I adore music more than anything else on earth, *except* maybe those that create the music. Moved from Milwaukee (Miller Lite please) to LA Fall 2002 and haven't looked back since. You may find me in attendance at between 5-6 concerts a month in Hollywood.
I have about 900 cds and can't function without music on ALL the time. Although music takes up so much time, I love traveling. I try to make my travel useful and often go on crazy insane road trips to see my favorite bands. I have a convertible and like to keep the top down.
I love dogs, esp. beagles (like my adorable baby mini beagle puppy STANLEY, and my beagle back home- Snekars) and Jack Russells, but I am freaked out at cats- who are the spawn of Satan.
Tulips and sapphires are my favorite.
I love Barbies- don't even ask...Music is my first and only love in every form and incarnatation it takes on...from going to live shows, to listening to cds, to sitting in a recording studio with friends, or watching a concert DVD or some music videos (I speak pretty much only of the videos on THe Dive on Fuse or Subterranean on M2 on Sunday nights). I go to at least two concerts a week, and my record to this date, is six concerts/nights in one week (and one of the days was an all-day long music festival). I not only experience the intensity, energy, and passion that is music, but I also in a sense- witness history- because never again will that song be played the same way and emote that much energy or power, or will the crowd react to/thrive off/respond to the band in that exact way again. It is pure magic every night, never to be exactly duplicated or replicated.
I am enraptured when the musicians lose control and let the music overtake- or even possess- them in those unbridled moments on stage, just as a lover submits in the heat of passion. I like the way my new concert buddy Julie put it- she is so attracted to musicians because they are so passionate and dedicated to their art and their music, while most guys just go floating and flailing around through life unmotivated, undedicated, and not passionate about anything!
Music is such a uniting force. It can cut across and transcend all cultures, languages, creeds, races, and religions. It can instantly alter your mood more quickly, powerfully, and pleasurable than any drug. If you want to induce happiness, I'll find the song for you. If you want some empathy or comforting, or even if you just want to wallow in your own despair, I have a thousand songs for you. I have never taken any drugs besides alcohol, and although I enjoy the occassional buzz and slight loss of control every now and then, nothing sastifies me more than a band blowing me away and absolutely stunning me with their sheer audacity at their show or by their cd that I just can't stop listening to. Yes, I speak of that cd that you turn to as readily as a best friend, the one that can make you sob upon its' opening notes or the first tremble of the singer's voice.
I return to music like a bird to its nest to find refuge, solitude, comfort, warmth, security, longing, power, identity, shelter, empathy, love, despair, depression, beauty, pleasure, and most importantly....HOPE.
I remember different time periods, years and days of my life, and even what I was doing, who I was with, and what I was feeling by certain songs. I vow to never give up my dream to help the musicians breath life into and nurture their art. I want to make sure the life blood of music continues continues to coarse through my veins, and that no musician ever gives up making music because of rejection, despair, cynicism, or disgust of/at the music industry.
I want to further the musicians' chances at recording their music with the option to distribute it to as many people as possible. I can not express my frustration at the quest to find a certain band's cd, only to find that it was only regionally distributed, if at all. I am thankful for the wonders of technology so that more bands can distribute their music to a larger, almost universal, audience via the internet, but this creates some potential pitfalls and dangers in itself (ie sometimes not getting paid for their work). I think it is novel idea that Team Love, Conor Oberst's new label, is providing all of their artists' songs available for download on their website, but if all of the songs are free and available, who is going to buy the CD? Then how are these artists going to make a living?
But this is not an article about downloading, it is a reaffirmation and my rededication to music and my dream of becoming an entertainment lawyer. The money at my old line of work, civil defense litigation, is very tempting, I will not lie. But money will not buy me happiness, and why work if you can't love what you do and work with your passion? I want to make sure the musicians have the opportunity to become rich, or at least live comfortable lifestyles, and that it is the musicians that ultimately profit from THEIR art, and not the record label executives who drive their fancy imported cars and reside in hilltop mansions. It is extremely unjust and unfair that so many people profit off of the brainchilds and babies of the musicins- or I should say- the ones that gourge themselves and profit undeservedley off of them. Creating art that moves another soul and incites emotion is a true gift and rare talent that should NOT be exploited, pillaged, or raped.
Furthermore, I want artists to have as much artstic control and freedom over their ultimate vision for their art and the finished product, because who knows better than the creator of it? I want to repledge my dreams, goals, talents, and ambitions to the plight of the tireless musicians, especially the ones who rehearse five nights a week in a dusty warehouse or record in their basements and play gigs with four people in attendance- to the ones that never give up and suffer and endure for their art. For the musicians that if they weren't doing what they were doing- creating- would rather be dead. Music pushes, drives, and sustains them to create, and their creations drive me to strive to help them receive the fruits and rewards of their art. It's the least I can do.....
