Procrastination, creativity’s biggest enemy
Yesterday, my cousin Kirk told me his father David requested in lieu of flowers that family and friends make a donation to Michigan Radio.
(Read yesterday’s blog about Senator David Plawecki and the power of positive political spirit here.)
I instantly realized how I’ve procrastinated giving a donation to an NPR station for eight years. Leave it to David to be still making a difference after he’s left us.
As a teacher and musician, I’ve learned early in my career that creativity’s biggest enemy is probably procrastination.
David Plawecki was elected to the Michigan Senate at the age of 22. The same age I was speaking in front of my first classroom, David was taking the floor of the senate.
This reminds me of the column Natalie wrote for the Bridge in June about how the youth today aren’t actually politically indifferent, but that their engagement doesn’t look the same as our parents’. But that our involvement in direct politics is disturbingly low.
Procrastination, not only an enemy to creativity but an enemy to change. How many times this year have our Michigan politicians kicked the can down the the road for later? I criticize, but I’m guilty of it too.
I’ll be making a donation to Michigan Radio finally, but more importantly, I’ll be reminding myself to fight the urge to say, “I’ll do that next year, next month, next week, tomorrow.”
We all have the right to have positive spirit. (A dedication to David Plawecki.)
When I got my first job as a teenager, serving hot dogs at Greenfield Village’s Oscar Mayer Wiener Mobile, I discovered a cool family fact of great pride…
The day I got hired, I came home and read over the employee handbook. (I’m know. I’m still a dork.) To my surprise, I noticed my mom’s last name mentioned in a paragraph about my rights as a worker.
“Hey mom, your last name’s here. What’s this?”
“Oh!” she said, “that’s the bill our cousin David sponsored when he was Michigan Senator! The Bullard-Plawecki Employee Right to Know Bill…Didn’t you know your cousin David was the youngest Michigan senator elected?
To be 16, starting my first job, and to see how politics made change that impacted me, let alone from a family member’s involvement, was one of the coolest things ever. It’s the type of introduction to politics I wish more could experience, one that gives hope, pride, and spirit. (Things we don’t normally feel when we hear about politics, right?) It’s continually guided my optimism about Michigan, about local government, and a lot more.
My mom’s cousin David died, from cancer, last night. He was only 65, and he was an inspiring person to know. (Obituary, funeral info here.)
It seems just like yesterday that I was at the Storti/Sherrard family wedding and sharing a drink with David. The country was in the heart of the recession; a recession that Michigan had felt for most of my adulthood.
I asked David, “What do you think about the state of our state?” I also shared that I was leaving teaching in a month to pursue music. “Am I crazy to do this?” I joked.
David smiled and shared one of the most positive predictions I’ve heard about our beloved Mitten. How Michigan was going to continue to be a great place to live.
He then added, “You are going to do great with music. Don’t worry about the economy. Worry about your love of music. The rest will follow.”
It’s one of the most important things I learned from him while growing up: How important it is to keep a positive spirit about home (Michigan), about the democratic system, about dreams; it’s that attitude that is the first step to great change.
It’s an attitude we all have the right to have.
* * * Funeral info * * *
Visitation is Wednesday, Aug. 7 at Santeiu Funeral Home in Garden City, MI 3-8 PM
Funeral is Thursday, Aug 8 at Divine Child, with a visitation starting at 9 AM and mass at 9:30 AM.
In lieu of flowers, David requested friends and family make a donation to Catholic Relief Services or Michigan Radio.
* * * News Updates * * *
David’s last request in the news:
Channel 4 News
Senator David Plawecki speaking on the Michigan Senate floor.
What visiting a place will do to a song lyric
I played my first gig in NYC this year, and it changed my life.
No, one gig in NYC didn’t become “my big break”; what it did was change my entire feelings of so many of my favorite song lyrics, songs about NYC.
A direct address like Jim Croce’s “New York’s Not My Home” or a simple street reference in the Lumineer’s “Hey Ho,” I can finally see it.
And feel it.
Visiting a place is a powerful experience. Nothing can take the place of it. A picture, a movie, a live stream…There is nothing like
We live in a new world where online learning, Stageit concerts, Internet video conferencing are exciting ways to experience something new. But no binary code is going fully replace the feeling of standing in the center of Times Square and feeling the pulse of the city, or having coffee in Greenich Village in the same cafe Allen Ginsburg would have sat.
Bob Lefsetz recently wrote about Youtube this year, saying that the road was where a new act used to grow; but now it’s on Youtube. Go on on the road and risk playing for only 10 people? Nonsense. Post a video instead…
I don’t disagree with his theory about the importance of video streaming, but there is one point that’s being lost: How powerful of an experience it is to be one of those ten people to see something live from a fresh new artist. It’s way different in hitting all of your senses than 10,000 watching a video. Playing a music or hearing music live is not a replaceable experience, from the small folk club to the large venue.
The Internet is being praised, and I will continue to praise it. But don’t forget, the computer screen doesn’t replace the ground or sky.
Playing my first show in NYC with Leah Taylor!
The Portrait of a Young Artist Scared of Pearl Jam
At the age of 13, after a few months of playing guitar, I asked my dad to buy me a Pearl Jam. tablature book (music for guitar). Specifically, for the Ten record.
At this moment of my guitar studies, I only knew how to play a few chords. There was no way I was going to be able to play Pearl Jam guitar solos, let alone the main riffs. It’s like being in fourth grade and reading Charlotte’s Web and then jumping to James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
But there is no stopping a teenager who’s mind is made up, so my dad bought me the Pearl Jam book, and I rushed home to attempt it!
In my bedroom, I listened to the Pearl Jam CD and tried to follow along in the music book. Instant failure. It didn’t make any sense to me…so I gave up, and sadly went back to practicing my guitar teacher’s Mel Bay Book 1 homework.
Here’s the thing that shocks me: I never attempted to play those Pearl Jam songs again. It was like my first failure at guitar scared me away from Pearl Jam for good, no matter how much better of a guitar player I became.
Last year, I stumbled upon that old Pearl Jam music book hiding in a box. I chuckled, and opened up to “Even Flow.”
I was able to sight read it.
The instant failure at 13 became an instant success at 31.
Fear is a strange thing, isn’t it. How many illogical fears do we carry from childhood into adulthood?
Whenever I hear a Pearl Jam song, I remind myself not to let initial failures scare myself away from attempting again.
The most important person you need on your side in the music biz
Musicians interact with many people to make music business happen successfully: booking agents, sound engineers, venue owners, media contacts, other bands’ mates…The list goes on and on, but I’m going to let you in on a secret. The most important person of all is sitting right behind the bar.
The most important thing you can do as a musician is tip your venue’s bartender. And tip them well. (Even if your drinks are comp’d. Especially if your drinks are comp’d!)
The bartender is one of the main faces of the bar. The bartender is the one that interacts with customers, fields complaints, works four jobs at one time, shares compliments with the owners; the bartender often has to be in charge of the venue’s stereo, take reservations, do the work schedule, count the inventory, tell the band to turn the volume down (which they hate doing, but have to), usually while working long hours.
So tip that person. With cash. Know his or her name. No matter what. Do it because you know how hard the job is. I guarantee it’s harder than yours.
And if music isn’t your field, I guarantee there is another unthanked gatekeeper who deserves credit at your office.
At my school where I taught, the entire staff knew the place couldn’t run without the amazing people in the front office. Mrs. Shepherd saved me so many times my first year teaching, she deserved flowers everyday.
Remember, the most important person at the venue is the bartender. Not the band.
