most of you guys know that a) i don't know how to play drums, b) I've always had fun playing drums and c) I want to learn how to play drums. Well, ellen's cousin Rachel and her husband recently acquired Rock Band 2 (i don't really play video games, so its sort o like when your friends have a cool game system and you want to go over to their house and play, haha)
Well, we started hanging out more and thus formed the band "Behold! The Scabbard" which features ellen on vocals (for which she kicks ass) and me on drums. So, after playing this game, I decided to do an experiment: I have probably played real drum set approximately a dozen times in my life, however, I am going to see if I can "learn" to play the drums via Rock Band 2 - now I know some would proclaim an injustice in that surely a stupid video game is absolutely no substitute for the real thing. I couldn't agree more, however,thats not the point. Here are a few arguments for my case.
1) the game is fun as shit - and the 80+ songs are practically all the original recordings (i think) 2) the drum is actually set up rather intelligently with of course a bass pedal for the foot plus 4 drums up high from left: hi-hat, snare, ride/hi tom (depending on song), bass tom. So its pretty logical - 3) when playing on hard and expert levels, they do an amazing job of replicating the actual drum part on the system itself
so, anyway, I might not be able to play this game but once every week or two (if that) so Im dorking out and spending an hour downloading all the songs on the game to listen to and study. yes its highly geeky, but what if somehow, after listening to these songs and playing this game a handful of times, when I sit down to a real drum set, I have new skill sets?!
Wish me luck, ....
p.s. I also think that I've always wanted to be a drummer and this is my silly little way of manifesting that :)
I'm totally with you Jamison. I love hearing about your latest revelations. It seems like you are constantly having them, you lucky dog! Keep up the good work and keep us updated!
... upon discussions with jeremy, i have come to more fully realize my importance as a musician and artist: via many philosophies of Joseph Campbell, I've seen that we have a vital role in helping maintain the ever present "mystery" and help create ever evolving perspectives on our life experiences as humans.... among many other things. I feel like our culture doesn't necessarily remind us of these things, so its important we do so for ourselves
.. . i have been doing a lot more meditating and singing with drones lately, as well as incorporating those into my more frequent yoga routine. I have had some deeply profound experiences which, in all honesty, cannot be done justice with words. suffice it to say, i highly suggest people explore this world more... if you haven't already :)
... I met up with some friends recently who were from out of town. They were into old school country and dancing, so I met them on Broadway, normally a place I avoid like the plague, mainly due to my probably unfairly assessed stereotypes of the kinds of people who hang out there (tourists, rednecks, douchebags, etc) However, the bar we went to had a slammin' band that played everything from texas swing to 50s rock, and many other styles.... really damned well.... and they didnt stop or take breaks... and they were playing for tips (and thus for the love) and there are numerous joints of this nature in Nashville downtown... along with of course a surprisingly varied group of crazy folks which helps the people watching parameter of going out. so.... even though I went to Austin a while back for the first time and said to myself "why cant nashville be more like this place" I am ever so slowly coming to realize the great and unique qualities of nashville. no place is perfect, just like no person is perfect, and coming to know its idiosyncrasies, both inspiring and even annoying, can ultimately be the best path to take
... I've had a number of realizations lately, but I will save them for a time when my hand isn't fucked up from falling down the stairs last night (a near injurious experience, and thus I have a new appreciation for life!.... if living isn't in part the constantly growing love with living, than I don't know what living is about... haha! thanks for being my friends and please feel free to use this blog as a place to smatter your thoughts like neon green spray paint from the vandals fist!
First off - I just spent the last two or three hours looking at the myspace pages of people I went to high school with. God Damn!@@#%%^ I don't know why. I have been thinking a lot lately and I'm just going to share.
I think that there are three truly famous people in this world. George Bush, Barack Obama, and Will Smith. Everyone else is only locally famous. I think that these three people can go almost anywhere and be recognized. Therefore, all the people that we think are famous - Brad Mehldau, Tom Waits, Charlie Kaufman, Bela Fleck, John Coltrane, Bjork, etc, etc, - are just popular. It may be easy to think that everyone knows about our heroes or the websites we check regularly or the albums we buy, but most of the time, no one gives a shit. As a performer, that's a little depressing, because there's at least a smidgen of "ooh, I hope I get famous", but we play fringe music anyway, so we'll never be as famous as the in-crowd. Of course, we all already know this, so don't think I'm trying to enlighten anyone. God forbid. I know that the best-case scenario is that Adam, Jamison, and Courtenay will read this and you guys all know at least as much as me about any given subject, but I'm a little tipsy and I need to spew some stuff.
Buckminster Fuller has written that in 1900 in the United States, 90% of the population lived on farms. When he wrote "Critical Path" in 1980 this number had shrunk to 10%. I'm sure now it's even less. To me, this means that in 1900, at least 90% of the population felt that the work they were doing was vital to sustaining the existance of themselves, their family, and the rest of the country. They were doing important work that meant something. The rest of the population could have also been doing vital work - doctors, preachers, firemen, etc. Everyone may not have had their dream job, but they were contributing and must have felt a sense of responsibility. Nowadays, almost everyone coming into the work force has spent some time in either retail or the service industry. This shit is not important. Even the best restaurants can go under and life will go on virtually unchanged. If most of them went under, our country would probably be better off. Retail is the same. The most important function these industries serve is to give day jobs to people who have bills to pay. Basically, you don't have the right to just live and be merry. You have to earn that right. You can't exist as a person that does what he needs to do for himself and goes on with his life. You MUST do what others tell you until you reach the age of 65 and then if you're lucky, you can retire to the life you've been waiting for since you left home. In the interim, most of us will have to make do with spending hours and hours a day at a job that probably doesn't make the world a better place and that doesn't give us the feeling of being responsible for anything significant. Although, as I'm writing this, I realize that Adam is doing woodwork for a boss he is friends with, Jamison is touring around bringing joy and music to people, and Courtenay is teaching the next generation of Town Meeting. Damn, I guess it's just me and the rest of the country that's stuck in this rat trap...
Sometimes I hate the internet. I'm sure you can all relate to this in some way. We didn't grow up on this shit, so it's probably stubborn Luddite-ness that makes us feel this way. I'm sure we all remember doing reports in libraries and looking through encyclopedias and card catalogs. We can easily recall when our families got some bullshit dial-up connection and had to pay an hourly fee for internet use (my brother once ran up a $250+ bill playing online games). Or maybe your parents were even more resistant than we can be and refused to let it into their households until you could get a monthly unlimited plan. Now I have to spend regular time on motherfucking myspace just to appear interested in keeping up with some people. I don't want to be one of these nostalgic kids that talks about remembering stuff from three years ago and buys the "retro" t-shirts from hot topic (you see, I'm a snob, after all). Of course, I remember Saved By the Bell, damn it! It wasn't that long ago! Our parents talk about getting their first color tv and we talk with the same wistfulness of getting our first cell phones (which may mean something for someone who has been through as many as Jamison, but for most people, it was still in this century). I recently went to the Field Museum and saw a great exhibit on the Aztecs. I just got more and more enthralled in this fantasy of the simple life - although mine didn't involve ritual human sacrifice. There's just too much to adjust to and not enough time to do it. I don't want to get swept up, but I don't want to just be a stubborn back-to-nature pipe-dreamer either. I guess I want things to get better, not just different. Not just more technologically advanced and faster and smaller and whatever. All the technology was supposed to make life easier. All the farmers are off the farms. The machinery can handle it, but instead of an easier life, it seems like it's harder. The work day on a farm is not an arbitrary 8 hours. You do the work that is necessary when it's necessary and then you're done. More work during the sowing and harvesting times and less while it's growing. Not just 40 hours a weeks so that you can afford heat and electricity.
This may be inappropriate, but I recently went on an adventure and ended up seeing an old blind guy's balls. That was but one facet of the adventure, but I wanted to share it. As it turned out, the guy was an incredible musician and we were having a very pleasant conversation when he pulled his pants down and started going to the bathroom without having closed the stall door. At that point, I stopped talking and left. Just thought I'd share...
Jesus Jesus! My computer crashed about two weeks ago and I just got it back last night. Unfortunately, my recently-former roommate, in her typically self-centered-not-giving-a-damn-about-how-her-actions-affect-other-people-way canceled our internet connection, so I'm still a little incapacitated (I'm on the work computer now). Also, Jamo shared a similar computer-fucking-up experience, so the techno Gods must be paying us back for something. Anywho, shit's been poppin' here, and I wanted to share a little recent nugget. It's a rap video I'm in. Maybe it should be my next career move? I think I look decent in booty shorts...
