Voice of the Wind.

For me, the crappy winter days are always the most reflective. There's nothing like an unexpected snow storm to set my mind down a path in 2 opposing directions at the same time. I'm not all about expressing my goals and aspirations because it's unfair to the reader. I mean today I may tell you I'd really like to be an igloo architect then tomorrow I'd express how I can't stand cold weather.

There are, however, somethings I've always wanted to do, but never did and now feel its too late. So I can accept those things and share. I always wanted to be in a band like Chris & Thomas. The problem is when it comes to writing songs with words I lack all the necessary qualities. When writing lyrics I lack creativity, vision, direction and confidence. This all goes back to me not having many interesting thoughts. Or at least not being able to organize these thoughts. This is not to say I don't believe I can write. I feel good about the poetry, prose, and prayer I write, but those forms or expression don't really interest me. I like music and want to be able to sing and play my own work one day.

Once, my good friend Grey made a point to the effect that poems written as poems should remain poems and not be adapted into song. And the same goes for songs and prose I suppose. I agree with that, too much gets lost in translation.

This reminds me of a song by Sonic Youth:

In yr mouth a wad of cashMoist roll of hundredsFingers thru yr hairSilver quarters dropTo yr pleated skirtCannisters of whipped creamIn yr sweater pocketsA look of space and total lifeReady or notThe plan is to go to dc and hang outGo see girls rockHow long's the tour?What time you guys playing?Where you going next?What comes first,The music or the words?

Nope, there was no real connection to what I was saying about music and lyrics. Yet, this sticks out: What comes first,The music or the words?. If there is an answer to this question I do not know what it is, but I'm sure its personal and different for all people.

Anyway, this has been all about me. So what do you think? What comes first?

Uncle Nelson, Béla Fleck is wearing your greasy coat

I'm not really all that observant so the fact that I'm writing a blog about my observations may not be all that relevant. I know when it comes to music I'm always way ahead of the pack or at that point far behind where it's no longer cool, but not far enough to be vintage yet.

Either way, when did banjo become such an integral part of new indie-folk music?! No, I'm not talking about your grand daddy's claw hammer banjo. It's claw hammer sounding but super slowed down and lots of one line parts. I've never heard banjo played like that until these recent artists started putting into their saddest of sad songs.

All this came about when I was listening to the Bon Iver station on Pandora and 4 songs in a row featured some one line banjo stuff. Jesus, Etc. by Wilco, It Wont Happen Twice by M. Ward, some song by Iron and Wine and another from Papa M. I thought I'd do a little post about it.

Who knows, I may be hearing mandolin sometimes and confusing it for banjo, but either way its there. What do I expect though really? It's new indie-folk music after all. The old indie folk music, indie folk music, and folk music all featured banjo so it makes sense. I only wish it was a little more uplifting and not so, "ooo i'm so sad and artistic and adorable." More like this....

So after I posted my orinial post I went to the bathroom and realized the music i'm listening to isn't exactly all that new. However, there are some post neo new indie-folk that also use banjo. So i'm not completely out of the hip music loop. By the way, my position: I like it. And this isn't a knock on the bands or music mentioned just an irrelevant observation.

ok.

I'm on the radio.

From the moment I get to work until I leave I am listening to something on the radio. I'll either have on talk radio in the morning and music in the afternoon, but no matter what it is I am usually completely turned off to what's happening in the office around me. Sometimes papers appear on my desk behind and I also wonder if the person who dropped it off saw me picking my nose.

Just Curious.

Moving Forward and Band Beard Observations

The change is going to happen today and the risk will take place sometime in July. Today marks the first day of the semester for both me and Dee. For Dee, and most students, this means schedules get tighter and fun becomes a rare treat. Tension and anxiety will grow and time for personal endeavors gets limited to almost nothing.

For me this day is the beginning of 15 weeks for personal development. While my classes do, and will, demand a great deal of attention, I have the luxury of taking online classes and completing many assignments at work. This frees up nights and weekends and since Dee will be on overload I am often alone in my extracurricular activities.

Today I've decided that, over the next 15 weeks, I am going to seek to build myself a more spiritually sound foundation. I am hoping to develop a more balanced state of mind so that I can create more opportunities for myself. I believe that by tuning in to my own spiritual signal I will be able to express myself in more creative ways. I am happy about beginning the effort and glad it's a rainy cold day because I feel that on sunny days everyone is optimistic, but it's mostly superficial. An optimistic person on a rainy day is far more sincere.

The journey begins with Fleet Foxes. Since the Jets lost in the AFC championship I've turned my attention from sports talk radio and have reconnected with meaningful music. Fleet Foxes was first on the list today. I find their music to be mature and guided. Their vocal harmonies are often haunting in a curious way. Much of their music has a medieval, almost Gregorian quality which, for me, is uplifting and encouraging.

As I was checking out videos of Fleet Foxes, I realized that the front men of almost every one of my favorite bands have large beards. So I started to analyze 3 of them in particular. First is Robin Pecknold of Fleet Foxes. I love the color of this beard. I can't identify color too well, but I describe his as regal. The mustache is strong to the beard and the trim is perfect. To me he has the best of the 3 beards because it's the most natural. What I mean by that is, some faces are meant to have beards, they just look better with them. Other faces are on people who want beards and they look forced.

That's my major criticism of Ben Bridwell, singer/guitarist for Band of Horses. To me it looks like an Abe Lincoln costume beard. If he had a killer stache to compliment the bulk then his grow would have a bit more substance, but as is it looks a little forced. Overall, the length is awesome and the consistency is amazing considering it doesn't look like he does any touch ups. I like it, just looks a little planned which really there's nothing wrong with.

Lastly, is Alex Ebert from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. If there ever was an award called Best Facial Hair Makeover, this guy would win hands down! I mean check out the transition from the Ima Robot days to today. You can tell a lot about a person from their facial hair and I can see this guy knows where his priorities are. He looks like a man who's been inspired and found love in many places. As far as the beard goes, it's a weak stache and poor growth, but has magnificent presence which goes a long way. I had the pleasure of seeing ESMZ this year and briefly meeting Alex and he couldn't have been a nicer guy in a great beard.

Hahaha, that was a fun post.

Do anything other than going to see live music.

So about 2 years ago my band, ANIMAL CINEMA, was playing a show. So on Our Myspace, in the little blog section thing I posted a post titled, "Watch More Television Instead of Going to See Live Music." The contents of the blog post was the information for the show. I didn't exactly think it was all that clever and I didn't think anyone looked at our myspace either.

This afternoon I discovered I was wrong. As I was checking out another band's myspace, also a CT local, I noticed they stole my damn blog post title. Theirs reads "go lay on the couch instead of seeing live music."

I mean if you're going to steal something like that, at least steal something that's clever or at least makes sense. I'm not mad at Sneaky Castro though. We played our first show together at Cafe9 a few years ago and now we are local band soul mates.

Let me introduce myself.

Let’s finally get down to introductions. I’m 25 and live in my Dad’s house with my girlfriend Dee. I have a dead-end job at a shitty company. While I’m at work I write this blog because I don’t do a lot of actual work. All this free time isn’t available because I’m lazy, I’m just bored. See, my job is so easy for me that can I complete all my assigned tasks in about an hour. I’m not saying it’s because I’m all that bright or that the work is brain-dead, but a little of both. Once I took an IQ test and scored a 113 meaning I have an above average IQ. Yet, I don’t find myself to be too creative so I don’t invest much in the accuracy of that result. However, I like the score so I won’t take another one.

Anyway, I went to college for 5 years and didn’t get very much accomplished. I attended the University of Connecticut mainly because it was really pretty in autumn. In fact, the most common reason I wasn’t in class was because I was sitting outside the museum or by the pond convincing myself I’d go to class tomorrow. While I feel I learned quite a bit, none of my new knowledge helped me in any way on my exams. I left Uconn with little more than a sophomore’s number of credits and now I take classes at Community College. Though I still have very little direction I think I just want to research things for a career.

I don’t yet know what this blog is about, but am confident I will figure it out eventually. Whatever posting I do now is going to be themed around things I eat, read, or do at work. I’m a health freak on the weekdays and a vegetarian all the time so perhaps these topics, based on my daily activities, will carry this blog throughout the course of its lifetime. However, due to the nature of routine, I doubt the blog will last longer than 3 months. I do the same things everyday and this causes a great deal of anxiety. Documenting such event things may only bring them to the forefront of my mind and drive me into a deep state of depression. I can’t have that.

Well, that’s all I care to share now and perhaps someone may find it interesting, but I’m sure they won’t. I’ll just keep on posting and if you’d like to introduce yourself I’ll gladly stick that up on the page. Beside that, keep checking in for great 30 minute exercise routines, grilled cheese sandwich recipes, and rants on mostly meaningless and old news.

Bye.

The Pizzza Cheese Grilled.

This is one of my favorite grilled cheeses. It is made exactly how you'd expect.

-2 Slices of wheat bread
-1.5 slices of mozzarella cheese
-2 thin slices of tomato
-mayo
-oregano
-garlic powder

Spread some mayo on the outside of your bread slices (only the part that touches the pan). Put 1 piece, mayo down, on a pan over medium heat. Lay down the cheese, then tomato then use the spices at your own preference. Put that other piece of bread right there down on top, mayo side up.

Let it get all crispy and flip over until the sides are equally crispy.

There you go, Pizzza Cheese Grilled. You can even dip this in some marinara sauce if you're feeling greasy.

Use wheat bread, don't mess around.