(actually composed on 11/14/2011)
Well, I spent the better part of this drizzly Nashville morning both recovering from the too many Heinekens and not enough Bloody Marys I enjoyed at the studio yesterday afternoon/evening, and cleaning house on my Facebook account. Why? The answer to this(excuse me, I have to go throw some laundry in the dryer...yeah, it's 12:41PM, and I'm sitting here in a robe until my jeans are dry. THAT, my friends, is a life of leisure.)....OK, the answer to this is catching wind of one too many posts by folks crying about their invaded privacy(Uh, didn't YOU take that picture of yourself in the bathroom mirror..the one with your shirt off? Yeah, you're obviously not inviting people into your world.), and yet another conversation with peers about "so-and-so exhibit A" using their internet pulpit to skewer "so-and-so exhibit B" for making a necessary career move, that apparently also involved some form of perceived treason.
Whatever happened to just calling somebody up and hashing it out, or better yet, discussing it face to face....you know, like, in person? Facebook hasn't brought us closer together, it's simply made it easier to know what everyone else is up to without having to actually participate socially to keep up. It's turning us all into World Of Warcraft kids, unable to drag our flabby selves out into the light long enough to touch an actual human being. Instead, we sit around searching for clues and conjuring implied sleights from the most innocuous exchanges, fully convinced that we're being targeted in conversations that in no way involve us. Facebook, fostering latent paranoia since 2004. There's your tag line. Get over yourselves, people....shake a hand, bum a smoke, help an old lady across the street...anything, just stop worrying about what everybody else is doing right now.
On a somewhat less cynical note, I did have the distinct pleasure of catching a studio session for my buddy Joshua Ketchmark's new project. Joshua's originally from Pekin, IL, but moved to Los Angeles some 10 years ago to play rhythm guitar in my band at the time, Best Of Seven. One divorce and several cool jobs later, he's now kinda important at Schecter Guitars, and makes independent records on the side.
My band fORMER recently backed him on the first 4 tunes he & I co-wrote for his upcoming release, and this latest batch features the guys from a killer Nashville-based outfit called Bonepony, the ex-bassist of Sugarland, and Lynyrd Skynyrd's keyboardist. It never gets old watching a great song come together, especially when witnessing seasoned players, who have only been acquainted with the material for a matter of hours, pulling parts out of thin air that seem to have been expressly made for the track and delivered on some divine wavelength....truly inspiring.
Speaking of my band. Our tune "Blue Divide" will be featured on Fuel TV's "Punk Payback" episode 3 this week. Check it out. This has been an on again, off again affair with the network, but it appears we've made the cut this week, after a little bit of haggling on our behalf by the shows star AND producer, so catch us while you can.
D.