Hi ...

It's been awhile I know . . . . much happens, yet nothing of great import occurs.
I have been working tirelessly on the books, and although slow, I am pleased with my progress. I do wish I had done this before I released the first book, but then life is a learning process and I know so much more, (as well as being better at the craft) than I did a year ago.
But my plodding efforts are producing a much better book overall, so in that I'm happy.
Book two should be available by mid-September, and I hope to have the boxed set out by Christmas; and really, that is how it should be read. It was written as one long stand-alone novel, with the sequel being a second set of books . . . It is, however, still a fun read one at a time.
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Okay; now for the personal note.
Last week the son of a dear friend of mine and his girlfriend were on their way to Maui to attend her sister's wedding, and as they were in the neighborhood, they worked out a stop on the Big Island to visit JJ and I. Now, company is always fun, but this one put an oddly nostalgic spin on the week.
These kids; and I refer to them as kids because they are in their mid-twenties, and that makes 'em kids . . . they were a treat, but as I mentioned, their being here brought back memories by the boatload.
First let me say that they were charming, incredibly polite, and wonderful house guests, who also happen to be very talented musicians.
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Now, I'm a bit jaded. I have been around great music most of my life and I've worked with some of the biggest names in show biz.
I am also quite selective in my likes and dislikes. Therefore, I am rarely impressed with the direction or the quality of the music I hear, whether it be live or recorded. I absolutely despise rap and am, on the whole, equally unimpressed with hip-hop.
But these guys are doing something newly retro, interesting, and fun. As a matter of fact, I recommend you go to their website and check 'em out, You'll find the link at the end of this post.. . .
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As I was saying, we don't often hang with people this much younger than ourselves. And since we have no children of our own we aren't reminded by said prodigy how quickly we are growing old.
So it was refreshing to talk with smart and talented people who have not yet been beaten into submission by reality's blunt hammer, nor soaking in egos bouillabaisse.
Anyway, the conversations were grand; but left me with mixed feelings . . .
Now, I suspect Jessies father had given him a little insight to my past, and having stuffed a lot of living into a handful of decades, they allowed me to draw from my river of experience and offer them not so much advice, but perspective. And of the two, I feel perspective is often the more valuable.
So in that, I felt I provided a minor service.
But also, in talking with them I realized how much I miss the open innocence of youth, the unfettered hope, and boundless energy that being twenty provides; and perversely, how blissfully unaware we are of the fleeting nature of those magical years . . . Yet when spoken as warning/advice, the words sound both trite, and cliche'.
Ahh well, I have also found that one of life's greatest ironies is that while we may hear the wisdom in words; in the end, time is the only teacher we truly listen to.
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So, having dropped them off at the airport last night so they might continue their own amazing adventure, I was left thinking of just that; the elasticity of time . . . .
Jessie, the handsome young fellow with the mustache and the red tie, is the same age I was when I met Jeudi, and we celebrated our 34th-anniversary just yesterday. And Lauren, the lovely vocalist was born the year after we moved to Hawaii . ..
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With these things poking my memory cage like a child with a stick,
I spent some time this morning searching for quotes with 'growing older' in the title, and I discovered ( with no surprise) there to be no shortage on the subject.
Many were witty, others profound. But as I studied them, trying to find the one that would work well in this post I remembered a quote that Teller lifted from a song I wrote for my Grandfather before he died.
It's in Book One, and says it all in one simple sentence.
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"To sacrifice youth and replace it with truth seems an unfairly high price to pay."

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Oh, and one last thing. I know this is a good book, and if the reviews have any validity, many people agree.
But understand, if no-one else knows about it, well, that's as far as it goes. So please, tell people about the book! share your enthusiasm with others . . . Everyone I've ever met appreciates being turned on to a good read, and I can't tell you how many times I've been thanked for it, or thanked others for the same.
As for marketing, I am exploring all avenues and am beating my head against the wall trying to figure out how to market this on a nonexistent budget.
For those who are thinking of suggesting one of the funding sites such as Kickstarter, I'm putting together a video now, but still, I am a firm believer in word of mouth being an incredibly powerful form of promotion. So, please, open up!
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I would also like to say many, many mahalo's for following my adventures. I truly hope you are enjoying my slightly skewed views on life, as well as finding humor, and perhaps an occasional bit of enlightenment within these pages.

D.C.

Royal Jelly | About The Band

Soul-Jive & Gypsy-Blues

ROYALJELLYJIVE.COM

Hi everbody!

Okay. An ongoing question/discussion I have with my readers, and more so my yet to readers, is the concept of a "Songline."
Now, the book is not so metaphysical as this, nor is it a dry. But the concept relates to the book, and the book encapsulates the concept. . . . So, that said, here you are.
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Songlines are about singing where you've been or creating a map with words. The literal concept of Songlines is to "sing the trail", to "sing the place", to recreate and remember the physical landscape in song. And, it should be noted, this doesn't just apply to a literal landscape. Since few of us rely on a literal landscape for our sustenance anymore this concept can be extended to any figurative landscape. We all yearn for a sense of place and this is one way to achieve it.
Songlines in Australia can extend thousands of miles. Aborigines can unerringly find their way across terrain unknown to them simply by knowing the land's song--the songline. The Navajo Deerway Chant is a healing ceremony based on a songline of a couple hundred miles which circles a particular valley in Arizona.
Ones immediate purpose of Songlines is to introduce them as a concept which sums up or encapsulates your particular experiences of a specific location. Using words and drummed "phrases," these Songlines are the equivalent of maps of experience which, whenever they are played and sung or said, will guide you back to and through the places you walked. They will return you to (or to you) the feelings and events you experienced each night. Like all maps, the more specific Songlines are, the more useful they'll be for you and others.
To create Songlines:
1. Take the time to recall the feelings specific to the particular places you've walked/frequented. Each environment is very different from any other. In order to create a Songline one must be aware of that difference.
2. Retrace the course of the travel in your mind, what you saw and felt what occurred, and what was heard .
3. Remember details such as the texture of the sand, the profile of the mesa you saw while walking along the arroyo, the chokecherry trees growing along the stream, etc.,etc.
4. Start attaching words to these images. As is often true in poetry, the fewer words it takes to describe and evoke your experience of place, the more powerful the description will be.
5. The final step is to fit the words of your memories and impressions into a "song."
Go take a walk around the block. Then come up with several images of that walk. Add what you hear and felt. Try to make them combinations of experience and details of place. What makes this block unique from other blocks? Begin putting your experiences into lines and verses that match the rhythms and patterns of your walk/block.
Creating Songlines isn't as hard as it might sound. Don't think about writing poetry, certainly don't think about making art. Do your composing in the peripheral state, the same state you used to recollect details, the same state you were in while dreaming.
The whole existence of Songlines is based on the fact that in the peripheral mind, there's little difference between what you see and what you feel, little difference between who you are and where you are.
Songlines were once common to all hunter-gatherers. All peoples who wandered needed these Land Songs. The Aboriginal peoples of Australia have undoubtedly created the most complex and comprehensive Songlines. They combine mythology with family and clan history and literally follow trade routes from one side of the Australian continent to the other, passing through as many as twenty different language groups. The common element of such a long song is the melody, and its melodies that literally hold the Australian continent and its people together. So important are Songlines to Aborigines that unsung land is dead land, and if a song is forgotten, any land which is no longer sung over, will die. To allow such a thing to occur is the worst possible crime for an Aborigine. To be able to sing a Songline indicates an historically unbroken, intimate knowledge of the land. In short, it marries people to place. This is called ownership.
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In the Southwest, the Navajo are known for the lyrical beauty of their Songlines. The following lines are from a Bringing Home Ceremony.
I fly around the edge of Fluted Rock
Now I being Early Morning Boy, I walk around the edge
The Black Mountain, hogan at sky center, I walk around the edge
These being Wind People, young men, I walk around the edge
With the Sun being still there I encircle it, I walk around the edge
I walk around the edge, I walk around the edge, I walk around the edge.
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The sum of a Songline when we write about a journey becomes our communal map of that journey, of the place and our experience of and in that place. Songlines reinforce our unity with the land, and express's the same oneness we experience while engaged in the peripheral mind.
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Well, I hope that helps.

D.C.