'Nother great open mic (and sundry other things)

We had another open mic right here at my place. It was really snazzy, and it made me feel awesomely about the human race. Or at least, the humans I know personally who play music up in this here part of the world. It's not really an open mic... it's a gathering of friends and friendly people who just wanna play music and support other people playing music. The balance can be tricky since I think we had somewhere from 8-10 people who wanted to play, and I want everyone to be able to play as many songs as they want, but it never works out that way. I'm convinced we need to just take a camping trip in the wilderness and play music all weekend.

Honestly, though. I've never been a huge fan of TV and it actually kind of irritates me. Groucho Marx has a quote that resonates deeply with me: "I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book." I have been convinced for a long time that when people hang out together by watching television, they're actually not. Their consciousnesses are suspended inside the television or some other realm entirely. Time spent watching television, generally, is time... lost. In my own humble opinion. I just felt like people desiring to spend time together should actually spend time together, like playing games, talking, eating, or musicking. And last night was a really rich time of hanging out and connecting.

Oh, anyway. Other things that are going on...worship, and writing. I think I'm about to embark on a tune-writing voyage. Last Sunday, someone prayed for me and they said I'd be hearing a lot from God and pushing it out in song form. I already hear from God a lot (I actually have a book that I write down stuff I hear, which this person had no clue) so it's just a matter of opening myself up to obey. And honestly, I think that means fasting from... music in the car, music on youtube, etc. Because I'm always listening too loud or just getting absorbed (my consciousness is in the music, so to speak), and really, when you think about it - driving in the car is the perfect time to just sing whatever. Write songs out loud. So... I'll try it. I'll try it. That's all I can do.

(It's not bad to listen to music, obviously - there are times to absorb and times to release music, and I think I need to focus on releasing instead of absorbing, if that makes sense.)

I might sign up for 50/90, an offshoot of FAWM, just so I can see how much I'll write in this time. I do not anticipate actually writing 50 songs in 90 days, but why not see how far I can go? That's how I started with FAWM...

Been doing some worship with Wilmington church, and that's awesome. I also went to a sweet worship kinship that they set up at church, and had a blast 'cause it's a safe place to try out using the banjo with worship tunes (I know, banjo in CHURCH?!) I'm looking forward to seeing what God's gonna do with that.

Lessons are starting up again in a week... looking forward to that, too.

I need to be getting my butt in gear about recording, but Shane gave me some good advice and I'm still meditating on it. He said, write too many songs and then choose from those. Problem is I don't think I have "too many songs" yet. And then, I don't know if I need to record just nature songs, just folk songs, or some odd amalgamation of the two. It could be nice to focus them that way. Blargh, I dunno.

I'm gonna go hang some laundry and go to sleep. Got church in the morning ^^