Let’s go. Again. Because dedication.

Welcome to the new year. Welcome back to my goal to write something every day for an entire year. Last year, I was able to ride all the way into May (I think) with consistent posts, thoughts, randomness, and hopefully something interesting to read every day. You saw my mind, dumped onto the page, through it’s highs, lows, and places to go — couldn’t resist the rhyme — and this is me inviting you back.

How did your 2013 work out? Mine literally worked out. As in, I worked out. A lot. You saw it. The good news is that I’m still fitting into the plethora of smaller clothes that I had to dig out/re-purchase and I have no plans of having to look at bigger clothes ever again. In fact, just like last year, I’ll be starting off January with a round of P90X, this time with some new faces that I’m happy to have joining me. I love being a coach or a mentor, especially for people who have made the decision to accept that they need a coach or a mentor. I’m always open to people who haven’t made that realization yet, and I might gently nudge those folks into making such a realization, but I think it works the best when the desire for change comes from the self. Deep. Or not. Whatever, I believe it.

So I didn’t get re-fat. Sweet. Now I’m going to work on becoming stronger and finally getting rid of the gut for good. Chip away, chip away, and sculpt: that’s what I’ll do over the next 90 days and beyond. But aside from riding fitness momentum into 2014, the artist-me will be riding his own momentum as well. A re-mounted project, a newly-funded project, and of course, the elusive first album are all a go for the first quarter of the new calendar year. I’ll spare you the details for now — I need that content for future posts *wink* — but let’s just say I’m excited.

I’ll do a full recap of highlights and lowlights of my 2013 year a little later on. As a quick summary, I was able to achieve about 70% of what covered my vision board. Today, I’ll be making a new one, but rather than just wiping the slate clean, I’m just going to modify the board. Again, I was able to achieve a lot of what was on that board, so I can safely remove those items and replace them something new, something to grow on. I’m getting on that right about…now.

Happy New Year, friends. I’m excited, not for what the year will bring to you and me, but for what you and me will bring to this year.

Poppy New Year!

-Mickey

Jam. Collaborate. Explore.

Those three words can be found on the vision board I created at the beginning of this year. I think it speaks volumes to what my goals are in the creation of (one of) my big goals that I plan to hit on my birthday October. It’s basically what will become my album as the whole concept behind it is to work with as many of the artists that I have worked with in the past in the performance and recording of my project. I’ll write the music, I’ll write the lyrics, but not completely on my own. (Well, the lyrics will most likely be all me.) I suppose you could call it my personal thanks to all of the musicians who helped me get to where I am right now, and helped me to learn what to do (and what not to do) in this process of recording music.

I’ve been playing in bands since I was around 9 or 10 years old, since the music school I went to (and would go on to teach at) runs a rock band program. I started out on the drums, because I always wanted to learn how to play them, even though I had already been playing piano for 2 or 3 years by that point. Eventually, through the years at that academy, I would end up playing every rock band instrument for at least one session or season. Rhythm guitar, lead guitar, piano, bass, and even vocals, I did it all. Being able to do this meant that I was a pretty good resource to have around in a band because I could fill in any gap, or add a plethora of elements to an already established setup.

Professionally, I’ve been a part of a pop-rock-alt band as a keyboardist and a backup vocalist, with whom I recorded the first album I’ve ever been a part of. I wrote 20+ songs as lead guitarist with a band I helped form, but we just couldn’t fill out the rest of our instruments due to scheduling conflicts and lack of resources. (The singer and I may still resurrect these ideas in the future.) I played bass for an instrumental funk-groove-rock trio as a replacement player, writing a couple of tunes for them along the way. I played keys for one of the most gifted singer-songwriters I’ve ever known, before she passed away at a young age. (I love you and miss you, Cristina Taborda.) I currently play percussion and drums for the lovely and talented Arlene Paculan and I am also her session guitarist and bassist. And of course, I play my own stuff too, which is currently alternating between rap with a guitar, and DJing.

But all of these experiences, all of this talent, all of these incredible human beings, would not have happened if I didn’t have the drive to jam, collaborate, and explore. And it’s not as if I’ve been missing that and that’s why I put it on my vision board. It’s more of a reminder that the best things can happen and the most memorable experiences can take place when you keep yourself open to those three words.

So do it. You don’t have to be a musician to jam. There are many creative collective collaborations in several different forms that you could call a “jam”. You just have to be ready give, take, and share your ideas, say “yes” to other people’s ideas, and explore it all together.

– Mickey

I always forget to remember.

There are times throughout the day when my mind is zooming through endless possibilities and scenarios, never really settling on anything. Sometimes it turns into daydreams, other times it’s just a whirlwind of ideas. It’s more controlled than it sounds, it just feels that way. Every once in a while, sometimes once a day, my mind fixates on one idea. It can be anything: a sound, a musical idea, something to write about, an image, a smell connected a memory, really, anything. And most of the time, as it should, it stays on that idea because of pure interest and intrigue. It’s an “a-ha” moment, not quite a “eureka” moment, but the potential for that is always existent. It’s a slight moment of clarity, but on average it’s not an epiphany. It’s just an idea that grabs my attention and doesn’t let go.

Until, of course, it lets go. And that point of letting go always coincides with me trying to remember it. I’ve lost hold of so many “good” ideas, that I truly wonder if the good ideas I do remember are just a return to the ones I thought I had forgotten. And it’s not as if I don’t have the proper tools to write down while the idea grabs my attention. I’m successful, sometimes, at using my phone to take down an idea, or even using it’s voice memo application while I’m on the run and can’t type. But I’ve yet to make a consistent effort to write those ideas somewhere. There are a lot of ideas that catch my attention while I’m in the shower, making me wonder if I should buy one of those waterproof notepads that you can stick on your bathroom tile. Or maybe I should get a waterproof case for my phone and just bring it into the shower with me, notes application open and ready to go. (It would provide a nice in-shower stereo so I can listen to music in there, or practice my own singing to instrumental tracks. Singing in the shower never gets old…well when it’s yourself in it, I suppose. It can probably get annoying if it’s loud for others, or just plain out of tune.) I need to have these writing tools handy for any given moment.

It’s like I need reminders to make myself reminders. Maybe it’s something I should add to my vision board: “remember to remember and then WRITE IT DOWN” is what I’d write on the yellow sticky-note that I’d put on it. Nearly everything else on my board is already in action. Some things are much further along than others, and some things are simply states of mind to adopt, and I’ve done so with almost all of those ones. But a reminder to remind myself might not be a bad idea. The concept itself is so “meta” that you’d think it’d just stick in my head from its sheer absurdity, but I imagine that everyone goes through things like this more often than they realize or care to admit and forget to actually do something about it.

I guess that’s my plan of action then: put it up on my vision board, and then look into some waterproof cases for my phone. I just have to remember to do those things, now.

Also, did you know that the reason you forget the reason you walked into a room as soon as you walk into a room is because your brain perceives doorways as “closing a folder” of your thoughts from the room you just departed? I’ll find the article and go into it more in another post…if I remember.

– Mickey