love 1

love 1

90% of the time most of us walk around being complete jackasses, which shouldn't be news to anyone alive. the fact that even 10% of the world is trying not to be is something of an achievement.

why do we act like this? treating each other with no grace or humility. was there less of this open hostility and self-righteousness when i was growing up? i doubt it.

but all of us know that 10%. these people seem to have set themselves apart, either through genetics or hard work and effort, or completely dumb luck, they live fully-realized lives, full of happiness and accomplishment.

and they look at us as if to say,"you can do it, too!"

maybe. it's a lot of work. mostly on the brain. it's taxing to concentrate even for short intervals. was everyone's mental capacity greater 50 years ago? again, probably not. but learning how to navigate this world without causing any undue harm is hard work.

but those 10 percenters seem happy and comfortable with themselves and the world they live in. i'm sure you know a few, they're usually relatives and they're sometimes quite older than you.

wayne coyne said "we make our own happiness.", and i believe that statement is true. but you have to be ready to give in order to receive, and in the giving is where most people find their true selves.

i truly believe everyone could experience true happiness for extended periods of time, if they did love more. i can't be 100% sure but i'm more than positive love is the answer.

"love what?" is usually the problem.

so love everything. all the time. and see what happens. start with yourself and go from there.

love,

joe

alleyways

i just saw a skinny kid walk quickly down my alley -- his hands in his pockets, his eyes cast downward.

i looked exactly like that kid in middle school.

i didn't like walking on busy streets. i felt naked and exposed.

i loved walking down alleys.

beautiful trees. barking dogs. no traffic. no passersby.

garbage to study. some animals you could actually pet.

i also loved cutting through buildings or businesses on my way home from middle school.

on any given afternoon, i would go through:

the oblate school of theology.

wolff's nursery.

the international office building on san pedro avenue.

the el montan motor lodge.

i would just act like i was supposed to be there. much like zelig.

when you can slowly work your way into any situation without arising any suspicion, you can avoid a lot of conflicts.

and i was way into that in middle school and pretty much every since then.

so usually, i can weather any professional setting in the music world. it's in the real world that i need the practice of just being honest, caring and open. rather than slipping into that skinny kid's head and slipping away.

but that was an impossible thing to fathom at 13.

the world was a horribly unclear place. which inspired wonder in some ways, but fear in most other ways.

and maybe at some point, you can let it all go and things become much more bearable.

it'd be hard to be 13 for much longer than a year.

so, as always, good luck out there.

joe

just be good

the burden of living is different for each of us, but the unburdening is the same: love. if we could all be convinced of this, i'm sure the world would explode in beauty and literally save itself from extinction. but until that day we must meet hate and violence with love and compassion. i believe it's the most efficient way of creating a better world.

the word 'love' can be a catch-all for the solution to any problem. but it is through love that truth, beauty, honesty, loyalty, liberty, punctuality, or even violence and strength are achieved. to love is to care. to care is to do your best. to love is to do your best.

when asked whether they want to die or not, most people still say no. we are all rightfully scared of what might await us at the end. the only thing we can be certain of are the memories we have of the dead. some we cherish, some we cringe at. which makes it vitally important to take pride in oneself and respect others. to leave nothing but a legacy of good after we are gone. this requires vigilance and energy, but remember; this is all we can truly know about life after death. without any irony, it's your funeral.

i find a relief in knowing that i can end my own life if i choose to, like a safety hatch i can open if i need to escape my own head once and for all. but, again, if i turn the focus outward and try and really be there for whomever is with me, at any given moment in my life, i can hopefully help whomever is there, and in turn help myself.

there is still so much work to be done to be a better person, better musician, better everything, and there's not much time left, which is fine. i don't want for anything anymore except to just keep trying to make great records with hard working folks who are easy to be around and take care of my family. it's hard being good, but in this pursuit to be happy, there is no alternative. perhaps it is the same with friendships and with saving the world. just be good and the world will revive itself through you and your own good life.

rush nerd

i got the rush doc as a christmas gift this year and was oddly excited. i don't get too up about things, so this was quite an occurance.

i finally had a chance to watch it one sunday afternoon and i was immediately captivated all the way through.

a lot of people who know me as a musician only go a few years back, to either the swindles, buttercup, lara & reyes or mike morales.

but if you went a little further back. you would have heard some serious 70's metal guitar.

the beatles were too tough as a kid for me. there was something there i didn't have yet. a voice. and i didn't really sing. and the songs pitched around in keys all over the place, not mention tuning issues from song to song. i liked singing along. but playing guitar along with those records was too hard.

but loud electric guitar is easy to define. it's usually the loudest thing in the track. and if you have a quick ear, you can begin to see the patterns emerging on the fretboard of the guitar.

and as i grew old enough to drive, i started getting more music tips from my friends. san antonio had a radio station that championed these obscure metal bands, long before anyone besides their friends and local fans had ever heard of them.

and so along with what was actually popular, the cheap tricks and kiss and aerosmiths of the world, there were judas priest, ufo, triumph, april wine, moxy, legs diamond and on and on they came.

there were tons of guitar parts there to learn, right off the radio.

but rush songs were another story.

i hadn't yet heard any jazz-fusion or flamenco or classical music yet. the band Yes was maybe the most technically complex music i'd heard in a rock context.

and then i got 'all the world's a stage'. which is pretty much the live versions of the best parts of their first four records. it's still so much fun to listen to. and the guitar parts were amazing.

i still really enjoy making that much sound. as a three piece band, rush could fill up so much. alex lifeson used open strings combined with barre chords in a way i'd never thought of. they really cared about arrangements and technically flawless recordings.

and that's where i went for twenty years. studying guitar feverishly, and playing in metal, then fusion, then nylon-string, guitar-based bands.

but none of it would have been possible without 'a farewell to kings' or 'hemispheres'.

i remember playing 'la villa strangiato' with just the drummer of the band i played with in high school. somehow we made it to the end.

i also remember playing the recording of 'the trees' in my middle school english class to complete some kind of assignment. a true rush nerd move. i had complete freakouts over other bands as well (judas priest was definitely my guide to any twin-guitar playing that would happen later), but rush compelled me, for some reason. i think i really felt they were making art, not just music.

and in a way, my whole career can be traced right back to this band from canada that everyone thought sucked so badly back then. it was truly a dividing topic amongst teenagers in the late 70's. and their music was true girl poison. no one wants to make out to 'by-tor and the snowdog'.

but i was not dissuaded. i guess i'm still not.

it's only after watching this film, that i realized just how much they mean to me as a band. it was a very nice gift. something to help me rekindle this love i've always had for music. it's easy to lose confidence in yourself, but knowing you can do just one thing really well. that's maybe the lynchpin that holds a life together in those dark, lonely moments.