Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Hope for the Hopeless

Be happy. Please, do not ever hesitate or sacrifice anything for happiness. In the end, we will end up alone. It is not worth the loneliness in our present lives to pass up and abandon chances or risks.

Emerging from the Early Hours

There is pleasure in the careless mind and body, but at the end of the day, we must be able to understand that a higher goal and purpose is necessary. It is not enough to rely on our careless spirit, though it can be appealing and addictive for a while. Develop a world for yourself, a life, and a love. Do not forget what you imagine, for it is truly the only important goal to achieve. Find an idol, an object, a place, and a sound that you can always rely on. Use it, depend on it, because if your catalyst for a better life is a good one, it will never misguide you.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

A PSA to All

Is there ever a time in which it is not in our own best interest to make whatever we are doing the most fulfilling experience of our lives? Is there ever a good time to settle for something that we find undesirable, something we find to be boring or uninspiring? I am constantly told what to do, and because of it, when I am rarely asked what I want to, I am often left speechless or confused. We are raised to be obedient to those superior to us, and yet often, those people are anything but superior. We are taught to listen and not speak our true minds, to stay quiet and polite, and live in the shadows. There is nothing more detrimental to the mind and spirit than to quietly follow the rules set for us from generations before us. We need now more than ever to listen solely to our own spirits, other than the voices of those who have gained these positions of self proclaimed superiority. I cannot urge you enough to understand that what people say should have no effect on you other than motivation to further express your own individuality.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Free Verse

Inside Of Dark and Light Pushing Out To Recognize It's Isolation And Joy With No Clear Future But That Hope And Wild Dream Of A World Unknown To Exist Thus Willing The Creation Of A World All Your Own Sharing With The One That Can Love You And Be Loved By You. Sound And Music And Love And Peace And Feeling Will Always Control And Empower. The Inside Will Be The Only One To Tell You Who You Are And Where You Will Go. The Outside Will Question You But Not Be Able To Understand Your Drive Desire Love Or Dream Enough To Stop You. Please Go On For You For Me For Life. There Will Always Be A Day To Remind Of What You Cannot Do Or Achieve But For Every Day Of Which Let There Be Days To Speak Of Love And Admiration And Respect And Beauty And Sound And Feeling And Expression And Music And Truth.

Friday, October 30, 2009

A Short Word on Music

Today I sat in class and heard Tom Wait's "Whistle Down the Wind" so clearly in my head it was as if I were listening to the song through speakers in the room. Sometimes the power and beauty of music can totally surprise me, despite the extensive time and effort I have spent studying it. It continues to amaze me that music can have such a profound effect on our lives, controlling situations, moods, or even actions. I could not wait to leave my classroom and let the actual song play to me, and it was a familiar urge to wish I could sit alone for hours and immerse myself in the beauty of songs and music. I couldn't let a feeling like this pass without posting some sort of emotion that was triggered inside of me, and I guess that emotion was the purest sense of innocence, beauty, and love.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Bruce Springsteen Appreciation Pt. 1

Bruce Springsteen has done something extraordinary, something that he has only done, no one else. He has taken words and notes and his imagination to create the most cinematic and biographical music anyone has ever written. The characters that were first introduced in his first albums, and even before, are still being used today, as well as the themes and morals. Bruce Springsteen writes music for himself, as an outlet of expression and freedom, but he is also writing these songs for us. What he has done for his fans is something that can hardly be fathomed. I could write that he is the most hard working and respected man in music, but it would be a biased opinion, so I will simply write that he should be, by all counts. What I would specifically like to focus on is the songwriting done by Mr. Springsteen in the years between 1969 and 1973. He wrote based on stories that he came up with, stories based on his life, or other people's lives that he found significant. He created characters that did the things we could only dream of, but instead of making us jealous, he made us want to go out and do them to. His songs were loose and full of words, saying a simple idea through an entire verse. It can be argued that less is more, but in some cases more can be more meaningful. In songwriting, it can done either way, the simplistic approach or the descriptive. Springsteen has done both in his career, but in these early years, he took a Dylan-esque approach, and told us what he wanted to say, only hidden in stories of phantoms, lovers, and rebels. The music that was being made did not have expectations, many of the songs were written well before he was signed by Columbia Records in 1973. The songs of this time didn't have to live up to any standards, or impress anyone yet. Springsteen was writing to tell stories, through music, and that is exactly why the songs are widely considered among fans as some of the most brilliant work he has done. He wrote verses upon verses, often with no chorus, and performed up to 7 minute songs with only his acooustic guitar and his voice. Songs like Prodigal Son, Zero and Blind Terry, Song to Orphans, Growin' Up, Thundercrack, even Thunder Road are so vividly real to us, we can place ourselves in the place of these characters, these situations, and feel exactly what Bruce is feeling. He didn't hold anything back, still doesn't, and he is not afraid in the least to express his fears, desires, and hopes. He sings of faith, redemption, and finding a better place, a promised land. He writes of places we have never been, people we have never met, and things we only dream of doing. Any somehow, everything always seems familiar, like something we have experienced before, or might dream of doing. It is truly a beautiful and brilliant talent to be able to touch on such a personal level, the hopes and dreams of thousands upon thousands of people, and remain very true to your own self.

So Thank you, Bruce Springsteen, for allowing us to experience faith, love, dreams, redemption, and the feeling of a better day, just right around the corner.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Knowledge

I am sitting in my dorm room, looking out the window at a sunny and seasonably warm day. I sit here and once again experience one of the strongest emotions I have ever felt in my life, and one that continues to reoccur, and will continue until the vision is being played in front of my very eyes, instead of inside my head. The West has beckoned me before, and twice in my life I have answered, traveling to both the San Diego and Los Angeles areas in 2001, and San Francisco in 2004 with my family. In those years, I did not experience any unusual urge to visit the West, but in the past year, and especially in the past few months, there has been a consistent calling for me to experience traveling and perhaps living in the Western United States, and enjoying my life as it were meant to be, not tied into society as a student, or having to be taught unnecessary things, such as complex mathematics, or the science and anatomy of ancient species. These things that I deem unnecessary to learn certainly only apply to myself, as I am sure such topics greatly intrigue some people, and there is not harm to that. But for my own well being, and my own personal fulfillment, I can only envision myself learning from life's own experiences, those found in travel, adventure, risk, and days that hold the joy of not knowing what the next day will bring. I cannot learn what I need to know from the schooling I am receiving, such knowledge will not benefit me. However, I will stay here to fulfill the desires and needs of others, and earn a meaningless degree that simply says I have managed to tolerate the ridiculous method of standardized testing and formal schooling. I believe that I am not the one who needs to learn from them, rather they must learn from people like myself, who have realized that true and worthy knowledge comes solely from experiences and life itself, not organized classes with biased approaches and dictatorially run lessons. There is nothing to be learned from this method, at least not for myself, and yet I will continue to sit in the rooms and listen to the people who are superior to myself only because they have completed more years of schooling than I have. I will continue to stay at college and learn only outside of my classroom, and expect little knowledge to come from the curriculum they present. But I will continue to travel to the West in my mind, and teach myself through books, music, art, and imagination that I find interesting, because the only way to learn is to gain interest in the topic at hand, and there is no plausible way to force interest onto someone who cannot come across it naturally.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Relocation

I have decided to create a separate blog for my on going story I am writing, as to create space for this existing blog, which I plan to start writing for again. You can now see the entire story, and see updated chapters as they are written here: http://dlemirestory.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Seek Older Posts!

What is blind faith, and can it be the death of us?

I encourage anyone who reads these posts to click "Older Posts" at the bottom of the page, I still believe strongly in the passages I wrote from the beginning.

There is nothing that can explain the mind, but there is music to express it through.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Peace

There is happiness to be found both in the personal confinement of the soul, as well as the boisterous and free spirited heart. The most genuine happiness is not to be completely found in only one aspect of the soul, but a connection between the mind and body.