Man, everybody's so smart on the Internet! It can be pretty daunting to even know what to write about sometimes. You don't have to search that deep and you can find basically any opinion on any topic, and of course a bunch of folks arguing about it all, sounding so sure of themselves.
What if you've never felt quite so sure about yourself? Or anything, for that matter. What do you write about? And where do you write about it? Is anyone interested in hiring a writer who has only questions and not answers? I have a few strong opinions, but not really too much drive to convince people of them, because I'm not entirely sure (ha) that type of stuff matters at all. I get confused by people who seem to spend a solid chunk of their lives working to convince others of their version of the Truth (which may not necessarily be bad. Though, don't a lot of those people seem to be pushing some kind of short-term agenda? It's very small numbers of these folks who appear to care about You.) So, let's say you convince enough people of your agenda, and then let's say you get some money, or time in the spotlight, or whatever the hell it is that you wanted. Then what? I'd guess that feels good for a while. But does it feel good enough? Isn't it way more exciting to want than to have? It feels like history has that pretty much proven solid. So, what do you want next after you got what you wanted?
I think I'd love it, for instance, if people listened to way less digital music and spent more time with what I think is a more fulfilling sound (records and tapes), but I don't have any desire to be the kind of guy who tells you what's best, because I really only know what's best for me, given 30 years of experience living inside this body and mind. I have yet to live inside someone else's body/brain, as far as I know. Even if I did honestly feel like I knew what was best for you, I'd rather you discovered it on your own anyway.
This seems to be turning into an exercise in writing whatever pops into my noggin.
I think what I wanted when I was younger was to tour in a rock band and write novels and stories, and my desires didn't really go much farther than that. So far I've done both of those to varying degrees of success, depending on your perspective. I consider myself truly lucky, so I'm a happy guy (I'm also in a fair amount of debt). When I think about it, I'm utterly overwhelmed by how many folks want to do these things that I love, by how much media gets created on an hourly basis. A lot of it's completely devoid of actual human feelings and just wants to be noticed, a lot of it is truly fantastic, and potentially the cream eventually rises to the top, but I am becoming less sure (here were are again) of that. I love what I'm creating, but it's hard to feel good about adding even more to the big ol' pile of creativity.
I don't enjoy self-promotion, though I still do it from time to time. It's a strange space to be in, wanting simultaneously to be noticed for things I've created and for everyone to just go away and leave me in my imagined writer's cabin (but please oh please come back and purchase my things so I can eat and pay off that debt!). And then there's the anxiety that my negative desire to self-promote could be interpreted by my friends and family as a fervent desire to keep them utterly in the dark about the things I've created. That's so far from the truth it's kind of funny, and somehow I doubt anyone I know believes that about me, but that's the thing about anxiety...it lies to you.
This post is a lot like most of the things I create in that it's purest intention is just to be something for me, and I'd usually tuck it away without posting. But I'm beginning to want to share all these thoughts, and share more of the stuff I've been creating for the last 10 years or so. Maybe in 2014 I'll actually share this novel I've been working on for so long. It could happen! Anyway, in the sharing spirit here's a couple tunes I was a part of that came out in 2013, and I am Quite proud to share them with ya'll.
