A Blog About Not Blogging

I feel guilty. I haven’t blogged in two solid weeks. I was on a great streak- feeling inspired and fulfilling a goal of blogging every day. Then I went on a two week business trip, and didn’t blog once while I was gone.

Runyon Canyon

Was I out doing amazing things while I was gone? Some of the days. I had the opportunity to work two really fun volleyball events, meet celebrities that were playing and other professional athletes…I got to work with my team that I don’t get to see as often, now that I don’t live in Los Angeles anymore. I went hiking in Runyon Canyon, one of my most favorite places. I ate the freshest sushi and a more delicious burrito than I can get here in Chicago. I swam, tanned, shopped and worked. Hard. Often.

Then I traveled to Boulder for a meeting with my entire client team, as well as my bosses. People flew in from around the country and we learned, planned, presented, ate and visited.

There certainly was time for blogging. I certainly thought about blogging. But I thought more about not blogging. I have always been vocal about making a case for not creating editorial calendars, preferring to “let inspiration strike” and find blogging topics from being fully engaged and present within my online communities. But can you also be fully present, and stock up topics to write about when you’re “busy” and not fully inspired to write? Or for the times you’re out living your life so completely and are so present that you’ve got the ideas in advance? Don’t I always tell people “You’re never too busy. You make the time for things that are important to you?” I’m big on consistency – I tell my clients it’s one of the most important items in your marketing plan. So where was my consistency in blogging?

Jayo Invitational

Would it be an excuse to say that during these two weeks I was making new experiences to come back and blog about? Isn’t that what THIS blog is about, after all?! Or, and this would be the most surprising to me, am I actually a creature of habit? Someone that can only write if I’m sitting in this office, in this chair, in my own home? Can I only write here? Whoa. Isn’t the unpredictability of life as a marketing director what drew me to marketing in the first place? How many interviews have I gone to, and how many late night discussions with others in my industry have I had where we’ve all sung the praises of our lives and chosen career, for it NOT being the same every day? Not knowing precisely where we’d be or what we’d be doing each day?

Perhaps it’s egotistical to feel guilt for not having blogged. Perhaps none of you even noticed. This blog isn’t my job. I do it for fun, to share ideas I hear people talking about wanting to know more about, to muscle up my writing, the same way I do when I run or lift weights. I wasn’t overwhelmed with work while on this extended trip, nor was blogging not a priority. I simply didn’t write. I don’t have a deep explanation for why I didn’t, nor do I want to make any excuses. I have read many blogs where the writers have apologized for not writing or posting in the past week, month or longer. They report feelings of guilt over that, too. Should we be feeling guilty for something we do for fun? Should “fun” make us feel bad, when we’re not doing anything wrong? At all? Doesn’t every single workout plan in the history of workout plans tell you to take rest days? Should bloggers not get that same break, without feeling poorly about themselves for taking it?

This blog isn’t an obligation, nor would I continue it if it ever began to feel as such. I don’t post every day just for the sake of it. Even during my “blog every day” goal period, I would miss one day at times, (but never more than one) if I wasn’t inspired, or didn’t feel I had anything to say that was different than everything else that was being blogged about, or if I didn’t think I had anything to put out that might help someone. I woke up this morning excited to write. Excited to share these thoughts, get them down on paper, and the idea of people responding and sharing their own thoughts with me on taking blogging breaks and discussing these ideas with others excited me. Isn’t that what blogging is really all about? The creating and sharing of ideas?

I’ve written the line “I have a renewed passion for writing and my blog” and then deleted it a few times. What if I don’t blog again this week? What if nothing inspires me enough to write about? What if these last two weeks were too long of a break and my (creative/writing) muscle memory has been lost? Why am I feeling anxious about blogging tomorrow, and not relaxing in finding the joy blogging today?!

Maybe it all comes down to acceptance. How many things do I feel guilty about RIGHTTHISSECOND? How many do YOU? Not working out enough, eating that chocolate chip cookie, even though it was the best thing I’ve ever eaten, not blogging enough…can we even feel guilty for feeling guilty for any of these things? Are any of these things all that significant in the grand scheme of our very full lives? No. Truly, they’re not. We deserve to be happy. And do things that make us feel GOOD, not guilty. Today, I will work on doing more of those things.

Review: Twin Shadow - Eclipse

Twin Shadow

Eclipse
Label: Warner Music Canada
Release Date: February 11, 2015
3 out of 5 stars
Listen to: "To The Top & I’m Ready"

 

Born in the Dominican Republic, raised in Florida and New York, George Lewis Jr., who we call Twin Shadow, has recently left his east coast roots behind for Los Angeles. With two previous albums under his belt, it was time to sign with a major label (Warner Bros) for promotion of his most recent offering, Eclipse.

If you've listened to Twin Shadow's previous two albums, you know Lewis isn't one to shy away from his feelings, and Eclipse is no different. Past that, it is harder to draw comparisons to the Twin Shadow we have known. Eclipse is more of an anthemic album, about coming out of the darkness and being brought back into the light, using less guitar than in prior material and more booming large sound. It's continuing along the road, as Lewis himself is, moving from an artist that releases his own material to an artist signed to quite a major label, moving across the country, moving towards more of a pop sound than we've heard from him, moving towards what's to come...

Eclipse is an 11-track album, coming out of the gate with deep emotion in "Flatliners." In the album's opening song, Lewis laments promises broken, using a dark haunting melody that allows you to feel his pain. Fittingly, and perhaps even more haunting, Lewis and his band keyboardist Wynne Bennett, bassist Spencer Zahn and drummer Andy Bauer, recorded this album in a small chapel on the grounds of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Each song continues the theme of extreme feelings of love and love lost. Meaningful? Yes. Emotional? Very. Easy listening? No. This is not an album you sit down with and listen to from start to finish. I tried. It's mentally exhausting. The anguish and loneliness is felt in "Half Life's" lyrics: "Do you know why I stumble? Why I'm way down on my knees/ I've been racing through a half-life/ and it's taking its toll on me." This also isn't the album that you put on in the background while you work or attempt to accomplish other large tasks. It would be better suited for a large amphitheater or outdoor arena.

Listening to Eclipse in entirety, you can't help but feel Lewis is trying to tell us he's not one to be pigeon-holed into a specific genre. All Twin Shadow songs are full of introspection, each word and beat carefully created to instill meaning and feeling in the listener - Lewis knows just what he's saying to us. While his previous albums were constructed with more guitar and more synth, Eclipse lends itself more to power pop ballad. This is definitely his most refined album. Singles "Turn Me Up" and "To The Top" (I date you not to fist pump at least once while this song plays) are radio ready and "Old Love/New Love" begs to be presented to a dance floor.

One can only hope that Eclipse provides the catharsis Lewis seems to have been searching for while writing this album, and that he has left whatever demons still remained behind in NYC. If "Locked and Loaded" is any indication, there's still a lot more to come from Twin Shadow.

REVIEW: Bob Dylan - Shadows in the Night

Shadows in the Night is Bob Dylan’s thirty-sixth studio album. It was released by Columbia Records on February 3, 2015 and contains 10 songs originally made famous by Frank Sinatra, though Dylan chose these songs and put together this arrangement himself for this album.

From the first song “I’m a Fool To Want You,” Dylan set the tone for the entire set, evoking feelings of lost love, sadness and melancholy made even more emotional by his gravelly (though less ragged than we have recently heard) tone and wistful tempo. For those that gave up trying to understand the Dylan of late, straining to make sense of mumbled lyrics, I implore you to give him one last chance. His voice on this album evokes the Dylan we came to love way back when. Song after song, Dylan’s enunciation is clear as he sings each word with purposeful meaning. Dylan proves that at 73, he is still a singer - strong of voice and just as able to stay one step ahead of all who try to pigeon-hole him or believe he’s nearing the end of what his voice can handle as ever.

Although over 30 years have gone by, I still remember where I was when first introduced to Bob Dylan, and I imagine this is true for all of us true Dylan fans. The songs on this album are not his, yet they are. Having never heard Frank Sinatra sing any of the songs showcased on Shadows in the Night, one wouldn’t think twice if told these songs came from Dylan’s own writing. Bob Dylan has made a career of pining for women he once loved, writing about some of them with biting lyrics ruing the day he met them, and regretting parts of his past. When a despondent man asks “What’ll I do with just a photograph to tell my troubles to?” in “What’ll I Do,” you see this as easily something Dylan would have written in a song fit for Blood on the Tracks.

Unlike the Dylan we have come to love, this album is short – 10 songs lasting less than 40 minutes played all the way through. An homage for sure to Frank Sinatra’s time, when albums were shorter and didn’t include those Dylan-esque songs that can last over 10 minutes. It would be easy to brush over this record and stick it in the tribute album category, but this is not that. Dylan is paying tribute to Sinatra by choosing these songs, but taking them and becoming one with them, making each one his own. In doing so, in a way only few can, the listener is drawn in, carefully listening to the story he spins for us, feeling as you imagine the man in each song felt as these times in his life were occurring. In the first notes of the first song you immediately your attention is called to the sharp difference between Dylan and Sinatra, as there is not the sweeping production Frank Sinatra used, but rather Dylans usual five piece touring and studio band. For those of us that have literally followed Bob Dylan, you recognize the precision and mastery of Charlie Sexton on guitar. Making up the rest of the band is bassist Tony Garnier, guitarist Stu Kimball, percussionist George G. Receli and perhaps the most notable of all, the sound of Donny Herron on pedal steel guitar.

Esteemed and experienced are the members of the band. On this album their sound is raw, almost as if you were listening to them play at an intimate gathering of their closest friends. The production, or lack thereof on this latest release also bolsters that feel, adding to the realism. Recorded live, listeners are drawn even closer as we pick up on paper rustling and the light catch of Dylan’s breath.

Worth exploring, is the marketing route Dylan embarked upon for this albums release. Personally, with over 25 years of professional background in marketing, I have to admit that I honestly have not yet solidified my thoughts on this. Rather, I (at least at time of writing this article) prefer to pose questions, both to myself to ponder and to you all, to crowdsource your thoughts. The premise began with Bob Dylan (and?) Columbia Records choosing 40,000 AARP members at random to send this album to, free of charge. The sole interview Dylan took the time to give, went to AARP, rather than the obvious Rolling Stone. This begs a few questions:

1.      Does Bob Dylan not believe these songs are as timeless as they truly are, and that his target market falls solely with the AARP crowd?

2.      Is Dylan finding (or subconsciously believing) that millennials are no longer fans or discovering his music?

3.      Have we all really gotten this old?!

As a lifetime Bob Dylan fan, I loved this album. I loved hearing Dylan SING and I will always love songs that tell a story. At the same time, this album evokes deep feelings of woe, the songs are slow and inherently sorrowful. I kept waiting for the next song to lift us up, to give us a short break from feeling all the feelings, the next “Like a Rolling Stone,” but that song never came. This is a heavy album.

Buy this CD. Seriously. If you’re still on the fence, download these three songs first: "I'm a Fool to Want You," "That Lucky Old Sun," "Some Enchanted Evening." (THEN go buy the CD)

Twitter: @lucyrk78

 

Track Listing

1.      I’m a Fool To Want You

2.      The Night We Called It A Day

3.      Stay With Me

4.      Autumn Leaves

5.      Why Try To Change Me Now

6.      Some Enchanted Evening

7.      Full Moon and Empty Arms

8.      Where Are You

9.      What’ll I Do

10.   That Lucky Old Sun

Why Chicago Is > Los Angeles

 

 

 

1.       Chicagoans will tell you like it is. Though this may not always be want you want to hear, they’re not telling you what they think you want to hear, or what they think will advance their position in some way with you. They’ll speak the truth.

2.       If a Chicagoan asks you “What’s new?” or “How was your day?” they will sit and listen to hear your answer. It’s not just a space/time filler question when a Chicagoan takes the time to engage you. They won’t ask you the question then proceed to tell you about themselves, or check their phone, or aimlessly play with their phone to avoid hearing your answer.

3.       Chicagoans are real people. We’re not all the same size, with the same “latest” hairdo and clothing. Chicagoans are who they are, and are comfortable with who they are (for the most part). When you look into a Chicagoans face, you can see that they’re having thoughts. Actually thinking, right there in front of you. Not just looking you up and down, comparing your thigh size to theirs, your dress size to their own, seeing how they are better than you, guessing how much money you make and what you do, and thinking how sad it is that you have to work in the first place.

4.       If you’re in Chicago and a native asks you out to dinner, know that you can actually eat said dinner at the designated time. Your dinner partner won’t simply be consuming water or a side salad or booze and claim that they’re “too full” from those items to eat anything else. The native won’t have spent the last hour eating alone in hiding in their apartment so they won’t be hungry at the dinner, and no one will see them eating.

5.       “Nobody walks in LA?” Well everybody walks in Chicago. Even if it’s raining. Even if it’s snowing. Even if it’s hot. Why? Because we’re human, and humans walk. Don’t tell anyone, but humans even sweat when walking in the heat. I know, Angelinos, I’ve just given up one of your biggest secrets, but it’s gotta be said sometime. Another reason why? Because Chicagoans know that their “walking outdoors days” are often numbered due to weather that will surely come, so they take advantage of the time they can spend out of doors.

6.       Chicago. Is. Beautiful. Not artificially beautiful with pretty trees flown in and forced to survive in a desert they’re not accustomed to, but with true beauty. With a gigantic natural lake and a beautiful skyline.

7.       Chicagoans know that good things come to those that….wait for it….work for it. Not simply those that are born into it.

8.       Chicagoans work. They’re not afraid to get a little dirty on their (non) designer clothes. You won’t ever sit in traffic at random times of the day not moving an inch in your car wondering, “why is everyone on the road right now? Why isn’t anyone working?” Because everyone will be.

9.       Chicago isn’t afraid to show it’s age. We’ve got historical buildings and a rich history of mobsters and fire that people are all too excited to share with a newbie. Not everything was “just built” and looks it.

10.   People who live in Chicago love living in Chicago. If you happened into Chicago on any given day, you might think it was “Chicago Pride Day” as the majority of the people you pass will be wearing clothes with their favorite Chicago sports team’s logo emblazoned across the front, or a Wrigley shirt of some sort, or simply the Chicago flag (and some will even have said flag permanently inked somewhere on their body). You won’t overhear the majority of people complaining about the city or the people or the fakeness or saying, “At least the weather’s great,” in hopes of trying to convince themselves, along with the person they’re speaking with that they haven’t made the mistake of their lives moving to this city. Yes, we all complain about the winter, but then, guess what? Spring comes. Every year. Like clockwork. You can even (literally) set your watch to it, so to speak. And just like that, you’re back with nothing to complain about. Except the sales tax.