Regrets and Avoidance

If there's one thing I have come to realize that I've missed out on, it's having that finely developed appreciation for exceptional music. I never learned to cultivate that ear as a teenager or a young woman, so I typically found myself caught in that pop rut with my peers during those years.

It wasn't necessarily a need to fit in or fear of being different as much as it was not surrounding myself with the people who could have shown me the way. Fortunately, this is not only no longer a problem for me. Also, the Internet has stripped me of any and all excuses for avoiding musical growth, so I've been doing quite a bit of exploring in the last five years or so.

With that being said, here are some of the entries on my "better late than never" list:













There are a lot of other artists that I could list here; many that I was aware of but never listened to properly. In any case, my plan is to avoid regrets like these in the future by putting my ears to work.

For sale, baby shoes, never worn.

The title of the entry is a 6-word story that is often called the worlds shortest novel.  It has been attributed to Hemingway, although most likely in error.

On my quest for simplicity, this is a good example to keep of how to say more with fewer words.  That suits me just fine because I'm not really a chatty person.

I'm also seeking a zen level of minimalism with the music I've been working on, though that can be difficult when there are so many sounds and ideas to play with.  Still, I think I can do something along those lines using an idea I've had bouncing around my head for the last couple of weeks.  This song would (hopefully) contain some deep emotion by making use of dramatic sweeps with an almost bird-chirpy-like vocal line, although I intend to put something in there that bubbles up from beneath.

In the meantime, I think I'll continue to work on refining my messages until I have that magic combination of short phrases that speak volumes.  That is my goal.

Winter is almost upon us - again.

It's beginning to look a lot like redundancy.  Every year I think about all of the things on my to do list, and all of the things I've been putting off all year, decade, and my life.  The pressures of my job can only go so far as an excuse, and the fact is I do my job better when I have a creative outlet, so... here is my promise to myself - starting now, I will:

1. Write more
2. Photograph more
3. Sing more
4. Find more music
5. For the love of all that's holy, clean the damn closets already

#1 - I'm taking care of it.  Not just here, but also here.
#2 - I would love to, but first I need to invest in a better camera.  Hmmm.  Christmas.  Hmmm....
#3 - Easy peasy.  I'm working on a musical project with my friend Bunny Knutson, and the love of my life Zak Claxton, and they're expecting me to pull my weight.  With enough practice I might even begin to sound better.
#4 - All hail the mighty Genius, and the occasional iTunes gift card.  Hmmm again.
#5 - This one probably won't get done until next year.  Ah well.  I tried my best.

And yes, I realize that if you look at the very first post of evey blog ever created on Blogger, they all probably look a lot like this one.

I know a special secret about this blog though....

This is the second time I have started it.


EDIT:  Holy crap, I got the closets cleaned out.

NEW EDIT:  AAAAAAND... the closets need attention again. <sigh>