thought dream 020309.2

I'm thinking about writing something about
thinking about writing something. I'm thinking
about thinking, thinking about writing, thinking

about thinking and writing and how they relate.
I'm thinking a lot. Am I thinking? I don't know.
Sometimes I'm not even sure I'm breathing.

Sometimes, when I'm meditating, and I'm
following my breathing, I start thinking about
meditating, and then I start thinking about

my breathing, and my breathing gets
messed up, and then I'm no longer meditating
and following my breathing. I'm just thinking

about meditating. How did I even start thinking
about that? I was thinking about writing
something about thinking and writing, and,

suddenly, I'm thinking about something else.
Like now, when I suddenly start thinking
about Fats Waller, probably because I'm

listening to Fats Waller in the background
while I'm writing. (I've started writing now.
Am I still thinking about writing?) Fats is

singing "Honeysuckle Rose" in 1934, and
playing piano, and I'm thinking about Fats
singing and playing "Honeysuckle Rose,"

and I'm thinking that he probably wasn't thinking
much, if at all, about singing and playing while
he was singing and playing. And I'm thinking

about writing something about Fats Waller
singing and playing and how it relates to thinking
and writing and thinking about writing. But now

that I'm writing about Fats Waller and thinking
and writing, I wonder if I'm actually thinking
about writing while I'm writing about thinking,

or am I just writing? I seem to be thinking and
writing at the same time, or thinking about
writing a millisecond ahead of writing about

thinking, thinking about a word and then
writing the word, so that by the time I start
writing the word, I'm already thinking about

the next word and thinking about writing the
next word, and then writing the next word,
ad infinitum, until I stop thinking anymore

about writing about thinking about writing,
or thinking about anything, or maybe
thinking about something completely unrelated

to writing, at which point, I stop writing.
Come over here, little Honeysuckle Rose,
and let me show you who's your Sugar Daddy.

Discovery

It is actually impossible to walk through mid-town Manhattan listening to Count Basie & His Orchestra play "Honeysuckle Rose" (their first recording, 1937) and not develop a jaunty stroll or break into a smile for everyone around you.

Count Basie + Lester Young + Fats Waller = A Force Greater Than You Know.



From: The Complete Decca Recordings

Interestingly, Basie and the boys recorded "Honeysuckle Rose" at Decca Studios, just 20 blocks north of where I was strolling this morning. Can music have a ghost? Can it linger in the streets of New York City for 71 years, waiting for someone to walk by who's listening to it? Is the music always present and we just hear it when we pay enough attention? Was my iPod even necessary?