Pushing Boundaries

Is what I'm doing, playing, writing, singing... is any of it pushing the boundaries enough?

I took a directing class while I was a third year at UCI. There were several memorable moments throughout the quarter, but one that sticks out most of all is a discussion regarding an excerpt from a play that I've since forgotten. A classmate had been assigned this scene to direct... and there was a line in the script that called for the main character to gaze into some sort of device that contained the universe or some sort of prism with beauty beyond articulation. I really wish I could remember which play/ scene/ character/ plot device was being discussed. Anyways, my classmate had chosen to make the device more believable and not so outlandishly beautiful/ unbelievable. And our professor, the wise sage Keith Fowler, asked, "Why would you want to do that? If given the choice between making something ordinary or making something beyond belief, why would you settle for ordinary?" And that stuck with me... if only subconsciously up until this blog post.

Am I settling for the ordinary? Am I doing work that's just "good enough"? Or am I pushing myself to reach the point where my work/ music/ performance is beautiful beyond articulation...? Or at least memorable so as to force the audience to pick a side of the fence...

It's 22:52. Go work on forcing people to have an opinion about you, Glynn. Go push some boundaries...

John Wayne Gacy, Jr.

Last night, I spent about 15 minutes reading the Wikipedia article on this serial killer. Depressing, astonishing, unbelievable, car crash you can't turn away from. Was he evil? Disturbed? Confused? Evil? Crazy? Created? Remorseful? Aware of anything he'd done? Lonely? Just a man...?

Sufjan Stevens is a genius. The juxtaposition of the horror of the subject matter and the beauty of the music... so good.

Below is a YouTube video of my cover of Sufjan's song about John Wayne Gacy, Jr. It's haunting, and from the moment I heard the studio version of Sufjan's song, I fell in love with it.

Enjoy...

*sidenote

Winter is winding down.

*sidenote: I live in California, so saying that "winter is winding down" is purely chronological and has nothing to do with the actual season. It's 77 degrees outside and sunny and beautiful and why would anyone want to live anywhere else in the world? Oh... people live in a bubble out here, which can make it difficult to find something "real"? Hmmm... I didn't know you were so pretentiously judgmental, Glynn.

Winter is winding down. We'll be losing an hour in 8 days.

*sidenote: Sure. We lose an hour in the morning, but you gain that hour in the evening because the sun will still be out when you leave work, so if you want to, say, go for a run or walk to the store or cruise to the beach for an hour, you can because there will be glorious daylight until 7:00pm. So quite yer complaining.

Winter is winding down. We'll be losing an hour in 8 days. I can't wait to start a whole bunch of projects.

*sidenote: By "whole bunch" I mean three. 1) Record my acoustic stuff. A split EP with the wonderfully talented Lexy Baeza. A solo album. Literally, cannot wait. 2) Run. 1st 5K of 2012 is in 5 weeks. And running also means I'll shed some poundage, which is always good for the old heart. 3) Blog more regularly. I need to write more. Not just songs or emails to angry customers but creative bursts of intellectually stimulating (or not) prose.

Winter is winding down. We'll be losing an hour in 8 days. I can't wait to start a whole bunch of projects. And now it's time to go play guitar...

*sidenote: Thanks for reading this...

Go Do

Seriously... slowly... moving... is this day...

But soon I'll be at a Ducks game, amongst the (semi-)masses, enjoying Bro Hymn (which means we've scored), stomach full of Bruxie (awesome waffle sandwiches), and possibly cheesecake (but only if it's not too expensive)...

Hopefully, some guitar tonight, too. Played last night (review of old stuff, some new stuff, mostly getting ready to record, filtering, picking out songs, second-guessing [which I hate, it's so counterproductive, why must it occur?], perfecting, making mistakes, learning, getting better), but I should always play more... NEED to play more.

Running tomorrow morning. First time since November. 30 minutes at a nice easy pace. 5 weeks away from the first official race of the season, which will be a 5K down the Hollywood Walk of Fame. I still want to hit up a triathlon by the end of the year. I just need to start swimming more.

I miss regularly blogging. I guess I have no one to blame but myself.

All it takes is a decision... a firmly made decision. Be a better husband. Be a better dad. Play more guitar. Blog more. Clean. Cook. Run. Be healthy. A firmly made decision. And slipping is okay, as long as you right yourself and keep moving forward. Slipping is okay. We're all human. We all make mistakes. We all lose sight of our goals. But our goals are always there. A firmly made decision.

Thinking about recording again...

With a new project. With an old project. With another new project. Or another old project...

I just really want to record and make music again.

Acoustic stuff. About my family. About relationships. About losing and failing and succeeding and getting beat up and beating someone up and feeling nervous and finding yourself or someone or something that makes you get up in the morning.

Drums. With Karate in the Garage. Silly, rad, rock music.

Acoustic stuff. With Lexy Baeza. About all the stuff she's written...

Oh Girl stuff. 'Nuff said.

I'm lucky. But not lucky enough to have no other options. To have no safety net. To have no fall back. No plan B...

Because then I might actually push myself to succeed. Out of necessity. Out of pure necessity...

Key Plays

The Super Bowl was an amazing game.

And its outcome hinged on a couple key plays.

2 Giants' fumbles that weren't scooped up by the Patriots. An anxiety mistake from Tom Brady resulting in a safety. A holding penalty that took the Giants out of field goal range. A Wes Welker dropped pass that would have extended a series at the end of the game. An unbelievable catch by Mario Manningham to get the last Giants' drive rolling...

I wonder what the "key plays" in my life have been...

Why did I stop?

Why does anyone stop?

Too busy. Not enough time. Too much other stuff to do.

Excuse.

Excuse...

Excuse...

I miss my blog.