Music & Me

I am an admitted band geek. My high school years were spent playing the trombone and hanging out in the band room avoiding class. At the age of 15, I saw a clip from the documentary called "The Complete Beatles." It was a clip of Paul McCartney singing "Hey Jude." I was hooked, the way it made me feel when I heard it and how the piano mixed with the singing had a major impact on me. I immediately wanted to play the piano and sing.

My first keyboard was a cheapy little casio, with those cheesy sound modules. But for me it was all I needed. I began teaching myself how to play. Being in the band, I could read music, but not treble clef. So it was like starting from scratch. After learning a few chords, I wrote my first song. Possibly the worse song ever written. But i was proud of it. I then decided to learn a difficult song to make my playing better. I chose "Tiny Dancer". It took me months just to get the intro down pat, but i did it. Eventually i was able to play the entire song. By then i had written more songs and was quickly picking things up. I loved to sing and still do.

When my confidence grew, I began playing open mic nights here locally... I was terrified, but I got awesome reactions from the people. I was hooked. Every friday I was playing, and hanging out with other musicians. Met the best people ever during those years. Some are still my best friends. Myself and 3 other friends formed a bar band. We called ourselves "The Impostorz" It was too much fun. We played all over the place, and eventually became quite a tight little unit. Granted we were mostly a cover band, but it was still fun. We eventually broke the group up after our bass player shattered his wrist in a motorcycle accident. We still get together and jam ever once in awhile.

As for me, I still play when I can. But not as often as I used to. I write the occasional song when i get a wave of inspiration, and go to parties and play with my friends. It is a great love of my life.

A few quick movie reviews

I love movies, and will occasionally write some reviews. Here are few quick ones.

Gran Torino:
Eastwood seems to be getting better as he ages. Unlike many aging action hero's, Clint has managed to redefine the roles he plays. This is one of his best in a long time. He is completely believable as a grumpy, racist, recently widowed ex-Korean war veteran who begins an unlikely friendship with his Vietnamese neighbors. In particular the young boy who is being harrassed by a gang. I highly recommend this movie.

The Wrestler:
The role of Randy "The Ram" Robinson almost went to Nic Cage, but luckily Darren Aronofsky stuck to his guns and was able to convince the studio heads his original choice of Mickey Rourke was the way to go. If you have not seen this movie yet... please do. It is a brilliant character piece of a struggling washed up wrestler.

Let the Right One In:
This little gem comes to us from Sweden. Its the story of 12 year old Oskar. The shy, withdrawn victim of school yard bullies. Oskar has a new neighbor. A 12 year old girl named Eli, who just so happens to be a Vampire. This is NOT your typical vampire movie. It has a warmth that has rarely been explored in this genre. Its a beautifully shot movie. You feel the cold, and you feel how lonely Oskar is, and so does Eli. This is one of the better movies i have seen a long time. I recommend watching to original, non-dubbed version. Not a lot of dialogue, so the sub-titles are minimal.

Bad Ass Croc!!

No wonder these things have survived millions of years!! Crushed head? No Problem, add about 41 screws, some metal plates... good as friggin' new!! I can't believe I missed this story originally. Robo-Croc lives right here in sunny Florida!

This thing they call blogging

So this is my first official blog.... at the moment I am the only person who will read it. I am not too fond of the layout. I know there are customized layouts out there, but in my search, I haven't been too fond of the ones I have found. I am not too fond of the picture I posted. I took it with my iPhone looking into a mirror and used some random photo app to crop and play with it. If anyone has an iPhone (which half the eastern seaboard does) the camera on the thing is very tricky and difficult to get a good pic. The only way is to nail your feet to the floor and basically encase the rest of your body in concrete so it doesn't move... try taking pics of fast moving pets and stuff, you have to bribe them with snacky things and cookies to get them to keep still... but i digress. Daily, I have, what I feel, are brilliant thoughts about life, movies, music, politics, movies, video games, movies, my dog, and sometimes movies and music......... and as I sit here, i can not think of one of them. Does everyone else have that issue? Great thoughts in the car, but it disappears when it really matters. Anyway, I am sure something will come to mind.