The Friendly Lion

I took a time machine back to being a kid again thanks to my six-year-old niece this past Thanksgiving. Days were spent playing micro-machines, kinex, legos and the occasional American girl doll tea party (these were short-lived). We even progressed from our free style music sessions this past summer to actually crafting our own songs with lyrics.

One such song was titled “Gobble, Gobble, Gobble,” a thrilling tale of a turkey who flys away “High above the farm” so as not to be eaten for thanksgiving dinner. Guinevere came up with all the lyrics herself, I simply handled the melody by plucking away on the ol’ fiddle. These songs were put on in front of family members and at my own request, without the use of video.

We also performed a riveting rendition of Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer in the family room. I again led on acoustics, and Guinevere starred as lead vocalist with the occasional back up mumbles from her two-year-old sister Isabella. We couldn’t hold these “concerts” without some kind of colorful backdrop, so of course, arts and crafts were another necessary component to the weekend. I was glad to guide the way on two vibrant holiday posters, one of which my drawing of Rudolph looks a little “creepy looking,” as she put it. All the creative energy that flowed from my room could have powered a small toy-making factory to say the least.

What really brought me back down to earth and feeling like a kid again was when Guinevere came up to me on our last day together, looked me in the eyes and said, “You know you’re my best friend.” I started thinking wow; I can’t remember the last time someone’s told me that outright. And then I thought, can a twenty-three-year-old and a six-year-old really be best friends? Of course they can! My own feeling, that were all just big kids at heart came rushing back to me. Even one of my friends that works as a secretary at the art center told me the other day, “I just never choose to grow up.” And I ask, do any of us ever really grow up, fully? I don’t think so.

The weekend wasn’t quite over yet. The rents thought it would be a good idea to take the kids for a ride to Christmas village, this insanely rigged mini-town that must take a hundred thousand light bulbs to light up. It’s nestled just behind a lake close to Reading, and when you pull up over a telling hill you think you just hit the Christmas village from Nightmare Before Christmas.

Guinevere suggested we ride to together, and so we did in the backseat of mom-mom and pop-pops car. She fell asleep on the way up and when she awoke I asked her if she dreamt about anything. She said she had been petting a lion, and no one else was around and the lion was letting her pet it. I suggested maybe she become a zoologist when she grows up. But nope, she said she wanted to be a “volcanologist” (I didn’t even know that profession existed). Then she said she wanted to be a teacher, and then she told me she wants to be something different every day. I told her I thought that was awesome.

We left finding a profession for later and pulled up to this real life Christmas village where we were first greeted by frosty, and then Rudolph. We got to walk around the town and follow model trains, Cardboard cut outs of Winnie the Pooh and Charlie Brown characters, and even got to see Santa; no pictures though, that was an extra eight dollars.

All of this culminated into a ride home where Guinevere asked If I had any games on my phone and I told her I didn’t, but I did have this job search app called “Glassdoor”. We began searching teaching positions, and then music instructing jobs. I was making up the descriptions of the jobs as I read them out loud and we finally found one as a music history teacher.

In this game though, I told Guinevere we couldn’t get the job without going to college first, and so we made up a class schedule for Guinevere, complete with theatre and creative writing classes. Things then got a little too real when she started asking what days she was going to class and how she could afford a meal plan.

As great uncles do I switched the subject when we got home and gave her a piece of paper and a pencil and said, “Why don’t you write a story?” And so she did. It’s called “The Lonely Giraffe”:

It’s tough to tell from the pictures alone but the moral of the story has something to do with human (or animal) connection. As Guinevere told me, the days the Giraffe was sad she was missing all her spots. The day the Giraffe got some of her spots back was the day she met the lion.

What she understood as a six year old is we all need the help and connection from others to gain a true happiness. Even if its just a few spots we gain everyday, it still adds to our overall demeanor and well being. Remember, its only real when shared.

Obama Drama

A lot has been going on these past few months with our mighty American government. Lots of unhappy citizens without insurance, lots of national parks shut down and a lot of money squandered in the process.

This was my interpretation of our government three years ago while taking a general Art class. I was assigned to make a collage and apparently I choose to make it political. Take notice how the weather is part of his brain.. 

You may ask, is it still accurate today? And I ask you, is that a football located on the donkey's ass? You can decide.

Also, there's some kind of general election tomorrow. Let your voice be heard!

To Read or Not to Read?

I’ve never really enjoyed Shakespeare; the man confused the crap out of me in high school with his sonnets and soliloquies. The only thing I really got out of those classes was how the structure of a play is formed. 

Then I got to see my first Shakespearean performance a couple years back in Staunton, VA . The venue was the Black Friar Theatre and its the only place in the United states that still puts on his plays.

That night I remember throwing down a few “Festie” Starr Hill beers and having a great time seeing these whacky guys in costumes shouting at each other in old English and running in circles around the stage.

Once you witness one of his plays live, you realize it’s true what they say; they were never meant to be read. The majority of people living in England during the days of the Globe theatre were very much illiterate and thus play acting was the only way to convey such an art.

Today high schools and colleges continually push his textual presence down our throats. It’s somewhat understandable as we can’t go back in time to the 1600 London, we don’t all live in Staunton, VA, and we can’t all act. So we do the next best thing and read them; he is after all tagged as the greatest play-write of all time.

But those plays are still painstaking to read if you have no interest in literature. Even as an English major I shunned ol’ Will. I was reminded of this the other day when I came across several of his works I purchased but have yet to read. 

Books on Books

There’s Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, even Macbeth. Pretty much his entire works. I read several of them in a Brit Lit class, and I was originally going to take Shakespeare for my senior capstone course but had a great opportunity to take the same credits through a Toni Morrison author course (One of the most prolific African American female writers of our generation).

Although I was happy with my decision, I still have 12 New Cambridge editions and bookstores everywhere will only take them back for a few dollars a piece. (If you are seriously interested in these books please find the contact tab!).

Still, I have a small place in my heart for the man. Amongst the confusing dialect there are a lot of easily understood lines in his plays, one of which has modernized itself into the Weezer song: “I’m the greatest man that ever lived.”

This jam recently came up on my shuffle and the following lyrics are a direct nod to his genius:

Somebody said all the world’s a stage

And each of us is a player

That’s what I’ve been tryin to tell you

In Act 1 I was struggling to survive

Nobody wanted my action dead or alive

Act 2, I hit the big time

And bodies be all up on my behind

And I can’t help myself because I was born to shine

If you don’t like it, you can shove it

But you don’t like it, you love it

So I’ll be up here in a rage

Til they bring the curtain down on the stage

Customary to Weezer and their roller coaster chord shifts, this song thrashes, lulls you down and then turns it back up again after this brief lyrical interlude. 

Next to “to be or not to be,” “All the world’s a stage” has got to be one of Shakespeare’s most recognizable lines. It’s also one of the most insightful metaphors any poet has contributed to world literature.

Thinking of our own society and the specific roles that we choose to pursue, certain jobs that must be done and even the jails that are filled, it’s pretty clever to call us all players. We’re only a single cog in the great machine, and Shakespeare was a master at exposing what it means to be that cog.

One cog example: movie actors. Situated at the upper echelon of humanity, they have taken the greatest que from Will by mastering the role of playing a role. For this, society pays handily; not many of us can turn over our personalities on a dime.

We look up to these players because they inspire and awe us, with much credit due to the director, writer, producer, cinematographer, sound guy, and the list of cogs goes on.

What we don’t consciously think about is the same stage actors get on everyday, so do we. What we do on that stage and how we convey ourselves to the audience is solely up to us.

Tight Doodle

For the time being Shakespeare’s memory will remain under my desk until I decide whether or not to sell out his plays for a few dollars a piece.

Hey, I’m just another player and I need to get paid. I think he'd understand.

What It Means To WHAM

The first “Moment” I ever had was a simple conversation on the VIP floor section at Firefly Music Festival waiting for the Red Hot Chili Peppers to come on stage. Like most conversations at music festivals, you never really remember how they start, they just kind of flow from whatever current music conditions await your ears.

This is where I met Pam, wide-eyed and musically enthused toting a drink in hand ready to share all her love for the red hots with me. Little did I know our conversation about Anthony Keidis would turn into an awakening to one of the most innovative iphone apps I’ve ever come across.

Pam turned out to be the creator of “We Had A Moment,” or more simply, WHAM, a stylish little app that lets you pin point the location and time of an interaction you had with a particular person or group on a user friendly map.

Navigation

I thought her idea was pretty clever and wanted to know more, so she continued to describe her baby and what kind of features and circumstances made the app thrive.

The first step to using WHAM is having the desire and awareness to catalog a certain moment you find entertaining, emotional or valuable. Think about the last time you met someone awesome, thought wow, this person is awesome, but I may never experience this awesomeness again because of several reasons:

1. I’m not feelin’ the vibes right now to ask said person in said moment for their number.
2. I don’t have my phone on me, in fact, neither of us do.
3. I’m at a party and the alcohol content in my body is prohibiting me from remembering any kind of name/number whatsoever.
4. I simply let an organic conversation fly and didn’t even think about gaining contact information during that moment.

Now, you my think, are all these moments related to potential romantic relationships? Why don’t I just go on tinder and swipe through hundreds of potential suitors so I can get laid that way? Well, other then the fact that Tinder is one of thee creepiest dating apps of our generation, We Had A Moment’s premise is to make of it what you want.

What the app has going for it is the amount of potential moments that occur to people everyday are endless. So to are the locations. Were you at a bar recently conversing with a potential business client but never closed or got a name? Maybe that person sitting next to you on the airplane really enjoyed swapping reading lists with you, but you’ll never speak with them again, or will you?

Peep, peek, maybe a pee?

With the foundation of a mutual happening that’s already occurred, it doesn’t seem so weird putting a moment out there and letting it develop to whatever extent the users decide. Privacy may seem like an issue because anyone can view the moments posted, but once you respond to a moment, the conversation becomes strictly private.

I’ve found from my own experience that festivals and concerts are some of the most organic locations for moments to go down. With bad cell phone receptions and people having little time or desire to remember your phone number, much less your full name (spelling for facebook!) WHAM fills the void as an easy pathway to make a simple connection that lasts long after the show.

I’d say if this is your first time hearing about WHAM give it a shot, you can create moments online at wehadamoment.com or do it the convenient way by searching the app store for “We Had A Moment”.

You may just make a moment that changes your life, or maybe you’ll just trade some hip music with an awesome new friend. You’ll never know unless you WHAM!

10 Ifs One Hit: SubLioN

For the second installment of 10 If’s One Hit, I bring you “Sublion,” alias of up and coming EDM producer Jack Cunningham.

I actually first discovered Cunningham’s work through twitter about a month ago, and after chance encounters at a Phish show and then a friends house, I told him I was curious to find out what all the electronic dance music was about.

It turns out Cunningham first started producing his own Reggae acoustic beats under the same name a few years back in college, and up until six months ago, hadn’t even produced his first EDM track.

His inspiration to find a new direction in EDM producing came about when he met up with current producer and longtime friend Aaron ‘MaHi’ Cole. Cunningham became inspired to transition from simple reggae chords to complex dubtronica once MaHi began mentoring him.

Through state of the art programs like Reason and Ableton, Cunningham has synthesized six complete tracks you can find through his sound cloud. His music has this new generation feel that mixes soothing keys and melodic themes with an ability to take you on a ride where the insertion of lyrics just becomes a distraction. 

The motivation behind Cunninghams producing capabilities is quite simple, “When I make my music I want it to be Pretty. I want it to be beautiful, uplifting. Im a positive person. I like jambands and I like to be happy and I want to bring that happiness to EDM.”

With future plans to continue dropping new tracks and to eventually spin his own music, it doesn’t seem there’s much in the way of stopping SubLioN from reaching the peaking ears of EDM fans near and far.

If you could possess any single super power?

You know what, I’d freeze time. Every once and a while when your stressed out just BOOM stop time and let your mind calm down.

If you could run any current music venue?

I don’t know how well this would work for EDM, but Red Rocks sounds pretty amazing. It sounds like one of the best venues you could go to in the country. I imagine EDM would sound pretty good with all the re-verb.

If you could spend a whole day with any artist?

DJ Tiesto. When it comes to music nowadays days and having the ability to get a whole arena full of people all on the same page, to get just a little bit of insight on that would just blow my mind.

If you could travel to any planet?

I would take a shuttle to Saturn. The ring system is sick looking and would be beautiful to see. Not to mention Saturn has like sixty moons.

If you could eliminate any one music genre?

The way I look at, even if I hate the music I always can nit-pick little things that I love. Like I don’t like country, but sometimes I like the guitar. I may not like screamo, but sometimes I’ll love the double bass pedals and the drums. I just love music.

If you could have any animal as your best friend?

Bald eagle. I would have a bald eagle on my arm or like on a perch next to me while I write music and when he hears something sweet he’d like squak or do something cool.

If you could get any tattoo?

I actually do have one right here, it’s a 311 quote; “Follow your bliss on every day, let the cards fall where they may.” It’s kind of just a reminder to do what you love, and whatever happens happens.

If you could marry one artist?

I would marry two, and it would be both Pegboard nerds because they have the sexiest synths in the entire world.

If you could leave tomorrow for any country in the world?

I was reading an article today about a successful business women who took a trip to Africa, and after taking with the warriors in their specific tribe she asked how many women warriors they had and the leader said none, women can’t be warriors here. She ended up coming back for two months and hunted with all the men and lived in poverty to become a warrior. That story just made me want to do some good, so I would probably find a place like Darfur for a different kind of destination and help out any way I could.

If you could control any element and why?

Wind. With the right costume, of course, I would be the most bad ass super hero ever. I would tell Superman to fuck off. Plus you could literally take someones breath away on command. I would also be the best skipper in all of the land.

----

And here I bring you one hit from SubLioN: "Evolve" Be sure to check out Cunningham's sound cloud for other quality tracks. Enjoy!

Floyd Ahoy

I remember leaving my apartment at JMU for the final time this past July. I forgot a cooler of food inside, had to drive back to the apartment to find the man I'd given the key too, and then resumed my journey back down to Floyd, Virginia for their annual "Floyd Fest."

An obscure town that has an extremely popular music festival was the low down tip I'd gotten from one of the bartenders I used to work with back at school earlier in the year.

Another friend of mine told me the people of Floyd ate a lot of exotic fish, like squid, and one could therefore classify them as the hippie type.  The second thing I discovered was that the town itself had only a single traffic light.

You have to drive through the intersection with that traffic light in order to reach the backwoods of the festival, which was just under thirty minutes outside the town square. It’s pretty anti-climatic when you reach the stoplight, just another normal set of red, green and yellow blinkers.

When you ask locals about the traffic light they just brush it off and say, “Yeaup, that’s our town.” After experiencing all that the festival had to offer, the traffic light becomes merely a trivial fact.

The scatterbrain poem below captures a larger part of the festival and the many people/places/things I came in contact with throughout the duration. Enjoy.

Departing Floyd and the infamous light

Single Traffic Light Autumn Gypsy Baby

Hammer pants and tight white lace

Grab the melodica and join the band

Low thin brow, star shaped tone

Groove your bones with that banjo

A wooden spoon and a pink lagoon

Churning Chinese dreads & dragon snacks.

Purple rays painted parakeets that day

While Tahoe scooped redwood snow

Recycled moonshine love screamed, “You don’t Know!”

I told em’ if you’re in it you got to let her know.

But Sydney dreamed of mud-dripped men

Selling mustached aprons and green vacations

Hairs for strings and nails for pluckin’

Wild horses beat for songs worth sufferin’

Plaid buttons proved that raindrops drift,

Two spheres that burned the black out quick

A heated pig paced the dusty grey

And spoke in a tongs of marmalade

15 more through the rear bus door

Frayed overhauls and nothing more

The rain went dry and the earth made waves

And crust beneath the moon gave way

But the river flows and those mountains rise

And the Aussie chants, “til the day we die!”

Here’s a clip I took of John Butler during the first song of his solo set at Floyd Fest. It’s apparent you watch at least the first few minutes to catch his “Milkshake” rendition.  

Festival Euphoria: Balancing Ambition, Salesmanship and Sunday Names

As much as we’d like to capture the euphoric feelings of music festivals and never let them go, the reality is it’s much better to learn how to let them go, and to know they'll always be there whenever you decide to look back.

Whether you've experienced a festival or not, it remains clear that they have this mysterious ability to create an alternative reality that is both jubilant and enticing in nature. Instead of bringing this lifestyle back with you to earth, the key seems to remain in the middle ground between inhibition non-existence and inhibition overdrive.

While music festivals teach us about letting go and enjoying the show, they also teach us countless values that have the capability to benefit us in every day life. The first one you come across at all the decent festivals is this deep and non-judging sense of community. Your social status and monetary background don’t mean diddly to anyone at a festival. If you’re happy and you’re having a good time, this is the richest investment you can pass on to any one person.

Another aspect about festivals, which is in fact related to money and the real world is the salesmanship that goes on. Now you might say, “Oh that’s just a big word for all the drug dealers and peddlers out there trying to make a quick buck,” and I’m not going sit here and tell you that doesn’t exist, but that’s also not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the people who consciously create and deal their own personal goods to benefit themselves and others.

The amount of artwork, pins, posters, and jewelry I’ve come across sold by people who’ve hand made these commodities looking to make back the money that went into and then some is astounding. Many of these rogue vendors can’t afford the list price of the festival ticket and thus sell their goods in order to pay their own way.

Dedicating yourself to a craft and then using that craft to spread joy to others and back to yourself is an element of salesmanship that’s become widely forgotten in today’s world. The majority of businesses today aren’t concerned with how they reach their profits, but what their profits are. I’ve had the great fortune of working for businesses who’ve always put their customers first, and the nice thing about festivals is their ability to emit this truth when it comes to of the way transactions should occur within a conscious economy.

Another form of salesmanship at festivals that reflects dedication and hardwork is seen in the food vendors. These are the unsung heroes that help you get by when it’s 2 in the morning and your too far gone to search for that box of Triscuits, much less get the grill started up again. 

I remember waking up one morning to roam around for some breakfast and on my way walking through the campsite some random guy flagged me down from several tents away and said, “Hey, want an egg?!” I put my thumb in the air and the man proceeded to flip me the egg over his group of friends and a tent straight into my hands, which were the hands of God during that toss because I somehow cushioned the throw.

I continued walking and passed one of my camping buddies who told me this vendor on the corner had the best breakfast bowls out, six bucks for four eggs with cheese, bacon and potatoes. I ended up going to that place on a few different occasions, and this particular time I felt it was destiny to receive a five egg breakfast. 

When I arrived at Hembros Kitchen I presented the egg that had fallin’ from the sky to one of the cooks. He asked me if I wanted to sit on it, and after first feeling embarrassed, we both exchanged a hearty laughter and small talk ensued. That small talk turned into big talk, and next thing I knew I was getting invited to join him and his crew on road trip to Oklahoma for the Gentleman of the Road Tour (Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe, Alabama Shakes, etc.), which was only two weeks away.

After seriously considering that offer for three days, I came to the realization that I couldn’t just bail on work and loved ones for my own personal pleasure, a pleasure that no doubt would’ve involved a lot of hard work considering how much equipment and the amount of hours those food vendors worked each day (all day). When you’re a food vendor your unable to see a lot of the premier shows; you sacrifice them just so you’re able to grill out for the good of the people and the good of your wallet. With all the cooking equipment and gear it takes to set up a legit food stand, you need to be dedicated to your craft. 

Food vendors are just another festival component that can teach you how important it is to have ambition coupled with priorities. Without ambition, were just nomads wandering around with a false sense of hope. Once we lose sense of priorities, it then becomes easy to lose touch with reality. Although forgetting priorities can be extremely helpful to those of us who just need a break from work and want to enjoy the weekend, it can also be dangerous for those looking to fully embrace a lifestyle without rules or boundaries. 

At festivals it’s as if your given this ability to become whatever we want, while the core of your true self remains. Take for example Sunday names, a longstanding tradition at summer festivals where you're bestowed a different, alternative name. I’ve met Willow, Sunshine, Ernie Coombs and Earth Cloud to name just a few. The mysterious part is, you don’t even pick your Sunday name, it picks you. 

Like others, my Sunday name was given to me before I was even born, and currently it’s the name of this blog. The origin of my actual name goes back only a week or two before I was born. Originally, my parents agreed on the name Andrew, but after the company my dad worked for decided to instill a new business plan that incorporated the phrase "Just In Time" in a marketing push, they decided they liked the name Justin better. 

Sometimes these names have the ability to take on a life of their own and we choose to leave our old selves behind. This changed self can become home and a new life flourishes. For others, when the cash dries up and the music gets cut, a crash course in reality will tell you exactly who you are. You begin to find out just like nicknames, Sunday names are just different ways to express who we really are.

If there’s one final lesson festival hopping will teach you, it’s that life is all what you make it, and this ability to create the things that make you happiest is what living is all about. Sometimes we try to do to much, other times not enough, and sometimes it seems like the scale was tipped before we even had a chance to balance it. Maintaining an ambition to do better for ourselves and others will always help tip the scale in our favor, and even when it doesn’t seem likes it’s budging, sometimes all it needs is another push.

Smoky Pyramids

Figured the blog could use some more variety, so today I share with you my limited drawing capabilities. 

This freehand was done on a plane ride down to Tampa this past spring break. I distinctly remember listening to some alt-j and feeling good vibes coming from my seat neighbor. 

I can’t remember what or if I had any intended meaning behind it so let me know what you think!

10 Ifs One Hit: Baggs

It's been a minute since my last post so I'm going to try and make this one worth it. By worth it I mean I'm creating a new segment; "10 Ifs One Hit." You'll be able to find it on the page bar as well as the home page.

Basically it will be a short summary of a featured artist followed by ten relevant and not so relevant questions. I'm also going to put out some of their work ("one hit") some links and whatever else they give me free reigns on.

With that said, for the first 10 Ifs One Hit, I bring you Andrew "Baggs" Baggaley, controller of the zodiac and observer of the phony acts.

Straight off the boat from a study abroad trip in Hamburg, Germany (or should I say study abroad trip turned impromptu open mic tour); Baggs and I got to sit down at the local pub this past Monday to talk about Lauryn Hill, river otters and anarchist communes.

If you've never heard of Baggs, then you're in for a whirlwind of fresh thoughts. In a way he's your typical college hippie, flowing brown locks, little concern for bad vibes, and all his energy pointed towards love and unity.

Like many other '90s babies, Baggs found his passion for rapping growing up in a time where "real slim-shadys" and "thongs songs" reigned supreme. He remembers Nelly's "Ride Wit Me" defining his fourth grade experience and writing one of his first raps in 6th grade about Manchester United. 

Messing around with freestyles in the halls of his high school led to a consciousness today that's exploding with an intergalactic message of hope and achievement. As he says, "If you ain't happy with yourself then open your heart, love flows in and out and heals every scar."

Maybe the best part about Baggs is the fact that he isn't afraid to show his dark side. With honest qualms about sorrow and insecurity, you can't help but feel drawn to his lyrics, "Is the real world beating you down? Well I was in the same place; I had the same frown on a different face. Desperate, thinking dreams are two fast to chase, a fleeting feeling is the past passed away."

The fact is, Baggs is just doing it different. Instead of rapping about girls, glory and gold watches he tells the truth like it is, "A realistic world ain't no fun to be in." 

If you could share the stage with any current MC, who would it be and why?

I would say Slugg from atmosphere just cause he’s my favorite. When I first heard him rap I was like oh wow this guy can rap about different shit from another point of view. The way he always spit really hit home with me, and the fact that he made his own label and his own thing totally independent.

If you could start any type of restaurant, what would it be?

I would do a food truck and make doner kebabs. So, they hang meat from a giant slab and they take an electric shaver and slice it up real thin. They put it in this pita type bread and throw on lettuce, onion, tomato whatever you want.

If you could marry any artist?

Lauryn Hill because, Lauryn Hill. Also because she is a dope mc and her unplugged album is my shit and she got a brain and soul and is beautiful. And because, Lauryn Hill.

If you had to climb any mountain?

Somewhere in Patagonia I guess, because it looks gorgeous and everest and kilimanjaro are soooo mainstream. ha. and my bro was there and said it was dope and there are glaciers there and they're melting quickly so i guess i gotta see em while they're still around.

If you could meet any deceased writer?

I'd say Herman Hesse. I haven't really been into too many books lately but I really like what he did with Siddartha. 

If you had no choice but to get inked up this second, what would you get?

I’ve always thought about getting one but could never think of anything, until one of my last nights in Germany this past month. We were in this club at 7 in the morning and I had been thinkng a lot about death, I started having this anxious feeling of not existing and for a brief moment this sentence in German came up in my head, "Eines Tages werden wir sterben, deswegen müssen wir tanzen." Translation: One day we’ll die, because of that we must dance!

If you could be reincarnated into any animal, which would you be and why?

I would be a river otter cause they just fuckin’ have a blast. I see them at the zoo and there always just like having the most fun.

If you could be the president of any country in the world, which would it be and why?

I don’t fuck with countries, I don’t even fuck with states. I’m just not down with all the power and the boundaries. If I had to be the president of something it’d be like an anarchist commune island place where people just come and go as they pleased.

If you could be born into any Era, which would it be and why?

If I could be this age in like 1963, I’d do it just for the music. I think that whole era is over-hyped, but the music was legit and people did their thing. I love Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bob Dylan’s tight, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison is my shit.

If you could live anywhere the next two weeks, where would it be?

As much as I wanna be other places, I wanna be right here right now. Just looking at what’s going on in the next few weeks of my life.

-----

With that last question I now leave you with full access to Bagg's first full length album: "New Day." Best of all, it's Free...FREEE!

With nine passionate tracks and some of the realest and most down to earth lyrics I've ever come across, this album lives up to its name and then some. 

Plus, there's a featured artist on the last two tracks that will make you question when a "Fine Wine" album is coming. Enjoy

You can also find Baggs on Facebook, Youtube, and Twittter.

Why I Love Phish

For my first post on the new blog I figured I’d tackle a subject I’m pretty passionate about, something that really strikes a chord in my poor heart. That subject is Phish, and since the bands reinstatement in 2009, I’ve tried to hit the road a few times each year to catch them live. 

Whether it’s at a Halloween rager in Atlantic City where everyone is dressed in their Frankenstein best, or at an outdoor pavilion when the rain is coming down faster then you can say David Bowie, the atmosphere is always lit up with dancing voices and singing feet. In this post I will try and break down what it is that keeps the insiders in and the outsiders out, why it's better to let go rather then to hold on, and above all, why I love Phish.

Anyone out there who’s not entirely familiar with Phish, they’ve been deemed arguably the greatest cult rock and roll band of the past three decades (the word “cult” might turn you off, but it’s a crucial component I’ll get to soon). I could hit you with some facts about how many shows they’ve sold out, how many international cities they’ve booked over the years and the number of quality of studio albums they’ve released, but those would all just be figures and statistics. 

To give you a quick taste of what their capable of, they routinely cover songs by The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. If you can’t appreciate, or God help you, don’t recognize at least two of those names, then you have some serious discography’s to start downloading.

The question remains, what is it that magnetizes millions of fans to follow around this lesser known four-piece rock and roll band named after a misspelled animal? There’s no doubt Phish’s following is a dedicated group of live music enthusiasts, and the funny thing is it’s the same thing that keeps fans in that keeps them out. This is where the “cult status” comes into play. There’s a few reasons that drive the smartest and most sensitive music fans away from getting anywhere near Phish. Here’s the biggest one:

“Steal away before the dawn and bring us back good news, but if you've tread in primal soup please wipe it from your shoes. Just then a porthole pirate scourged the evening with his cry, and sanctuary bugs deprived a monkey of its thigh.”

Those are a few lines from the first verse of a relatively well-known song called “Cavern.” Anyone who knows what songwriter and lead guitarist Trey Anastasio was thinking when he wrote those lyrics may speak now or forever remain confused. Don’t bother googling it either, as that will take you through a maze you’ll never get out of.

My point is this, that song and those lyrics make absolutely no sense. There’s not one logical sentence or phrase that will tell you anything about anything. The last line of that song is, “Whatever you do, take care of your shoes.” So I guess if you’re in college and you pass out at a party, it’s some pretty sound advice. Otherwise, pure fucking lunacy. Any sane person would say, “Wow, I wonder what Trey was tripping on when he wrote that!” Because well, they were evidently some pretty transcendent drugs.

You definitely don’t need a raging acid trip to enjoy yourself at a Phish show, but that’s beside the point. What I’m focusing on is the pure ambiguity of almost every Phish song, and that’s what steers a lot of people away from the band; this inability to understand.

[Quick footnote: The lyrical concept behind “Phish” is actually based on a creative writing thesis by Trey during his time at Goddard College in Vermont. Essentially he created a fictional kingdom called “Gamhendge,” which features characters and storylines relating directly to the kingdom’s reliance on time. Time was created by the sky God Icculus, the recipe for which was then written down in the helping friendly book. The lizards, a race of people practically extinct from doing things smart people don’t do, depend on the helping friendly book, which gets stolen by Wilson, the evil King of Prussia. With the help of a retired Colonel, Forbin, Icculus dispatches the helping friendly mocking bird to retrieve the helping friendly book and bring it back to its rightful place in the Gamehendge Time Phactory. That's a broad overview.]

Back to all this ambiguity and why it seems like the only thing you can learn from a Phish song is a silly fantasy story. The bottom line with Phish is this, if you can’t listen to them because the lyrics aren’t deep enough for you, then you’ve already lost half the battle and Phish has inadvertently weeded you out of their fan base forever. The thing you realize about Phish is they’re all about having a good time, and their ability to spread that joy to their audience in live shows is what solidifies their epic presence.

A couple weeks ago at the Merriweather Pavilion  Trey put his guitar down and bounced around the stage for the better half of a ten-minute groove. Most lead singers won’t sacrifice that kind of ego, and most won’t even have the chance to because of the constraints they put on themselves and their music. Worrying about constraints isn’t a priority when it comes to Phish, and this is something I think they try and spread through their musical community.

Constraints, particularly mental constraints, are things we experience everyday; it’s a by-product of our largely whacked out society. We all have a hard time letting go and accepting the truth, we have obsessive thoughts and we all don’t like something about ourselves. 

Why can’t we just say enough is enough and drop all these mental burdens? That would make sense, right?  It would, but this is life and we have obligations and responsibilities and things we have to be mad about! 

"AHH! Stupid possum! I dented my car when I ran you over! I can’t believe that crazy Suzy Greenberg! What a bitch! Why doesn’t she just get checked by a neurologist!" These are things we might think are tough to get over, because well, why shouldn’t we get mad about someone or something trying to ruin our day? Phish has taught me how one can avoid this trap; that thinking too much can be a bad thing. 

When I'm listening to Phish I don’t have to question or contemplate anything in that moment. I don’t have to think about rules or constraints or paranoid thoughts; I just feel. I don’t know what I’m singing along to half the time and I love that. I love that there’s a fanatical king named Wilson who’s trying to steal the recipe for time and declares that anyone who possesses it is a crook. I love that Harry Hood can feel good, good, good about home. I especially love that Fluffhead was a man with a horrible disease.

Listening to Phish is ultimately about letting go for the sake of letting go, because above everything, no one truly knows anything, except for those genuine feelings that come from within us. Phish makes sense, because like life, it makes no sense at all when you look at it from a purely logical standpoint. 

Just like the helping friendly book holds the recipe for time, I believe Phish’s music holds the recipe for happiness. That happiness requires two things: a mind that’s willing to let go, and a body willing to express it. What's even better is this phenomena occurs with any type of music; Phish just happens to be one awesome example.

You can see below I've compiled a must listen playlist of both studio and live performances. The studio songs are linked to Youtube, and the two custom live sets are from shows I've personally attended the last four years. 

Keep in mind there are a slew of Phish songs that do have meaningful and easily understood lyrics. Most of these I've included in the studio songs. I selected the live songs based on their inherent jamtistical sound quality and just because I dig 'em. Enjoy!

Studio:                                                          

"Waste"                                                         

"Sample In a Jar"                                        

"Backwards Down the Number Line"   


"Free"                                                             

"Heavy Things"                                          

"Bug"                                                            

"The Wolfman's Brother"                          

"David Bowie"                                         

"Mango Song"                                            

"Guelah papyrus"                                                                                 

"Farmhouse"                                                  

"Reba"                                                              

"Roggae"                                                          

"Dirt" 

Live:

Live Phish Mix #1

Live Phish Mix #2