Music Never Lets Me Down

“While speaking about her top political priorities, Ms. Palin gazed at her hand in a rather suspicious manner.”

“The expectation in Washington is that ‘We can kick you around, and you are still going to give us money,’ ” said a top official at a major Wall Street firm, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of alienating the White House. “We are not going to play that game anymore.”

- a top official at a major Wall Street firm, talking about Washington’s attitude toward Wall Street, apparently without any sense of irony

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/us/politics/08lobby.html?hp

Last time I checked, the bailout was aimed at banks that engaged in brazenly risky behavior and then took taxpayer dollars to keep their businesses afloat.  Many of them then turned those taxpayer dollars into massive executive bonuses - with the assertion that they were necessary to retain their most talented employees.

I don’t know about you, but I feel like the phrase “We can kick you around, and you are still going to give us money” has been the tone from one side of the national conversation since roughly September of 2008, but it hasn’t been Washington uttering that phrase, it’s been Gordon Gekko.

Hi all.  It’s been some time since my last post (to put this in perspective, my last post was about Surrogates, which was in theaters at the time - it is now out on Blu-ray).  But I have been hard at work.  I’m making music for you all to enjoy.

The next record is very far along in its formation.  It will have ten songs.  The words are written.  The drums are recorded.  The bass guitar and keyboards sound great.  The guitars are mostly reasonable - there are some solos and lead parts that I need to do, like, again.  And the vocals are about 50% complete.   I swear, this thing is moving.  As proof - here are song titles (in order):

Watch your mouth
Mystery cut
You better look at me when I’m talking to you
The city smells like fire
Weather in Memphis
Weather the whether
Twenty-nine ninety-two
Impeach
Your song don’t mean a thing to me
I’m sick of New York

What’s been the hold-up, you ask? Well, I have many valid excuses that are very believable and not at all rationalizations:

My brother got married
I moved
I had to buy things
My boss was very serious and needed something
Football
The Oscar nominations came out
I was hungry
I got sick
My foot hurts

So as you can see, I am bombarded by all sorts of things that normal people don’t have to deal with. Ah, the life of an office worker posing as a musician. Sometimes it’s easy to forget why you do what you do. But I’ve had many moments of clarity over the past 2-3 months and am back in the recording saddle. I even have a potential surprise that I am very excited about but do not want to sabotage by announcing too quickly.

That’s right, I cliffhangered you.

In other news, my girl and I went to a concert a couple of weeks ago. It was a Haiti benefit concert featuring basically every band I’ve ever liked (Walkmen, Wrens, Ted Leo, A.C. Newman) and several artists that I didn’t know I liked (Here We Go Magic, Sondre Lerche, Nicole Atkins, Lauren Ambrose & the Leisure Class, Fun) but do now. And Jim Gaffigan told a series of jokes about whales (hilarious) and Jimmy Fallon recycled his Neil Young/Fresh Prince mashup (A+ for effort), and all the proceeds went to charity, so I had a delightful time.

Wrens casually and gracefully kick you in the face:

I felt like I got far more than I bargained for - it’s one thing to support an absolutely necessary cause, another to be able to see several of my favorite groups (including my favorite), but even more delightful that I was able to find a bunch of new things that I didn’t even expect to like. I’m not nearly as well-informed as I was when I was in college (and worked for a radio station and constantly lost at oneupsmanship olympiads, otherwise known as hipster parties), so finding new things is a little rarer at this point and a little sweeter too.

What about you? Any cool stuff that you just fell into or stumbled upon and found that you unexpectedly really enjoyed it?

On this most sacred of holidays (Super Bowl Eve), I hope everyone’s staying warm and out of the Snowmageddon (hilarious term - I’m angry I didn’t coin it).

Should I be weirded out regarding the creepy similarities between the Surrogates ad campaign and the new GAP “Born to Fit” ad campaign?  These pictures aren’t the best representations of the similarities, but both campaigns are predicated on beautiful people in reclined positions.  In one ad they are wearing jeans, in the other they are sexy, but probably dangerous (or something) cyborgs.  Or maybe I’m mistaken - perhaps they are cyborgs in both.

This is likely a bit of a stretch, but walking down the street today and seeing both ads, I thought they seemed somewhat aesthetically related, albeit unintentionally.

“Think about the alternative: another crime drama, another hospital drama,” Mr. Farella said. “We like things that are different, so we can sit in front of clients and say, ‘Let me tell you what I’m doing differently this year than last year.’ ”  - an advertising exec, discussing how putting Jay Leno on at 10 pm on weeknights is “different”

How does moving a guy who has been on the same late night TV show for 17 years up by one hour earn you the right to claim that you’re doing something “differently?”

That’s like me saying, “I’m re-releasing a record I’ve already made, but I’m putting the tracks in a different order, so it’s a totally different experience.”

Dan and Kathryn are having a party this weekend at Barnaby’s in an effort to do some good in this world.  Go there.

Additional info can be found here and here.

And because you’re being so good, I’ll post this bedroom version of a song I’m working on that’s going to be awesome.

Do-goodering, Barnaby’s, Phillies, and the overwhelming anticipation for my next record.  What more could you ask for?

I’ve been around a lot of panic recently.  Many people seem eager, almost glad, to be whipped into a frenzy, nervous about anything that may go wrong, might become a problem.  Whatever these people don’t know immediately, they fear, and the resultant emotional state is panic.

I have decided, for my own life, that panic simply won’t do.  It’s an exremely unpleasant state, and I’m not convinced you get anything accomplished that you couldn’t do in a calm and relaxed state.   I have heard the argument that panicking illustrates that you care, and that others will appreciate the amount of seriousness you exhibit when an important task or problem presents itself.

However, I reject this notion.  Only an emotionally needy person would demand that others react to situations in this way, would insist that a level of suffering is necessary to appreciate the urgency of something.

So,that said, I am going to establish the rules for the Legitimate Reasons to Panic:

1) You or a loved one is facing imminent and immediate death or injury, and the cause of this physical harm is something that you can trace to a concrete physical threat within a five-mile radius and can predict that the harm will occur at a time within the next 48 hours.  This includes car crashes, psycho killers, stampedes, fires, natural disasters, a gun being pointed at you, etc.  Notice how long-term illnesses with vague expiration dates are not included in this item.

2) You or your household’s livelihood is taken away unexpectedly and the lack of purchasing power presents such drastic immediate difficulties so as to potentially bring about #1 (inability to buy food causing starvation, inability to afford home leads to homelessness, etc.).

3) Your child or a relatively defenseless person in your care is lost or has been taken away unexpectedly.  While #1 in this situation is not assured, the missing person’s inability to defend himself from whatever ills are out there makes the situation particularly dire, and the unknown nature of the threat combined with the fact that the potential victim does not have the resources to combat most assailants, justifies panic.

And really, I think all situations can either be reduced to one of these three scenarios or is otherwise not panic-worthy.

Things that are not panic-worthy (so long as they don’t lead to any of the above):

Loss of money, embarrassment, missing a plane, difficulties at work, the notion that you might be sick when you don’t have an official diagnosis from a medical professional, getting lost, feeling overwhelmed, etc.  All of these things can be overcome or at least endured if you take a deep breath and remember that you are not experiencing #1, #2, or #3.

So lighten up, everybody (myself included), life isn’t so bad.