stephanie carlin

Doing what you love (but maybe you can't get paid for it)

The thing is, it's far easier than ever before to surface your ideas. Far easier to have someone notice your art or your writing or your photography. Which means that people who might have hidden their talents are now finding them noticed...

That blog you've built, the one with a lot of traffic... perhaps it can't be monetized.

That non-profit you work with, the one where you are able to change lives... perhaps turning it into a career will ruin it.

That passion you have for graphic art... perhaps making your painting commercial enough to sell will squeeze the joy out of it.

When what you do is what you love, you're able to invest more effort and care and time. That means you're more likely to win, to gain share, to profit. On the other hand, poets don't get paid. Even worse, poets that try to get paid end up writing jingles and failing and hating it at the same time.

Today, there are more ways than ever to share your talents and hobbies in public. And if you're driven, talented and focused, you may discover that the market loves what you do. That people read your blog or click on your cartoons or listen to your mp3s. But, alas, that doesn't mean you can monetize it, quit your day job and spend all day writing songs.

The pitfalls:

1. In order to monetize your work, you'll probably corrupt it, taking out the magic in search of dollars and

2. Attention doesn't always equal significant cash flow.

I think it makes sense to make your art your art, to give yourself over to it without regard for commerce.

Doing what you love is as important as ever, but if you're going to make a living at it, it helps to find a niche where money flows as a regular consequence of the success of your idea. Loving what you do is almost as important as doing what you love, especially if you need to make a living at it. Go find a job you can commit to, a career or a business you can fall in love with.

A friend who loved music, who wanted to spend his life doing it, got a job doing PR for a record label. He hated doing PR, realized that just because he was in the record business didn't mean he had anything at all to do with music. Instead of finding a job he could love, he ended up being in proximity to, but nowhere involved with, something he cared about. I wish he had become a committed school teacher instead, spending every minute of his spare time making music and sharing it online for free. Instead, he's a frazzled publicity hound working twice as many hours for less money and doing no music at all.

Maybe you can't make money doing what you love (at least what you love right now). But I bet you can figure out how to love what you do to make money (if you choose wisely).

Do your art. But don't wreck your art if it doesn't lend itself to paying the bills. That would be a tragedy.

(And the twist, because there is always a twist, is that as soon as you focus on your art and leave the money behind, you may just discover that this focus turns out to be the secret of actually breaking through and making money.)

And from a recent interview:

I wonder why anyone would hesitate to be generous with their writing. I mean, if you really want to make a living, go to Wall Street and trade oil futures ... We’re writers. We’re doing something that is inherently a generous act. We’re exposing ourselves to the muse and to the things that frighten us. Why do that if you’re not willing to be generous? And paradoxically, almost ironically, it turns out that the more generous you are, the more money you make. But that’s secondary. For me, the privilege of being generous is why I get to do this.

- THANK YOU, SETH GODIN!

Your assumptions about the lives of others are in direct relation to your naïve pomposity. Many people you believe to be rich are not rich. Many people you think have it easy worked hard for what they got. Many people who seem to be gliding right along have suffered and are suffering. Many people who appear to you to be old and stupidly saddled down with kids and cars and houses were once every bit as hip and pompous as you.

When you meet a man in the doorway of a Mexican restaurant who later kisses you while explaining that this kiss doesn't 'mean anything' because, much as he likes you, he is not interested in having a relationship with you or anyone right now, just laugh and kiss him back. Your daughter will have his sense of humor. Your son will have his eyes.

The useless days will add up to something. The shitty waitressing jobs. The hours writing in your journal. The long meandering walks. The hours reading poetry and story collections and novels and dead people's diaries and wondering about sex and God and whether you should shave under your arms or not. These things are your becoming.

One Christmas at the very beginning of your twenties when your mother gives you a warm coat that she saved for months to buy, don't look at her skeptically after she tells you she thought the coat was perfect for you. Don't hold it up and say it's longer than you like your coats to be and too puffy and possibly even too warm. Your mother will be dead by spring. That coat will be the last gift she gave you. You will regret the small thing you didn't say for the rest of your life.

Say thank you.

- Cheryl Strayed, via Brain Pickings

If we define anxiety as experiencing failure in advance, we can also understand its antonym, anticipation.

When you work with anticipation, you will highlight the highs. You'll double down on the things that will delight and push yourself even harder to be bold and to create your version of art. If this is going to work, might as well build something that's going to be truly worth building.

If you work with anxiety, on the other hand, you'll be covering the possible lost bets, you'll be insuring against disaster and most of all, building deniability into everything you do. When you work under the cloud of anxiety, the best strategy is to play it safe, because if (when!) it fails, you'll be blameless.

Not only is it more fun to work with anticipation, it's often a self-fulfilling point of view.

- Seth Godin

you are very courageous. look at you, in love with sick life, nursing it back to health, stroking it's hair, giving it kisses, holding it's hand as it sleeps. it coughs on you, throws up on you, but you love life, even when it's sick and for that you are very courageous.

Stephanie Carlin - The Knitting Factory August 26, 2012 from Toby Tobias on Vimeo.

New dates for a massive fall tour to be released soon. Very excited to be touring with the talented Jeffrey Gaines.

Much thanks to Liza and Zach at Inherent Artists Music for organizing a great tour.

The full band will be at CAFFE VIVALDI in the West Village on a special double bill with Kristin Hoffmann on Saturday, August 25 at 7:30pm.

get tickets fast they sell out

[Written by Sean Michaels. Full article at The Guardian]

Bob Dylan is "a plagiarist", Joni Mitchell said in a rare interview this week, offering cranky comments on old Bob and warm memories of Jimi Hendrix. The legendary singer-songwriter, who has wrestled with health problems, said she may quit music to lobby for recognition of her rare medical condition.

But let's begin with Dylan. Mitchell was speaking to the LA Times as part of a joint interview with performance artist John Kelly, who has performed Mitchell's songs in drag. The Times interviewer referred to Old Nasal Voice in passing, citing his name-change from Robert Zimmerman to Bob Dylan. (Mitchell also abandoned her birth name, Roberta Joan Anderson.) Mitchell launched into an unprovoked assault. "We are like night and day, he and I," she scoffed. "Bob is not authentic at all. He's a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception."

Cowed, the interviewer moved on to safer topics – such as Prince (apparently a Mitchell fan) and sex appeal. Yet Mitchell still had time to slag off Grace Slick and Janis Joplin (allegedly they were "[sleeping with] their whole bands and falling down drunk"), and Madonna. Railing against the "stupid, destructive" era we live in, Mitchell took aim at the Material Girl. "Americans have decided to be stupid and shallow since 1980. Madonna is like Nero; she marks the turning point."

It wasn't all piss and vinegar. Mitchell fondly recalled Hendrix, "the sweetest guy", and late-night listening sessions together. But even this memory is shaded in frustration. "He made his reputation by setting his guitar on fire, but that eventually became repugnant to him," she recalled. "'I can't stand to do that anymore,' he said, 'but they've come to expect it. I'd like to just stand still like Miles.'"

If Mitchell seems ornery, it may simply be because she is feeling better. Last year, the singer announced that she suffers from Morgellons syndrome, a rare skin condition. It's a controversial diagnosis – many doctors deny that Morgellons is real, calling it delusional. "[It's a] weird, incurable disease that seems like it's from outer space," Mitchell told the Times. "But my health's the best it's been in a while. Two nights ago, I went out for the first time since 23 December."

"Garbo and Dietrich hid away just because people became so upset watching them age, but this is worse," she said. "Fibres in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm: they cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. Morgellons is a slow, unpredictable killer – a terrorist disease: it will blow up one of your organs, leaving you in bed for a year."

"In America ... [doctors] send you to a psychiatrist," Mitchell explained. "I'm actually trying to get out of the music business to battle for Morgellons sufferers to receive the credibility that's owed to them." Then again, this campaign will need funding. Perhaps Bob Dylan could record a benefit album?

 SETH GODIN gives the gift of gentile reminders: we matter and we can make a difference, if we do the work.

 1. Set the alarm clock the night before. Don't set the clock when you're tired, set it when you are planning your day. Don't whittle away at your goals right after a serious rejection, set them when you're on a roll. The discipline is in obeying the rule you set when you were in a different mood than you are now. That's what makes it a rule as opposed to a guideline.

2. No Choice. "I had no choice, I just couldn't get out of bed." "I had no choice, it was the best program I could get into." "I had no choice, he told me to do it..." Really? Remarkable work often comes from making choices when everyone else feels as though there is no choice. Difficult choices involve painful sacrifices, advance planning or just plain guts. Saying you have no choice cuts off all options, absolves responsibility and is the dream killer.

3. Borrow money to buy things that go up in value, but never to get something that decays over time.

4. It's almost never necessary to use a semicolon. 

5. Seek out habits that help you overcome fear or inertia. Destroy those that do the opposite.

6. Backup your hard drive. 

7. Consider not eating wheat for an entire week. The results might surprise you.

8. Walk away from “Real” As in, "that's not a real football team, they don't play in Division 1" or "That stock isn't traded on a real exchange" or "Your degree isn't from a real school." Real contains all sorts of normative assumptions and implicit criticisms for those that don't qualify. Real is just one way to reject the weird. My problem with the search for the badge of real is that it trades your goals and your happiness for someone else's.

9. An endless series of difficult but achievable hills. Repeating easy tasks again and again gets you not very far. Attacking only steep cliffs where no progress is made isn’t particularly effective either. No, the best path is an endless series of difficult (but achievable) hills. There are plenty of obvious reasons why we avoid picking the right interim steps, why we either settle for too little or foolishly shoot for too much. Mostly it comes down to fear and impatience. The craft of your career comes in picking the right hills. Hills just challenging enough that you can barely make it over. A series of hills becomes a mountain, and a series of mountains is a career.

10. Rightsizing your passion. Excitement about goals is often diminished by our fear of failure or the drudgery of work. If you’re short on passion, it might be because your goals are too small or the fear is too big. Fear is the dream killer, the silent voice that pushes us to lose our passion in a vain attempt to seek safety. While you can work hard to dream smaller dreams, I think it's better to embrace the fear and find bigger goals instead.

11. In search of a timid trapeze artist. Good luck with that, there aren't any. If you hesitate when leaping from rope to another, you're not going to last very long. And this is at the heart of what makes innovation work in organizations, why industries die, and how painful it is to try to maintain the status quo while also participating in a revolution. Gather up as much speed as you can, find a path and let go. You can't get to the next rope if you're still holding on to this one.

12. People who know what they’re talking about… Almost always talk like they know what they're talking about. That's why it pays to invest more time than you might imagine on the vocabulary, history and concepts of your industry. Insider language, terms of art, the ability to use technical concepts... it matters. On the other hand, sounding like you're smart doesn't mean you are. Necessary but not sufficient.

13. Finishing well. It's not enough to finish the checklist, to hurrily do the last three steps and declare victory. In fact, the last coat of polish and the unhurried delivery of worthwhile work is valued all out of proportion to the total amount of effort you put into the project. It doesn't matter how many designers, supply chains, workers, materials and factories were involved--if the box is improperly sealed, that's how you will be judged.

14. Speechless. Unhappiness compounds. Unaddressed, it compounds into frustration. And frustration is the soul killer, the destroyer of worker and customer relationships, loyalty and progress. The solution is pretty simple: address the unhappiness. Change the system or talk about the problem or acknowledge it if that's all that can be done. None of this can happen, though, unless there's communication. Most open door policies are window dressing. Most, "is everything okay with your dinner?" is rote. True communication, actual intention (and action) in digging deeper, is difficult work. If it doesn't feel like you're working at it, you're probably not doing it right.

15. It’s never too late to start heading in the right direction.

we wrap up tracking my/our/the album "tree of series" this week - nine days in the studio, 15 songs, all performed live (the way music should be, ya know, with sick sweet energy and juicy vibe, all the ripe nectar drippin from the core)

i thank the following people for helping to shift and shape the sonic forms in my head onto tapes and hard drives: YA'LL NEED TO KNOW THE MONSTER BAND - russ flynn, wes reid, xander naylor, and javi santiago - they are sublime, each in their own right. go buy their albums. much gratitude to saxophonist josiah boornazian and trumpeter brandon sherman; kristin hoffmann for the sub/conscious singing bowl (no one will know and everyone will feel); the lovely back-up vocalists kim foxen, melissa johnston, and tara stephens; my fierce manager liza lee at inherent artists music management; and an extra special guttural roar for the king of the mixing board, sir pete thompson of hoboken recorders.

just you wait now

Recording the full-length at Hoboken Recorders, an old leather factory. Amazing space with such a chill vibe. You can't help but make profound music in this joint. Lucky Javi has a Steinway Parlor B grand piano, Fender Rhodes, and Wurlitzer 200A. Damnnnn.

Amazing night, great crowd.... Don't we look sweet? (thanks to steve cohen and molly pankok for pics!)

"We forget too often that our lives are just fictions, that this human life of ours – abstracted from the land, abstract in itself – is not grounded in reality, but in drama, illusion. Our lives are no different from dreams, a scattered blur from one meal to the next, from one conversation to the next, one megaplex, one strip mall, one coffee cup, one beer, one fix – a ceaseless drifting from sensation to sensation, a constant sating of the base desires.

We are raised in this “reality” so its contours are invisible to us. We see each moment but fail to see the unifying thread – the alienation of humanity from nature, the ills of domestication, the dependence of humans upon technological death machines to survive and a growing inability of these generations of young humans now in possession of the planet to connect to it in any living way. We have lost our ability to experience the grander trends as revealed through the almighty Moment. We cling to our petty satisfactions as a paddler fallen from a canoe clings to the rocks. We do not dare to imagine a life without pizza, ice cream, microwaves, transportation, convenience, comfort, ease.

The 21st century has been too kind to us so far. It holds new horizons for us as an übersoul and as an überspecies, but it remains pregnant with disaster. There must be wars, Great Wars, which span all frontiers, in which all are embroiled in conflict: the inner war spilling out into our long-abandoned commons, opening up doorways between men and women to converse freely, tearing down walls between minds and bodies, flesh and the soul. Bottles will be uncorked and men in pajamas will run terrified and bouyant through the streets. If there is not madness, there will be blood, midnight rivers of blood rushing mad like the Mississippi through the markets of the world, stampeding through those who stand still, toppling those who once towered above the meek and lowly, lifting the strong and light, buoying them up on its terrible tide …"

- Hudson Spivey

pre-order now!

Gather around the fireplace at LIC Bar's Carriage House for this holiday show featuring the 3 wise women of song: KRISTIN HOFFMANN, NLX, and STEPHANIE CARLIN. Come early - there is a free buffet offered, compliments of LIC Bar!

LIC Bar is located at 45-48 Vernon Blvd, Long Island City, Queens.

 Adbusters annual "Buy Nothing Day" has persevered for years as a a silent movement from the magazine's small but fiercely dedicated fan base. This year, it's different. This year, I am filled with love and pride as Occupy Wall Street encompasses this mantra into their formula for a new lifestyle, thus giving it a chance to bloom into a international movement. Here's what Adbusters had to say:

"You’ve been sleeping on the streets for two months pleading peacefully for a new spirit in economics. And just as your camps are raided, your eyes pepper sprayed and your head’s knocked in, another group of people are preparing to camp-out. Only these people aren’t here to support occupy Wall Street, they’re here to secure their spot in line for a Black Friday bargain at Super Target and Macy’s.

Occupy gave the world a new way of thinking about the fat cats and financial pirates on Wall Street. Now lets give them a new way of thinking about the holidays, about our own consumption habits. Lets’ use the coming 20th annual Buy Nothing Day to launch an all-out offensive to unseat the corporate kings on the holiday throne.

This year’s Black Friday will be the first campaign of the holiday season where we set the tone for a new type of holiday culminating with #OCCUPYXMAS. As the global protests of the 99% against corporate greed and casino capitalism continues, lets take the opportunity to hit the empire where it really hurts…the wallet.

On Nov 25/26th we escape the mayhem and unease of the biggest shopping day in North America and put the breaks on rabid consumerism for 24 hours. Flash mobs, consumer fasts, mall sit-ins, community events, credit card-ups, whirly-marts and jams, jams, jams! We don’t camp on the sidewalk for a reduced price tag on a flat screen TV or psycho-killer video game. Instead, we occupy the very paradigm that is fueling our eco, social and political decline.

Historically, Buy Nothing Day has been about fasting from hyper consumerism – a break from the cash register and reflecting on how dependent we really are on conspicuous consumption. On this 20th anniversary of Buy Nothing Day, we take it to the next level, marrying it with the message of #occupy…
We #OCCUPYXMAS.

Shenanigans begin November 25!"

“We are an exceptional model of the human race. We no longer know how to produce food. We no longer can heal ourselves. We no longer raise our young. We have forgotten the names of the stars, fail to notice the phases of the moon. We do not know the plants and they no longer protect us. We tell ourselves we are the most powerful specimens of our kind who have ever lived. But when the lights are off we are helpless. We cannot move without traffic signals. We must attend classes in order to learn by rote numbered steps toward love or how to breast-feed our baby. We justify anything, anything at all by the need to maintain our way of life. And then we go to the doctor and tell the professionals we have no life. We have a simple test for making decisions: our way of life, which we cleverly call our standard of living, must not change except to grow yet more grand. We have a simple reality we live with each and every day: our way of life is killing us.” 

The word "God" has been twisted into a nasty word by nasty religions. But really and truly, "God" is another word for your divine inner peace-strength, your self-esteem, your confidence, and those fleeting moments of enlightenment that make the suffering worthwhile. Sharon Gannon wrote the following. I urge you to not take this lightly, for it is the most important lesson one can learn.

We only really have one job in this life and that is to find God. Since God dwells within each one of us, we had better get inside as soon as possible, if we want to find what we are looking for. Run for cover; seek the solace, which is always waiting for you inside. Don't spend too much time out there looking around trying to find it. Valuable things, the important things that we think we have lost, are always found in the least expected places, the last places we would think to look.   
         The storm is coming-it might already be raging and you just haven't noticed in a while, or you might even consider yourself well aware that the storm is occurring but you think it is like the weather and there is nothing you or anyone can do about it. You think things just happen to you, the world is coming at you and you are a passive victim of circumstances, sometimes fortunate, sometimes unfortunate. You have heard optimistic people say that peace and love are possible. But the world is in such a mess, shouldn't we or somebody do something about all the violence, misery and unfairness in the world, first, before we go inside and sit down cozy by the fire with a cup of tea? 
         Everything you see is a projection coming from inside of you. If you don't like what you see out there, the best way to change it is by doing your best to change the inside first. If you want the world to be a peaceful place, you must be a peaceful person, before you expect others to be. Once you have found the inner peace-the inner joy inside of yourself-you are able to move in the world from a place of spiritual activation. You embody that which you want to see in others and the world. God is the source of that inner peace and joy; joy is the nature of God, and you and God are one (that's the meaning of yoga). When you act from that serene inner reality, you can then see the world realistically: you stop blaming others, you stop being angry, judgmental or upset with others and instead you find creative ways to increase your inner joy.  If instead you search for God (peace, love, happiness, joy) outside of yourself and try to find happiness and fulfillment in things, situations and other people that appear separate from you, you will eventually, but inevitably, become disappointed, disillusioned and perhaps even cynical. When that occurs you will lose your faith in life, feeling that it has no meaning and there is no lasting happiness or joy to be found. 
         Often times it takes a violent storm for one to seek shelter. There are many accounts of people who have gone through a traumatic experience-an accident, the death of a loved one or a serious illness-which instigated a mystical or transcendental realization, forcing them to go inside and reevaluate the purpose of their life. 
         Okay, so you're convinced that it is important to go inside-you have answered the why of the situation, but what about the how?  How do we "go inside?" Patanjali says, Give up and take refuge in God (PYS 1.23). But that brings us back to where we started, because we don't know how to find God. Patanjali of course gives meditation as a means to find the inner Self, as does Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. But what if I'm a person who has a lot to do, I have children and a job and not much time, and I can't seem to meditate long enough or good enough to begin to feel that inner peace, then what-am I destined to be lost and unhappy? Is there something else I can do? Yes! Krishna says, Keep doing what you do, but remember me while you are doing it (BG XII.10). You don't have to divide your day into spiritual activities at one time and mundane work or entertaining distractions at other times; all of your life, every moment, can be a spiritual practice, if you can remember God. 
         I once heard an interview on the radio with Alice Coltrane or Swami Turiyasangitananda, which was her spiritual name. The interviewer was asking her about her prolific musical accomplishments and had cited a list of many recordings she had done and performances that had happened or were scheduled to happen, as well as a recent book she had authored. The interviewer then said, "You have been so busy, how do you keep it all together and get so much done?" To which Alice responded in her characteristic voice, which was so slow and serene, "I only have one job and that is to get to God, and that is a full-time job!" 
         -Sharon Gannon 

Spearhead (Mother & God) - Hurricane Demo by stephaniecarlinsucks

Nothing fun happens on my bed except late-night recording sessions with too much hi-end and lots of reverb. Enjoy these two demos of some good stuff to come.

"Body of Lead" demo (August 23 session) by stephaniecarlinsucks
"Being" (((ramble demo))) by stephaniecarlinsucks

Sea and the Rhythm (iron&wine cover) by stephaniecarlinsucks

101 backers (6 are not listed).

$5,215 and 104% funded.

Holy, holy crap. Thank you.

And come party.

Kickstarter Celebration Party
May 28, 2011 8pm - midnight
Abigail Cafe & Wine Bar
807 Classon Ave
(at St Johns Pl)
Free ($10 food/drink min)

Featuring the sounds of:
Fifth Nation http://www.fifthnationmusic.com
Redlight Cinema http://redlightcinema.net
Spiff Weigand http://spiffwiegand.com
Cherisse Bradley...
and myself.

KCK.ST/YEEHAWSTEPH c'mon babes.... run the mile with me.

Pre-gaming for three sets at the Montauk Music Festival 2011, I decided to use the last 16% of my MacBook battery recording beach car rehearsals. Sure enough, the footage from the actual show at Montauk Music Festival was too loud and obnoxious, filled with me yelling at people and then sobbing in the corner.

NINE DAYS LEFT on the Kickstarter. Toss over a couple bucks here: kck.st/yeehawsteph

A simple youtube search will show that there are a lot of good covers of this song out there.... Madeleine Peyroux, Metric, Benji Madden (huh?)... there's also that beautiful secret one of Taylor Eigsti out there in the abyss.... I just wanted to add one to the pile.

Prospect Heights Patch published this article today about the Kickstarter campaign. Ten days left, ya'll! Thank you for your 60% support. Not to be greedy, but I lose all the money if I can't get the other 40%. We're in the home stretch!

http://prospectheights.patch.com/articles/prospect-heights-songstress-finds-modern-way-to-fund-album

Trying out a snippet of the new "Toxic" arrangement for the first time. Now if only we can swing it....

Stephanie Carlin (vocals) // Greg Lewis (piano) // Carlo DeRosa (bass) // Dominic Rubano (drums)

19 days left to get cool rewards in exchange for funding steph's album: kck.st/yeehawsteph. we need you.

filmed at Kumble Theatre for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn, NY 06 may 2011 credit: ulf backstrom and charles jones

Seth Godin posted this today:

What's the point of popular?

I gigged over in Lancaster, PA a few weeks ago and sat down with Jason Mundock of the "Around the Wood Stove" podcast series. Jason and I had a very thoughtful and thorough interview about "the Agony and Ecstasy of" and the upcoming plans for the album. For my thousands of Pennsylvanian admirers, the interview will be aired on Saturday May 14 on WPAZ in Pottstown, PA at 9:30 a.m. - you can listen to the station's audio stream here http://www.wpazradio.com/.

On a side note, holy crap, the Kickstarter is 43% funded at $2,125. Amazing. 

East (w/ Eddie Alsina) by stephaniecarlinsucks

22 days. Fuel the Fire.

UPDATE - best piece of hate mail from this video: "alright b&*$h i really didnt mind it until song for terrorism !? what the f*#k do you know to say anything yu dumba*( c*&t a poorman was killed today under the power of a nasty man that is CONTINUING to plan your doom as well so good f&kkin luck thinkin how yu do when it all calls for judgement the man yu support isnt gonna digg yu outta hell goodbye yur terrorizing with yur badjudgement unto others for personal gain do something productive nd make something real or yu'll never find true security f*&k offf"

25 days left. Fuel the fire.

 rehearsal 4/28 - burn (ray lamontagne doodle) <-- soundcloud

Noodling around in yester's day, I found myself unable to sulk because the very ordinary couple sitting next to me at the coffee shop were ordinarily arguing, something about pedophilia and mission statements, I'm not sure, the man had a hoodie on and the lady kept saying "I am not kissing you, ugh" except it probably should have looked like "i am, lyke, NOT KISSING YOU, lyke what the hell, fuck." She said her first kiss was in a closet.

Anyway, I went home because ordinary-looking whiny 20-something ladies piss me off, so I went home, so I played Ray LaMontagne's "Burn" four hundred times in my kitchen. Then I recorded it over and over again until GarageBand crashed and my harddrive was full. Then I didn't bother to compress or mix it, and posted it on this blizzog.

If you like it, you should just listen to it over and over again or give me $10 on my Kickstarter, or do both. 

26 days left. Fuel the Fire.

The innocent mistake that keeps us caught in our own particular style of ignorance, unkindness, and shut-downness is that we are never encouraged to see clearly what is, with gentleness. Instead, there's a kind of basic misunderstanding that we should try to be better than we already are, that we should try to improve ourselves, that we should try to get away from painful things, and that if we could just learn how to get away from the painful things, then we would be happy. That is the innocent, naive misunderstanding that we all share, which keeps us unhappy.

- Pema Chodron, "The Wisdom of No Escape"

welcome to my "blog," where i will proclaim insanely impractical ramblings for you to amuse yourself with.

things i will not talk about in this blog:
- what i ate for breakfast
- charlie sheen
- republicans
- the playboy-themed bar mitzvah i went to this weekend
- rebecca black
- williamsburg

things i will talk about in this blog:
- music. lots of music. also, music.
- hot shows by hot artists in the hot city of new york
- dudes i hook up with and why they're irritating
- republicans
- why (1) individualism is dead, (2) capitalism has failed, and (3) democracy is a hoax
- how to get zach galifianakis to take me to bed
- unexplainable commonplace miracles
- art

GO TO THIS SHOW Spine-tingling musical lover-duo Fifth Nation debut their new CD tonight at BAM Cafe, Brooklyn, 9pm. Free.