Into the Wormhole

'Dusters dive into the wormhole today for a week of rehearsing and preparation for our next studio album. We've got a short list of 30 tunes we're working through, arranging and recording over the next 8 days. It's interesting how a session like this really stokes the creative fires. If I had a New Years Resolution, it would be to spend more time creating original music, more time just simply making things up. It's the most challenging and most rewarding part of this "business" and it doesn't always get the attention it deserves.

 So every day this week I have two 50 minute commutes and so far I've spent the entire thing on the phone, putting out fires and wishing people Happy New Year. Today I'll stay off the phone and let the brain spin, maybe some of these new tunes I'm working on will come together a little better before the demonstration period.  My songwriting hero, Benny Galloway, always left the radio off.  He'd put someone else behind the wheel of his F-250, sit shotgun, tell stories and let the mind roam.  It was Burle's birthday a few days ago.



Seems a strange time to be thinking about the garden, but my window to get the sod cut and beds covered is shrinking. If I want to plant in April, I have to have these beds done before the baby arrives. I received a fantastic gardening book for Christmas, The Vegetable Gardners Bible and I can't stop devouring the info inside. Ed's deal is W.O.R.D. or Wide, Organic, Raised, and Deep and I dig it.

My one regret of my career is that it makes it really tough to stay on top of a food production operation. Keeping plants weeded, wet and trellised is a daily activity and I'll go weeks away from home in the summer. The key is deep healthy soil and if I don't get that sod turned and the beds double-dug by the end of January, I'm going to have a real uphill battle.

 This year I see myself watching less television, drinking less (but of higher quality) spending more time outdoors with my hands in the dirt, more time in the kitchen with my hands in the sink, more time with a nose in a book or on a Google Document daydreaming and scheming. It's not a resolution, just a sense of my own subtle shifts in individual consciousness that will hopefully lead me toward a more productive and peaceful existence and ideally influence those around me. The most peaceful and content tend to be the least outspoken, the most troubled and upset make the most noise... maybe this is the root of our culture of fear. I think it's time for a culture of faith; in each other and in the cosmos. A smile, a deep breath, a vegetarian meal, an errand by bike, a simple meditation. These are the small changes that will add up to a brave new world.