Saturday night my cover band In The Pocket played Bacchus in New Paltz. Good show. I hope you where there. Anyway, immediately after we played our encore a very...attractive (hot) blond woman with a slight foreign accent came right up next to me and started asking into my ear if I knew a certain song, which she then started singing. I recognized it, and thought it was some kind Irish or Scottish folk song, but I didn't really know it. She then asked me if I would sing it with her. I was reluctant, because we had just finished and turned off the equipment, and I didn't want the night to turn into some kind of drunken karaoke party (that's reserved for my show at Mulligan's). So, she says, "What if I gave you $100?" I responded, "Well, for $100 I guess I would sing just about anything." Off she went.
She came back with $80, and I laughingly told her that I didn't want her money. She persisted. I told her I hoped she enjoyed the show, but that I didn't want her money. I turned around and she literally put it in my back pocket. I took it out and gave it back to her. The guy she was with (boyfriend? husband?) then gave her another $20. "We're from New York and we want to have a good time." Listen, I'm flattered that you really want me to sing this song that I don't know with you, but you've had a lot to drink and I don't want your money. Believe me when I say that she used every form of female persuasion to get me to sing with her, but I held my ground. I hope you had fun, but I don't think it's going to happen. She was pretty disappointed.
Then she asked me what I was doing later.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
The Bully Next Door
On September 1, 2010, upset with a rash of suicides by gay teens, writer and gay activist Dan Savage launched the It Gets Better Project. I remember first hearing about it from social and political blogger Andrew Sullivan, and being very moved watching the first videos and the ones that have followed. Some might say that the project peaked when President Obama recorded his own It Gets Better video, but the project still goes on in an effort to let young people know that it does get better. And it does.
But the problem is that some people don't get it. For all the news stories and the attention and the tragedies and the public discussions, some people just don't get it. You go on living your life, doing what you do, but for reasons probably passing understanding some people can find nothing better to do with their own lives than trying to bring you down. It may be a complete stranger making a derogatory comment about what you're doing or what you look like, or it may be someone that you've known well for years. The second can often times be the more troubling of the two. Is it bitterness that their life is not what they want it to be? It is jealousy that you're doing things with your life that they never had the ability to do? It is massive ego that makes them think they know what's best for your life, and you are to be looked down upon if you don't conform? The reasons don't really matter, but they try to shame you into doing what they want. They live in that magical realm where ignorance and solipsism meet, and expressing those traits is how they get off. It's called bullying, and some people never seem to grown out of it.
But one thing that I've learned is that one of the reasons it gets better is that you learn to rise above it. No matter who we are, what we do, or how well we do it, there will always be someone looking down from their tower, judging. They yell down that we should be doing or that and they revel in their superiority, enjoying ever minute of it. But the truth is that when all is said and done, they're up in that tower alone. And when no one measures up, what a lonely life that must be.
There are some people in this world that want nothing more than to bring you down. They are sad, bitter, and insignificant. Rise above it. Pass it on.
But the problem is that some people don't get it. For all the news stories and the attention and the tragedies and the public discussions, some people just don't get it. You go on living your life, doing what you do, but for reasons probably passing understanding some people can find nothing better to do with their own lives than trying to bring you down. It may be a complete stranger making a derogatory comment about what you're doing or what you look like, or it may be someone that you've known well for years. The second can often times be the more troubling of the two. Is it bitterness that their life is not what they want it to be? It is jealousy that you're doing things with your life that they never had the ability to do? It is massive ego that makes them think they know what's best for your life, and you are to be looked down upon if you don't conform? The reasons don't really matter, but they try to shame you into doing what they want. They live in that magical realm where ignorance and solipsism meet, and expressing those traits is how they get off. It's called bullying, and some people never seem to grown out of it.
But one thing that I've learned is that one of the reasons it gets better is that you learn to rise above it. No matter who we are, what we do, or how well we do it, there will always be someone looking down from their tower, judging. They yell down that we should be doing or that and they revel in their superiority, enjoying ever minute of it. But the truth is that when all is said and done, they're up in that tower alone. And when no one measures up, what a lonely life that must be.
There are some people in this world that want nothing more than to bring you down. They are sad, bitter, and insignificant. Rise above it. Pass it on.
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Just What I Need
I'm sure this has happened to you before. You look at your to-do list and you see all the things that you have to accomplish - prepare for recording the saxophones this weekend, prepare for recording the slide guitar next weekend, schedule and continue prepping for recording the string sections, work on some new songs, etc., etc., etc. - and then you get a cough. The cough soon progresses to include a headache, and then to full-body chills. Needless to say, this is bullshit. And yet here I am. I went to the studio last night and took care of a few things that need to get done because I had the sneaking suspicion that I would feel worse today. And I do.
So, here I sit, enjoying ginger ale & orange juice (my favorite drink when I'm sidelined by germs). I'm able to do a little passive work, but any kind of active work is pretty much a no-go, and working out is completely out of the question. I'm currently watching The Daily Show. Next is The Colbert Report. I've already watched She's Out Of My League (which was great, by the way). I'm writing this blog. I sent some emails, and I will probably send some more. But it's so frustrating being taken out of the game when you've got so many things to do.
How do you pass the time when you're stuck home sick?
So, here I sit, enjoying ginger ale & orange juice (my favorite drink when I'm sidelined by germs). I'm able to do a little passive work, but any kind of active work is pretty much a no-go, and working out is completely out of the question. I'm currently watching The Daily Show. Next is The Colbert Report. I've already watched She's Out Of My League (which was great, by the way). I'm writing this blog. I sent some emails, and I will probably send some more. But it's so frustrating being taken out of the game when you've got so many things to do.
How do you pass the time when you're stuck home sick?
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