Birthday thoughts - I was thinking about the passing of another year of life.
This is a year that I am extremely grateful for as I have
now outlived the lifespan of my mother. So reflecting on that, I decided
I need to continue to create a pathway of things that I
would like to see happen in the coming year and the coming years. My mother
wanted so many things for me and I will not waste the
time that she did not have in her life. Thank you mom~!
So here goes if you are interested. I will limit it to personal goals as world peace
and any number of other great intentions would require a
much larger theater of life. I want to become a better
artist. I want to always continue to study the many disciplines that
I am interested in as there are still many
gaps in my knowledge of percussion, music, production, and
various other things. Even though I have accomplished much more
than some of my dreams as a young teenager in the 1970's,
there is still much more to do and experience. Any help
or opportunity’s that YOU can contribute to that goal would be
most gratefully appreciated fyi. A connection, a gig, a session or
even a word of encouragement is greatly appreciated. It does
take a village to raise an adult – ha~!
Secondly, I want to try to be a
better husband. In my youth, I didn't have a big goal of
settling down and being married but now that I have made that
decision, I feel that there continues to be a lot to learn about relationships
and about being in a relationship on a day to day basis. I send
my love and gratitude to my wife Susan. She is my rock and support
and continually creates a home environment of love,
family and drive. For that I am eternally grateful. Thank you Susan!
But there is more. My spiritual life and my music often have
run in tandem with each other (I’m not sure what is first). The spiritual side of my
life drives my every decision. Music seems to drive the engine.
It's almost like there is some greater destiny
as to where music is taking me and to what effect I can
have on the people around me with my music. Whatever
happens on this note, I just want that it to be positive
when it goes out into the world. I really want to send out
the correct vibe in the world. That is of utmost importance.
That brings me to my current artistic endeavor. This summer,
I am working daily on my recording project,
The Tao of Time (pronounced Dao). I translate that to
The “path of time”. I am writing, performing and recording
it entirely on my own. It may have a few extra folks when it
is done but it is mostly a solitary effort.
It is a recording which simultaneously
addresses time on multiple levels - the universe or universal
time (planets, particularly earth in the big scheme of things),
historical time or historical events that have and are
changing time (human issues, wars, inventions etc),
the time of rhythm as a drummer and the
history of percussion, my personal rhythm, and the finite amount of time that we all
have as human beings on this planet and how the historical issues affects
the finite time in which we live.
Okay, that should get you started on my goals.
I’m sure there are more.
If I could ask anything of any of you, it would be
how to get this project to a broader audience as I would like
to do more than press a 1000, sell 10 and give 900 away.
Yes, any real ideas would be appreciated. Things like Kickstarter are
Great but I’m a bit too overwhelmed with having to
Do that too by myself.
Feel free to message me if you have ideas.
Also, if there is anything that you would ask of me as a
person or a musician, what would it be? I am
interested in that as well.
Lastly, I would like to continue to find
wonderful musicians or people from ANY other artistic disciplines to
collaborate with. These are the kinds of things that usually
result in many wonderful things that can't be predicted. As always,
I wish to see that evolve into more playing opportunities.
Additionally, if you have an interest in the music of the 60's
and 70's, I would like to invite you to join my "Beyond the Beatles",
group on FB and post or respond to cool stuff of those times.
It was originally for my former Elon students
but since 90% them don't really participate in it, it would be great to
have some people that just want to enjoy and participate in the
group. Just message me from the Beyond the Beatles page and I will add you.
If you have made it to the bottom of this, I would like to thank
you for just being interested enough in me to read this and
indulge my thoughts. I really appreciate it. I feel special.
Thank you all for my birthday wishes.
Your thoughts and well wishes mean more than you could
ever know from this formerly insecure child from the 60's and 70's
who has already had many improbable dreams come through, thus
no longer as insecure.
This has given me enough confidence to believe that there
is still much much more to come~! I’m just not finished.
Thank you - I’m ready!
Peace and Love - Jim
