the timboucher experience

Records currently in heavy rotation: Darkness on the Edge of Town by Springsteen - bought for fifty cents, cause the cover’s ripped, plays good. Honky Chateau by Elton John, totally kickin, reminds of a girl I met through the internet from Vermont or somehow or other years ago. Nashville Skyline by Dylan, a under-rated Dylan record that keeps surprising me in its depth and simplicity. Look for the end of the Cash duet. Warren Zevon’s Excitable Boy, with the pretty much perfect song on it “Lawyers, Guns & Money” which always makes me think of Jeff Wells’ wonderful writing.

MP3s: mp3s for me now are like candy or popcorn or something or like a really cheap buffet or something. Best consumed occasionally, whereas listening to a record has all the power of a lower sacrament: you’re nourished, you’re sustained, you’re uplifted. Vinyl records are my go-to, mp3s are situational. Anyway, my mp3 collection now is not as rock heavy as it once was if we’re watching percents. Assuming we are, torrenting massive sets of audio data - entire catalogs of artists and broad samplings of eras and genres - has really skewed a random sampling of my files. All of a sudden there’s heavy on the pickin, from old Blues and country-tinged folk, to some real wailin’ (often hard to listen to if you’re not seeking something from it) in a collection I put together of indigenous world ritual music. Next biggest block is probably from the Funky16Corners collection my friend gave me.

Reading: Just finished Rowbotham’s Troubadours and the Courts of Love. Almost done with Theatre and Revolution: The Culture of the French Stage. Just picked up in State College Samuel Avital’s Mime Work Book. About to start another book I got from Normal’s here in town, The Medieval Theatre by Glenn Wickham. Recently read Shop Class As Soul Craft which was decent, but I wish there were more sustenance in it. Don’t know how to phrase that exactly… but it set me in a good direction either way. Contemporary cultural support on some similar or interlocking subjects as my own lines of research…

Watching: Feasting on Bergman, intently watching Hitchcock, studying Buster Keaton (with some Pee-Wee thrown in for comparison against the basic underlying character type). Re-watching Stop Making Sense for the billionth time. Keeping it at arm’s length as background noise right now. Random Etienne Decroux mime videos on YouTube. Instructional chess and juggling videos when I have the chance.

Leisure activity: Brushing up on my chess game, playing chess by email and once in a while on the streets of my neighborhood next to a sandwich board I made labelled “HAMPDEN CHESS CLUB (all welcome)”. Working on my back cross in three club juggling, doubles-every as preparation for other more complex tricks and partner work, thumb spins, simple flair, etc. Bicycling, fixed gear free wheel.

Researching: Writing a first-person narrative exploration of the history and culture of traveling performers. Tying together strands associated with minstrels’ guilds common as an extra-state protection system for lifelong wanderers. History of guilds in general, great artisanal and crafts traditions – especially Renaissance and contemporary. Connections between guilds, corporations, civic and labor unions. Gaining practical skills and experience in modern day equivalents of same. Working, bartering and volunteering all over town in exchange for learning basic electricity, some electronics and welding. Hopefully getting into some machining and fine metal work, in addition to freelance crew work, theatrical carpentry and working as a stagehand. Hoping to write into the story some good historical pieces on old Baltimore theatres. I think I know where to start.

• I just hope that I’m winning
• Ding!
• September and everything right now
• Korean Wizard Arrested For Being Too Magical
• That fall-fresh smell