May 29th
2 am. Finished packing with reasonable confidence that all the necessities would be traveling with me.
5:15 am. Time to crawl out of bed, grab a cup of coffee and head out to JFK (airport)
9 am. Miraculously, no hassles checking in. As always I’ve made friends at the security check while showing of my trombone and explaining each item in my case full of electronics. Flight to LA takes off on time.
I vowed to myself that I’d begin blogging 50 days in advance of my departure. There was so much going on, so much that needed to be done, arranged, confirmed, fixed, raised, tracked, prepared, planned, bought, said, learned. It seemed to me that the whole process might be of interest. (you’ll tell me if I’m wrong?) That was April 8th. Daily study of Japanese was a priority. I had finally managed semi-regular practice on my horn. I was beginning the process of arranging my housing in Australia (you didn’t know? – if you’re just catching up, I’ll be spending the next 7 weeks in Australia and the following 5 months in Japan to focus on writing the four pieces that will make up my endangered languages project).
It was around that time (50 days ago) that the nature of this project became entirely plain to me. Experience tells me that some projects fall into your lap, pay for themselves, are written without angst or anxiety, performed flawlessly and seemingly without rehearsal, then get on with their rich and lengthy performance lives with nary a backward glance. This is not one of those projects.
This is the type of artistic endeavor that will be stained, perhaps quite literally, with equal parts sweat and blood (type A+ in case anyone needs to know), spit and drool, tears and wine and curses and coffee (which at least does not require a healthy level of masochism to be enjoyed). It is the kind of project that requires an unwavering confidence in the quality of the idea and an equally unwavering adherence to the integrity of the process. Because there is absolutely no part that is going to be easy. I know that this was probably quite obvious to others long ago, but if you know me a on daily basis, you know that I tend to ignore such facts once a project is begun.
Today marks almost exactly 3 years since I ordered the UNESCO Atlas of Endangered Languages in order to gauge the viability of a nascent idea developed at the request of New York cellist, Tomas Ulrich (on whom all future blame should rest). If you’ve followed this blog or my web page at all, you may know a bit of what’s happened since. Travel, performances, grants and composer prizes, endless study and preparations. If you check back, I’ll try to fill in the gaps over the next several weeks.
Meanwhile - 20 days ago, having completed more than 5 chapters of Japanese lessons, almost $5000 in fundraising, several hundred emails (I don’t want to think about how many went unanswered), arduous crash courses in the Japanese approach to public and private education (for my 12 yr old daughter) and the Australian University academic calendar (no gigs to be had there in June!), I vowed to begin the blogging 30 days in advance of my departure. As you know, that didn’t happen either.
So I stopped vowing and stuck to keeping pace with the necessary preparations, creating dozens of lists and trying in vain to cross off more items than I was adding on a daily basis. You may note the difficulty I’m having giving up the whole “list” habit.
Which brings us to right now (Friday May 29, 2:26 pm PST). I’m sitting at LAX airport on the first of many long layovers. Today it’s 9 hours, with an additional 2 in Auckland, New Zealand tomorrow morning. If there are no delays (ha!) I’ll land in Melbourne on Sunday May 31 at 8:30am LIGT. I’ll leave the math to you.
By the time I land at Narita Airport in Tokyo on July 20th I’ll have completed 9 flight legs ranging from an hour and a half to 14 hours and will have endured 38 hours and 25 minutes of layovers. All to say – I’ll have no excuse for not keeping up with this blog. I’ll have made stays in Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Darwin and Katherine and will have covered as much ground through the outback of Arnhem Land as vehicles and stamina allow. So please check back for updates, news, stories, adventures, reviews and anything else I can find of interest to write about. I make no vows or promises, but hope to make additions 2 to 3 times a week for the next 7 months (the length of my travel). When I head up to Arnhem Land (the Australian Aboriginal homeland) I’ll try to write every day, but there will likely be a delay before those segments are posted.
Don’t be afraid to post comments or questions!
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