Want Some Great New Music?

Well, there’s an old saying: “Sometimes you don’t win contests you enter.”

It’s not a good saying…but it happens to work out in this situation.

In spite of not making the top 5 in the CBC searchlight contest, I am smitten by how many people voted for me (I counted at least 1000 votes just with the clicks I was able to track).

For a few moments last night, I considered quitting music forever and moving to Brazil to become an entomologist…

I imagined a quiet life among the insects—catching butterflies, snaring tarantulas, praying with mantises—but when I woke up to the sound of a mosquito, I killed it by slapping my hand against my forehead and changed my mind.

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I leave the toilet seat up 82.6% of the time.

But her hairbrush, skin cream, toothbrush, mascara, lipstick, concealer, nail polish, foundation, eyeliner, and glasses case take up 93.3% of the bathroom counter.

I forget everything she tells me to remember and she remembers everything I want her to forget.

Oh yeah, and I smack my lips together when I talk, but she watches Jersey Shore (and likes it.)

The movies want you to believe that Love is a magical force that flies through the air and goes up your nose and sits in your chest making you feel like you just ate a chocolate cake ALL THE TIME.

But that’s only half-true…

What they don’t tell you is this:

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Fun can be a hard thing to find as you get older…

Commitments pile up on top  of responsibilities, get soaked in expectations, and then are buried under demands.

Most of us spend too much time unenjoying our lives, and that’s just the way it is. It’s OK, we can get by…

But sometimes when I’m bogged down in the mire of repetition and tedium, I like to think of a story I read once.

This story happened a long time ago, and it’s about a man who loved cherries…

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It has been an amazing year of transformation for me…

Not only did I survive a mayan apocalypse, graduate, make an album, and discover my life’s calling…

But I also managed to listen to a lot of great music!

The 5 albums on this list are the ones that had the greatest impact on my life this year; they are not necessarily the best albums of the year, or the only albums that had an impact on me.

I just feel that these ones had the most to do with my growth as an artist and a person over the year.

Here goes:

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Early this year I had a wild epiphany and I couldn’t believe how stupid I was becoming…

I was just about to finish my degree in English Literature, yet, I hadn’t really read a book for months.

True, I had been busy making my album and tying up loose ends at school, but something seemed drastically wrong with this…

I had been a voracious reader since I was a kid — What was wrong with me?

Then I realized what had happened… I was becoming a grown-up. I was “too busy” to learn new things because I already knew everything. I was a college gradamuate, right?

WRONG.

You know in Dr. Seuss’s “Grinch Who Stole Christmas” when his heart grows 3 sizes at the end? That was me right at that moment. I quit watching TV and fell back in love with the joy and wonder of daily reading and learning. I’m absolutely amazed at how much I’ve managed to grow as a person in 2012 and I know that reading had almost everything to do with it.

These are 5 books that changed my life in 2012:

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I wanted to start with my new video blog series today…

I wanted to share a song I like with you…

but it turns out I have a bit of practicing to do with my camera.

This should make you laugh or at least cringe with embarrassment for me.

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While doing some research today, I ended up looking at French proverbs for an hour and some of the literal translations are pretty hilarious…

I’ll share a few of my favorites:

“To turn one’s tongue in one’s mouth seven times.” — (think before you speak)

“Unhappiness is good for something.” — (Every cloud has a silver lining)

“Two bosses capsize the boat.” — (too many cooks spoil the broth

“There’s more than one donkey named Martin at the fair.” — (There’s plenty of fish in the sea)

“Sing to a donkey, he will fart to you.” — (The dog bites the hand that feeds it)

I don’t go to the fair often, but now I know not to sing around Martin!

Well I’m supposed to be starting one of my many New year’s resolutions today (Yes, start now if you mean it) which is to blog every weekday, but I just kind of got floored by this Connecticut shooting.

I’m going to unplug, turn off the TV and stay off of social media and news websites today. I don’t need details, in spite of the natural morbid curiosity we all feel. The inevitable media frenzy which will happen for the next 2 weeks about this thing makes me sick as well.

It’s exploitative to follow up a tragic massacre like this with specific details about the event and the shooter. Yes, everybody wants to know all about it, but do we really need to know what gun he used, what high school he went to, what he did for work, etc.

The answer, for me, is no.

I feel that nothing meaningful can be learned from or gained from running over this again and again, so I’m out…

I’m going to avoid following the story as best I can.

Not because I want a blissful ignorance where I can exist in my own world of butterflies and rainbows, but because I know the media can only provide sensationalism and details

I need to think of the “how” and  ”why” for myself…

How can I live my own life meaningfully in the face of infinite meaningless cruelty and pain in the world?

My deepest condolences and heartfelt empathy goes out to everyone who will suffer in this world today.

To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering — Nietzsche

–Matt