blAhDIDAM

After years of sporadic posting on my website (and by sporadic I mean almost non-existent), I finally accepted the fact that I need some blogging help...enter blogspot.  I've never really kept a consistent blog before because of the following problems:  1. Where to post?  2. How to make it "me".  3. I don't like to write about what I'm doing.

1.  Where to post? - I ran across a cool musician named Zoe Keating (an independent alternative cellist) who uses blogspot on her website.  Btw, I want to figure out how to do that.  If you're looking at this post it means that I figured it out :-).  Now look at the date, that'll tell you how long it took me, LOL.  Entyways...after seeing Zoe's website I saw the value of an independent musician keeping a blog.  

2.  How to make it "me". - One of the first things I need to make a blog "me" is a great title.  A title that when you read it you say, "Yeah, that's John."  I came up with "I'm just sayin'..." (which I say all the time).  But then I looked at my homie B Reith's page and guess what his blog was called - "I'm just sayin'..."  Boo!  I'm not booing B Reith, actually if you don't know this artist - you need to.  I'm booing the fact that once I get stuck on a creative idea, it's hard to think of another one.  So the search began...Ideas included:  "Blog in the Key of Life..." (I'm a big Stevie Wonder fan but 50% of the the adults in my house didn't recognize the reference, boo), "Verbal Diarrhea" (naRsty), "Thrivin'" (not bad, but does it say "Adidam' Blog"?), "Untitled" (needs more effort)...well you see how well that went. LOL

I was sitting at the table, brainstorming with my wife Paula and friends Tammy & Teresa (who both individually made HUGE faith moves to Canada from the USA within the last year, when Teresa blurted out the one name that embodied my life, music, career, and blog in one simple word:  "blAhDIDAM"  Not too deep, but not too simple.  Thanks Teresa!  Maybe it'll become a verb like "Facebooking" or "Tweeting" - "BlAhDIDAMing"!  No?

3.  I don't like to write about what I'm doing. - I'm still in the middle of working this one out.  This is where it comes from...

At a young age I noticed that the people who talked the most about what they were doing, were doing the least.  And some of people who never talked about what they were doing, you'd see in the paper for winning some huge competition.  Example:

(setting:  Summer Orchestra Camp - High School)

Person 1:  "At home I'm the concertmaster of my school orchestra."

Person 2:  "Cool, what's a 'concertmaster'?" 

Person 1:  "First chair.  What piece are you playing for your audition?"

Person 2:  "La Folia"

Person 1:  "Oh, I played that like 2 years ago..."

[Orchestra Audition result:  Person 1 - in the back, Person 2 - concertmaster]

I was person #2, true story.  I'm more interested and inspired by hearing others talk about themselves than bawking on and on about what I'm doing.  In addition I always thought, "who cares about what I'm doing?" (cue:  sad violin sonata & chorus of 'awwwww')  Nowdays, it's more like, "Time spent talking about what I'm doing is time that SHOULD be spent doing what I'm talking about."  That doesn't work for the independent musician.  As an indie artist, I've accepted (and appreciate) the fact that there are some people out there who actually care about what I'm doing.  Also, a large part of my well-being as an indie artist depends on my ability to effectively/simply articulate what my music sounds like, who I am and why people should listen to me (or come to my concert).  So here I am...blAhDIDAMing (does it work as a verb yet?? Hahaha).