When Was the Last Time You Thought About Creativity?

I had the pleasure of being introduced to the TED Conference a few years ago, and it has since then provided me with a great means of experiencing some of the most creative and brilliant minds in the world. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the TED Conference (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) is a gathering held every year in which some of most skilled and educated people in these fields, converge to discuss their areas of expertise, and how they relate to our present and future world.

This particular talk by Sir Ken Robinson was one of the most moving I've come across, and addresses some fundamental issues in our perception about creativity and education system.  If you like this, I'd encourage you to check out www.ted.com, to find more talks of the same caliber.

You're a Teacher...even if you don't know it.

I think everyone remembers a time in their life when someone severely influenced the way you thought, possibly even motived you to change the way you lived. For instance, my buddy Adam is one person I can definitely site as someone who has positively influenced my life.

Adam was one of the first people I met in college, yet we really didn't get to know each other until the later years of school. But during my senior year, we did breakfast every Thursday at The Breakfast Buzz in SLO, which quickly turned into our weekly "talk about life". Adam has always been incredibly socially minded, and driven to foster creative, dynamic, and educational communities around him.

Later senior year, I went to an Spring slam poetry event called, "Anthem" that Adam was very instrumental in organizing. Just seeing the care to detail, the organization, and the massive spectrum of people that came to the event, was enough to testify to the hard work ethic. and huge heart that Adam had for bringing people together to experience something positive and educational. I'll never forget leaving there, so incredibly pumped to orient my life in a way that strove for the same things.

This is just one example of a person who has influenced my life--I'm sure we all have many. Yet the point I want to make is that sometimes, I don't think we see ourselves as THAT person. The truth of the matter, is that many of us aren't aware that others are influenced (in both major and minor ways) by what we do--by how we live our lives. We get caught up in thinking about how to take life experiences, and use them to create a better "me". And we forget that all of us have a distinct influence on everyone within our social realm, whether that be your family, you best (or worst) friend, boss, neighbor, etc.

So, in a way, we're all teachers. We all instruct, in some way, by how we live our lives. And I think that's definitely something to think about: a) what things do we want to "teach" with our lives? And b) what are we teaching now?

New Series--Relationships: What is Our Definition of Love?

I'd like to introduce a new topic which I hope to write about repeatedly: that being the huge and crazy topic of relationships. What sparked my interest in this was an experience I had yesterday, while renewing my drivers license at the DMV.

A friend of mine, who I believe is in his early 40's, stopped me as I was walking across the room to get my license picture taken. I asked him how everything was going, and he answered with a weak smile, "Well Nick...not so good". I sat down and he told me that his wife was divorcing him; that it was, without a doubt, one of the hardest things he'd experienced in his life. We couldn't chat long because I had to get my picture taken. So we shook hands, and I said I'd keep him and his family in my prayers.

I left the DMV with a lot of thoughts going through my head. About how elemental relationships are in our lives; how much we create a foundation on those in whom we invest and intrust our love; about how broken a man or woman must feel, when they learn that their spouse or significant other doesn't want their love--will not return it. More thoughts about families who've been marred by separation; children who don't understand why the two people they love, don't love each other. And the overarching question of...what can I, what can we do about this?

Now I believe in God. And as the details of that relationship are lengthy, I won't go into much detail. But here is what my God says about love, and how it should look in each of our lives...

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends..."

The reason I bring this up, is that I want to question how each of us views our role as a person who is responsible for loving someone.

If the quote above is the correct definition of love (which you should question, and that I believe is), we should be deathly serious about who we choose to love. The reason being, if this is the love you mean when saying "I love you", what you're really saying is, I will be patient when you frustrate me; I'll be kind when I'm angry with you; I'll not envy what you have, and what I don't; I'll not boast, putting myself above you; I won't put you down; I'll always ask your opinion in decisions, because I care; I'll be happy when we're truthful with each other, and I'll push through the times when I want to quit....because you're worth that much to me.

This love is pretty serious, huh? I wonder how many broken relationships would be changed if we though of love this way?

There are millions of people who are engaging in relationships today, who are putting their hearts on the line, because they want things to work out. And if the love we're talking about here was what we defined as "love", how much more confident and determined would people be in their relationships, and in their commitments?

You might have heard the quote above millions of times at weddings, in greeting cards, in the movie Wedding Crashers--it might be sort of cliche by now. But the reason it's referenced in all of those, is because there's a deep truth to be found in it. Don't miss this. Truth is found everywhere, and it's our job to question it, and to claim it. So test this for yourself, and see if this is really how love should be.

Facial Hair

Hey Everybody,

I've been away for awhile, but my New Year's resolution was to post at least once a week (we'll see how this goes, hahaha). Anyways, for the first piece of 2010, I thought I'd start off with a deeply philosophical topic....facial hair. As a man of Italian and Croatian blood, I was blessed with a pretty solid ability to grow hair on my face. And especially over the past year, I've had quite a lot of fun experimenting with various patterns...some really creepy, some really 1970's. So in light of our upcoming national tour, I've decided to post some of the facial hair highlights throughout our trip. Here's one from Nov., don't freak out mom. Hahaha

Post Phishing Trip

Hello! So I'm back from the two day adventure up to Northern California to see Phish, and it was definitely the experience I was hoping for. I left Tues. afternoon for Santa Rosa and visited the fam for a night. My dad and I grilled a tri-tip and feasted on steak and baked potatoes, pared with some delicious melot--it was probably the best meal I'd had in six months. After dinner we capped off the evening with "Romancing the Stone", the mid-80's (I think) film starring Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito. If you haven't seen it, I'd say its worth checking out at some point.
Wed. morning I hit the road to check out Two Rock Amplifiers, a Rohnert Park based amp company that builds some of the best amps on the market. For perspective, a few players who sport a Two Rock amp are John Mayer and Santana, so you can get an idea of the caliber of musicians that Two Rock attracts. I met with Mac, one of the five or so employees that Two Rock has, and he gave me the rundown of their facility and the amps he'd lined up for me to try out. All the amps sounded amazing; the Classic Reverb is definitely the one I'd like to pick up in the future. So after an hour or so of playing ridiculously expensive amplifiers, I said goodbye and drove to meet the madre for a sandwich before I took off for the Phish show. She's an awesome lady!
I got down to Mountainview about 4pm, and the pre-show antics were already in full swing. For anyone who has been to a Phish show, you know how sweet the parking lot is beforehand. It's pretty much this massive mobile colony of hippies who've been following Phish for the last however long, plus everyone who's come for just that show. Everyone is blasting great music, jamming on acoustics, throwing frizbees, and going from tailgate to tailgate saying "what's up" to see where people are from and such. I handed out a bunch of demos before I went into the show, and got to meet a lot of really cool people. A photographer came up to me and snagged a pic, saying he was going to write a story about the show. I got an email yesterday with the link, so check out the show details, and if you go to the photo album, you'll see a great photo of me with a pretty cracked out expression.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/entertainment/music/Phish-30-Lands-at-Shoreline-for-One-Night-Only-52638702.html

Phish!!

So this week is going to be my first Phish show since 2002. The band is playing at the Shoreline Amphitheater on Wed. (8/5), and I think my biggest question is whether or not they're going to have the same gusto as they did back in the day. Granted bands change inevitably throughout the years, but to put it more finely, I hoping I'm as in to their current state as I was in '02. Trey has always been one of my influences and favorite guitarists, so it's going to be sweet seeing him jam again. And they always throw out a tasty cover or two, and I'm hoping they're a few new ones I haven't heard. I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon to go see the folks before the show the following evening, but I'll do a little recap of the experience later this week. It's going to be a cool little adventure.

"Radin on the Parade"

I figured I'd make the title to this one as cheezy as the experience, or at least matching in its ridiculousness. Tonight Haircut and I went to the Joshua Radin concert. I must admit I didn't expect much--I'd only heard his recordings online and wasn't too enthralled. But one of my good friends told me that Josh's live show was amazing, and that I should definitely go. So we made the trek downtown and saw the show. I actually got to meet the guy. He seemed very regular, humble, made a few goofy jokes. But I didn't think the guy who I'd chatted with for a few minutes about his tour was the person who took the stage 45 minutes later.
The show started off well--everyone was thrilled that Josh was finally onstage. Girls were screaming, guys were not screaming, and everyone cheered loudly after his first song. But then he told everyone to quite down, and waited, and waited........and waited some more, probably for a full five minutes so that everyone would be quite. Mind you, this is in Downtown Brew, a BAR which means people DRINK and subsequently TALK. Apparently Joshua didn't get the memo. He started talking to the very front row only, so that none but them could hear what he was saying. He made jokes about the town, telling the people in the back who were talking to go walk around the "beautiful city they have" rather than chatting at the show. He even unplugged his guitar at one point and played three songs without the PA--all you could hear was him screaming every once in a while, and the people in the back still kept talking.
I think the worst part of it all was when people started filing out, and someone said, "You're loosing fans!". His response was, "Good, it'll weed out the suckers". I'm sorry pal, but no musician is above their fans, none.
It was painful to watch someone with a fairly reputed name, who obviously worked hard to get where he is, treat his audience like crap. It was as if he expected everyone to do exactly as he staid, like a child who knows if it cries, it will get what it wants.
The best part of the show was his last song. They were jamming away and right when Josh told his guitarist to take a solo, this lady who was standing right next to us by the sound board, put her elbow on the lighting system's kill switch, and the entire stage went black. Although it was the most awkward moment for that to happen, it was a perfect cap for such premadonna--lights going out at his final moment of glory.
Long story short: Joshua Radin = very self centered, crowd = half P.O.ed, have still loyal to the man, end result = man's got a short career ahead if he continues down that road.