What the Hell is This Blog About?

Back in the early Nineties, when the present-day independent film scene was just taking off and the Sundance Film Festival was the place for wool cap-wearing auteur wannabes to shill their latest screenplays, these cinematic upstarts began sporting t-shirts that read, “What I really want to do is direct.”

If I were to create a t-shirt along those same lines, it would proclaim, “What I really want to be is a rock star.”

As much as I admire J. D. Salinger, Ian McEwan, Gore Vidal and Marilynne Robinson, I want to be Thom Yorke, Jack White, Kim Deal and, it goes without saying, Keith Richards.

Who wouldn’t want to ply their trade in front of thousands of screaming fans with sex and drugs as a professional perk instead of sitting in a dark room, staring at a computer screen, with your only audience an overweight cat who occasionally needles you for attention? As for the sex and drugs, well, there’s always internet porn and your umpteenth cigarette of the day.

There is one thing, though, that bridges the gap between the public adulation of a musical performance and the private agony of the writing process – hitting the right key. (And no, I don’t mean your typing skills.)

“Music is what language wishes it could be,” stated Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue.

Think about that for a minute. While the writer sweats, second guesses and loses sleep over the right word and the almost right word (much like I’m doing now), we know that whatever we commit to paper will never elicit the universal, soul-stirring immediacy of a musical piece that disappears into the ether. Blame the hubris of Nimrod as he ordered the building of the Tower of Babel.

Now, go back to O’Donohue’s statement again, but this time, listen to it. Like a small symphony, it compels, it delights and it’s elegant as hell. In short, it’s as close to pitch perfect as words, strung so masterfully together, are likely to get.

Which brings me, finally, to the title of this piece, “What the Hell is This Blog About?” (Keep your pants on, I’m almost finished.)

What I mean to do is give my POV on language wherever it plays itself out – music, books, art, newspapers, magazines, films, TV, advertising, the internet and even what comes out of the Average Joe’s mouth.

In short, I want to have my way with words.

But what I really want is to be a rock star.