Did Somebody Say "Passion?"

I've been thinking a lot about all manner of passion in my life lately, thanks to my newfound friendship described in the previous post.  No, not so much the fact that Aneet happens to be a beautiful woman {my favorite snack-passion}; it's more along the lines of my daily or near-daily passions, writing and music.  A couple other online conversations I've participated in recently also got me to thinking about what gets the old adrenaline going, and why.


My writing is the more complicated answer.  If it's a non-earnings piece like a blog or whatever, then pretty much anything goes with me, depending on the subject matter.  I'll always inject a healthy dose of the warped humor, even in a "serious" piece.  The trick in those instances is cloaking the humor as irony, sarcasm, or a Twilight Zone-esque twist out of left field {which usually comes across as black humor}.  Sometimes all three at once, again depending on the material.  


For the paying freelance stuff, I go by whatever guidelines are dictated in a fairly straightforward manner.  The humor still lurks though; I just have to be a bit more careful about how and when I employ it, if at all.  I mean, a misplaced one-liner can stand out like a banana on a Christmas tree; rather bad form in say, a medical treatment breakthrough-analysis article written for a hospital journal!  I tend to avoid "straight" journalism pieces, like old-school newspaper articles {think Joe Friday's "just the facts, ma'am,"}, as well.  They're just not appreciated - let alone even written - anymore; nowadays it's all politics, personal bias, or both.  Boring as hell, and rather self-serving, to boot.  Not my bag at all.


Common to both forms is the very medium employed - printed words on a page or a screen.  It's very difficult to really convey strong emotion in print, but I've acquired a rather large bag o' tricks over the decades - and this is precisely where the passion kicks in.  Those "tricks" are actually techniques I employ to bring the writing to life, make it reach out and grab a casual reader's attention.  If done properly, the reader's focus is also captured, hopefully with a positive feeling left in them at the end.  Even in something like the hypothetical medical journal article mentioned earlier, the right editing of a piece can make or break it, even if no silliness is employed.  This is simply passion for the craft of writing as a whole, in other words.


With music, well, it's much easier to convey emotion, capture focus, blow some minds, etc.  Music excites me and stirs the passions in far more dramatic ways, and on good plays I do my level best to broadcast that energy any way I possibly can.  I don't care if it's the thousandth time I've played a "moldie oldie," or the tenth time I've played a new song I've discovered; if it moves me in some way, that's all I need to take the ball and run like hell.  On good nights I can project this energy directly into my bandmates, get them as riled up as I am, and then we proceed to blow away the audience as a unit.  More often than not I'll get my passion jump-started by what the other cats are doing; once I pick up on their vibe or groove I lock it down tight, then go like a bat out of hell.


If I'm the engine of the band, then passion is my fuel - and I'm damn proud to be an unrepentant FUEL-HOG!!!  As perfect illustration, have a gander at this:




 
Now, one thing you must keep in mind - this vid was shot at a jam-session.  Oh sure, a lot of musicians wouldn't get so worked up over a "mere" jam - because they aren't passionate in that way. I bounce off of my colleagues here pretty much the same way I do at a regular concert, and I daresay the energy and emotion come across pretty clearly, no?  Watch carefully, and you'll see I don't go in for any sort of theatrics or stage-cliche`s at all; the music is doing all the  heavy lifting, as it should.  All it takes is some passion, and a little conviction.

Either writing or music, it's impossible for me to say which I love more, because the passion flows differently for each.  From a purely physical standpoint, the music is way out in front, for obvious reasons.  Adrenaline coupled with passion is like a match to gasoline - or even atomic fission, on just the right occasion!  I'd have to type something like 3,000 words per minute to work up even a fraction of the adrenaline that flows when I make music.  I guess the easiest way to look at it is to say writing represents the Dr. Jekyll side of me, and music is good old Mr. Hyde.  They can co-exist quite nicely, and even swap sides on occasion, but they're both aspects of the same thing - passion - and I don't ever want to be without either one. 


More shortly.............