Life is really too short. We had a fantastic end of the year Tour and Cd release for the school and while words are far too inadequate to express the goodness that transpired I will try my best to explain the title of this blizzog.
I have seen (or "We Have Seen") people come together with the hope that they could do this thing. By "this thing" I guess I mean people pursuing their dreams. Graduation is a sad but beautiful thing. Everybody is leaving (more or less) and while you wish it could last forever or you just beat yourself up for the multitude of things you could have done differently it really is the beginning of Hope. The Hope that whatever love or desires that God has put in you could be real. Parents likely (and sometimes accurately) dismiss idealistic views that "maybe I could be a musician or artist of sorts and be successful". Somewhere in the middle of pursuing "happiness" and "success" or even "responsibility" lies an actual "life" sometimes without any apparent or tangible achievement. That's probably hard to understand since I have like a 4th grade South Carolina public school way of writing but the pressure we feel to succeed is real. Unfortunately that pressure is to most often be something nowhere close to what we really want to be.
Maybe we aren't capable. Maybe its just too hard to "make it". Maybe its just a ridiculous dream and we should grow up. I have a great job. I have had great jobs before this one. I have also worked at freaking McDonalds and Shoney's and one thing is becoming more and more apparent. You can do anything you want to and perhaps even more accurately you are already doing what you want to do. Read into that as far as you like. It is more work to go and get a job busing tables than it is to get a gig playing music at a coffee house or bar or wherever. Granted you need more than one gig every 3 months to make ends meet (or even just a free meal) but it is a lot easier than putting on some smelly uniform everyday or wearing some starched shirt with little more than "security" in sight.
As a Christian I think I bought in to "Waiting on the Lord" or some other lame way of just letting time pass by. I don't wait on the Lord to eat or to sleep or meet any other needs that are commonplace so should I wait on him to pursue being the very person he has made me? I realize not everyone really wants to pursue a lofty dream but I doubt they want to pursue a data entry job either. I could tell myself all day long (and I do) that I am too old and bald and bashful to be what I really want to be but the reality is I am who I want to be I am just doing a piss poor job at it.
Unless you want to be a train hopping hobo you will have to get a job. And then you will need to move up in that job to make more loot and whatnot so why not put that kind of effort into putting on a robot outfit and rapping about social injustice or if you have nigh a creative bone in your body but still love singing and playing music then just seriously learn the iTunes top 100 downloads and go play covers? Somebody will be rocking out tomorrow night at a concert venue and someone else will be delivering pizzas or sitting at home watching some lame show like "Lost". More realistically that is probably the same person trying to pay rent while doing what they love but nonetheless you will wake up tomorrow and decide to waste the day or write the next summer love anthem.
If you are/were a student please look at graduation as a release of sorts to pursue your dreams. It absolutely does not have to end now. Regardless of what anyone tells you fun time is not over and now you should put on a tie or pantsuit and get a real job. And if you do, unplug your TV (unless movies are a source of inspiration rather than escape) when you come home and get some gigs lined up and make a record. Nothing is harder than looking in the mirror and seeing someone who you don't want to be.
I love you more than I regretfully have shown and I hope that you would please for the Love of God really surrender to who he has made you. You could have written a song or painted a picture in the time it took to read this crappy blog. I could have done the same.
-Jonathan
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Skateboarding and the 90's
We (OES) Just got back from a trip to Tampa that has rekindled several things in my life, skateboarding being the only one I can seem to make any sense of so here it is.
We stopped at Urban Outfitters in Ybor City (pronounced eee-bore) on the trip and much to my delight I got a chance to gaze upon a book written solely about skateboard art. It was like going back in time. I think I had forgotten just how much I loved skateboarding. Sometimes (like twice) I get the the chance to skateboard with Chris Dobson and I always say "Skateboarding is the best thing ever" but the fullness of its glory is often overshadowed by X-Games and sports drinks. And kids who don't skate but wear skate shoes because they are cool, nevermind the fact that I/we were ridiculed for their lack of a "Swoosh™" back in the day and now they sometimes have the said "Swoosh™".
When I was younger (before the beautiful Graphical user interface that computers now have) I/we would get CCS catalogs in the "mail" from time to time and they were received with such joy that a visual memorization of every board graphic and shoe model was due. The majority of the skateboarding industry was and still is based in Southern California and for po-dunk rural South Carolina kids CCS, Transworld and Thrasher was our only link to this fabled land of goodness.
Skateboarding in itself though obviously quite the physical endeavor is definately an art form for me. I dont know that any other "sport" is even close to it in its progression or history, especially in such a relativley short time of its existance. The untrained eye may not see the difference in the aesthetics of houshold trick names such as "ollies" or "kickflips" but I assure you the same way that giant baggy jeans from 1992-1999 look ridiculously retarded, so does a "Kickflip" from that era.
I watched a documentary on Tom Penny (akin to a Michael Jordan if you will) and some of the commentary was from non other than Rob Dyrdek (a legend as well). Now every body knows Rob from MTV these days but there was a time (1993 perhaps) when Dyrdek was super rad because of his ridiculous technical skating (noseslide-crooks-backward nose grind combos and way too many other tricks to list) and because he was pimpin a lowered honda civic. It was not flat black either but just as murdered out for the times.
Jason Lee (My name is Earl) was also a late 80's early 90's prodigy who was wrecking shop back in the day until acting called. He possessed a style that demanded attention and it didn't even look like he was trying, ever. It could have been the baggy jeans though. But not really. He also gave taller skaters (like me) hope that we could not look like retards while looking like retards in our retard clothing.
I'm not sure what I'm really trying to say but I will end with this:
I went to my local city skatepark (these were also unheard of in my youth) and they were blasting Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I'm not sure if it was the famous pianist Bill Evans (Miles Davis) or Joe Pass but some body said "Your ability to see the future of music rests in your knowledge of it's past". (That may be a bad paraphrase as well) Either way we were listening to music from 93 and the kids are wearing Vans that have not changed since then as well but somewhere in those middle years from then until now you would have been a kook for sporting either. I have been skating for 17 years. I can't hang when it comes to throwing yourself down a huge set of stairs anymore but I know enough flip tricks that on a good day (last one was 2005 I believe) I can make you re-consider whether you know any tricks at all. That is, unless I play S.K.A.T.E. with Chris Dobson then I just go home and ice my ankles and play guitar which he is also good at. I hate you Boy Wonder, but thanks for letting me skate with you.
-Jonathan
Tom penny. Commentary by Rob Dyrdek.
We stopped at Urban Outfitters in Ybor City (pronounced eee-bore) on the trip and much to my delight I got a chance to gaze upon a book written solely about skateboard art. It was like going back in time. I think I had forgotten just how much I loved skateboarding. Sometimes (like twice) I get the the chance to skateboard with Chris Dobson and I always say "Skateboarding is the best thing ever" but the fullness of its glory is often overshadowed by X-Games and sports drinks. And kids who don't skate but wear skate shoes because they are cool, nevermind the fact that I/we were ridiculed for their lack of a "Swoosh™" back in the day and now they sometimes have the said "Swoosh™".
When I was younger (before the beautiful Graphical user interface that computers now have) I/we would get CCS catalogs in the "mail" from time to time and they were received with such joy that a visual memorization of every board graphic and shoe model was due. The majority of the skateboarding industry was and still is based in Southern California and for po-dunk rural South Carolina kids CCS, Transworld and Thrasher was our only link to this fabled land of goodness.
Skateboarding in itself though obviously quite the physical endeavor is definately an art form for me. I dont know that any other "sport" is even close to it in its progression or history, especially in such a relativley short time of its existance. The untrained eye may not see the difference in the aesthetics of houshold trick names such as "ollies" or "kickflips" but I assure you the same way that giant baggy jeans from 1992-1999 look ridiculously retarded, so does a "Kickflip" from that era.
I watched a documentary on Tom Penny (akin to a Michael Jordan if you will) and some of the commentary was from non other than Rob Dyrdek (a legend as well). Now every body knows Rob from MTV these days but there was a time (1993 perhaps) when Dyrdek was super rad because of his ridiculous technical skating (noseslide-crooks-backward nose grind combos and way too many other tricks to list) and because he was pimpin a lowered honda civic. It was not flat black either but just as murdered out for the times.
Jason Lee (My name is Earl) was also a late 80's early 90's prodigy who was wrecking shop back in the day until acting called. He possessed a style that demanded attention and it didn't even look like he was trying, ever. It could have been the baggy jeans though. But not really. He also gave taller skaters (like me) hope that we could not look like retards while looking like retards in our retard clothing.
I'm not sure what I'm really trying to say but I will end with this:
I went to my local city skatepark (these were also unheard of in my youth) and they were blasting Nirvana and Pearl Jam. I'm not sure if it was the famous pianist Bill Evans (Miles Davis) or Joe Pass but some body said "Your ability to see the future of music rests in your knowledge of it's past". (That may be a bad paraphrase as well) Either way we were listening to music from 93 and the kids are wearing Vans that have not changed since then as well but somewhere in those middle years from then until now you would have been a kook for sporting either. I have been skating for 17 years. I can't hang when it comes to throwing yourself down a huge set of stairs anymore but I know enough flip tricks that on a good day (last one was 2005 I believe) I can make you re-consider whether you know any tricks at all. That is, unless I play S.K.A.T.E. with Chris Dobson then I just go home and ice my ankles and play guitar which he is also good at. I hate you Boy Wonder, but thanks for letting me skate with you.
-Jonathan
Tom penny. Commentary by Rob Dyrdek.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
I am back.
Namely to rant about this:
Its nuts how good this is. What if people put this kind of effort and "Reckless Abandon" ("Reckless Abandon" appears courtesy of "Hood Entertainment Inc.") Into making music for like normal listening and stuff?
-Jonathan
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