15. Somewhere in Antwerp, Pt. 1

OK, last track from Instant Classics.  I like to tell stories and initially, this just seemed like a short story about a guy whose low-key spy mission goes horribly wrong.  But as I kept mulling it over, I began to think that perhaps this could be the beginning of a much larger work with actual characters and themes and all that.  I felt there were many stories to go with a developing narrative.  And thus, a song cycle was born.  I have no idea how many installments this is going to require.  At first, I thought it could be done in eight or nine, but as I developed the story, the scope expanded.  I don't have the whole thing figured out, only the first ten or so parts.  Right now, there are four parts to it, but I can imagine that it might encompass up to 30 tunes.  That's if I'm ambitious.  The other side of this is that nobody seems at all interested in what I'm doing, so it's very likely that I'll have to quit this nonsense.  Sure, recording is a true joy and a wonderful experience; I absolutely love doing it, but at this rate, I'll be out of money by the end of next year.  I was originally hoping to ramp up to releasing three albums a year and keep on that pace for as many years as I could manage.  That plan factored in that I would actually be selling albums or attracting minimal interest.  That hasn't happened, so I'm only doing two albums a year.  But this next record is going to be very expensive.  In response to that, next summer's album will probably be my cheapest, but it'll take what's left of the war chest.  I would love to keep this song cycle (it doesn't really have a name yet) going, but even if I do complete it, I'll be too poor to record it.  Ah well, such are the troubles in this day and age.