Archive for October, 2007


Halloween

What better on this all hallows eve than a David Sedaris story about death, love, and shopping for a human skeleton:

I thought I would enjoy buying a human skeleton, but, looking through the shop window, I felt a familiar tug of disappointment. This had nothing to do with any moral considerations. I was fine with buying someone who’d been dead for a while; I just didn’t want to have to wrap him. Finding a box would be a pain, and then there’d be the paper, which would have to be attached in strips because no one sells rolls that wide. Between one thing and another, I was almost relieved when told that the skeleton was not for sale. “He’s our mascot,” the store manager said. “We couldn’t possibly get rid of him.”

Posted on October 31st, 2007 in journal, literature & art | No Comments »


cooking a la comeaux

Some background first. I love food. I have a hearty appetite for my slender build, and when confronted with an opportunity to sit down and eat delicious dinners, i will forsake any prior engagements and indulge myself. This is a trait that i have acquired through many, many years of being fed by my mother.

Momma. So the legend goes, everything she touches turns to edible gold. from magnificent wedding reception feasts to humble family gatherings to even simple snacking sandwiches, I have not found another cook who is so consistently superb. As Bob Darlington, of Midland, Texas has put it, “routine excellent”. I may be biased, but surely the hundreds of others who have had her dishes are not, and feedback is always unsolicited and positive.

In short, eating mom’s food is sublime. But then, after one has left her blessed kitchen, left to fend for himself in a world of foreign cooks and cookbooks, every dish that bears the same name as one that she has prepared will automatically be compared to hers. This is not unlike the way many people regard their mothers’ cooking. The problem is, however, that her dishes are invariably superior. It’s disheartening! To leave home, and become a hapless wanderer of culinary lands… searching in vain to find an adequate substitute, or even to come close to simulating one on your own. In fact, Desiree knew the light in which i viewed my mother’s cooking, and it intimidated her. She had a dread sense that she would never live up to mom’s track record set over the 22 years of my life. Of course, i never expect anyone to “live up to” this unachievable goal. It’s impossible anyways, as i have already revealed that i believe mom to have infallible culinary skills, which may be a distortion of reality.

So. That was the background.

Ever since i got married, i have been trying to cook food that is little more than edible, with varying degrees of success. At first, i followed a cook book exclusively for a run of about 4 disastrous recipes. Then, after that disappointing experience, we stopped with the dubious directions. For about a month, i have no idea what we ate for dinner. I think i made up a few random dishes that involved ramen noodles, frozen chicken breasts and the George Foreman grill. Last week, after it got a little cooler outside, i started to cook again. Des likes a certain chili recipe that her mom makes, so i made it. It was pretty good. I decided to try Beef Stew next. I had no recipe for that, but after some consultation with mom, i knew it would be easy because of my slow-cooker. It turned out pretty good, and everybody that had some looked like they liked it.

Yesterday, armed with one of mom’s recipes, i set out to create a Chicken Fricasée. This is one of my favorite dishes that mom makes, and a rare one at that. It yields some of the best rice and gravy that you can get from a chicken, possibly even on par with mom’s Smothered chicken. The recipe was deceptively simple, and involved a fair amount of experience-based guesswork on the seasoning, so i had a heck of a time trying to figure out if things were turning out the way they were supposed to.

Well, surprise! I actually ended up with a dish that tasted as though it came directly from mom’s kitchen! Savory, dark roux-based gravy and tender chicken, true soul food, the kind that tastes like it is just dripping with love. As usual, today, the second day, everything tasted even better, since all the ingredients got a chance to socialize and trade juices overnight. I was craving it all day at work. Coming home and serving up these leftovers made my vocal cords rumble in appreciation, just like at home.

Eating food like this is akin to being on streets paved with gold. In the past, i was just along for the ride. But now, i’m driving, and it feels so good.

Posted on October 30th, 2007 in Milestone, journal | 2 Comments »


more powetry

“Guys Like That” by Joyce Sutphen

Drive very nice cars, and from
where you sit in your dented
last-century version of the
most ordinary car in America, they

look dark-suited and neat and fast.
Guys like that look as if they are thinking
about wine and marble floors, but
really they are thinking about TiVo

and ESPN. Women think that guys
like that are different from the guys
driving the trucks that bring cattle
to slaughter, but guys like that are

planning worse things than the death
of a cow. Guys who look like that —
so clean and cool — are quietly moving
money across the border, cooking books,

making deals that leave some people
rich and some people poorer
than they were before guys like that
robbed them at the pump and on

their electricity bills, and even
now, guys like that are planning how
to divide up that little farm they just
passed, the one you used to call home.

 

Posted on October 26th, 2007 in poetry | 1 Comment »


music and money

I consider myself a musician. I’m not a professional, as in, I do not make music as my profession. I always (since high school, at least) have had a desire to somehow make money with my favorite hobbies, music and recording. I also tend to think that it is much easier to make money in music than if i had a hobby of say, gardening. of course, the money would be small, but it would be something. I think back to Dad and his former Apple computer repair company. It’s not like he paid any bills with it, but he helped out folks and bought some toys.

Radiohead, the avant-garde rock band, (also known as the the frightening noise-making mumblers, if your name is Desiree), released their latest album In Rainbows on oct. 10, just 2 days ago. It’s not really a big deal, except the reason it made news headlines is because of the way they released it: the only place you can get it is off of their website as a download, and the customer chooses how much they want to pay for it. Since there is no “label” or distribution costs, all of the profit goes directly to Radiohead. This decision is a wild departure from any standard business model of music sales, and all the editorials written about the subject have come to the conclusion that it’s brilliant, even if it’s a gimmick and it only works for Radiohead because they’re… Radiohead. I bought it yesterday, offering 4 british pounds, which is about 8 bucks. also, the website is set up to where you “add album to cart”, and “check out”, like a regular online store, with just the added step of typing in the payment amount. So when you get to that step, you kinda feel sheepish if you just leave it blank. It’s not like you’re guilted into paying, it’s kind of letting the customer realize that he is getting a product of wholly subjective value. Since i like Radiohead, I do in fact value their music, and the album is worth something to me. it’s a very unique feeling for a customer… individually choosing the value of the goods, and not by market supply/demand laws, because the physical product is information. I pretty much agree that Radiohead is one of the only bands who could turn this into one of their best-selling albums of all time.

Just by chance today, i found out about TuneCore, and i saw how easy it would be to distribute my music in a money-making fashion. They put your songs on iTunes for you, and you make 100% of the profits. Every song download is a dollar in your pocket! This suddenly got me interested in selling music, since it would be so mindlessly easy to do. I started researching the songwriter royalties, since my most recent music was written by Dad and friend Kevin Smith, and plans are in the works for me & JB to record an upcoming album of Dad’s old folk songs. But the more i thought about it, the more questions i had.

Right now, you can download all of MY original compositions and recordings for free off of my website, because it’s mine and i said so. For some things, like the Newtons’ tracks, Nic Vascocu’s song (from way back when), or Jon Breaux’s original compositions (w/ lyrics), i cut out a short 1-minute clip to post, in order to protect the original creator’s product in case he wanted to sell it later on. If i decided to sell my own stuff, i’d have to take down the full-length versions from my website. That’s a problem for me. I never wanted people to have to pay to enjoy something i made. but, naturally, if i made money, then it would be great! Some artists have websites where you can download their albums for free, and then donate whatever you want into a “tip jar” paypal account. This might be one way to do it for me, but i’m pretty sure the little “donate” button would get 0.0 clicks per year on my website, effectively nullifying the reason to put it on there in the first place. what about the Radiohead way? Radiohead has a fanbase already. people know and like them, as a band. They will get paid because they have proven that their material is worth paying for. This method would never work for me.

Assuming i do record and release the aforementioned album of Dad’s folk songs, we will have to decide in which way we would want to distribute it:
Free for download from DavidComeaux.com is option A.
Paid download from iTunes is option B.
Optional paid download from DavidComeaux.com is an iffy option C.
Traditional CD distribution is option D.

Option “D” might be option “Dad” because he always seems to hint that his buddy Kenny Thibedeaux would hook us up with some local traditional-style distributors. But even if we did option D, i’d push for a digital distribution method as well, probably option B. But seeing as this music is really just a bunch of folk songs, more personal memento and charm rather than profitable musical genius, perhaps the only way we should go would be option A!

Now that i’ve confused you with all kinds of options and letters and lettered options, the next question is, would I do the same thing for my music? Assuming that in the future, i will have written and recorded enough of my own music to constitute an album or EP of some kind, would I want to sell it instead of offer it freely to the masses? Like i mentioned before, the precedent i have set is that i give my music away, and anyone who wants to enjoy it can do so for free with an internet connection. Besides, as a self-critic, i am highly skeptical that there is even a viable market for my musical doodlings. The most i would get would be my close friends and family who want to “help the cause”. The larger public isn’t interested in my music, i’m no star, i’ve never been on “American Idol”. Marketing, selling my music as a product, is something that i am wholly uninterested in. As a result, my personal music will probably remain free for the rest of my life, unless i make friends with someone with experience in marketing who believes that they can sell my music.

And there you have it. from start to finish:
i make music.
i want to make money from my music.
it would be easy to put my music up for sale.
do i want to put my music up for sale?
is this the kind of music that i would put up for sale?
why would i sell my music if i want everyone to enjoy it?
do people enjoy my music enough to buy it?
i shouldn’t sell something that nobody wants to buy.

Posted on October 12th, 2007 in journal, music | 8 Comments »


keys

“Keys” by Nancy Henry

When things got hard
I used to drive and keep on driving—
once to North Carolina
once to Arizona—
I’m through with all that now, I hope.
The last time was years ago.

But oh, how I would drive
and keep on driving!
The universe around me
all well in my control;
anything I wanted on the radio,
the air blasting hot or cold;
sobbing as loudly as I cared to sob,
screaming as loudly as I needed to scream.
I would live on apples and black coffee,
shower at truck stops,
sleep curled up
in the cozy back seat I loved.

The last time, I left at 3 a.m.
By New York state,
I stopped screaming;
by Tulsa
I stopped sobbing;
by the time I pulled into Flagstaff
I was thinking
about the Canyon,
I was so empty.
Thinking about the canyon
I was.

I sat on the rim at dawn,
let all the colors fill me.
It was cold. I saw my breath
like steam from a soup pot.
I saw small fossils in the gravel.
I saw how much world there was

how much darkness
could be swept out
by the sun.

Posted on October 10th, 2007 in poetry | 1 Comment »