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I took my daughter to the jungle gym at Rotary Park the other day. As soon as I stepped out of my car, thoughts began racing in my head. Thoughts like, I better make sure I can see her at all times, I better watch out for sketchy looking dudes that may be lurking around the area and I better make sure she doesn't touch anything that could be germ infested....and on and on. Typical parental concerns that the media has infiltrated us with. As I sat on the nearest bench to take in the dreadful summer heat, Hayley noticed a little boy and immediately approached him, "Hey, wanna play?" No names were even exchanged! He non chalantly looked up, put down his toy and responded," Sure. You're it!" and off they went. I thought,"Wow, I wish I could pull that off that easily." They both seemed to enjoy each other's company, and I had a great time watching them simply play. 

Sadly, we're in a world where manipulation reigns supreme. We see it in dirty political campaigns, manipulative media ads, the throat cutting inside the work place, the snobbery within social classes and relationships trying to maintain "an upper hand".  Unfortunately words like love, kindness, patience, humility, empathy, self control, forgiveness, hope, perseverance, and acceptance have been watered down to merely 'feel good happy ending Disney fairy tales' further diluted by media satire. 

Letting your guard down to intentions of nurturing inclusivity and personal growth, give way to the blending of cooperation and friendly competition. This can also be experienced through a phenomenon around the world musicians like to call; "The Jam Session". 

The Jam Session is an unrehearsed (or improvised) musical performance, that begins with a simple concept; A motif (or an idea). The motif has two options, it can either be melodic (harmonic) or rhythmic. The first principal is consistency. Secondly, the motif has to be cohesive enough for anyone in the group to latch on to. The motif could be ignited with a shaker rhythm, a kick drum pattern, clapping, or even snapping fingers. Once the motif has been established and acknowledged by the participants, anyone is invited to jump in with either a complimentary idea or in unison. Gradually the jam unfolds to the point where everyone in the room is openly participating at the risk of derailing the groove by not paying attention to dynamics, harmony or tempo. Maintaining the jam is the primary focus. The collective surrender to the spontaneity of the flow with complete strangers, can induce a sense of euphoric togetherness. The mutual realization and appreciation that surrendering to the beauty of inclusion is in fact what we are all longing for. It is the act of opening up to ideas (motifs), perspectives and experiences worth sharing and connecting to. The Jam Session will always provide sweet relief to the tense, scary, germ infested jungle gym we call LIFE.

Rubber Bullet

We live in a time where your value and my value are measured by the size of our bank account. It’s a rat race. Constantly looking back to see who’s catching up as we clumsily stumble forward trying desperately to keep up with the Jones’. Is that really what life should be all about? I believe that life is about personal growth with the unapologetically driven purpose of applying what you’ve learned.

As a baby you had enough drive to pursue mobility. One day you stumbled upon the brilliant idea that the living room table could be used as support for lunging your pudgy little body towards a different corner of the room. Having shed enough tears of frustration you would get back up just to find yourself finally walking along side mom to the candy store, skipping rope with the neighborhood kids, jumping on air castles at chucky cheese parties and playing freeze tag during recess. With sponge like absorption you finally learned how to read Dr. Seuss, play Simon Says and present speeches in elementary school using your new found words, personality, body language, tone of voice, and eye contact skills.  

None of that came easily of course. Thankfully you were too young to care enough about how foolish you may have seemed learning and applying every single one of those skills.

Unfortunately, life has a way of kicking you while you’re down throughout the rest of your life. The options seem to be to give in, tolerate, or keep shedding blood sweat and tears in hopes of diminishing the margin of error. This brings me to the act of building relationships just to watch them fall apart. Where is the value in that? Well, oddly enough, that’s exactly where I discovered the value of pursuing dreams(in my case it's trying to make a serious living as a musician while raising my children) regardless of how silly they may seem to your family, loved one and/or friends, how unfeasible it may seem to your financial adviser, or how far fetched verbalizing them out loud may sound. The journey of a thousand steps starts with one step. The decision to take that first step has been one of the hardest I have every done in my life. No one wants to fail at what they believe to be good enough at to take seriously…especially in public. However there’s nothing more freeing than taking that risk knowing fully well that with only one life to live, that risk may be one if not, the most exciting, freshest, and most meaningful chapter in your life. My first step: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTorresProject

The Torres Project Cover of Eric Clapton's Layla.

Every time I see my son flip his Bieber bangs, i'm reminded of my dad's black and white childhood photo albums where he is sporting an Elvis-like greasy 'rebel without a cause' pompadour with a side of complimentary side burns. Much like when The Beatles' sported their adorably goofy mop tops on the Ed Sullivan show. Which brings me back to when i saw Michael Jackson for the first time on live TV as a five year old. His voice was clear and soulful, every part of his body was a perfectly well synchronized dance that would absorb and gracefully express every beat of "Billie Jean". Winding up with a finger point to the sky and a high pitched 'woo!', he would rhythmically hike up his pants and introduce the 'Moonwalk' to the rest of the world! I was mesmerized. I'm not old enough to have witnessed the Moon Landing, but the Moon Walk was pretty bad ass. I immediately begged my mother to perm my prince charming coif into a full blown Jerry Curl with the intention/delusion that i too could break down a cardboard box, hoist my ghetto blaster over my left shoulder and head over to the local park to break dance with the other wannabe's.

The 90's began with a  leaping gazelle-like creature that would stick it's tongue out in full Gene Simmonsy glory, only to fake a 'slam dunk' and with his left hand 'posterize' his victims with a swift right hand scoop to score game winning clutch shots. He was known as 'his Airness'. Everyone wanted to be Like Mike. By this point i was resenting my mom for A))not naming me Michael B)not being of African decent and C)not sporting a Jerry Curl.

I soon began to realize and accept that my chances in the NBA or MTV were slim to none. It seemed like everyone in high school was chasing dreams of greatness. Though intimidated by that, the future didn't matter to me as much as what i had discovered through an Armani wearing, British guitar god who was being interviewed on 'Entertainment Tonight' by the lovely Mary Hart. The interview showed flashbacks of his stints with The Yardbirds, Cream, and an impressive clip of him ripping a stinging solo for 'Layla'. A song he had written for a woman who's attention he was desperately trying to get. That woman was George Harrison(quiet Beatle/his best friend)'s wife(Patty Boyd Harrison). As soon as they showed the live and unplugged MTV album clip, that was dedicated to the memory of his son Connor (who had just died recently) and won Album of the Year at the Grammy's, i was sold. This wasn't Milli Vanilli or Vanilla Ice, this was beyond 'making a quick buck with trendy pop teeny bopper' ditties. This was the type of well crafted soul music that could transcend time through influence and inspiration.

The 90's(much like the 60's and early 70's) was a great time for this type of music. The Seattle Grunge Scene, Metallica,  and Radiohead were some of the acts that ruled the airwaves. Amongst the heavily driven guitars, aggressive drum beats, thumping basslines and screaming vocals, one song stood out like a sore thumb for me: "Tears in Heaven" a deeply personal song about the unbearable loss Eric Clapton had suffered. Witnessing him perform so eloquently about such a tragic loss, inspired me to research his music, his story, and most importantly the influences that shaped him along the way. His words, life story and music opened me up to an entire universe of sour notes, sweet notes and the value of their contrast. Even though I may never get a chance to thank him in person, here's my attempt:
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheTorresProject?feature=mhum

The Torres Project - "Layla" - Eric Clapton - Acoustic Duo

The torres project performs Layla

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