Friday, August 13, 2010

Crickets

Feels like I've been downstairs in the basement laboratory for a while now.

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks, and will likely be away for a few more -- I'm finishing up the first act of The Immersibles (am mega-excited), doing a final polish on Wake-Walking, working on a screenplay version of my horror play Echoes of Mercy, dramaturging the plays for the upcoming Stage Fright II short play anthology, teaching classes, acting in another short industrial film, preparing a lecture on magic realism, and just generally trying to keep from going crazy. Also, I have a sunburn. But I promise I will be back as soon as I have time to think up something witty to say here, like ... oh, I don't know ... uh ...

(crickets)

"Crickets" would actually be a great place to segue into my lifelong love of Buddy Holly. Instead, I have been thinking a lot about Paul Simon. I found a really great solo version of Mr. Simon performing one of my favorite songs, American Tune:




I was also incredibly pleased to learn that he wrote another song I hold dear -- "Red Rubber Ball," by the great-but-obnoxiously-named band The Cyrkle. Here is Simon & Garfunkel's much more biting version:




(I am now feeling asymmetrical, not bringing this back around to Buddy Holly. So ... here's a piece of Paul Simon's song "Old," which is his tribute to Buddy Holly's song "Peggy Sue." The video is apparently of someone's father struggling to make it upstairs. There. Symmetry.)