All that Jazz…

…and every other style of music. 

My world has taken a serious turn toward seriously handling my music seriously.  I’m serious.

I will not rehash what I just wrote in my other blog eSyrup, which you can access from my profile page, hint, hint…  But let it suffice to say that I am focused.  Between managing my Facebook music page, SoundCloud page, and my other blog, I am flooding myself toward a singular purpose – getting back in the studio and making new music.

By taking on all of this, I am giving myself a boot in the appropriate place.  From a young age, I spent a lot of time with my music and it exploded in the ‘80’s.  First, performing in a couple of bands, and then creating a home studio where I composed and recorded feverishly.  Then, in 1998, it stopped.

What happened in 1998?  I quit my job of 20 years and bought a Bed and Breakfast.  Aside from the fact that it was a 24/7 business, it was not exactly conducive to playing and recording.  Knowing I did not have a place for my piano, drums, PA system, keyboard stands, and lots of miscellaneous goodies, I either sold them or put them in storage.  The electronics left in storage for five years did not survive and I just couldn’t get it together enough to build it all from the pieces I had left – let alone the cost of replacing what was gone.

But I did…slowly.  Now I am at the point where I can pick up where I left off.  Still, finding the motivation has not been forthcoming.  That’s where the boot in the butt comes in.  I have now put myself out there in the virtual world.  I have only a limited amount of properly recorded material that is suitable for public consumption.  Soon, I will need something new… and that spells motivation.

My life has been less than balanced these days.  I have known all along that music is the answer.  It is my passion and something I will always have the desire to do.  It is also something I can do that is a unique artistic expression – and that is important to me.

So enough of all that jazz… let’s play!

Precious Little…

…Time. 

Everybody wants money.  If you don’t think so, ask yourself if you would go to work if you didn’t get paid.  Me either.  Can you make too much money?  I don’t think it is something I will have to deal with so that’s a moot point.  Can you be satisfied with your pay?  Probably, but for me it comes down to the simple fact of paying the bills in an area with a cost of living that is far too high and a mortgage so far underwater that I need scuba gear (my only poor timing in real estate so far… and a bad one).

But money isn’t everything.  I left a damn good job at with a very good company at the peak of my career during the 90’s to follow a dream.  It was absolutely 110% worth it and I would not trade the experience for anything – no regrets.  Unfortunately, life’s little twists and turns resulted in a sharp left turn in the Master Plan of life to the road of Simply Making It.  It is better than that dirt road of Not Making it… but I digress.

What is it that I really wanted during my early, lucrative career, my rewarding self employment, and my current “they call it a non-profit for a reason” work history?  Time.

I see my work calendar as the space between time off.  I am fortunate in that I work in a place with a generous time off policy, so there is ample opportunity to take vacations or an extended weekend like I am taking right now.  The problem is how I spend that time.  It seems that I have mastered the art of doing nothing.  I could say that health issues force me to take it slower than I used to, but that is not the heart of the matter (no pun intended).  We live in a country where we are encouraged to (tragically, literally) work ourselves to death.  While I am not a death’s door, I am not exactly a kid anymore.  Every week, this takes its toll and I spend so much time just decompressing that I usually accomplish very little every weekend. 

Here I am at day 2 of a four day weekend.  Yesterday I played with my tech toys, read, listened to music, read, sent emails, sent texts, listened to music, played with tech toys… etc.  None of this is bad, but I have so much that needs to be done and right now, I have the time to do it.  There is that damned Puritanical Work Ethic again (Damn those bloody Puritans!).  It even seeps into our personal lives – not that I am doing anything about it other than feeling guilty.

Precious time.  Part of me feels that I should treat it like the precious commodity that it is.  Part of me thinks that maybe, I am.