one of my favorite hours

Back in the mid-late 1990’s I was working at a record label in Hollywood. I won’t say the name, but the offices were in a giant round building that looked like a stack of records. I really liked working there at first because I got a lot of free records and I naively thought I was making connections for my band.

Stuck in the finance department, most my days turned out to be not very exciting. Occasionally some famous people did make there way through the building though. The basement held two of the most famous recording studios in Los Angeles, so they were always busy making records down there. I rode the elevator with Dave Navarro one time. Another ride was with Art Alexakis. Both seemed to be very polite and genuine guys. Better than the average day gig moments for me for sure.

Mostly though, it was a grind. Tons of paperwork and errand boy shit. A lot of the people were pretty cool, and I did learn quite a bit about the record business, but I didn’t enjoy the job all that much. I really wanted to be making the music myself and not crunching numbers for the big machine and their roster of other artists.

One day I had an especially bad row with my boss. I guess I messed up something and she was pretty pissed. Looking back on it I’m sure it was my fault, but at the time I felt attacked and unappreciated. So I went down to the lunch room on the second floor to grab a coffee and smoke a cigarette on the patio. You know, cool myself off a little bit before I went back to my desk.

After a couple of smokes I headed back inside and asked for a refill. There were only a few people in the lunchroom milling around and looking at the snack selection. It was around eleven so the real lunch rush was still an hour or so away. I noticed a small, dark haired guy sitting at one of the back tables drinking some tea by himself. A flash of recognition ran through my head as I turned back to thank the lunch lady for my coffee. I knew who that guy was! I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, but I just had to introduce myself.

I walked over to his table and sheepishly cleared my throat. “Um…Hi.” I said.

“Hello.” He looked up from his magazine and smiled quizzically.

“I don’t want to bother you, but I’m a huge fan.” I shuffled my feet glad for the styrofoam coffee cup in my hands. I wouldn’t have known what to do with them otherwise.

“Oh, thanks man.” He smiled and seemed truly grateful.

“Are you in one of the studios downstairs?”

“Yeah. We’re working on the new record in A.” He said.

“Cool.” Of course I couldn’t come up with anything more impressive to say.

“Have a seat.” Three more impactful words had never been spoken to me. Well maybe my girlfriend sating “I love you” was pretty close, but this was AWESOME!

“Wow. Thanks!” The chair squeaked on the linoleum as I pulled it out and sat down.

I didn’t care that I was going to get into more trouble with my boss for being away from my desk for so long. I didn’t care that I might even get fired. I was going to hang out as long as I could. We talked for close to an hour and it was one of the best conversations of my life.

He was very grateful that at least one person at the label connected with his music. He felt at odds with the whole major label corporate thing and was worried he was going to get lost in the shuffle. I was worried for him too, but I chose not to tell him and make him regret his decision to sign with the label even more than he already did.

I mentioned before that I have been extremely fortunate to meet a number of my “heroes”. This was perhaps one of the most fortunate of those encounters I have ever had. He was kind and even funny despite his reputation. We didn’t only talk about music either. He was just as interested in me and what I was up to as I was in him. I kicked myself subsequently for not telling him about my band, but it felt like it would have been rude and self serving at the time.

Honestly I wish I could remember more specifics of what we talked about, but it’s all buried somewhere in my brain behind the whoosh of the adrenaline fandom rush I was in the middle of the entire time.

He mentioned that he was going to get another cup of tea when a voice came from the elevator in the hall, “Hey Elliott, we’re ready to get started again.”

“Okay.” He replied quietly and stood up. “It was really nice talking to you. You should come down to the studio and hang out for a while.”

“I would love to!” Needless to say I was blown away. But the dark shroud of responsibility reared its ugly head over me. “I should get back to work though.”

“Okay. Well, nice to meet you.” We shook hands and he headed off for the elevator down to continue recording what has since become one of my favorite albums.

Unfortunately I didn’t get down there to any of the session that day, or any over the next couple of days either. When I got back to my desk, my boss slammed her door loudly to prove a point and there was a pile of punishment work stacked up for me to finish ASAP. I didn’t mind though. I got to it and started to mow through all the paper with a smile on my face.

I never really told anyone about my cup of coffee with him that day. I kept it too myself. I guess because I selfishly thought I had made a new friend and if I told people about it I would appear to be bragging or showing off. I just got lucky. I was in the right place at the right time and had an hour that I will never forget.

A couple of years later he died and it broke my heart apart. Fortunately I can still listen to his music and be inspired by him. I don’t know if he remembered the time we spent talking that day, or if he even remembered meeting me at all. But I certainly do and it is one of the fondest memories that I have.

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stamp my gross happiness visa!

It is much harder to be happy than unhappy. Why is that? Ask anyone. Go ahead. I dare you. Ask them if they are really, truly happy. Chances are you’ll get a few people who put on a brave face, smile and tell you what they think you want to hear. Don’t let that be the end of the conversation. Push them to go deeper and tell you what’s really going on.

Most people are struggling to make ends meet, dealing with dysfunctional families, friends and/or crappy unfulfilling jobs. It seems like most everyone is just trying to make it through the day until they can get home, turn off their minds relax and float down the television stream. That’s not happiness if you ask me.

It is so much easier to allow the detritus of modern life to fall all around, building up a wall that corrals us in with our unhappiness than it is to be the wrecking ball that swings and just might let in some splinters of light through the cracks it struggles to break. Happiness requires work. Happiness only reveals itself to the vigilant and determined. Unhappiness is easy. It is lazy and requires no work ethic at all. It makes itself available to us whether we like it or not.

I try really hard to be happy. Unfortunately I don’t quite get there most of the time. Little things plant themselves in front of me and set me right off the course of having a perfectly sunshine day. I can be walking down the hall with a smile on my face singing “I Feel Good” and then my hand will slam directly into the hall closet doorknob. Maybe I’ll be watching the newborn baby goats stumbling around acting all cute like and my foot steps into a pile of dog crap. I might be right in the middle of some hard found inspiration, writing the greatest song since “Across the Universe” when all of a sudden my B string breaks and I don’t have a replacement set anywhere.

The old cliché “nothing good comes easy” is a cliché for good reason. It’s true. It may appear that some people don’t have to work as hard as others for their happiness. I don’t believe that’s true. If you equate happiness with material things, then maybe it is. But I have known quite a few “trustifarians” that have never had to work a day in their blue blooded lives because of family money and I can tell you, it’s pretty rare to find someone in that position who smiles so deeply it can change the mood of a room. Put me on stage next to an eighty five year old bluesman belting out “Crossroads” for the ten thousandth time and I’ll show you some happiness at its purest form.

There is a Buddhist retreat up the road from here that has an interesting approach to enlightenment and happiness. You hear the word “retreat” and the images that rise up are massages, cucumber slices on your eyes, steam baths and never ending piles of rich, delicious food. Not at this place. Every time I have driven by, the property has been spotlessly clean and beautiful. The lawn and shrubbery are perfectly manicured, there is not one spec of dirt or bird poop on any of the surrounding statues, and all of the hundreds of prayer flags have not faded one iota from their original bright and beautiful orange hue. Do you think that it’s the Dalai Llama that keeps the place so clean?

The path to happiness according to their philosophy is achieved through hard work. When you sign up to spend some time there, you leave all of your worldly trappings behind. No laptops, iPods-Pads-Phones, clothes and no satellite television receivers. You put on one of their beautiful orange robes and start getting it dirty. Apparently all of the stress and aggravation brought into our lives by technology, supposedly to provide the assistance to a faster and easier life, can be erased and soothed away by good old fashioned dirty knees, sweaty brows and sore muscles.

King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of the country of Bhutan was so concerned with the happiness of his people that he created the concept of Gross National Happiness. He developed it as a way to measure his countrymen’s quality of life. Imagine that. A leader so concerned that his subjects were happy and fulfilled, he actually created a system to measure the amount of happiness, contentment or sorrow of their daily lives. If they were unhappy, he and the government would actually take steps to remedy their problems. Where do I sign up for a Happiness Visa?

It seems like we here in the Western world are in love with our stoicism. In order to fit in we are not able to smile. Think about it. If you are walking down the street and someone walks toward you with a huge, shit eating grin on their face, you’re first instinct is to give them a wide birth as they pass. We are much more likely to accept someone with their head down, frown on their face quick stepping their way to their next miserable appointment with other miserable people.

We don’t want to see happy people. Maybe because it reminds us of how unhappy we might be and how much work we have in store for us if we want to raise the corners of our mouth and show those pearly off-whites.

Children laughing
Baby’s cooing
Wisps of clouds slowly swimming across an ocean blue sky
A gentle breeze caressing your skin
A hearty belly laugh that hits you so hard you see stars
Puppies
Kittens
The smell of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies…
Other stuff that cynical me would normally roll my eyes at.

I guess these are some little things that may counteract the slammed doorknob hand or dog crap foot. I have to work harder in my life to remember them when I need to. I know I do. Even if we discover that reincarnation is a possibility, we only get one shot at this particular go around. If it’s going to be happy ride, it needs to be one that's worked for and earned.

So I’m going to head outside and look at the new baby goats for a minute and then play some fetch with the dogs. I’m going to smile more. I’m going to work harder.

What are you gonna do?

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Tiger Stripes: An American Spirit Unfiltered

I once I had an audition to play with a famous pop singer, who we will call for our purposes “Ms. M”. A friend of mine in the music industry found out that Ms. M was looking for some new band members and got me in the door to try out for the drum chair. I wasn’t working at the time, the money they were offering was pretty good and the exposure of touring around the world to sold out arenas wouldn’t have been too bad either so I decided to go for it.

I drove for an hour or so out to the Valley (that’s the San Fernando Valley for those of you folks not from L.A.) and waited in the parking lot until about fifteen minutes before I was supposed to show up. Grabbed my cymbal bag and headed in the door. Sitting on the couch inside was my competition for the gig. Let me tell you, they were a crew right out of Spinal Tap. There was enough spandex and hair gel on that couch to provide enough jet fuel to the moon if I lit a match the wrong way.

“’Sup?” Tiger Stripped Bandana Wearing Contestant #1 nodded his head and said in my direction as I walked by.

“Hi.” I smiled and put my bag down against the wall.

“So, who you been on the road with guy?” Tiger Stripes leaned back into the cushions spreading his arms out on the back rest and crossing his legs. I don’t think he noticed the remnants of white powdery courage left on his nostrils. Or the half empty bullet not quite shoved all the way into the front pocket of his leather jacket.

“Nobody special” I lied to get him to shut up and pretended to text someone very important on my cell phone. He rambled on seemingly not caring if I or anyone else was paying attention about metal bands from the 1980’s that he played with and something about a crazy tour of the Philippines that his band just got back from a few months ago. Fortunately the door opened and his name was called next.

While he whisked his ponytail back and went to set up his gear, I stepped outside for a smoke. I lit my Marlboro Light and squinted up into the sun allowing myself to relax. A man with blond spiked hair who was as tall as an NBA center came through the door shortly after me. He was a little out of breath and seemed a bit nonplussed that someone else was already outside before him. He glowered at me and I nodded in the universal guy sign language that apparently means “Hey.”

He took out a pack of unfiltered American Spirits and lit one up. As if he were breathing for the very first time, he took the longest drag of a cigarette I had ever seen, held it in for close to ten seconds and exhaled through the words, “You here for the auditions?”

“Yeah.” I said. “I am.”

“Drummer?”

“Absolutely.”

“Shit. Here we go again.” Still lit and smoking, he threw his American Spirit towards the trash can as he spun toward the door and went back inside. I had no idea who he was, but needless to say it kinda got under my skin. As if the pressure of an audition for an international tour and the possibility of recording an album or two with a major label artist wasn’t enough.

I ground out my cigarette and now somewhat reluctantly, went back inside. The tall asshole wasn’t there and I could hear the muffled sounds of music coming through the door of the partially sound proofed rehearsal room. There were only two other guys left waiting to go before me, so I wouldn’t have to wait this uncomfortably for much longer. Soon I would be at home in the comfort of a drum throne letting my hands and feet soothe and relax my troubles away. At least that was the plan anyway.

Torn and Coffee Stained Iggy Pop T-Shirt Wearing guy with the jeans tucked into his faux alligator skin boots was called in next as Tiger Stripes cockily swayed out of the room and out of our lives. All that remained now were me and Mr. Wearing a Black Wife Beater Two Sizes Too Small to show off his three hour a day workout at Gold’s Gym physique.

A few minutes into Coffee Stain’s audition I went back out for another smoke and some quiet. About half way through my Marlboro the door opened and a short guy with blonde dreadlocks walked Coffee Stain to his car. On his way back in he came over to me a asked if he could bum a cigarette. I gave him one and lit it.

As it turns out he was Ms. M’s keyboard player. We got on pretty well talking about music and how much of a pain in the ass auditions were. I think he was even about to ask my name when they called him back for Wife Beater’s turn. He waved and headed back in to the fray. I almost felt as if I had an ally at that point. I may have found someone who was rooting for me to get the gig.

With my spirits higher and my confidence a little bit stronger, I grabbed my gear and went to get set up as soon as Wife Beater’s turn was through. I guess the band had decided it was time for lunch just then because other than the instruments, the room was barren of any live souls. It was so quiet that I felt rude and intrusive every time a screw squeaked when I was mounting my cymbals. I thought the ceiling was falling in on me, but it was only my stick bag leaning back against the floor tom.

One by one they all started to come back into the room. First dreadlocks took his spot behind the rack of keyboards talking on his cell phone. Then the guitarist slowly walked in the room, refusing to make any eye contact with me while he strapped on his Les Paul and tuned it up. The tour manager came in next. He was younger than I’d expected, but just as sweaty and nervous. I had to wipe my hands after shaking his moist palms so that my sticks wouldn’t go flying all over the place.

Everyone seemed to be in place and we were about to get ready to go when Mr. Shit. Here We Go Again ran into the room and grabbed up his bass. He didn’t even look my way or check to see if anyone else was ready. He didn’t even call out the name of the tune. “One… Two… Three… Four…”

Fortunately for me I was pretty familiar with all of the tunes already, so I caught on to what we were playing within a few bars. Dreadlocks looked over at me and smiled a little. Even the guitar player turned his torso in my direction and nodded.

We went through a few tunes like that without any major train wrecks and then they pulled out one of the hits. Keep in mind that we were playing all of these sans vocals. Ms. M was not there and none of the band members was singing either. While we were playing I was singing along in my head and I noticed that the keyboard player went to the bridge when we should have gone back to the verse. Not knowing if they changed the arrangement for the live show, or if he simply made a mistake, I followed him.

As soon as the song was finished Mr. Shit was shaking his head slowly while his eyes burned a hole to the back of my head. “You can go now.” He grumbled. “Shit.”

“Sorry?” I replied.

“You fucked it all up man.” He striped off his bass and all but threw it to the floor. “You went to the bridge instead of the fuckin’ second verse!”

“Yeah, I know.” I started to get a little defensive at this point. “I was just following the keyboard player.” I pointed towards Dreadlock who waved his hands in an innocent signal of protection as if to say, “Not Me!”

“Look dude, you fucked it up okay? Just get the fuck out of here and stop wasting our time!” With that Mr. Shit stormed out of the rehearsal room along with my hopes of getting the gig nestled comfortably inside of his unstable and misdirected temper.

Maybe I should have played the tune as I was singing it in my head instead of following the keyboards. Maybe I should have been a dick right back to Mr. Shit when I had the chance. Maybe I shouldn’t have let it bother me when I saw Ms. M performing on a late night national television show a few months later with Wife Beater playing drums and exchanging smiles with Mr. Shit.

Some people just don’t like you and there is nothing you can do about it. No matter how friendly you are, not matter how good you are at what you do they just don’t like you. It could be the way you look or the way you talk or even the way you smell. Something sets them dead against you and your future together is hopeless. I don’t remember doing anything to Mr. Shit to have him dislike me so much. Maybe it was the fact that I smoked Marlboro Lights. Or maybe I just plain screwed up the audition. I don’t know why it still bothers me, but it does.

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Ode to the Immortality Jellyfishes

“you say i have to believe in everything you say
and if i don't breathe just as you tell me to
then all of these pains that keep coming over me
are brought down my my ignorance and strengthened from my disbelief in you

so if i start to believe that what you say is true
then what does it mean? is all my searching through?
will all of your contradictions keep pounding me
or will i just forget about the reasons why i disbelieve in you?

well i don't believe in all the things you say
i guess that i can leave some things up as blank
and all of these small resentments i feel for you
are shadowed by hypocrisy which strengthens all my disbelief in you

don't tell me what to do"

-“a small resentment” - amk

Scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute found a jellyfish called the Turritopsis Nutricula that can replicate all of its own cells an infinite amount of times rendering it basically immortal. Yup, I said it. Freakin’ IMMORTAL!!! Now granted, spending eternity as a jellyfish may be a cruel joke played by Mother Nature, but DUDE! I would expect that the next twenty to thirty years will bring lots of research papers and dollars spent on figuring out how to translate this genetic oddity’s lucky stumble into the great eternal unknown and somehow jumble it up with human code so the rich and powerful can stay just as they are for centuries to come.

What exactly does this mean? It means that I for one do not want to live forever! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look forward to dying. But I’m not afraid of it anymore either. I think most people are afraid of death because they are terrified of losing themselves into the unknown. And I can’t say that I blame them either. All I have ever known is being me, so I kinda like it.

Everyone has their own opinion about what happens after we die. Some say we go to Heaven and hang out partying in the clouds with all of our loved ones who came before us and other folks who believed in the same things. Did you know that you needed a belief ticket to get into the afterlife? I must have missed that meeting. Apparently if we don’t have that exact same belief ticket, death holds a completely different scenario for us. (Read up on your Dante if you need a more descriptive take on it.)

Some folks believe that we are reincarnated and keep coming back for another shot at life until we get it right. Of course we don’t come back as ourselves, we get shipped back as a Larry King or maybe even a jellyfish. Probably not a Turritopsis Nutricula though. Unless that’s the reward for getting it right!

What do I think happens to us after we die you ask? I don’t know. I haven’t met anyone who has ever died and come back to tell me what happened to them. For most scenarios to exist, you have to believe that they exist. You have to have faith. I think faith can be a beautiful thing sometimes. It can also be terrifying when manipulated by corrupt viewpoints in positions of power. That might be why I don’t personally subscribe to any organized version of it.

I would like to think that we as individuals go back into the collective unconsciousness. There, we share the experiences of our life and try to use that information to make the universe a better place. I could be wrong though. I have never thought that anyone’s beliefs on the subject of the afterlife were wrong. If it gets them up and adaming out of bed every day and it helps them to treat other people better as opposed to worse, why would I have a problem with them?

A lot of other people seem to have a problem with me though. I have never forced my beliefs (or lack thereof) on someone else. I remember riding on the bus in high school and this girl was reading her Bible. A bunch of kids started talking about it and I politely stayed out of the conversation. At least I tried to anyway. She eventually turned towards me, being the only senior year kid there, making me the oldest and asked “Are you right with the Lord?”

My answer, being a snarky young teenager was, “Probably not.”

Can of worms…OPEN!

She dove right in on that one. Apparently I was going to hell and there was nothing I could do about it. If I didn’t read her Bible and interpret it the exact same way that she did, I was a lost cause. I was done for.

“So even if I do good unto others in the same way you do, and I follow all of the same rules that you do, if I don’t read the same book and go to the same kind of church I am going to hell?” I asked when I was finally able to squeak a word in edgewise.

She slowed her breathing, I remember this very clearly, placed the Bible on her lap and leaned across the aisle toward me and answered, “Yes.”

I would love to say that this experience was the result of youthful exuberance and the adults I have encountered in my days have acted with more generosity and open mindedness. But alas, that way of thinking has popped up in front of me more often than not.

Now maybe it’s because my people have a strictly No Recruitment policy. You are either born one of us, or maybe you marry into the clan. I have never kept very close tabs on the subject. But I have never even considered telling another person that they were signed up for an eternity of pain and suffering because they don’t read the same books as me. By the way, I actually have read the same book as bus girl and I couldn’t find a statement in it anywhere that gives license to treat people that way.

Is it arrogance? Is it fear? Is it ignorance? I have had friends from many different backgrounds and we have had wonderful conversations about belief and faith. Never once was there any judgment. Maybe it’s because we were all still searching. Is that the key? To keep searching until the clock runs out and when we close our eyes the answers will finally be given? Or maybe they won’t be. That’s the scary part for a lot of people I guess. The not knowing drives them crazy.

Wow! Where did all this philosophical mumbo jumbo come from? Oh yeah, our new friend the immortal Turritopsis Nutricula. Maybe he’s got it right after all. He gets to go on year after year, decade after decade and not have to worry about arguing his way in and out of the loopholes of the unknown. He just bobs up and down swimming there looking for food. Forever. Or at least until us pesky humans figure out that he tastes good on a rainbow roll…

http://green.yahoo.com/blog/guest_bloggers/26/the-world-s-only-immortal-animal.html

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