A Little Bob

OH Marley:

I got into Bob fully in 91. during my lonely times in Goshen, in the summer before I started college. found a book and 2 CD's in the library and sunk my teeth into it. Later in the winter of 93 while I was in Milwaukee I got the song book and a new boxed set that came out with just about everything.

It's amazing how his stuff manages to capture so much more than what his words are saying. They are more like guides rather than detailed directions. I mean his stuff can be pretty deep but what I tend to get in the end is so much more than that. You know they call his a prophet? This is where I share a few anecdotes that more or less show why people would think this but I won't, google it.

Being able to hear so much of someones life through the singing is just magical. Johny Cash was a lot like this as well. Singers need a lot less vocal chops if they can transmit this "life" through the singing. It's like a soft singing little bird will have a hard time having you feel the anguish the wolf feels when he howls. I don't, know has anyone heard a sad bird?

Obviously listening to Bob Marley Natty Dread CD (1974): This was Bob Marley's 1st album as Bob Marley & The Wailers. Some of the other main artists that were in the Wailers were gone. It's just Bob and the I-Threes. The singing background ladies. No Woman No Cry is in this album This was one of the CD's I got back in 91...well it was tape then.

writing songs

Hmmm
I'm listening to an awesome playlist of the music Ive been listening to lately. You know, The stuff that speaks to my soul these days. I'm reminded of how much of a music fan i am. So much so that i write my own, i guess. But as I'm listening to this i got to thinking about how good all these artists do with their songs in terms of reaching my soul, making me feel, and i start to wonder.
Why should i insist in writing my own stuff to try to express my feelings if these artists do such a good job @ it? Sure, original songs would be my own words and feelings and creative blah blah blah. Thing is that at the end of the day I realize that I might as well only write songs for myself to hear or enjoy because, truly, no one else gets into them anyway, it doesn't speak to anyone else but me. Yes people hear them and some of these songs are upbeat and fun to hear them live but no one gets into the songs. Not like i mean. I have been known to be cryptic in my writing , layerssss oooooo so deep. I dig that crap in songs I listen to as well although i don't always write like that, but who'd ever figure that out right?

People bullshit about it but in the end my songs are bleeding from my soul and no one else bleeds with me or even gets it or rather, the songs don't speak to anyone else but me. And that's fine if that's what they are supposed to do but then again if all these other artists do just as well in speaking to my soul then its all the same. in the end, all this original song crap has never been about how it touched others but rather about how great it is that I'm doing something i care about, not about the music. How fun. in the end i care the same about a song i wrote than one i just like and identify myself with that anyone else wrote. In the end, it seems people only care about it because i care about it and i took the time to write it but not because the song itself speaks to them at all and that's all bullshit. Its bullshit boys and girls.






oh yes, people likes hopeful endings so here you go: ...but I know that soon we'll all be sooo happy and all creating and writing and singing together all the beautiful songs of the soul :-)


Listening to: it doesn't really matter does it?

No line on the Horizon

How to love the 80's without getting into any of the actual 80's music or realizing that you're actually loving it. I've heard U2's No line on the horizon it only 2 or 3 times. I'm NOT from the school of "Love everything U2". They were one of those bands that got very huge and so I didn't want to care about them like everyone else did. So I waited until they weren't very big anymore and then I checked them out. So it wasn't until the POP album (97). it all seemed fine and then they made a comeback, geez. so now I'm stuck liking them and they're now legendary huge...it's alright though, it's not like I don't like other huge bands or artists. Oh did I mention that they'll be playing here, in Charlottesville, in Oct? literally like a mile or two away from where I'll live by then? not too shabby for a small town eh?

So today @ B&N sitting next to me is a 20 something Japanese woman reading manga. This Japanese comic book sort of thing. It was a very stereotypical image. What else would a Japanese person read @ B&N right?
I have a Japanese Manga character as a wallpaper on my phone. I wondered if she knew who this character was. Its a space pirate that had some tv cartoon in the 70's, although it might've been the 80's when I was watching it. I think the idea is pretty sweet for a movie, starring Johnny Depp or someone with a sort of dark, mysterious feel to them. Joaquin Phoenix could rock it too. I remember watching this cartoon as a child. it's for kids yet this guy is all tormented, never smiling, drinking wine on his space pirate ship. The hair covering his face and a huge scar on his face that one never gets to learn how he got it. Captain Harlock.
Why do I feel attracted to these sort of characters? I should like the hopeful, carebare type of characters with rainbows and sunshine and happy fluffiness, definitely way more uplifting
..shoot me now!

Listening to :U2 No line on the Horizon. sounds somewhat like the 80's U2, which is good for them to be able to do it again. check out more thoughts on this on my next blog which will be out in 3 or 4 days.

amusing myself

I tend to amuse myself. I joke or say jokes or do little pranks and many times I don't mind enjoying them all by myself. my sense of humor can be pretty twisted and very much mine and I've learned to be ok with it. I have toned it down quite a bit from years ago and even from what I was modeled from my dad. He was a real prankster and apparently didn't mind really messing with people for his amusement. Did I inherit that? like for real? Did I actually learn a thought process or is it something that got carried through genetically? I know I picked up some stuff but is that all?

random thoughts

And what's wrong with random thoughts? If you'd ever had a conversation with me you know that with the topics I talk about I jump from branch to branch like a squirrel goes around a tree, the branches to a different tree and then back. It can be very challenging, I've noticed, to try and keep up. I think it's pretty cool when people start to catch my groove and are able to follow my jumping and hopping and running around. It's like multi-task on conversation. it happens a lot in messaging and sometimes texting. I try, sometimes, I try to walk in around the same branch or explain when I jump. the reasoning being the jump, the connection happens mostly in my brain while I think to myself and many times I forget to set up the topic before hand. hehe. I amuse myself

in the water

It's getting to be time, I don't know if going far or standing near but it's getting to be time. It's been years and it feels like baby steps, sometimes the current pulls up back a bit, when we stop trying to move forward or just try to stay still.

The ocean sometimes has this way of moving you whichever way the current is going while you feel you're standing still. You keep walking against the current, trying to stay in front of your belongings way out in the sand. but before you know it you're back a few steps, if you get distracted you can be a ways away. If the current is strong it can be challenging just walking back the where you were originally. Is there anything in here? Does it matter?

Books and B&N

Sitting here @ Barns & Noble, browsing books, I can't help but feel like books are quickly becoming sort of inefficient. OK I'm talking mostly about books based on current issues or technology. Fiction and self help sort of stuff seem fine but all the others, a good chunk in Barns & Noble, I would never invest in. Like books about the music industry or art business. Yes there's good stuff there but a few months after these book come out they seem outdated. Things just change that fast these days. books about computers or any sort of technology, same thing. I find myself finding periodicals much more useful as I read about these things...and then there's the dark dungeons of the Internets.

Listening to: The Script...didn't I write about them already?

working out vs working outside

I've been going to this gym. Watching all these people working so hard to try and keep in shape. I can't help but think about how we are probably made to have active lives that are physically arduous in order to maintain ourselves healthy by just trying to survive or just live our lives. Not sure we were supposed to figure out a way to spend 2 hours trying to keep in shape. I don't know. Something about all these people sweating while running in place lifting things just to put them back down, and sweating just for the sake or sweating.
I think of this as I hear about some scientists that are working on a TV that can be installed on a contact lens. powered by our body heat and the remote control is the human voice. They also said some "Digital tattoos" could also be developed to allow wearers to literally feel the emotions that the director wants you to feel....I stopped listening @ that point. I'll pay attention more closely if I hear about it again but CRAAAZZYYYYY. Listening to: nothing, I'm watching TV I just said about the eye tv thing. Credit to whoever took the pic i didn't take it.

Changing with the times

I'm so tired of going day in and day out thinking about what to blog. By the time I get home the moment is gone and I end up not blogging. I also have this expectation on myself that I have to post a pic of some sort. I just like the idea a lot and I have so many pics...but then I can't decide. I truly make too much out of this mainly since only like 3 people end up reading these. Today's pics are not very super selections, they just go with what I'm saying, I think.

It amazes me how Ireland just builds upon it's own historic buildings. most of the historic buildings are still being used to official purposes. In one of the pics you can see and old chapel with a not so old building next to it and in the background a brand new building being built. The other pic is the Dublin Castle. The Record Tower was build in 1220s The Chapel Royal was built in 1760s and the rest of the building was finished 1960s. A bit crazy I thought. I chopped the pics a bit so you can see how it was built hopefully, well it makes sense to my brain.

Listening to: Iron Maiden, A Matter of Life and Death....they're huge in Ireland and I like them. Here's a band that has been able to make a very successful career without ever selling out in any way. That's no radio airplay or any kind and the only time their video was ever played on MTV (back when they actually played videos) was on a show that played from 12a to 3a on Sat. The only way their music has truly evolved is in the way that recordings and mixing styles has changed with the times.
See, here's the thing with "progressive rock" The style is known for the way it changes even within a song and...well progresses. So the style lends itself for a whole lot of exploration and evolution without ever sounding like they've departed from their actual root. Well the band members also do solo projects so they can explore further into other styles.

SNL

ARG!! just saw Jason Mraz on SNL tonight. The guy is actually more amazing live than he is on CDs. I started by being mad that I missed him when he came to play in C-ville back in Oct, (yes, we're that cool) and then I was just mad that he was so good. He had an awesome band, played the classical guitar as needed and was vocally flawless, He even added some guts to the singing that is not in the original recording...
I thinks he's a pretty good singer and an excellent songwriter. One of the very, very few artists that has blown me away overall in the last bunch of years, @ least he's just alright with the guitar.

Listening to :Steve martin (still SNL) I think he might've played the second song instead of Mraz. it was funny but...really? WTF?..ok I was wrong. Jason played lucky, pretty awesome 2 songs. I've never taken the time to youtube this guy, why??

Sun-day best

Ireland is known for random rains and storms. A couple of days before I arrived there back in Oct one of my favorite people said this on her awesome, always inspiring blog "Sun is at it's best when it shares the sky with a storm." These words managed to stay with me while I was walking the streets of Dublin, and how could they not when the Sun kept reminding me with it's shining, and, and it's making things look awesome and stuff.
It was cool because she had some cool pics of the countryside with cows and trees and sun and clouds but here I was, in the city, and I could not agree with her more.

London 2 Dublin

...So Where was I? Alright so 2 of these pics are sort of abstract. Spent the night @ the London Airport. While I was there I felt like it was a life changing moment in my life. So much going through my mind, hmm, I still think it was. We arrived in the middle of the night from Granada and a bunch of people were sleeping on the floor, There were guards walking with these huge M85 Assault Rifle. So we found a corner, Nita went to sleep and I just listened to music and got into my hole, like I often do on my late nights. Something profound about seeing all these people from all over the world @ such a big airport just trying to sleep the night away. And there I was, wide awake, living.
Our flight to Dublin left early in the Am. lots of clouds and much to my amazement the short flight was timely enough to get me above the clouds, and fly just long enough for me to see the Sunrise, The light was breathtakingly beautiful yet everyone still slept. I had a hand held camera and so I snapped away...I should've gotten my Nikon out.

Listening to Tantric: After We go (2005). This is Post Grunge sort of progressive sound. Nice and clean-ish. Notto much to them, just what happened to be playing while I wrote this.

A new song

It´s been a while but I think it´s time to do the song writing thing and, well, write songs. I have several ideas as to where I want to go but I´m wanting to explore a little of that Spanish awesomeness (as in from Spain) and see where I end up. What´s not so awesome about it is that Flamenco-ish songs in English feel sort of...umm, weak. I guess it can be done, anything can be done but the soul of Flamenco speaks Spanish. It´s literally like the blues in Spanish or Chinese, it can be done but somehow it´d sound a bit off.

Here's 3 more Granada pics. I was going to move on to Some Irish pics but it seemed like the topic fit better with these. Alhambra window overlooking la ciudad antigua, some sweet graffiti in town and the awesomest flamenco show inside a cueva (cave) that has been turned into a restaurant. The place is owned by the artist who hire the cooks and they've been playing and performing there for generations.

Listening to: Chambao- Pokito a Poko..The style is called Nuevo Flamenco and it's very close to what I'm thinking about stylewise. I need to get my brain a bit more used to the style. I love their melancholy mood, still very lively and latin but a bit of a chill mood.

Granada, tierra soñada por mí
mi cantar se vuelve gitano
cuando es para ti...
mi cantar...hecho de fantasía
mi cantar...flor de melancolía
que yo te vengo a dar.

Granada, caminos angostos
tan llenos de hisotrias.
De amores sonrisas y llantos
en tardes sentir..
Me llueves de prisa y aveces
Hasta me envenenas.
Me encanta en tu humilde posada de tapas vivir.

Mis pasos ya rotos descansan
en noches oscuras.
Tus vientos moros respiro y siento vivir.
Yo miro y admiro los bellos ojos
que inspiran todo mi existir.
Y juntos asi morimos
pensando manana
sera churro y chocolate.

Sueno Andaluz

So I keep being bad @ this blogging game. I'm making too much of it. Anyway I can't allow myself to return from Europe without posting. I feel I'm backed up even on blogging about the trip. AAAGGH so much to say about it I won't even try.

Feelings- As new and awesome that everything was I felt that Espana was about relationships for me. This was with both my wife and our host Lindsy. We spent just about as much time as possible together during our stay there. We ate, drank, went places stayed home, did nothing, talked about anything, stayed up late, shared the same room and slept, or not, then slept in as able.
We had a very interesting background and scenery but truly it was more emotional for me. Getting to know Lindsy better and enjoying her willingness to share all of her space, even her bed, well she slept on the other bed. She took care of us and even opened up and let us into her life. Then being able to spend time and experience Europe and Spain for the 1st time with Nita and just being with each other, worrying only about what to see next and where to eat. , Taking it easy and just having fun. Feeling closer and more connected. I felt both not ready to leave yet and satisfied enough to feel the trip was worth while even though we still had another week to go in Ireland.

As for me...well it felt, like I'm in my own world or dimension where I'm thouroghly enjoying all this that I wrote about but in the end it's still just me. I was feeling nostalgic about the whole experience even before it ended. It has been difficult getting over it or even fully grasping what it's all about but it's alright. The whole experience with Nita is still happening and I'm enjoying it a lot still but Espana, well something very familiar about it for me culturally or maybe it was that place was like a true link between us I guess. I'm thinking that the Oliver's aren't originally from Spain but they might've been in Spain for several generations before moving to Puerto Rico....just like the Barahonas. This is based on some stuff I read today.

So I'm having a great time here but a little something stayed back in Granada and I thought I would figure it out by blogging but I guess not, well not yet right?

Listening to: 2 bands, Huecco & Chambao, I don't have Huecco's music yet but Myspace is awesome for that sort of thing. This is Rock en Espanol from spain, introduced by Lindsy and awesome, with attitude, I'm still learning them. Chambao I have but it truly took life in my life while in Granada and it just feels right. modern yet very spanish, somewhat flamenco. It really feels like the experience to me and it makes me smile.

Un poco de mi nada

So Today it'll be a little something of that nothingness.
Don't know, it's a music or a prayer to the wind, well it feels like that sometimes doesn't it? Well it does to me. I can escape on my own @ times and cry out for someone to care. Someone but not just anyone and that's just it. That's, like, REALLY it. We like to pretend that anyone will do but it's not true, not at all. This tendency of being all inclusive when deep down we're not really @ all. Maybe not even with ourselves, we can try to be and maybe we're even supposed to try to be...are we? but it's not really, not from deep. I know a couple of people that really manages to do it, and mean it but i do mean, like, a couple. The rest of us, maybe we'd have an easier time if we were just honest and open our eyes and @ least see it ourselves even if we don't tell anyone else how we think that we are...the limit. This sounds like a conversation I had last night but I'm really not thinking about that @ all it's more about me than others, today anyway. HA!

It's a good summer day today, I woke up thinking it was Monday and, well, I figured it out before I got up though so it feels like an extra day. yay!!


Listening to: The Script-The Script. I love finding new music by myself (new to me)! they're pretty awesome, but this is for the softies. It's very friendly music for the happy souls to sing!! It's like Jason Mraz meets The Police. like literally, it's very unapologetically Police influenced Jason Mraz music. That equals awesome on my book. here's a happy pic for The Script!!

El Retorno

Hmmm. Funny that when I actually sit down to write a long overdue blog there’s no internet. But pretty quickly I figured that I can write it elsewhere and just paste it on Blogger once it decides to come back. I apologize to the few of you who have actually been waiting to read something for awhile now. I hope I don’t disappoint.
The hardest thing for me is actually getting things started, like this blog. Once I get going I’m a bit more likely to finish or keep going but that getting started part is pretty brutal form me. Also, if I stop or stall @ some point it’s the hardest for me to start over, which is what happened the last few timesI tired to get going. I’ve had to sort of re-start 3 times now, although I’ve only blogged twice and they were both on the same day…the third blog sort of doesn’t really count...well no not really right? So I decided to write a little bit about my difficulty with starting things that are not really moving.….ummm yeah I just wrote about it.

So I’m trying to tackle my pics and sort and organize them. This is somewhat of an overwhelming project since, as many of you know, I take millions of pics each time I get a chance. I’ve been sorting the last few thousand as I upload them unto my PC. Getting to the older ones will be pretty insane since they’re so many. We’ll see where that ends up @. I’ll probably work of some of the latest ones after I finish writing about doing it…but maybe I’ll facebook or read the news and distract myself instead..oh wait still no internet. Hmmm so maybe I’ll nap then ;-). Ok I’ll do some pics 1st. here!! look @ some of my new c-ville friends. Annie, Kristen, Chicho, Yamaya and my crazy punk friend Jordan.



Listening to: Slipknot-All Hope is Gone
What can I say? I like meat. It’s a pretty sweet album if you’re into a little… ummm no, a whole lot of anger from time to time…it grounds me… Bryn and Nate know what I'm talking about?

P.S.
Thanks Kimberly, I stand by my previous statement about how awesome U R.

Great Blogging News

On the blogging front, which has - I admit - been woefully inactive recently, I have great news to proclaim:

1.) You can now subscribe to my blog by e-mail! Just put your e-mail address into that little box in the sidebar, do what the nice computer tells you to do, and you'll find an e-mail in your inbox each and every time I post.

Which I promise will be ever so much more often now that I know all of you are reading. The more people sign up the more I will post. It's like a fundraiser for school! The more people buy chocolate bars, the more soccer balls we'll buy. I promise I'll write one post for each person who signs up. . .

2.) Kimberly Glick is probably the coolest person I have ever met. You all should read her blog, too. (Absolutely Perhaps) Also, she's really good at technical things like getting subscription by e-mail set up.

3.) You can also now post comments to my blog.

4.) If you don't read my blog, sign up, and post comments, Jonathan the meanest swordsman-in-an-apron around will come and totally kiss your ass.

4.) I am going to post my photos on this blog now. Because I am a photographer.

5.) I know 8 languages. I just didn't want all of you to know because you're the jealous type.

6.) Um. I count really well. That's why there are two number 4's on this list.

Music & Lyrics

Well the first blog was painless and it took almost no time. it sort of left me wanting to write more so here's number 2.
Currently playing: Mix Cd Lindsy gave me. latin, rock, folk, old new, and everything in between
Music...aahhh I have more music than most people I know. I'm a fan, like a true fan! Also, I have the widest range of musical taste of anyone I know, is that a good thing? I love and own the cheesiest music you could imagine and love and own the hardest, heaviest, nastiest stuff you've probably never heard. I like to think that it's an ability to truly get where the artist is trying to get at. It makes a fool out of me when I listen to a mix CD like this one. I'm like ahhh what is that? and that!? Then if the lyrics catch me I may end up backing up, googling it and checking out the lyrics with the music.***

I'm always looking for good lyrics. Most, if not all, of my favorite artist are big influences for me lyrically speaking. Some will literally get me writing something or thinking hard about it by the end of a disc almost always. These are mostly Latin artist. Most recently Jason Mraz has caught my attention lyrically. He does get a bit poppy @ times and I think it's unnecessary but I can get over it. This thing some songwriters have, they just want a band. I just wish some of them would sit with a piano or a guitar and just play the songs instead of being distracted with tall the other crap. Pretty much every single one of my favorite songwriters have done it. They all have these songs in their repertoire that are just painful to hear.


***NEW RULE!!
When you're reading lyrics, DO NOT read ahead of the song, read the lyrics as they are being sung. The idea for them should be to facilitate your understanding of what is being said as they are sung. like subtitles when you watch a Foreign movie. Most songs, I'd say, are mostly about how the idea is expressed rather than what is actually said. Allow the song to actually take you, with music & Lyrics, where it intends to, In it's own pace. It's like someone telling you everything that happens in a movie right before you watch it. You can still enjoy the movie and all but but it's always better to find out what happens as it unfolds and I think songs should be the same @ least until it gets to the "repeat chorus X8" part.

It's pretty much the only way to get the true magic of Nirvana since it's hard to make out what Kurt is saying most of the time, sometimes he actually doesn't say the word it self but rather a mumble that has the same amount of syllables and some of the same vowels. Their lyrics aren't very deep but the emotion coming through, as Kurt mumbles what he intends to be the words, really paint the picture.

david