Remakes

Last week was crazy for me with all things NOT writing related!  In fact, I only worked one day, when I met my Posse for our weekly Writing Day (can't miss that).  The rest of the week I performed Bridesmaid Duties, as one of my BFFs from high school was getting married.  In high school we were known as "The Crew," and in some circles, we still are.  True, these are usually circles we form ourselves...but anyway, back to my beautiful friend The Bride. Friday was The Wedding and at the reception, I got to act as official videographer.  I love this job!  Hmm...is it still a job if nobody asks you to do it?  Or even WANTS you to do it?  I don't offer much cinematic genius, between bad hand constantly shaking the camera and my general technological un-savviness.   However,  Daniel bought me a  camcorder for our own wedding six years ago (apparently at the time he thought my bad hand and tech-ineptness were simply passing fancies).  When I found the receipt I about passed out after seeing the cost!  Now I use the video camera every chance I get, despite my lack of skills.  I'm not getting better, but the videos ARE getting more hilarious!

Someday I will post one of my videos, but because I'm feeling generous right now, I will merely post one of those boring "still-pictures" Daniel took during the Bride and Groom's First Dance:

The song?  "Make You Feel My Love," performed by Garth Brooks.  Personally, I prefer Billy Joel's version, but I have to give G.B his props.  He does a nice job with this song.  I know most  people call it a "cover" when an artist performs someone else's song (this one's a Bob Dylan) but I call it a remake.  Probably there's a technical difference of some sort, but I don't really care.  I love how truly talented musicians can make a song their own, no matter who came up with it first.  FYI, a LOT of musicians have remade this song, including soul-diva Adele whose rendition is stunning.  The  Google search I performed to get this info also showed me a new phenomenon of which I was previously unaware:  people (often teens) singing songs along with a karaoke machine, taping themselves, then posting it on YouTube.  I think I would call these songs "covers."

But I digress.  When I heard "Make You Feel My Love" at the wedding, I thought two things:

1--How happy I was for my Crewmate and her new husband and

2--How we as writers perform remakes.

I mean, there's the basic idea of retellings (how many versions of Cinderella are out there?) but I think it's more than that.  I once heard there are only seven different plots, which is probably an exaggeration, but still.  Truly, we are all just bringing our own twist to a story that's been made a long, long time ago in many, many different ways.

I was reading those crazy comments on YouTube (dangerous, because 99.9% of those comments are such complete trash).  But one comment following a remake-video made me smile: "The Master [Bob Dylan] would be proud."

I love that.  Because what more can we ask for, as artists of any kind, than to make The Master proud?