Pizza, and the difficult choice of doing the right thing on an empty stomach
A few months ago, I visited my favorite Ann Arbor pizzeria that I’ve enjoyed for a decade. That day, I walked up to the counter and witnessed the owner berate one of his employees, irrationally.
The owner yelled at his employee for allegedly leaving a styrofoam container on the counter. The employee, a college-aged young man, desperately defended himself. “I didn’t leave it there! I swear!”
The owner retaliated by throwing the styrofoam at his employee. “Stop lying!” he said between swear words.
I stood there at the cash register in disbelief, feeling a great, empty sadness in my stomach that even pizza couldn’t fill.
I vowed to never eat there again.
* * *
Today, I was on a hunt for pizza, and I almost went back to said pizza place. I felt my feet walking me there out of habit, and I felt that emptiness in my stomach return. Was it OK to ignore my conscience?
For a second I stopped walking, and decided I would compare the prices of other pizza spots on my phone, as if price had anything to do with this decision.
All of this was an excuse. Breaking a habit is difficult, especially on an empty stomach.
But I made the decision to go elsewhere. I went to Cottage Inn Pizza instead.
I might be paying a dollar or two more for my delicious pizza, but I’ve also watched the staff smile, chat, and laugh while I write this. I now have a new favorite pizza spot.
You don’t need a new guitar, or a new [insert thing here.]
I’ve been playing the same guitar since 2001.
A Taylor 515ce.
I saved up enough money during a summer job between college semesters and bought my first nice guitar.
This instrument has followed me through college, multiple moves, my teaching career, recording sessions, 70,000+ miles of traveling for gigs, my wedding. Three of every four songs I’ve ever written has been on this guitar.
I know this guitar more than I know myself.
Yesterday, Seth Godin shared how he’s been using Typepad for his blog for “a decade or so…despite the cool kids” telling him he should move it to different platform…
I think there’s an important reminder in this:
As artists and musicians, as writers and creators, we don’t really need the next flashy thing. You don’t really need to use the next blogging service or the latest guitar. It’s good to know one thing, and know it really well. But the key is to use it, every day.
Work. Practice. Learn. Grow.
That’s what’s important.
My friend Craig Carrick–a musician and music festival organizer–is one of those incredible people who uses music to touch lives.
For five years, Craig has been raising a little money, buying guitars, and giving them to kids at the Noreastr Festival in Mio, MI. The program is called “Carrick’s Guitars for Kids.”
Here’s an article about Craig’s goal.
It’s that simple. He raises money to buy guitars. He uses all of the money to buy guitars. He gives the guitars to kids!
So far, he’s giving away 200+ guitars to kids. Plus, all of the kids get a free guitar lesson at the Noreastr Festival workshop room.
Mio is a pretty small town, and some of these kids have come back to share how that guitar has changed their life.
This year, I’m giving $5 of every shirt sale during my spring tour to Carrick’s Guitars for Kids program. I’m already halfway to my goal of raising enough money to buy one guitar for the program!
Lois is very excited about this fundraiser.
As school budgets continue to cut funding for music programs, we are losing opportunities to give kids a creative outlet, a confidence builder, an art form. Craig’s demonstration of how one good deed can make a huge difference, right in our neighborhoods, is an opportunity to inspire all of us to take that small step, too!
Must artists be unhappy to make great art?
Most songwriters I know, myself included, were inspired to write their first songs because of two factors:
1. They enjoyed learning their favorite songs, which gave them the tools to write their own; and
2. They were grappling with a difficult experience–like a breakup–and needed a way to process the event.
Hence, heartache, and a songwriter’s first songs emerge!
There is a belief that unhappiness creates great art, and I’m not going to dispute that. Rather, I’d like to point out that all human emotions can create great art.
The danger is if songwriters only rely on negative experiences to sit down to write. “I never write songs anymore now that I’m in a stable relationship,” say some songwriters.
This idea is only true if you let it be…The reason someone isn’t writing songs is because they aren’t writing songs. Simple as that.
It’s not the relationship ruining songwriting inspiration; rather any change to our schedules can disrupt the ebb and flow of inspiration, which is why making a schedule is important.
My wife, who is an incredibly diligent writer, has a whiteboard with lists of weekly and daily tasks that she follows. I’ve learned from watching her productivity that a schedule is the only way to combat distraction and procrastination, the true enemies to writing. (And fear.)
So you love birds out there feeling stuck by writer’s block, take action! Schedule in time with your craft like you do dinner with your significant other. Your muse will love you for it.
Thanks to the DEART class for sharing their drawing with us after Nat and I gave a lecture about writerly life.
“Pretty hungover, huh?” [Tour confessions]
On Sunday, I was a panelist at the University of Michigan’s music conference to share how I make a living as a musician.
Ann Arbor Music Con 2014. Photo credits: Spencer Michaud
When I arrived, I mingled with the attendees and other panelists. One music student asked me if I had any upcoming tours. I shared how I had finished a stretch of dates last night.
“That’s why my voice is a little hoarse, I’m pretty exhausted,” I said.
“Oh, pretty hungover, huh?” the student replied.
I was surprised by this assumption, but maybe I shouldn’t be. People assume musicians party.
Here’s my confession: My tour mates Frances Luke Accord and I drank zero beers while on tour. Brian of FLA didn’t even drink coffee, and all of us limited our caffeine intake.
Why?
We were protecting our voices.
Traveling for gigs is exhausting. The lack of sleep is rough enough on the vocal chords.
Brian, Nick and I all felt vocal fatigue after our first show of the tour at the Elbo Room in Chicago, caused by talking in the loud club to the people who came to the show. I strain my voice by talking over loud music, rarely from singing.
So we immediately had to protect our voices to survive the rest of the week’s shows. Drinking water, eating well, doing vocal warm ups and cool down exercises…
I worry about younger musicians who start the bad habits of drinking excessively before and after their performances. Drinking on the job is a sure way to get fired in the “real” world. In the music, art, or food industries, it’s a sure way to ruin your chances of longevity.
After our last show, Frances Luke Accord and I enjoyed one or two beers at Grizzly Peak while hanging out with friends who attended the show.
One celebratory beer after a successful stretch of gigs. If we had decided to party the first night of tour, I doubt we would have had anything to celebrate in the end.
Brian and Nick from FLA and I enjoying lunch and spring's weather before our Ann Arbor show.
