December 2015

Hey folks! Well I was almost done with this post then the page reloaded and I am starting over. I love Squarespace and technology so much! (UPDATE: it just did it to me AGAIN! but I saved every few minutes and have defeated the demons in the wires)

How was your November? Feels like time really sped up and really slowed down for awhile, and sped up again. Thanksgiving? Mine was nice :) Is there any other city besides St. Louis that plays Arlo Guthrie's 'Alice's Restaurant' at Noon on Thanksgiving? Had to listen to KSHE online to get my fix. Love how in my limited tradition of it I can put myself back in my parents' kitchen or anywhere else I was when I dialed in at that exact moment on that exact day years ago. And it's always a 'peaceful smile' kind of thing. So I hope you have that. I hope you have some tradition or thing that immediately takes you to a good place.

Need to get with the videographer soon but while he was away in November I got busy and created a goal of working on my new record for 100(+) hours a month. Take a look - I JUST made it!!

I learned a lot pursuing this goal. 1, there really aren't days off to take. 2, I enjoy diving into a 9 hour day but rest and burn out come knocking. A great many songs are in development and showing signs of identity. As a writer it's fascinating. I'm thinking of one song in particular that will be incredibly powerful lyrically and the idea for it is to use things that have actually happened tho in creative ways. Right? Well it's improved me as a writer to flip that around and drive out of that lane so to speak and I now sit with the lyrics of that song and just create things out of thin air. I wasn't there (song won't be autobiographical but everything did happen) so since I wasn't there who am I to say that writing about things that MAY or COULD have happened is wrong? I think a strength I have is writing about things that actually did happen or I do/did feel. It's nice to gain more confidence in writing about things that are plausible, using creative license. It's like if a song not about you is 'red' and you're 'pink' you can still attach to shades of red because red is what you're made of, after all. It's very empowering in a personal way for someone to see all the reds in their pink - and only you know exactly where the red is in you. That's where the chills come from. There's a lot of beauty in finding things that are exactly you in things you thought you had nothing to do with. You know?

When not on the couch writing and playing and making - I'm on the floor and this is the vantage point. Don't let the sun fool you there was about 45 minutes of that last month in Nashville so I had to capture it. If it weren't for the buildings and hill I could see Nashville's skyline as I face South.

You like those 10lb weights, eh? That's for when I wanna get a quick pump, ya know...

Here's some more sunny Nashville from the Pedestrian Bridge. Sad this picture was taken at around 3:30 and the sun is almost down what in the hell.

Well I want to say have a great December because sure. But wouldn't it be nice if we all 'made' it a great December? In a 'love is a verb' action kind of way. I hope you all find and enjoy the simple gifts we're given every day. me too. Maybe it's just me that I'm feeling and not the world but I've been aware of some shift that is occurring that I think we're all/I'm at, where we've outgrown the 'go along, get along' assuming there'll always be time. I hope me and we all find a nice balance between enjoying December, being centered and present to the moments - and running up and down the street like George Bailey. I really feel there'll be times we'll find ourselves on all parts of that spectrum. Where will you be when you hear the bell ring?