Got a Dyslexic Heart : Life, Love and Lament

After having been at the receiving end of some blanket-ageism from some younger musicians who seem to have adopted the tired, antiquated "kill your heroes" and "never trust old people" mentality and creating this pseudoelitist hipster douchebag microcosm that is a stain on what could be a more thriving scene, I issue this statement: To the young, wild and free ones, The ideology of rebelling and being indignant to everyone over 30 is not a new concept . You did not invent it. It is not " original ". The cleverness has been exhausted . And you should acknowledge with great relief and appreciation that right now you are growing up in a time where metalheads and punks with piercings and tattoos are now grandparents, most with the same attitudes and youthful spirits as they had when they were your age. The "old people" of 20 years ago are not the "old people" of today. Time is terribly, painfully short on this planet. ...

I've written a bunch of really weighty stuff so far on this blog, and it's been therapeutic on top of being informative, but I thought I would take a moment to discuss a very real struggle for almost every couple that's also kind of funny and not too dark a subject. Okay, it CAN get dark and serious, depending on how "hangry" your bae gets when he or she needs sustenance. But we're not necessarily talking about life and death arguments. MOST of the time. What is it about us that makes us so indecisive when it comes to "where to eat dinner"? Our ancestors relied on hunting and gathering skills, and were just happy to have ANYTHING to eat. Whether to eat a squirrel or a mammoth wasn't always an "option", we got what we could kill. Strawberries instead of muscadines? IF you're lucky enough to find them. So who the hell do we think we are , arguing over an unbelievable amount of choices even in the smallest towns of where to sit ou...

What happens when you are deemed insensitive and indisputably in-the-wrong for trying to dig into the details of the circumstances, implications and accusations regarding what is ambiguously described as being literally a "so many I've lost count" amount of bad or less-than-desired intimate encounters which had been blanket-labeled as "assault"? In this day and age when decent stand-up guys are just as afraid as the toxic ne'er-do-wells who actually DO assault women to even so much as even approach a woman about intimacy due to not only legitimate complaints about aggressive attempts at unwanted sexual contact but also lots of frivolous ones as well, you really DO need to ask ALL THE QUESTIONS YOU CAN . And us guys on the up-and-up WOULDN'T ASK if we really didn't want to know the answers. We NEED to know the answers. We HAVE to know that we are not making improper advances, and that tonight's seemingly-consensual romp isn't going to be...

I hated quoting that hack Kanye in the title, but sometimes you've just gotta'... Many of these blogs, as you have already realized, are a catharsis of sorts, some stemming from the years of things I endured in my marriage to a narcissist, and others involving emotional health growth or the failed attempt at a relationship in the middle of 2019. In both cases, hopefully they serve to keep others from making the same mistakes I made, and allow you to learn through my missteps instead of having to go through the same crap yourself. This is a continuation of hindsight being 20/20, in 2020, and realizing all the red flags I didn't notice in real-time. Hopefully this will keep someone else from falling prey to what I did, and will also serve to keep me on my toes moving forward. This post will focus on a particularly aggravating facet of that relationship during the last couple months, during those times where things were already struggled (due to increased demand for ...

You might recall a previous blog, wherein I described my short-lived, one-sided and tumultuous relationship with someone who turned out to be kind of a celebrity, and a felon. Honestly, that's been one of the hardest parts to get over since the breakup, because there have LITERALLY been nights I have had a hard time getting to sleep because it's hit me that "wow, I could've spent the rest of my life struggling, affected by someone else's drama and bad decisions!" But as bad as that was, or could've been, I think another part of it bothered me worse: the fact that this person, who considered herself for all intents and purposes a "good Christian", and her family (also comprised of judgmental "good Christians") ALL LIED UNDER OATH IN A COURT OF LAW . I watched it. I read it. I put two and two together because it was all right there. No mincing of words and no "misunderstandings". These are people I realized (eventually) wh...