"Who says...................?"

Greetings once again all those of the blogosphere.  Any of you who've been reading along or who have read through my past postings should know I'm a big baseball fan.  For me Pitchers and Catchers reporting can't come soon enough.  While admittedly I've been reduced to more of a casual fan status since the end of the regular season, well partially since just after the All-Star break when the M's went on their historical 19 game losing streak, but mostly since the playoffs started. When that happened I didn't really have a horse in the race anymore.  So while I payed attention, it was no longer "must see" TV for me.  

I have been paying attention more closely since the World Series began.  Again still no horse in the race, but Texas is at least in the M's division so I continue to root against them.  For those of you who don't understand the appeal of baseball, and think it's boring you don't know what you're missing.  All it would take is watching Game 6 of this series even if only from the 6th inning on and you'd be hooked.  

It had everything that most Primetime TV shows haven't had since the mid-late 90's and the advent of "reality" TV.  It had strategy, it had intrigue, it had the unexpected.  It had Texas Manager Ron Washington using 2 pitchers in an inning............TO HIT.  It had the pain of defeat and the joy that can only come from getting to play for one more day.  Once you started watching it sucked you in and there was no way you could turn it off.  

Now while it's true the TV ratings for this series have been down, this game quite simply had something for everyone.  Someone once said you watch enough baseball you see things you've never seen before and this game definitely had that.  It had errors being made by big leaguers you normally only see made by little leaguers. Though when the little leaguers make them, it's way cuter.  Plus win or lose they usually get to hit Dairy Queen either way.  It had mammoth home runs that seemed to travel into a different area code.  It had a team seemingly down and out twice, battling back to survive. 

In the book "Ball Four" pitcher/author Jim Bouton wrote "You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out it was the other way around all the time." Never is that more true than in games like that. The drama is palpable and as you watch you can feel your heartbeat increase.  That kind of an experience isn't one that comes along with just anything.  Certainly doesn't happen during an episode of "Jersey Shore". Any feelings during that are more along the lines of needing a shower or having dinner make a return trip.  

So if you've said baseball is boring in the past. Maybe it's time to give it another chance. It may just give you the roller coaster ride of your life in the process.

“Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul” Plato

"Music speaks what cannot be expressed, soothes the mind and gives it rest, heals the heart and makes it whole, flows from heaven to the soul.”

Recently a friend of mine wrote a blog about the soundtrack to their life.  That along with NPR's recent stories about music that we either inherited from our parents, or that drove our parents crazy in the process got me thinking about musics impact on my life.  Music is everywhere, and part of our daily lives and routines in ways we may not even notice.  All of us have a different relationship to it and it's something, I would think, is a deeply personal one.  So we all approach it a different way. For some it's simply background noise.  Something to break up the monotony of the sounds around us.  Others simply listen to the instrumentation, the arrangement of the chords or the catchy hook that is stuck in your head all day long.  Some get lost in the lyrics, finding a connection to the moment the writer is expressing or experiencing.  Then there's those where it's a combination of all of those.  For me it takes listening to a song several times before I fully understand it.  It's like a puzzle that I have to completely dissect first, before reassembling it piece by piece.

The first time through I listen to the song as a whole.  Finding similarities between it and the music catalog in my head.  Similar hooks, chords, phrasing.  Then I listen to it again.  This time stripping it down in my head as if I have the sound board, focusing in on specific tracks within the song itself.  The drummer: is he just keeping time, is he keeping it simple with the occasional fill, is he trying to hard and distracting from everything else, or is it the organized chaos of a Keith Moon.  The bass line: is it steady, is it complimenting the drummer, solidifying the rhythm section, or is it Sting or McCartney making it the lead. Guitars: Is there a riff ala Joe Perry, is it one guitar or two, how well do they work together, do they compliment the lyrics, or do they make a melody all their own in the process. Finally I focus on the lyrics, making a connection to them before listening to the song one more time as a whole.  Granted it's a very analytical way to approach it, but that's just how it's always worked in my head.  I have to be able to understand it before I decide if I like it or not.

Music has always played a big role in my life.  For my family it's the common ground.  The place where we can all relate to one another.  Dad plays guitar and sings with the church choir.  Mom plays piano and sings barbershop.  My sister started out on piano, added guitar, french horn, along with several others, and sings both in church and with her own band.  Even became a Band Teacher and is already adding her kids to the family soundtrack.  I started off playing Trumpet, moved to Trombone, added a little piano, sang a bit.  I don't currently do any though I've been considering picking things back up recently after realizing the importance it has in my life.

My first memories of music's role in my life involve a sauce pan, a wooden spoon, John Williams and the Boston Pops, conducting with the big headphones on in front of the stereo.  A little later on I can remember sitting and listening to my Dad playing on the guitar.  Mostly it was Peter, Paul and Mary.  Specifically "Puff the Magic Dragon" and "The Marvelous Toy". I also remember watching the various Peter, Paul and Mary concerts as well as John Williams and The Boston Pops with my parents on PBS.  To this day those are still very fond memories.  In my younger years my musical exposure was limited to what my parents listened to.  So it was The Beach Boys, The Beatles, John Denver, Chicago, Tijuana Brass, Cream, Aretha Franklin, The Supremes, Temptations and Stevie Wonder. From those it expanded when in 1987 I was exposed to MTV.  For those of you under 25, they used to actually play music not just shows that make you lose 50 IQ points by watching.  I distinctly remember the first one I ever saw.  The King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson, glittering glove and all.  Shortly after that came Bruce Springsteen and the Born in the U.S.A. album and thanks to my friends, much to the pain of my parents ears, Van Halen. Followed by Bon Jovi, GNR, and Poison.

By the 90's the big hair was quickly replaced with flannel as Pearl Jam and Nirvana came into the picture via KISW 99.9 out of Seattle.  Being a kid living in the Pacific Northwest it may have been different from other places.  But grunge hit like an atomic bomb, changing the music culture overnight.  Out went the big hair, in came the flannel, and combat boots.  There probably wasn't a garage band anywhere that didn't have "Smells Like Teen Spirit" immediately added to their repitiore.  Along came Soundgarden, Mudhoney, and Alice In Chains.  Pearl Jam's Ten brought reinvigorated the music video as an art form.  "Jeremy" truly had spoken and his voice was rock.  Throughout this I continued expanding my eclectic tastes.   Boyz II Men gave rebirth to Motown along with Prince. En Vogue and Babyface.

Also about this time I started playing Jazz.  Discovering Miles Davis, Theloneous Monk, Gershwin, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Louis Armstrong, Maynard Ferguson, Dizzy Gillespie, Doc Severenson, Branford and Wynton Marsalis, Frank Sinatra, and Harry Connick Jr. Later this also brought along Michael Buble

The mid 90's brought The Dave Matthews Band along with Hootie and the Blowfish.  Goo Goo Dolls and re-juvinated Aerosmith. Singlehandedly starting the careers of Alicia Silverstone and Liv Tyler.  After Joshua Tree, WAR, and The Unforgettable Fire, U2 triumphantly returned with Achtung Baby.  During this time I also introduced myself to the classics.  Classic Rock that is.  Zeppelin, The Stones, Fleetwood Mac, Rush, and The Who.  Partly due to a lack of choices on the radio dial, but also it was what I most identified with.

Since then I've grown along with the music itself.  Going from CD's to MP3.  Loving the portable MP3 player and the discovery of Napster.  Then dying a little when the government shut it down.  Eventually giving in to ITunes and an IPod.  Finding Weezer, Bare Naked Ladies, and Ben Folds Five.  Enjoying not only the music they make, but the tongue in cheek lyrical wordplay as well.  Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age and the evolution of Dave Grohl from drummer of Nirvana to frontman.  John Mayer and the progression of both singer/songwriter as well as guitar virtuoso.

That basically brings us up through today.  Those are the things that have made up the soundtrack to my life thus far.  I still have a love for all things 60's Motown, an appreciation for the tight harmonies of The Beatles and The Beach Boys.  The simplicity and elegance of a Lennon/McCartney song.  The sheer complexity and organized chaos of Monk, Coletraine and Davis. Along with the pure unbridled energy The Stones still bring to the stage.  I hope the music continues to expand as well as my appreciation for it.

How do you relate to music? What role does it have in your life? What artists have had an impact on you? I've already picked the topic, so discuss amongst yourselves.  Though preferably do it right here.

Time To Fish Or Cut Bait.........

Greetings again blogosphere. I had originally planned to have this post continue with the introduction of myself to you my devoted non-existent readership.  Instead, after talking with a couple of my friends I decided to delve into my first relationship related posting. As far as blogs go it may be weird for a guy to cover this kind of material.  Relationships and feelings aren't something we willingly talk about most of the time. I'm not most guys.  Though being able to talk about things like this, whether in my own relationships or others is also part of my reasoning behind the anonymity.

In talking with them, a couple of issues came to light.  Though the root of them both was the same.  It boiled down to the difficulty we all have when it comes to the point in a relationship where you have to decide whether this is the person you want, or whether it's time to move on with someone else.  As my father liked to put it "Fish or Cut Bait."  We all hate these moments in our lives.  Especially in relationships.  After all this is someone we cared enough about to invest time in, and we don't like hurting them to end it.  However, it's also not worth having to sacrifice our own happiness in the process in order to stay with them.  Now the reason we get to this point in a relationship are infinite.  It could be anything from a major fight, to just not wanting the same things from the future.  When these moments occur the first thing we have to do is usually the toughest. Which is talk about it and be honest with how we feel.  Once the lines of communication are open it doesn't necessarily get easier, but it does at least allow for progress to be made.  If you are unable to talk about it, well then there's your answer anyway.

Even when we know what the answer should be, we often times get stuck in our own hang ups.  Fear is usually at the root of that problem  It's a powerful motivator, sometimes for the better, sometimes not.  We all carry around different sets of baggage from relationship to relationship.  When it comes to our hang ups, as "G.I Joe" once said, knowing is half the battle.  To often we try to ignore them and pretend they don't exist as long as we possibly can.  But a lot of the time fear is what it boils down to.  Fear of being alone, fear of the unknown, fear of not living up to others expectations of us, or even to our own.

Like with any problem in life, it's how we approach it and deal with it that define who we are and what will happen as we move forward.  There's a Marine Corps solution "adapt and overcome".  Though that's usually easier said than done.  It seems to me that the first step is the same in most cases.  Forgive yourself for what happens.  We're our own toughest critics and harder on ourselves than others ever could be. We don't need to hold on as tightly to the past as we tend to do. The future may be scary, but it's a lot easier to deal with when you're not carrying the weight of the past with you. Granted like everything else it will probably be easier said than done.

That's when the wisdom of The Beatles comes in handy.  "I get by with a little help from my friends."  We'll just forget the next part of that and focus on this specific section.  Since for legal reasons I wouldn't advise taking the other part of advice that song has.  We all have our support systems.  Friends are the family you choose so like with your nose, pick good ones.

With that I'll leave you with this platitude.  A man walks down the street and falls into a hole.  The walls are so steep he can't get out.  A Doctor passes by and he shouts "Hey Doc, can you help me out?" The Doctor writes out a prescription and tosses it down the hole, then moves on.  A priest walks by and he shouts to him "Father I'm stuck down here, can you help me out?" The priest writes out a prayer and throws it down the hole, then moves on.  Finally a friend walks by he says "Hey Joe, it's me, can you help me out?" The friend quickly jumps in the hole along with him.  The man says to him "What are you doing? Are you stupid? Now we're both stuck down here."  The friend says "Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out."  Here's to the friends that have jumped in the hole with us.