Back on that tiny rock in the middle of the ocean.

Ok, so it’s a little bit bigger than this picture… but sometimes it feels smaller. But I digress, more or less (which I believe is an oxymoron and an addition to the digression). So last Wedsnesday I got back from the “Main Land”, as we Islanders call it amongst ourselves, with my arms peeling from a sunburn. Ironically, I have yet to get burned enough to peel out here; but, give me three or four days in Florida and I start shedding like a boa. Anyway, it was a great trip and a much needed get away from the confines of my 40 by 23 mile home, give or take. Here’s a quick rundown:

1) I hung out with my older brother Drew, his lovely/pregnant wife Jamiey and my three nephews and niece in Florida. Played a couple shows there in Ave Maria, including a great concert for the students at AMU.

2) Had lunch with my pal Jeff Hudson in Nashville at the raddest pub in Tennessee (this hip spot called The Flying Saucer with about a million micro brews on tap).

3) Met up with Timmy Flood in Nashville and drove with him back to California.

4) Stopped off in Mountain View Arkansas to see my pals Adrian and Joell from Silver Service. Recorded a tune in their basement.

5) Met up with my old pal Nathan Bryant in Denver. Proceded to hit up a series of hip spots in Denver’s downtown, including some AWESOME microbrew from The Great Divide.

6) Stopped off in Farmington Utah, right outside Salt Lake City to folk-rock the kids over at The Collective Loft. Played with KC’s old band Small Town Sinners, Kira Mesa and We Drop Like Bombs.

7) Watched the complete 2nd season of my new favorite show, 30 Rock.

Golfed 4 times. Twice in Florida with Drew; once with my brother Jordan, my Grandpa (who got me into the crazy game) and my pal Nathan Kannady; and another time with Nathan and his brother Jayson Kannady. It’s a hard life…

9) Recorded 3 songs with my good friend Mike Madden in Auburn. This album is going to be… well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

10) Hung out with my old friends from Darkhorse. That was the only place I’ve worked where I was sad to go. (sorta)

11) Got to see my good friend Elijah Stephan and drink a cup of smooth joe wit’ ‘im.

12) Out of 6 flights, I only had to sit next to two people; and only had to ro sham bo with three stewardesses to get my guitars on the planes.

Anyway, this is way too long already, so I’ll just pull the plug here. Peace, hope and love.

What I should have said was…

So I’m on the road again. Wednesday I had a three hour layover in Dallas. To kill a little time I did a little much needed string swap. While I was stretching the strings a lady sat down in the seat next to me, munching on a large and very messy burger. I really didn’t want to get my guitar all up in grill as it were; and also, was a bit grossed out my her messy-munching, so I did a little half turn away from her. She promptly leaned over and said in a none too discreet voice “exscuse me, your butt-crack is showing and it’s unappetizing.” Now, what I said, as I hitched up my pants trying to ignore the stares from the 12 or 15 people sitting around us who heard her comment was, “wow, so it is! I’m so embarressed.” What I wanted to say was:

1) “Now I know your lying.”

2) “Your cleavage is showing and it’s immensly grotesque.”

3) Quote Henry V by Shakespeare: “Thou amend thy face as I amend my life.”

Of course, none of these would be necessarily charitable… I probably did the right thing by sucking it up.

Wow! One of your “favorite”, really!?

I know this is supposed to be a music blog; but lately, for some reason, I’ve been having a tough time writing about things other than the state of my country and the ideas of the people that are running it. I’m kinda worried to be honest with you. Worried when I see things like this clip of Obama’s Whitehouse Communications Director, Anita Dunn, giving a speach to high school grads in June of this year. I wonder if Ms. Dunn realizes that Mao Tse-tung is responsible for the deaths of somewhere between 30 and 70 million chinese. Maybe she doesn’t realize that Mao is the same guy who literally starved entire cities to death for disagreeing with him. How about that for a political philosophy?

Someone needs to tell Obama that some of the people he’s surrounding himself with turn to Mao Tse-tung as a paradigm of political philosphy. Or… maybe he already knows. Maybe that’s the point.

Peace, hope and love.

While I was down for the count

So, I’ve been sick for a few days now and, as such, I’ve been catching up on the news. Did y’all hear about the powers that be lighting up the Empire State Building in Yellow and Red to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the PRC? I can understand it if we were commererating this event in a solemn fashion or with our aim being to remember the millions who were murdered as a result of the communist party’s takeover. But for some incredible reason we’re honoring the dishonorable… again. (Maybe it has something to do with the fact that they hold the biggest IOU on our national debt…)

But I feel like that’s kind of the trend lately. A Hollywood icon pleads guilty to drugging and otherwise sedating a 13 year old girl so he could have his way with her, then jumps bail and heads off to Switzerland. When he gets arrested there, all the Hollywood usuals come flocking to his aid, signing petitions and making speaches to try and free him because… he’s a great artist?

I’m just not sure if these are the same values as the ones that formed this great nation. Why are we honoring the dishonorable? Why are we standing up for evil?

Peace, hope and love.

The Collective Loft

These guys are rad. I met up with Casey and Skyler in Salt Lake City a couple of months ago and played their venue The Collective Loft. I’ll be playing there again in the first part of November as well. These kids run this venue which is conveniently located across the hall from their apartment out of which they run one of the hippest clothing companies around, Amicus Clothing. In fact, they gave me one of their shirts last time I was out there and it’s turned into my favorite. This is a video of them with some of their artsy pals making an awesome piece of art: a load of T-shirts pinned up on a wall that together make one huge painting. It’s pretty awesome. Enjoy!

Peace, hope and love.

Things that make you say, “hmmmm”.

Now, I’ve got some debt for sure. I went to an incredibly over-priced private school, I’ve made a handful of albums and last year I bought a mini-van. All of these things contribute to a me owing “the man”, or more accurately, “the men”. I’m sure most of us are in the same boat. But I’m curious, what do y’all think about the national debt? I pulled this graph off of the Washingtion Post’s site. It’s a comparison of the Bush era budget and the projected Obama budget. These numbers are so huge they don’t even register with me anymore. My mind goes numb when people start saying trillion or hundreds of billions. Those kinds of figures are so far removed from my experience that they literally don’t phase me anymore. I just kind of shrug my shoulders and say, “Ah, well. It’s so big and I’m so small it can’t possibly effect me. I mean, it’s not like I’m going to have to pay it back by myself.” I heard different numbers for the debt per capita or per family owed. In other words, if we were to split up the national debt and have each household pay an equal amount. It would look something like $40 grand a piece. We may not ever have to pay a lump sum like that, but for sure our taxes are going to reach epic numbers like 70-78% of our income sooner than later.

We haven’t owed zero as a nation since Andrew Jackson was president. And back then it was in the hundred thousands and the one millions. That makes me think that, perhaps in our lifetime (should we live to be old, God willing), the national debt will soar into numbers that we haven’t even dreamed of. I doubt the founding fathers ever dreamed of numbers like trillions and quazillions.

“…the true patriotism, the only rational patriotism, is loyalty to the Nation ALL the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.” -Mark Twain

Peace, hope and love.

Golf

It’s been way, way too long since I’ve played a round of the greatest game ever. So, in tribute to Arnold Palmer’s 80th birthday and yesterdays 8 shot blowout by Tiger Woods at the BMW at Cog Hill, I give you a couple meaningful quotes on the game.

“Life is a metaphor for golf.” – Drew Emmans

“Golf may be played on Sunday, not being a game within the view of the law, but being a form of moral effort.” – Stephen Leacock (courtesy of Jordan Emmans)

“The uglier a man’s legs are, the better he plays golf — it’s almost a law.” – Anonymous (from a man with pretty legs probably)

“Golf is a funny game… but it’s not meant to be.” – Anonymous
Peace, hope and love.

Answered Prayer

So most of ya’ll know we’re staying with Jess’ parents out here on the Island. It’s been great and we’ve been having a blast with it. But… as much as we love (and are loved by) Dave and Pam we still are praying for a house of our own.

Today we found a playhouse that someone had thrown out on the curb to get rid of and cleaned it up for Cadence. It’s really great and she loves playing in it. I know I should be grateful; I just thought that God would have given us something a little roomier is all.

Peace, hope and love.

folk-rockin’ violin

While I was out on the road a couple months ago, I met a couple kids in Salt Lake City, Utah. My show that night had been cancelled (the venue had gone under… ) so I was just cruising around looking for all the hip spots to hit up the next time I came through town. So, I walk into this hip clup (I forget the name already) and instantly make a connection. This guy gives me the “hey, you’re a musician aren’t you? I know this because I’m a musician too” nod. His name was Conner and it turns out he was in the band called Small Town Sinners who was playing that night. When he heard I was from Hawaii, Conner introduced me to his violinist KC, and KC’s girlfriend Tracy. Turns out KC and Tracy used to live in Honolulu and actually worked at the rRed Elephant, one of the hippest venues on the Island and the spot where I played a huge show with John Cruz and Johnny Helm a couple years back. They remembered that show as being the best that venue ever put on.

Anyway, KC and Tracy moved back here to the Island a couple weeks ago and looked me up. I told KC to come out and Jam some night. So he sat in on my set over at Kelly O’neil’s in Waikiki Thursday night and straight rocked it. It was awesome! Some of ya’ll remember the good old Soapbox Symphony days back when Morgan Jane was folk-rockin’ the violin. There are some of my songs that just scream for violin. So we’ll see what happens after we actually practice. Should be epic.

Peace, hope and love.

Imago Dei

So I’ve been reading Creed or Chaos by Dorothy Sayers the brilliant author/apologist and friend of C.S. Lewis. It’s pretty rad on many levels. But, in particular I was reading this bit on work where Sayers maintains that “there is a Christian doctrine of work, very closely related to the doctrine of the creative energy of God and divine image in man.” As well she suggests that perhaps “…man’s fulfillment of his nature is found in the full expression of his divine creativeness…” This got me thinking about the image of God coupled with “divine creativeness” and how it pertains to what I do and, perhaps more importantly, why I do it.

If we are made in the image of God, which I believe we are, then I guess a certain element of that must be creation. God Creates (ex nihilo), we create. That’s a key difference, the fact that we need “stuff” with which to create, God can simply “speak into being”.

But I’m curious, what do some of you think about this stuff: the Dorothy Sayers quotes and the imago Dei in in general.

Peace, hope and love.