And did I mention you can watch all this for three bucks? Plus the artists will all have CDs for you to buy.I won’t be doing My So Called Life this time. Which means I won’t be giving away any CDs. But I’m always up for a good barter deal.

I’m not an expert in such things, so casting an opinion about the solution wouldn’t carry much weight. But I do have a strong and educated opinion about how we go about formulating a solution. I wrote a song about it…

First, we like to blame our politicians for being the  way they are. I certainly have hurled a few choice words at them. But there’s one truth you can’t escape. I can’t escape. We made them this way, and we continue to fuel that idiot fire with every passing day. We’ve shown them that appealing to the lowest common denominator is the best way to get us to open up our wallets to their campaign fund. We’ve shown them we can be manipulated and that we won’t hold them accountable outside the token staff member that that does 18 months at a minimum security prison. With early release for good behavior and a golden parachute on the side.

It goes beyond our politicians. An entire television industry is based on fueling our rage. Fox, MSNBC, and their ilk exist solely to cash in on what we have been taught to hate. Even news outlets that were once considered reputable have switched focus away from informing, and geared their programing toward hot button topics that are only news worthy for our inability to stop watching them.

So we probably watch more “news” than ever before. But I would argue we are less informed. The kicker? This is the place we choose to formulate a solution to our problems. If you think about it on a personal level, you only have to consider the decisions you’ve made in anger as opposed to those you’ve made in a calm state to realize the impossibility of what we are trying to do as a nation.

Our solutions to problems are often expensive and/or very high tech. It’s funny coming from me because of my love for technology. But it really shows our ignorance and our ability to avoid getting involved. When we don’t like something, we declare war on it. Drugs, terrorist, illegal migrants, etc. We rush to build a multi-billion dollar wall between the United States and Mexico and the people that want to come to this country dig a tunnel or go around at little or no expense. We invest billions to eavesdrop on terrorists conversations, and spend billions more to develop the means to kill them once we locate them. The terrorist find low tech ways around this like hand delivered messages. Or they learn to speak in code. We spend ever increasing amounts on specialized police units, both nationally and locally, to fight the war on drugs. While the people that use and distribute drugs find low tech ways to avoid being caught.

What we miss, and what is probably the most important lesson of the three “wars” we’re fighting above is that everything we do makes our opponent smarter. You hope that everything you do produces positive returns greater than your investment. But we’re operating at a loss in these wars and the only thing we have to show for it is more prisoners to feed, shelter, and guard. Of course, they’re honing their skills and getting even smarter being surrounded by like minds.

We’re not stupid, but we make stupid decisions and we’re afraid to go back on those decisions because that would make us look weak. And the vicious cycle just keeps on spinning. What we really need is a philosophical change in our decision making process. We don’t need to rush head first into situations because we’ve been scared there by the messages we’re bombarded with daily. If we’re worried about Mexican’s coming to America illegally, we should try to promote a solution that makes Mexico a better place to live and discourages them from wanting to leave. If we’re concerned about the effects of drugs and the violence that results, we should make drugs legal and spend the tax money on education and rehabilitation. I guarantee it would be cheaper, more efficient, and would keep one more taxpayer on the roster.

Lastly, and this deserves it’s own paragraph, despite how painful 9/11 was and is, it’s a war we will never win with violence. Seeing the results of drone attacks and the death of terrorist (and the civilian shields that we never give enough weight to) makes us feel good. But it has an equal and opposite reaction on the people we perceive as our enemies. It has that same effect on people we don’t perceive as our enemies, though. It’s a cycle that has no end we hope for.

There’s a philosophy in forth generation warfare (warfare pitting nation-states against non-aligned entities like al-Qaeda) that I’ll paraphrase, “where the state is weak, the insurgency will flourish.” The reason we don’t have Kings and Queens, or monarchies  anymore is because they lost their monopoly on waging war. They tried to govern people of too many varying backgrounds and unified these groups in a common enemy. What resulted was nation-states. But now, nation-states are threatened by new entities we call terrorists. Much like the kings created nation-states, countries have created terrorists through their actions. Destabilizing weaker countries to subjugate to their economic and political advantage. They created the hot-spots around the world where insurgencies can thrive by providing security and rule of law where the state can’t. No matter how brutal the rule of law might be, people would much rather live in a state of law than one of chaos. Until you unite them against you, at least.

Peace through violence can never be the only answer. In fact, it shouldn’t be the major player in any solution of this proportion. Giving power to the state is the only solution. It requires an investment and a hands off approach. Which is tricky, but in order for the state to have any legitimacy with it’s people it can’t have a foreign country propping it up. The cost of doing so wouldn’t be cheap. But as an investment toward one less security risk, the benefits would greatly outweigh the cost over time. Not to mention the perception the rest of the world would have of that act. To be wise and generous is a state of being all religions and ethnic backgrounds respect.

The one I recorded before the video is, Just Right. I was just giving pro tools a test run since I really hadn’t used it much since I finished the cd. It was a perfect storm to record it, so I did. The video that followed (last night) was one gif of a spinning globe I made, twisted in every way I could imagine. I can understand it gets kind of boring, since the pattern never really changes. Just the color. It’s visually striking enough to make me want to develop the skill.

My favorite is Muse. Wrote it after work yesterday. It’s about my issues with my muse. I’m trying to steer things in a different direction and it’s hard not to fall into the same old traps that make songs not as interesting. Trying to push myself to come up with more interesting guitar parts without going off on a tangent. To see all the videos, click the link at the top of the page.

As far as radio goes, My Plastic Lover should be on Suck-Free-Radio in the coming weeks. It was submitted to a request for love songs to tie in with Valentine’s Day. Thankfully they had a sense of humor and agreed to use it. I hope to be adding a few radio stations to the  list in the sidebar. I’ll keep you up to date.

I’d mentioned some good news on Facebook a couple weeks ago that I didn’t want to spill. The radio thing is part of it. The other part will have to wait. If throwing a song out there is like throwing a bottle in the ocean, this one is a bottle in a lake. But still it could sink to the bottom. Which isn’t really a bad thing. Throwing it was the hardest part.

image via: Siliconcloud

Hope to see you there!

Just a reminder that I will be playing at the Adelphia Music Hall this Thursday at 8pm. Hope you can make it out!! It’s a three band Thursday $3 cover with Colton Settle Band and Matt Colombini.

In a bit of sad news, we are going to have to reschedule Dean Fields for latter in the year. We’re already working on a date for that. There are other shows in the works for March with Marium Bria, and Small Houses in April. Peter Katz had mentioned something to me about a gig this spring as well. You can be sure I’m following up on this! Anyone looking forward to spring?

Suggestions will be open until I turn my phone off as I walk up to play. But for my sake, please don’t wait that long. Ha! We all know my problem with remembering names. So a couple days to memorize would be nice. K? Thanks! Hehehe! Even if you’re not the “winner”, you’re all winners to me and I’d love to see you out there on the 26th! I have several new songs I’m going to play. Plus I’ll be covering the majority of the Naked Souls CD. All this depending on how much time each act gets. I won’t show up with too few songs. That’s for sure! I’ll have CDs for sale as well! Perfect for those long winter months inside. That’s when I wrote a lot of ‘em and what the title track is about. So maybe you should come buy one…

Hope everyone’s 2012 is starting out right! Mine has been pretty good so far. First off, WVU destroyed Clemson in the Orange Bowl and we’ve been having a lot of fun over at The Smoking Musket. I love writing over there! I’ve written at other people’s websites before, but never been able to stick around and find my place. This is one I’ve stuck out even though I felt like quitting a few times. It’s tough because I’ve had so much on my plate with the CD, the house (as always), and in general I’ve been rudderless about what direction I wanted to pursue. One of my favorite movies is a documentary about Robert McNamara called The Fog Of War.  Which refers to being able to see past what’s in front of you to gauge the big picture. Or in McNamara’s case, seeing past the big picture to see what’s really happening. It doesn’t always work, but I try to keep this in mind before making decisions. David Hackworth talks about this extensively in his book, About Face. My favorite part paraphrased, “…despite the pile of wounded men I had I could also sense that my enemy was on the verge of breaking. We came too far for me to call for retreat. I owed it to my men after all the sacrifices they made on that night to finish what we started.” Moments later, they took the hill. I’m starting to see and experience the rewards of sticking it out and I’m really glad I did.

I’ve found that putting out a CD has it’s ups and downs. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. It’s been the most fabulous experience. Mainly because there’s real results that mean something to me. There’s also a let down when you realize nothing you do is going to go viral and sweep the world. It’s selfish. You pour yourself into something over two years, but it’s not obvious to anyone else but you. I don’t expect people to fall all over themselves about the CD. I guess you’re just hoping to be surprised by something someone says or does. But believe me, if you have said anything nice to me about the CD or a song, it was very much appreciated. And of course, the writing continues for the next CD. There’s also a new show in the near future at the Adelphia with the Colten Settle Band. I’ll get a separate post up about this in the near future. Just wanted to put out a quick plug.

If you’ll allow me, I want to plug a couple sites. First, Your City Wing Man. I like the idea that someone would put the effort into making all the entertainment options in your town available. Their just getting on their feet, so if you would like for your venue to get some free exposure you should send your rss feed. Next, look here for concert tickets. I like that there are so many online options to purchase tickets to events. Hopefully it will eventually drive prices down and make the things we enjoy more accessible. You have to do your homework and make sure you’re buying from a legitimate business. Lava Tickets (linked above) seems to be okay. I saw one complaint about a guy that missed a football game because he didn’t know what time the game was. THAT’S ON YOU FOOTBALL FAN. I encourage everyone to do their own research before buying anything on line, though.

In a couple hours, another step will be taken towards finishing the attic. It’s such a cool space. I can’t wait to get it finished. Hopefully I can do that in time to start recording the next CD in that space. That’s the plan, and I’m sticking too it.