Improvisations on Reality

Once in a while, I would go out of my way for a show, knowing that I’m in for a treat, and this show right here has to be one of the highlights of this year’s jazz season. And it occurred to me that I’ve dug so deep into my photography that I forget to write about the music that I love.

Here’s to hoping I get back into the routine with this write-up.

So! Smooth Jazz for Scholars, held annually in Milford, CT. A train ride and a small schlep away, but it’s a balm for the music lover’s soul.

A brainchild of keyboardist Jay Rowe, the SJFS show is a fundraiser for music education in Milford public schools. Considering the slashes at extracurricular activity funding, events like these are a must, and when you look at the lineup, you are bound to see great artists. Jay will not tell you, though, that the show is absolutely electrifying, and you do not know what to expect on stage.

Among the highlights were Paul Taylor and Nelson Rangell, both on saxes, a visit from Shilts, and Nick Colionne on guitar. Fantastic lineup indeed, and each and every one of them has stellar stage presence.

Nick Colionne is someone you will recognize immediately if you’re into jazz, and if you’re not, then I recommend you have a solid listen. His guitar is Wes Montgomery/Chicago cool; strong and melodic enough to catch your attention, but you won’t catch him sticking to a script of any kind. He gets onstage and makes sure that he has your attention from the first few minutes. And if you don’t recognize the guitar, then know this: to date, Nick is the only person I know to pull off a full-scale, sharp, bold Zoot suit.  I will certainly not be the first to say that he gets an A+ for stage presence, and that has nothing to do with the suit. I promise you: he will make you laugh. More than that, he will make you take notice of his sound; he does not pull punches on the strings, and his music is as strong as his presence.

And right alongside Nick, who on the sax but the one, the only Shilts, formetly of Down to the Bone. If you want funk, this is your man right here. If you like a strong tenor, he’s got one. If need any further convincing, download Back on the Hudson. That, ladies and gentlemen, is funk. Shilts also brought a new CD with him, and new and old songs alike to the stage, including my personal favorite, the more sedate, contemplative Good Evans.

After Shilts – Paul Taylor. NY doesn’t see Paul often; come to think of it, nor does the East Coast with any sort of regularity. Some people may even call Paul commercial. However, when he kicks out something as entrancing as On The Move, you stop and listen. And when he’s on stage, he is fun; he is fun and he makes sure you have it too. Paul Taylor thrives on that stage; he gets the audience into his music, he gets everyone on stage with him into the show, and whether or not he plays the more recognizable material like Ladies’ Choice, or gets into  Prime Time material, which is a lot bolder, you’re right there with him. Together with Chieli Minucci on both Special EFX music and his own, he left me smiling.

And then, there was Nelson Rangell.

I took notice of Nelson accidentally, and comparatively recently (a couple years ago!) when Pandora kicked out Starting Now. By no means a new track, but one that didn’t really leave my head since…still in there, really. Since then, I made a point of browsing through Pandora’s stash of Rangell music, and found that his style is to my liking. Simple, lyrical, straightforward, and very melodic. Starting Now probably won’t pull you in at first, but it will make you take notice. It’ll wrap itself around you and warm your nerves. And Nelson has a unique ability: he whistles in perfect pitch.

If you don’t believe me? Mosey on over to Youtube and look up Sonora. I am telling you, I didn’t take a single photo of when he had whistled Sonora at SJFS because my jaw was busy resting on the floor. How often do you hear someone whistle note-perfect as part of a jazz show? This was a first, and a very intriguing first at that. When Nelson would come back through NY, I hope to be there. That was brilliant.

The closing was something that I can only describe as outrageous. Nick Brown/James Colionne. That is all I can say, and it was brilliant. Outstandingly rousing, delightfully over the top, and perfect.

Major props to the Foran High School jazz band and chorus alike; those kids have talent.

Also, props times two to Dolly, Estella, and Kelly. Love my ladies.

Facebook album can be found here. It contains only a tiny percentage of the photos from that night, and if you’d like to see more, I will upload them to SmugMug soon…yes, I’m getting an account.

K.G.

Like this guy, the Mississippi governor, who insists that liberals want abortions left and right. 

Seriously? Do I really have to explain this shit?

Let me, again and with feeling, explain the concept of pro-choice. See the word choice. It does not mean to abort the ever-loving hell out of every pregnancy. It means exactly what it is: choice. As in, a woman has the choice as to whether or not she wants to keep a pregnancy. If she does – that’s her choice. See that word again? But if she doesn’t and makes the choice to abort, then that is her choice. Funny little word, right?

Now, look at what I just wrote. And now ask me this: where does it get implied, even remotely, that every pregnant woman would traipse into a doctor’s office and ask to terminate a pregnancy like it’s the easiest choice ever? Where is it implied that there’s an abortions-for-all concept here?

I’ll wait.

No answer? Fabulous. I’ll go on, then.

Let’s be frank and call a spade a spade: none of this anti-choice, anti-birth control BS is about babies. NONE. Zip. Zero. This is basically men getting their britches in a bunch over the fact that, now that women have control over their biology and don’t have to be shackled to house, home, kids, and uterus, they are creating viable competition for the men in the workplace and in life. This is all about control. It has absolutely nothing to do with babies, because the same people who would see abortion outlawed are the very same people who would eliminate any and all social safety nets as the next step. They don’t give a damn about babies. They don’t give a damn about women, because they can and will and have imprisoned women for not giving birth the way they want (google the case of a FL woman who was imprisoned because she wanted a natural birth after a C-section with her first child). They only want one thing: to shoehorn women right back into the 19th Century, where there was little choice for a woman but to marry and reproduce, man was the king of the castle, and everyone around him was to worship him.

This is what it’s about. Make no mistake. And lest you believe otherwise, think of this: the Republicans have proposed next to nothing to create jobs. They have, however, proposed – and in some cases, passed – over four hundred anti-choice bills.

This right here is a perfect demonstration of their priorities. None of this is about “saving” anything except their egos.

On a national scale.

And they’re not in the least bit ashamed that they would use women and women’s rights as political bargaining chips and blame “radical feminism” for their own misogyny. Feminism is this superbly radical idea that women are people. You know, human beings.

The Republicans have to lose and lose HARD in November.

K.G.

When Amazon does promo, Amazon does promo.

So I decided to make my book free for Kindle, as part of the KDP Select free promo days. So far, just Book 1, though. I did no promo apart from some scheduled tweets with the link, and tossed a couple of FB groups the link as well.

The day is barely halfway gone and over a hundred copies have been moved so far, and it’s not stopping. Across both the US, UK, and German markets. Holy crap. I had no idea I had waiting fans in Germany, but there you go!

I’m delighted, and very grateful to my readers. And, as ever, I look forward to your reviews. Recently, MW from San Diego gave the first book a five-star review. Awesome.

I will happily put up a draft of the film version up if I can. I want to see if people like reading scripts as much as I do.

K.G.

So, because tax deadline kills the sleep and stokes the muse, I started working on the script counterpart to Book 1. Yep, I’m writing a movie. No, not for Script Frenzy – because tax season will eat me if I try that, and I’m actually about to head to work as I’m writing this – but because, frankly, it’s fun, and I want to pitchThe Index as a film series.

And I am slowly getting really, really into it.

I will admit this: when I first started laying down The Index, back in 2006, I had every intention of writing it so that it could translate to the screen easily. I can see this being a great series in film; I wouldn’t put my work on the same scale of potential that Harry Potter had ended up with, but I definitely think that my work has a certain visual appeal. At least to the nerds who ended up loving it so far (yes, I’m looking at you, and you know who you are!!!).

With all the difficulties and travails that I’ve had with the first book of this series – for the details on that, everything with the Book 1 category on this blog that dates back to 2009 will tell you exactly what was going on – I’ve had a surprisingly easy time so far templating out the first few scenes of the book in screen format. While in the first book I had the challenge of layout, conventions, scenery, and the general flow of the book, right now the challenge has shifted to having an effective portrayal of that same text. There is much less focus on the writing details when you’re working in screen form. It becomes all about the visual, all about how the characters will be seen, and all about how to see everything effectively. i.e. soundtrack cues, potential actors, etc.

This also brings an entirely new dimension to the process: I have to actually think of this in visual terms. I will admit shamelessly that I thought of anime noir at the time I was writing the story in the first place, but right now, and especially right now, I”m thinking of it as a live-action endeavor. Yes, might cost more, but it will work better this way. I have to actually consider who will play whom in the film. I can’t cast Shou and Kian, for the life of me, but I’ve earlier mentioned that Arriella would be best played by Serinda Swan (you may know her as Erica Reed if you’re a fan of Breakout Kings). Shourron I, both sides of him, would be best done with Liam Neeson. Rena would have a worthy portrayal in the hands of Annabelle Wallis (Jane Seymour from The Tudors, season 3). Arriella’s scheming mother, Morrhia, would go to Catherine Zeta-Jones. Lord Kirare, the Viceroy of the Underworld, will go to the actor whose presence inspired his creation to begin with: Chris Noth. And Jason Watson, the redheaded, lovable-little-shit bon vivant based on one of my dearest friends, will be played by the most versatile redhead there is….Damian Lewis. Whom you may have seen in Homeland.

Hey, dream big, right?

But in reality, all this is helping me put the movie into motion, so to speak. Now that there are flesh-and-blood people representing the people whom I’ve written into existence, writing the screen form suddenly becomes that much easier. Same for soundtrack: no movie is complete without sound, and now I have to dig at my collection of jazz, rock, Celtic, and everything else to start matching scenes to songs.

In other words, the story hasn’t changed, but the presentation is wildly different. And considering that I spent the past six years heavily entrenched in and perfecting the noveling side of writing, to switch gears like that is quite the lulu. I won’t deny one thing, though: I rather like it.

To note, I will put up Mages on TriggerStreet.com, which is a great hosting site for indie scripts, and I will also make a PDF of it available in e-book format. Print will be entirely too clunky…or not, I don’t know. Still thinking about it.

And, to note, if Mages does get picked up for production? Well…then let’s just say it. My life will be changing very fast.

K.G.

Slight addendum: Book 1 can be found here, and is free for Kindle on April 17th. Yes, a slightly shameless plug. :)

Now listed also at the UK’s Squid Publishing!

http://www.squidpublishing.co.uk/#/katherine-gilraine/4562623120

Link also going into the sidebar. :)

For Teen Week.

I am confident that I have teenage readers of this blog, as well as of my books. Jenna Bacci, who had designed two of my covers, is 18 now. And being a teenager is not always a great thing. Hell, I cringe when I think of myself as a teenager. Awkward? Yeah. Very. Didn’t help that I had everyone and their best friend have an opinion of how I needed to be, and forget how I wanted to be.

Teen Week is a project that’s aimed at raising teens’ self-image, and I am glad to jump aboard. I encourage others to participate too.

I think a letter-to-old-self would do well.

And if you are a teen reader, and can somehow relate to this…then I hope this will at least bolster you a bit.

—-

Dear Teenage, Fifteen-year-old Me,

If I could go back in time and hug you, I would. You don’t need to beat yourself up for things that are clearly not your fault. You’re doing the right thing, studying psychology. Don’t guilt yourself. There’s no time for that.

Also, cultivate your sarcasm. It’s what makes the world go round.

Now, to the serious things.

You have to speak out, and speak out loudly when you are wronged. “What happens int he family, stays in the family” is BULL. You’re already reaching out a little, but you have to talk to someone, now. Your school does have a counselor. Go there, go now, and to hell with what people think of you for seeking help. Get the hell out of your house, and often. You know it, but gather your nerve and do it.

Don’t let people discourage you from writing. Don’t stop watching offbeat anime and random movies. Don’t stop reading books you like just because people around you shove their opinions at you about what you should be reading. Write. Write like there’s no tomorrow. Write from the heart.

Don’t listen to your mother telling you how fat you are. You wear a size eight. Don’t be ashamed of yourself, and don’t be ashamed of being yourself. You’re a beauty, and you need to believe it. You will be heavier than you are now, but get on the path of believing in your beauty now. The older you get, the harder it is to believe.

Hold on to your grandpa. You love him, and you love him perhaps more than anyone else in your family. You won’t have him much longer. Visit him often.

That guy that you saw in class who stole your breath away? Drop the damn class and avoid him. You may like him, but he will never, ever stop being a selfish bastard. You think the world of him now. But he isn’t worth you. He has never been, and never will be, and will make you miserable for years. While you want to be in a relationship, don’t get into this one, or the one immediately after it. The wedding dress you sketched when bored in class one day is beautiful, but it will, again, not be worth it for you. All that glitters is not gold.

Don’t believe everything people tell you about things. Read. You like to read and you’re curious, so read about what you want to know. Facts and science never lie, and you know it.

Listen to the radio more often. You will, one fine day, hear something magical. It will keep you whole for years to come.

Most of all, teenage me? Know this: you will be the person you want to grow up to be. You are built of strong fiber, although right now, you don’t quite see it. What you have to go through, you have the strength for it to spare. Remember that yours is the gumption that people wish they had; you know how to deal with things that most people crumble and fall apart on. Regardless of what you hear from people around you, you are one tough cookie. Follow your soul, your heart, and no one else’s.

Oh…and don’t think so much about this place you’re in. You won’t look back. You won’t miss people. It’s change that terrifies you, and it’s change that you have to adapt to. But know this: you will not be looking back after a certain point. Don’t put that much stock in it. And learn that change, however jarring, is a very welcome thing.

Love,

The present you.

K.G.

Working on press release for Book 4…

All three of my books are now part of KDP Select! There has been no movement on B&N, but I, however, noticed that there is movement on the Amazon UK pages.

You know what? I go with what works.

Enjoy, loves! If you are members of Amazon Prime, you read my stuff at no charge to you!

Linkage: http://amzn.to/Hraegb

K.G.