpetual state of jitters.
Here’s how I deal with it. For time spent at the desk, I put objects in my left hand and spin them around like Baoding balls. A handful of quarters usually does the trick.
If quarters are unavailable, I resort to an old standby, a plastic toy I found buried at the bottom of a cereal box in 2005. I was about to toss it in the trash at the time, but then the phone rang. As the call droned on, I started spinning it in my hand. It was relaxing. I decided to keep it. It’s been on my desk ever since.
Neurotic? Guilty. Of course, reading helps too. It’s nice to wallow in the problems of others instead of your own. But the written word has its downsides too. The only time I can really get away with books is late at night, which means I sleep less, which makes me edgy. So perhaps I would be more relaxed if I only stopped trying to relax? TBD.
***
I just finished the latest KUHF Fundraiser CD for The Engines of Our Ingenuity (nepotism), my fourth consecutive year doing this project. Unlike previous years, I didn’t spend as much time composing music ahead of time. A large chunk of it was improvised against the dialogue tracks, which came out better than expected. Still, I did manage to compose a few things for the occasion. Here’s one such piece, the intro for an episode on color photography.
I also just finished doing a couple tracks for a new CD by NYC trumpeter Carol Morgan (excited about this one because the CD also has Mike Stern on it). Carol’s a really fine player. I’ll post a link when it comes out.
8 Comments
Miriam
i love it.
Fauxmat
Thanks, are you doing the gala in April?
sodadwhatmakesaman
I love the song, and it sounds really great against the speaker’s voice. Regarding your frenetic energy, I was reminded of debaters in high school who were always flipping and spinning pens.
Heather
Sounds great. Don’t let Ruby see that toy.
Fauxmat
Noted.
Shannon
I enjoyed the snippit. I think you know how how I feel about Engines! Funny, I never pegged you for an Ariel kind of guy.
Emma Kate Tsai
By the way, that “sodad” business was me. I get so confused with logging in with WordPress. That was a log in for one of my authors, and he’s since gone another route.
Fauxmat
Funny, I was wondering about that since the blog link is dead.