Archive for February, 2008

B-sides

Published on February 15, 2008 in Dustbin and Musical. 1 Comment

I miss my little bedroom studio and sharing the results of my audio experiments on this blog. As I get ready to return to Mexico (on Thursday, February 21st), I’m checking off things on my to-do list, including sending off a few copies of my last record to friends and supporters.

To date I think I’ve sold, let’s see here… zero CD’s or songs. That’s a net profit of, let me get this straight… zero dollars and zero cents, I think. Simplifies my taxes.

The copies I’m sending out today are “Deluxe Editions,” which include B-sides and bonus tracks. The two tracks posted below are new to this site and so, in keeping with tradition, I offer them up under a present-time photo:
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Track notes:

Fine upstanding young man.mp3
Perhaps the only real up-beat, poppy thing I’ve ever recorded. The music and chorus are from maestro Eric W. Back in the My Dear Ella days, this was one of the first times Eric and I semi-collaborated on a song. It only went as far as me putting down some verse ideas on a four-track tape, and then it was put on the shelf along with the six billion other undeveloped song ideas in Eric’s and my respective archives. Years later I recorded this version, for the sheer fun of it. The lyrics are goofy and idiosyncratic:

I saw your sister at The Cave [a Chapel Hill rock club]
She was at the bar and had a bit too much to drink
She didn’t even know my name, but she waved
I saw her later on the roof of The 506 [another local rock club which occasionally had after-hours get-togethers on the roof]
She was looking for some kicks
And even though I wanted more,
I just took her home

He’s a fine upstanding young man…

I guess it’s time for me to get a job
I gotta play my part in the cosmic symphony
Maybe I’ll go back to grad school
Just a few more years and I’ll have my PhD.
Then I can give it up from 9 to 5 until I’m rich enough
to buy a big house in the woods
Where I can sit out on the porch with my guitar
Just like I’m doing now [We (the guys in the band) were living in a great old house together, and indeed I was sitting on our porch when I wrote this verse]

He’s a fine upstanding young man…

You are only anybody
You are only everybody

He’s a fine upstanding young man…

****

Bonus.mp3
I love splicing together bits and pieces from my audio journal. The intro is a random moment from Mexico, as I lay in bed nursing my knee injury. Then there’s a segment from an unreleased version of “Missed Connections,” a song I’ve yet to do a proper recording of. The end is a montage of special moments from days gone by.

Sam Harris on Happiness

Published on February 12, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I love how Sam Harris cuts to the quick. And I like the format of this Big Think website, elitist snob that I am. I recommend checking out the rest of Harris’s “ideas,” as well as those of Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

Or else keep it locked to Celebrity Rehab. It’s all good.

Below is Harris’s take on the pursuit of happiness (and it’s coherent, despite the freeze-frame that makes Sam look like he just hit the bong hard):

King corn

Published on February 8, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Watching tonight’s new episode of Celebrity Rehab was, admittedly, a complete waste of time (I knew Daniel Baldwin was full of shit!). Same goes for ninety-nine percent of all my television viewing. I’m left with a vague sense, a twinge in the gut that says, “Diminishment.” But then there’s TED.

TED started out as an annual conference (Technology, Entertainment, Design) gathering together cutting edge thinkers, activists, and visionaries. Now, these fascinating talks are available to the public, via the TED website and Blog.

The latest TED Talk is by author/gardener Michael Pollan, who has an interesting take on the power of perspective. I dig it. All the political rhetoric I’ve been hearing lately, propping up us Americans as if we were the pinnacle of creation, the center of the fucking universe. If Pollan is right, maybe corn is really king…

Celebrity Rehab

Published on February 1, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

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Okay, so I couldn’t resist. I don’t have cable TV in my own home, but since I’ve been staying at my parents’ house (recovering from knee surgery) I’ve succumbed to the power of the remote. Last night I sat in front of the tube for three hours straight, first to watch the Democratic debate and then to check out the latest episode of Celebrity Rehab.

Now, for those who don’t know, I spent the last three years of my professional life working at an adolescent substance abuse recovery center, so I could pull a Pete Townshend and claim my watching the show is strictly “research.” The truth is, though, I cannot look away.

At first I was disgusted by the entire premise of the show. Especially disturbing were the scenes of an obviously mentally ill Jeff Conaway weeping and threatening suicide. It quickly dawned on me though, as I continued to watch on, that what I was seeing on the show almost exactly mirrored what I saw day in and day out on the job. I’m telling you, it’s positively uncanny. Everything is right out of the Adolescent Chemical Dependency Unit playbook — from the patients trying to hook up with each other, the sneakiness and rule breaking (secret cell phone conversations), the “these rules are stupid” attitude, the constant threats to leave treatment, the mind-boggling contradictory statements, the rationalizing of any and every behavior, the horror stories of abuse, the emotional immaturity, the group dynamics, the crazy visitors and dysfunctional relationships.

The main difference, other than the cameras and microphones, is that the majority of the kids I worked with were court-ordered and had zero motivation for change. The similarities are striking though, and how it is that rural Kentucky teenagers can be so much like washed-up semi-celebrities, I just don’t know. The obvious answer is: “They’re all addicts.” But I don’t think I’m buying that.

In fact, the more I think about it, the less sure I am about what “addiction” really is. Frankly, the party line towed by many addiction professionals — that addiction is a treatable, medical disease, based in the brain — seems to me to be a deeply confused misreading of the available data. I’m in the process of exploring some alternative approaches, which I’ll discuss in more detail some other time. For now, you can check out my Integral Recovery page, which is part of my new Integral Psychology Portal (an ongoing project to both clarify and share my evolving perspective on life and whatnot).