Inspiration Comes in Short, yet Ginormous Doses

It’s a shame that I get frustrated a little too easily. It’s also a shame that my own frustrations tend to take over my life at the wrong moments. But, then again, such is the life of a songwriter, right?

As the title of this post suggest, inspiration to write that next big song has been a topsy-turvy ride in the last… um… the last few months or so. After my band’s recent show in Texas for FameCast, finding any kind of lyrical inspiration has been as difficult as trying to get the cookie jar off the top of the refrigerator at 4 years old. I’ve been trying to figure out why this musical rut has been set into motion, and I’m not finding a lot of answers.

[ Wow… I’m looking back at that paragraph… and boy, do I know how to ramble, or what? ]

My guess would be the lack of “useful” songwriting time. Sure, it sounds easy when someone says, “Why don’t you just sit down for an hour or so and write a song? You’re a musician. You have a great ear, and you write great lyrics. It’s easy!”. Really? It’s easy, huh? Tell me this, then… does playing Wii Sports get easier after you’ve been playing for 2 straight hours without stopping? Wouldn’t your body start to hurt just a little bit? (If you play like you should, of course). Sure, the two have nothing in common, but they’re both NOT easy! When I say “useful” time, I mean it in a way to say that it’s time spent writing music and lyrics when I have nothing else going on that could possible stress me out or distract me. Funny enough, when I was living in Queens and being stressed out to the max, pretty much 24/7, I could write music without any problems. But why? Well, in an environment that promotes nothing but stress, I learned to block it out and just write.

Fast Forward to August of 2007, Present Day. I’ve moved to Brooklyn with my girlfriend (who is amazing), I have a sweet job, and my band is starting to make a bit of noise in the online world. One would think that all of those good things would bring on a stress-free environment that would make it easy for someone to sit down and just write. Whoever thinks that’s the case, apparently, is wrong. Maybe I’m not explaining my frustrations correctly. I guess this post is just one big rant, and not really supposed to make any sense.Maybe I should just get on with the Zen like do at the end of every post. Yeah, that’s it… maybe a nice healthy dose of Zen will make it all better. Zen, do your thing…

Ah, so that’s the intro they didn’t air…

Anyone for Smuckers?

That’s where it went!

Youth of a Nation: Pageant Style

I know I haven’t written here in a while (and that’s going to change), but can somebody tell me why girls like this are allowed to graduate from High School? In case you need a little “briefing”, Miss *Teen* South Carolina was told that 1/5 of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map (based on a poll). She was then asked to explain why she thought that could be. Below, is her amazing answer.

Was he… laughing!?

 

Good lord… no wonder the rest of the world laughs at the United States! I live in the states and I’m laughing! Well.. what I’m really laughing at is today’s Zen.

Don’t you walk out on me!

How You Found My Blog: New York Mets

Now this is a blog I can write about! Recently, there has been a large number of readers coming to the blog, looking for websites or information about the “New York Mets”. I happen to be a die hard Mets fan, so finding my blog linked to that search term made me pretty darn happy! So how can I satisfy the needs of those who stumble upon my blog looking for Mets information, when I hardly write about them?

With some Zen, of course! Ladies and Gentlemen of the blogging world, I give you, the worst Mets pitcher in the history of Blernsball!

My god! She’s even worse than Mike Pelfrey!

FameCast – Part 4 – Bringing It Home

I have returned from Austin, TX a new man with a new life. Why? Here’s why…

I’ve moved into a new apartment with my girlfriend and am finally living on my own. I played the show I’ve been wanting to play in a long time in Austin, TX with Matt. And I’ve got a renewed sense of hope in my life. But that’s for a future post. This post is all about Austin, the show that was, and the prize I hope to claim with Matt.

July 30th

I flew from Long Island’s MacArthur Airport to Chicago’s Midway Airport. In Chicago, I met up with Matt and we flew to Austin together, finally getting to our hotel at around midnight (Central Time). Exhausted, we wasted no time in getting some sleep.

July 31st

Matt and I tracked around Austin looking for some eats, and we found a Whole Foods about 15 blocks away from the hotel. It was NOT fun, but the walk with Matt was definitely fun. I had never experienced Texas heat before, and I might not want to experience that again for a long while. Lets just say, I had to change my shirt the second we got back to our hotel room! At 3:30pm, we left for the East Side Stages with fellow competing artists Eli Poulin, Natalie Gelman, and Billy Redfield. We met the final artist, Colin Orthmann, when we arrived at the studio. At the studio, we were fed, had a short soundcheck, and hung out with the other artists until around 7:45pm, when we had to get on stage to open the show!

We opened the show at 8:00pm, and played 3 songs; Alone, Flightless Wings, and a cover of Al Green’s ‘Lets Stay Together’. After we were done, we had a nice interview with the hostess of the event, and went back into the crowd to watch the other artists perform. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel with everyone and hung out until about 2am before we got some sleep for the long day of travel ahead of us.

August 1st

This was a day of travel… a LOT of travel… Eli, Natalie, Matt, and myself all flew to Baltimore together, and split up. From Baltimore, I flew back to Long Island and headed home from there.

The FameCast experience was amazing. The Staff was extremely helpful and receptive to us. We couldn’t be more grateful to all of our fans for voting and sending us to Austin! But now, we need the support one last time. Votes will decide the overall winner by Tuesday, August 7th at 12pm Eastern. It’s up to you, the reader or fan, to vote for us and spread the word to all of your friends and family.

Here’s how you can help:

1) Register for a free FameCast Fan Account by clicking here or log on to your account by clicking here.
2) Once logged in, scroll your mouse over “Stages” at the top of the any FameCast page and click on the “Singer/Songwriter” stage
3) On the next page, click on “Soundscape Soul” on the right-hand list of artists to watch our webcast.
4) As our video is playing, click on the “Vote for this Artist” icon below the video to cast your vote.

With your help, I believe we have a good chance to win the grand prize of $10,000 and National Exposure! Be well, everyone, and vote your hearts out!

Enjoy some Zen while you vote!