Lame Claim To Fame

It is said most people have some connection to fame. It may be 15 minutes worth personally gained through some event or achievement, or it could be a friend or relative that makes it big in Hollywood or Billboard.

Mine is lame. I went to Gaithersburg High School in Gaithersburg MD from 1982-1984. I remember sitting in algebra class and meeting my next desk neighbor Doug. While getting to know him I learned he played guitar in a band that had neither a name, a sound, or any experience playing in front of anyone. I was in.

I told Doug I played keyboard and guitar (I didn’t include that I played them very poorly), and he invited me to hang with the guys. Later that week they invited me to join the band- they were fascinated that I could play a few chords while looking anywhere except the keyboard. Over the next few months we practiced several times a week getting to a point where we could play in front of people without driving them out of the room. We named ourselves Entranzit. I have no recollection why.

After almost a year of playing at house parties, Knights of Columbus halls and other sundry venues, we got our “big break.” We entered a battle-of-the-bands that pitted us against the fave band from rival Seneca Valley High School- “M.I.A..” We slaughtered them. They were horrible, and the only thing they did that was interesting was take an old acoustic guitar and smash it to bits on the gym floor at the end of their set.

That was pretty cool.

Fast-forward 10 years- Entranzit was long-gone, and I had just recently moved to Nashville with my family. On one fall night I was taking out the garbage when my wife ran outside excited and called me in the house. “Mark and Dean are on TV!” she said. My response was, “who?”

I went inside, saw that she was watching VH-1’s Artist of the Month, and the show was going on about a band I had never heard- Hootie and the Blowfish. There on the screen was Mark (guitar), Dean (bass) and a couple guys they must have met in college to complete the new manifestation of M.I.A..

That was even cooler.







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For God So Loved Bloggers

I was sitting in church listening to our pastor Rick White when he broke out of his normal speaking pattern and delivered a brief sidebar -

“I gotta park here for just a second, ok? I don’t know that I have ever been so disturbed, more upset, more angry, that what I am right now at stuff I read that’s coming across the internet."

Ears perked, heads looked up.

He departed for a bit from the sermon on love and wanted to talk about blogging. Wow. I am a new blogger, and now addicted to both writing my own blog as well as reading others’ thoughts and ideas. I was very interested in what he was about to say- my meter needle hit the red zone.

It was a well delivered call for love and kindness online, and a warning that the internet in general, and blog’s specifically, are just an extension of our tongues. Through our words we all have the power to give life and lift up, or bring death and tear down.

No need for me to detail everything he said- if you are interested in watching the segment, click the link below, and AFTER the copyright segment plays, and the music starts, hit fast-forward in your media player to get to the next segment.

mms://72.22.74.59/12-10-06

Once there, go to 21:08 to watch Rick White talk about blogging. Hope you enjoy.

My own sidebar- we had a world class guest musician perform. Brent Rowan’s guitar playing is enough reason to watch the first segment of the video clip. He is one of the most recorded musicians in history. Merry Christmas.







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30 Seconds That Ruined The Day

In Frank Capra’s classic It’s A Wonderful Life, the lead character George Bailey has a critical scene where we see him move closer to the end of his rope. His uncle Billy has lost $8,000 of the Bailey Building & Loan's money, he is facing financial ruin, and he comes home at the end of the day forgetting his coat and hat. He walks through the front door with the beginnings of a cold, and the stage is set for an interaction with his family that, while short in duration, impacts his family greatly.

As his mind is reeling under the pressure of the imminent collapse of his business, and his personal liability in the mess, his daughter Janey is merrily practicing a Christmas song for the extended family gathering that night. His wife and son Tommy are busily decorating the tree, and the normal chaos of early evening family life is causing George’s headache to worsen. He finds out his daughter Zuzu has caught a cold because she walked home from school without her coat buttoned up to protect a rose she won as a prize.

When George hears this news, he starts to unreasonably string together all of the pressures on him: his uncle lost the $8k, that money is vital because his business is small and family owned, he is trapped in this position because his father died, the job does not pay well, he therefore can not afford to provide a nice home and other material things for his family, the old house is drafty and cold, his daughter has a cold and his family is going about the daily routine unaware that the little they do have is about to slip away.

He forgets for a moment that what really matters is not slipping away- his family.

George heads upstairs to comfort Zuzu, and after returning, lays into Zuzu’s teacher Mrs. Welch who has called over to the house to check on the little one. He also gets in a dig at her husband Mr. Welch who got on the line after hearing his wife called a stupid, silly, careless person. Everything starts to goes sideways from there.

Janey is still practicing the same song, Tommy needs help with his homework, his other son is making noise playing with some sort of toy, and the weight of it all crashes down on him. He yells at his kids to stop, kicks over the desk in the foyer, knocks off everything from the top of a counter, and stops suddenly when he realizes the impact his behavior is having on his wife and kids. He heads out of the house, distraught and heart broken at how he has treated his family, and begins the fateful journey to end his life.

I had a similar incident happen to me yesterday. Well, not really that similar. Not nearly as tragic, huge and life-changing. And certainly NOT the start of a journey to end my life. I guess not similar at all. But I did sort of lose it yesterday.

After a day at work dealing with a few small things from my current and soon to be ending job, and thinking through options for the future, AND dealing with some pesky things that are rotting on my desk and need to get done, I cut out a bit early and headed upstairs from my office to relax and get in some guitar practice.

A few months ago I pulled out my guitar from storage after it had sat relatively undisturbed for 20 years, and have been logging 30-60 minutes of practice every single day. The time is important to me, and allows me to put the stress of the day out of it's misery.

As I sat down on our great room floor, with some chord charts in front of me, and a few songs to practice pulled up on my laptop, I dove in. Shortly after, my daughter K who was at the kitchen table doing homework came across a song she liked on her digital music player (currently connected to external speakers) and cranked it up. I could barely hear what I was playing.

Then, moments later, my other daughter L started her piano practice in the other room- while my 5 year old wandered downstairs singing some song or other. I was going nuts inside. I just wanted peace and quiet (except for my mediocre strumming and picking) and started to get agitated. I won’t go into the details, but I let it known to all in the immediate vicinity that I wanted them to cease and desist. Probably (more accurately, for sure) in a way that rudely communicated frustration and irritation.

What I know now, the next morning, is that it wasn’t their noise and activity intruding on my guitar practice that set me off. Instead, it was the bubbling pressure from the changes in my life being inappropriately expressed in a way that hurt those close to me.

I know that what I am going through in my life right now is in no way near what George Bailey dealt with- not even close. I also know my actions and attitude pinged a 3 on a scale of 1-10 compared to the characters scale busting 11.

The reason I am tying the two together is because this morning as I was going through my usual routine of scanning the internet for news and information I came across a site that streams old movies out of copyright. With the holidays on my mind I checked to see if the site had my fave Christmas movie, and sure enough- they do. After watching it for a bit, this scene hit me and I thought of my actions yesterday. So, there you go.

Here is the link to the movie online- no cost, no registration, just click the link and hit the play button:
http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/its_a_wonderful_life.htm

To see the full list of movies and other content available, use this URL:
http://www.jonhs.net/freemovies/

Merry Christmas.

Report From The Traffic Chopper

Have you ever watched someone perform or present something to a group, and everything go horribly wrong? Perhaps they were extremely nervous and speaking almost nonsense, or they tripped walking on stage, or even were just plain not-good at it. Something like a bad wreck on the side of the road happens. And the audience is the rubber-necker.

At the Curb Café last night I saw the koo perform a set after a young aspiring songwriter/guitarist/vocalist did an unnecessarily long opening spot. If you have happened to read my posts the last two days, let me stop here and assure you I don’t normally go to multiple clubs and live music performances in a week. Or even a month. This week has definitely not been normal.

The opening act (Nick was his name, I think) had a bunch of spirit. He strutted boldly and confidently from table to table in the small club introducing himself to patrons and mentioning his name and that he would be performing soon, and thanking us for coming out. I must admit- in all my years of attending live music performances that was a first.

He started to play at 9PM. Just him, his guitar, and 2 bottles of water. Immediately, a 3 car pile-up happened on stage. God bless him- he couldn’t hit any high notes (he actually sounded just like me and a million other guys singing in the shower with a luffa for a mic wailing out the high notes in off-key falsetto), flubbed his chords, and on a two occasions even put a song in a holding pattern mid-chorus while he tried to tune his guitar.

He seemed to think he was nailing it. Very confident on stage, trying to conduct witty between-song stage banter, and eliciting nervous laughter and wide-eyed glances between friends at tables. It was just plain awful. But he tried, and he seems like a genuinely nice guy.

I don’t know what his goals are, or why he was performing last night. Maybe he just loves to play the guitar and belt out a tune, and for the same reason millions of people around the world go to karaoke bars, really enjoys inflicting his talent on others.

Let’s assume though, that he wants to make it in music. At what point will he either practice and play himself silly and hit a level of quality, or finally figure out that he isn’t that good? Will he realize it himself, or will someone, like a merciless panel of judges from American Idol, whack the machete of “feedback” right through his skull?

On the way home I turned on the radio…interesting…in a matter of minutes I heard two bands (actually one band, and one solo artist) perform that I know very well, and also know couldn’t sing a good lick just a few years ago. For various reasons both had been thrust into a position of leadership within their respective units, and had to pick up the reigns of lead vocalist from a departing member. Within a relatively short period of time, and after diving headfirst into the work of vocal training and development, both have emerged as quality vocalist each with their own unique sound, and both leading the way to multiple gold records.

So…is that within each of us? I am not speaking about music specifically- it could be anything. Can anyone grab hold of a dream, and even if performance or track record is just average (or in Nick’s case, bad), drive themselves to greatness with good coaching and a real commitment of time? How does this impact Nick? Should his friends, several of which were at the show last night and rooting for their buddy, not let him know how bad he sounds right now but just encourage him? How does this impact me? Or you? What dreams have we put on hold, or dropped, that should be picked up again?

I think the potential for greatness is in everyone. I truly believe that anyone- any ordinary person- can do extraordinary things. I hope Nick keeps at it. I also hope he keeps his day job.

Cream Cheese On The Kitchen Floor

So this morning I got up, and after reading the reminder sticky note my wife placed on the coffee machine, placed a block of cream cheese and a stick of butter on the floor, next to the heat register, in the kitchen. Its for my daughter's school project. Long story.

It's foggy at 6:30AM, but the sun is burning through. Good to see after several days of rain and mist. I need anything positive I can get right now, as I am a couple weeks into the change of direction at my company. For the first time in over 16 years I face a time soon without steady income. A bit frightening.

This morning I have several projects to work on with my soon-to-be "former position." I also might have time to learn Google SketchUp a bit better. I downloaded it yesterday, and designed a stand for my acoustic guitar. Tell me what you think. Its a bit "blocky" since I havent learned how to draw rounded edges.

Deeper thoughts are coming...Just set up my blog this morning, so this is all for now. I might expand further on my lame answer to my daughters yesterday when they asked what would change now that the democrats will run the country.