Song Of The Day: Smells Like Teen Spirit / Paul Anka
Word Of The Day: Fag / English palance for cigarette
Want an interesting perspective on smoking from a Rock 'N Roll legend. Well, read this article by the man who wrote Stepping Out, Breaking Us In Two, Is She Really Going Out With Him, and many other pop-rock classics. I gotta hand it Joe, I loved his book and I really dig his offerings on this and other subjects.
I just bought the entire new Paul Anka album on i-Tunes a few days ago, and have been listening to it non-stop. This really cathes me by suprise because I've never like Paul Anka, and I certainly wouldn't have expected to like something like his new album, which is a big band / swing album entirely comprised of him covering rock classics. Smells Like Teen Spirit is on there, and to move the decimal once more on the ulikely odds of me liking the album, I've never liked the song Smells Like Teen Spirit. On top of it all, I have it on real, real good authority is a complete fucking asshole, and treats his musicians like shit. Trust me, I have it from an incredibly reliable source. Well, despite all that, I saw Anka do Teen Spirit on Letterman, and I was like "this is fucking good. holy shit." So I went to iTunes, bought the album, and it's fucking awesome. I love it. Conceptually, it sounds like something Ween would do. But you'd be surprised (at least I was) at how incredibly good these arrangements are, and how well these songs translate to the new medium. Many songs on here I hated in their original form (Bon Jovi's My Life is one) that I now like. Fucking Eye Of The Tiger is on it, and I like it. Get this: One of the best tracks is a cover of Hello by Lionel Richie. I think this is the best cover album I've ever heard. It's really got a timeless feel about it. Course I'm in a big band mode lately. Listening mostly to Frank and shit. It's funny cuz it's pretty much the opposite of my new album coming out this fall. My new album is largely a techno / electronic produced affair. They're still songs, and the collection is as good as I've ever had. I'm really, really pumped for this thing to come out. Looks like Novembe at this point. Still searching for a title. Have been spending lots of time editing my DVD lately. Life looks like this when I'm off the road:
9am / Wake up. Have a big glass of water. Then a huge glass of coffee (double extra, really fucking seriously strong).
9:15 / Drive to the atheletic club.
10am / Either swim laps in the pool for 45 minutes (back stroke, doing tonglen meditation on planet earth while swimming) or do yoga for 90 minutes. I alternate, two days swimming, third day yoga. Yoga is hard. So is swimming, but yoga is deep and hard. Wha? Drink more water. Eat some vegetables and fruit, protein drink.
12 / get back home, put daughter down for nap, meditate till 1pm. (zazen, i start by saying "is the Master in? then the master says YES!! and i sit as the master. other times, if the master is too active, i'll ask for Non-Seeking Mind, and sit as NSM. drink water when done.
1pm / Ara wakes up. have lunch, go to park, play around. try to keep her from spinning into oblivion on the park equipment, as she is alarmingly enamored with altered states induced by play ground rides.
3pm / start doing work. book shows on computer, handle various business items, promotion, finances, work on new album stuff. start drinking Diet Coke. eat some nuts. huge nuts. holding the nut sack.
6pm / dinner with family. water, vegetables, fish, that type of shit.
8pm / back out to studio. play guitar and edit video until 1am.
1am / go to bed.
once a week wife and i go to therapy with a buddhist psychologist dude, and plus we work in the yard a lot too. my side projects i've kept going are the language (Isara) i'm creating, doing calligraphy (japanese style), and lots and lots of cleaning. cleaning the house, the studio, the yard, the cars, the shed, you name it, my fixer wants it CLEAN.
