That's a Wrap!

2012 comes to a close today, as does this phase of The Book Revue. Stay tuned in 2013 for some exciting news for The Book Revue including a live performance or two of all 12 songs, and maybe a couple of new ones. (?)

I just wanted to take up a little bit of space on the blog today to give a hearty thank you to everybody that helped me out with this project in 2012:

Jim Moye

Alex Gemignani

Lucia Spina

Lauren Molina

Howie Michael Smith

Melanie Kann

Patti Murin

Gwen Hollander

Mary Mossberg

Jed Resnick

Randy Redd

Ryan Dunkin

Alec Berlin

Trisha Rapier

Daniel Torres

Vicki Noon

Evan Harrington

All of whom gave their talent and time to learn a new song, and came in and put their brave faces on YouTube for me. Thanks guys.

Also Giana Choroszewski for designing my neat little logo!

And of course thank you to everyone that’s been following the blog, reading my rambling thoughts, and watching and listening to my songs! It’s been a great ride for me (so far) and I hope you’ve all enjoyed it as well.

So, adios 2012, see you all in the new year!

December's Song!

The Simple Hell - December’s song from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

It’s been such a wonderful experience making music with all of these brilliant actors over the past year and it’s a great pleasure to bring this project home with a good buddy of mine, Evan Harrington! Evan is one of my go-to guys when it comes to my music, in fact I now believe that with this recording, Evan, in some capacity, has played some part in every demo of every show that I’ve ever written! So once again, Mr. Harrington I am in your debt! And go see him in “Peter and the Starcatcher” on Broadway before it closes January 20th.

There were so many ideas for songs that came to me from “To Kill a Mockingbird”; so many characters that have really important things to say worth exploring in song. It really was a challenge to limit myself to one! Atticus is a fount of wisdom and the agent of the novel’s moral themes. Scout and Jem as the protagonists go on an amazing journey of learning and therefore also have a lot to say. Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, Aunt Alexandra - they all have great story lines and they all provide moments in the book where a song just screams to be sung! Ultimately I decided to write from the perspective of one of the minor characters though, Dolphus Raymond.

I realize that even if you’re familiar with the book, it’s possible you may not remember exactly Mr. Raymond’s involvement. So to help you out, he appears a couple times in town around the time of the trial. There’s a story that Jem recounts about Mr. Raymond’s bride who blows her own head off with a shotgun right before their wedding after she found out about Raymond’s secret relationship with a black woman. It turns out that Raymond, against cultural norms in Maycomb, actually prefers the company of black folks. A little later Scout and Dill find themselves outside the court after Dill starts to get a little queasy from the proceedings. They run into Mr. Raymond who is (as usual) carrying his drink in a paper bag. It’s presumed that he’s the town drunk, but it turns out that it’s only Coca-Cola in the paper bag which he then gives to Dill to settle his stomach. Scout asks him why he pretends to be drunk and his answer paved the way for this song. He basically says (I’m paraphrasing) that it’s easier for people to accept him as a drunk who doesn’t know any better, than to accept him for who he really is. Later he says about Dill: “Let him get a little older and he won’t get sick and cry... ...about the simple hell people give other people–...” It’s sort of an awkward truth that he uses to calm down the nerves of a child, but ultimately it works and Scout and Dill are able to return to the trial.

To me Dolphus Raymond represents the standard bearer of utopia in a story that revolves around race and intolerance. Raymond is completely post-modern in his views, post-intolerance if you will. Even by today’s standards, his total acceptance, even love for the people of another race is an ideal that not everyone in the world or even in our modern America has achieved. Jem and Scout via Atticus’ guidance strive towards this through the whole book, but here’s a character that has always existed right under their noses that is the epitome of tolerance; the epitome of what Atticus’ has been trying to teach them. Yet Raymond is ostracized of course and kept on the fringes of society. And he’s aware of how he’s kept on the outside, through what he calls this “simple hell that people give to other people.” It’s those little comments, those odd looks that people give to other people that states without stating that they’re not accepted here.

I kind of rolled with this concept and turned this moment into what I’m calling a quasi-lullaby. Raymond is essentially trying to calm the nerves of a little child, but he’s talking about a big life lesson in the process. I mean it’s almost the equivalent of: “Hey kid, life sucks, and this is why. But you’ll be ok because now you know why life sucks, and now there’s no mystery to be scared of.” At the same time Raymond is taking the opportunity to express his two cents in the matters presently at hand in Maycomb. So in that sense he’s also providing yet another moral summary.

So that’s it! The last song of The Book Revue project. Enjoy!

The Simple Hell

Dolphus Raymond:

A FURROWED BROW, A SIDEWAYS GLANCE,

A MUMBLED WORD, A RIGID STANCE

THIS IS THE SIMPLE HELL WE GIVE EACH OTHER

IT'S ENOUGH TO TURN AGAINST YOUR BROTHER

A TIMID SMILE, AN AWKWARD NOD,

A COLD "HELLO", A CRUDE FACADE

THIS IS THE SIMPLE HELL WE GIVE EACH OTHER

FOR LACK OF SEEING ONE ANOTHER

THE THINGS THAT ARE THE SAME BETWEEN US

SHOULD BE ENOUGH TO GET ALONG

THERE'S SO MUCH THAT WE SHARE BETWEEN US

ON GOD'S GREAT EARTH WE ALL BELONG

A CHILD KNOWS THAT WRONG AND RIGHT

IS NOT THE SAME AS BLACK AND WHITE

AND THE SIMPLE HELL WE GIVE EACH OTHER

IS REALLY NOT ALRIGHT

NO, THE SIMPLE HELL WE GIVE EACH OTHER

IS THE DARK THAT HIDES THE LIGHT

Boo Radley Lives

There’s a reason why “To Kill a Mockingbird” is one of the greatest novels of all time. It really is a well crafted work of art. What I love about it (among many things) is that there’s no extra meat on the bone with this story. It gets to the point very quickly and doesn’t take the reader on any extraneous journeys. Even when you think you’re about to go off on a tangent (the scene with Aunt Alexandra and the Missionary Circle towards the end of the book comes to mind) it’s not long before you realize that Lee has brought you along that path for a really good reason. This efficiency of story telling is what makes this book prime territory for theatricalization. In fact even after the first time I read it, I was surprised that it wasn’t already turned into a play, musical or opera. Harper Lee has of course not released the rights. Harper Lee hasn’t even granted any interviews her entire life. Hopefully for my sake she won’t mind a single song written as inspired by her magnificent book!

Actually there’s a great song by Bruce Hornsby called “Sneaking Up On Boo Radley” - check out the link - which is obviously inspired by that portion of the story. Personally I love the Boo Radley story line through the whole book. He starts out as this ethereal entity who, according to rumors, eats raw squirrels and may already be dead anyway - among other things, but as Scout slowly gains knowledge about him he becomes less scary. In the end when he is unavoidably thrust into Scout and Jem’s life he suddenly becomes visible (literately) to Scout. Of course the drama of Atticus’ defense of Tom Robinson, the metaphor of the mockingbird, the cultural and moral implications of a segregated south are all important and quite frankly gripping in this book, but I find the inclusion of a character like Boo Radley is really what makes this book stand out! In my opinion Scout’s evolving perception of him reads like an instruction manual for how to get over your biases, it’s a rare “answer” in books like these that deal with difficult issues like racism.

I’ve got a bunch of ideas already for this one which I’m starting to narrow down, but I’m excited to get going on this one. This is a great book to wrap up this project with!

12 books!

November's Song!

Without the Knowing - November’s song from The Stone Raft by José Saramago

A huge thanks to both Daniel Torres and Vicki Noon for stepping in to record this month’s song for The Book Revue. Daniel and Vicki both happen to be understudies for two of the biggest roles currently on Broadway right now! Daniel for Ricky Martin’s Che in Evita and Vicki for Elphaba in Wicked! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I love working with and watching understudies - the talent is (as you can see) first class and the work ethic is nothing short of superhuman. It has to be. Both Daniel and Vicki do their own ensemble tracks in their respective shows 8 times a week but are also expected to go on in their respective understudy roles with anywhere from 4 weeks to 4 minutes notice! So for them to slice some time out of their schedules for this is appreciated beyond belief!

“The Stone Raft” is a novel of exploration at its core. And more specifically exploration in the midst of and in spite of a surreal, unexplainable geographical event. Against all laws of nature, physics, geometry, mathematics and what not, the entire Iberian peninsula breaks away from Europe and starts floating away. Equally as unexplainable 5 people that have never met from all over the peninsula who all discover strange things happening to themselves find themselves traveling together all across the Iberian peninsula. The circumstances of the book are bizarre and ultimately what happens is never explained scientifically but I found the lack of explanation kind of the point of the whole book in a weird way. The end result is that these 5 people (and a dog) find each other and almost immediately fall in love with each other. It’s this aspect of the book that I found most interesting. Saramago is almost unapologetically poetic and immensely lyrical yet completely bound to reality when it comes to these people’s discovery of love which has a love-at-first-sight quality to it.

This song in particular deals with one of the couples, José and Joana. What’s great about their encounter is that it’s not like they ravished each other the moment they first laid eyes on each other, but it also wasn’t that long before they were... ravishing each other... Maybe a few days, a week at most. And the realization that they were in love with each other sort of did come suddenly and simultaneously for them. What’s great is that Saramago offers a little humor in the situation. After they passionately kiss for a little while and they realize that they are in love with each other, they both stop and ask each other the same thing, “Is this possible? I don’t even know you.” The conversation moves on to whether either of them is married and when they both discover that neither of them are they both sigh in relief. Overall this moment struck me as such a fantastic thing to write about. I believe Saramago is saying that love comes first, all the rest we’ll learn as we go. It seems to be a very realistic vision of “love at first sight”.

This song I think heightens that moment a bit. The dryness of the predicament is still there, but there’s a little bit more of a dramatic conclusion that they voice in this song, particularly in the lyrics of the bridge. I have to admit I struggled a little with the tone of this piece. I initially went into it with the idea that there should be some regional influence to the music - something with a Spanish or Portuguese flair to it. Unfortunately everything I tried just didn’t feel right. (Of course it’s possible (probable) that I just don’t have a great grasp on that type of music anyway.) But I came to realize that it didn’t need to have that character. In thinking about the writing style of the book it didn’t feel particularly regional to me. (Aside from the character’s names and the names of the towns). It didn’t even seem particularly European. To me it just felt... modern, contemporary if that makes sense. And that I can do! Once I let go of the idea of regional sounding music it all came in to place much easier.

Well, I hope you like the song. And I would also recommend "The Stone Raft" if you’re looking for something completely different to read. Saramago’s writing, even in translation, is very smooth and kind of fascinating to watch as it unfolds. And the story of this book will be unlike anything you’ve ever read before; strange, dramatic but not overly or even grippingly dramatic, humorous and overall thought provoking.

Enjoy!

Without the Knowing

José:

THE MOMENT THE LIGHTENING STRIKES

WE FORGET THE CALM FROM BEFORE

WE CAN ONLY ENGAGE IN THE RAGE OF THE STORM

AS WE WAIT FOR THE THUNDER TO ROAR

WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING YOUR PAST

COULD THIS THING HONESTLY LAST?

YET, I’M IN LOVE WITHOUT THE KNOWING

I’M IN LOVE WITHOUT A CLUE

I’M IN LOVE WITH WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME

RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE, AND IGNORANT

I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU

Joana:

THE MOMENT THE ORCHESTRA PLAYS

ALL THE SILENCE IS LEFT BEHIND

WE CAN ONLY UNITE IN THE MIGHTY REFRAIN

AS MUSIC AND SOUL IS ENTWINED

I BARELY KNOW WHO YOU ARE

HAS THIS THING GONE WAY TOO FAR?

YET, I’M IN LOVE WITHOUT THE KNOWING

I’M IN LOVE WITHOUT A CLUE

I’M IN LOVE WITH WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME

RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE, OBLIVIOUS

I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU

Both:

SO, THE WORLD SPLIT APART AT THE SEAMS

BUT IF THAT’S WHAT BROUGHT US TOGETHER

José

THEN TO HELL WITH THE WORLD

Joana:

AND TO HELL WITH OUR SCHEMES

Both:

TO HELL WITH THE PAST AND TO OUTDATED DREAMS!

I AM IN LOVE WITHOUT THE KNOWING

I’M IN LOVE WITHOUT A CLUE

I’M IN LOVE WITH WHAT YOU’RE SHOWING ME

Joana:

RIGHT NOW,

José

RIGHT HERE,

Both:

SUDDENLY

I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU.

"Mockingbird" it is!

Well, in a landslide you all asked for “To Kill a Mockingbird”! The electorate has spoken, and the mandate has been given.

It seems apropos that this should be the last book of the project. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was one of the books that I read late last year that pushed me over the edge in deciding to actually go through with this project in the first place. I had been thinking about it for some time, but it really wasn’t until I read Philip Roth’s “The Human Stain” and then “To Kill a Mockingbird” that I decided that there was some potential to this venture! So, it looks like everything is coming full circle.

Thanks again to everyone who voted on books and gave me book suggestions this year! Your help has been greatly appreciated. Hopefully the songs have lived up to your expectations, I know the books have lived up to mine.

Time to get reading... one last time!

December's Book - An Encore!

<--------- (Check out the poll to the left.)

This is it. Last book. And the last chance for you to vote for a book for The Book Revue. And what perfect timing. Tuesday you get to cast a vote for the next President of the United States, but this week - all week - you get to cast a vote for The Book Revue! And believe me, when you vote for The Book Revue, (unlike the presidential election), one vote equals one vote. There’s no Electoral College here!

Without Cable and Internet due to Sandy last week, I’ve been unable to do the research that I normally do in order to select some books to choose from. But as I was wandering around my house in a lack-of-TV-and-internet induced haze, (or maybe it’s the other way around: perhaps the TV-and-internet induced haze has been lifted), I became more aware of my surroundings and noticed the stack of books right next to the television. These were all the books that I’ve read in the last several years; some of them quite iconic. I realized that it would be a shame if I didn’t include at least one of these books in this project. Now, I don’t normally like to re-read books, but for the sake of writing a song for this project I think it might be appropriate to make an exception. So I’ve chosen three, (three of my all time favorites), to be voted on for an encore read, if you’ll pardon the theatrical vernacular.

So the three books are:

American Pastoral by Philip Roth (1997)

Swede Levov [is] a legendary athlete at his Newark high school, who grows up in the booming postwar years to marry a former Miss New Jersey, inherit his father’s glove factory, and move into a stone house in the idyllic hamlet of Old Rimrock. And then one day in 1968, Swede’s beautiful American luck deserts him. For Swede’s adored daughter, Merry, has grown from a loving, quick-witted girl into a sullen, fanatical teenager–a teenager capable of an outlandishly savage act of political terrorism. And overnight Swede is wrenched out of the longed-for American pastoral and into the indigenous American berserk.

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1963)

A vicious fifteen-year-old droog is the central character of this 1963 classic. In Anthony Burgess’s nightmare vision of the future, where the criminals take over after dark, the story is told by the central character, Alex, who talks in a brutal invented slang that brilliantly renders his and his friends’ social pathology. A Clockwork Orange is a frightening fable about good and evil, and the meaning of human freedom. And when the state undertakes to reform Alex to “redeem” him, the novel asks, “At what cost?”

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960)

Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with rich humor and unswerving honesty the irrationality of adult attitudes toward race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence, and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina and quiet heroism of one man’s struggle for justice–but the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

So, what should December’s book be?

American Pastoral

A Clockwork Orange

To Kill a Mockingbird

October's Song!

Just Once Before I Die - October’s song from A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Getting this song recorded this month was almost a near miss! A friend of mine, who was supposed to record this, had a family emergency at the last minute. She sent me a recommendation for someone that I’ve never met before, and because I trust this friend of mine implicitly, I said, “What the heck, I’ll give it a try”! And I’m glad I did! I literately met Trisha Rapier for the first time the day we went to the studio to record this. That she was willing to learn this song written by a complete stranger in a couple of days and dive into this project head first is in itself remarkable. That she was able to bring this song to a level I wasn’t sure was possible is completely humbling! So an extra big thank you to Trisha Rapier for recording this song this month. Just when you think you know all the ridiculously talented people in this city, someone else pops up, and you wonder, how and why do I not know this person? And now, I’m grateful that I do!

“A Confederacy of Dunces” at it’s heart is a comedy, but it’s one of those comedies that if you’re brain is turned off you can very easily mistake it for a tragedy. Such is the spirit of this song sung by Ignatius Reilly’s (the main character) mother, Irene Reilly, who is referenced primarily as Mrs. Reilly.

There’s not a whole lot of information you need to know in order to understand the context of this song. Ignatius is an intellectual, a writer, an idealist; but he’s also obese, a slob, and is missing that social filter that makes him appear ruder and more mean-spirited than he is. He’s 31, unemployed and living with his widowed mother who is always trying to appease him, understand him, and generally take care of him. “Trying” being the operative word because she is more or less inept at helping him in anyway whatsoever; almost comically inept. Ignatius has a way of getting under her skin and talking down to her and generally insulting her whether he means to or not.

The circumstances of the plot force Ignatius to go look for a job, which he finds very stressful, and in the process of him trying to “make a living” for him and his mother, the strain between them only gets magnified. Mrs. Reilly meanwhile has befriended a man that she would like to have court her and Ignatius wants no part of him, this of course further complicates their relationship. I’m skipping a lot of important plot points, but this is generally the information that is useful for the context of this song.

The song comes from the end of the book (second to last chapter), where Mrs. Reilly has reached her wits end with her son. She had already begun to suspect that she wasn’t the problem anymore in their relationship; that Ignatius was taking advantage of her and what not. But one more incident involving an altercation at a seedy bar that landed Ignatius in the hospital and soiled the family’s standing in the community unravels the whole relationship. As they’re getting out of the car on their way back from the hospital, they get into a major spat, and this time Mrs. Reilly has had enough. The song idea came from an actual line that she speaks in the middle of this fight: “I want to be treated nice by somebody before I die.” I believe she’s being totally sincere when she says this, but it comes off as melodramatic.

It’s not very often that I write a Get Out and Stay Out type of song, but it was fun to do that for this particular character. She’s so befuddled all of the time when she’s dealing with Ignatius and this song is all of her frustration, her resolve for the future, and (in a way) her apology to her son all rolled up into one dynamic firecracker moment. I see this as a cross between the aforementioned song from “9 to 5” and Waiting from “The Addams Family”. The former being the resolve of a character to go on without someone very close to them that has hurt them and the later being the complete, (and comically melodramatic), unwinding of an otherwise buttoned up and proper person.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one! It was certainly fun to write and record!

Just Once Before I Die

Mrs. Reilly:

I'M DONE IGNATIUS,

I'M THROUGH WITH YOU

I WANT NOTHING MORE TO DO WITH YOU

YOU ARE NO SAINT, IGNATIUS

YOU'RE NOT THE SON I RAISED; THE SON I KNEW.

I THOUGHT YOU WERE JUST CRAZY

BUT REALLY YOU'RE JUST CRUEL

CLAUDE IS DUMB I'LL GRANT YOU THAT

BUT YOU ARE AN EDUCATED FOOL!

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

I'D LIKE SOMEONE TO BE NICE TO ME

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

I'D LIKE TO BE HAPPY

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK

JUST ONCE, IGNATIUS, BEFORE I DIE!

DON'T YOU SAY ANOTHER WORD

CLAUDE'S A DECENT MAN

AND I'LL MARRY HIM IF I CAN

YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO

DON'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

I'LL SAY IT AGAIN;

YOU'RE AN EDUCATED FOOL!

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE THE FINAL WORD

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

I’D LIKE TO BE ADMIRED

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO WANT?

JUST ONCE, IGNATIUS,

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK?

I AM DONE WITH YOU!

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

WAS MY SYMPATHY A GAME?

I'M NOT THE ONE TO BLAME!

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

YOU'RE NOT LAZY, YOU'RE CRAZY,

YOU CONDESCENDING SLOB!

JUST ONCE BEFORE I DIE

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO NEED?

JUST ONCE, IGNATIUS, BEFORE I DIE.

Novels in 140 Characters

Whoa, this is cool! Check out the link below to an article from The Guardian where they asked 21 different authors to write “Twitter Fiction” - whole novels that fit within the 140 character limit of Twitter. What a neat idea. And that gets me thinking... Hmmm... Twitter Song? YouTube Musical? (copyright pending...!)

The 10 minute musical (10 minutes was the old YouTube limit - they’ve since eliminated that limit) is something that already exists, it’s kind of BMI’s thing; but what about the 30 second, 140 character song? Or maybe the ONE minute musical!? Hmmm... the wheels are spinning.

Twitter fiction: 21 authors try their hand at 140-character novels

November's Book

I thought it might be a good idea to go back through all of those great book suggestions that you all submitted in July to choose a new book for this month. There were so many great choices and I didn’t want to let them all go to waste. So I went back and looked through them all and decided to go with one of the other “Top 3” books I had picked: “The Stone Raft” by José Saramago.

So, I’m sorry if you were looking forward to another vote this month, but alas you’ll get one more chance in early November to pick the final book for December.

Another big thank you to Matt Walton for suggesting this book all those months ago, and everyone else of course for all of their suggestions back then as well.

I’m excited to get working on this book because I think it will be really quite different from a lot of the other books that I’ve read for this project thus far. I enjoy the diversity.

Anyway, here’s a plot summary and some info about the author courtesy of Wikipedia:

The Stone Raft

The Iberian Peninsula has broken off the European continent and is floating freely in the Atlantic Ocean; bureaucrats around the world are forced to deal with the traumatic effects, while five characters from across Portugal and Spain are drawn ever closer to one another, embarking on a journey within the peninsula as the landmass journeys itself.

José Saramago was a Portuguese novelist, poet and playwright who died recently (2010) at the age of 87. His books “Blindness” and “The Gospel According to Jesus Christ” appear to be his most notable novels. “The Stone Raft”, being a little less known, was written sort of mid-career by Saramago. Originally published in Portuguese in 1986 it was translated to English in 1994.

Alright - Time to get reading.

A Confederacy of Crime and Punishment

I finished reading “A Confederacy of Dunces” last week, and now I’m already hammering out a song which I’ll leave for later. But I thought I’d take a second to talk about an interesting comparison that I noticed between “A Confederacy of Dunces” and Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”.

First of all I should point out that I enjoyed “Dunces” from an intellectual and literary standpoint, but I wasn’t completely sold on it emotionally. Which is quite alright in my estimation; different books touch different nerves in different people. For me this book touched more of a philosophical and intellectual nerve. In contrast something like “The Scarlett Letter” touched more of an emotional, sympathetic nerve. I only mention it because this is exactly the way I felt about “Crime and Punishment”.

Of course these days I’m always looking at books from the perspective of how it would fit into a musical where a character’s journey needs to be concise and clear and fit into a two hour time frame. So when I come across a character like Ignatius J. Reilly who, as the protagonist is his own antagonist, I’m presented with a difficult problem: how do you like a character who is his own enemy? In book format it doesn’t seem as problematic because you have time to parse out his ineptitude from his idealism and see them both for what they are; but putting a character like that in three dimensions on stage is not easy. As we know when you go see a show and don’t fall in love with, or at least sympathize with, the main character in the first 10-15 minutes of the show, it’s gonna’ be a long two hours.

Now, how this ties in with “Crime and Punishment” is that Ignatius and Raskolnikov are, in their own ways, both their own enemies. Of course Raskolnikov is dealing with a much more serious “problem”, as it were, than Ignatius is but nevertheless you’re dealing with two main characters whom you’re trying to have sympathy for but who are making it really difficult for you to do so. There are some other similarities as well. Both Ignatius and Raskolnikov are intellectuals, both of them have justified their actions by asserting that what they are doing is what someone of their intelligence has a right to do, and lastly in the end the only respite that both of them get is that they get to go far away from the cities that caused them so many problems in the first place. An argument can be made for both Ignatius and Raskolnikov that they are headed somewhere that will be the ultimate demise of them. Maybe more so for Raskolnikov, but I think there’s a good argument to be made for Ignatius as well.

Anyway, this all makes for a good challenge for me. Well, I guess it’s really more of a challenge if I were to musicalize the whole book, but as I’ve mentioned before the one book, one song concept of this project essentially eliminates that problem. There are plenty of moments from the book to work from, and for the time being I don’t have to worry about presenting Ignatius’s entire journey; only a slice of it... if I am indeed writing a song for Ignatius... but that’s for me to know and for you to find out....