6 posts tagged “music”
I have in my life been every type of artist. I realized early in my life that I wanted to create and to make something so perfectly beautiful that everyone in the world wanted to come and see.
I have made chalk drawings on the sidewalk. With little success.
I have played musical instruments from the saxophone to the guitar. I made little more than noise.
I have painted and I have drawn. I am no Leonardo da Vinci.
All of my life though I have known and eventually I settled on the art of the lazy. I decided I wanted to write. I was probably only thirteen. I would make up stories to tell, and stories to write. I would shamelessly show off, if only to impress the ladies. Today I actually cranked out what I can only call a "short short story", and while I don't usually post anything on here that I wrote with serious intent, I will tomorrow after a few "tidy it up" kind of edits.
... and on another note I would like to talk about how the hell some brilliant musicians got past me...
These two guys are absolutely amazing. I am going to include a song on tonights blog for you, I encourage you to sit back, crank up the volume and plug in some high quality headphones if you got them. I pride myself on knowing when things are cool before they were cool. ( I hated "W" before you did ) I am ashamed to say these guys have probably already booked Saturday Night Live, the last vestige of the " I knew it was cool before you" guy.
Anyway I will stop rambling at this point. Scroll down and hit play for The Black Keys ; Have Love Will Travel and stumble on back here tomorrow for a little bit of my actual writing.
Do they wander around all night, muttering zucchini instead of brains?
That is something that watching I would define as a good time. The good time is an essential part of life and not easy to find. You must be relaxed, comfortable and open. In a way you must be a vegetarian zombie wandering around at night. Part of you is thinking I want some Miso, so Tofu would be great... but deep inside all you can think about is BRAINS!!!
Wow, that is a broken analogy.
It really doesn't make much sense at all.
Irregardless I will keep going.
The good time at its best is often unexpected. I can't think of anything here except so are zombies. You never expect zombies, they come right out of nowhere. Unless of course you are a mad scientist and zombies is what you wish to produce, but you would have to be mad and crazy and a little bit aloof. I mean seriously who would wish a plague of the living dead on the planet? I wouldn't! You can't trust a zombie, they always turn on you.
I loaned a zombie twenty bucks once, and the bastard never answers his phone.
We used to have good times, great conversations mostly about me.
I would say, "Mr. Zombie what is your favorite thing?"
...and Mr. Zombie would say, "Brains!"
I would say, "Mr. Zombie what do you like about me?"
...and Mr. Zombie would say, "Brains!"
They weren't deep conversations, but I like them all the same. Mr. Zombie taught me great life lessons like how to dig out of your own grave.
I'm still trying to figure out where I was going with this... I thought that I had a point. Well I have this new band I want to go and give a listen to, so I can give them a write up for all of you. They are called The Velveteen Stuls, and fucking rock,
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It was a weird kind of David Carradine moment while walking to work today. Just a little after six in the morning I slung my bag over my shoulder plugged my headphones directly to my brain and took pace toward the corner that would lead me to another corner and to work. My ears were pleasured by Johnny "Guitar" Watson, his gigantic sound compressed and fed through my sweet little MP3 player, my greatest friend…something seemed unnatural listening to his blues this morning and I hit the skip key, and shuffle brought me to the Violent Femmes as I hit the bottom of my driveway. The fog was thicker than it had looked from my house and the air was warmer than I thought it would be, the vapors filling my lungs produced a fantastic smile. If you had been there you would know what I mean. That smile was fucking huge, I could feel it consume my face. It seemed that no moment of my day could taste sweeter than this one, that very moment was perfection. A blister in the sun, in the dark, in the fog.
I would guess about fifty paces after corner number one, I caught a delight in the corner of my eye. Not six inches from my foot, a little to the left…. A cute little bunny rabbit…. He (or perhaps she) stopped me dead in my tracks… I hit skip again. Bunny Rabbits and The Violent Femmes didn't seem right to me right then. Had to keep the mood just right for what was about to happen… Had to hit just the right song. Crossing my fingers in my mind I waited for the first notes of what would be the perfect song for this perfect moment in the fog, in the dark, the vapors in my lungs and a perfect little Bunny Rabbit. I almost laughed out loud at the song, it was just too perfect… I suggest if you own it to go and put it on right this moment. I will wait. Are you ready to go? Ok. Good. Salsbury Hill by Mr. Peter Gabriel. Perfection. I squatted down slowly and the fog divided in front of me. There was more than one little fuzzy in front of me. There was 1, 2, 3 , 4, "holy crap" … EIGHT!!! We engaged in a staring contest, none of us moving. Frozen in the fog, in the dark, with the vapors filling our lungs. This went on for a while before I ended it. I had to, I had to go to work. I spoke to the eight fuzzy little bunnies, "I have to go to work." I think that they understood. Who knows how long a staring contest could go on between eight rabbits and myself in the fog, in the dark, with the vapors filling our lungs. The day was set by those few moments and the words of that song, today was a great day something I will never forget began my day… a staring contest in the fog, in the dark, with the vapors filling our lungs, and "my heart going boom-boom-boom" |
I am having one of those stare at the blinking cursor kind of days. I've paced, watched television and listened to tunes. I can't seem to find anything to put on the page. Sure there is a half dozen started projects that I could pick up, but my frustration level with each of them grows expedientially with every passing page.
I opened a bottle of wine in my mind and tried to tell a story to myself.
I have also been trying to fool myself into thinking that just because I have stories to tell that I am a writer.
I have been reading my inspiration field guide The Write Brain
So now I have leafed through the pages, picked through the assignments and chosen none.
I will bite the bullet and choose to do nothing today but laundry and to clean the bathroom.
Now back I go to music and television and cruising the internet for some new and insightful look into something, anything.
My artist of the day is Dan Bern , an artist I have had the luck to meet and talk to, and get high with back when I used to get high a long time ago. Not only is he a funny singer/songwriter but occasionally he is insightful and well just damn good. I encourage you to go check him out... go to his MySpace and to his website. He has some impressive artwork as well.
Now I am off to make my bathroom the cleanest in all the land.
"Listen to the voice in your mind, every little thing you find."
The most most difficult part about this music, really listening to it is that I have been limited to what I could find online. I have spent quite a bit of time on their MySpace page , and helped myself to the free downloads of tracks their in. Being unsigned by a label, and I can't imagine why... this is what I had to work with. Six tracks, no more than twenty-five minutes of music played repeatedly.
The lyrics are often deep and cutting and the thundering acoustic guitar walks right through you.
This is another fine example of what is wrong with the music industry, that this man Matt Adams , the heart and soul of this music is a virtually undiscovered talent.
I am not some great finder of music, somewhere between pages 11 and 13 of the latest Rolling Stone Magazine, the one that pays tribute to Jack Johnson, whom I consider to be a currently waning artist. On page twelve in a brief and glowing mention of The Blank Tapes, I went nuts on the internet and have been listening nonstop ever since.
This guy Matt Adams is what music should be all about, not the kind of mess you see in the Grammy Awards... not Amy Winehouse or Feist making it big in a damn Ipod commercial, but a musician who worships music... and with it other musicians. On every page of every thing I could find on Matt Adams he talks more about the people who help him and less about himself.
This artist deserves your attention sooner than later.
He will end up on your car stereo eventually... so how about you go out and buy his music while it still goes to him and before he is raped by the industry.
The Blank Tapes will be the best think you listen to this week.
I have been twisting a few things over in my head during the last few days, the least of which is a weekly feature I am going to add to my daily blog which is a review. I will be reviewing whatever it is that I please, once a week a feature on music, movies, books... whatever pleases me. This is not only reflective of my constant desire to have people that I know imbibe and savor those things that I enjoy, but also an effort to streamline my scattered writing style. I believe that writing on an assortment of topics, beyond that of what ever fish bone I have stuck in my throat that day, will bring to me a new understanding of writing and of myself. I at this point in my life having no particular musical talent, or any rock solid skill for that matter consider myself to be a professional appreciator.
So in short, beginning tomorrow or maybe tonight depending on how much of this new band I have been listening to I have the opportunity to absorb I will be adding a weekly review, so loyal readers (ok 1 loyal reader) be on the look out.
Until then I hope that you have a wonderful day, and cross your fingers, it might be the only way to luck into joy.
Lucas
