Loquacious of Borg

No research, hah.

Doing a modern Indiana Jones gives you the worst of two worlds. You have to research the historical side as if you were doing a historical novel. And you have to research the modern world -- a multi-nation jaunt across the modern world and into awkward corners of it -- to try to avoid committing the "primitive natives and colorful spectacle" sin.

(It's a worse problem than, say, sending a character to Venice to discover life and love. Because your adventure archaeologist needs to go to places that are inherently dangerous -- conflict areas, disaster areas, resource-limited areas -- and there is controversy and recrimination swirling around these places and you really need to be sure of your facts.)

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Not that it matters so much at the moment. I'm stalling and the words are lying lifeless on the page. Odd. I haven't had that for a while. Maybe the character hasn't gelled, maybe the voice isn't working, maybe it is just the plot has a slow start. But I really can't remember the last time I started a story and the words just sat there.

A good text is like a pop-up book. You start reading and fully dimensional phantoms arise from the page. This one is still sitting flat.

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I'm also taking a step backwards on the trumpet. Glad I got the new mouthpiece. I was aware of the problem of jamming the trumpet back against your lips to hit the higher notes. Turns out there's a subtler form, which is forcing your lips up against the top edge of the mouthpiece. The 5C I'm practicing with is roomier and it makes the trick more obvious (and less effective).

So I'm back to long tones, trumpet laid flat on my palm to resist the urge to apply pressure to it. So I'm still not clean through the first two octaves up to the High C. And I'm having to put off working on tone. And working on reading from sheet music (a necessary approach as trying to memorize valve patterns for a song is not a good way to proceed).

And that means all the music I'm working on is on hold as well. I did pop the trumpet session from a few weeks back into Reaper but...not only isn't the trumpet ready, on coming back to it the bass isn't ready, either. I think that piece needs to go on back burner.

Really, the galaxy map song is a better match for my current skill as it is basically notes...no technical flourishes, no expressive lines, just stacks of ostinato/arpeggio-like figures.

Oh, except I really want to use the Baroquele for that and I am still paying off my Grecian vacation so haven't the cash to spare for that instrument.