Birthday Thoughts ~!

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