New Year's/New Life's Resolution/Incomprehensible Gibberish

Strange serpents glide like kites through marshy mountain meadows all the while a queen is crying in her mansion of marigolds.  There is nothing quite like the demise of the lizard while it flies, spitting lies like alibis across the hearts and ears of mankind.  There is nothing like the mystery of the sea as it swims and squirms underneath a midnight moon like a big balloon fit to burst but past its worst, alive and dead, trapped in a hearse.   

That was nonsense, it's called skywriting, you just write what comes to mind without thinking about it, it's pretty fun.  anyways,  i haven't blogged for a while, because i haven't really had anything to say worth reading, and the above nonsense probably qualifies as not worth reading as well, but it's all good.  I've been thinking of the lyrics to that great Lennon Christmas song, (War Is Over/This is Christmas) "and so this is Christmas, and what have you done, another year over and a new one just begun." It's a simple lyric, but it gets me thinking about the passage of time, and how every year at this time, the earth has almost made a complete revolution around the sun, and people have changed, progressed and regressed, learned, and grown, expanded and contracted, been born and died, laughed and cried (that last one is regrettably cliche, but the rhyme was there, and i simply cannot help myself).  I like the line, "what have you done," because it is a call to assess what you have accomplished and in what ways you have developed.  It's pretty odd how much can change in a year's time: circumstances, friends, significant others, musical tastes, economic states, Britney Spears' degree of insanity, the list goes ever on.  I suppose this is a premature New Year's Resolution, nay, this is a New Life's Resoultion. (yes, i used the word nay, be envious) It is as follows: talk to more beautiful girls, read more, try harder, listen to more jazz, treat everyone with kindness, even if they are baguettes of douche, listen to what people have to say, consciously try to live up to idealistic New Life's Resolution points, play as many gigs as possible, find drummer and bassist, go to school, try in school, don't be a douchebag, don't be arrogant, try hard at work, become a server, move out,  bring blues rock back to the masses, get in touch with God more often, laugh a lot, make people laugh, see John Mayer live, go to as many shows as I can, continue towards my dream, become a top secret ninja.

Note: new song on my page, it's an Alicia Keys cover, check it out: drewgrovermusic

Damn Right I've Got The Blues

I wrote a song today called "I Don't Need No Woman" that was inspired by a song called "Come Home" by a great young British blues rock trio called Back Door Slam.  Musically, it's similar but thematically and lyrically it's actually sort of the opposite of Back Door Slam's song.  It's a blues tune, I've been wanting to write a solid sounding blues song for a while because as far as guitar playing goes, (apart from songwriting) the blues is my basis.  I use blues riffs for all my lead playing, but i just haven't felt like i had the blues wherewithal to start writing songs in that genre.  But it has all been coming together recently and this is my first stab at a blues song, I hope you enjoy it.  myspace.com/drewgrovermusic

Michael Buble cover

I recorded a cover of Michael Buble's song "Everything" Take a listen if you'd like, just click here

New Song

I wrote a new song today, and recorded it, if you want to take a listen, click here  

Epictetus

M manager at work loaned me this book of philosophy called The Art Of Living by Epictetus. Epictetus was a Greek slave who was mentally gifted and earned his freedom through his studying.  He later established his own university and taught for many years; one of his pupils was Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (who became ruler of the Roman Empire).  Epictetus' foundation for his philosophy was the notion that every person, regardless of social status, had the capacity for living a noble, fulfilling, and ultimately joyful life.  He taught that peoples' perceptions of who you are are irrelevant and wrong, just as your perceptions of people are irrelevant and wrong.  He taught that self-improvement (constant progress, not perfection) was of the noblest human endeavors.  I love his teachings, I want to apply them to my life,  I have a long way to go on the road of self-actualization, (becoming the best possible version of myself) but this book is very helpful.  For instance, he writes "Content yourself with being a lover of wisdom, a seeker of the truth....Do not try to seem wise to others.  If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes."

Something he wrote that really hit me was "If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you...People don't have the power to hurt you."  Another great quote is that "The surest sign of the higher life is serenity. Moral progress results in freedom from inner turmoil. You can stop fretting about this and that."  His teachings are something anyone can greatly benefit from, he didn't believe that enlightenment and peace are limited to the intelligent, or the artistically  gifted.  In fact, he believed that often times people of intellect, or other gifts, are very unhappy despite seeming as if they have envious qualities.  His teachings are quite simple, and i believe therein lies their subtle wisdom.  

I was struck by a madman

Today, after my bank transaction of ungodly amounts of money, i was strolling carelessly to my car, when BAM! I was hit by a shabby purple pick-up truck,  the driver threw it into reverse and gunned it without looking,  he had even picked up about fifteen feet of momentum before he hit me! Then we made eye contact, and i figured "okay, great I'll get an apology, his window is down," but no no, he said "Better keep running," in a voice that was as friendly as your local Department of Maniacal Villains (that is a DMV reference). Flabbergasted at not receiving my due apology, i just sort of frowned and looked around, surely someone saw this nonsense.  He just hit me and told me to keep running! But there were no witnesses, just the guy's friend in the passenger seat of his beautiful piece of American engineering.  So, I shook it off and hopped into my Ranger.  And then, while cruising around to the soulful music of Mr. Ray Lamontagne,  i decided that some people are simply unreasonable.  To put it bluntly and eloquently, some people just suck. I mean if i hit a pedestrian in my car, i would definitely apologize, i would probably get out to make sure they were okay too. In hindsight, I'm a little surprised he didn't just keep going until he made a pancake of me.  So, readers beware, there is a madman driving a decaying purple pick-up truck hellbent on striking pedestrians with his mobile of madness.

What I'm Listening To

I like to share good artists that people may not know of.  Check out Joe Purdy, his music gives me chills, man's got soul.  (Ode To Sad Clown is amazing)  Also, Ray Lamontagne is another gem, his music goes straight to your bones.  Damien Rice is a favorite of mine, (there is so much good music in Ireland it makes me want to hop on a plane and see what it's all about) he writes the most emotionally powerful songs i have ever heard, literally.  Snow Patrol is a great band from Ireland, their leadman and songwriter Gary Lightbody is another writer who is so good sometimes it hurts.  Their instrumental passages are also beautiful and progressive, colorful, and relaxing, always a good listen, those guys are excellent musicians.  Let's see Jon Foreman's solo material is fantastic, very raw, acoustic stuff that is very mellow and at times emotionally poignant.  Foreman is the lead singer of Switchfoot, a very good band from San Diego, they're pretty big though so you may not have needed that information.  Dustin Kensrue has a solo album that has some great tracks, pure American folk, think Springsteen without the E street band.  Anything by Mason Jennings is worth your money, (or the time it takes to download) I recommend his new album In The Ever, very spiritual, very good folk music.  And of course, anyone who knows me knows I am a huge John Mayer fan, his songwriting is perhaps as good as his virtuosic guitar playing, which is absolutely jaw dropping.  He is reviving the blues for a lot of people, and I am stoked because the blues is pure.  John Mayer Trio's Live Album Try! is the best contemporary blues album in years.  Don't write him off as some celebrity-dating pretty boy, he is a great musician.  "Continuum" has a track called "Stop This Train" that when i first heard it, actually drew some eye 'sweat' .  Lisa Hannigan, an Irish singer who sings with Damien Rice and Gary Lightbody, has a gorgeous voice, and one day she is going to marry me.  I have an enormous crush on her, she's amazing.  

check out my songs

i have some songs that i wrote and recorded on my laptop on this page.  they are poor quality, and unpolished but eventually i will have better recording equipment.

myspace.com/drewgrovermusic

Thoughts on Education

I wrote this for my English class           

 

            Jean-Jacques Rousseau believed people are inherently good-natured, caring, and inquisitive creatures.  He felt that our education systems taught children to become useful to society, but that they stifled true learning and the natural methods of enlightenment.  Rousseau’s writings and thoughts have influenced thousands of people but have not had a considerable impact upon the way education is run in America.  America’s education system is the very kind of systematic, institutionalized sort of anti-learning organization Rousseau was writing about in the eighteenth century. 

            Education has become a stifling system of monotonous and tedious routines executed over and over again and repeated until one has given up on their absurdity or either endured the anathema right up until they are given their hard earned right to be come over-qualified and under-paid.  A truly fantastic system for encouraging learning!  From personal experience, I know that we are taught how to glean facts from selected readings and learn what the state has decided is prudent for our societal development, we are not taught how to formulate our own ideas, nor are we stressed the importance of self education.  The autodidactic learner died with our founding fathers.  Today we are a nation of ignorant, illiterate people dependent upon others to tell us what to believe, and this is the result of years and years of an educational system that rivals the creativity of, well….insert inanimate object here. 

            Rousseau suggested a form of education that nurtured to children’s natural tendencies to explore and ask questions.  He felt that forcing them to sit still in rows and be quiet while they were spoken to was against their already reliably probing personalities.  This is very true, people should not abhor learning, but because of the way in which we are exposed to ‘learning’ most people do.  I have learned so much more on my own accord than I have ever learned in a classroom, it makes me furious.  By the time I was in high school I was pointing out spelling and other grammatical errors in my English teachers’ lessons. Go America.

            Of course, there are teachers who do their best to give their students an experience the likes of which would make Rousseau proud, but their efforts are limited by the impositions of the state.  Impositions which are made perhaps with the best of intentions, perhaps not, but either way, their effects have wreaked havoc upon the cumulative intelligence of the world’s people and their posterity.  Questioning the status quo has always been the impetus behind the most revolutionary changes of society.  Sadly, I believe there are a dwindling number of people who challenge the effectiveness and motives behind popular education. 

            If one were to ask ten ambitious academics at any prestigious school in the country why they have applied themselves so assiduously to their work, I would wager that nine of them would tell you “so I can get a good job”.  That is perhaps the root of our problem, people dedicate themselves to earning good grades (whatever the hell those represent) in order to get into a respected and venerable college, and once there they slave over their work like passionless robots until they have powered through years of toil and torture.  Upon graduation they use their degree to finally procure for themselves a job with a respectable salary, or perhaps they go to law school, or medical school, of course for fiscal reasons once more.  It is love of money, not learning that propels the ‘exemplary’ student forward, it is not honorable perseverance nor demonstration of work ethic, it is vanity.  

            Albert Einstein was a poor student, and a tremendous learner, as was Rousseau and countless other writers and artists.  Education is another extension of the superfluous appendages hanging from the dead tree of society.  There is no truth in it, there is no progress, there is regress, and for the thinking, impassioned individual of the mind there is a long arduous struggle against an unseen entity. 

A Poem

I wrote this poem recently after reading some Walt Whitman (he is the poet that Nicholas Sparks' character Noah Calhoun reads from in Sparks' book The Notebook). Whitman is a man's poet, his writing is great and proves that poetry is not created and enjoyed only by those with two X chromosomes.  

                                                            Blue Song

 

My song is slow and peaceful, blue like the whisperings of the night sea.

My song is comfortable and unconcerned, it does not play as often as I’d like

It floats on a breeze and is often unaccompanied but relishes instrumental help

It is old and has been played many times before, but it is also unique

It knows who it is and thinks not of comparisons, it simply is.

It is full of emotion and sometimes indecipherable, but there is understanding for those   

          who will listen

There is learning in its simplicity and wisdom in its lack of knowledge.

It is two friends on fire sharing a warm blanket underneath a starry sky

It is two lovers sharing their day atop a world of wonder, senselessness, and pain

It is a man searching up and down for meaning and yearning for the pure love of God,

            All the while walking forward through wolves and waterfalls.

It is a sunset bleeding crimson and peeling orange over a city that is busy watching

television on plush couches.

It is a woman who knows she is not society’s doll

It is rivers running free and fast, never looking back, spilling over into torrid terrain,

Splashing equanimity like droplets of justice.

Stirring something deep within that you are not even conscious of,

Speaking to your soul like the best friend you will ever know. 

It is not formatted or structured, there is no planning, it is spontaneous and fluid, it is a

deep, dark, river of connectivity that glows brightly inside of you.

It is the vitreous veins of our sensitive condition.

It is the silver glass through which is reflected universally the caustic longing, the great

rejoicing, the hysterical laughter, the uninhibited weeping, the epic and rollicking

story of  failure, triumph, mystery, searching, finding, running, and resting.

 

Divided We Stand

I am bothered and unnerved with the level of dissension amongst Americans.  This country was founded upon precepts of justice, equality, and unity.  Today, there is such an influx of intolerance and ignorance it makes my head spin.  It makes me wonder how history has taught us so little, how, after the tragedy of the Holocaust genocide, the world stood by while people were 'systematically eliminated' in Darfur and Rwanda.  For perhaps the first time in American history our morals are as bankrupt as our banks.  I wonder why it seems to be the pattern of humanity to fear and hate that which is different.  Bob Dylan told us "don't criticize what you can't understand,"  I think often of that, and certainly at times I'm guilty of criticizing  what i simply do not understand, but i want that to end.  I am no politician, I am neither Republican nor Democrat, I am neither liberal nor conservative, and perhaps neither right nor wrong.  I guess what I'm saying is that America likes to say that 'united it stands', but the very foundation of our government is contingent upon two disparate political parties.  Our government operates under a pretense of unity, but in truth it is divided right down the middle like a chasm carved through the floor of a desert.  We post our flags in our yards and flaunt our differences of opinion, we are adamant upon separating ourselves from each other. Perhaps in truth we all just want to belong to a group, we want to feel a part of something.  We want to associate ourselves with a tribe, per se.  People display this desire as early as grade school, go to any school in the country and you will find that the athletes associate with the athletes, the theatre kids gallivant about with their thespian comrades, and the nerds play Dungeons and Dragons in the library with the other nerds.  We all want a tribe, and when we grow up and become adults we want to associate ourselves with adult tribes, like elephants and donkeys.  I mean, it all seems quite childish.  The Republicans and the Democrats have so much more in common than they acknowledge.  They should find common ground in their humanity, in their American nationality, in their love of this country, but they do not.  Instead they regard each other with animosity, because they belong to different tribes.  Divided we stand on crippled legs atop a world of ruin and beauty. 

 Belief is and will always be the prevailing killer of the innocent here upon this planet, and the reigning rapist of rights.  Belief drove planes into the World Trade Towers on September 11th, belief killed millions of Jews in the Holocaust, belief turned human beings into slaves for hundreds of years, and belief is threatening to take the rights of the innocent again in the year 2008.  Belief is a scary, amorphous enemy that lurks inside the brain and metastasizes into the heart.  And sadly, I don't think there will ever be revealed an antidote.  Keep this in mind, a fundamentalist is someone who knows they are right, and entertains no other possibilities.   I am sure of only this, I know next to nothing, and my ramblings may not even make sense, there is undoubtedly no resolution to my conjectures, and most of it is probably a cyclical carousel of logic that leaves many more questions than answers, and that is precisely why I will never stop writing, or reading!  There are too many unanswered questions!  Thanks for staying with me to the end of this rhapsody.  

Blue Like Jazz

I was in Barnes and Noble recently because I was in need of a good book and stumbled upon a title that caught my eye: Blue Like Jazz. I thought that was an awesome title, it captured the feeling of jazz music, that feeling you get when you hear someone close their eyes, contort their face and travel into that wonderful world of notes and sounds that transcend what their mouths and fingers are actually doing. Good jazz musicians, perhaps even more than others, feel the music, you can see it on their face if you watch them play live, and you can hear it in their music.  Like the blues, jazz is a style that is so feeling based, hell, it doesn't even fit into the rules of music theory, it's sort of a mystery, and i think it's very telling that both the blues and jazz were created by black slaves.  They created something lasting and beautiful in the midst of one of the biggest injustices humanity has ever seen.  (such a shame that today's generation of young black people are more into songs about getting drunk in the club that have no instruments in them at all). Seriously, I wonder what B.B. King and Buddy Guy think when they turn on the radio and hear Lil Wayne rap about his money and his bitches. Miles Davis and John Coltrane must be up in heaven jamming on their saxes and thinking of ways to bring jazz back. But anyways, I finished Miller's book Blue Like Jazz and am reading another of his called Through Painted Deserts currently, but Blue Like Jazz is full of witty, funny, and uncommonly honest writing.  It is a memoir, written in a really unstructured way that makes it even more interesting to read.  The book deals with many large ideas: God, spirituality, the flaws and deterrents of organized religion, life, love, and relationships, all without ever becoming even remotely bombastic, or annoyingly profound.  He writes very earnestly and doesn't come off as some pretentious theologian spurning all humanity for their endless array of sinful characteristics.  He is very human, and does not try to transcend said human condition with high-sounding syntax and a persistence on his own godliness.  Rather, he acknowledges the frustrations of his own humanity and the mystery of God and the universe.  He talks about his flaws with a sense of humor and reveals his doubts, fears, and insecurities in an endearing way that is easy to connect with and relate to.  I highly suggest Blue Like Jazz for anyone interested in a thought-provoking, funny, and entertaining read.  

Myspace has brought me here

I think i might be the youngest (i.e. dorkiest) blogger on blogger.com, but that will not phase me.  I love writing and it is fun to have a place to post things besides myspace, because most posts on myspace are about as shallow as a shower and as thought provoking as table salt.  My blogs are not littered with phrases like "i totally stay away from like drama...and like i know how everyone totally says that, but seriously i hate it...." Searching myspace for quality writing is like sifting for gold on the moon, which I'm fairly certain is lacking in gold.  So, anywho, I'm a big fan of words, playing with them, looking at them, speaking with them, (occaisonally) and posting blogs keeps me busy and keeps my writing chops up, so that, coupled with my intense hatred of myspace 'literature' ,(loose terminology) has led me to join the blogger.com bandwagon. Please tolerate my sometimes pointless, seemingly arbitrary, nearly always venting, posts. Gracias, and me aculpa in advance for any offensive things i am bound to say.