I was thinking... maybe I should quit music and become a greeting card writer. The pay's probably about the same... but there'd be less hauling of gear.
Here are some card messages I wrote this morning:
ROMANCE:
If I could shrink you and put you in a locket and put that locket around the neck of an owl and set that owl free in an ancient forest filled with owl-worshiping pygmies, I'd do that.
Sometimes, you make me want to stab you in the neck with a fork. But then you do something cute like try to secretly pick your nose and it makes me love you again. We're good for each other.
Sorry for looking at that hot girl at the coffee shop. I didn't think you saw me. Love ya when you're mad?
Couples always make up cute names for each other like 'Kitten' or 'Sweetie' or 'Big Daddy'. Let's not do that.
In the morning, I try and wake up before you because I like to watch you sleep. Mostly, because you drool. And I laugh at you. Right there, drooling in your sleep.
"I love you" doesn't really cut it some days. Some days you have to say, "Thanks for putting up with my meth habit".
I'd shave my head and learn Chinese for you.
(Honestly, I'm hoping you won't call my bluff on that, as I'm pretty bad with languages and a little vain.)
FRIENDSHIP:
If we were stranded in a sinking boat in the middle of the Caspian Sea and a huge stork swooped down to save us and that stork said "I can only take one of you..." Well, let's hope that doesn't happen. But I really do like you.
I believe, in a former life, you and I worked in the same sweater factory somewhere in Malaysia. We shared smoke breaks and talked about the communists together. Good times.
I believe that in a former life, you and I shared a stable. We were horses on a farm together... You, a proud Andalusian... Me, a common quarter horse with a bum leg. You were kind to me back then too. Thanks for the hay.
Friendship means so many things to different people… trust, loyalty, understanding. Or, in our case, a clean pair of pants and a place to sleep it off.
You've been forgetting a lot of things lately. One example: my birthday.
I love how your glass is always half full... of shit.
Wanna know how I know we're best friends? 'Cause you forgave me for sleeping with your wife. Wait. Didn't she tell you?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Westword Music Showcase Review
I’d seen John Common perform Tom Waits’ brilliant album Rain Dogs in its entirety twice. Any guy who’s that big of Waits fan is all right in my book. When Common played his new “love song” called “Go to Hell With Me,” I heard a bit of Waits in there. After he played “The Dreamers,” Common asked the crowd if they wanted to hear something intense or pretty and beautiful. The crowd seemed to be split, but Common decided on something pretty, and played “Good Heart,” with some sublime vocal help from the lovely Jess De Nicola Mefford.
-- Jon Solomon, Westword
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Wonder... from David James Duncan
I've been reading a lot of David James Duncan -- one of my favorite writers. (Get a copy of "River Teeth" from Amazon when you can. They're cheap! A fantastic collection of short stories.)
Anyhow... I read this passage earlier today and it jumped out at me:
Wonder is my second favorite condition to be in, after love, and I sometimes wonder whether there's a difference; maybe love is just wonder aimed at a beloved.
Wonder is like grace, in that's it's not a condition we grasp; it grasps us.
Wonder is not an obligatory element in the search for truth. We can seek truth without wonder's assistance. But seek is all we'll do; there will be no finding. Unless wonder descends, unlocks us, turns us as slack-jawed as plastic shepherds, truth is unable to enter. Wonder may be the aura of truth, the halo of it. Or something even closer. Wonder maybe the caress of truth... touching our very skin.
Philosophically speaking, wonder is crucial to the discovery of knowledge, yet has everything to do with ignorance. By this I mean that only an admission of our ignorance can open us to fresh knowings. Wonder is the experience of that admission: wonder is unknowing, experienced as pleasure.
Punctuationally speaking, wonder is a period at the end of a statement we've long taken for granted, suddenly looking up an seeing the sinuous curve or a tall black hat on its head, and realizing it was a question mark all along.
As a facial expression, wonder is the letter O our eyes and mouths make when the state itself descends. O: God's middle initial. O: because wonder Opens us.
Wonder is anything taken for granted -- the old neighborhood, old job, old life, old spouse -- suddenly filling with mystery. Wonder is anything closed, suddenly opening: anything at all opening -- which, alas, includes Pandora's Box, and brings me to the dark side of the thing. Grateful as I am for this condition, wonder has -- like everything on Earth -- a dark side. Heartbreak, grief, and suffering rend openings in us through which the dark kind of wonder pours. I have so far found it impossible to feel spontaneously grateful for these violent openings. But when, after struggle, I've been able to turn a corner and at least accept the opening, the dark form of wonder has invariably helped me endure the heartbreak, the suffering, the grief.
Wonder is not curiosity. Wonder is to curiosity what ecstasy is to mere pleasure. Wonder is not astonishment, either. Astonishment is too brief. The only limit to the duration of wonder is the limit of our ability to remain open.
I believe some people live in a state of constant wonder. I believe they're the best people on Earth. I believe it is wonder, even more than fidelity, that keeps marriages alive. I believe it's wonder, even more than courage, that conquers fear of death. I believe it is wonder, not D.A.R.E. bumper stickers, the keeps kids off drugs. I believe, speaking of bumper stickers, that it's wonder, even more than me, who I want to "HUG MY KIDS YET TODAY," because wonder can keep on hugging them, long after I'm gone.
-- David James Duncan, from 6 Henry Stories
Anyhow... I read this passage earlier today and it jumped out at me:
Wonder is my second favorite condition to be in, after love, and I sometimes wonder whether there's a difference; maybe love is just wonder aimed at a beloved.
Wonder is like grace, in that's it's not a condition we grasp; it grasps us.
Wonder is not an obligatory element in the search for truth. We can seek truth without wonder's assistance. But seek is all we'll do; there will be no finding. Unless wonder descends, unlocks us, turns us as slack-jawed as plastic shepherds, truth is unable to enter. Wonder may be the aura of truth, the halo of it. Or something even closer. Wonder maybe the caress of truth... touching our very skin.
Philosophically speaking, wonder is crucial to the discovery of knowledge, yet has everything to do with ignorance. By this I mean that only an admission of our ignorance can open us to fresh knowings. Wonder is the experience of that admission: wonder is unknowing, experienced as pleasure.
Punctuationally speaking, wonder is a period at the end of a statement we've long taken for granted, suddenly looking up an seeing the sinuous curve or a tall black hat on its head, and realizing it was a question mark all along.
As a facial expression, wonder is the letter O our eyes and mouths make when the state itself descends. O: God's middle initial. O: because wonder Opens us.
Wonder is anything taken for granted -- the old neighborhood, old job, old life, old spouse -- suddenly filling with mystery. Wonder is anything closed, suddenly opening: anything at all opening -- which, alas, includes Pandora's Box, and brings me to the dark side of the thing. Grateful as I am for this condition, wonder has -- like everything on Earth -- a dark side. Heartbreak, grief, and suffering rend openings in us through which the dark kind of wonder pours. I have so far found it impossible to feel spontaneously grateful for these violent openings. But when, after struggle, I've been able to turn a corner and at least accept the opening, the dark form of wonder has invariably helped me endure the heartbreak, the suffering, the grief.
Wonder is not curiosity. Wonder is to curiosity what ecstasy is to mere pleasure. Wonder is not astonishment, either. Astonishment is too brief. The only limit to the duration of wonder is the limit of our ability to remain open.
I believe some people live in a state of constant wonder. I believe they're the best people on Earth. I believe it is wonder, even more than fidelity, that keeps marriages alive. I believe it's wonder, even more than courage, that conquers fear of death. I believe it is wonder, not D.A.R.E. bumper stickers, the keeps kids off drugs. I believe, speaking of bumper stickers, that it's wonder, even more than me, who I want to "HUG MY KIDS YET TODAY," because wonder can keep on hugging them, long after I'm gone.
-- David James Duncan, from 6 Henry Stories
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Telluride Troubadour Contest!
May 31, 2008
Hi,
The folks who run the Telluride Bluegrass Festival's Troubadour Contest let me know that I was chosen as a finalist for their songwriter competition. This means I'll be playing the festival on Thursday this year! Who knows, if I do really well, I might play again on Friday. And if I win the whole damn thing (unlikely), I'll play the main stage on Saturday night!
The festival lineup this year includes Ani DiFranco, Ryan Adams, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Hornsby, Paolo Nutini, Bela Fleck, Peter Rowan, The Frames, The Swell Season, Brett Dennen, Yonder Mountain String Band, Tift Merrit and a bunch of other artists... Cool!
~John
Hi,
The folks who run the Telluride Bluegrass Festival's Troubadour Contest let me know that I was chosen as a finalist for their songwriter competition. This means I'll be playing the festival on Thursday this year! Who knows, if I do really well, I might play again on Friday. And if I win the whole damn thing (unlikely), I'll play the main stage on Saturday night!
Wish me luck! It's an honor just to be a finalist.
The festival lineup this year includes Ani DiFranco, Ryan Adams, Arlo Guthrie, Bruce Hornsby, Paolo Nutini, Bela Fleck, Peter Rowan, The Frames, The Swell Season, Brett Dennen, Yonder Mountain String Band, Tift Merrit and a bunch of other artists... Cool!
~John
New Growth
new growth
june 1, 2008
it's spring. change and all that…
walking from the house to the car
the trees droop in front of us
burdened with green-ness
their branches heavy with new growth
it's exhausting sometimes.
we duck under, give them their space.
june 1, 2008
it's spring. change and all that…
walking from the house to the car
the trees droop in front of us
burdened with green-ness
their branches heavy with new growth
it's exhausting sometimes.
we duck under, give them their space.
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