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All Writing and Photography © Alex Livingstone/Owner's Closet

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Gonna Get in a Better Habit of Writing

I'd like to start ruminating on my life in Austin as my final days here unfold. It's been a while since I've written in earnest and I'd like to write as often as I can, especially when particularly relevant or poignant feelings enter my head. If I want to actually get them posted, I'll have to sacrifice editing them for sake of time. I'm not getting paid for it so what does it matter? I'm not trying to get the James Beard award for blogging.

An easy thing to do would be to start a laundry list of things I'll miss. Perhaps an even easier thing to do would be to list all of the things I won't miss about Austin. The most difficult thing to do will be to write about how I feel about the future because it's so open. I think I'll do all of these things and it may end up being a jumbled mess but so is my mind, heart, and body right now.

It's gonna be difficult to capture my thoughts as they come because I'm usually driving to work, or at work, or at band practice, or trying to sleep. Unlike a lot of my peers, I'm not in front of a computer all day. It's difficult for me to write as much as I want because life doesn't let me sit still for that long. Nor do I have the luxury of working from home and picking up the guitar every time I feel a tinge of creativity. I'd love to have a little more free time with which to be creative. At this point in my life, I accept that I need to create things or else I'm unhappy.  Lately, I've found peace in learning how to make Texas style BBQ. I feel like each brisket or rack of ribs that goes on that smoker is a blank canvas upon which I try to paint the best picture I can. It's hardly writing a prose or a new song, but it"s satisfies something in there. 

I'd really like to cook BBQ for the rest of my life. Now, I realize that is completely possible and not too large of a goal. But if I want to cook BBQ for other people and have it be something that helps brings people in a community together, then it is. I also want to make music for the rest of my life. I hope that once I'm near Scott Nurkin again that we will be able to make music based on all that we've learned since we last played together (1999). So many ways to go, so much gonna happen.

Tonight I have a gig with both Excited States and Grand Champeen. We'll be playing songs by Washington D.C. bands from the 1990s and I think it'll be awesome. I'm gonna miss playing music regularly with the fellas in those bands. I'm gonna miss it more than words can express but I'm gonna attempt to express it anyway, from time to time. More on that later.  If you like either of my bands you should come to the show tonight because I'm moving to NC in July and these bands won't be performing but once or twice a year.

1 comment:

Jillian Schantz said...

Alex!

I'm glad to see you're writing and that you and Jennie are making the move to NC!

I am excited for you and look forward to reading more of your posts during this time. Change feels so good!

Love,
Jillian