Look Closer
Look beyond the surface
Everything is not as it seems
Masks of artifice worn in public
Peeling away layers of onion skin to see the truth
Look Closer

Curtains of vulnerability drawn dark
Block the harsh light of reality
Fear of being seen as too real
Keeps the tailored image held up for view
Look Closer

Too much information
We view the world through filters
Designed to process what we see and
Save us from the retina burn of daily life
Look Closer

Accumulation of stuff
Things to fill the void
Stock options, Maseratis, your 401k
The left hand column tells you your worth
Look Closer

Sell the sizzle not the steak
The tailored image once again
Fill the void with plastic dreams
Unreal beneath the skin
Look Closer

Stress betrays the coming storm
Letting your true self surface
Drowned so long in the sea of darkness
The light stings your eyes
Look Closer

In the end, we are all alone
The only one who knows the truth
There is no practice, just this once
As the last breath escapes your lungs
Look Closer

Paul French, August 10th 2002

I watched American Beauty for the first time in a couple of years last night. I figured that rather than give my quickie review of a movie that came out 3 years ago, I would instead pass along some thing that it inspired me to write while I watched it. I enjoyed it, I hope you do to.

Cheers,
Paul

I put the link up for the song detailed in Tuesday's blog. It can be found here
I still have to add on a few guitar overdubs, and make the final decision on that part after the second chorus. Do I make it another verse, or a guitar solo? This is the frst time in my life that it has been difficult to do so, as in the past I have either been itching to bend some strings, or dead set against it. For the first time I find myself on some strange middle ground. Check it out, and fill out the feedback form. Mabe you'll help me make the choice!

I took a couple of days vacation around the long weekend to kind of relax and recharge. July was a particularly busy month, and the rest has done me some good.

What did I do on my summer holiday?

First I finished a book that I seem to have been reading for years. The book I speak of is Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson. It took me years, because I would keep setting it aside, and when I got back to it, there was something I had forgotten, so I would start from page 1 again. I must have read the first 8 chapters about 12 times each!

Don't think for a second that this is a boring book. On the contrary it is incredibly fascinating both as a work of Science Fiction, and a great social satire. The really scary thing about it is , that he wrote this book 10 years ago, just prior to the birth of the web, and many of his predictions seem to have come true.

Not the least of these prescient themes is something that he calls the Metaverse, which is a computerized virtual reality community. Next month, Electronic Arts unveils Sims Online, which will make a lot of these concepts mainstream. I hope Stephenson gets some royalties!

The other book I read was J.D. Salinger's famed maroon book (although mine came with a white cover), The Catcher in the Rye. Obviously it is a great book, I was unable to put it down and finished it in a matter of a couple of hours.

I am so glad that no one in Hollywood has tried to make Catcher In The Rye into a movie, because so much of the subtlety would be lost, and they would need the big Hollywood Ending with Holden up in the Bell Tower with a gun, and only Jane is able to get him down, but not before he has taken down everyone that he hated at Pencey, which was no short list. They would probably have Ryan Phillippe play him, which Holden would hate, because he seems so phony.

Today I recorded a new song called Meet John Doe. It sounds pretty good so far, although I still have some work to do with backing vocals and guitar fills etc.

The song came out of a little exercise I came up with to beat writer's block. I wrote out a list of titles to work through and forced myself to write one song each week without editing myself until I had moved through the six week cycle. I got six new songs out of this, many parts of which have now been rewritten in part, but hey that's what it's all about. When the recording of each song is complete, I will post them on the site for all to hear.

That's it for today, this is the last day of that vacation, and my roller blades are calling to me!