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The Next Perfect Step
Candid conversations about spirituality, how to navigate in the world, channeled messages, guided meditations, book reviews and other topics. We invite comments and questions as we look to connect with a community of similar interests.
The Next Perfect Step
The Magic of Channeling: Music, Writing, and Finding Your True Path
Scott Dineen's creative journey defies conventional boundaries. From winning a national songwriting contest at age 10 to performing with professional circuses as a teen, he's constantly reinvented himself while staying true to his artistic impulses. His appearance on our podcast reveals the fascinating trajectory of someone who refuses to be limited by a single creative identity.
"On stage, all my uneasiness melts away," Scott explains, describing the transformative power of performance. As lead vocalist for one of America's premier Bob Dylan tribute bands, he's memorized over 90 of Dylan's lengthy, complex songs—not to imitate, but to channel their essence through his own artistic lens.
The conversation takes an unexpected turn as Scott discusses his five-year journey writing "Circus Orpheus," a novel blending magical realism with his circus experiences. The story follows Finn, a musician with supernatural abilities who joins a mysterious circus, confronting themes of guilt, redemption, and human potential. Scott's description of the writing process echoes his approach to music—allowing intuition to guide creation in moments that feel magical and transcendent.
Perhaps most compelling is Scott's philosophy on pursuing multiple passions. During the pandemic, he made repeated trips to Paris, studied French, and connected with his literary agent while maintaining his music career. This follows a pattern established earlier in life when he spent nearly five years living in Slovakia, becoming fluent in the language and fully immersing himself in the culture.
"The limits are the ones we put on ourselves," Scott reflects, encouraging listeners to follow joy as their guiding star. His story demonstrates how remaining open to new experiences at any age can unlock unexpected potential and lead to a more fulfilled life—even when those choices require bravery and might disappoint others.
Ready to explore your own creative possibilities? Listen now and discover how channeling your passions across multiple disciplines might reveal the magic hiding within your ordinary life.
Hello everyone and welcome to the next perfect step, where all possibilities lie in conversation. I'm your co-host, lori Mullen.
Speaker 2:I'm your co-host, Amber.
Speaker 3:Stay, and I'm your co-host, lori Tremblay. We welcome you all to our broadcast tonight and we have a special guest, scott Taneen, who is an author and musician. We have our mutual friend Caroline, who was an artist that we've had on our show twice before, so we're excited to get to know Scott and his story, and so, scott, welcome, welcome.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3:You're welcome, welcome, welcome. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome, yeah, and we'd love to hear a little bit more about you, so please share whatever you're comfortable with.
Speaker 4:Well, that's very flattering to have me on. I guess I could start talking a little bit about my music, my music career. As a young kid I studied music and I won a national songwriting contest at the age of 10, and so I had a brief period maybe 18 months of minor celebrity where I appeared on Voice of America and all the television shows in the area and it was was great. I would go on, I would play the song that I won with and then that was all over. That was 18 months. I was 12, no more music, no more celebrity. I continued studying the guitar but I transitioned to circus arts juggling, unicycling and at a very young age, 15, I went off and performed with several professional circuses. I didn't leave school. My parents were cool about it. You know it would be a week here, two weeks there. But a lot of that material from my youth with the circus ended up helping me write the, the book that you're aware of, circuspheus, and it's something that I was able to teach my son, who's now in college, and we sometimes still perform a father and son juggling act together. But back to the music, and maybe you'll have questions about it.
Speaker 4:I, in my late 30s I switched to classical guitar and I was pretty serious about studying and playing. I'd studied as a kid, but I ended up playing weddings and, you know, at cafes and things like that. And then I got involved playing what's called gypsy jazz. This is jazz music. That's usually a quartet. That's very fast. It's the old standards. I did that for about five years. I founded a group called Swingology. We played all over the place. It was great until I got a call to join a Bob Dylan tribute band Not only a Bob Dylan tribute band, but the premier Bob Dylan tribute band in the country and so that was a great opportunity. That's my main focus now in music and we tour quite a bit. We're going down to Naples, florida, in a few weeks getting ready for that. So, yeah, I'm the lead singer, had to memorize all those long rambling Bob Dylan songs and the band is terrific. The band is absolutely phenomenal, so it's a real joy to play with them and we practice and perform pretty often. Now it's a big part of my life.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So we saw a video that you sent us. It was great the band looks. You have a lot of musicians right in the band.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there are five of us most of the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. So are you, do you have any? Um? Is bob dylan is aware of your band right, are you? Do you have any chance?
Speaker 4:not only bob dylan is aware, but maybe you're aware, there was a big hollywood movie that came out. Uh, this yes.
Speaker 4:Complete Unknown starring Timothee Chalamet, and I actually did several interviews from my perspective on the movie. I did one for 2020 that never aired, but we did the interview. And then I did another one for GQ UK, which did air you can find that online. Another one for GQ UK, which did air you can find that online. And I was just giving my you know my perceptions of how the young Timothy Chalamet portrayed Bob Dylan, how he held his guitar, how he sung, and I heard from a credible source that young Timothy had read the article and so there's a chance I might get in touch with him. If I do, I'll say why don't you make me part of the part two of the movie? I can play the older Bob Dylan, you know, when they portray his later life, yeah, Are you playing around here anytime?
Speaker 4:You know, caroline, my artist friend, our artist friend, she keeps trying to get me to come up and perform there, and her fiance too, joe, was trying to get me to come up and perform there. And her fiance too, joe, was trying to get me to come up in and around a family wedding and maybe their wedding that's coming up.
Speaker 4:But John Davidson, the famous John Davidson, I know, is in the area and has a club in Sandwich. He's aware of me and I think I have an invitation to perform at John Davidson's club, so I'll certainly let you know that if uh the band or just me as a solo ends up. Uh, do you remember John from uh your youth? Uh, on that, that's incredible.
Speaker 3:and his other talk shows, yeah, yeah the club, yeah club sandwich right sandwich, yeah, and sandwich andwich, New Hampshire.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's cool. He looks great, he sounds great.
Speaker 3:I know he's like 83 or 84 now, but it's inspiring to see him still kicking it. Yeah, his club, he has big comfy chairs and popcorn and you can come in and just you know it's a great, it's a great venue that he's, that he has up there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I've seen videos. I'd love to come out even just to see his show. Yeah, you know be the center of attention all the time on stage. But I'm really addicted to being on stage and you know, like a lot of performers in real life, I'm pretty uneasy I wouldn't say nervous or not confident, just like not comfortable in my own skin. But as soon as I get on stage, all of that melts away. I connect with the audience and their energy and it's not really an ego thing, it's more like channeling. And I know and it's not really an ego thing, it's more like channeling. And I know, laurie T, I know you talk about channeling, but I'm, I'm definitely feeling something that's beyond me for sure, when I'm singing those songs and connecting with the audience. It's really very fulfilling, more than, again, just being the center of attention on stage. It's, it's really channeling forces that are precious and certainly beyond me so yeah.
Speaker 1:I think music can do that too. You know, when you go to concerts and your group of people and there's music playing, there is a connection. You know it. Music makes you feel, you know whether it's sad or happy or anything, and it connects everybody in that energy together.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and there's nothing like live performance. I mean, you can go on Spotify, you can go on YouTube, but it, as you all know, it's just not the same, you know, and there are fewer and fewer venues. People don't go out the way they used to, you know. There are just so many things to do and stay at home, especially younger people. So our band is actually lucky that we still are able to find venues and perform, but, yeah, it's getting harder and harder.
Speaker 3:So do you perform in the DC area? Is that correct, Scott?
Speaker 4:Yeah, mainly in and around the DC area. The DC area, is that correct, scott? Yeah, mainly in and around the DC area. Um, I mean, we go, as you heard, as far south as Naples, florida, which is pretty far down, and we we play New York. Sometimes we're in Long Island for a big festival. Um gosh, it's been about a year ago, but that was. That was a wonderful experience out on Long Island. So that that that's about as far as I've traveled with the band. We'd love to go to Europe and I'm working on that Dylan's very big in France in particular.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Speaking of France, I know from talking with you that you have a big affinity to Paris, right?
Speaker 4:Yes, it was my project over the pandemic, as soon as the pandemic started to really try to master French. That's how I met Caroline, because you know she has a language school. I ended up going to Paris about 11 times since the start of the pandemic and people are like what are you? You're independently wealthy. I tell people you know it's actually cheaper to fly to Paris and stay in those hotels and eat in those restaurants than it would be in my area to go to Virginia Beach or Ocean City where you're going to pay $500 or $600 a night in season Food is terrible and you end up you know it's much more affordable actually to go to certain European countries where the food is much cheaper. You can get usually good flights. So, yeah, I love it. I'm going to keep going to Paris.
Speaker 4:My writing successes also have been tied to Paris. I made some real breakthroughs attending some writing workshops and that's where I met my agent, wendy Rome, who's a very well-known and fantastic agent. I'm really lucky to be working with her. It's hard to get an agent, wendy Rome, who's a very well-known and fantastic agent. I'm really lucky to be working with her. It's hard to get an agent you know a good literary agent, but I met her in Paris and we became friends and I see her regularly, both online and when I go to Paris, and so, yeah, that's a big part of my life for sure.
Speaker 1:That's great. And so, talking of your book, can you tell us what motivated you to go from music to writing a book and tell us a little bit about your new book?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, well, I should first say that I know some of you have read it. It's finished, but I'm reworking a lot of it at the request of my editor. It needs a stronger through line for the circus portion. I'll talk a little bit about it, but I guess I'm getting to the point that my agent wanted it to be a clear Faustian story where the main character, finn, who's a young musician who leaves his old life, you know, with his abusive girlfriend and his overbearing band leader in the 1990s, and is lured away to the mysterious word of the circus by this mysterious man. And so I'm rewriting the book, so the mysterious man is more of a, a middleman for Mephistopheles, and so that Finn, the young guitarist, is making a pretty clear bargain with a lot more at stake than in the draft. You may have looked at what led me to writing. I've always had an affinity for it. I did a master's degree in rhetoric, which you know involves a lot of writing and teaching people how to write essays and that kind of thing.
Speaker 4:But it started as another pandemic project and something Caroline and I started talking about during our French lessons, you know, like we were really egging each other on to do a lot of new things and spending serious time. Writing a book came out of that. I spent five years on it serious, serious time and you know I'm still working on it. It takes two to 10 years to write a good literary novel. That's what. That's what Wendy tells me, maybe just to cheer me up because this process never seems to end, but I do love it.
Speaker 4:It's similar to the music performing and that you know, you're really channeling forces much greater than yourself and memory and, you know, trying to convey resolutions that happen in life and sometimes it gets dirty and ugly. Laurie, you told me that. You know, when you read the draft, the first third of it was kind of surprising because there's a lot of rough language and there's discussion of things like pornography, and hopefully I didn't overdo it. But then you said too, you know the character had to have something to push him out of his world into the circus, and that's absolutely right. You know I depict him as miserable and he's also lost his sister and he's confessing the book to a dead friend named Brandon, the narrator, to a dead friend named Brandon.
Speaker 4:The narrator, and throughout the whole book, what's driving him to tell the story, is his confession to Brandon, who committed suicide, and Finn, the main character throughout the whole book, is trying to come to terms with that. He blames himself for his young friend committing suicide and this haunts him throughout the whole novel guides. Every choice dictates what he's going to tell the reader and there's a resolution at the end. I'm not sure it quite works in the draft you may have looked at, so I'm still working on that, but that's a powerful part of the story is that coming to terms with guilt, suppressing memories and then, you know, trying to deal with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there was a lot going on in the story and also the allegory with the mythology Orpheus right, yeah, it's called Circus Orpheus.
Speaker 4:Circus Orpheus, he's not supposed to look back at his old life or his dead sister, his dead friend. He can't move forward, right? So it's right, smith for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, and I don't know, I don't want to give anything away, but the you can give it away, lord. That's um with anna. Right, it was um. She was the aerialist and she's literally coming down on the silks from the big top in the circus and in the myth, the. Is it Eurycolyte? Yeah?
Speaker 4:Eurydice. Eurydice goes all the way down to the underworld. She goes down to the underworld.
Speaker 3:So that to me was like a literal parallel of her coming down from the circus top and the silks and going down into the underworld. I just thought that was a beautiful parallel. Oh thanks, Thanks for pointing that out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so Anna and Finn and this old man who takes him to the circus and his dead sister all share an ability they call the glimmering Right, the ability to, among other things, read minds not easily it takes a great effort to do it and to control other forces or try to control them. And that's an allegory also about human connection and also human possibility, because we all have something magic inside us that is trying to come out and we can't always control it and it can be difficult to summon that, and so I created this kind of allegory. With this special power, we all want to feel like we have some special ability.
Speaker 2:I really liked how you kind of connected it to the Nephilim with, you know, the fallen angels. I thought that was really clever to put that together and, to you know, question whether Anna was that.
Speaker 4:Yeah. So Anna's wondering how did we get this ability? Very few people have it, and you're right. She has a theory that the blood of the Nephilim, you know the fallen angels, lives on in a few people, and she's one of them. Yeah, and it's also the allegory of falling in redemption. She has this idea in the final climactic gala show that she's going to show the audience what it means to fall from grace and then rise again. Of course she doesn't rise again, and that's kind of the tragic end to the book. Not worrying about spoiling it yet, because I'm still rewriting portions of it, yeah, I found that very fascinating and a lot of the Greek mythology and philosophy.
Speaker 2:So were you interested in philosophy when you were younger or did this?
Speaker 4:just kind of yes, I studied classics in college and before college would read myths and certainly the Bible. I was raised Catholic so I was exposed to all the parables and stories from the Bible, especially that you know the priest would bring out try it out on Sunday morning. But especially Greek mythology I did. I think I took quite a few classes on that in college and graduate school and, yeah, I got really interested in that.
Speaker 2:It's probably why you like Bob Dylan so much, because he's kind of a philosopher.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, that's definitely true. I mean, people even make fun of Bob Dylan these days because you know he's been inconsistent over the years, but he did win the Nobel Prize and his lyrics are really they're magnificent. I mean he's our.
Speaker 4:He's the Shakespeare of our time and I stand by that. I mean, I've not only studied his lyrics, probably like few people on this earth have. And you oh, that's pretty arrogant. You show me somebody else who's memorized 90 Bob Dylan songs. They are long, they are long songs. The technique to memorize them is painful. You can't just read through them, you can't just sing them. I invented a technique that I developed and actually wrote an article about it, tried to get it published. I didn't try too hard on that, but yeah, it's a pretty painful process. But I didn't try too hard on that, but yeah, it's pretty painful process. But I've internalized the lyrics too, so I think I understand them really well. I've got all the imagery of the songs in my mind and all the sentiments that I've developed while performing them on stage. So yeah, it's been very enriching. And same way reading Odyssey or something like that from greek mythology is sure yeah, and I've seen the dylan movie twice now, so oh you must have really liked it.
Speaker 2:Then I did my grandson wanted to watch it with me too. So we, I, I went. You know, I saw it first, and then he wanted to watch it.
Speaker 4:So do you have a favorite part. Was there a moment that really resonated with you?
Speaker 2:I, you know I liked how his life were just not really that important and his music was like so loved by him that you know I found that kind of curious.
Speaker 4:That's all, yeah, that devotion is very unusual and it did have. It was collateral all around him. Yes, you could say he hurt them, but in another way he he was so true to his vision and that was his focus that you know people just kind of bounced off of that at some points. Yeah, that's very, very good observation. I think about that movie, yeah, and about Dylan.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:What's something that you really take away from your studies of Dylan and his music and making it your own actually?
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's a good point. We do not try to do an imitation. I don't dress up like Bob Dylan. I wear a polka dot shirt sometimes but I don't try to copy him his intonation, anything. I'm channeling the music through me and I think it sounds pretty authentic. The band certainly does, but nobody wants to see somebody impersonating somebody else. That doesn't get to your part. You know they want to see the music moving through you, how it vibrates through you and who you are on stage. So yeah, that's right, yeah great.
Speaker 3:How has that changed your life, scott um?
Speaker 4:it has helped me deal with my restlessness, because the energy you have to devote to something like that, you know because I still work a full-time office job as well you know having to, you know, go out on tour and take days off, work and weekends rehearsing it's kept me from going nuts, because all my energy is focused into something that is really challenging, but I love it. I can't imagine not doing it. So it's made me happier and more fulfilled. Um, it's made me better with people, because I have to interact with a much wider, uh, group of people. You know, every time we go into a club, you know meeting the stage, stage owner and all of that, and booking gigs, working with our booking agent, all that stuff and the band has become like a real family. I mean, I'm not kidding, we've gone on 10-hour car rides together and just hang out all the time. So we cry on each other's shoulders and really have a great chemistry. At this point I've been together. It's going on five, five years.
Speaker 4:It'll be going on five years, yeah it's beautiful what a great collaboration you have and yeah, yeah I was glad I could bring some of my musical ideas and things I wanted to say to the world in Circus Orpheus, because there's a lot of hopefully the regular reader can understand all the guitaristic things I put in there. Finn is forced by his overbearing and kind of lead-eared band member to play something called a synthax. It's this horrible, that really existed too. It's this horrible looking synthesizer guitar that doesn't even have strings on it. You just kind of tap around on it. And so I made Finn be forced to play this instrument that has no soul, that a monkey could play, but I tried to describe it in a way that you know a guitarist would really appreciate. But hopefully that any reader would kind of get the get the point. So I have moments like that that I try to put in throughout the book. Yeah, speaking of guitars in the book and Orpheus, the theme of Orpheus and Orpheus, the theme of Orpheus.
Speaker 4:Shortly after Finn comes to the circus in the story and meets Anna, the circus master's daughter, who's, like me, addicted to being on stage and that's all she wants is more audience energy, berkus gets injured and has to leave the circus to heal for a while and Anna schemes with Finn to bring a television crew to film the circus to heal for a while. And Anna schemes with Finn to bring a television crew to film the circus. Fergus doesn't. He's trying to stay in the shadows for some mysterious reason. The day of the television broadcast, finn goes downtown with a friend and finds an old classical guitar that they suspect is very rare and worth a lot of money. They swindle the pawn shop owner when they find it out of the guitar and it turns out to be a 1961 Ignacio Fleta guitar, just incredibly valuable. I mean, they almost don't exist in any playable condition.
Speaker 4:It turns out that this guitar, when Finn plays it, is able to amplify his glimmering ability and connect with the audience in a way he never could otherwise. So Anna is thrilled. It's like this is what she wants to connect with the audience with this magic. But what happens is it creates almost a religious fervor among the audience and it's all on tapes, you know it's all recorded. So when fergus comes back he's horrified. He's like you're exposing our ability, our family ability. Then he gets an idea because his circus is it's not circus ola right, it's run down, old, gone into you know, kind of its dog days. But Fergus is revived. He gets out of his depression by bringing Finn on the circus and decides to use Finn's power and this kind of Orpheus-like magic guitar to create a sensation and bring more spotlight on the circus and raise it up out of the mud. And that's how the latter part of the story is headed. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Can you talk more about Fergus, the man who contacted Finn and kind of took him under his wing?
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, I'd love to Thanks for asking about that, lauren. If I go on too long just rambling, let me know. Ask your questions. The novel starts with Finn in this bar with this Reggie. I talked about his older, overbearing girlfriend who is really abusing him and he's not playing very well under these conditions. But one night this strange old man walks into the bar dressed in a fancy european suit. He doesn't belong there at all. He's staring at finn and finn feels uneasy. Um, and everyone's making fun of him. Oh, that old man's checking you out, um.
Speaker 4:But when finn plays the guitar that night and they're they're playing their version of the girl from Ipanema. You know, it's not really jazz, it's an easy, easy song for them to play. Finn starts playing his solo and the old man connects with him and for the first time Finn feels this power reawakening in him, this glimmering. And when he's done playing his solo which is just amazing because of his connection with this old man, fergus, the college kids who were, you know, being raucous and rumping around, they've all stopped and are quiet. The girls are all sitting in their boyfriends' laps, quietly listening, and it's just this amazing experience. So Fergus is a catalyst to wake up in this young man, his latent ability, something he suppressed out of depression, out of his grief over his dead sister and his, his suicided friend um.
Speaker 4:On the other hand, the old man is an opportunist.
Speaker 4:He wants to use finn's power to help him revive his circus. And what fin Finn doesn't know is the old man has really made a deal with the devil and his choice is either to have Finn kind of take his place, have Finn, you know, be the one to give his soul over to this nefarious force, force um, or for fergus's um daughter, anna, to die, because fergus made a deal with the devil when anna was young and would have died to to keep her alive, or at least that's what he thinks. You know, I'm trying to make the story as subtle as possible so that the reader could look at it all more as a psychology instead of an actual Lucifer and, uh, you know, dr Faustus kind of thing. So I try to take it as far as I can, to the edge, without being really making it into like a fairy tale or something. It's what's called magical realism sure, you've heard that term where. Try to keep it as realistic as possible, but with magic just around the edges of reality.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that, that's great. Well, and the word Orphic isn't that like trapping or a prison of the soul? So you know, that kind of goes along with the Orpheus and the whole premise of you know, and it seemed to me like Finn was trapped in his soul quite a bit.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. He was very repressed, trapped, and a lot of it was of his own making, from his guilt. But even as a young kid, before that tragedy happened, he had an older sister who was completely unlike him, who was boisterous, who was unafraid, who was using this power she had without a reservation, and finn was always timid and nervous. So one of the points of the novel is finn eventually has to overcome that or he's going to be that way his whole life at a certain point. So, yeah, I guess that that's the orphic, uh, yeah, trapping that he has to free himself from.
Speaker 1:As much as it's a fictional book, I mean people can relate. I mean most of us bring our past with us and there's a lot of us who feel trapped for whatever reason in life and go through a journey of finding their magic right. I mean I think that even as fictional as it is, it's also relatable.
Speaker 4:Well, thanks for saying that, Laurie. I appreciate it. And yeah, that definitely is. We can choose not to try or we can choose to build the types of friendships and relationships that will help us bring that out, because you cannot do that on your own. It's impossible. You need strong connections with other people, I think, to manifest the best of you, and you have to keep trying different things. You can never think you're on the right path. You've got to keep reevaluating your options at all times or you'll be trapped. I like that. How's that for a Tuesday evening philosophy?
Speaker 3:Fantastic.
Speaker 1:Right up our alley.
Speaker 4:Well it's ringing it out of me, the three of you, because I know you're all very in tune with a lot of forces yourself and very intelligent, and you know I really just appreciate you hearing me out and having this conversation. It's really, it's really great, great experience.
Speaker 3:Great, yeah, we love to have these conversations. I just have one question. A follow-up question is like what, how, how does?
Speaker 4:the magic work for you in your life? Well, that's certainly a good question. Yes, well, that's certainly a good question. Yes, certain moments when I'm writing a scene that really comes alive I mean really alive and something that I wasn't expecting, where my intuition which we all know, our intuition is smarter than our conscious mind, my intuition comes in in a way that creates a solution. It just amazes me. It feels like magic, it's like a magical manifestation.
Speaker 4:I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. You have those, but that to me really feels like wow, I want to keep writing like this, because it's rare, but when I have those kind of opportunities, it its magic. I mean, obviously, with family, with my son, with my wife, with my friends. There are certainly magic moments that don't happen every time they can. They're too precious for that. Certainly, that's a lot of magic in my life. And, of course, musical experiences that, again, I don't know how much you can grasp for them, because if you try too hard for something with too much intention, you're probably not going to get it. You have to be open to forces surprising you. Like I said about intuition and writing creating opportunities, one way to let the magic in, yeah, yeah, I think you know, like you were saying, the magic.
Speaker 1:I think the magic in our lives to even open ourselves to that is to follow our joy, like you said. I mean it's been five years and it learning all the Dylan songs were really tough, but you love it so much that it's following that joy and that passion that creates the magic in our lives. I think it's really important. I think also, like you got your hands in so many things, I think it's important for people to realize that you don't have to stay in one thing forever, like your joy, keep following it, keep changing it, keep expanding and doing the things that bring you joy, which brings more magic into your life.
Speaker 4:That's so well said, Lori, and you know it's never too late, it's never. You've never missed your opportunity. I mean, there are physical limitations. Come on, none of us are going to be Olympic gymnasts this stage in our lives. But you know, within the realistic parameters, the limits are the ones that we put on ourselves and the choices we don't make Easier to say than to do. Right, it's easier to sit here on the camera and say that, because it's really challenging to be brave and you know, make the choices that we think are going to make a difference in our life. They often are going to disappoint other people too. You know, Kim, like you said about Bob Dylan following his true dream, if he had tried to satisfy too many people, even in his close relationships, His art sounds terrible, but his art probably would have suffered for that. So yeah.
Speaker 2:Wow, this is. You know, I've really to me like reading books and listening to music that has depth to it, because I think a lot of today's music doesn't necessarily have a lot of depth to it. I agree with that. I'm trying to be kind here, but I you know, and I think that's why you know bands like Dylan and you know a lot of the other ones that we grew up with, have held their own because they do have that intelligence behind the music, and I, you know.
Speaker 2:I just want to say I felt your book had that same intelligence of like. Yeah, so that was. It was really interesting to read.
Speaker 4:Thanks. The story still needs work Maybe I'll agree on that, and that's what I'm working on but I think the texture of the writing and the ideas, the character development to a point are pretty much working. I'm not going to need another five years, maybe another three months, because I'm working really hard on getting the story right. I remember seeing Judy Blume or some famous author who'd written the book. It was done no-transcript. I don't think I was as successful as I wanted in the drafts that I gave you, but you know that's the way it works. I'm not going to publish this book and, frankly, one of the major publishers won't be interested in it until I, you know, address those things and you know, fortunately I have a good, like I said, agent that I trust, who's giving me guidance and who's very frank about what's going to work and what's not going to work.
Speaker 3:That's great. It must be such an interesting process. Anyway, just to you know, go through that process of getting published and finding all the different things that you need to do. It's probably a lot of a big learning curve and very satisfying for your creativity.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely. And I can't wait to the part we get talking about the cover, because when I first, from the time I started writing this book, this person here, I said you're going to help me design the cover of Circus Orpheus. So we've been talking about ideas for years. I don't know how much control the publisher's going to give us on that, but we're we're going to try and if I'm successful, I would really like to try to pursue some international, some translated versions. I'd probably have more control over those.
Speaker 4:I, after graduate school, I was kind of like Finn in the story. I was depressed, I didn't know who I was and I wanted to do something radical. So I went to the library and I took out as many books on different Slavic languages that they had on the shelf and I laid them all out and I just kind of used my intuition. I picked Czechoslovakia and so I arranged to go teach English in Czechoslovakia, thinking I was only going to stay there for six months on a teacher program. I ended up staying almost five years in Slovakia, a country split in two, like a month after I arrived. So I really became a different person. I totally went native. I learned the language fluently, I fell in love and got married over there. My son and wife are over there now. I fell in love and got married over there. My son and wife are over there now. So that's, I guess, another thing that's really influenced my view of the world is kind of feeling like I became a totally different person. For five years I was not an American.
Speaker 3:After a year and a half I was only reading and consuming things in Slovak, unless they had to do with teaching materials. So that was pretty interesting. That's fascinating. Yeah, and you and Caroline are also writing another book together. I understand, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, she and I talk about manifesting new things in our lives because we've helped each other with that. Laura, you came out to the gallery showing last year. It was a pretty big, fancy gallery and it was pretty much of a long shot that we would be able to pull off getting Caroline's art accepted for a formal art exhibit. But the curator of the museum came to one of my Bob Dylan shows, not knowing me or Caroline, and the place was so packed there weren't there wasn't a seat for him. But by chance I was talking with this guy and he had a manuscript of artwork that he'd done and I said I have a friend who's an artist and I pulled out my phone and started flicking through pictures and he's like that is really unusual and really good. Have her get in touch with me. So we had a call with this curator me, caroline and Joe on Zoom and a year later she had this gallery showing. So that's an example manifesting. I forgot why we were talking about that. Can you remind me?
Speaker 3:oh, I was just um. Yeah, I remember that story, that's, you were influence influential in her um gallery show and she, she appreciates that. But oh, you were talking about the book we were writing together.
Speaker 4:The book, yeah, yeah. Well, the book's about how it came about that we were able to work together. We didn't start off well on French lessons at all. She was driving me crazy. She'd have me read Chekhov and then try to explain what happened in the passage. I couldn't do it, I would get angry. But we had this breakthrough moment and it had to explain what happened in the passage. I couldn't do it, I would get angry. But we had this breakthrough moment and it had to do with art. There was a Chagall, beautiful Chagall artwork. It's one with a goat on it. And you know how Caroline is. She's asking me what do I see? How do I feel? Suddenly, we just had this amazing connection through this artwork and we became good friends after that and started thinking about our lives and helping each other and egging each other on, and so we're writing a book about that experience. Um, yeah, so we yeah, we meet on zoom and we're writing it kind of as a dialogue now how we got to certain highs and lows and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great well. Thank you for all the contributions you're making to all of us.
Speaker 4:This is, this is beautiful well, I'm sorry I monopolized so much of this conversation. I'm sure you have equally interesting perspectives on life and I know you have shared a lot of those, but I think the four of us are a great group. I feel really good energy here and really great to be on this podcast with you.
Speaker 1:We appreciate it and we look very forward to reading both books and hopefully getting to see you play in live one day.
Speaker 4:That's a deal, all right. Yeah, I'll have to get in touch with John Davidson again to come up to Club. Sandwich, yeah All right, that's great.
Speaker 2:Well, do you have anything else you would like to add to this or anybody else, before we close on this?
Speaker 4:The only website or promotion I have to give out is thebobbandcom. Yeah, I don't have any other like closing promotions or anything to give out like closing promotions or anything to give out.
Speaker 2:How about advice? Do you have any advice to give to people who want to pursue several different things at once, and yes, I love that that you do that.
Speaker 4:I think that maybe is the main point of this conversation is that the four of us are kind of encouraging ourselves and all the listeners to be open, be proactive, know that you have a choice and do some soul searching, do some meditating, find out what's going to make you happier. Not only happier, but Laura you said it bring joy right. That's going to be the guide star. Not pleasure, not even happiness, but joy, which is rare and the most precious commodity. So use that as the guide star. Not pleasure, not even happiness, but joy, which is rare and the most precious commodity. So use that as the guide star. Know that it's going to take you being brave, maybe even uncomfortable, maybe even suffering a little bit, and letting yourself do that, but anything is worth it for real, true joy this earth there's.
Speaker 1:There's no better aspiration, I think, and that will keep you honest the pursuit of joy that will keep you respectful of other people, and so maybe that's advice we can now share with people watching this very well, said very well said and when you do publish those books, we are happy to promote them and we'll put the links out for you so that people can easily find your books well, that's good motivation yeah finishing them up absolutely well, we just want to thank you again for sharing your story and being on our podcast.
Speaker 4:Great honor, had a wonderful time with you. I wish you all the best with this podcast. I think it's great, great format.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, and if you've enjoyed this episode as much as we have, please like, share and subscribe. And until next time, how is your intuition leading you to the next perfect steps?