Anyway we went out to dinner and everything just flowed so naturally, it was easy, and it was such a relief. I only wish she could have stayed longer -but...responsibilities, husband and gorgeous child were waiting. We talked about everything under the sun as if we had known each other forever. And she helped me clear up a huge mystery in my life - something that has been a source of pain in my life, and I am grateful. I wrote about it a while ago. You know "this is not-blank-blank-dot-com". I felt that someone I had respected and admired had kind of shafted me, but she explained it to me from a perspective where...it made sense. And suddenly that...pain (an ache sort of) had been lifted. I also didn't really realize that it had been weighing on me that heavily until the weight was gone. Shit gets intense fast around here.
So over dinner we talked about many things. And I think I'm finally able to (thanks to our conversation) write about this thing that's been germinating in my head for just...like...you know....the past year or so. Every time I've tried to write about this it's been a pain in the ass, because I get all muddled and about four hundred different things come out but....I'm going to try, damnit. And also I just found out that someone is doing a PhD candidacy about the use of sound in animation, so if I wanted I could totally use this as PhD material...if I choose to do that. Shit. Scholar for life?
I'll start this the way we started speaking about it. One of the things about Emma I love is that she straddles the line, her background is American but also Mexican. I think that's a one-two punch that she packs - speaking another language (if only that) is an advantage, always. Not to mention having a sort of perspective on things two times over. Anyway - so I was fascinated because - of course I'm fascinated with Omar and Cedric and everything they do. I don't know why, but all of their work is just incredibly satisfying to listen to for me. They too straddle that line between American and not. The reason Omar/Ced are different from other immigrants/newcomers to the states is that a) Omar is from Puerto Rico which is basically part of the states, and Ced is from Texas. Moreover Spanish speaking denizens of the United Sates are becoming more prevalent and accepted - correct me if I'm wrong but is Spanish not a language that is actually taught in American schools also?
One of the things Emma and I talked about - or that I naively brought up was that I think Spanish should totally be adopted as a second language in the US of A. I know - the squishy middle of the passion flakie that is the United States would NEVER go for it. People are too afraid of change - even if I think it would be so so so beneficial to the population.
So then I went on to my larger point - I've been in discourse with a lot of American Literature, learning about the tradition of it, marinating my brain in it so to speak. Reading a lot of Frank O'Hara, Williams, Raymond Carver, Henry James, Pat Parker, etc. There are so many that I'm not mentioning -- but these people really set the American Tradition in terms of writing, even if a whole whack of them were Ex-Pats.
I feel like the entire list of authors we read was incredibly well curated and Scott Rayter was incredibly intense in the way he delivered his lectures, it was phenomenal and I'm sad the class is over. Having said that -- because we read a lot of poetry it reminded me of the strains of a thought I had a while ago.
A little while after Spook Country originally came out there was some sort of convergence in my life. I had been listening to a lot of Frances the Mute and the Bedlam in Goliath because I was deathly afraid of listening to Amputechture (I still don't know why to this day, but it's become so dear to me). To complete this trifecta I had begun taking a class with Skye at his behest because one of his friends (Stuart) was teaching - it was Latin American History from x Century. (I forget exactly) but I think we started somewhere in the vicinity of Porfirio Diaz, well give or take a hundred years. So I had Spook Country which from one angle submerged me in this crazy world of this Cuban immigrant to New York - Tito, and his intensely idiosyncratic and religious family (I was re reading the book). I was thinking "this is weird, but kind of beautiful". At the same time I was listening to two albums by a band I love-- and frequently describe as being the only thing that can describe or define everything that's inside of me that I can't translate into words--which were more than 30% in Spanish. Not to mention when the band started Omar wanted it to be some sort of offshoot of salsa music. Which it is. You can definitely shake your ass to a lot of their material. Or at least I think so anyway. And then on top of it I was buried in all this information about Latin America, tonnes of primary documents - and Stuart really delivered in his lectures. It was some sort of nodal point for me.
After everything went down in my personal life that year - I needed a distraction, so I became ensconced in a haze of just...mostly Omar's music. It was comforting. I branched out, listened to more of At the Drive In, and then started exploring the larger catalogue. There are so many things he's done, De Facto, El Grupo Nuevo, At the Drive In, The Mars Volta, and then independent stuff or collaborations with John Frusciante. Diving into this world was a relief. I think this is where the idea started gestating. I think that Cedric Bixler Zavala is probably one of the most interesting lyricists of our time. I think this is because he has to bounce off of Omar's control freak qualities all the time....so let me explain.
Omar is kind of a megalomaniacal dictator, and I say this with awe, love, and respect. (I've pieced all of this together from interviews I've seen and read over the years...). Something about how he writes all of the music and then has everybody record it separately and then Cedric gets to listen to it and write the lyrics. Cedric has his own process too - instead of explicitly trying to write lyrics that have some sort of larger meaning he sounds out words that he thinks flow properly with the music - which is how he's able to get that beautiful juxtapositional cadence. You know what I mean? Not really? Over the years though (in the Mars Volta) Omar's been letting go of that, and generally meaning can be derived. It's just a very interesting way of writing. The other thing that tickles me pink is that Cedric's biggest vocal influence is Bjork.
Knowing that, I really want to get into the meat of my thought. Having read the lyrics of Cedric for the Mars Volta, and subsequently getting so involved with all of the other music Omar makes, and the stuff he's done with Ximena Sarinana, I really think that overall these things they've written should be considered poetry. And if they are poetry they are definitely part of the new canon of the American Literary Tradition. Yes, some of the lyrics are in Spanish, specifically those from Xenophanes, but so is a large portion of Amputechture, and Frances the Mute. I think that the lines are definitely blurring - especially (as I've mentioned previously) since Puerto Rico is part of America, and Latin culture becomes so much more prevalent across even say just the southern States. I have a feeling that people would argue against this -- specifically from a xenophobic point of view. But I also think that it's something beautiful and enriching. Anyway - this is kind of a conclusion I've come to on my own, and I'm sure it's not...unique or new or whatever, but it's something that I've wanted to explore for a long time now. Especially since I find that so much of TMV's material is so meaningful to me. I would definitely have to sit down and gather everything up and analyze the influences and all that fun jazz, and I think that's a project that would be really fun to take on in the future. It's easier to write about what you love.
Yeah...I think that's all for tonight.
