Dear Richard Crashaw

Seek psychiatric advice

In other news, I had the coolest night ever last night. I don't usually do the personal "here's a story about my life" kind of blogging, because, as a general rule, my life is really dull. But tonight I actually have a good story, so bear with me. 

I played a short set in the middle of the night as entertainment for all those participating in my school's Relay for Life. After I was finished my set, I was just sitting in the stage area with a very devoted friend and fan (it was 2am and she still came to watch. Good friends rule) and messing around with my guitar when a group of three other musicians come in and start setting up all their equipment. All of a sudden, from behind me, I hear one of this group playing along with me on snare and brushes. Ignoring the fact that, at the time, I was playing "I Kissed a Girl," this was really cool seeing as how I've never heard myself accompanied percussion of any kind. So we continue to horse around, talk about musicians and about my love for acoustic covers of boring pop songs, and end up playing Jill Barber's "Oh My My," and it sounds absolutely awesome. It was the neatest thing ever. I've only been playing music for a very short time, so perhaps I'm just not used to things like this, but before I knew it, I was playing a song I usually sing to myself when I'm cooking dinner with backing vocals and full percussion. So after that fun wraps up, the three of them get on stage and perform a set of their own (which was actually so great). But once they finish, they ask me to come up and play a couple more with them, so I do- I played two originals that, until that point, had been purely private experiments in word-smithing and lousy guitar playing. But there they were- backed up with harmonies, blues and slide guitar, percussion and all, sounding like actual songs for the first time. Again, maybe this is just my greenness to the whole world of musical performance showing, but this was genuinely exciting. We then finished up by playing "Oh My My" again, with people singing, clapping and stomping along. It was literally the coolest thing I've ever done. Out of nowhere, something totally personal and private turned into music...like...actual music. By the time I got home, it was 4 am, and I had to be up at 8 to be downtown for 10. I'm currently working on the three hours of sleep I actually got, nursing raw, sore finger tips, and working my way out of the pile of homework and term papers I created for myself by going and playing a show instead of working, but damn do I feel good.

Make music, make art, make sound, move, talk, play with other people as much as you can and as openly as you can. Open yourself up to every space of interaction and creation and the memories will make themselves. 

Night.