getting back to work

So two days ago I took my portable copy of Dante's Inferno out with me, it's a habit even if I never crack it I have to leave the house with something to read and lately I've been really enjoying the biographical information and commentary on Inferno by Mark Musa. I got his translation cheap at a used book store, I now have two sets of The Comedy, one which is the Birk/Sanders translation and another cobbled together from bookstores, I've got Sayer's Paradiso, Musa's Inferno, and Chiardi's Purgatorio all in pocket book form and bought mainly for the additional material.

Anyway I took my pocketbook Inferno out on some errands and when I came home I was horrified to discover that I had lost it. It fell out of my jacket pocket somewhere along the way and I had no idea where. I did a lot of errands and it could have been anyplace. This really upset me because I had just bought it and the previous owner had gone to pains to laminate the cover, something I really like because I read in the bathroom and sink water ruins paperbacks.

Anyway I had to resign myself to it being gone and started thinking about how much time I've been spending lately just doing background research on Dante the writer instead of paraphrasing Dante the Character and I started to regret all the time lost on writing. Sure my studio isn't set up yet and I'm still getting me head around my latest synth (Virus TI W00t!) but that doesn't mean I can't or shouldn't get as far into the paraphrase as I can, really I ought to have struck more of a balance between research and writing and if I don't start trying harder to do that I'll fuck myself.

I had a dream last night that I had mistakenly put it in a different pocket of my jacket, this morning I half seriously cheked my jacket once again but no luck it was totally gone.

I spent today working on my blog and writing e-mails and then on my way out to class I decided that since I was going back to two of the places I could have lost my book I'd at least ask there who knows right? maybe it turned up.

Sure enough the first place I went (the last place my errands had taken me the day before) there was my copy of Inferno! bookmark and all!

I'm really relieved to have it back and needless to say I'm going to have to find more secure places for it when it comes traveling with me in the future.

I think this could be a sign that I need to get off my ass and start writing again. I read Musa's version of Canto 3 today on the bus and I like his use of blank verse though I still preffer the Birk/Sanders translation for it's use of modern vernacular. But technical observations aside there's something that struck me as I finished reading the commentary.

I have to create the sounds of the dead, the damned and those in eternal torment.

That is a really scary kind of thing. Canto 3 is the first introduction to Hell, it's the one with the famous line "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here" and that's a kind of summation of the environment.

Maybe if you are really into black metal or something you'd think this would be awesome but if you think of it to do it properly will make it a very difficult and unsettling project. I'm still trying to figure it out though I've got a few ideas, and I really really need to finish moving and setting up I need a proper workspace and I'm itching to get this going properly. Canto's 1 and 2 need to be mixed properly and I need to spend more time recording sounds to layer over them.

Ok off to write and then to sleep.