Guild Tidings
The official publication of
The International Songwriters Guild
Volume 29, No. 11
November 2024
Live meetings are Cancelled due to CoronaVirus.
However, we will be having on-line Zoom meetings.
The next zoom feedback session will be
Sunday November 3rd at 5pm. Please see the zoom details at the end of this newsletter.
We will also send details closer to the date, under a
separate e-mail, and an announcement on the Facebook group page.
please e-mail us at isgorlando@gmail.com if you have any questions
Hopefully we will soon be meeting in person again.
Please stay tuned for more info.
We are asking members to renew their dues for 2024. It costs only $5 per year,
and it helps us to defray costs for the zoom meetings.
We have 2 methods of payment. Either paypal to our treasurer Asli Goncer's
paypal account. The paypal access is at aslivision@gmail.com
or you can mail a $5 check to
Asli Goncer
2849 Babylon Court
Oviedo, FL 32765
Either way, we appreciate your continued support.
Any Details not in this newsletter are at:
If you wish to join our Facebook group, please check us out at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/831814850193553/
Cut Ups
by Jackie Mason
There is an excellent and inspiring documentary about the artists Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. It was released in 2002 and is titled “Matisse meets Picasso.” I consider myself fortunate to have found it on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XahALWflGw
The movie examines their art, their unique approaches to work, their unusual friendship and their mutual respect for one another. I was profoundly impacted by this documentary. I was also inspired by Matisse who even on his deathbed continued to make great art by way of scissors and collage.
I am impressed by how the simple cutting up of words and pictures from magazines could somehow trip our imagination and lead us into new creative landscapes.
I was using Wordle to generate word clouds which often gave me unusual word combinations and gifted me with interesting titles.
Wordle no longer exists as the game has been taken over by the New York Times and I’m forced to find a replacement. I’m trying Word Clouds and I have to learn their program. I was reminded of David Bowie’s method of writing songs using random cut up words. This article explains the cut up technique and examines its origins.
https://www.faena.com/aleph/cut-up-the-creative-technique-used-by-burroughs-dylan-bowie-and-cobain
Beat author William S Burroughs used the technique to write poetry. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke from RadioHead and Kurt Cobain from Nirvana have dabbled in the technique.
I know I’ve written, before, about David Bowie but he has described his methods in some detail. You may learn more about Bowie in the following article.I like this feature on Open Culture because we have a video of a young Bowie. Really just starting out with the technique. We get an older Bowie in a video from 1997 and he’s still cutting up and creating.
“He describes the cut-up method as “a very Western tarot” — and one that can provide just the right unexpected combination of sentences, phrases, or words to inspire a song.” This is a long quote from 1997. “Bowie “observed that he worked somewhere near to half the time as a lyricist in the cut-up tradition, and he even had, in those days, a computer program that would eat the words and spit them back in some less referential form.”
Bowie describes how he uses that computer program “I’ll take articles out of newspapers, poems that I’ve written, pieces of other people’s books, and put them all into this little warehouse, this container of information, and then hit the random button and it will randomize everything.” Bowie even used words from his diaries which he said gave him personal insights into his past and future.
I am thinking that Bowie’s computer program was a prototype for the aforementioned and now gone missing Wordle. Bowie’s prototype program is still around verbasizer.com I think I’m going to try it out. I think that the program, while being faster, will not be as stimulating as the cut up method. I do have a few magazines in my home so before I throw them out I think I will take my scissors to them.
From The Blue Motel on 441, goodbye for now.
WebChatter
by CyberToad
Here are a couple of blogs from the Cliff Goldmacher archive.
He always has great insight about songwriting and the music business,
and his blogs are short.
https://www.cliffgoldmacher.com/how-songwriters-should-listen-to-their-demos/
https://www.cliffgoldmacher.com/why-failure-is-your-friend-in-songwriting/
ISG Bulletin Board
Meeting space graciously provided by Central Florida Musicians Association,
Local 389. You are invited to join the largest union in the world, representing the
interests of the professional musician. Visit their website at afm389.org for more
information. You may reach them by phone at: 407-894-8666.
Why isn't your gig or live stream announced here?
Members in good standing call SusieCool with your appearance schedule!
407-760-2153 or e-mail her the details at isgorlando@gmail.com
If you are interested in open mics in the Central Florida area, SusieCool has compiled a list. Steve Hodak
hosts several newly listed open mics on the Florida East coast. Please call ahead before making any long trips.
https://sites.google.com/site/susiecoolsongs/Home/open-mic-directory-central-florida
SusieCool is the admin for a Facebook group called "Orlando Creative Music Network"
where we give out info on songwriter meetings, playing circles, open mics, workshops and concerts.
We have a Facebook page for this group if you want to join.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/274152179716552/
No Critique scores for October, since no live meeting.
New members and guests are always welcome!
© 2024 ISG
ZOOM DETAILS Sun Nov 3rd 5pm
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Central Florida Folk Inc. is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Please set your Calendars for the following ISG meeting
If you wish to submit a song, please email an mp3 and a text or PDF or Doc file to isgorlando@gmail.com
by 12pm Sunday November 3rd.Please put "Song Submission" and the song title in the header of the email.
Topic: ISG Song Feedback session Sunday November 3rd, 5pm
Time: Sunday November 3rd, 2024 05:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Newsletter by SusieCoolSongs
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/susiecoolsongs/
© 2024 ISG