I haven't made much progress since the last post because honestly, I haven't thought about it much. I've just been lazy about it and just been focusing more on finishing the songs I started before the projects began. A big problem is that I like a lot of the stuff that I've already written and would like to make actual recordings, but another side of me feels like I should start a fresh batch of material for my project. I'm also thinking that I could use the stuff I've already been working on. My songs are almost always narratives and stories about characters with interesting situations. The characters often portray the same "loser" persona: the hopeless romantic, the depressed widow, the husband with erectile dysfunction. So I think I can somehow thread these songs into one bigger story. The segmented structure of Pulp Fiction, where different storylines are shown one after another instead of a single chronological plot, appeals to me a lot concerning my project, so I'm definitely going to steal from that. On a side note, it's interesting to see how sometimes, creating art doesn't seem deliberate or pre-planned. Many times art seems to build itself and I just sort of follow it as it goes along, like I'm doing now with the album I'm putting together. Musically, I've narrowed down my influences to one of my favorites: the Velvet Underground and Lou Reed. This actually happened because of the limitations I'm running into. I record my songs alone, which means I use only the instruments that are readily available to me in my home. I don't have a functioning guitar amp, a bass guitar, or a drum set, so I'm left with acoustic guitar, violin, and maybe an electric guitar. The good thing is that the Velvet Underground's record uses a lot of the same instrumentation as I do. The drum parts are rather minimal, and John Cale's viola is a key feature in the album. I'm very interested in creating the most out of what little I have. Specifically, this means finding physical methods of playing the violin or guitar to create different textures and sounds. The VU's album has a lot of this, too. I want to create something that's conservative or tight, if those are the right words, as opposed to something that's expansive, like Sgt. Pepper's. There's also a very organic and clear sound to Lou Reed's music, like I can hear every single track on each song. That's what I was thinking the whole time when I listened to Berlin. So I guess I'll be listening to a lot of Lou Reed and Velvet Underground, not to mention other artists who I think are really good at making the most out of a little, like the Pixies. I'm excited to start thinking about the actual ideas for the ideas. I've laid down the boundaries and I've narrowed down a lot of what I need to research and study, so it's time to start filling in what's in between.