Week 8, 2/25

2/25
Last week was busy. I finally got my first interview responses, from Mei Han and Randy Raine-Reusch—by interviewing them both in person, when they were in the area. I caught a master class they gave on “world music improvisation,” which resonated with my project. I’m realizing that expecting busy musicians to write responses to my interview questions is too much to ask, in most cases (there are exceptions)—especially since I’ll be speaking with a lot of people not native English speakers. So part of my next chunk of work, and ongoing, will be transcription. I’ll get those two interviews up on my site, then flash them out to others on the list likely to be most interested in their stuff.

Didn’t get to doing Min Xiao-Fen’s notes and questions; probably will next week. Also on the pile, Wu Man’s CDs and press kit. Jason Hwang, Jin Hi Kim, Taylor Ho Bynum...those will keep me busy for the next few weeks.

I’m also realizing that the typical interview will be unwieldy in that message-&-comment format on Basecamp, so I’ll start each one out there, to draw people in, then shift the remainder to an attachment on the post.

If any of you are still with me, peeking in on the blog once a week, staying logged in on the project site...it occurs to me that everyone could be lurking and monitoring, seeing how it unfolds, just as easily as gone for good, because if you check the right box, you can come and go through the project site without your name showing up as you do it.

I like the suspense of this situation. I’m perfectly content to play by myself in this sandbox until the project’s done; if that’s the case, it’s the same situation as with the other two books, only it’s as if I’m experiencing it in a house with a one-way glass wall I can’t see out of. All the world may be looking in, or nobody. The musicians all seem open to cooperating with me, as long as I don’t present undue demands; the colleagues will probably jump back in when I finally get to them again, or before, if interviews that pique their interest start to appear.

I can imagine why others doing similar projects would see this glass house as pointless or worse, as a way of working, but I’m in a different kind of position from the typical such person, and what I have in mind as the final product here is taking better shape in this environment than the private one. I can tell already...