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Moment
Current Reading: Scaling Up Excellence by Huggy Rao Current Music: American II: Unchained by Johnny Cash (Vinyl) Mood: Cold Smells: Coffee Sound: My crazy loud sneeze. Temperature: Tired of being cold, its effecting my mood. Thoughts: Figuring out shortcuts...

My Future Acceptance Speech
If I ever win any award this will be my acceptance speech.

“I wish my ego could be here with me now to enjoy this moment, but unfortunately it's out in the universe doing random good deeds.

From my higher-self I would like to say thank you to Jesus for creating me, Buddha for enlightening me, my mother for birthing me and to my wife for putting up with me.

To my fellow nominees I say to you...that you, you and you all suck, I spit on you.”

I will then proceed to yell out a bunch of random swear words in Chinese for no apparent reason.

I turn to the French super model who has just handed me my award and french kiss the French super model, hoping that the model is not a dude (hey this is the future, men could be a super models?) But whatever...how often do you get the chance to french kiss a French super model? 

I walk off the stage, my right hand waving the peace sign and my left hand flashing an unexpected gang sign. The crowd erupts in applause.  Then three people burst into flames.  Not sure why but three people always burst into flames when I give a speech.

********************

Not surprisingly, all of what was written came true.  In the year 2021 I was awarded “Best Creative” on the planet for my as of yet untitled, unrecorded, unpublished, yet-to-be-a-global-smash phenomena performance on the new, soon to be named TV network.

How do I know all this you ask? 

My ego came back from the being out in the universe and told me so…..egos never lie.

I am out of here 母狗…..

Latest tune. This is the song that I wrote about in yesterday post. Written and recored in one night of blissful fun. Trying to get Stewart Copeland to join the road show, no response as of yet from Copeland land camp.

Fusion Film


Photo of the Week


My Future Acceptance Speech
If I ever win any award this will be my acceptance speech. “I wish my ego could be here with me now to enjoy this moment, but unfortunately it's out in the universe doing random good deeds. From my higher-self I would like to say thank you to Jesus for crea...

How To Get Better at Creating

I am out on a walk today and the thought occurred to me: how does stuff get created?

Creating stuff is how I earn my living.  Deconstructing my creative process; is that possible?

The last thing I created was a song with my music partner, Erik. As I walked I analyzed the process of creating new music with him.

I thought about how magical the moment of creating is. What control do I really have over this thing that I created?

Then I thought about all the pre-work, the woodshedding, the practice that brought me to sit across the room from him and play music.

That is step one...the doing: dream big but you must do the work. Get good at doing.

Magic and handwork go hand in hand when creating something new. This is an enigma that I will gladly hold true to my heart. Fingers, strings, and a piece of wood is an endless problem that I have no need to solve.  Yet, I know if I continue to put in the time and do the work, musical gifts will be rewarded.  That does not resolve my question, “how do things get created?”

We sit in this small room four feet a part.  Erik holding a Fender stratocaster, me holding a Fender Jazz bass.  We toss out musical ideas that we have been playing with... not songs, but small zygotes in the earliest developmental stage of music.

A groove presents itself. Something from nothing arises, something new.

We move into a state of repetition.  Simply playing the groove over and over to see what presents itself. We look up at each other and know that we have stumbled onto something good.

Repetition is step two.  Repetition is the next step after practicing. It's about going deeper into whatever may turn up. It's about exploring. Possibilities are discovered in repetition.  There is joy in repetition.

Great things arise out of shit.  It's an uncomfortable thought for sure, nonetheless repetition brought us to this new piece of music.

Music is now alive and with us, within our control. Repetition leads to release and the music becomes transformative. All academic approach to music is gone; fingers and string, revelations and reverberations...this is music.

Release is step three. At the point of release you no longer ask the question of why or how; conscious thought dissolves and you become a witness (or listener) to what has emerged. Release is a phenomena yet it is a phenomena with a purpose. 

Erik and I are both “do-ers” of music.  We are good at picking up our instruments and running our hands up and down the neck.  Practicing our instrument is not a chore. Practicing our instrument is an escape.  Repetition leads to a release. That is the religious framework that sets us up to go deeper into the mystery.  Staying with the mystery is the mystical experience of where something new comes from.

Step four, stay with the mystery.

Creating things feels good. Writing this feels good. Playing guitar feels good. Whatever you create I am sure that it feels good. Being present at the moment of creating feels good. 

Skeptics may criticize that my experiential ramblings are for not; that music is a scholarly skill that is rooted in scales and chart.  That creating is a scientific study not to be overly romanticized.

I will leave you with this thought:

There are three things that you can do in the image of God:
...love, forgive and create.