Merry Weather

All these spots reversed the clock

Where we found blue hen glass made to last

Ribbon burnt along the road

And brought us through to Timbuktu

Cheese and butter was the other 

Grilled by hands without a brother

Roots reached through empty glass

Out the window overpass

Now or former was rewarded

To the man from which smoke distorted

Buying vegan water from a martyr

Didn't make us any smarter

But the show goes on

And kids still dance on our lawn

We never tried to play for keeps

Each of us a daydream feat

Duct Tape Hustle

White page, neon heart

Tell me, when did the beating start?

I found it underneath a triangle frame

And made it spread to quench a flame

Just like you I dreamed of cardboard robots

Designed to kill but still unable

Made from shoeboxes and broken cables

At the height of schools we learned much

and from tap dancing on hollow floors,

Forgot it such

Dreams disappeared like the corners of your toast,

Then landed on my shoulders,

Chipped until arms couldn’t be raised

When the wire snapped I switched the string

The bridge hadn’t broken but the cracks remained

It plays back now into a broken record,

Into a crescendo of only seconds

Little did I know

The song was written before we tasted it.

You wrote the melody.

I, the words.

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.

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