Modern day living?

I don't mean to sound like a doomsday person.  Nor do I want to harp on the stark fact that so many people are getting sick. Or that there's all this stuff that's going wrong in the world.

Maybe it was always the case and we're just more aware of it now.

I don't know.

Modern day living comes with the harsh reality that there's so many more cases of illnesses and of new allergies.  There's a growing number of mental cases and learning disabilities. And if you ask me, people have more things in their lives and also more loneliness and sadness.

It seems like there's more health problems now than years ago.

And the scariest thing of all, is no one can truly say what's causing all this.

For all the advancements in modern medicine and for all the progress of technology and 21st century living,  we are living with more disease and more illnesses and no one can say why.

And that is very scary.

We have no control

We all think that we're in complete control of our lives.  We foolishly and naively believe that. 

Bad things are like a nightmare in a horror movie.  They're not real. They're not happening.  It's only make believe.

We go merrily along with our lives until illness strikes and then the world stops.

And all we can do is try to get moving in the face of bad news.

All we can do is take control of what little we can manage.

And that's when we all truly see that we are not in charge of anything but our mind. And trying to focus on the good stuff in light of bad news is the hardest thing to do.

Life is so fragile.

But we have to hope and try.

There is no truth in politricks

If it one group of people that I am tired of, is 'politrickians'. I mean, what a group of low-life, lying, cheating, mean-hearted, selfish, corrupt, evil, sly, vicious, blood-sucking rats. All of them.

And that's just putting nicely.

I'm not a utopian anarchist. I'm not a rebel without a cause. Never considered myself one to break the rules just for the sake of being a rebel. Who cares about all that nonsense really?

Some rules make life simple, others make life a completed mess.

I'd like to think of myself as a decent person, one who believes in the natural order of things, the course of natural justice and the goodness of everyone.

But I'm convinced now that folks that become politicians, or work with big businesses, multi-national corporations, banks and the main-stream media are not included in that group of decent people.

I'm singling out governments here first.

There isn't a single government that truly serves the people. They only serve their friends. It's blatantly obvious in the US, Canada and it's painfully obvious in Trinidad & Tobago.

Here in Trinidad, it doesn't matter who's in power - the PNM, NAR, UNC, PP. And all the parties who want to be in power but never had the majority stake - COP, NJAC, MSJ. It doesn't matter, the end result is the same - friends and friends of friends get the benefit.

You can see it time and time again, every government that comes into power after a while only serve their special interest groups.

It's disgusting and it's blatantly obvious. And nobody does anything to stop it. We only cast blame, look the other way and complain about it without changing anything.

But what's amazing and beyond comprehension is that voters will back their parties no matter what, as if this time in power will be the best.

I often wonder if Trinis are a special breed of stupid people, but then I see that same sort of stupidity elsewhere in the US, Canada, even in Europe.

And the results are always the same.

What's that saying again? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

All of a sudden life got busy

So there I was...busy minding my own business after returning from kobo town's summer tour.

Took me a while to readjust to a normal life. But I'm finally in a good spot.

I was getting back into a really good practice schedule for both classical and electric guitar and then I called to play a few flamenco shows in October and November with Stefan Roach.

No problem I can do a few shows.

Now this week I'm going to be a part of a musical production at the Central Bank Auditorium. Starting next week. Rehearsals like crazy and seven shows.

And just like that, my normal schedule is now out the window.

Oh well.  Nothing is forever.

Change is good.

Acceptance and awareness

Over the last few years, I've noticed certain situations recurring.

And I've noticed that my response has changed.

Sometimes it's good to fight what's happening, to raise hell, to stand up for one's values. Other times it's better to just observe and see how the whole story plays out, almost like a movie.

What is bizarre is that 'observing' and just being aware seems almost counter-intuitive, but every time I've done so, the results are never what I thought they would be.

We often have such a knee-jerk reaction to so many things, that to sit and do nothing, sometimes in the face of discomfort is the most absurd, irrational idea but it works.

Here's how I've changed my life:

- On a daily basis, whenever someone gives me a 'bad drive' here in Trinidad (which you know happens here alot), I just let them go ahead of me, pull back and drive slower. Two things happen - I avoid an accident and I feel at peace, I even say a prayer for the dangerous driver to be careful. And guess what? My day is not ruined. I feel fine. Sometimes I get a little irritated but I'm not screaming and shouting obscenities at the top of my lungs.

- Redefining stress - read an article a few weeks ago that if we accept stress as a part of life and try our best to deal with it that we will actually live longer, healthier lives. So now, stress is my friend and we talk and laugh about our relationship all the time. We meet for coffee once a week and discuss where we can improve.

- Wait and see - rather than fly off the handle in any situation, or letting my feelings get the better of me, I wait to see what is the best response before I answer. Sometimes it's better to not say anything at all. For the sake of peace at least.

- Picong and Fatigue (Caribbean teasing and banter) - I've come to realize that when my students give me talk, it's for me to ignore it, unless they're being rude, kids like to test adults (took me a while to learn that one). And I've noticed that my football friends give a lot of 'fatigue' talk during a match, it's really a technique done to ruin the opponents' game, instead to getting angry, now I join in whenever necessary, it's relieves stress (my new best friend).

- Whenever I find myself spiralling down into a well of worry, I try to think how to objectively get things done, and tell the Lord that I don't know where I'm going, but lead the way. That usually works.

- And last, I'm looking at any difficult situation as a process where I can learn to be a better 'me' at the end of it. Because nothing, no situation lasts forever.

So far, so good in this new way of thinking.

I think the key to a well-balanced mind is acceptance of all that's around us, and being aware of what impacts on our life and what exactly we will to allow have an impact on us.

Change what we can, accept what we can't and know the difference.

Seems simple enough, but really hard to do.

The adventure of a lifetime

I'm on a bus...stuck in traffic.

Heading to Portland, Oregon to play a show tonight at Mississippi studios with the band Kobo Town. 

It all started back in June.  I came up to Toronto to stay by a friend for the summer.  Reason being - Kobo Town was going on tour. Where? Everywhere.  Europe.  Canada and America. 

It's hard to believe that the tour is nearly on it's last leg. We've had many mishaps.  Yet, most of the shows have been good. Out of 25 shows so far we've only had two where we were disappointed. So that's not too bad of a ratio.

It's funny.  

People on the outside will look at this and say 'wow! How exciting! All this touring'

On one hand it is. One the other hand no one knows the stress that goes into planning a tour. Nor the stress of when things go wrong on the road.

Talk about damage control and brain storming on the spot.

It has been a crazy ride.  Maybe the average person might not think it so exciting if they experienced it first hand.

But one thing is for sure. It's an experience I'll never forget.  The summer of 2013 and all the touring we did. 

We saw the world from the window of a bus, a plane, a van and a boat.

This is the year of unexpected decisions

I was busy minding my own business in January of this year when I got a call from my guitar guru - Graham Newling, who advised me of an opening for guitar lecturer at the University of the West Indies (Faculty of Creative and Festive Arts).

Long and short of it, I applied and got through and taught the Spring semester there, it was one of the best experiences of my teaching career. I hope I get called back for September. The downside was I had to re-arrange my private teaching schedule and unfortunately some students had to be dropped. They all understood though and were happy for me to get such an opportunity.

Now again in May, just this week actually, I got a call from Drew Gonsalves, leader of Kobo Town, asking me when I come up to start touring with the band, our second album - 'Jumbie in the Jukebox' has been released and there's a massive tour happening all across Europe, the US and Canada, starting in early June.

And so, I'll be looking into flights this week and re-arranging my teaching schedule, because inasmuch as this wasn't planned, it is one heck of an opportunity.

I remember reading somewhere that 'Life is what happens when you're making plans'

Most of my plans have gone out the window this year, and I've decided to go with the flow.

Interesting year indeed.

To my body: I'll never take anything for granted again with you

A friend of mine has MS. He's my age and lives in England. A really nice guy, a lawyer by profession.

Every year he comes to Trinidad to be with his family for a bit. Because of his condition he must be in England for treatment. I'm not too sure how much family he has in England, and having friends and family around does make things easier.

I guess that's one saving grace of living here, having a network of people that can help support you in any given situation.

But here in Trinidad I don't know if we have the right sort of treatment for MS, and it is a sad, crippling disease, one that robs a person of everything.

My friend now gets around in a wheelchair.

There was a show in Shakers on the Ave last night here in Trinidad, and he came to be with all of us and hear another mutual friend of ours play in the band Buzzrock. He wanted to go inside, he wheeled himself up to the stairs and we helped him up the five steps.

It was humbling to see.

Everyone offered to help and get out of his way, folks offered chairs. It was a wonderful display of human kindness.

He sat right in front of the stage and took it all in.

But it was also very sobering to see how this wretched disease takes away the one thing we so take for granted - the ability to walk, to move our hands, legs, our entire body any way we like.

If there was ever one wish I could be granted is this - that all human suffering (physical, mental and spiritual) will someday soon, eventually cease. That everyone will be cured of every affliction.

Sterling, I hope and pray that someday you will be completely cured of your condition.

Calypso is all but dead in Trinidad

Sometime ago, I got my hands on this CD - 'Calypso Awakening' from the Emery Cook Collection. I strongly suggest everyone get a copy of this. If you would like to hear real, authentic Calypso, then this is a must have in your CD collection.

Here's a link to the album.

http://www.folkways.si.edu/calypso-awakening-from-the-emory-cook-collection/caribbean/music/album/smithsonian

When you (my fellow Trini), hear the songs on this recording, you will hear for yourself what I am talking about.

The level of skill, wit, talent, banter on each of these songs delivered by The Mighty Sparrow, Lord Melody, Small Island Pride, Commander, Wrangler, King Fighter and the John Buddy Williams Band are beyond contest.

It's absolutely brilliant.

The lyrical content has you thinking, the melody and harmony lines have you singing and the beat will have you chipping and bouncing in your seat. The song arrangements are timeless and precise.

It's a great record.

What's so special about this recording? Well, for one, many of the performances are 'Live'. And the studio-recorded songs have a thick, fat feel to them. They sound alive and true. You can tell that every instrument is really being played. It's not a 'sample'.

Contrast that to now where all songs from Trinidad - the ruling art-form of Soca (son of Calypso) and the dying form of Calypso use an electronic drum pad to make 'a beat'. Where a keyboard plays the 'horn lines' and in some cases the bass lines as well. There's no real instrumentation, cept maybe a thin guitar line or two. No real hornsmen. Nothing. Where ALL 'singers' use the cursed Autotune software to create an effect for their voice, when the truth is that most of these 'Soca singers' cannot hold their keys live. And no matter how much each of these modern recordings are 'mixed and mastered' they still sound flat. They have no depth, no dynamics.

The fact is, modern day music of Trinidad has no soul.

Contrast the raw brilliance of this great period in time (the early 1900's to roughly around the 1970's) for our music, for our 'Kaiso', to what we have now - a time where nobody knows what are the Calypso songs for a Carnival season, only the 'Soca Hits'.

Contrast the healthy, competitive duel that used to go on between Calypsonians to what happens now between 'Soca Artistes'. In some Soca camps it's almost war. There's that much hatred and back-biting going on inside this great 'Soca Fraternity' when really, it's a Soca Mafia.

In the meantime, Calypso lays bleeding to death.

Look at this year's Calypso Monarch (2013) how poorly attended it was as compared to the growing popularity of Soca Monarch competitions - which have everything from fireworks to flying Soca singers to you name it - it's a blasted circus show.

After hearing the winner of this year's Calypso Monarch, I had come to the sad conclusion that Calypso is dead. There is no Calypsonian who can save our music. The older heads are getting older and are dying, and the younger ones cannot sing without the help of Autotune. The younger Calypsonians have no idea of lyrical content nor melody structure. It is terrible song-writing, if that is even a word to call this material - a song.

Well, don't even talk about Soca Artistes, they're not writing songs, they're selling noise-making hits that market this year's gimmick, whatever the hell it is for the year.

If no one has realized the fact that Calypso is dead, then I ask you this?

- When last did you go to a Calypso show? A tent?
- What new Calypsonians you like? Are they able to carry the torch forward to the next generation?
- Is Calypso making it to the world stage? Will it ever?
- What did you think of this year's Calypsos? (Not Soca tunes)
- Are the Calypso songs of this year able to stand up to the all the timeless classics we all love?
- What Calypso albums do you have?

I rest my case.

I mourn for Calypso. But when I turn on my radio, all I hear is a bunch of Autotuned 'Artistes' singing about jumping, waving, and doing some damn gimmick move.

It's like we've all become jackasses and we're so amused and impressed by our own stupidity.

The real funny thing is that Calypso nor Soca are going anywhere on the world stage.

But yet, we continue to fool ourselves in this little bubble of ours.

I hope you will weep for Calypso as I do.

Pictures make a plain wall come to life

I've decided that all the walls in my place must have a picture or two hanging up on them.

It's strange, a wall is just a wall, nothing but bricks, concrete and paint, but when I hang a picture on the same wall, all of a sudden the perspective of the room changes.

The room has angles now, dynamics, light and shadow. Some pictures even reflect an image onto the wall, now the walls have a different hue at night and day.

Before, when the walls were plain, the place was serene and quiet, dull and lonely.

Now, my place is alive. The pictures are the scenery inside my home.

Outside, I have the garden and trees.

All around me is imagery.

Pictures do speak a thousand words, and they also display a thousand colours and images.

Colin Hay - I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You

 Dedicated to someone.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5J-DtKldpE

An Obituary: the death of modern Western pop music

It is with deep regret that I wish to inform you all of the untimely (but blatantly obvious) death of modern Western pop music.

Sadly, 'Pop' as it was fondly called was ailing for sometime, and no one seemed to notice when it finally bellied up.

'Pop music' was renowned for bringing us many great hits over the decades. Some of these 'hits' date as far back at the 1940s, and over the decades there were many memorable songs from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.

One can even dare say that popular music from each age and from other parts of the globe (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic) have also stood the ultimate test of time, with the works of numerous composers being studied and performed to this very day.

But something strange happened from the dawn of the new millenium. At first none took any notice, but by the end of the next decade it was painfully clear. 

There was no innovation and originality anymore. In fact most artists, regardless of musical category all started to sound the same, as if all these musical groups were being manufactured out of the same warehouse. It didn't matter if you were pop, dance, electronica, hip-hop or rock 'n roll (although I doubt the latter two will truly make it onto a mainstream radio playlist), all music had the same flow, the same chord progression (I, V, vi, IV), the same breaks, dynamics, and almost all the singers sounded exactly like one another.

It was terribly formulaic. It was too obvious not to notice, yet there were no cries for change.

Everyone seemed to be deaf to what was playing.

This writer believes the death was caused by three culprits, almost like the three legs of a good chair. But like anything else after a while with wear and tear, the legs of this musical chair started to rot, and there was no carpenter to fix the problem, so the legs became wobbly and the chair eventually collapsed.

The three legs were: Record Labels, Radio and the Artists themselves.

Record labels sprang up around the mid 1920s as a way to record, produce, market and distribute the music that was happening at the time. There were A&R departments (Artist&Repertoire) that sought out new talent and developed a roster of artists/groups that would 'sign' to that label and sell records to the buying public. But alas, the record execs became greedy and lazy over the years and have all but stopped their A&R departments. The bottom line is, you as an artist, you gotta have it all, ready to go for a label to jump in on your bandwagon. And you gotta be sell-able. If you're not cute, sexy, young or be hip with whatever gimmick is the latest trend, then you won't sell. It's that simple and crude. A label is nothing more than a bank now, and they want a great return on their investment. And the artist is the investment. The three main labels that are left now (because the others got swallowed up over the years) couldn't care any less about real music than a bank cares about helping low-income earners get a loan.

Next up: Radio. 

In its' infancy, radio helped build an awareness of a new, hip trendy music that was taking the world by storm. The first radio news broadcast occurred August 31, 1920 and shortly after music performances began to be aired. The new trendy music didn't have a name as yet, but all that was about to change.

America was sitting on a goldmine, and along with British kids, musicians took to the blues and jazz, mixed it all up and gave it their own twist. Next thing you knew, Rock n Roll was born and the music of the late 1940s and 50s had spunk and VOLUME.

Rock n Roll brought music of the working man right to very doorstep, it gave birth to many sub-genres - Heavy Metal, Indie, Alternative, Grunge, Shoe-Gaze and Pop music all owe their life to Rock n Roll. It's worthy to note that each sub-genre bore their own children, so we can say that Rock n Roll had many children and grandchildren.

Here's a look at the children that Rock n Roll will leave behind (courtesy of Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rock_genres

But Jazz and Blues also had another offspring around the same time - R&B, a term sadly coined to differentiate music of African-American origin from Rock n Roll. Absurd and truly racist, but it is a term that 'stuck'.

Here's a list of contemporary R&B categories to date

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_R%26B

Thus, Jazz and Blues leave behind two kids - R&B and Rock 'N Roll. Both had their fair share of radio airplay in the early days. Both kids helped to make Pop what it was.

But as the story goes, there came along a thief - Payola. Here's a nice little definition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payola

Thanks to the labels, they made sure that the ONLY content on radio, was theirs. Soon mainstream radio was nothing more than paid advertising for a label. If you don't believe me, turn on any mainstream Top 40 station and leave it on for a day or two. The station will play a handful of songs at least about five times a day. So there's only a couple songs on radio for airplay? Never mind there are hundreds of thousands of musicians/artists/bands worldwide, only a handful of songs get played on mainstream radio.

Which brings us to Artists: it seems that most artists these days all want to be famous and rich (if that's even possible with the label and entertainment lawyers owning everything. And rather than writing anything of creative substance, most modern-day pop artists are out to make an instant hit. The term one-hit wonder can't apply to them because the terrible hits keep coming. They should re-name 'Artists' to 'Factory Clones' because in almost every music genre there's a few that mostly sound/look exactly alike.

And then came along the worst part - the disease to end it all - Autotune (see definition below)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-Tune

Together, these three along with their man-made disease helped kill the pop music industry.

Sad that no one saw it coming, maybe something could've been done.

But it is too late, and we have now are just the memories of when music used to mean something.

When we could remember a song from the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s.

But can you remember any pop song from the new millennium?

I sure can't. And for the most part, I don't want to, it's that terrible.

Rest in peace Pop, we had fun for a little while.

Life is truly fun when you have friends to share it with

I know this may sound like a previous post, but it dawned on me this week that staying in touch with long-time friends is a must to living a full, happy life.

For a few reasons - old friends understand you, the know you, they've shared the times with you (good and bad), you can count on them, they can offer good advice because they have your best interest at heart, and most of all, they make your life better.

I met up with some old friends this week, and we sat around laughing about the good old days. We laughed about all the rubbish we used to do. We really had some great times.

Those times were irreplaceable.

It was truly great to see all of them, to talk about the days gone by, and I am forever grateful for having those experiences, because what would we be laughing at, had we not had those times?

We can laugh at each other, and they fact that we can still remember those days like it was just yesterday.

Even if it's just for a short moment, just to re-live those days, talk about all our fond memories, that really makes life worth living, at least in my opinion.

For what are all the precious moments in life worth, if we don't have good friends to share them with?

Billy Joel: An Evening of Questions and Answers and a Little Bit of Music

They don't make singers like this anymore

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Av8r747oAk

Oz Noy Studio Pedal Rack

For all the guitar junkies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO9WKxRjMbA

#LIV Movement

Here's a video about helping fight cancer, undertaken by the LIV movement here in Trinidad. Please do your part to help.

Thanks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm5U0kBSdFs

Rest in peace Cecil Sylvester

I had the best finance lecturer while I was doing my Business Administration degree at UNB via Roytec. His name was Cecil Sylvester. A rather jovial guy, he made every finance course seem so easy. He lectured at Roytec and was the President and Founder of Trinity Consulting Group. He gave much of his time to meeting and consulting with various companies on ways they could improve their business opportunities and to think beyond the dollar sign.

He was a thinker and knew how to do things the right way.

Things that I had struggled with in the past he made it crystal clear to me and everyone in the class. He was one of the best lecturers I ever had. I think I got an A+ in most of his courses and I know it had alot to do with the way he taught his courses.

I heard from one my former classmates that sadly, Cecil had died earlier this month. It was a schock because he was very young.

My biggest regret is that I did not keep in touch with him after I graduated from University. I saw him once or twice after school and we always had great, small encounters.

I had always planned to stay in touch, and I never did.

And now, I'll never have that chance.

Cecil, I am sorry. You were one of my best teachers and for that, I thank you very much. Thank you for everything you taught me.

May you rest in peace.

Why you won't be the person you expect to be

Here's a rather interesting article about how we fail to see our own future

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/04/science/study-in-science-shows-end-of-history-illusion.html?smid=tw-nytimes&_r=4&

To succeed, forget self-esteem

I found this blog post quite inspiring

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/09/to_succeed_forget_self-esteem.html

New year and new beginnings

So here's to 2013!

Let's make this year a great one where we all strive to be the best we can be with self-compassion and understanding towards ourselves, our fellow human beings, all living creatures and our planet.

Let's be responsible citizens of planet Earth.

Let's be happy.

The key to living a happy life, is to just be happy. Happiness is the road itself. There is no road to happiness.

What exactly does that mean?

Find what makes you happy and find a ways and means to live doing what makes you happy. Each and every day.

Small steps. Everyday. Do something that brings you closer to your happiness.

Whatever it may be.

Don't live another moment stuck in limbo, stuck in sadness, stuck in a dead-end job.

Get up, show up, be proactive and work towards your dream.

Strive to be happy.