Over The Rainbow
There are many people I think of when I am writing, struggling with a sentence, choosing words that will evoke the right mood, make the scene fresh, evocative and true. Israel Kamakawiwo,' the massive but gentle Hawaii'an singer did what all great artists are able to do. He took something claimed as one person's (Judy's) and remade it into a song as poignant and uniquely his own. Then there was the master, Fred Astaire, who stretched all boundaries of dance and who, to this day, causes us to gape in bewilderment: he was the best. And so I work word by word, sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, page by page. Doing what the masters did, which is making sure the imprint on my writing is neither dashed nor forced, but mine and real.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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2 comments:
I was working at Queens Medical Center the night IZ died. So terribly sad.
I remember the first time I saw him perform at the Kanikapila at UH.
I get such a charge out the the fact that his version of somewhere over the rainbow is played on so many movie sound tracks...
Well, I think of IZ as nothing short of remarkable. I mean, that song was Judy's. No one was going to touch it. And then he made it his own story, even more so because he must've known he'd die young.
Anyway, it's like writing. Sure, that story has been told before. Our challenge is to make it ours, make it real and fresh.
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