THOUGHTS: Hip-Hop as a Tool

The first time I ever heard Hip-Hop my head exploded.  I couldn't get enough.  My neighbors had Fresh Prince and DJ Jazzy Jeff's "He's the DJ, I'm the Rapper" aaaaaaaand Beastie's "License to Ill".  I would hang out down there and play those tapes back to back to back.  Hip-Hop was the rebel soundtrack to my nice, white, safe life.

I always saw this music as a tool to get stuff done.  It was like a hammer that smashed everything as I knew it.  And I carried around this hammer all damn day.  It was always by my side.  Everyone made fun of my hammer and wondered why a white kid from the burbs would carry such a thing.  It only made me get a bigger hammer and swing it more often.  It's not something everyone can carry comfortably.  They didn't make em light and easy to hold in the early nineties.  But it didn't take long for a couple people to get one too.  They got tired of making fun of me and saw how fun it was to smash stuff.

Fast forward to the end of high-school and everyone has a hammer.  Every guy, every girl.  Every commercial, every show.  It was a little sickening.  My hammer looked cool still, but it wasn't my thing any more.  It was everyone's thing.  Oh well

THOUGHTS: The Religion of "DO".

How much stuff do you do in a day?  How much can you get done?  How many to-do lists can you blow through in a week?  I can get mad stuff done!  I can do and do and do.  All I do is do.  Word.  I wake up and check my list and do something on it.  Then I go on Facebook and post what i'm about to do and report to everyone when I'm doing it.  Oh man, it's so awesome to do stuff.  Then I sit back on the porch and look at my list and add more to-do's.  There is no endgame.  There is no cease to the tasks.

When I see a friend and say hi, they ask if i'm keeping busy. I say yes. If they don't ask, i just tell them how i'm stayin busy.  busy is good.  busy is safe.......

Here's some things I cannot do.  Build a fire from scratch.  Grow food.  Hunt food.  Build a house. Fight effectiviely.  I cannot stop Cancer.  I cannot stop AIDS, greed, poverty, malicious intent or any other evil behavior.  The things I pride my self on doing are basically just distractions while I learn how to relate to people.

MUSIC: Purging.....all of my music is now free.

I just put everything I've ever released on my bandcamp page.  It's all free too.

The idea is to purge it all and move on to music from a new angle.   I hope you stay tuned.  Actually, you should.  it's gonna be fun.

www.jdomusic.bandcamp.com

THOUGHTS: The Assassination of Creativity

 I just finished Post Office today and read the blurb on back under the picture of  Bukowski.  It said he didn't get published until he was 35.  It was a poem, then the novels came.  Supposedly he wrote Post Office in one weekend.  I wonder what he would say now about the word processors and e-books and tablets.....etc.  I wonder if he would have got stuck writing some obnoxious sitcom and lose his edge.

I hope Bukowski would take a look around this culture and ask "what happened?"  I want to know, what happened to creativity?  We've made contests out of every form of expression.  We tell people that if you cannot win this contest, you're not good.  Even cooking shows have a "gong" factor.  Cooking is a basic need!  We made a business out of music, writing and art.  We established a new "reality" where your personal expression has a monetary value.  This is bizarre.  And I fully admit this is coming from someone whose expression has a low market value.  You can't rate an expression of my soul.  But I suppose it's like the way certain style of women come and go as the new beauty.
70's- Farrah Fawcett
80's- Brooke Shields
90's- Pam Anderson
00's- Paris Hilton
10's- Kim Kardashian.

The spotlight switched.  Is that to say that Brooke Shields is no longer beautiful?  No, but she's not the new beauty.

I say all that to say this:  Be creative and forget about winning.

RANDOM- Movies I've been checkin

I love movies.  Sometimes more than music.  Sometimes more.  I can't think of life without them.  I watch a flick everyday.  These are a couple of my recent favorites.  I watched them a few times.

Here's a couple of movies you probably didn't know about and need to watch today.  I stumbled upon Harmony and Me thru a Netflix suggestion.  I heard of Brick from one of my customers.  The two are very different and equally creative and awesome.

Harmony and Me is a break-up movie with tons of subtle, awkward humor.  It stars Justin Rice who is actually the lead singer in a band called Bishop Allen from the Austin area.  I did a little research and found out the whole crew of people in this flick are from Austin.  Bob Byington is the writer/director.  He also plays the older brother.......Hilarious.  The movie also has an appearance from Bob Schneider, another singer/songwriter from the same town.  Look out for the wedding scene.  It was incredible to me.  simple, archaic, and funny.



Brick is a dialogue-driven, noir murder-mystery that plays out on a high school level.  Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the star of this one.  You saw him recently in Inception but he used to be the pipsqueak kid on 3rd Rock From the Sun.  Dude is serious.  I had to rewind a few scenes because i couldn't understand what the hell they were talking about.  Crazy dialogue.  Written and directed by a scarcely heard, Rian Johnson.   This movie slapped me in the face a bit.

WRITINGS- get going: lessons learned in a barber shop

I did a piece for my buddy's online mag last month.  It was supposed to be more story driven, but I couldn't get it there. #FAIL. Instead we used it as a basic blog entry for WWW.OCSPLORA.COM

I used to talk about opening a barbershop like I talked about skating the big half-pipe at 8-Ball Skate Park. I learned all the lingo, purchased a membership and climbed to the top of the ramp. But every single time I got there, I'd look down at the 12 inches of vert and say, “Nah, not today.” I 'd follow that up with a myriad of excuses: “Too many people are on this one, I'm tired, I could do it but I don't feel like it.” The truth is, I didn't know how. I loved the idea of it but never put practical methodology to my quest. More importantly, I didn't even know why I wanted to do it. So when I was asked to think about this piece it crossed my mind that I have no idea how to open a business. Honestly, I googled it. But I do know why I opened a business and how to navigate through trouble. Here's what I learned.......   

Read more at Ocsplora.com

POETRY: Broken Things

I watched a documentary about Charles Bukowski , "Born Into This".  He reminded me of my late grandfather so much, that I kept watching it night after night to feel like I was hanging with Grampa Bob again.  I learned something: I'm attracted to broken things and broken people.  I gravitate towards the low-life, late-night, dark bar rooms filled with men who can't seem to get it right.  Because somewhere in there, is a Bukowski, a Hunter, a Kerouac and their artistry.  After the 3rd night, I wrote this......

I'm attracted to broken things.
The one who played it safe, 
experience was not my teacher.

I'm attracted to broken things
and the exact point
where beauty pulls itself  from carnage.  

I'm attracted to broken things.
The assuredness of rock bottom
and the men who drink for work.

Men have never gotten over themselves.
The planet, the sun, the stars revolve around man
or so he would have them believe.