Finding Titles

Sunday, June 15 2014

The other night, JP approached me about 96.9 The Rogues’ monthly musician blog spot on their website, reminding me that I’m to take the month of July (I missed my original mark of April, I’m terribly forgetful. More than most can attest to that.) “Remember to title them” was one of the first things out of his mouth. Apparently, forgetting to title their writings was a contagion among the musicians writing in each month. The irony of that makes me chuckle, if only for a second. But hey, who am I to say anything? I’m the guy who forgot to write this blog for over two months. “Judge not lest ye be judged.” Something like that, right?

Anyways, musicians.........

So now I sit here, writing this out on a gutted school bus owned & operated by a twenty-one year old hippie girl who’s spent the last six years of her life traveling the world. And now does so with a 9 month old son in tow. You wanna hear some stories, go find that kid in about 18 years. I’d even give him half that. Among the passengers are myself, three hippies from Washington that have spent the last two months in the Umpqua National Forest, two older, seasoned drifters (one of whom strongly resembles Jon Voight with a thick Texan accent), a clean cut college type with a mandolin heading to visit family and my friend Rex (Bufalino, of Ol’ Mount’n Due). Oh yeah, and two six-week old kittens. Along the way we pick up every hitchhiker we pass. We left Medford at 9:30 AM, and between the frequent stops and the bus topping out at 45MPH, we won’t arrive in Portland until about 7:30 PM.

Now, I’ll be honest, this was not what I was expecting to be my ride up North. But you know what? It didn’t even phase me. I didn’t think twice about stepping on this bus. I was actually extremely excited to be a part of this group of random strangers. Because for those 9+ hours we all got to spend together, it felt as if we’d known each other all along. We laughed, sang songs, told stories, and shared food. We simply forgot about the rest of the world for a while and just enjoyed each other’s genuine company. In my humble opinion, it’s times like these that make you feel truly rich. It is always hard to say goodbye to people that I will only know for so many hours every time I catch a ride, or vice versa. Brief passing moments with strangers that can change your life forever. I like to call them “Consequential Strangers.”

I guess what I’m getting at is, you never know where life is going to take you. The future is unwritten, and that, my friends, is a beautiful thing. Sure, you might make plans, go to college, start a family, etc. etc. And that’s all good and wholesome. I like to think I’ll have some of that one day. But just remember to carve your own path. Make your own music. Sing your own song. Blah Blah. Call it whatever you want, but just know and be aware that life will always have a curveball to throw your way, especially when you’re right & focused. You just have to learn to roll with it, and realize how blessed in this life we all truly are. Remember there is so much more out there that is important than the material. I suppose this is the part where there would be some absurd existentialism rant, but I’ll save that. I have so much to say, and only so little space that I’m blessed with on this blog spot to say it. So, I’ll let you draw your own conclusions to that on my rants over the next month. Please.

So there you have it. For the next five Thursdays (Yes, there are five in the month of July this year), I will try to the best of my abilities to show you the world through my eyes. The way I see things, and the people, places & things I encounter. Finding titles along the way. I will share stories from the road, both good & bad. Though I may have to spare some details, I’ll give you the best I can. And who knows, maybe I’ll run into the hippy bus again.

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Mid-Fi Music - Why It Exists.

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Another Night of Beer & Pizza