Forget and Not Slow Down

Just got home from a Jays game. Last of the year? Ya. We were 4 of.. about 20 people who went to see them play tonight. Nahhh... not really. But it was major empty.

I keep listening to Owl City. I love it. I keep ducking as he sends a hook my way, and then I'm just looking up again and another one is coming! I also rather like Relient K's new single. For a while everything I listened to had to be serious, and musically diverse, and old. I guess tonight is a rebirth. Jeffy and I talked about Hello Rockview on the way home from the Dome. I'm in a zone.

"I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.."

I love that moment where you say yes to something without thinking it through. There's something great about trusting yourself enough to just go. I remember feeling way out in left when I first moved to Toronto. People rise to the challenge. Thinking about whether you can or cannot accomplish something is really just placing your projected results alongside a given individual's expectations and playing A/B. Life's more exciting if you can look at things from the perspective of your own expectations.

Hello Seattle

Music!

Just a few quick updates:

Doing a pub gig with Paul Mayer from The Restless Age (myspace.com/therestlessage) on Nov. 5th. Fitzgerald's in the Beach. More formal info to come. Food, beers, and lots of covers. Plan on it!

Also, looks like another gig is shaping up for late October somewhere downtown. Again, more info to come. That one will be with Lauren Malyon and her band, with The Restless Age headlining, and I'll also be opening with an acoustic set of my own stuff. Can't wait! I'll keep you guys posted.

JB

Searching For God Knows What

From "Searching For God Knows What", Donald Miller
Found this well worded in light of our ever-continuing search for an easier way through the maze:


... The businessman said, in a tone of kindness and truth, that nobody he knows who is successful gambles. Rather, they work hard, they accept the facts of reality, they enjoy life as it is.

"But the facts of reality stink," I told him.

"Reality is like a fine wine," he told me. "It will not appeal to children."

Strings

A few months back I started stringing my guitar differently. Which is to say that, after re-stringing, I started winding the ends at the headstock as opposed to cutting them clean and short... like Don does (above). It's a sloppy first look, but it was an intentional departure. Musicality has its ruts. You fall into a methodology, and you do what you do because you've always done it that way. You play a D in a particular voicing because, well, that's how you play it. You're a guitar player, and this is your guitar, and here is how you play it.

But musicality is transient. The best writers, the best players, aren't defined by their instruments. The tool is only a means to an end. The heart is in the idea. I wanted to get away from seeing my guitar as a guitar. To see it, rather, as wound metal, and moving air, and resonating wood. An interface to something important..

I changed the way I string because it reminds me that the instrument is malleable. It isn't a finished product, waiting to be played. It's a starting point.. a collection of pieces waiting to be arranged, and stretched, and used. It alters my understanding of what I can do with it, and it keeps me from sliding into 'knowing how to play guitar.'


I'm trying to think of life in the same light. I don't want to have a job, and a hobby, and a group of friends, and a plan. I want to be open. I want to see life as a series of experiences and opportunities, relationships and passions. I want to see it as malleable. "knowing how to play guitar" is like "knowing how to do your job". It gives you a sense of arrival. I want to feel as though I'm always pursuing, always learning, never arriving. To be aware of all of the pieces, and the ways in which they fit into the entire song.


Kar and I are taking off next week for the other side of the world... namely France. Paris, then Strasbourg, then Nice. Gonna soak it up and breathe it in and take lots of pics.

Au revoir.
JB

http://quartercenturyhalfmarathon.blogspot.com/

http://quartercenturyhalfmarathon.blogspot.com/

A new goal, a new blog. Follow if you're interested.



JB

Updates

Hey everyone! A few updates on life over the past while:

1. Canada Day was fantastic. Jimmy came up on Tuesday night. We haven't really spent much time together since he became an american, so it was a bunch of fun. There was a lot of drinking and smoking to our good health. There was pizza making, which started out as a complete disaster, and ended as a qualified success. There was early morning tennis, a run, and later that night, baseball and sushi on the patio with a bunch of other good friends. Not really any chance the day could've been better.

2. The running is still going well. Last night I ran a new personal best.. 10.67km. I've discovered that it's a lot nicer running into town and then hopping the subway back home.. our neighborhood isn't the nicest, so it's great to run through greektown and especially across the Don Valley. Plus, the added benefit of the City skyline makes it easy to gauge how far you've come and how far you've got to go. Here's my route:



Lately my mind's been going into 'thankful' mode a lot while running. Yesterday I found myself halfway across the bridge, looking down over the wide open Valley, and the parkway and all the greenspace, and just feeling so lucky to be healthy, and alive, and able to run and sweat and feel pain, and strength. Somehow the moment just blew me away with a sense of self-awareness... of my body and my limitations, and also the inherent potential. It was a great moment.

3. In other exciting news, I'm playing with a bunch of friends in a band for Lauren Malyon. She's a great singer/songwriter from here in Toronto who just released a brand new record. You can find her stuff at www.myspace.com/laurenmalyon. We're doing a CD release show at the end of the month, so I was one of the recruits to back her up for the gig! It's a great group of guys playing, so it's gonna be a fantastic show. Check her out! (and buy a copy on iTunes)


Think that's about it for now. I'm heading home this coming weekend actually. Kar's aunt/uncle are having a big party to celebrate his being cancer free for 5 years, as well as to raise money for research, so I'll be doing some music and hanging out there. See some of you soon!
JB

The Perfect Weekend

Coming off a record breaking weekend. I managed to run 7.2km on Saturday. As a direct result, I feel like a 75-year old right now. It seems that any time I really push past my last PB for the first time, it takes a few days for my body to get itself back on track.


It's a simple truth that this summer has been, and will continue to be, incredible. I don't know that I've ever been as content as I am this year. We have such a great situation. Weekends... waking up on a Saturday morning, throwing on a coffee, heading out to the back yard to poke around, throw a ball around, watch Kar working in the garden..

I'm learning it from her. She's always had this thing about her. An ability to sit and watch, and look. Watch... cats messing around in the backyard. Watch... bugs crawling around in the dirt. Watch... the garden growing. There's so much to see. I sit and listen. I sit in the backyard and hear.. everything that's going on in the city. She looks.

Then, grabbing an apple, throwing on the sneaks, and hitting the road for a mid-day run. The city, just waking up, the heat not quite fully realized, but in that late morning, hard-blue sky, cool breeze, hot sun scenario. Jeff asking me questions as we run... me responding with nods and hand signals.. (must.. conserve.. energy...) Don't flex any muscles that aren't aiding in the process of running. Hands loose, thumbs pointing forward, resting on the index finger. Face relaxed. Conservation. Breathing: 3 steps... in through the nose... 3 steps... out through the mouth... 3 steps... Manage the heart rate.

The afternoon is a slow mixture of laundry folding, homemade soup simmering, guitar playing... the ball game is on in the background, but only as a visual. One of many party-mixes takes care of the day's audio. Tom Petty is starting to make himself at home.

Evening is all about options. Drinks on the patio? The Quinnie's patio is the gold-standard. Slightly sunken below the porch-height to give you that cozy, tucked-away feel, and under constant cover of a huge Oak tree. The neighborhood is quiet at night. The little kid across the street plays Wii in front of his huge upstairs window. Last night it was bowling. When it's calm, I can smoke a cigar and just watch the smoke. It goes nowhere... just hangs in wisps.

Or maybe we walk off the day's remaining energy. Our new format is a quick subway ride to Greektown. From there we can walk through the restaurant district and across the Don Valley into the city. There's too much to see. I take pictures with my eyes.

Or maybe it's "small budget, big heart" movie night, and then discussing what WE would do if...


Sometimes, I think I wouldn't do much different than what we're doing right now.
Life's good.
JB