Well, I let many albums go years ago, and I can't say I've missed them. I once stayed in a hotel in Hollywood and they provided 5 vinyl albums (well curated) and I think that was just as much fun. I reckon I need to budget say 30cm of shelf space for 'Sparks Joy' albums.
The other day, based upon a conversation, I was trying to find a particular single. I couldn't and it consequently meant I accelerated my garage cleaning project. Many 45 rpm singles made it to the black bin bags, for subsequent disposal.
What I discovered was that like a primitive form of WhatsApp, many of the 45s had interesting sleeves, where they had been passed around and they were now covered in arty handwriting and typing from a bygone age. I think I'll (eventually) upload some of it to my flickr account.
I suppose I expect that a company that specialises in White Goods will be quite good at making, say, a refrigerator. It is the ultimate white good. A white box, with a door that you can put things in.
<Neeep>
Except the designers haven't fully understood the brief. We bought it a couple of years ago because the previous unit's heat exchanger had failed and was going to cost £absurd to repair. This new unit was the one that fitted the same hole and could do the same job of keeping things cold.
<Aruga>
Except it had been designed by playful clowns. Here are some of its more obvious faults.
The makers of this £1000 fridge should be ashamed of themselves.
<pfffttt>
It's strange how some documents are spoon-fed to the press.
That royal photo for example. Even the humblest smartphones can do editing now. Drag and drop. Not as sophisticated as a Canon 5D MkIV with a 50mm f1.2 lens and subsequent Photoshop editing.
I guess the foliage is another real-world clue. Is it appropriate to the time of year?
But I suppose the version in circulation now has had all the EXIF stripped away.?
This time, the story outlined fully, with page counts.
Title: Schrödinger's Gig
Central Character:
- Elias Thorne – A music journalist in his late 50s diagnosed with a brain tumor (the "bullet in brain"). He uses experimental drugs to manage the pain and hallucinations, blurring the lines between reality and delusion.
Story Outline:Part 1: The Cat Creeps In (30 page count total)
- Elias, facing his own mortality, seeks solace in reliving past musical experiences through a combination of drugs and music.
- "Cat Crept In" by Mud triggers a vivid hallucination of a 1970s Mud concert.
- The experience is exhilarating yet unsettling. He questions if it's real (Schrödinger's Cat metaphor).
- He encounters a recurring ghost narrator, a hot young woman musician (cool cat?) named Lily, who seems to guide him through these hallucinations.
Part 2: Time Unravels (60)
- Elias becomes addicted to the time-traveling concerts triggered by specific songs.
- "Time" by David Bowie sends him to a Bowie concert in the 80s, highlighting the deteriorating effects of his condition ("sniper in the brain").
- "Drugs Don't Work" by Verve reinforces the internal struggle between seeking escape and facing reality.
- Each jump is disorienting, with no control over the destination. This fuels the "madness is creeping over me" feeling.
- During these jumps, Elias develops a connection with Lily, who seems strangely familiar.
Part 3: Mirrors and Mayhem (100)
- "American Idiot" by Green Day reflects Elias's internal turmoil and sense of being trapped.
- "Will Follow You into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie hints at a deeper connection between Elias and Lily.
- "Teardrop" by Massive Attack emphasizes the "mirror concepts" as Elias confronts his reflection and mortality.
- He learns from ghost Lily that she was a young fan who died at a concert Elias reviewed years ago (Girlfriend in a Coma reference).
- He realizes the "coma" may be his own, with the drugs acting as a dream trap.
Part 4: The Divine Friend and the Choice (140)
- "I Don't Wanna Be You Anymore" by Billie Eilish confronts Elias with the self-destructive nature of his escape.
- He discovers a deeper connection with Lily – she embodies his lost passion for music and life. (Divine friend)
- "Jesus Wept" by Sia introduces the concept of a higher power or "divine construct" influencing Elias's fate. (Determinism vs. Non-determinism)
- Elias faces a choice: remain reliving the past or use remaining jumps to find a way back.
Part 5: Climax and Resolution (180)
- There are multiple possible endings depending on the desired message:
- Sacrifice for Love: Elias uses his final jump to bring Lily back to his present, altering the timeline but finding solace in love.
- Acceptance: He realizes the past cannot be recaptured and chooses to stay in his present, cherishing the memories and facing his mortality with newfound appreciation for life.
- Open Ending: Lost in the music, Elias disappears completely, trapped in a specific concert forever, blurring the lines between reality and hallucination.
End (Page 200)Themes:
- Mortality and the search for meaning in the face of death.
- The power of music and nostalgia as escape mechanisms.
- The nature of reality and the blurring lines between hallucination and dream.
- Love and the importance of human connection.
- Free will vs. determinism – does Elias control his fate?
Strengths:
Areas for Development:
Additional Thoughts:
Overall:
"Schrödinger's Gig" has a strong foundation. Refining the character development, pacing, and exploration of the central themes can elevate this story to be truly captivating.
Here are some suggestions to consider:
I hope this feedback helps you develop "Schrödinger's Gig" into a gripping and thought-provoking novel!
I had some fun with some writing yesterday. A friend of mine is planning out a book and gave me a couple of themes. Generally is about time travel to old music gigs.
I thought I'd give it a spin with my brainstorming technique for plot line. I'm more a 'pantser' than a planner (ie write by the seat of my pants etc).
Anyway, I thought of a few titles that could be relevant to the theme, as well as trying to add in something to drive the listless protagonist.
It was such fun I thought I'd write it down...
Here are a few whimsical and eclectic songs I used to stimulate thought.
Cat crept in – Mud
Schrödinger’s Cat. Obviously. Within you and without you. Paradox. Constellation with Noomi Rapace not realising the quantumness of everything after an ISS impact with a corpse.
Time – Bowie
An obvious choice, although I had to think of these. I didn't want to use Mr. Google and the 'sniper in the brain came' to me and I thought, 'Perfect. Slow bullet wound affecting brain' but then I remembered the TV show Life on Mars and others.
Drugs don’t work – Verve/Richard Ashcroft
Could be drugged and hallucinating? Entirely possible if a big fan. Add that the drugs don’t really work and you have a split.
American idiot - Green Day – Gogol
Reminds me of the amazing Diary of a Madman by Gogol, which takes Poprishchin and follows him on a path to madness. First person. The entries haphazardly mix a past tense recounting of events of the day with present time registering of thoughts and associations relating to them. It begins with a standard date-based diary format, but at a certain point even the dates take on an irrational form, as if the writer's sense of conventional time has dissolved.
I will follow you into the dark. Death cab for cutie
At the borders of life and death. Seen and done it all. Except these last few things.
Teardrop. Massive attack
Mirrors are a powerful tool. Faithful mirrors especially so.
Girlfriend in a coma. Morrisey and Marr/ Smiths/ Coupland
Young, gifted and Black re-imagined by gloom rockers. More significantly, Douglas Coupland writes a modern fairy tale of Karen who predicts her lapse into a coma and stays in it for 17 years, awakening in time for the End of the World. Brilliant use of Jared as a ghost narrator. Style is grounded in realism.
Bad dream hotline - FOE
Use of a Dream trap. Go figure.
idontwanttobeyouanymore – Billy Eilish
She took a long cold look at me (Syd). Generate the mood. Gravity of it can’t escape the fate.
Jesus wept - Sia. (God shaped hole)
Playing with divinity. Use of a God construct? “Life is a cigarette / Cinder, ash and fire / Some smoke it in a hurry / Others savour it". And ‘I smoke my friends down to the filter.’ 2.5 billion heartbeats= average lifespan. ('God shaped hole' is in Smashing Pumpkins lyrics also)
21st century schizoid man. King Crimson.
Being manipulated Terry Gillam’s Brazil-style and powerless to escape the chosen route. Nondeterminism: the doctrine that there are factors other than the state and immutable laws of the universe involved in the unfolding of events, such as free will.
My song choices generated ideas incorporating:
Some processes take me back in time. I was just completing a legal document and exactly that occurred. I needed to create a 20 page document - two versions - for which I needed signatures on several pages. And witnesses. The signatures were spread out through the document, instead of all being on a signature page. There was also a certificator. Then I needed a photocopy of the signed form.
If this was being done by a legal firm, I guess they would charge me several hundred for the tedium of copying and checking everything.
When I used to work abroad, I can remember some countries with their arcane paperwork. I thought we had improved, but it looks as if the legal profession is slow to catch up.
The main protagonist is Naomi Rapace, and we get some good Scandi Noir thrown into the mix. It is as if the writers tipped out their packet of parts to see which ones they could use.
I've noticed Kubrick and Silence of the Lambs moments as well as proper Scandi crashing through the softly falling now. I usually watch Alien in the dark, for maximum immersion and I found this one to be similarly so, to the extent that a couple of times I needlessly looked away whilst the tension was mounting.
In some ways I was doing a 'Copenhagen'; by not observing the states which became consequently quantumly ambiguous. And I suppose the (later observed) dead cosmonaut could be a parallel for the a finally observed Schrödinger cat.
In quantum physics there is a concept called entanglement. An entangled system is defined as an inseparable whole. In entanglement, one constituent cannot be fully described without considering the other(s). The superposition of states of local constituents is entangled if it cannot be written as a single product term.
I'm wondering how deftly the script for this can avoid entanglement as it waltzes through this science, with Breaking Bad's Mike Ehrmentraut (Jonathan Banks) playing the seasoned seventy year old astronaut 'Bud' who has been to the moon and knows about science things. For me, he doesn't quite pull it off and treats the 'canister thingy' as a McGuffin. "But we must get it back".
Still, outside of these observations, I'm finding it better to watch than a few other things queued up on my various players.
I steeled myself to go to see the Jonathan Glazer production of 'Zone of Interest' which portrays the life of KL Camp Kommandant Rudolf Höss and his family in their apparently idyllic house set against the walls of Auschwitz. Martin Amis wrote a similar story and Glazer decided to tell it with the actual people instead of the anonymity of the fictional version.
There's the bucolic and well-tended garden with trimmed grass, pretty flowers and a swimming pool slowly revealing that beyond the wall is the industrialised mass murder of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Höss is senior commander of the entire operation and even gets promoted back to Berlin to oversee a whole set of these camps. The family declines to follow, preferring their luxurious lifestyle outside of the Auschwitz camp.
The language is matter of fact as the family behaves typically with their assorted children, pet dog, numerous servants and workmen. They are largely insulated from the Konzentrationslager as their nearest neighbour, growing vines up the camp walls. The terrifying soundscape tells the story of what is within these walls. Although the movie is in German language, the stark sounds already tell too much. Pistolshot, echoing rifle shots, screams, and the interminable grinding, smoke, cries and metallic groans from the heavy machinery of industrial slaughter. Black smoke rising and ash coating the flowers causing the visiting mother to quietly depart overnight. Mercifully Glazer doesn't show us inside the active camp.
We see Höss rising to power, first a promotion to Berlin, then to take proud control of the mass extermination of Hungarian prisoners - another excited promotion relayed by phone from Berlin to his wife still at the house in Auschwitz.
In his Nuremburg Trial affidavit made on 5 April 1946, Höss stated:
