1000 miles and 30 hours of train ride

July 28. 2009 i board a Amtrak train from Los Angeles to Portland. its 1000 miles and 30 hours of train ride. its nice, the train fallows coast line and i see some dolphins outside my window. there are 9 or so young teen age girls sitting in the surrounding seats. the squeal of high pitched laughter, gossip, and sexual references inspire me to find new travel buddies. (and some aspirin). like an old western movie i move from train car, to train car, my trusty guitar at my side, A.K.A. "Rory". its funny, apparently people who need travel cheep use the train. and most of those people are musicians. my guitar worked like a lighthouse. it was guiding musicians lost in the sea of second class seating. anyone looking to jam was welcome. i meet a lot of new people and played a lot of music. a fiddle player and i made some tip money playing music in the lounge car. (then spent it on over priced beer). it was hard to sleep that night. all my warm cloth were checked in my luggage. and the bastards left the AC on all night. in the gift shop they were selling Amtrak blankets for 34 bucks. and i think leveing the AC on was an attempt to stimulate sales revenue. all and all the trip to Portland was a lot of fun. going home is good. seeing old buddys is good. breathing North West air is good. life is good.

a lot more palm trees

first day of work
Category: Jobs, Work, Careers
first day of work! l after a short lapse in time, i find myself reemployed. only this time its a thousand miles away from my home town, there are a lot more palm trees and a lot more people speaking Spanish. i am on the set of heroes, its a popular show about normal people that aren't so normal. in fact they have super powers and must come together to save the world, all the wile battling the day to day stress of normal life. its funny, just few weeks ago i was digging ditches in the rain. and now a i am eating lunch with one of the stars from the show (hayden pantera). i never new who she was until now. but the guys i was digging ditches with did. they were all madly in love with her, well in love with her good looks anyway. work is a lot of fun. i miss the north west so much but there is just so much more opportunity down here. i hope all my friends and family are well. dont be afraid to send me a email or give me a call.

moments like these

i am in lincoln city.
my parents and i are staying in this one bedroom hotel. its on the beach and overlooks the sea from atop a rocky bluff. its very pretty! its 12'30 am. the folks have gone to bed and i find myself lost somewhere deep in the archives of paul curreri, devon sproul, SRV and my old bud, buddy guy. i am sleeping on the couch in the living room. theres a fire slowing dying down in fireplace. a storm pounds on the windows and i can feel the crashing of the waves against the shore. i am truly having one of those moments. that moment when your purpose becomes so clear it almost hurts to look at. i know this sounds silly. but dammit, you cant make this shit up. it just happins. i think everyone has moments like these , its just that many are too blind to see it. its a shame, a whole world of people searching for purpose. and never really understanding who they are first.

"things"

its strange to think that everyone will someday die. death is one thing we all have in common. its also strange to think that nothing we own in are life is truly ares.
cars, clothes, money, books, musical instruments, letters from loved ones, jewelry, lap tops, houses, bikes, even your own body down to your bones. my point is, all of these things will either,

A- still exist after we are gone

B- sooner or later be destroyed or recycled

C- become someone else's temporary possession's.

D- decompose back into the earth.

E- or end up at a goodwill super store.

no mater what you believe happens after death, nothing on this planet will be going with you. therefore it is it possible to claim something as truly yours. unless you live forever, but that doesn't happen much these days. like my buddy J says "my goal in life is to live forever, so far so good".

i can understand that "things" are just temporary. thats easy to do.
and i can understand that we leave nothing behind but are stories.
but i cant seem to except the fact that my guitars are just guitars!
my relationship with them is as strong as any relationship. i am not going to get in to it right now. i could go on and on about my love for guitars. but i dont want to scare you.

however i do want to know how you feel about your own temporary possession's?
keeping the word "temporary" in mind. what are the things you you can't imagine living without? and you cant say family, thats just a cop out. remember we are talking "stuff" hear.

and not stray cats

I noticed an info commercial informing me of the importance of saving stray cats and animals. They wanted monthly donations to tend and care for these animals. I think that this commercial is ridiculous. In this time of economic crisis we should be investing in human development and not stray cats. I know it's just my own personal opinion, but I place starving children at a higher priority.

test the waters

Nature is always telling a story but not everyone can read it. It's not so hard to believe. You can find everything you need to know on the internet, TV - but in my opinion, knowledge is worth nothing without experience at its foundation. You can learn from the world by letting it speak to you: watch a small river carve canyons into the Earth, find a piece of glass that has been worn down by the sea or stand at the base of a tree that has lived longer than the United States has been a country.

everything in life will change. changing tides will erode the coast line. and the changes in your life will shape the person you are. so do not be afraid of the unstable. test the waters of the world, and find your place! there is lot of living to do. and everyone has a calling. but you cant find it without learning from the world around you.


"The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life".
~Muhammad Ali