Mike's Meandering Mentalities!

A fresh shiny new blog from the nutcase responsible for Notes From El Java, and the shoutiest bits of Johnny's Last Resort.

Just in case it comes up I'll give a brief description of me, I'm married to the wonderful Tracey & work in a guitar shop.
I love music, so many different artists and Genres I no longer feel able to list the full extent, I enjoy a good book (I'm usually tolerant enough to get through a bad book too!) and thanks to my wife I also now watch a lot of films and occasionally get the cast's other work right.

I'm also an alleged musician, a bass player originally (I do also play a bit of guitar) but have spent a number of years moving towards the front & centre of the stage, as this blog starts (June 2011) I'm about to embark on a project I couldn't have foreseen 2 years ago. My most recent performing success (and the one I'd like to repeat) has been spoken word, an outlet I've long held interest in and just as long been fearful of, I am now more confident and ready to go at it again. I shall no doubt update on all of that here within, but I intend to use this blog in other ways too.


Ask me anything (I'll probably get it wrong!)  


Tearing myself apart

Besides being an awesome lyric (I think it’s a Rollins Band song, ooh there’s my going to work soundtrack sorted today then!) the title of this blog is kinda apt at the moment as I’m working my (aching) butt off 6 days a week right now, having a (bi-monthly) crisis of musical conscience, recovering from an accident 3 days ago that should be just a comical memory by now but remains a pain in the arse/back/elbow (although fortunately I’m nearing my usual working capacity now), on top of this it’s not too long till the annual gifting ceremony designed to look like a Christian festival that should re-kindle retail around the western world (but won’t cos the bankers have buggered it up).

I’m concerned about the global economy in a “how big is a trillion?” kinda way (I don’t think I’ve ever seen a trillion of anything!), I’m bothered by the lack of business being done at work as this may result in staff cuts (nothing has been said, nothing is certain but I’m worried), but worst of all I’m truly alarmed at my inability to finish a coherent sentence without several passages in parentheses.

My big bugbear with this year (Because everything else has been great, have you met my wife? She’s brilliant!) is the musical dissolution, I started the year in 2 bands, both of whom dissolved (I appear to be a catalyst in the death of bands, this scares me), I started some work with a couple of guys who I work OK with but the distance needed to travel & where I am with what I want to do cause me to question the viability of the project.

I thought a lot about re-forming Johnny’s Last Resort, but it wouldn’t be the same without Paul, I’d be forming a band similar in name & vocal style only really, plus I’ve not asked Paul if he’d be OK with it, I know last time I spoke to him he wasn’t in a Johnny’s Last Resort place, I do own the rights to the lyrics (where such rights exist) but the music (and all the recordings/video work) belongs to him, he is the man behind those aspects, I simply wrote some words, occasionally played a bass on recordings & shouted a bit.

So what am I on  about?  I’ll be honest, I don’t actually know.  The end of the year is nigh I’m still not picking up a guitar (except for demonstration purposes or to teach my uncle a few chords), I still can’t put a solo performance together (it’s getting worse each time I try I swear!), & I’m not entirely sure I want to, maybe I need to re-assess who I think I am & focus on the stuff I can do & do reasonably successfully but I need to work out what that stuff is first.

My last live performance was on my Stag Night, in May, that’s sobered me up!

Notes

  1. bassmike200 posted this