Writing Life: The Visitor

About Me

Name: mac

Location: Tennessee, United States

I was born on Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter, South Carolina, then lived a while in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before moving, at the age of 5, to Walnut, NC. I graduated from Madison High School in 1977. After a brief time in college, I spent the most of the 1980s in Nashville, Tennessee, working as a songwriter and playing in a band. I spent most of the 1990s in school and now teach at a university in Tennessee. My household includes wife and son and cat. In South Carolina I have a son, daughter-in-law and two granddaughters.

Sunday, July 06, 2008

The Visitor

I went to North Carolina--only an hour away--on Friday afternoon and came back home yesterday. This morning was spent at church, lunchtime at Chili's and the afternoon in the movie theater.

This is the primary advertising image from the new film The Visitor. This is what I saw today, and I recommend it highly. At some point in the course of the film, I remember thinking, What if making music wasn't part of my life, not as if I'd quit doing it but as I'd never had anything to do with it at all? I know a lot of people live such a life, but I simply couldn't imagine it. (That's not necessarily what the film is about, but enough of that is present to spark the thought in me.) I think I want one of those drums, and I think I'd like to try joining a drum circle.

4 Comments:

nbta said...: I'm so out of touch with what's going on in the movie world. I found the trailer for the Visitor and it does look like a movie I'd want to see. Thanks for bringing it up.; 7/07/2008
mac said...: I don't remember where I saw the preview to this one. Maybe on a DVD we rented. But I knew from the preview that it was one I would like.; 7/07/2008
quig said...: What's a drum circle?; 7/09/2008
mac said...: From Wikipedia: A drum circle is any group of people playing (usually) hand-drums and percussion in a circle. They are distinct from a drumming group or troupe in that the drum circle is an end in itself rather than preparation for a performance. They can range in size from a handful of players to circles with thousands of participants.

In 1991, during testimony before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart stated:

Typically, people gather to drum in drum "circles" with others from the surrounding community. The drum circle offers equality because there is no head or tail. It includes people of all ages. The main objective is to share rhythm and get in tune with each other and themselves. To form a group consciousness. To entrain and resonate. By entrainment, I mean that a new voice, a collective voice, emerges from the group as they drum together.; 7/09/2008