Mission status

Despite the lack of new posts, I'm doing the homework necessary to move the project forward. This consists of listening to the CD, researching the artists, listening to the originals and reading up a little on Dylan. It's no surprise my ignorance of artists old and new is being confirmed but I'm enjoying it, much as I enjoyed preparing for the Honors seminar I just taught. I barely listened to anything except the radio for 20 years or so (1985-2005) and even when I started playing again I've spent most of my creative time practicing the guitar, recording original songs or covers of old faves, or learning or relearning the classics with just a few exceptions.

I get it, of course.

This is a fund-raiser for an extremely good and important cause, one I contribute to. They needed to line up a broad range of artists to cast the widest possible net, one to cover all ages and tastes. That would include pop stars of the day like Maroon 5 as well as Rock Pantheon residents such as Carly Simon who is only one of many Immortals on board. Bob Dylan's oeuvre lends itself well: He has written a very diverse body of songs and one may always take a song and transform (or transmogrify, as the case may be) any song from its original form into a different genre. Moreover, having listened all the way through now, I can say the best covers, the amazing and beautiful takes, are not exclusively the property of the Old Masters nor are they necessarily ancient and sacred songs I know and love. In fact, I'm thrilled by the contributions of musicians I've never heard of while other artists whose names and works are emblazoned on my soul delivered renditions I will never care to hear again once this project is completed

“Meanwhile, life outside goes on all around you.”

Advertising signs they con
You into thinking you’re the one
That can do what’s never been done
That can win what’s never been won

Read more: http://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/its-alright-ma-im-only-bleeding#ixzz3MjG5g8eh

What can I say about Bob Dylan looking back at over 50 years of his music? What can anyone say that hasn’t already been said? Obviously, whatever I say is really about me, about what Bob Dylan has meant to me and what he means to me now. I haven't kept up with Dylan over the years. I lost interest after Nashville Skyline.  Not only in Bob, but in pop music. I had reinvented myself and I didn't have time for music.  Only after 2005 did I rediscover myself, the musician, the guitarist, the songwriter. Dylan had a huge impact on my life back in the second half of the 1960's. He confirmed that everything was as screwed up as I thought it was. He wrote and sang brilliantly. I loved him. 

Note on Disc 4 Live Blog

Later I will listen to the originals (songs I don't know or don't know well) and the covers (all) again. I will research the artists I'm unfamiliar with and related topics such as information about the making of the covers etc. I will write about all of the above on this blog.

Listening to Disc 4: Live Blog Transcript

This is a first blush, live blog playing Disc 4 through an old Sony boom box at my parents’ house. We gave it to them for Christmas long ago and it was a present they actually used and enjoyed.

Reminder: The ratings work like this- 2/1/3 means it's a very good (2) cover of a song I know by heart (1) by an artist I am familiar with but don't have a strong opinion about (3).

Disc 4

01. I Shall Be Released
      Maroon 5
    1975: The Basement Tapes

Straightforward, tasteful, BeeGeesesque. Nice job, boys.

Rating 3/2/3

02. Political World  
      Carolina Chocolate Drops –
     1989: Oh, Mercy

  

Unfamiliar song and artists, fast jig groove, begins with rousing fiddle, vocal sounds a bit muffled, fine voices, tight harmony, makes me start moving, fast-talking lyrics “We live in a political world, love don’t have a place.” Yes.

Rating 2/4/4

03. Like A Rolling Stone 
Seal and Jeff Beck
1965: Highway 61 Revisited

  

Very familiar song, done straightforwardly, sounds good but not exciting. As you know, I worship Jeff Beck but his guitar riff doesn’t work for me on first blush.

Rating 3/1/1

04. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream
Taj Mahal –
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

  

I love the song and I love Taj. Song kicks off swimmingly: Taj gives the classic hilarious talking blues song a funky ‘60s soul groove complete with Stax-Volt style horn riffs. Short guitar solo is perfect: who is that? Steve Cropper? Nope, but someone who has the right stuff. Quickie harp solo is OK. Great job, Taj!

Rating 1/1/1

05. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) (Live) 
Dierks Bentley –
(1978: Street Legal)

  

Unfamiliar song and artists, flowing folk groove with old time instruments, banjo, fiddle, acoustical guitars, stand up bass, light drum groove. Vocal is clean and pleasant. Difficult to listen to the lyrics while typing and thinking but it sounds good. Turns out it’s live. A very fine performance.

Rating 2/4/4

06. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) 
Mick Hucknall –  
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

  

Another amazing song from one of the ultimate Dylan LPs. The cover is a straight tribute with vocal, arrangement and instrumentation that sound a lot like the original. Sometimes that’s bad but here it works for me. This is weird but emotionally it really is like listening to Bob’s immortal recording.

Rating 2/4/1

07. I’ll Remember You Thea Gilmore – (1985: Empire Burlesque)

Rating 2/4/4

I don’t know the song or the lady singing but she’s terrific and the song resonates powerfully.

08. John Brown  
State Radio –  
1962

  

Don’t know these guys, either, and the old song is not one I listened to. Done as a heavy rock tune, reminiscent or Jeff Beck Group during Rod Stewart era, done well. Works nicely on first blush, cool riffing outro!

Rating 2/4/4

09. All Along the Watchtower (Live) 
Dave Matthews Band –
(1967: John Wesley Harding)

I’m not a fan of the band but I don’t hate them, either. I’ve listened a few times and thought they were OK but not my cup of tea as an old guy. My youngest daughter who is 26 had a bunch of their CDs. Dave and the band have their work cut out doing a live version of a song Jimi invaded, annexed and still occupies. Wisely, the arrangement takes a new direction different from Bob or Jimi. It’s slow and mournful with emphasis on the vocal. Impressive falsetto harmonies. I’m warming up to it. It segues into a rocking groove based on Jimi’s climactic treatment, complete with funky guitar references sans Wah-wah. Reduces to acoustical guitar and sax jam segment. The sax goes all squeally at the end while managing to sound contrived rather than psycho. Dave comes back in with psycho vocal that works a little better for me.

Rating 2/1/3

10. Subterranean Homesick Blues
Michael Franti –
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

Covering the song is likewise nervy.  I don’t know this/these guy(s) but they have some. They make it more urban hip hop and it’s cool.

Rating 2/4/1

11. Mama, You Been On My Mind 
We Are Augustines –  
1964

This is an early Dylan folk tune I’ve apparently overlooked although it sounds familiar and I’m sure I’ve heard it somewhere. The vocalist has a rich, resonant, evocative voice. This works.

Rating 2/4/3

12. Tryin’ To Get To Heaven 
Lucinda Williams –
(1997: Time Out of Mind)

Lucinda is a great singer. I don’t know the song. It comes from an LP I never listened to but the songs from it in this collection are some of my favorites.

Rating 2/4/3

13. Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) 
Kris Kristofferson –
(1975: The Basement Tapes)

14. Gotta Serve Somebody
Eric Burdon –
(1979: Slow Train Coming)

Eric Burdon is one of my heroes and he’s singing a tremendous song. Can he pull it off? He goes with a funky Latino Bo Diddley groove, a wise choice that distinguishes his rendition from the blazing studio classic, one of the few great Top 40 hits Bob had post-motorcycle wreck. Wow, it really is Eric, with that voice still blowing powerfully and the message is right up his alley! I’m digging it, brother. Hey, wanna dance? (Great little ‘take it down, now’ rap segment).

Rating 2/1/1

15. I’d Have You Anytime (Harrison-Dylan) 
Evan Rachel Wood –
1968

Don’t know this artist or song, either, though I probably should given George Harrison, my original favorite Beatle co-wrote it with Bob.

Rating 2/4/4

16. Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Live) 
Marianne Faithfull –
(1962: Bob Dylan)

This is weird. As opposed to Eric, I’m shocked by how Marianne sounds. Is that really her? I would have thought it was an old guy singing in the shower at first. Except for the ukulele accompaniment which actually works pretty well.

Rating 4/1/1

17. Forever Young
Pete Seeger –
1974: Planet Waves

If Pete Seeger is an old guy singing in the shower to an instrumental on the radio, no problem. He isn’t even singing, he’s reciting in the grand tradition of William Shattner and Lorne Greene and I mean this as a compliment. Pete Seeger is in an elite nice guy category with people like Mister Rogers, an impossibly kind and idealistic human being

Rating 3/1/1

18. Chimes Of Freedom
Bob Dylan –
1964: Another Side of Bob Dylan)

  

Is this a remix of the original recording? Beautiful ending to the collection. Sigh. Thanks, Bob, your heart is true.

Rating: 1-1-1

Live blogging Disc 4

Yesterday morning I skipped breakfast with Mom and slept in at our old house in Athens. As you know, I stay there during my monthly visits. I meant to clean the house and wash clothes but I decided to listen to Disc 4 while I cleaned and I ended up live journaling the songs as it played through. This was the first time I'd listened to Disc 4, so everything was fresh. I like the way my immediate perceptions came out. I'll go ahead and post it even though it means I will start the review at the end instead of the beginning.

The scope of the project

The Muse certainly is behind this one. I've already hit the ground running. The idea struck me in it's wholeness, an opportunity and a method to catch up on the huge body of pop music I missed out on during the many years I spent building and executing my career, having and bringing children up to adulthood, and being Mary Lou's partner. In all of that I have no regrets. Aside from the inadvisability of second guessing history, it's all worked out rather beautifully so far. Today, as I'm fond of saying, is the day we have.

Now, the plan that came to me is this: I will listen to each song on the compilation and compare it to the original by Dylan and other versions I know of. I will research each song, old and new, and each artist, familiar and unfamiliar. I will write about all of this and anything else that comes into my mind, relevant or random. At the end of the project, I will have learned a considerable amount. The CD is only 2 years old, so the young artists they enlisted are pretty much current, I would think. So there it is.

I make no pretensions of my words being authoritative. Don't we all know by now criticism is subjective? These opinions are definitive only of me.

Cover CD rating scales

I made up the following ratings scales for my blogging project, a review of Amnesty International's Chimes of Freedom Bob Dylan tribute LP. It took about 5 minutes.

Performance  
1 Amazing      
2 Very Good  
3 Good          
4 So So          
5 Weak          
6 Abysmal

Song familiarity                 Artist familiarity
1 Know the song by heart 1 Love the artist(s)

2 Know the song well        2 Like the artist
3 Have heard the song        3 Have heard/heard of the artist
4 Haven't heard the song   4 Haven’t heard of
5 Don't like the song          5 Hate the artist(s)

I'm trying them out on Disc 4 right now and they seem to work satisfactorily.

The Chimes of Freedom 
Amnesty International
(CD: Various Artists)

Track listing:

Disc 1

1 One Too Many Mornings
The Avett Brothers/Johnny Cash (3:48)
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

2 Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat
Raphael Saadiq (3:43)
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

3 Drifters Escape 
Patti Smith 3:21
(1967: John Wesley Harding)

4 Ballad of Hollis Brown
Rise Against 5:12
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

5 Blind Willie McTell
Tom Morello
1983

6 Corrina, Corrina Pete Townshend 2:34
(1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

7 Most of the Time Bettye LaVette
(1989: Oh, Mercy)

8 This Wheel’s on Fire 
Charlie Winston
(1975: The Basement Tapes)

9 Simple Twist of Fate
Diana Krall
(1975: Blood on the Tracks)

10 You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere Brett Dennen
(1975: The Basement Tapes)

11 Love Sick Mariachi El Bronx
(1997: Time Out of Mind)

12 Blowin’ in the Wind
 Ziggy Marley
(1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

13 Changing of the Guards
The Gaslight Anthem
(1978: Street Legal)

14 Not Dark Yet 
Silversun Pickups
(1997: Time Out of Mind)

15 You’re a Big Girl Now 
My Morning Jacket
(1975: Blood on the Tracks)

16 Boots of Spanish Leather 
The Airborne Toxic Event
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

17 Girl of the North Country 
Sting
(1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

18 Restless Farewell
Mark Knopfler
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

 Disc 2

1. Outlaw Blues
Queens Of The Stone Age
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

2. Rainy Day Woman # 12 & 35 
Lenny Kravitz
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

3. One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)
Steve Earle & Lucia Micarelli
(1976: Desire)

4. Heart Of Mine
Blake Mills –
 (1981: Shot of Love)

5. You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go 
Miley Cyrus –
(1975: Blood on the Tracks)

6. Lay Down Your Weary Tune Billy Bragg –

7. License to Kill
Elvis Costello –
(1983: Infidels)

8. Lay, Lady, Lay Angelique Kidjo –(1969: Nashville Skyline)

9. Ring Them Bells Natasha Bedingfield – (1989: Oh, Mercy)

10. Love Minus Zero/No Limit Jackson Browne – (1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

11. Seven Curses (Live) Joan Baez – 1963

12. No Time To Think
 The Belle Brigade –
 (1978: Street Legal)

13. Tonight I’ll Be Staying Here With You (Live)
 Sugarland –
(1969: Nashville Skyline)

14. Mr. Tambourine Man 
 Jack’s Mannequin –
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

15. 4th Time Around 
 Oren Lavie –
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

16. All I Really Want To Do
 Sussan Deyhim –
 (1964: Another Side of Bob Dylan)

17. Make You Feel My Love (Recorded Live at WXPN)
 Adele –
(1997: Time Out of Mind)

 Disc 3

1. With God On Our Side
 K’NAAN –
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

2. I Want You 
Ximena Sariñana –
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

3. She Belongs to Me 
Neil Finn with Pajama Club –
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

4. Bob Dylan’s Dream
 Bryan Ferry –
(1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

5. Tomorrow Is A Long Time
 Zee Avi –
(1963: Greatest Hits: Vol II)

6. Just Like a Woman
 Carly Simon –
(1966: Blonde on Blonde)

7. The Times They Are A-Changin’ 
Flogging Molly
(1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

8. Buckets Of Rain 
Fistful Of Mercy –
(1975: Blood on the Tracks)

9. Man Of Peace
Joe Perry –
(1983: Infidels)

10. It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Bad Religion –
(1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

11. Desolation Row (Live)
My Chemical Romance –
(1965: Highway 61 Revisited)

12. Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door
RedOne featuring Nabil Khayat –
(Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid)

13. Abandoned Love
Paul Rodgers & Nils Lofgren –
1975 (released 1985)

14. New Morning
Darren Criss featuring Chuck Criss and Freelance Whales –
(1970: New Morning)

15. The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll Cage the Elephant (1964: The Times They Are A-Changin’)

 16. It Ain’t Me, Babe Band of Skulls – (1964: Another Side of Bob Dylan)

 17. Property of Jesus Sinéad O’Connor – (1981: Shot of Love)

 18. Shelter From The Storm Ed Roland and The Sweet Tea Project – (1975: Blood on the Tracks)

 19. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right Ke$ha – (1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

20. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right 
Kronos Quartet –
(1963: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan)

Disc 4

1. I Shall Be Released Maroon 5 – (1975: The Basement Tapes)

2. Political World Carolina Chocolate Drops – (1989: Oh, Mercy)

3. Like A Rolling Stone Seal & Jeff Beck – (1965: Highway 61 Revisited)

4. Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream Taj Mahal – (1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

5. Senor (Tales of Yankee Power) (Live) Dierks Bentley – (1978: Street Legal)

6. One Of Us Must Know (Sooner Or Later) Mick Hucknall – (1966: Blonde on Blonde)

7. I’ll Remember You
Thea Gilmore – (1985: Empire Burlesque)

8. John Brown State Radio – 1962

9. All Along the Watchtower (Live)Dave Matthews Band – (1967: John Wesley Harding) 1

0. Subterranean Homesick Blues Michael Franti – (1965: Bringing It All Back Home)

 11. Mama, You Been On My Mind We Are Augustines – 1964

 12. Tryin’ To Get To Heaven Lucinda Williams – (1997: Time Out of Mind)

13. Quinn The Eskimo (The Mighty Quinn) Kris Kristofferson – (1975: The Basement Tapes)

 14. Gotta Serve Somebody Eric Burdon – (1979: Slow Train Coming)

 15. I’d Have You Anytime (Harrison-Dylan) Evan Rachel Wood – 1968

 16. Baby Let Me Follow You Down (Live) Marianne Faithfull – (1962: Bob Dylan)

 17. Forever Young Pete Seeger – (1974: Planet Waves)

 18. Chimes Of Freedom Bob Dylan – (1964: Another Side of Bob Dylan)

Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing

I have in mind a blogging project, to listen to all of the original songs covered on the Amnesty International "Chimes of Freedom" song collection and compare them to the AI covers. This will require me to listen to old Dylan material I love as well as post-Nashville Skyline material I have largely ignored.

Disorder (a confession)

A great deal of clutter from years of expedient coping has accumulated around me. I see it when I open the closet in my office, the drawers in my desk, in the closet and the armoire and the cabinets in the Music Room (formerly the Stamp Room, formerly the Play Room) at home, in my clothes closet and under the bed. Some of it is in my briefcase and the trunk of my car. I've largely ignored it, closed the doors and shut the drawers on it, drawn a breath and released it, rolled my eyes at it, kept on going and somehow survived and paid the bills.

There's a hidden protest in it, a passive-aggressive statement to the people around me and the world. There's a note of fatigue, discouragement, disillusionment, even despair in it. And resentment, of course, and shame. It says, "I can't deal with all this, I can't keep up, I don't want to try to keep up. I need your help! But I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to keep this stuff out of view; and, when you open the closet door and see it, I'm not going to let you put your hands on it, either!"

It goes further. It says, "I don't trust you. You don't care enough about me to help me, do you?"

But that's not entirely true, is it? The me that's writing this knows the more accurate story. I know and can tell you a big part of the problem: I haven't asked for or paid for enough help. I don't let people help me. I don't want them to help me (oh, yes I do, of course)! What I don't say to people directly, I say through the clutter, the disorder. I joke around about it- "What I need is someone to follow me around cleaning up the mess." When we hired Wendy LeBlanc as office manager, I told her, "Our job is to create chaos; yours is to straighten it out." Wendy did a great job of it, too. Way back then things were in order, under control. And then I became frustrated and discouraged and the resentments beneath the surface rose to the top. I began to let it slide. After Wendy spoiled me and left, I had people working for me who were nice people who did their best and would have done what I asked but I stopped asking. I lost momentum and then I lost more momentum and I didn't make a decision to stop and figure out a plan and begin to turn it back around. I'm going on 63 now and we're talking about a long slide dating back before the year 2000, maybe to 1995, twenty years or more, I don't know.

Why did I stop asking? You know why. I didn't want to let anyone get close, I didn't want to deal with their stuff.

Obviously, I've done enough to get by. I've done some things quite well. I've made sure everything hasn't collapsed leaving us in dire straits. Far from it. The things I can do for myself that I really care about, I do at a pretty high standard. But I could meet a higher standard if I had more help, if I asked for help, if I paid for help. My resentment and self-pity, my inertia, they're keeping me from being my best self.

In the final analysis, the clutter is talking to me. "So, are you going to face the truth finally, fully? Are you going to do something about this or not?" I hope so.

Things about me

If I know one thing, I'm gifted with high intelligence. Like the Greek philosophers, my goal is to live my life well. I can see how most things may be done with excellence. I recognize the transience of pain and pleasure and the inability of material objects to satisfy anything other than immediate desire and hunger. I'm extremely sensitive to other people to a fault. There are very few problems I can't solve when I'm alert and have time to work on them. I become disrupted easily by anxiety, hyper-sensitivity to the other, and self-consciousness, especially when I rush or attempt to multitask. My frustration often is not finding the way to do things up to my own standards, to envision something and not to bring it about. I believe in the transcendent origin of the universe I know. I believe every human life has intrinsic value we and all matter equally.

The Matrix Reloaded

When I saw The Matrix in 1999, I was 47 years old and I viewed the film as a brilliantly executed metaphor for civilized life. Fifteen years later I'm watching The Matrix Reloaded on television and it seems like a silly piece of clever entertainment. While most of the fight and effects scenes are repetitive and old hat, the section of the car chase scene where one of the demonic Twins winds up in the backseat with Morpheus, Trinity and the Keymaker is quite humorous. After spending years living in a little cell as a prisoner of the Merovingian, the anxiety-ridden Keymaker must have had the time of his life riding on the back of Trinity's motorcycle going down the Freeway at bullet train speed against traffic.

The Bad Joke Fish strikes again

Making his presence known by incredibly annoying fits of high pitched squeaking, the tiny rodent who disrupted an entire state fair by inhaling the helium out of the kids’ balloons became known as: Deflater Mouse...

Facebook message to Kerryn Tredrea (Australian poet)

Kerryn,

Before signing off for the evening, a few thoughts are passing through my head and moving in your direction- perhaps you can see from this project how I go about putting together a song. I love doing this more than pretty much anything (aside from practicing and playing the guitar which I'm pretty good at). I would do it for days on end "but for the work I've taken on (Joni Mitchell, Free Man in Paris)." It would be fun if I produced something that became viral but I'm not expecting wealth or fame to ensue- I will be 62 years old in July and it would be a miracle if I ever break even monetarily. However, in the past few years I've started to take the concept of "the Muse" more seriously. For one thing, she made me write a novel, a project that was not on my to do list. And, in truth, I've had a lot more opportunities to play and do creative music in the past few years than I would have thought likely when I turned 50, so who knows what else may happen? But the clock is ticking and we don't have unlimited time. I tell myself, "Whatever you're going to do, you'd better go ahead and do it!"

So once I have a musical idea, I start recording different parts, guitar, bass, vocal and drum loops (I play everything except drums on these things and I pick the beat from a library of grooves. Some of my friends tell me my use of percussion is boring but it's the best I can do without a talented human drummer with lots of free time over to my house. One can edit the drum loops which I do sometimes but I'm pretty happy with a strong and repetitive percussion groove.)

As with our joint venture poem/songs, I don't try to put the whole song together at first, just get beginnings and verses and choruses or some hot guitar riffs recorded. Sometimes I envision the whole structure at the front end but often I leave that question open. I listen to the recordings over and over as build up the parts. I can copy and repeat parts in different sections of the song, which saves a lot of time (although all of this is mentally labor intensive.) I also clean up the music electronically by dragging parts around to get them aligned neatly with the beat where they're supposed to go (so I don't have to worry about playing things perfectly). I'll often replace a "bad" note with a "good" note from somewhere else in the song. Over time, I'll 'hear' additional ideas and will try them out. I'll replace parts that don't have good tone quality with redos to make them stronger.I've been doing this for about 6 years now, so I've developed a set of skills. Even so, I'm a fairly crude sound engineer compared to professionals and a lot of amateurs who dig deeply into the technology. My strength is I'm creative and play passionately. And smart and literate, of course, just the facts, Ma'am, as Sgt. Joe Friday used to say on Dragnet.

But those are your strengths, too. I don't think your songs are too complex. I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan coming up. It's OK if a song is very simple but it doesn't have to be, does it? I like complex words juxtaposed against an insistent groove. Your poetry is real and exciting, it's great to work with- I hope you'll just continue to write what you feel. Trust the Muse. I believe all criticism is arbitrary; my opinions, and I do have them, are products of my wiring and experience. They have some kind of foundation and internal coherence but they aren't right and wrong. But in my opinion, you are a terrific writer. I also think you're an outstanding human being, yes, you are, you can deny it, but it's true. You're quite an interesting person, Ms. Lash, you probably think you're a mess and don't realize the degree to which you stand out in terms of courage, moral integrity, compassion, intelligence, cheekiness, honesty and humorous artistic eccentricity. I'm an introvert and after a long day of focusing on the people who consult me professionally, I'm picky about who I engage with beyond superficial hanging out: Congratulations, you've made the cut (go ahead and throw something). Lucky you, I've started writing a little about how I create and record music and ended up delivering a speech haha.

Anyway, I wish I had more time to work on singing- I've improved and I know how I could get better, but Time is always our Nemesis, no?

Regards,

Owen

Banana sandwiches

Peanut butter and bananas is a southern US tradition. My mother, Virginia R Scott, used to make sandwiches of peanut butter, bananas and white bread. I also liked bananas on white bread with mayonnaise! But I stopped consuming mayo many years ago. Another snack was made by slicing a banana into two pieces (the long way) and putting peanut butter in between the slices.

"Why do you play music?" Linked In Guitar Players group thread comment

"Without music, life would be a mistake"- Friedrich Nietzsche.

As a kid, I loved the sound of the guitar, especially electric guitar, and I couldn't think of any other acceptable way to make a living besides playing the guitar. Eventually, I became discouraged and came up with one alternative career, being a psychologist/therapist. After a very long hiatus from playing, I rediscovered my passion in 2005 and began practicing diligently. To my surprise, the things I've learned as an adult took me past the barriers of my youth. I've kept on improving and I have no intention of ever slacking off as long as I'm still breathing. Thanks for asking.

In other words,

we're all ants. We're all Sisyphus. But it's not about getting the ball to the top of the hill and making it stay there. It's about being engaged in pushing and watching it roll back down.

Life is what happens when you engage with it

The human world is a vast, dynamic network of people living out their lives. Everyone has a small part to play in keeping the ball rolling.

I'm my own viewer

A clear example of hiding in plain sight.