"Improbable Rescue" & a NaNo Update

Exercise #89 : "Improbable Rescue"

In his delightfully wacky Pronoia Is the Antitode for Paranoia, Rob Brezsny writes:

"Bach's St Matthew Passion is a highly regarded musical composition. Yet the score disappeared and the work wasn't played for years after Bach's death in 1750. In 1829, composer Felix Mendelssohn rediscovered the long-lost manuscript being used as wrapping paper in the estate sale of a deceased cheese salesman. He arranged for a public performance of the piece, and its revival began."

Please note the marvelous specificity: "being used as wrapping paper in the estate sale of a deceased cheese salesman."

Recount ---or invent--- another improbable cultural rescue in 5 sentences or less.

Wow. St. Matthew's Passion being used as wrapping paper makes my heart weep a little. I mean, I'm not a Bach fan. I recognize that he was incredibly influential, but his music isn't my style. That's partly because, as a singer, me and Bach don't get along. He wrote for really easy-moving, light voices, and my voice is... Well, it's big. I can sing high, but if you want me to sing up there, mark it double forte, because that's what you're going to get. Well, that's actually a lie. I can float up there, too, but my voice is always going to have some depth and weight to it where as a light coloratura soprano is going to sounds smaller than me. Part of me would sell my left eye to be able to do the things that coloraturas can do, but I personally really enjoy busting out a high note. haha

But I digress...

On to the exercise!

... cricket cricket ... The only thing rolling through my head is Bach's cheese-covered manuscript. Ahhh! I hate when this happens. Ok. What's cultural? Music, yes, but other things. Architectural floorplans, paintings, sculptures... (Side note: These sentences are not counting toward my 5. This is just me thinking aloud.) Letters would work.

Mimi Herschmeier was shocked when the paper she had been carting around for years around her house was identified as a draft by architect Henry Hobson Richardson. She had stowed it away in her attic after her father deemed it worthless when it did not provide adequate enough markings for refurbishing their home. He bought it as a brainstormer from a garage sale when he decided that their house needed to be spruced up.

END

I didn't really like that one, but it popped into my head, so I went with it. Ah, well.

NaNo UPDATE!! hehe Last night before turning in to bed, I topped out at 5500 words. Go me! I must say, I am so proud of myself. I had doubts going in to NaNo thinking that I would most assuredly give up after the first day, but I proved myself wrong! Woo! Granted, the majority of what I have written thus far is complete and utter crap, but it doesn't matter. I'm getting the basics of my idea down on paper, learning about my characters, and - most importantly - writing the crap out of it! I'm anxious about next week when the blockages are supposed to start hitting, but I'll cross those bridges when I get there.

How are all of my lovely NaNo-participating readers doing? Keeping up with the word count? Is your story as craptastically written as mine? haha

Peace.
Stef.