We need music more than guns; without art, we’d fall apart.
Being in a wonderful place, personally, yet surprised by tragedy in the news makes me feel unsettled, confused; guilty.
Another gun shooting at a school yesterday…
While hanging out with friends last night, one of our friends said, “Wait, don’t you mean the shooting a few days ago?”
It took a few minutes to clarify which damn school shooting we were discussing.
Here’s a map of every shooting to happen since Sandy Hook. Here’s the President being asked to respond about the gun violence, from a person who knew a recent victim. Here’s a poem about gun violence. Here’s today’s trending topics on Facebook, none about yesterday’s shooting.
Here’s a heartbreaking song with a soothing cello.
Music, art, literature–if we didn’t have these things, we’d fall apart at the seams. The bellows would burst. The world would cave in.
Isn’t it time we do something?
The Crystal Glen Office complex is hosting a lunch break of live music at the Three Days Gourmet Cafe, and the events are open to the public. I’m playing the kick-off lunch break! Let’s do lunch.
Three Days Gourmet Café
in the Crystal Glen Office Complex
39555 Orchard Hill Pl Suite L50, Novi, MI 48375
off 8 Mile and Haggerty.
Music: 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM
What keeps you working? (George Carlin’s IRS problem)
I’ve been watching George Carlin’s HBO specials on Netflix and interviews on Youtube, which led me to ask this question: “What keeps us working?”
George Carlin entertained for 50 years, a journey of four creative cycles of developments.
However, Carlin once shared how he got into trouble with the IRS. He wasn’t paying attention to how his finances were being managed, and ended up owing quite a bit of back taxes, fees, etc.
When he hired a new manager in the early 80s, the two of them worked out a process to keep paying the IRS off just enough to “keep them away from the door.” Carlin’s tax problem was so bad, there was a lien on his house.
He admitted, “I didn’t have it paid off until 2001.”
A 20 year problem.
A period where Carlin’s writing, his philosophical and comedic development, led to major breakthroughs, creatively.
Which leads me to wonder, would Carlin have continued to work so much if he financially didn’t need to work that much? Was the IRS problem a blessing?
Now, I might be seeking connections of dots that don’t connect. Maybe Carlin would have continued working because he was driven artistically. He often shared the true motivation of the artist’s journey. “Art doesn’t have a finish line.” But clearly, Carlin financially had to work throughout the 90s.
The question all artists must ask, is, what keeps you working?
We often focus on what stops us from working, rather than what keeps us working. Any answer, even a difficult one, can lead to any incredible productivity.
It’s how we look at it.
Wannabe. This term of the 90s has resurfaced in the music industry of the post-downloading era.
Wannabe used to mean “pretending to be something you’re not…” a term employed often during the hip-hop genre’s rise to commercial success; nowadays, it’s used as a general criticism, implying “lack of talent” or “seeking stardom.”
Lefsetz wrote a solid blog of advice titled, “Wannabe Rules.”
The essence of the blog is informative, and that main theme is inarguable: the music always matters more, before image, before social networking, before everything.
But that title, “Wannabe Rules,” left me wondering, aren’t we all wannabes?
Sure, Lefsetz is writing to those songwriters and musicians who want to be more famous, or more well known, or more regarded, or more financially sustainable.
But what about the famous musician who wants to be allowed to have privacy again?
Or the commercially successful pop singer who wants to move on to jazz but is fighting a label’s hesitations?
Or a bachelor who wants to find a soul mate. A married couple who seek their romantic spark again. Newlyweds who want to start a family.
We are all wannabes, we just desire different things at different times of our lives. It simply means we’re alive, growing, adapting. And in the end, if you’ve ever finished a song, famous or not, you are already that: a songwriter.
Grandpa Burg, a violin hero inspiring future musicians!
There is no better goal to be want to be as a musician: one who continues to love to play past age 90!
