Gray and J will be performing their new albums while Rob spins gourmet pizza out of his wood-fired cob oven. Minor Mishap will perform throughout the evening with a dramatic conclusion at midnight.
FEATURING Minor Mishap Marching Band!
Space and food are limited. RSVP required. 100 tickets total. Get yours NOW!
This will be an old-school backyard party. Original, live music, great musicians, handmade pizza, firepit, beer, and party spirits at the Pennsylvania Ave. compound.
Open your mind, leave your ego behind. Dress like a star and BYOB. Wear a warm jacket. Kids welcome. Prophets and psychics provided.
Gray’s “Eternal Return” and J’s “MANTRAS” are ready for this weary world bringing transcendence and transformation. Join us in celebrating their earthly arrival upon the threshold of the New Year.
Have you voted yet? I’m lucky enough to have an early voting station in the lobby of my office building, so I already got to cast my ballot in what feels like the most consequential election of my lifetime. Precarious times.
For me, this is not just about hoping to snatch democracy from the jaws of tyranny but the future of the planet from the claws of those that deny climate change.
When my buddy Ron recently put out the call to make some art to get out the vote, I said “I’m in!” So he sent me some lyrics, aimed at getting younger folks out, to make into a song.
I made a few little adjustments – worked some of Pete Seeger’s participation in – and cranked out this one-minute punk rock Vote song. Please share.
Vote!
You will listen to bad music
You will wear dumb clothes
You will sport extreme haircuts
You will awkwardly make out
Who cares. It doesn’t matter. You’re young.
One day you’ll look back
At all those selfies
And laugh your ass off
But not voting is different
It really matters
It’s never mattered more
Only way to save the nation
is participation
Your chance to stand up
and save the planet
Get off your ass and vote
Get off your ass and vote
Get off your ass and vote
Vote Vote Vooooooooote!!!
On one of our walks around campus a few years ago my friend Dan shared some Buddhist phrases that he uses as mantras. First: “Everything changes. Everything’s connected. Pay attention.” And second: “Right now, it’s like this.”
Those stuck with me and I made some slight adjustments to make them more singable, ending up with:
Everything’s connected
Everything’s changing
So pay attention
This is what it’s like right now
After a little searching, I discovered that the first three lines can be attributed to poet Jane Hirshfield, who wrote, “Zen pretty much comes down to three things — everything changes; everything is connected; pay attention.”
The last line seems to come from a Buddhist monk named Ajahn Sumedho, who advises us “to see things the way that they actually are rather than the way that we want or don’t want them to be (“Right now, it’s like this…”).”
Gary Sanders’ hands
I like the way singing these lines brings me back to the present, focussing me with a sense of curiosity and wonder on how much is happening at this moment. I hope I’ve made the song catchy enough to stick in your head and bend your attention for a second to the interconnectedness of things.
The video of tall grass with cattails in the wind comes from a lovely city park we stumbled upon one spring day in Boston. I hope you can get lost in the beauty of the wind through the grass and trees.
I make songs and sites, a Washingtonian Austinite.