mic check

So I hosted my first ever open mic last night and, aaaah, success. Hands clapping indiscriminately for people of all skill levels and from all walks of life. Blessed encouragement, the foundation of all creativity.

The weather was breezy with a dash of inner warmth. An open mic outdoors was definitely a great idea and one that I'll be pursuing again in the near future (probably July).

bipolar confusion

nothing makes you more frantic than confusion.



and nothings settles better than acceptance.

It'll be on tv, but I'll probably miss it

I haven't watched tv in about a year. The cancellation of my favorite show, Carnivale, turned into a personal protest, which turned into a genuine distaste for television.
Nonetheless, I will be appearing on WCNY tv on July 31st. Aside from a short showcasing of my music, I'll be talking about mental health (both my own and in general). more details to come.

heart of a genius

I've been covering some Michael Hedges tunes lately. He was an extremely nice man who was a pure genious musician. Here he is playing at Kent State U. in '85. I saw hime open for Crosby, Stills and Nash when I was a kid. I don't know how he did it, but he spun around and around in circles very fast, all the while playing an insanely beautiful and complex guitar part. He died on the California coast in a car accident after visiting his girlfriend. I don't know how many people know of him, but this was a great loss for the music world. Time and agin, I think about it.

luck, circumstance, timing, all that

It's difficult to try out a non-practiced genre. It's like starting a totally different religion in the Christian heartland. You've got to sell yourself. But I ain't a salesman, so I'm relying on the music to do that for me. Damn. I hope I hit the nail on the head this time.
peace

the snake in my yard

This is the snake my brother Dave found in our yard a few years back. It was eating a black squirrel. Our family lives outside Syracuse, NY, where giant snakes are not thought to inhabit. But this monster was as big as a python. It dropped twenty feet out of a tree and we stood around watching it engulf its prey.

the perils of climbing a ladder

My dad fell off a ladder the other day while chainsawing, and luckily he's pretty much okay healthwise (I won't even go into why a guy in his sixties is chainsawing on a 15 foot ladder).
Anyway, today, while sitting in a doctor's office waiting room, I read a short article about the increasing frequency of ladder-related injuries.
Emergency room visits due to ladder falls are up 50% since 1990. In short, people are falling off ladders...a lot.
I find this very curious. Are peoples' basic balance and motor skills getting worse? Are people climbing on ladders while under the influence? Or are they just chainsawing carelessly?