The Dose #61
Exploring Creative Processes: Part 6
(Finding the Second of Three “Trinity” Components: The Green Pepper)
Deep sea diving through my past, I found certain “Pearls” that matched my objectives of finding a state of conceptual purity. On my first two excursions, I found a few core concepts that would comprise the roux of my projected, but still yet unknown and undefined creative “Gumbo Project”.
Just as a refresher, here’s a snippet that outlines rough parameters for “The Roux”; The true base of “The Gumbo”, defined in a previous blog (The Hard Wiring Of The Really Little Georgie, Daily Dose #57: http://littlegeorgiesblog-a-thon.blogspot.com/2011/07/daily-dose-57-072411.html)
“Those identifiable core elements took this form, when finally digging inside myself to find them.
1. There had to be a “narrative” element. All material, covered or eventually written, had to follow that narrative.
2. Although undefined at that point, the narrative would explore the darker side of the human experience. A creator creates of what he knows.
3. The narrative would be allegorical in nature. And in the end, uplift.
4. The project had to be just as powerfully presented graphically. Everything piece of material that came out of the camp had to deliver the right visual content to be just as evocative as the music, the presentation, the performances, and the narrative.
5. As mis-direction, the narrative had to be hidden, through the use of unabashed humor. It couldn’t look like any of us were taking ourselves too seriously.
Entertainment values were what we were going to show first.
6. The band was going to showcase a decided New Orleans Piano flavor; (Insert “Caribbean Calypso” in here: a strong component of Mardi Gras Indian chants and music, and the music of Professor Longhair, blues with a decided Afro Caribbean slant, and the artist that I stole the name of the band from, as an homage, of course!)
7. It had to rock, but more importantly, it had to roll. There were going to be moments of collective and communal orgasmic release, just like that scream in “I Saw Her Standing There”; a pure exhibition of the power and resultant joy of Rock And Roll as I knew it.”
After another dive in the darkened depths of early memory, I found my “onion”, the first of a projected three additional core components, revolving around the filter of “The Test Of Time”. What that was, and could again I find the purity in that concept; and then reinterpret that concept as a core design component.
From Daily Dose #60 (“Finding The Onion”: http://littlegeorgiesblog-a-thon.blogspot.com/2011/07/daily-dose-60-072711.html)
“The first awareness of “The Test Of Time” was drilled into me from 1963-1970 on all platforms, but the source of the springwater? The love and care of my brother through the conduit of the entire Warner Brothers Cartoon Cannon.
I had the onion now, and like an onion, this first component of my “Holy Trinity” was a multi-layered thing……
The onion, and thus the Gumbo, would explore the darkness of the human condition, yet appear to be “light”, functioning on many conscious and subconscious levels simultaneously. The Onion would not condescend or cheapen its intended audience in anyway. The onion would be stand repetitive viewings and listenings through multi- layered complexities. The onion at first glance would be funny. The onion was going to have a cast of characters that would be absolutely personality driven.
Everything I knew about the Warner Cartoon Output would be re-interpreted, twisted and personalized, but I knew that those core concepts would be recognized and followed.
And at the heart of it all, and the soul of it all, would stand “The Bunny”, as I remembered him from 1962 with my six year old brother sitting next to me with a sketch pad, teaching a two year old how to draw a perfect Bugs with nothing but love and a totally open heart.
I was going to be “The Bunny”. As I rushed to to escape the past to gasp the air of the here and now, and broke that water line, the concept of “Little Georgie” was born unto this world.”
I was circling around a conundrum, tightening the noose around its proverbial neck.
The last two components of “The Holy Trinity” (“The Green Pepper and The Celery”) were now going to be actual creative work that were going to by guided by the parameters outlined, and always run through a set of filters, at this point “The Test Of Time”.
These next components were going to be narrative based. I now had the function of a central character in that future narrative, but now I had to actually develop it in form.
Do do that, I had to take one more dive, this time to find that narrative. Find it, and the character of “The Bunny” would flesh itself out, as would the problem of character development in general.
I was very close to breaking through at this point, and probably would have gotten there without this third trip in the Time Tunnel, but since it had born the core design elements, and found them in a state of child-like purity and awareness, I had to make sure I had the narrative’s priorities screwed on straight.
DAILY DOSE #62 will be about storytelling, and what types of stories I was attracted to, and what types of stories conformed to these newly defined parameters. Ultimately leading me to answer a critical question: Could I write one of my own?
Could I write one that could run cleanly through the now established filter of “The Test Of Time?”
(STAY TUNED FOR PART 7)
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Geo
“You may shoot for the stars and end up in a back alley behind Pluto, beaten and bloodied, but at least I dare to dream, and that’s better than being Earthbound, mired in the muck of mediocrity.
I judge my forward progress and success by the crushingly epic nature of my failures.
The more epic the crash, the more I’m convinced I must be doing something right”
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