Leno and Voltaire (via Ronald Harwood)

I recently saw some quotes and felt compelled to write them down, first off are a few from Jay Leno that I read in the online version of the Boston Herald.

"I"m a great believer in low self esteem. The only people I find that have
high self esteem are criminals and actors. And if you have low self
esteem and you always assume you’re the dumbest person in the room,
you’ll work harder," Leno jokes.

"The real trick to show business is try not to get too excited. Try
not to get too depressed," Leno says in a telephone interview to
discuss his final week as host of "The Tonight Show."

I really like these quotes and feel that they're true and good advice for anyone aspiring for a career in entertainment. Having met Jay on a number of occasions (Sixpence played on Leno at 3 different times when I was with the band), these quotes seem as practical and as down to earth as he is (or at least seemed).  Of all the Late Night/ Talk Show hosts I met, I always felt Jay was the most approachable, and "normal" of them all. 

(photo info -  L to R:  Jerry Dale McFadden, my brother Doug, me, my sister Linda, Jay, my Mom and Dad - the fact that Jay took the time to pose with us, was pretty cool I thought.)

My next quote I found in the May 23rd 2009 issue of The Economist.  It's from Voltaire, but was quoted by Ronald Harwood.  Here is the opening paragraph from that review:

"RONALD HARWOOD has been a late developer. After the initial success in 1980 of his autobiographical play, “The Dresser”, his work was regularly savaged by London critics. He was hurt, but he stubbornly refused to retire. Then in 2003 his script for “The Pianist” won an Oscar. “People notice when you win something, and I’ve had a lovely time since I was 68.” He is now 74 and points out that Henrik Ibsen was still writing hard in his 80s."

Did you catch that?  It was 23 years before this guy had another success!  And in those 23 years he was met with more criticism than encouragement!  Talk about depressing...could you endure 23 years of that?

I found the entire article an interesting read, yet it was the last line of the article that really resonated with me: 

"He quotes Voltaire: “Doubt is not a pleasant position, but certainty is absurd.”

Looking at the quote now, it makes me think of what Leno said above about low self esteem.  But originally it resonated with me because of how uncertain my life has seemed in the past few years. 

I've always craved a life of security, of certainty even in the midst of feeling "called" or "led" to pursue drumming as a career - I struggle with letting go and allowing life "to happen."  To "be in the moment." 

But as I read this quote, it gave me a sense of hope and encouragement within this "uncertain" life that I lead.  It let me know that doubt is okay - of course it's not pleasant but to have certainty, really?  Is that really what I want?  It reminds me that I crave adventure, and the road less traveled, and that this "uncertain" life I've found myself in is really where I want to be. 

Yes, it's a struggle some days, and I wish I had more of the success (and "certainty") that puts money in my pocket and in my bank, but for the most part I'm continuing to learn how to make a life for myself and my family and it feels good and right (for the most part).

Still, though, a little certainty would be nice :-)

Monolake: Article on Live Performance with Computers

I found this after visiting a site my friend Martin Baird recommended.

Monolake on performing live with laptops http://maxoepen.com/spacebar.html

David Pogue and Virtual Orchestras

I really enjoy David Pogue's columns and books.  He seems like a down to earth guy, and the fact that he was once a professional musician gives him points in my book.  Today I read a recent column of his over at the New York Times.  It was a pretty normal column, but what made me want to post about it was his last paragraph:

"I can't help remembering how fonts and laser printers wiped out the entire industry of hand typesetters. Today, we see it as an inevitable replacement of a slow, inefficient process. My question is: in 100 years, will anybody go to the trouble of hiring live musicians to using an equivalent-sounding inexpensive box? And will anyone mind?"

I'd never thought about this angle of the digital music times we live in.  Fascinating though.  You can read the whole article here , or pick up today's issue of the New York Times.

Rosanne Cash on Songwriting

My friend Wade sent me (and a few other folks) a link to the "blog" post written by Rosanne Cash.  It appeared on the New York Times Opinion Page (not sure if it was in the actual paper) under the Op-Extra Section.  I love reading about the act of artistic creation, whether it be about acting, food, scriptwriting, or in this case songwriting.  Fascinating words. 

"We waited.

On April 4th, the day before the session, Lisa sent an e-mail saying, “Here are his thoughts so far…” and a verse from Kris that raised the hair on the back of my head and brought instant tears to my eyes. I sent it to Elvis, fingers shaking, and he wrote back within minutes, his excitement and exclamation points jumping off the screen. It was perfect."

And then:

"E.L. Doctorow said that “writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.” He may not have been referring specifically to songwriting, but it applies. Great songwriting is not a poor man’s poetry, or a distant cousin to “real” writing. It requires the same discipline and craft. Bright flashes of inspiration can initiate it, but it cannot be completed that way."

The title of the blog post/ article is "The Ear of the Beholder."  The comments are fascinating to read too.

Oh and Joe Bonadio played drums on the untitled track she has excerpted on the page.  I thought that was pretty cool..

Milk through my nose

Okay, not quite.  But if I had been drinking milk, these photos would have made that happen.  I was laughing out loud at these photos of tv.  via Kottke.

Tragedy...

My heart goes out for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family.  Man, what a thing to have to go through...I feel bad for everyone involved and hope that they can experience grace, healing and mercy with one another and from others as well.  And through the wonders of the internet, we can all express or grief and condolences here...

Session Work

This past week kept me fairly busy:

On Wednesday night I did a session with Mark Williams at my studio here, "The Dorm Room" and tracked drums for singer/songwriter Bill Hayden and laid down some loop ideas and drum parts for a song Jesse DeConto is putting together with Mark.  Later that same night I rehearsed at Chapel Hill Bible Church for the Sunday service I played at yesterday.

Friday night I played Mike Passaro and Shelly Moore at Providence Baptist Church for a conference based on the book, "ReThink."  I got to play on Mike's amazing Taye drum set and enjoyed using the Aviom monitors once again.  It's amazing how much more fun it is to play when you can actually hear the people you are playing with. The Aviom's really allow that to happen.

Saturday, after my run in the morning on the American Tobacco Trail, I went down to Morrisville to Jeff Creed's place, Studio 313 and played on some tracks for the FingerPuppets.  Robert Sledge from International Orange and Ben Folds Five was playing bass on the session.  And he did double duty as a the Pro-Tools wrangler, as the regular engineer was unable to make it.  I was a big fan of the Ben Folds Five and to get to play with Robert was a treat!

Sunday I played at the Bible Church and taught my usual Sunday afternoon lessons, and then went back to Morrisville to finish the tracks with the FingerPuppets.  I finished up my day around 8:30 or so and got back home in time to assemble a Lego Star Wars Pod-Racer with my son.  Good times!

Collaboration not Competition

Beautiful piece by Margaret Wheatley over at Inward/Outward.  Excerpt:

"One of the biggest flaws in our approach to life is the belief that competition creates strong and healthy systems. Television screens are filled with images of animals locking horns in battle or ripping apart their prey. It is true that in any living system there are predators and prey, death and destruction. But competition among individuals and species is not the dominant way life works. It is always cooperation that increases over time in a living system. Life becomes stronger and more capable through systems of collaboration and partnering, not through competition."

She speaks to the condition and state that we as a world are finding ourselves in these days.  One of the students at the school I work at wrote this beautiful "story" and I had to photocopy it and save it for myself, because I think it rings so true (the student is age 5-6):

"How can the world be a better place then us."

Profound huh? 

More info about Margaret Wheatley and her books, lectures, podcasts and such can be found at Margaret Wheatley.com.

Best Arts: Elaine Stritch

My wife came across this You Tube page, with all of these great performances.  One of which was Elaine Stritch.  I'd never heard of her, but last Carole was watching a bunch of her videos and I joined in and was truly amazed and drawn in by the sheer artistry and beauty of someone at the height of their craft.

This is the video she had me watch:

And then we watched this tribute to Steven Sondheim:

I just love this song, and how true it seems...beautiful lyrics and great delivery.  The documentary above is fascinating to watch, not only for her performance but for the performance of the studio orchestra.  I've got to get a pair of those finger cymbals...they sound amazing.  Somewhere between a triangle and the larger Indian/Hindu/ Balinese Finger Cymbals I currently own.  Plus, the rhythm and rhyme of the lyrics and how they fit with the arrangement.  Pure brilliance!

Next up on our viewing list last night was this Emmy Acceptance speech, what a firecracker she is!  I love her!

I am a Marathon Runner.

I've joined the club.  Yesterday I finished my first marathon.  It was wonderful.  I can't remember the last time I felt that happy.  Well, actually my wedding day felt as wonderful.  And the birth of my kids was an awesome moment too.  It was pure joy running yesterday.  The weather was wonderful.  It was cool, with a slight breeze just when you needed one, the music on the course was awesome, the cheer squads were encouraging and the hills weren't as bad as the ones I had seen and imagined we'd be climbing. 

Highlights included a cheer squad of "ducklings" tucked away on the back side of the MetroCenter with signs that said, "Quack if you are having a good time."  Running alongside the river behind the MetroCenter was absolutely beautiful.  Visiting Starbucks at the top of the hill between mile 17 and 18 was a highlight for sure.  I bought an a Tall "Watered Down" Iced Coffee, that was half coffee and half water.  Washed my face and used the bathroom and then hopped back out onto the course to finish.

More highlights:

1. Slower pace (and not worrying about my time) = More fun
2. Cellphone support was crucial.  I carried a cellphone with me so that I could stay in touch with the folks I was going to see at the various mile markers.  Their support kept me going and distracted so that I could keep plugging away.
3. Listening to the bands and hearing the wonderful musicians.
4. All the volunteers and support people along the way.
5. I think I saw John Bingham ("The Penguin") a standing a few feet before the finish line...I wish I would've asked if that was him.  He's one of the reasons that I enjoy running as much as I do.  His book "The Courage to Start" was one that I read when I began running about 2 years ago.  It's a wonderful and encouraging book for anyone thinking about taking up running.

Here is what I ate and drank:

• One orange flavored gatorade at 5:30am
• 1 Espresso Love Gu @ 7:05am
• 1 Sport Bean Lemon-Lime flavor @ 7:20 right before I stepped over the start line.
• 5 additional Espresso Love GU's
• 3 additional lemon-lime Sport Beans
• 2 Power Gel Carbo Stuff Level 2 (not sure the official name) that was handed out on the course.
• 3 salt packets around mile 19
• Accelerade and Water @ the various water stations located on the course
• Recovery Drink (that I carried with me) that I drank immediately after crossing the finish line.
• Oh, and the small iced coffee that I drank between mile 17 and 18.  I think that may become a tradition for me.

People I talked with on the phone:

• Gary and Amy (left a message)
• Christa
• Toby
• Doug
• John and Heather
• Carole and my kids

People I saw along the course:

• Carole and my kids, at Tiffany's house (thanks Tiffany!) and then again, right before the finish.
• Tiffany
• Doug (once over near Leland street and again at the finish...he took some pics of me)
• John, Heather and Judy over by the First Nazerene Church (mile 20 support was essential!)
• Christa and her kids around mile 11
• Toby.  Toby was awesome because after running the half-marathon, he came back and met me at mile 22-23 and ran the rest of the race with me.  We had a good conversation and I was encouraged by him as we came the final miles together.

I had also asked a few friends to pray for me, or to keep me in their thoughts and I want to believe that their thoughts and prayers kept me going just as much as my family and friends on the course did.

Ultimately, my time was a lot slower than I imagined it was going to be, but I was able to finish strong, and I felt like I ran the second half of the race faster than I did the first half - which was a goal of mine.  I kept my heart rate where I wanted it to be (thanks to my Suunto Watch) and didn't get sick.  My body feels tired and a little sore/ tight, but I feel like my body worked like it was supposed to.  All in all, a great first marathon.   

So that's it, the end of my Marathon wrap up.  Next up, I hope to cross train in the next few weeks until I'm ready to attempt the KC marathon in the Fall.  I've heard the Red Guitar will be playing at that race, and it'd be fun to see them in person.  (plus, I'll get a chance to see my sister and a few other friends in KC as well...).

Today, we drive back to NC and dive back into work and LIFE tomorrow morning!

Marathon Update: Yes, it's still 26.2 miles of running.

The family and I drove to Nashville late last night, arriving around 2:00 in the morning.  I unloaded the car and promptly unpacked all my running stuff (clothes, GU, Beans, Water Bottles) and set everything out so I'd be ready come Saturday morning.  I had bought a couple of gallons of spring water at the Bean Pot in Crossville and so filled up all my water bottles with that and put them in the fridge.  One less thing to think about today.

Next, I was all set to log on with my wonderful Mac Book only to find out that there is no no longer Wi-Fi where we are staying!  However, there is a PC, which is fairly clunky to use and a little slow, but at least I have something I can use!  And as I was checking my email last night, I noticed that somehow my site isn't rendering properly...it's just text for now...so I'm not sure if that's an IE bug or if when I was changing a small thing the other night on my site, I "broke" something, and now it's looking all wonky...However...it looked fine the other night after I had made my changes, but of course I was using FireFox, and not IE...so who knows.  When I get done here, I'll be filing a help ticket to get to the bottom of it...(update:  ope..no need...when I published this post, the site popped up immedietely...I think the problem lies in this computer...I think the security settings in IE are messing with things...) Update:  Nope it was a technical problem with the blog company.

Today we're off to the Running Expo to pickup our packet and browse all the cool things they have to look at.  I think the Expo is in the same convention center where they are holding GMA Week, so who knows, I may run into some old friends while I'm down there.  Next up, I need to load our cell phone up with all the phone numbers of the folks I hope to see while we are in town...some of whom I'll be looking for on the race course on Saturday.  I'm hoping we can eat lunch at Bread N' Company while we are in town, I think there is a location real close to the start line, so I may try to grab some of their Cinnamon Toast sticks while I'm waiting form my corral to move forward to the start line.

At some point we'll hit the grocery store to purchase stuff to pack a lunch for my family who will be trying to see me at various points along the race course.

We also have family to see and meet up with...so we'll be doing some of that today, and I hope we are able to also see our list of friends too...and on top of all this, I need to make sure I'm getting as much rest...so I may find that I'm trying to do too much...One more thing I hope to do is to grab some of the boxes I have stored here, which include old demos, videos of my Sixpence and pre-Sixpence years, and basically just fun old stuff that I hope to scan or encode and toss up onto my Flickr and You Tube sites.

I'm excited for this...it's going to be fun, and challenging and I'm sure it'll be real hard towards the end.  I'm looking forward to running with Toby, and starting with Chris and hopefully seeing my friends along the race course, and getting plenty of time to zone out and relax and enjoy the peacefulness that comes with running for longer than an hour.  Someone was telling me yesterday that they don't like running as an exercise option because it was so BORING...well that's precisely what I like about it...because somewhere after about an hour of running, it ceases to be a labor and begins to feel more like meditation and calm relaxation.  Hard to believe huh?  It's a very peaceful sport and non-competitive/ non-confrontational, which I've found to be perfect for me at this point in my life.

Brain Bran

The folks at Corbis have this thing you can subscribe to for free (via RSS) called Brain Bran.   

"Keep your creative mind healthy with the NEW AND IMPROVED BrainBran site by Corbis – a growing resource for creative strategies. Subscribe to the daily RSS feed of brainstorming techniques, create your own or register with Corbis for your free, limited edition deck of BrainBran cards!"

The cool thing is that if you sign up on their site, they will send you a limited edition of Brain Bran cards, which is probably the closest thing I'll get to getting one of those creative decks from Brian Eno.

But wait, that's not all at Corbis!  I just found these cool pinhole cameras! 

Man Room Must Have

The room I use for my studio (aka "The Dorm Room") used to be a full-fledged "man-room," prior to our buying the house.  In it's former life, this was the room in the house that had the giganto screened TV, and a Gun Locker, and even a few animals on the walls, thanks to the fine art of Taxidermy.

I'm not the kind of guy who would enjoy his own "Man-Room," though someday I hope I can fully outfit my studio with some killer gear, just not the kind that requires gun powder.  I love cardboard designs, and when I saw this being offered over at Veer, I immediately thought of my old cardboard lounging chair that I used to love (we had to get rid of it in one of our moves...how I miss that chair!).  And then I thought to look elsewhere on the net, and found this site.  Here the selection improves somewhat over what Veer has, and you can get a Rhino bust, or a Moose head, or even a larger version of the one they are selling at Veer. 

I'm still not sure how to design my studio, but since I've got a nice fireplace that is just begging for something to be hung on it, I may have to purchase a "Bucky" as an ode to my studio's former life.

Virtual Marathon

For all you arm chair runners out there, you can watch a video of the race I'll be running on Saturday.  Go here, and scroll down the page a bit (after the site loads), and you can see a Google Map fly over of the course.  Remember, drink plenty of fluids...

Oh, and who knows Ellen might have something on her show...a live feed possibly?  Don't count on it...

New York Times Mention

Sixpence was mentioned in Paper Cuts, which is a blog published by the NY Times Book Review.

"Paper Cuts is a blog about books and other forms of printed matter, written by the editors of The Book Review."

"On Wednesdays, this blog is the delivery vehicle for “Living With Music,” a playlist of songs from a writer or some other kind of book-world personage."

Author Daniel Radosh lists out the 10 best Christian Rock Songs, and puts "Kiss Me" at number 2.  He doesn't mention anything about my "spectacular" drum part but does include a quote from T Bone Burnett.  Here is what he wrote:

"2) Kiss Me, Sixpence None The Richer. O.K., maybe this isn’t a great song, but it’s a pretty good one, and most people actually know it so it will help me explain what Christian rock is and isn’t. This jangly pop tune, lifted somewhat above its station by singer Leigh Nash’s lovely voice, was an inescapable mainstream hit in 1999. The lyrics are unabashedly romantic: “Strike up the band and make the fireflies dance, silver moon sparkling, so kiss me.” And if you’re looking for a covert message about Jesus in them, there isn’t one. “We don’t experience faith as a compartmentalized, religious aspect of life,” Nash has said. “I don’t feel like I’m more of a Christian when I’m saying my prayers than when I’m kissing my husband.” While it should be generally possible to discern a Christian worldview permeating an artist’s oeuvre, their Christianity would arguably be less authentic if they limited their focus to explicit pronouncements of faith. As T-Bone Burnett (who almost made this list) put it, “If Jesus is the light of the world, there are two kinds of songs you can write. You can write songs about the light, or you can write songs about what you can see from the light.” "

Radosh has authored a book about the Christian "sub-culture" entitled, Rapture Ready.  Conveniently, he included a link to mp-3's of the songs on the list which is pretty awesome, considering the list includes obscure bands (compared to, say Miley Cyrus) such as The 77's and Larry Norman, not to mention Over the Rhine.  Personally, I don't think I'd heard the Larry Norman cut before, and the song by Andy Hunter is pretty cool too and apparently it's being used in the promo's for Speed Racer.