Minor to Major

Plot has his headphones on. He is listening to The Perfect Pitch, a project that took up several years of his life in the 1980s. He is determined this morning to listen to the whole thing before he takes off the headphones. Plot's ex-collaborator Davy Blue sent him the CD two weeks ago and it's taken Plot all this time to listen to it. That's because this period in Plot's life, when he was working 16 hours a day writing the book, music and lyrics for a musical, plus auditioning singers and recording multiple versions of the project, just as BZWZ was being born (she's in it, at two days old), represents an astronomical amount of work that two friends put into a project that they believed in, but that never really saw the light of day. This is not easy to face. Plot has had to force himself to listen again.

Listening now, it's clear why The Perfect Pitch was not perfect. Plot and Blue knew what they knew and didn't know what they didn't know. What they knew was how to write songs. What they didn't know was that each and every thought two humans can have don't have to go onto every page. You can save a few ideas for the next musical, the next poem, the next story. If you don't, only you will have the slightest idea what you're talking about. And you will probably only buy one copy.

Of course, it's more than that. You don't put this much time into anything by yourself. Blue was single, but Plot had a family. The creative process is very, very convoluted, and you can trust Plotnik on that. The wounds that creative persons can wreak upon their friends and families are seldom understood by either side.

Plot and Duck just had a long, long discussion about their lives together when Plotnik was working with Davy Blue. It wasn't an easy time. The Great Plotnik and The Great Ducknik can honestly say they are both glad those days are over.

But...Plot's got to smile too. He just finished the tape. He took off the headphones. Tears are streaming down his face. It's soooo good. It's soooo bad.

It's great. It's silly. It's inspired. It's idiotic. It's Plotnik at his best. It's Plotnik at his worst.

But he did realize one important thing this morning. In the last song of the show, the minor, syncopated groove turns to major and steady. The emotional release is powerful and overwhelming.

That's where the tears came from: Minor to major. Remember this, Great Plotnik. Minor to major. This is what we are all trying to do. Sadness to happiness. Despair to redemption. Minor to major. Remember.