End times??

An earthquake and a hurricane in the same week? Really???

Hustlin'...

It's been a second since I've written here...I've been sooooo busy since I got back off the road.  Being a mom, educator, composer, musician, business owner, administrator, kid whisperer, and wife has been so time consuming.  The baby is right outside my bedroom door right now screaming for mommy while I'm in here sick and trying to get some rest while I pay bills, book gigs, write out lesson plans, contact workman, set up after school activities, and find a way to PAY for all of it.  I'm always on the move, always hustling.  I think I wrote before that parents do the most hustling out there, I know that's true in my case.  At the same time I'm dealing with the fact that my mortgage is underwater and the bank won't re-fi me, I am also hustling to put food on the table and make sure that my baby has child care while I go to work to pay for the car seat that I need to purchase. etc, etc...and ya don't stop.

I don't think I'm alone. I know mothers who stay up until 2 or 3 in the morning doing work after they put their kids to sleep, only to get up at 7am or earlier to get their kids ready to go to school. Then they work all day in or outside the home only to start over.  Um, actually that's my life too....

Just how bad is bad (ie are we just f****d??)

After reading this article in Foreign Policy's online mag about a double dip recession, I feel even more confused.  Right now I feel like I'm living in a really good, suspenseful action movie.  I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen next, and no one in the media, or even regular people, does either.  It seems that we have no policy on tap that really addresses our short and long term future.  I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a real estate developer, and he is in flux.  He can't move forward in his business because of the situation with banks and loans not being given out.  The gov't hasn't put together any policy to deal with the MILLIONS of people who have foreclosing homes or, like me are underwater in their home values.  My friend is just hustling. If he was a drug dealer, he'd probably be rich because he is hustling so hard.  Shoot, the biggest hustlers are....moms, or at least parents...

The world thinks we're crazy

I've been on the road for a bit with the band Live Tropical Fish and it's been fun, but not just because of the music.  It's been really great getting to see people from outside of my little gov't town of Washington, DC.  When I was in Boston, there was a group of IT professionals from all over the world.  They were arguing just how screwed the US is, not IF it is screwed, but how much and why.  There were lots of  whistling noises where thumbs were being pointed down, if you catch my drift. They were from china, germany, japan, the good ole US of A.  All of them said, why can't rich people pay a little more in taxes?  Why can't we find ways of adding infrastructure?  What the hell is wrong with you people?  

verses

On tour, working out songs in a hotel room...ah, the joys of life on the road!

The Kids are alright...

I've been out on the road for the past week with italian soul-sters Live Tropical Fish (click for the tour schedule - come and see us/me!) on their very first US Tour, so my apologies for not posting for a few days. Before I left I came up with a couple of new songs for my album. Here's the bassline to one:

My big girl came in mid way through and helped me flesh it out a bit more :)

Here's another song I wrote earlier that day in the car, it's gonna be called "I Am A Million":

Both my lil' ladies chipped in on this one!

On my umpteenth revision!!

Song...Almost...complete....5th revision...Brother....never....satisfied....If I didn't love him, I would have to slash his tires.  Ahhh... it's all for the music.  Track is dope.  I think I should put a neon sign on my wall for when a track sounds good, I push a button and it flashes dope over and over.

Talkin' like they know...

I'm working on this new song that I think's gonna be about how difficult it is to find real objectivity and reliable information on TV (cough...Fox news..ahem...MSNBC...cough cough). And I was thinking about the whole Rupert Murdoch story that was going on a few weeks ago.  The fact that a portion of his news organization just decided to make up the news that it wanted and not call it a tabloid, but actual news is my real problem with news today.  I'm a political junkie and I consume news the way some people consume chocolate.  There are certain anchors that I become like a teenager worshiping justin beiber or something because I am soooo into them.  But I do expect there to be facts spoken about, not opinion.  I can't seem to find that easily and it's been happening for a long time and it's really getting me mad.  They speak like they know the answers and they don't even know the right questions.  They keep talking like they know something when they just think they have no idea about the subject and are using fact-like-objects to explain themselves.  Just stupid. There are actual problems and there are people who actually have solutions, but very few news organizations talk solutions because their ratings would go down if they weren't having the metaphorical Housewives of DC having spats and cat fights on their political "roundtables" everyday.

Working on a new track...

Teddy sent me this dope a** track from a jam session in the studio the other day: 

Goes back to our DC roots in gogo.  I went to youtube and went down memory lane to listen to some Little Benny and the Masters and Chuck Brown.  A couple of friends of mine work in Chuck's band...gotta take advantage of that and see his show....Thinking about Sardines and Pork and Beans and Cat in the Hat and Money, Money Money and stuff like that. Back when I was a kid, we loved those groups.  It was DC gogo against NYC hip hop.  Back when music was still regional.  

...and I came up with this in the car, I like it so far!

Debt Deal Reax

Now that the deal/deed is done and I have a chance to get past my frustrations and take a step back and look towards the bigger picture, this is what I think: This anger and frustration with people not doing they're jobs in gov't is making it difficult for people to come together and make decisions.  When Obama was running for president, there was a great feeling around of being able to accomplish things regardless of political ideology, cultural and racial background, age and sex. Now, what we need is a resurgence of community and brotherhood. We all want good things for ourselves and our children.

At least we didn't default...

So the debt ceiling has an agreement now, but congress has not voted on it yet.  The frustration I feel is not that it will or will not be passed; it's that both sides have their own set of facts and the media is deciding what it will cover and what it will hold up as "facts" or an"expert".  Fact: the Tea party has moved the agenda towards cutting the debt.  Fact: no one is covering the "real" story of job loss and the need for job creation.  I was watching fox, because though I lean toward the left, I like to have an understanding of what people who think differently than me think, and why.