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.

Unrequited love

“Because what’s worse than knowing you want something, besides knowing you can never have it?”
― James Patterson, The Angel Experiment

“To burn with desire and keep quiet about it is the greatest punishment we can bring on ourselves.”
― Federico García Lorca, Blood Wedding and Yerma

“Because, if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back . . . then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.”
― Sarah Cross, Kill Me Softly

Life is fragile

A few weeks ago my dad fell off his bed at 2AM one Saturday morning and blacked out, at least that's what we believe happened. When we attempted to wake him, we noticed blood on the floor, he had cut above his eyebrow, and even though for his age - 79, his skin is rather tender in some areas, we had no idea he would bleed that much. What scared us even more was that he had no clue where he was, how he got there and what time it was.

We took him immediately to the hospital and didn't reach back home until close to 5AM. Nothing was terribly wrong with him, but he was bruised above the eye, in fact he had quite the black eye after the doctor finished squeezing all excess blood out of his cut. Later that weekend, a CT scan was done revealing a small hematoma on the brain, but we were given instructions on what to watch out for, and so far everything seems to be okay with my dad. But that first week was a bit more that nerve-wrecking.

It sure does make you realize how life can change in an instant and nothing ever really is permanent. Only change itself is the only constant. And maybe we are all fooling ourselves into thinking we have a handle on everything, because when emergencies happen, no one is truly totally prepared.

I've been thinking since that incident, no matter how great we may think we are, and no matter how fit we may be in our younger years, no matter what our accomplishments are; when our time comes to get down in age and succumb to the humility of getting older, nothing can prevent that. And no matter what we have and who we are, we will all be affected at some time or another by illness.

If that doesn't give us a reality check, I don't know what will.

Thanks God, for healing my dad.

Cursed Diamond - The Black Crowes

50% Local content on Trinidad airwaves

For the first time in my life, there's a real push for local content on our radio airwaves. This is being spearheaded by a few local artists and various stakeholder groups.

Now, there're folks who argue that they hardly hear local content on radio, there are others who are completely oblivious to what's going on, all they want to hear is 80s' pop music. How clueless can one be really?

Many radio station owners and moderators 'insist' they're playing what people want to hear when in fact they're just playing what will sell their ratings. Other fools argue that local content is below international production standards.

But my take is, if we, local artists/musicians had our 50% local content on all radio stations. I think everyone would be surprised as to just how talented and diverse our local musicians really are. And on top of this, such a push for local content WILL result in more revenue for radio stations and musicians alike. It's a win-win situation.

So let's not be pig-headed, narrow-minded about it, okay radio station owners.

So folks, here's your chance to support local music....and I mean really support....goto this link and sign the petition

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/50-local-content-in-radio-tv-in-t-t.html

Thanks

What we remember are the bad stuff

You know, I read it somewhere that what we remember over time are hardly ever the good points, but the bad stuff that happens to us.

I had a solo show last night at Fiesta Plaza, Movie Towne. It started off okay, then I forgot lyrics in the first song and had to switch verse three with verse one. No one seemed to notice.

The second song went well, the third one seemed to go over everyone's head. The forth was good, the fifth had a battery malfunction so I switched guitars. I was talking to the audience, they seemed rather appreciative, maybe some were bored, some folks got up and left, others came. I had me a bit uneasy and grateful at the same time. Grateful for those you came and stayed.

Then I played a classical piece, a piece I wrote, all was going well until I forgot a part in the progression, again no one might know because they don't know the song. Then I played a cover and played a wrong note in transition.

Two more originals that went fine, then I played another cover by Soundgarden. 'Mind Riot', I had practiced it relentlessly, and I messed up a part in the ending. Only briefly though.

I ended with the Beatles' 'Across The Universe'. I got the whole crowd to sing the chorus, which was great.

Everyone told me after how great I sounded, I asked all my musician friends if they heard my mistakes, they all said 'what mistakes?'

I know I had a great show by all accounts, but what's sticking in my head are those three or four mistakes. How could I make such silly mistakes, I practiced, I trained, I played scenarios in my head and yet I made foolish mistakes.

Oh dammit!

I guess that's part of being human. I know I'll feel better in a day or two, Right now, I just wish I could do that show over and not make any mistakes. At least every time a mistake happened I recovered quickly, so that was good.

Still, I feel little comfort in that.

Rock in Trinidad - Hope or Hopeless? My review of 2012 Lockdown.

So last night was the 10th Anniversary of the LockDown Festival here in Trinidad and Tobago. This year it took place at Kaydonna Drive-thru in Curepe.

Mostly rock bands, although the tag-line states 'All Star Music Festival'. I reached rather late because of terrible traffic in the Port-of-Spain area, so I missed about four bands. Four bands I really wanted to see, but I had no control over the traffic, and even though there were Police cars that sped through the bumper to bumper crawl (we civilian motorists always have to 'get out of the way' when that happens) to get to wherever they 'claim' they're going, I was stuck for close to 45 minutes.

I arrived just in time to hear a new band perform. All in all, I heard six bands in the space of 3+ hours. So definitely the lineup of bands was solid.

I was really impressed with KIN Sound System, LynchPin and Escobar Project. I missed Gyazette, JOINTpop, Checklist and Goodnight Parliament. The other bands I heard either had sound problems mix-wise and I could quite grasp their set. Maybe my ears are getting old. But anyway.

Here's my list of Pros and Cons of Last night's show:

Cons:
- Sound was not that great, many a time the guitars or bass would just blare out at you. Was a bit deafening at times, vocals were hidden and the drums were absent in a few bands (although I wonder if that was more to do with the bands themselves and their drummers)
- Venue had an 'ant' problem, many folks got bitten (me included) and wow those critters were brutal.
- Because of rain, parking was a bit strange at the venue and there was mud everywhere.
- The last two bands took way too long to get started and folks started leaving (me included)


Pros:
- Changeover times were by and large swift and adhered to by most bands
- The crowd was rather appreciative of ALL the bands and the various styles of music. There were mostly heavy bands but in between all this there was rock/reggae band KIN Sound System doing their stuff and the crowd was pretty good, so kudos to the crowd for being open to all genres of Rock 'N Roll. Well done audience!
- The numbers were pretty decent. As much as the venue was huge, I think the turnout was pretty good.
- There was adequate food, beer and a 'Merch' tent. Finally bands have merchandise to sell and folks were buying.
- All the bands paid their due respect to each other while performing in between songs, which I quite liked. Nothing like brotherhood.
- The caliber of songwriting for each band has come a long, long way.
- No two bands sounded alike.

So overall, even though there is room for improvement, I would say the LockDown festival was a success and the Trinidad rock/metal crowd has come a long way in terms of music knowledge and appreciation.

So things are hopeful for Rock 'n Roll in Trinidad. Now all we need is to have more constant radio play during the day of local, original content and we'll be finally building a vibrant music scene here.

More on that later.....